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Million Dollar Electrician - Sale to Scale For Home Service Pros
Rewiring Our Mission: (Electricpreneur Secrets)
Helping Electricians Achieve the $1M Service Van so they can experience ultimate control over their futures.
Join Clay Neumeyer & Joseph Lucanie for a new electrifying episode & High-amperage action item each week to spark up your service van sales to $50K, $70K, $100K, $150K months, and beyond!
Million Dollar Electrician - Sale to Scale For Home Service Pros
Replay - Service Electrician Success: Dirty Service Words
Ever wondered why some electricians excel in sales while others struggle? Tune in to Electricpreneur Secrets, where we promise to unlock the techniques that will transform your approach to pricing, customer service, and online presence. Even while battling a cold, we show up every weekday to emphasize the importance of being "present over perfect". This episode addresses common fears among electricians, such as sharing their work online due to peer critique, and highlights the necessity for community support. We also discuss the discomfort around the term "salesy" and share tips on how to refine communication skills to better connect with customers.
Discover how to overcome shopping addiction and the gap between making purchase decisions and actual implementation. Learn how to frame client questions to focus on their needs and timelines, which helps create stronger emotional connections and more accurate quotes. We delve into decision fatigue and the power of language in business, offering actionable advice on changing negative phrasing to boost client interactions and overall efficiency. Don't miss these insights and strategies designed to enhance your sales game and elevate your business operations.
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Welcome to Electricpreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast. We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. If you're just tuning in for the first time, then I got to let you know. We're here with you live, five days a week, every weekday. We keep showing up, and this is my partner, joseph Lucani, who shows up with me each one of these days to help you again master these sales, because he's the sales bot. Joseph, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm feeling great, man, honestly, I give you credit. I know you got a cold today and you're a little under the weather, but the fact that you keep showing up for us live always inspires me, man, so I appreciate you Present, not perfect.
Speaker 2:Damn right, I will take present over perfect any day, and you know what. We do say it a lot, but I don't think it's been reinforced enough, because how many people who are listening are holding them back from some random thing because they're like I have to be ready for it, I've got to be perfect at it before I can take a swing? I would rather them just show up and even if you're like a three-year-old swinging and missing a tee-ball seat swinging, you'll make contact sooner than later absolutely, and if you're on the inside with us on the facebook group entrepreneur secrets, then you're also seeing some people agree with you.
Speaker 1:We got rob greg guillaume in there, amongst others. So thank you guys for joining us there. If, if you're not there yet, little secret, there's actually extras, value piece extras given away on Facebook every day. So go there, and we just had a little conversation pre-show there, as we do every day as well, where, I think you said it, electricians are the smartest right.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're throwing me under the bus on this one, okay, okay, maybe I said that but really no, we were talking about an installation and how we kind of nitpick other people's installations. I don't think anything as an electrician has made me more nervous than posting a picture of my work on Facebook. Any other electricians feeling that, or is it just me?
Speaker 2:Literally, I'm right there with you, man, and to just touch on what we were talking about a little bit a moment ago was, granted, I love the people on Facebook. We started building relationships with people and one of our friends had just posted that he had a barn that was just built and I'm so happy for him, I'm so, so happy that he got it done. But he posted he's like, take a look at the work now that it's done and I'm literally seeing a quarter of a 90 sticking out of the ground and I'm like, wait a second. If I'm seeing a quarter of this 90, could it have possibly been buried at the 18 inch spec? I'm like, oh no, any electrician who sees this is gonna start tearing into him. Oh no, take it down buddy throw some dirt.
Speaker 2:The ground bar with the ground rod was sticking in at like an angle. I'm like, oh God.
Speaker 1:And where would we be without the controversial expansion joint topic?
Speaker 2:Oh, some people are like there is no earth settling around here. We don't, the earth doesn't settle, and yet I've seen some things. How many times have you shown up to a job and you find out that the meter has like just meter and then conduit separated by four inches because it just snapped over the past 20 years? It happens, it does Guys? Believe in your joints, believe in them, make it happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in reality, we've got a big fat code book, we've got regulations to follow right, it just keeps going. I mean, on top of that then there's municipal laws regulations to follow as well, not to mention there's NEC, and then, on north side of the border, cec, and I know we're getting the odd Australian other international electricians listening too, and forgive me for not knowing your code book names yet, but I know there's a lot to this trade. It means that we're smart and it means that we need to help, guide each other, lift each other up, and I guess that's why we're here.
