Ep 295 - How to Have Consistent $100K Months From a Service Van

Mastering 100K Months in Service Van

Speaker 1 0:01

Hello , hello , hello and welcome back to yet another live episode of Electricpreneur Secrets . I am your host , clay Neumeier , With me , as always , my esteemed partner and co-host , joseph Lucani , and we are the Electricpreneurs a couple of master electricians with business addictions , here and ready to serve . At what level ? The highest level To who ? To you , if you're an electricpreneur looking to master your sales , simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service . So welcome to our freemium program and your daily coach , call man . We've been putting in work to be there behind the windshield with you guys five days a week . So , whether you're in the van , in the office , at the gym , the gym , wherever you are , sit back in the hot seat , take everything we give .

Speaker 2 0:46

Just promise to take action , my brother , how you doing today , dude I'm feeling awesome today and you know I thought it was really cool . I thought you're gonna drop some secrets because we have been grinding in the background and I can't wait to start revealing the stuff we put together . But seriously , this is really , really awesome and I'm pumped again to be on another episode . So let's just fire it off right . What about you ? How are you holding up today ?

Speaker 1 1:09

Oh , I'm doing fantastic . Got a little stim happening over here right , rubbing some hands together . Guys , if you're with us on the Facebook group , live right now . We are live , as ever , right , been a lot of replays where we build up the back end of this , we've got our online academy launching in just two weeks here , april 15th Super excited , Hello , hello , hello . Thank you guys for joining . Feel free to comment .

Speaker 1 1:31

As usual , we'll be asking you a couple of questions through this one , and we've got a big burner right off the bat . It's going to tie us right into this topic today of how to have consistent 100K months from a service van Experiences in the room . Joe , yours truly has done this right , coming from a 90k year to 100k months . Big question , though has anyone else noticed that customers have been more focused on getting multiple estimates , even if they have something that needs to be fixed ? Have you been seeing this out there ? Because all of this bleeds into the bigger problem , the bigger things that we're going to discuss today . Joe , did you recognize this in your business ? Was it a feeling that you had ? Were there things keeping you up at night wondering what are they waiting for ? Are they going to pick me ? Was my price too much ? Was it the price ? Did I do something wrong ? Are they even considering me ? Should I call them again ? Do I send a text or an email , like all these questions rattling in our head ? You know those late nights , yeah .

Speaker 2 2:29

That's a big ball of anxiety that we're trying to unpack .

Speaker 2 2:33

But you know , I remember in the first three years of business it was in a constant anxiety machine in my head , like at all times , because we were around $165 to $169 an hour and I really thought that we were the most expensive person and even though , like our competitors , were like $100 an hour , I really thought the $69 difference was that is the whole reason why people don't want to use me , like that's got to be it , it has to be the number .

Speaker 2 3:00

And then I end up being this underconfident individual who's just constantly chasing and following up and following up and practically begging to get work from people , and that never felt good . Because then I'm wondering well , how do I support my teams ? Can I even afford a team ? Like , how can you afford a team ? I mean , there was a period of time I was paying myself $300 a month . Like wasn't great , yeah , big yuck . So that's why we started trying to figure out how can we get out of this rat race , and that led us to developing the process that we teach , known as a service loop method , and really the rest is history . So I'm happy to cover any particular detail you want to get into , just ask away .

Speaker 1 3:39

brother and I'm all yours , but we're deep diving for sure something you said right off the bat , the the competitive pricing thing . Even to this day . I mean , it happens all the time and I get it . Maybe you're new to us , you're new to premium pricing , you're new to premium service , but I keep hearing this on calls that I get on with people making sure that we're a fit to even work together , trying to help in any way that we can . Well , I get . Someone will say I get that you know my pricing's got to be based off me , but it's still a little bit the market , right . It's still got to be competitive with others , right , and that's this question . That's like people I I get how stuck we get in this . Can you help us understand how you overcame this barrier , because I know you guys pretty much doubled your price . Yeah , it was scary it really scary .

