Million Dollar Electrician - Sale to Scale For Home Service Pros

Ep8 - How to Set Record Level Rapport and Hit Record Level Sales

• Clay Neumeyer

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What if mastering the art of building rapport could transform your service calls into high-value sales? Join us on the Million Dollar Electrician podcast as Joseph and Clay share insider strategies on making stellar first impressions and handling unexpected situations with finesse. From Joseph’s memorable "black screw" incident to the critical pre-arrival steps that can spell success, you'll learn how to showcase competence and professionalism right from the start. These anecdotes and tips are not just about being courteous—they're about demonstrating reliability and capability from the moment you step through the door.

We also dive deep into the essentials of personal rapport and sales, breaking down how trust, likability, and respect can lead to premium service sales. Nick's $24,000 sale is a testament to the power of strong relationships and meticulous presentation. Plus, celebrate John T's first platinum sale and first-class membership, underscoring the importance of presenting yourself and your company as a "10." Finally, we explore how taking control of your business processes can drive success—no more winging it. Join us for our first-ever Wheel of Fortune spin and a chance to win personalized coaching from Joe Lucani himself! Don't miss out on these invaluable insights to power up your business.

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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the Million Dollar Electrician podcast where we help home service pros like you supercharge your business and spark up those sales.

Speaker 2:

I'm Joseph Lucani and, together with my co-host, Clay Neumeier, we're here to share the secrets that have helped electricians sell over a million dollars from a single service van.

Speaker 1:

Now it's time for sales, it's time for scale, it's time to become a million dollar electrician. Hello, hello, hello, joseph. How are you doing today, my brother?

Speaker 2:

Dude, I am amazing. Not sure if it's the caffeine, but this thing is strong and it is powering my energy for the day what about you, man?

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that I've got the tricky service loop cup. It looks like coffee, but I assure you it's water. At this point because I've already hit my max three cups for the morning and I can't be shaken through this podcast, man I don't blame you.

Speaker 2:

Let's throw up, let's finish it up cheers.

Speaker 1:

okay, so today we've got a really exciting episode and I'm just pumped to bring this to everyone and to have you help get us there.

Speaker 1:

Today we're talking about this big r word how important it is to have rapport, how important it is to have a great first impression a harvard study around this that's going to change the way you think about these first impressions and how hard it is to claw that back. If you mess this up, we're going to tie in some nerdy stuff. We've got some great wins and finally, at the end of this episode, for the first time ever, we're spinning the wheel of fortune, and what's on this wheel is a bunch of names of people that put their hand up for our value piece over the last two weeks, wanting to learn more about our six option secrets, and the winner of this draw today is actually going to get to drop in on a class with us and get help from the wizard of options himself, yours truly, joe Lucani, in building a set of options, for one of their opportunity calls Joe. I am pumped for this man. What do you say? We get this underway.

Speaker 2:

I can't wait. I was even looking forward to this podcast all day.

Speaker 1:

Okay, perfect. So start us off by giving me just your perspective on how important and I'll even proceed this by saying I've never seen anyone go into as much depth on pre-arrival steps and these first impressions as you. How important is this to you, joe, and why?

Speaker 2:

first impressions as you. How important is this to you, joe, and why it is and I don't know if I can stress this properly. It is the most important thing that you can do, and the fact that it's not an enough sales process in the industry blows my mind. Now, I've been very clear and very open that I've been trained by multiple different coaches throughout my career. None of them did any focus on the pre-arrival, which I thought was always very surprising. But when we actually go into why we need to do it, it becomes even more surprising. I can't wait to dive into it, but remember, because there's so much depth behind it, you need to be my control break If I go too hard and you need to be like all right, slow it down, back up.

Speaker 1:

I want to give you guys some warning. We might end up five to 10 minutes longer on this one, Cause there's a ton to unpack and I want to acknowledge what you're saying, Cause it's not even just the coaches out there and it's never to throw sand guys. But we've seen enough now to know like for sure over the years of coaching. People overlook these steps until it bites them in the ass A hundred percent, Like you open your door at a client's house and garbage flies out because the wind picked up and gusted right.

Speaker 1:

And apple core cigarette butts hit the ground. Go ahead, man Jump in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like. One of the best examples that comes to mind is there's two things that happened, one to me and another to a client prior to doing this. The first, with me, is I use the black screw example, where we say to ourselves I literally had a situation where I opened the back door of my van to get my tools which wasn't with me in the front of my cab, open the back and literally a box of black wood screws fell all over the black driveway and the customers watching me pick these up red face and the whole time I'm like man. I hope he doesn't pop his tire in the next two weeks because I'm going to get the bill for this.