Speaker 2:Iron sharpens iron man. I mean like if you had a whetstone with nothing to polish on it. Both would be useless, one would be dull, the other would be useless.
Speaker 1:And I'm grateful that we can use our skills to not only sharpen our abilities but to sharpen those of others as well so this is also I'm glad you said that this is also a beautiful segue into today's topic dirty service words, and a lot of times this can come from the technical side. The technical brain, the logical brain of an electrician is clearly far superior than most residents homeowners, and so we have to learn to dumb things down a little bit, for lack of a better word. I'm full of myself today. My head's full of snot from my man cool, but I'm also full of myself, as you can tell it's all the cold medication.
Speaker 2:That's gotta be what it is right.
Speaker 1:A belly belly full of day cool will keep you right as rain yeah, yeah, and if you're watching this video feed, I mean you can see it. I'm glowing. It could be lighting or it could be me ego, I'm not sure. Point is we've got some dirty service words and today you actually did a post on one on facebook and I think you want to dive a little deeper. Is that word starting with a D, it?
Speaker 2:is. So, guys, I want to talk to you about a situation. How many of us enjoy the thought of being salesy? Yeah, I mean it's almost. I guarantee everyone who's listening is like nope, nope, not about that, I don't want that. It's one of the dirtiest words that come up. Where people use sales Like we think of salespeople, sales professionals, comfort advisors All of us are looked down upon because no one likes to be sold anything. So what we're going to start doing is we're going to start cataloging the words that actually elicit that feeling of oh, this person's trying to sell me something. Because if we can remove those words from our vocabulary, what you'll find is that you'll be more in line with what your customer's actually trying to do and you're not going to come across as some jerk who's just trying to push a product.
Speaker 1:Sounds important. Yeah, sounds really important. So dirty word and if we can evade this, we can actually help people better. Sounds like.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, cause the thing about this. You can be the best damn electrician in the world, right? You can know your product, you can know your material, you can be great on the tools, but if you cannot communicate the value that you bring to the table, it just becomes a race to the bottom, as usual. So you want to know what this word is? Let's go. It's the word decision. The word decision literally sends a shiver up your spine right, I've got decision fatigue already just from saying it.
Speaker 2:I know right. Well, running a business it's a whole different kind of beast because, yeah, we're constantly played with decisions. But where it comes into play for a residential situation is this how many times you ever heard will both decision makers be present?
Speaker 1:Yeah, big question. A lot of people won't present without asking that question. It's mandatory in their process.
Speaker 2:And I hate that because what it does. Now, I'm not saying that you don't want to have a qualified presentation, don't get me wrong. Don't turn off the podcast. We're going to get to the value, but why the word decision is so bad is? I'm going to paint a picture for you. Imagine in scenario one. You're being told we need all decision makers present before we can go over prices. When you say decision makers, does that sound like you're addressing people or you're addressing some sort of business relation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, pawns on the chessboard maybe.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It's like you're just addressing a family as pieces on a board. Are you the decision maker? Will decision makers be present? It's like that's not good. I would rather us focus on the family and say is there anyone else that you feel would be important to bring this to a conclusion? Is there anyone Go ahead?
Speaker 1:I just wanted to let you know. By the way, I'm the decision maker at my house. I just have to ask the missus before I do anything.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love that. No, you know what, though it's also there comes to that as well. I'll just touch lightly on it. There are so many just different societal pressure points that we have of who is supposed to be a decision maker and who is not, and, depending on what people are called for, some will look at the man and some look at the woman or spouse and spouse or partner and partner. Anytime that we would ever have to go to talk to a parent-teacher conference, they for some reason will always look at your wife, even if you're the primary parent. It just is what it is. So, without getting too off topic, why is decision such a bad word? Decision is a bad word because it creates the expectation that someone has to do something uncomfortable right. Nothing making a decision is ever comfortable, and the thing you have to remember is people don't like being sold. No one likes to be sold anything, but for some reason, why are sales positions the most lucrative that people could possibly get into?
Speaker 1:Well, because of all the opportunities, you're going to push price, you're going to make offers, you're going to make sales.
Speaker 2:That's true, but the main reason is because people hate to be sold but people love to buy. Main reason is because people hate to be sold but people love to buy. If you can present a solution to someone that enhances the quality of their life, the safety of their home, the enjoyment, more pleasure in their life and less pain, people will want to move forward with that.
Speaker 1:To add to that, there's a very chemical reason. Not that that's the topic of this session. I think that's a whole podcast on its own, but we're talking like there's people addicted to buying.