Speaker 2 4:24

So the first thing we have to take into consideration is that , yes , to an extent . To an extent the market has to bear it . What I mean by that is if everyone's charging $100 an hour and you decided to charge $30,000 an hour , yeah , of course there's going to be no possible chance you get work , but that's never such a drastic change because the customer is not paying for you to turn your tools . They're paying for an experience . So the way that you get yourself out of those price concerns is by changing the market you're speaking to . If you're always in a position where I'm like I found the most negotiating that we ever did was in customers paying the 165 , 169 rate .

Speaker 2 5:06

When we were charging 389 , people stopped complaining because the kind of customer that we were attracting was the one who was like you know what ?

Speaker 2 5:13

I've gone through other people before .

Speaker 2 5:15

We've gone the cheap route , before We've gotten burned off that , and I want a consistent and safe and predictable experience and if I have to pay a little bit more for it , I'm willing to do so because I know your reputation , I know what you're about , I know that you can do what you're saying you're going to do , so , yeah , I might pay paying double what it's supposed to be or supposed to be when you go and you get your competitors .

Speaker 2 5:38

But when I'm offering a fully turnkey experience where you don't have to worry about a damn thing and you have someone else come in who is like yeah , it's this much an hour and this could change and I don't know how long it's going to take , but it should be somewhere around here , they could be charging just as much as we do by the end of the project and the customer got a less quality experience yeah , that's really good share and I think it's important too to bring up like the pricing was just one piece , and it's actually where a lot of people perceive we're taking value from our clients because we're adding that price and they don't know how to fill that value void .

Speaker 1 6:26

Your service fan was able to do 1.3 million in sales for three years , like the 100k months that we're bringing up today . That was consistently for three months or 30 months . Three months , yeah , 30 months of an average 100k in sales . So , like for you , what went on to cause this change that you realized ? Oh gosh , I've got to take control of this because the highs and lows are killing me .

Speaker 2 6:46

So prior to 2018 , we were really struggling with slow season because it was the thing where we were operating . Like most other contractors , I was still developing the process . It wasn't perfected at this point . Anywhere between 2013 and 2017 , I was really just trying to get work the same way that other contractors work I'm going to knock on doors , I'm going to put out signs , we're going to up advertisements , we're going to get billboards , like all the things that everyone does , that we're like , oh , this is what I need to do to be profitable , and we started shifting instead of all those other things , shifting more towards a customer experience .

Speaker 2 7:24

So the point that I realized that I needed to change was when we realized that when slow season came , it came hard , and I believe that was somewhere in like 2016 , 2017 , where it was normally we were busy September , august , september , october , november and then end of November dropped . And that year it was like , oh no , it's actually September , it drops and we're like well , what do we do ? We don't have enough to ride this out . So I knew I needed to change things in order to be more sustainable and also to have that peace of mind that there's something consistent , knowing there's always something down the line and that there's another angle you can pursue was very freeing for my mentality , and that there's another angle you can pursue was very freeing for my mentality . So I'm a person with anxiety , like , if you're someone like that , like it , the demons live in your head and they don't want to come out unless you have a solution . So we needed a solid solution .

Speaker 1 8:18

How did you know that that consistency was going to serve you ?

Speaker 2 8:21

If I can dig even deeper there , like so how did we know that it was going to serve you ? If I can dig even deeper there , like so , how did we know that it was going to serve us ?

Speaker 1 8:26

yeah , I mean it seems like and just to speak to the anxiety piece , it seems like in our experience we see a lot of people I've felt myself , we've all felt this pull to like , when things aren't going well , we want to get out of whatever we're doing and change everything , and and we change too many things and so consistency serves us .

Building Consistent Sales Through Customer Focus

Speaker 1 8:47

But how did you avoid that kind of that , that pull to change everything and , just you know , start shooting from the hip , I guess ? Or is that ever a problem for you ?

Speaker 2 8:56

So no , I was never really shooting from the hip . The thing was is I was in process development . So , starting in 2013 , I was like , okay , this is my own company , I know what's worked in previous businesses I've worked for . Let's take some of those methods and bring them in . And what I was finding was I was primarily trained by HVAC and plumbers , so I had to adopt what I was being taught and like adapt it and shift it towards electrical , adapt it and shift it towards electrical .