Speaker 1:

And just to be clear, is that a great first impression?

Speaker 2:

No, because, literally, it's showcasing incompetence. It's showcasing that you're unorganized. It's showcasing that you didn't come with the right intention. But, even more so, how you react showcases how you'll react when bad things happen in their home, because there is going to be something bad that happens. But when you showcase how you handle the bad and the unexpected, you can also demonstrate the level of service they can come to expect from you.

Speaker 2:

So, let's say, a stake of argument. Something happens. The screws drop and I open the door and I slam the door and I start yelling out profanities. What's that going to communicate to the customer?

Speaker 1:

this guy's unorganized right and ill-equipped to handle stressful situations exactly compared to.

Speaker 2:

If something like that happened, I'm like, not a problem, I have something in place and I pull an actual magnet stick out and it goes. Put it back in the van. Hey, I apologize for the delay, but it's okay, we're come prepared for these eventualities.

Speaker 1:

Total different scenario now.

Speaker 2:

And now I haven't even gotten to the call, I haven't even shut up to your front door, but the impression and the state of the call is a night and day difference. And that's only part of the pre-arrival process that we're going to get into. No-transcript, but with modern technology and I'll even use my own home as an example my home is like Fort Knox. I have backup systems on backup systems for the cameras. But the fact is is that I've literally tracked people going into my driveway and I'll watch them for five to 10 seconds to see if I can get a gauge on them before they do. And I know I'm not alone in that. So if you imagine that you're only planning on being visible when you get to the door, you could be having so much unspoken be communicated in your body language, in your demeanor Like.

Speaker 2:

A good example that comes to mind and I'll even shorten this massively was I had a technician come to my home for something and when he came into the door you could tell his face. He looked pissed. There was garbage visible in his van. He forgot his tools and had to go back before even ringing the door. He threw his cigarette right into the van and slammed it and then he shows up at the door, brushes himself, smiles and he's ready to go like nothing happened. But what was I thinking the whole time I saw him there? It wasn't that he's showing up a 10 out of a 10. I'm looking at this guy like what are you trying to sell, if that's who you are? And this is who you're trying to portray yourself as? I don't look, as you, as authentic, and this is who you're trying to portray yourself as I don't look as you as authentic, and if you're not authentic, why should I buy from you?

Speaker 1:

He sacrificed a huge A that, I would say, is authenticity Massively, because you're literally watching him change forms before your eyes being a slob, being a mess and still smelling like that, by the way and then knocking on the door like a tent, as you said.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and as a former smoker I have no judgments. When people wanted the power down a cigarette, I get it. I've been that guy. But even the pre-arrival has that in mind as well. Every single time you go to a call, do you have a spare uniform? Are you pulling over one block or one mile prior to reaching your site and doing a 360 degree check of your van and yourself? So, like as an example, when I was smoking in the van, I had a thermal shirt that I would put over my uniform, that way I could take it off and be done, and I had a spare uniform and a Ziploc like almost dry cleaning zipper bag that when I did smoke it didn't smell. That when I did smoke it didn't smell. So even if you are someone who's smoking which I will not judge you for you still have the things in place, because you coming across as a cigarette smoker does affect your closing ratio. So you removing the odor that's associated with it actually increases your chance of closing and connection 100%, it's the minority.

Speaker 1:

now Fewer and fewer people smoke and actually for the first time ever I want to say this fewer and fewer people are drinking too. Smelling like booze. Wearing yesterday's uniform and after work, you stop by the pub for a few. Today you put the same one on because you woke up late after a few crisp pops from last night. Right, this kind of thing happens all the time. And if that scent is on you, what's happening in the customer's mind?

Speaker 2:

Oh my God. I mean HVAC guys see it all the time. Hey, I'm going to go up in the attic, I'm going to bring the apprentice with me and he's sweating out vodka and you're like this is not a good sign. We electricians are no different. You got to go into a crawl space, you got to go into an attic. It's going to be hot up there even in the middle of september. So the fact is is that if you're drinking, someone's going to know about it can I get nerdy on this for a moment?

Speaker 1:

I love that. Go for it, okay, this is the place there was.