Speaker 2:The dopamine rush? I mean, how many times people would swipe their credit card? They're like, if I just swipe this card, I know there's going to be a 30 second rush that I'm going to get and that's the high that I'm chasing.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you and our people listening, our fans, really. If you've ever had an amazon prime membership, ordered packages and then not opened them you've got a stash of unopened amazon packages at home then you know what we're talking about this happens to people.
Speaker 1:I thought it was just me. For a period of time so busy like I'm gonna need that. That's a project for the weekend, yeah, yeah, yeah. Next thing you know you got four or five, six packages sitting there. All of them equally gave you a rush for projects you did not do yet.
Speaker 2:Sorry to take you off track I just had to relate that to some people here it makes sense and you know what that also ties in actually perfectly what we're saying. Because people make decisions like I will do this, but then getting people to take action on their decision is much harder to do. It's easy for them to swipe the card and order the shovel that they're planning on doing, but it's hard for them to pick up the shovel on the weekend and say we're going to dig out that fire pit Right, planning on doing, but it's hard for them to pick up the shovel on the weekend and say we're going to dig out that fire pit. So, going into this concept, let's say you're going with all your customers and you're getting ready to present to them that hey, will all decision makers be present? What that's doing is that's telling your client that the only way you're going to come back is if you're likely to get this sale. Does that sound like someone who's really vested and built an emotional relationship with this client?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm on the fence here.
Speaker 2:It's probably not. That's the thing. It's like you're not likely going to so. Instead, when you can say well, who needs to be present in order to bring this to a conclusion? It says the same thing, but you're focusing on the people and not on the end result. Decision Make sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that who? I think it was a change of frame for the question, made it open-ended, exactly.
Speaker 2:Now continuing on as we go into it. When you go and do, let's say, someone you're trying to qualify, when you're going to give them a price, sometimes we say so when are you hoping to make a decision on this? Or when do you think you're going to make a decision on this? Does that mean when the job's going to start, or does that just mean when they're deciding that they want to do something?
Speaker 1:Valid question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times they're going to be asking and say, well, when does the decision actually happen? So they may decide to go with you. Like, let's say, I give you a price today, you can decide that I'm going to go with me today, but it doesn't mean that you're going to swipe the card for another two months because the project is going to start in the fall. So when I ask instead, well, when were you hoping to bring this to a conclusion? It doesn't establish the decision of swiping. It establishes when are you planning on shoveling into the ground. So the goal is is that that way, what I'll be able to do is, if I can position myself to come back when you're more likely to bring this to a conclusion, I'm bypassing everything that my competition is doing, because let's break this down to a little more of a microcosm the majority of your competition, and sometimes even some of you, as an example, are going to say when are you planning on making a decision, with the thought of I'm going to come back at the end or as close to when you're making a decision as possible, so I can get here at the end of my competition and I'll be the last one to present.
Speaker 2:That's a common sales tactic. A lot of people do, but it's also something that our clients have been prepared for. When you use certain words like decision, it triggers something in the brain to understand they're asking me to make a purchase. Even if it's at a subconscious level, even if someone wants to make a purchase, we could be subconsciously drawing away from you, but when you ask them, when were you hoping to bring this to a conclusion? You focus on the end result of the product. That way, when they say, well, yeah, we're planning on getting this done in September compared to well, we should have a decision by June.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, well, you have a decision by June, but you're not starting it for September. How could I possibly give you an accurate quote? Wouldn't it make sense to want to?
Speaker 1:be able to provide someone with an accurate quote, absolutely. I love how your brain works in ways of differentiation at every opportunity. I think that's so important, if nothing else, isn't it even like fundamental. Forget all the psychology you just brought into this and how really, by saying decision, we're bringing up the other bad d word defenses before we're allowed the the no like and trust factor that we need for a purchase.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Right. Forget all that for a moment and just think differentiation. Do I want to go and say the same overly pushed and recycled question that everyone else calls themselves sales trained is pushing.
Speaker 2:It's unfortunate. I wouldn't want to do that, because the thing is let's say you call three electricians right Standard, you're going to get three different quotes. We need to be different than them by definition. If we're not more than them, we're obviously probably not pricing ourselves correctly. But at the same time, we can't be more than someone and provide the same level of service, and the customer doesn't know what the service looks like. They don't. They really really don't, until they've made the purchase. So the way that you can create the image that you are different is by changing the words and the questioning that you use. Create the image that you are different is by changing the words and the questioning that you use. When other people look at you as a sale and say I am going to close this deal, instead I look at it and say I am going to serve this family, and by changing that framework of thought you will conduct and carry yourself differently. Here I am talking about conducting ourselves when we're electricians right.