Speaker 2 9:23

So it was never really from the hip , it was more just . I would try something and I would put a control in and say this is what I'm trying to hit . Did I hit it or did I not ? If I didn't , I would adjust and say , well , what needs to change in this ? And instead of changing multiple parts of the process , I would break into sections of process and then say like , where did the disconnect happen ? Were they happy with us when we arrived ? If they weren't happy when we arrived , we can't expect them to be happy throughout it . Did I go through and figure out other competitors in here ? Did I actively remove competitors ? Did I get a timeline of when they're looking to do things ? So it was a consistently refined action and the measure that I was working off of was . Does this help me close , and is this bringing me confidence ? If it was doing both , it became a part of the process . If it wasn't , it started getting removed .

Speaker 1 10:19

So the things I was doing in 2013 are different than what I'm doing now , because we've just tried and true to and one of the things I love about about this , this record , this 30 months of this 100k , is that that really begins in 2019 , pre-pandemic , and extends well into 2021 during the pandemic . So it was kind of tried and true in different market environments , if that's fair to say . I want to jump ahead a little bit and ask maybe a rhetorical question , joe , because anyone who's listening to this is happy to hear that you saw success , but do you believe that anyone can do this , that anyone can build and have consistent sales from their service fans in their business ?

Speaker 2 11:09

That's a hard question to ask , because I want to give two answers , and I can explain why if you give me the space to do so . So my first thing is yes , I believe that anyone can do this , because I don't feel there's anything special about me in particular , meaning that it's like , it's not like . Yeah , I have my gifts and I'm not going to downplay that , but my gifts don't make me superhuman . There's nothing that I'm doing that someone else with equal training couldn't also do , right . But the reason why I say no to that same statement is it's the reason why you're trying to grow is going to be the deciding factor . Why you're trying to grow is going to be the deciding factor .

Speaker 2 11:48

I wanted to serve people . My goal was to say I want to create a brand that is known for serving at the highest level . It wasn't a get-rich-quick scheme . It wasn't meant to make the money . It was meant to serve at the highest level . So if someone comes into this and they're like I just want to make as much money as fast as possible , they're going to use a lot of tactics that are in this program , but it's not going to be done for the right reasons when it's not done for the right reasons , it's going to diminish the returns . But if you open it up and say I'm doing this because I want to improve my community , I want to create a sustainable business , I want my customers to constantly be in win-wins , then you already have what it takes to succeed because your mentality is in the right direction .

Speaker 1 12:32

Perfect man , I appreciate that and I can see that too . So let me ask you this then how I want to give you know electricpreneur secrets . We want to give some of the beans away here . How would someone go about going from the place that you were and just describing through your experience and growth did you start to make this work ? How did you get to these consistent 100K months ? What were the things you had to change ?

Speaker 2 12:56

It was a lot of trial and error . It was a lot of trial and error up to that point because it wasn't that we were doing 100K right out the gate . It wasn't like it went from 20 to 100 . It was a consistent scale as we were going . So , as an example , I remember let's go back and be specific I remember there was a period of time when I said , okay , we only need $6,000 a week in order to pay our bills . If we can just get three $2,000 sales , we can pay the bills we need and get there . I believe the number was 2683 . It was like a very specific number that I was like if I can get three of these things are covered . So we found ways of getting to that number and when we exceeded it and we started noticing that it was consistently being exceeded , we were trying to figure out where it was and we would trial and put controls in . So , as an example , it would be like okay , I think that offering a free generator service will allow us . If our free one-year generator service will allow us to get in front of more customers , Great , let's try it for a year and see where we end up . Okay , we gained this many generator customers Of those generator customers , how many of them made repeat purchases .

Speaker 2 14:08

Generator customers Of those generator customers , how many of them made repeat purchases . So if you can imagine me stuck in my office almost looking like a conspiracy theory , where I had maps everywhere and being like what worked , what didn't , why and what should I change that's what it was like trying to grow and improve this , and it's another reason why I'm so excited to share it , because it took seven years to build . You don't have to do it . We already have it . You just got to put your hand up for it . We'll teach it to you .