Speaker 1:

There's a harvard study done and it's called the importance of first impressions. Seems like a good fit for this to talk about it. Yeah, 100 send it. What they found was you ultimately have about five seconds for your first impression. Now that, even to me, feels longer than my intuition says. For a lot of the things we're talking about it's like a fraction of a second before the beginning of that judgment happens. But five seconds takes into account, like, your actual introduction to someone, not just their glancing at you from their camera. Now, what's crazy about this study is not that okay, well, granted, it takes five seconds to make judgment on someone for the first time. But what happens as a result of a negative judgment? They found that on average, it takes eight positive subsequent interactions to recover enough trust to actually get a sale done from this standpoint, to actually cause influence with someone. Wow, isn't that wild, that's insane.

Speaker 2:

Because the thing that I'm hearing with that is imagine how defeating that must be to a technician. Because the fact is is that we've all been there Like I knew. I've shown up to calls and not known why this customer doesn't like me, and I've known that. You and everyone can feel it Like. You can't put your finger on why it's happening, but you can sense that it's happening and immediately makes you want to say what did I do? So if I had a proper pre-arrival and I'm like I did this, this, this, this and this, I know that at least showed up and it's not on me. That means that there's a personal thing that they've got going on, and just having that bit of information of saying it's not me drastically affects your confidence, because if you show up thinking it's your fault and they're making you seem like it's your fault, how confident you're going to be when it comes time for objection handles?

Speaker 1:

not you're not you won't even have a leg to stand on again. We've talked about this many times. I don't even want to go down this rabbit hole, but I want to say, in the development of a sales process, a certain amount of this is keeping information on each call that you've ran and realizing what objections are popular, how they're defeating you, how you're defeating them and especially, what you've done. What we've done is go ahead and insert little pieces of the sales process to help you eliminate those from happening in the first place if not being able to handle them. Post this first impression piece.

Speaker 1:

If I can go nerdy again, let me triangulate this situation. Actually, I want to draw a visual if possible. I want you to think of this like an acute triangle. Remember, we all learned about this a little bit. For us it was third year.

Speaker 1:

You're getting into trig stuff, but an acute triangle is talking about less than 90 degrees. Right, let me hold my hands up. This is an acute angle and maybe that's about 30 degrees or even close to 40 or 45 degrees. If you think of this first impression, like you're a flat line and you've got five seconds to determine what your trajectory is, what that acute angle is going to be. If it's bad, you're just stuck at zero. It's a flat line.

Speaker 1:

And this is almost a representation of the opportunity at the end. And if you guys can't see me, cause you're not on YouTube on our channel and you're just listening on your favorite podcast channel, I'm just here holding my hands up like a duck's beak, opening them and closing them to show you different angles. But imagine you have a great first impression and you arrive at, say, like a 60-degree angle. That represents the amount of bountiful opportunity that you have when you later offer six potential solutions for this customer in that opportunity or even a demand call. And I think this is a good time to plug in a few of the wins that we've seen this week from doing exactly that. Joe, what's your favorite win of the week?

Speaker 2:

So my favorite win, I believe, has to be from Nick Nick V, and the reason being is he's been with us for not very long. It's been what about like a week or so, going on a month, a month. Yeah, I was going to say so. I got to look into the exact amount, but the realistic part of it is that he hasn't been here for a very long time but ended up going in and closing. What was the total? A $16,000 platinum.

Speaker 1:

A $16,000 platinum, so someone took him at the top thousand dollar platinum.

Speaker 2:

So someone took him at the top and then the next day the same person ended up meeting with him at his personal home and getting an $8,000 silver sale made. Now, the reason why I think that's such a big deal is because it does two things and it really highlights the underlying relationship here. For someone to take you at your best in and of itself has an immense amount of trust built, because what they're saying is they believe that you are the best that's available, they are comfortable paying a premium and they are voting for you to be their long-term provider. For someone to take you at their platinum all three has to happen. If they do not trust, like and respect you, that cannot be the option that gets taken, because even if it was an emergency repair like oh well, they had no power they're still not going to take your best. They're going to take what they believe the scope of work entails and they're going to do it because they feel like a gun to their head.