Speaker 1:But it's one of those fun thoughts, unintended.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know right, it's kind of catched off the top of my mind, but we have to be different. If we're not different, we get lumped into the same category and once again that becomes a race to the bottom. We've all been down that rabbit hole and it never leads to anything profitable or fruitful.
Speaker 2:So what I need you guys to do from this lesson is to avoid the word decision, like your life depends on it. Avoid it, run from it, because the moment you bring it up, I want you to almost imagine that the customer has a button in their hand and they're going to slam that button as big. I know that keyword, I know what that word is he's going to try and move me to a sale yeah, yeah what are your?
Speaker 1:thoughts throw something else in there because, uh, we touched on, but I don't want to skim too far past it and it's you know. I know there's a reasonable number of contractors out there who are concerned with positioning and how they articulate what they do. And, if you haven't done this yet, definitely a worthwhile exercise to have that dominating position in your local market to be different. But it's different in every aspect. So it's not just the positioning statement, it's how we carry ourselves through this process. It's so important. Just like we lead a team by example, as we talked about last week, you can pull a string perfectly in line across the table. You can't push it. Think about that when you're speaking to your clients right, you could tell them all day what they're going to experience and you can just show them. And when your process begins to illustrate, that begins to truly exemplify what they're going to experience throughout. After a certain point the barriers break down, the defense is over and they just go willingly. They invite it even. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:It does. And that's exactly what we're trying to communicate with our process, because at the end of the day as you mentioned I mean not to lie for devil's advocate purposes I was really thinking how can we get a string to be pushed across the table and I'm like, well, maybe I coat it with hairspray and I get it to be firm, or starch, and I get it. But the thing is, what is that even accomplishing? There are ways that I'm sure people we're electricians, we're smart individuals We'll always try to find a way to hack the system to say, oh well, it works.
Speaker 2:When you try it like this, what we're trying to do is take a step back and say we're not just trying to make it work, we're trying to make it thrive. We want to create an environment to where our customers truly understand that we're not here to just try and take money from them. We want to serve them at a more emotional and personal level. We want them to understand that you're not just a ticket to us, you're not something that is just a check for $500 written on the table. We don't care when you're going to make a decision, but we do care when you're going to bring this to a conclusion, as long as that conclusion ends with us.
Speaker 1:Oh man, so many topics. There's other podcasts coming out of this. They're being born right now. But I want an answer to what you just said, because if you're thinking it, other people are thinking it too.
Speaker 1:How can I push that string across the table? And there is good news Got this quote. It's stuck with me for years now and I don't even remember who said it and honestly, it may have been mine, because I wrote it in my affirmations at one point. But it's your greatest success or success is plural will be realized through the leverage of others. Other, what Other people? Your greatest success will be realized through the leverage of others. That means what frees you to eventually push that string across the table is by training other leaders to take your place in that endeavor specifically.
Speaker 1:So if your process is dialed in and you lead it to victory, then you can lead someone else to lead it to victory and to constantly be pulling that string for you. Then you move on to the next and the next and the next. That's why we say present over perfect so much. I know this is turning into a complete landslide topic here, but it's so important and you guys will hear this again and again and again because you need to be present, not perfect that process. Your present leadership will create wins, will create routine, it will create process right. It'll create muscle memory. And then you training someone else to take over. Let them perfect the process, let them work on it. You don't have time. You got to take this hat off as soon as possible and give it to someone who can perfect it for you and do it better than you can, so long as, as they make improvements, they're also improving your written process along the way. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:That, really, really does, and, as usual with our current situation, you say something that encourages me to think of something else. It's actually back on the original topic that we were going to talk about.
Speaker 1:Perfect, full circle. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Full circle. We're going full circle towards the end. So, as we've been communicating all these different points, there's something I want to bring to light in that not everyone thinks the same way. It would make sense that that's the case, but would it make sense as well that some people just avoid making decisions due to decision fatigue, to where they specifically are, like I? Just I make decisions all day at work. I don't want to make a, I don't even want to decide we're having for dinner tonight.
Speaker 1:Dude, I feel this, I know you feel this. Our clients on the inside feel this. People listening to this right now feel this. I am certain that everyone, at their different points, in different seasons ups and downs, ebbs and flows feels the overwhelm and ends up in decision fatigue, absolutely annihilating efficiency.