Speaker 1 14:37

That's amazing . So what do you think are some of the reasons , then , that clients would choose you over someone else ? That made the competitors relevant , and maybe that's a list . Maybe there's a half dozen things here , but in your mind , what are the reasons for that consistency of clients choosing you 80% of the time ?

Speaker 2 14:58

So what it was was that we focused , instead of the physical of what the customer was asking for , we focused on the emotional experience they'd have upon receiving the thing they've asked for . So what I meant is this most contractors are going to come in and say like , let's say , a customer wants a quote for an automatic generator . Yeah , okay , great , like that's standard . Most people are like , oh , it's a big ticket item , they've got reasons to want to move it and they've got their tactics to produce it . My first question wasn't what kind of generator do you want ? I was more convinced of why do you even need one ? What if we just didn't do anything ? What if we just left it the way it was ? And a lot of what I found was that a lot of customers felt they needed an automatic , but what they really needed was the peace of mind of knowing that in an emergency they'd be safe . And a lot of them ended up taking portable options . So all my competition . We're putting out 22 , 26 , 30 KWs . Now here I am with a 10 KW portable , but it's specifically in line with the customer . They have their emergency lightings , they have their anti-theft anchoring , they have a maintenance agreement , they know how to use it . They know they can take it with them when they go somewhere . And now , yeah , maybe they paid less than they would have , so it could have been a price factor as well , but it was mostly , I feel , heard . I don't feel like you're trying to push something on me . I feel like you're really trying to understand what I'm trying to do and really that creates a huge differentiation .

Speaker 2 16:28

Additionally , the focus was how can we become a safe bet Like ? My opinion is that , let's say , I'm 1,000 and you're 500 . I need to justify being double what your investment is . So , at a level , $500 doesn't seem like a lot right . But if I were to tell you that when I give you a quote , I'm going to design every possible situation , every situation you can run into from now to the next 10 years . We're going to map out in advance and I'm going to give you a range of prices that I'm going to die on the hill , that they're not going to raise for those numbers , and I'm going to do a fully turnkey All the painting , all the spackling , all the maintenance agreements , all the coordination , all the utilities , all the permit , everything .

Speaker 2 17:14

One of our things we would say is we will do so much that the only job you have is to write the check . Every other aspect of this is completely covered . In my area my competitors weren't doing that , it was a lot of . You . Order the generator and get it delivered to your driveway . Call me when it's ready . You coordinate In the meantime , while you're ordering the generator , you can pull out the permit and I'll just fill it out once you email it to me , you coordinate the utility for the inspection , you coordinate for the fuel . So it was a lot of you , you , you , and not a lot of us . So the whole goal is if you can think of what your customer has to go through to receive your service and remove the stoppage points that would cause any kind of delay or inconvenience to them , they win and you win . That's just what we do win , win , win .

Speaker 1 18:05

If you add your staff in there , three , three wins right . I guess that's why you're the wizard of options .

Speaker 2 18:12

It's funny how , like , my names keep kind of changing but I kind of reminds me like the wizard of Oz kind of thing . So every time I hear that I'm like , yeah , I'll take it . That's funny .

Speaker 1 18:20

Yeah , yeah , you know it seems obvious , but most electricians were not trained on this stuff , right , we didn't go to trade school and get a class on differentiation in our market . We didn't really spend a lot of time thinking about that stuff . But what we do know is , hey , there's about 10 different electrical companies in my town , maybe 20 or 30 in my city , right , maybe five in my village , and it seems to kind of progress as the size of the population progresses . Five in my village , and it seems to kind of progress as the size of the population progresses . And and with that so do our fears of not being able to get enough work , not being able to stand apart . But it's , it's also , it almost seems obvious , because we're all people , we're all homeowners , we all have families and a life and we all have these blinders up because we're all overwhelmed with the amount of things to do .

Speaker 1 19:09

Right , I'm using a trello board at this point to manage my at-home projects . Man , my , my partner and I , marilyn and I , we share it . We've got , you know , coordinated tasks happening and it's actually so difficult to cross things off the list . So I applaud you for coming to this understanding and this reasoning with your clients to be able to at least offer them a situation where they don't have to add anything to their Trello board .