Speaker 2:

But that's not how we operate. We operate off of rapport and by presenting those solutions, it showed he did the right job. But going further above that, this person not only liked him in this business, because it was a business owner that he sold to, then ended up inviting him back to his personal home because he wanted more work done that was unrelated to that scope that he wasn't even planning on bringing up because of that relationship, and then, on top of that, closed an $8,000 silver sale. So the real value here is that not only did the rapport land him an absolutely massive sale with a huge amount of future potential, but it got him a secondary sale of very high quantity and it showcased that this is going to be a long-term repeat customer. So because his rapport was so strong, he got sales now, he got a relationship for the future and he's also going to have future work as well 100%.

Speaker 1:

There's so many ways to go with this, but I feel like it's due to start off by just saying there's so many ways we could go with this, but I feel like it's due to, like, start off by just saying what's the cost of rapport in this case, and it's $24,000. So congratulations, nick, and the lifetime value, I'm sure, is going up, brother, as you continue to serve and even run the installer upgrade process with more opportunity again, because in the personal residence the person took a silver. Clearly they trust Nick at the highest level. I mean there's still opportunity to even grow that to a gold or platinum, who knows. And then, like you said, down the road, my gosh man, you drew a parallel that I want to touch on, if that's okay, before we jump in the next win, my favorite win of the week.

Speaker 1:

You mentioned rapport. Of course that's the topic, but personal rapport, right, and there's a few ways that we look at this. So something you've said often is like we want to show up as a 10. In fact, we've both said that many times. But what does it really mean? We've never broken it down before and there's like three pillars to this, and it's also why we suggest having the CSR and doing your organic marketing too, because one of those 10s that you're looking for is have your company show up as a 10.

Speaker 1:

What does it look like when Service Loop Electric arrives on site? Your person as a 10. So that smoking the sense, all that stuff apple cores falling out, screws on the driveway and then the scatterbrain effort to reactively clean them up, versus being organized and being prepared for situations. Right, if your iPad dies, if you got the mustard stain on your shirt because the hot dog dripped and you didn't even see it. All these things are taking from that 10 and personal rapport. And then there's your product and service rapport. So all three of those have to be at peak before someone will decide to buy with you.

Speaker 2:

Would you agree with that? I would, and I love the fact that you're going into a little more depth, because there's also another area that I see personal rapport fall apart. Right, you can be the best electrician, you can have everything proper. But imagine sitting down for a presentation with a teacher and you've got a ton of spelling mistakes in your presentation. Now, that may not take away from your profession, but it does take away from your person, because now they're saying all right, I have someone who may not be as literate and this is an industry where intelligence and education is extremely in high commodity and you could be the smartest electrician in the world, but having spelling errors really can have a negative effect on the sale. So there's so much that goes into the person that I don't think we really touch on because we're so focused on. Will they take it from the dollars and cents standpoint? Yep.

Speaker 1:

Here's another quick win, if I may. John T actually another newer member just recently joined us, just had his first platinum and with the first class membership, which is amazing, because we tend to see first platinums come through but they don't always have that first class club membership attached. That's one of the other things that we suggest. But John took full advantage, got them both done and this client obviously had that level of rapport and had those three tens, because not only did he choose John today, but he chose him for the rest of the year with that membership and paid upfront to have it. So congrats, John. I think that's an amazing, amazing start, man, and we see big things coming for you. Oh, Joe, Okay, We've talked about the pre-arrival, the van kind of before the door, if you would. What about when you're approaching to meet someone for the first time? We must have some hints in here, some stuff to help people out here today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, realistically, the main focus that I had was threat assessment and threat gauging, because if you imagine a visual of I show up to the door, like, imagine you're opening the door and I'm one foot away from the door, how wide would you open this door if you don't know who I am?

Speaker 1:

You know what, probably inversely proportionate to the closeness that you're standing to it Really.

Speaker 2:

Or also the threat that I might be like let's say I'm a larger, more well-built person than you are, or let's say that you're of the opposite sex or something like that Like I could appear as a threat to you. Yeah Right. So the first thing is we have to make sure that when they open the door, they remain in mental control of the scenario. So what I found is three feet or one solid arm length away from that door is usually a pace and a half back. If you're that distance, you are not in what's known as the threat zone, meaning that if someone can open their physical space, our personal bubbles do not overlap, meaning I am here, you are here For me to cross that threshold. It would have to be a pronounced action. Right, love it.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is where are my hands?

Speaker 2:

Now, if I were to say that my hands are behind me and you can't see me, right, or I'm at the door and I'm close, okay, it's a problem.

Speaker 2:

But even I'm three feet away, but my hands are tucked behind me, or they're in my shirt or they're in my jacket or they're in my pockets, that's a threat assessment.