Speaker 2:Correct. So imagine this. Imagine I'm approaching someone like yourself or someone like me who we already know we're maxed out with our thoughts, and I come and say so we're going to add another decision to the pile, right? Is that a welcome thought? No, but if I were to change that and say when did you want to bring this to a resolution or when did you want to get this resolved?
Speaker 2:Now, that's actually solving something emotional as well, because getting a resolution to something is like striking something off a list, and when you have decision fatigue, getting things off that something is like striking something off a list, and when you have decision fatigue, getting things off that list is worth its weight in gold.
Speaker 2:So if you're working with other business owners or other successful entrepreneurs or other people who are just grinders and you say the word you want to make a decision on something, they will shut down, even if they need or want what you have. If they don't have the mental bandwidth to absorb what you're saying, they're going to ask you to email it over. And the sad part the really, really sad part behind this is that when they ask you to email it over, they're already suffering decision fatigue, which means that they're not even going to open it, which means that you're going to take time out of your busy schedule to write a quote for someone who's not going to open it, and both of you will be miserable because of it. You'll be miserable because you send a quote that you know didn't get any time back and they're upset because they now have to wade through emails to read something that they probably can't understand great.
Speaker 1:So actually that was, yeah, that was big, thank you. Can I give an example of this? Quick, very subtle and you reminded me of something that mariel told me, someone in her network that she was influenced by blah blah blah. Point is she renamed her to-do list same reason language is powerful. Perspective is powerful. Language is inextricably linked to perspective, to context. When we hear certain things, it's like nails on a chalkboard to do. I gotta add that to the to-do list. I gotta check my to-do list. Does any of that sound like something you want to do?
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm the kind of guy that I I love my lists, man. You, you're throwing your. That's the wrong guy. But I agree, I know I know You're the list guy.
Speaker 1:I renamed it to da a to da list, and when she checks things off, she goes to da I feel better, to da I feel better, to da I feel better. So it's just a shift of language and mindset, but it's the very same context that you've given us and everyone today.
Speaker 2:Holy shit, I feel like that's going to be the topic. I'm changing that right, freaking now. Literally I'm going to change my to-do's to the to-da lists. I love that.
Speaker 1:Listen to us live right now or the replay, let us know. But also just know that we just had a ta-da moment for Joe where he thought we were going to eliminate lists altogether. We actually just renamed it. He feels better already. He's buying it. If you were a client right now, could we bring this to a conclusion?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could, I'd be happy to. Or, even better is would I be wrong to want to offer this a conclusion?
Speaker 1:Nice, all right Action items.
Speaker 2:Ready for that All right, I'm ready for action items, all right. So the bare minimum action is just don't say the word. Right, it's going to be stupid, simple right. If we know the word decision does not get us a favorable response, then the bare minimum action is to say don't say that word. Would that be pretty ground level material?
Speaker 1:Yes, and I can vouch for the simplicity, but still the difficulty there. Just focus on breaks, guys. You're listening to someone that also had to learn to eliminate this language as much as possible Also a student here. So, yes, elimination Got it All-star.
Speaker 2:So the first thing is yeah, we're getting rid of that word. Now the all-star action is almost something that I'm inspired to reveal as almost like a parenting lesson. Have you ever tried telling your child something that they didn't quite understand, but you're like just do it. How well was it usually done? Not, it's not done right Because it had no bearing. It was. I'm asking you to do something. Okay, I'm going to do the task, but I'm not going to know how it applies or why it applies or where to apply it.
Speaker 2:But if the all-star action is, do you know your why? Do you know why the word decision is so bad? Do you understand, above and beyond, that you're creating decision fatigue? Do you understand what decision fatigue is? Do you know these other factors that are going to cause your clients to turn and run from you? That is the all-star action. So to not only just avoid using the word, but I want you to understand why the word is doing what it's doing and to have a viable replacement in its stead. The word decision is negative. The word resolution is positive. The word decision is negative, the word resolution is positive. So if you take a negative word and you replace it with a positive word. Naturally, that would do what to the situation.
Speaker 1:Help it along Exactly, build up the energy, the positivity.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. Bare minimum action, just don't say the freaking word. All-star action. Don't say the freaking word, but understand the why behind it, Because not only will that help you in that situation, it'll keep the framework open for you to be able to recognize other situations as well.
Speaker 1:Another great tactical tip dirty service words, part one. Yeah, there's many more guys and we've got more episodes coming up on just that. As always, we're here with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. Hope you guys enjoyed this one and we'll see you again next time. Take care.