Sales Process Development and Motivation

Speaker 2 19:35

If I can also make a personal addition to this , please , I also want to explain what the motivation was behind it , because , for those of you that have heard my story , I was really , really struggling with depression in a very bad way , to the point where I was contemplating suicide .

Speaker 2 19:52

And the reason why I bring that up was people ask what did it take to make you better or to make you the way that you are right now ? And the logic was is that I knew that we needed to bring sales in in order to feed ourselves , to bring sales in in order to feed ourselves . But at the same time , I was so worried because I was taking a personal account of saying , like , okay , if this doesn't work , it's my fault . So it became a this will work or I'm going to die . And I don't mean to make it sound like drastic or negative , but the point I'm trying to communicate is , for those of you who are listening , if you literally believe that if you failed you would die , what would that do for your motivation to succeed , like you , literally full expiration upon failure . Wouldn't that push you to be more creative and find a way to survive ?

Speaker 2 20:48

Because that's really the fire under my butt .

Speaker 1 20:51

Yeah , it's a big why and some people choose to , you know , use their kids or their their family . Is that big why ? You know , imagine everything you need to do on the other side of two buildings with a two by four between them and you know , would you walk between ? Is kind of the old example . Many would say no . Well , what if the other one's on fire and your kids are there All of a sudden ? All of a sudden , yeah , very , very dire , dire consequence . So I appreciate that , Joe , and there's a big piece , big question that we asked right in the beginning and really was about that . You know , customers maybe being more choosy , wanting more estimates and the worries of indecision and the fog of being uncertain if it's your client or not . Could you just speak to in your sales process development and what happened where you were able to gain more clarity , more clearer futures , to help you with this and that confidence in these 100K months ?

Speaker 2 21:51

Sure , so there's really only three outcomes to every single call . It's either they want to move forward , they don't want to move forward , or they're not sure when they will move forward . That's really the only three outcomes you can have , and if you can end each call upon one of those things , your likelihood for success drastically improves . And can I put some numbers behind and explain what I mean , please ? So let's assume , let's do the easy one . You present the solution . The customer wants it . The answer is yes , great , everyone wins . Okay , cool .

Speaker 2 22:26

They have to be conditioned and taught how to say yes . It's important to make sure your client knows what that looks like . So that's why , when we're in the beginning , we're like , hey , just so , we're on the same page . If , let's say , the stars aligned and I was able to design something that literally gave you the perfect solution at a price you felt was fair , what would happen then ? We're teaching the customer and exposing them what saying yes is supposed to be like right . And on the opposite , we say , in sake of argument if you hated everything that I had to say , if every option I produced was just not what you're looking for , what would you tell me ? We want them to also feel comfortable saying no , because if they know that they can say yes or no , the confusion disappears , because a lot of times people will decide to say I want to email it over prior to saying yes , or they'll say email it over to avoid saying no . So the first thing we've done is we've gotten away that indecision .

Speaker 2 23:23

The last part is the most important , which is they don't know when they will make a decision on this .

Speaker 2 23:29

That's the benefit of the two call close . So when we go into our process , we're saying , just , as I mentioned earlier , just , we're on the same page . No matter what , I was going to show you , you weren't planning on bringing this to a conclusion today , right . And they're either going to say , well , I was planning on it , and we can question why , or they can say they weren't , and in that case we agree and say that's perfect . And then we'd plan on coming back and designing a time for a two call close , meaning we'd come back , present our solutions and only when we know they're looking to do something do they see a number which then at that meeting , gets them back into the yes or no funnel again . So if you can get a customer to sit across the table or in our way , side by side from you , and be able to tell you that at the end of this , you're going to get a yes or no , or a date when they will give a yes or no . Where's the uncertainty ?

Speaker 1 24:23

That's big man , that's huge . That uncertainty , that clarity , the clearer futures is something that we've wholly adopted in our business too . Service of electrical and guys , I want to take a moment and do something that we never do , joe , is that all right ? I mean , yeah , I don't know what we're going to do , but let's go for it . Okay , here's the thing . We never , ever , ever , pollute this space with an offer , but right now , being the current date's April 3rd already , if you can believe that , and April 15th is our online Academy launch date .