Speaker 2:

So for certain industries and certain professions, you need to be mentally aware of threat assessment. So what I've done is I always have my hands visually in front of me, so I'll even stand for it so like I have my hands right here. The reason why is, when someone views me, they not only see my posture is up, my smile is present, but my hands are visual and I'm out of their space. So what they're seeing is I am a friendly person based off the smile. I am a safe, non-threatening person, because they see that I have nothing that's visible that can be of danger to them and I'm not in their personal bubble, meaning they're more allowed to open the door to a wider end and to personally engage with me, and I ask permission to enter said space and they willingly allow me in, thus giving them that control and reducing their fear of threat friend, not foe man, and it makes perfect sense.

Speaker 1:

I mean, look around and you know what, joe, I'm not about this, I'm not about fear-mongering and stuff, but just recently I was challenged to look up some of the stats around. Really, oh, what's the best way to word this? Just violence in the United States of America. It's widespread. There's a lot, right, we all worry about our kids at some point, we all feel this and it's it's North America wide too, right. Guns per capita is up. You have to acknowledge this thing and I think it's really important. Some of the pieces you said on the, on the latter half of that, with even smiling, holding your hands appropriately and maintaining that distance, because otherwise, yeah, I mean you got to be careful out there, man.

Speaker 1:

You don't want people to feel that threat. So I'm acknowledging this and saying you know what? Bravo on you for taking it to that depth and teaching people at that level, because I can clearly see, if you get this wrong, what happens.

Speaker 2:

Really, it's your own sale and relationship that gets lost, because, if we can take this from the big picture, you took the time to market this lead right. You spent money on your marketing in order to get them to want to call. You paid your CSR and your office staff to take the call. You paid your technicians time and fuel and training and everything to get them to this point, only to have them lose the entire opportunity within five seconds because they did something that was 100% in their control and they didn't do it. And now, as a result all of that investment, you have to do eight times the effort just to get back to where you could have been if you had had a good first impression. That feels like utter insanity to do anything different than this.

Speaker 1:

That's a hard place to come back from, joe. There's so much more than this and we'd love to share it, but we're getting long. We still have to do a draw. So what do you say? We sum this up Guys, if you want a summarized guide that you can follow and even show your team, the service loop electrical pre-arrival and even foyer rapport steps in a condensed format that you guys could train to so you know that your team is not getting this piece wrong, they're not showing up as a threat, but showing up in the as those three tens and helping you guys connect and open that acute angle up of opportunities, so that you don't need these eight subsequent positive actions to try to recover from this drowning with your new prospects, new clients that you've worked so hard for.

Speaker 1:

If you want that, you go ahead and reach out to us where you heard us first. You can send us a message on our website, servicebyelectricianscom. You can follow us on Instagram my profile is very active, claynewmeyer and on Facebook at Million Dollar Electrician, and we'll see you there for that one. Joe, you ready for the spin of the week here?

Speaker 2:

I can't wait to have it. Man, this is gonna be so cool. First live spin, this is gonna be a fun one.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're using an app. By the way, guys, we Guys, we're going to share a screen. It's called spinthewheelapp. You're welcome to use this for your own safety, prizes and training. Here's the big spin Drum roll please.

Speaker 1:

And it looks like Jamie Irving. Congratulations, brother, Congratulations. We can't wait to see you in class. We'll reach out to you direct and give you your award and set you up an invite to this class, this Options Design Clinic. I know it's going to help you deliver big and really open your eyes to the world of creating better solutions for your clients. Joe, I can't thank you enough for today. Is there anything else you wanted to add to this one brother?

Speaker 2:

Really. I want to just add that sometimes we struggle with things because we feel they're out of our control. This is one of those levers that's not the case. This is something that's 100% in all of our controls. You can do this with minimal effort, but with high intention. So, instead of just going through and just saying I'm going to wing it, ask yourself if I don't have a process in place, where can I get that process? And I can tell you where you can get if you need it.

Speaker 1:

Love it, man. We'll see you guys next week. Cheers, and that's a wrap for today's episode of the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast.

Speaker 2:

We hope you're buzzing with new ideas that charge up to take your business to the next level.

Speaker 1:

So don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share the show with fellow electricians Together, we'll keep the current flowing.

People on this episode

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Clay Neumeyer

Host
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Joseph Lucanie

Co-host