Speaker 1 24:52

We've been putting a ton of work into this so that every piece of our guides , our training , our sales process , the very things you just heard Joe even begin to articulate on this episode , are all in recorded video trainings with audio tracks , just like the podcast , but then also the written guides , downloadable content and real actions to take to see this work for you and your business as well . I mean , we're committed to you having access to these strategies , these strategies . So by April 15th , we're actually looking for five growing electrical teams who want to take control of their business through the seasons , just like Joe did , who want to find those rising stars , who want to find those consistent months , who want to break through the million dollar mark if you haven't done it before , and even in a single service van , some of our clients are already seeing results exceeding Joe's at times , personal best records , bringing near $200,000 a month just amazing stuff . We're so confident that this will work for the right business that we literally guarantee it in writing . And , for the first time ever , with this online academy and this offer right here , right today , you're actually going to gain the ability to have lifetime access to those trainings .

Speaker 1 26:08

Again , for the right fit . Guaranteed in writing lifetime access to those trainings . So all the risk is absorbed and we're just excited to find the next five to work with . So that's what we're talking about this week on Action Wednesday . Guys , thank you for listening , and now let's jump back into it . Joe , from everything we talked about today , do you have a couple of action items in mind , maybe a basic or an all-star , so we can wrap this one up , brother ?

Speaker 2 26:33

I'd be happy to . So the first thing that comes to mind it's like normally we say just do the thing , but I'm going to go one step before that , and that's don't overcomplicate the thing . So often , like , let's say , take a baseball example or even a golf analogy when you work on your swing , there are so many minor details that can be adjusted , whether it's hand position , whether it's the arc of your swing , whether it's the contact , whether you're trying to move in a certain direction . There's a lot to adjust . So when you don't hit the ball , is it that you're not swinging right or is it that you're not adjusting to the pitches ? It's coming to you .

Speaker 2 27:11

So the base , base , base action is to don't always assume that it's your swing . The swing doesn't always need to be reinvented . Your eye contact to the ball does . So the very first thing is don't gut your process . Every time you strike out , you're going to strike out . Even the best and the best of the industry strike out . I've had slow seasons , I've had slow months . It happens , and I'm nowhere near the best . So if it's happening to everyone , why do you believe it's personally your process ? That's the first thing .

Speaker 1 27:46

That's huge man and I love that you used the word don't gut the process , because that's a gut check when we go with the gut . Gut stands for gave up thinking . Now it plays an important role in your life and in your decision making , but we should not be adjusting process based on gut . We should be adjusting it based on data . Thank you , joe , all-star brother .

Speaker 2 28:07

All-star is when you look at your process . Look at what the end result is meant to achieve . If you're only meant to get a sale off your process , you'll find it's very linear Customer comes in , sale is made , relationship ends . Instead , our process is meant to serve and through the service , when we do work with a customer , it's a continuous process . They have a long lifetime value , aka the service loop . We're continuing our loop of servicing them over and over and over again . So in your all-star process , understand what are you really trying to accomplish ? Are you trying to just do this to close more deals , or is this going to be a means of scaling your organization through the service proper premium service of your clients ?

Speaker 1 29:00

Amazing man . Really good stuff . Guys , this has been another and a big episode double the time here today really went deep on this interview with you , joe . We gave you the big what how to have consistent 100k months from a service . Van joe managed to do about 30 of those consistently . That was not the peak , though . There was high months of what ? 170 , 180k in there yeah , in high season . So these , these consistent months will change the game for

Online Academy Lifetime Access Offer

Speaker 1 29:25

you guys .

Speaker 1 29:25

As we mentioned , there's a bit of an offer in this one if you guys want to take advantage , to be first at the online academy , um and just see if it's a good fit for you , potentially lifetime access if it is , guys , that's guaranteed in writing to be profitable for you . So if you guys are interested in that comment here , if you're watching with us live , go to service loop electrical . So if you guys are interested in that comment here , if you're watching with us live , go to serviceloopelectricalcom . If you're not on Facebook and you can reach out on the contact form and just say episode 295 interested and we'll reply to you there . And otherwise , guys , have a great rest of your week and continue this journey with us to help you master your sales , simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service . Bye for now , looking forward to next time . See you soon .