Replay - How to Sell Electrical Services to Friends and Family

0:00 Welcome to Electropreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast. We're here with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. I'm your host, clay Neumeier. With me, as always, my esteemed partner and co-host, joseph Lucani. As you can see if you're watching this live in our Facebook group, my lighting is awful compared to Joseph Joseph. You look great today, brother. How are you doing? I'm doing great, man, and honestly, I got to give you the credit because I had an interesting setup before you came down and literally Clay's strategy brain looked at it and he was like we can make this better. And now you guys get to see the result of it, where actually I shine up like a new penny.

0:43 I'm pretty happy how this looks. Yep, you shine up and we got to meet finally last week I think I even told you in person I was like you look better than you do on camera. We got to fix this. My first thought was like what do I look like on camera? Yeah, so I'm glad that we're able to get it dialed in and thank we're able to get it dialed in and thank you again for the aesthetic enhancements. Yeah, of course. Hey, happy hump day. It is Wednesday already, and I hope your week's going well. It's going great. I was going to say I've been getting a lot of stuff done. We've making a lot of track good updating classes. For that promotion generator class that we're doing it is going to be absolute fire the lessons we've been working on. Each week I've been making some top tier objection handling lessons.

1:27 It's going to be a really great week going forward, of course, yeah, and we haven't actually mentioned that generator class live on the podcast yet, but since we're at that right here right now, there's some big takeaways, guys, we are offering a public class, honestly, where you can join us for a couple, maybe two to three hour class to learn about some of the technical side of generators about how to build and design options and present options around them so you can sell these things, why that niche is so important for you and your business and really how to make that profitable. Did I miss anything there?

2:09 I mean we're also going to be going into the differences between, like, the automatics and the manuals, all the different products and enhancements that are there, as well as why everything is so key. But overall, I mean I'm just pumped because you know how much I love doing generators. Yeah, yeah, of course. So, as always, we're trying to promote this value volcano and really let it flow over everyone. Help rise the tides for all these electrical ships. So if you're an entrepreneur and you're not yet on the inside with us, you can get access to that workshop and be engaging with us live five days a week in our Facebook group. You can either search Electrician Podcast just like you do on any of the podcast platforms or on facebook, and our group will come up entrepreneur secrets the electrician podcast group.

2:51 So that's the plug for today on that. Now we're getting into some great topic today and it comes inspired. I mean, it was already on our list, but inspired heavily this morning in our inside track the class that we have with our entrepreneurs, where we're teaching them our sales process front to back, and the class focus today was actually on level one objection handling. Is that right? Correct. All right Going to objection handling. Yeah, yeah, tell us a bit about that class and a bit about this topic and how they relate. So one of the things that came up was we had a particular student that was really getting hung up on the email at over objection and I kept trying to figure out, like, why, like, what is the real emotional reason?

3:35 Because I understand that some people like to play devil's advocate. You know where they're like. Well, what if the customer says this? I got to make sure that I'm prepared for it and I completely respect that. But what was going on was, you can tell the customer had a very emotional reason why he was asking. It seemed like it was tied with more than just I'm playing devil's advocate. So we stopped the call and we asked we're like hey, where is this fervor coming from? Why are you so specific and intense on wanting to know how to handle the email over rejection? And what he told me was well, I made a mistake. My brother-in-law gave me a call and wants me to do this large and in-depth project with him, and he wants me to do it at this super steep discount.

4:19 And now he's changing the product and he's telling me he wants me to email over all my designs and just get bail, just get back to him. And he's like honestly, I feel like I'm wasting my time. So the majority of the class I was like we're going to hard pivot, because no one should ever feel like that. So now we're going to discuss what needs to happen when it comes to selling to family and to selling to friends. Sounds like a fun topic for today. Yeah, yeah, sounds like an important one too, and back it up to the beginning. I think one of the big problems with this is that friends and family tend to fall into this place of feeling like, hey, because we're friends, because you're my brother, because you're my cousin, because you're my uncle or nephew or whatever the case may be, you should do this work for me for a low price, if not free, whereas I want to pivot here and say, look, the real way to look at this is, because I'm your cousin, because I'm your uncle, because I'm your nephew, because we're related, because we're friends, I want to support you in your business endeavor by paying you in full.

5:28 It's a complete mindset shift and not enough people have that. What are your feelings on that? A thousand percent true, and the reason why I feel like that is one I've been the person who supported businesses and I've also been the one that's been asked to support others. And I can explain both scenarios and how they make you feel. So if this person is your friend and you trust them, your goal is to say do I believe this person is out to just try and take my money? If you believe that they're the kind of person that's just out to take undue funds, are they really a good friend for you to have in your corner? And if they're not, if they're not the kind of person that's just trying to mark up their price and charge a premium, are you a friend for asking them to lower their price so they don't make even a fair profitable value?

6:17 At the very least, do you think it's reasonable that most businesses should be expected to make a fair profit? Yes, definitely. Go back to the statistics and let's recognize for a moment that, again, 80% of all small businesses fail in the first three years. Correct, that means we don't need more giveaways, we need more profits, we need more full-paying customers. Correct. So there's a lot of individual things we need to focus on here. So first, once again remembering and saying who is the person that I'm working for. Are they truly a friend or are they an acquaintance?

6:57 Now I have a very unusual approach to this, because I have a different kind of relationship with my family. I don't feel like biological blood determines who your real family is, because I remember I had experiences where I'm estranged from my brother and I remember trying to open the door for him for a moment and just be like you know what, man, let's put it down, let's bury the hatchet. And his first answer was well, now that we're good, you cool coming to my home and changing out some breakers. The very first thing that he said was like oh well, now that we're good, you can come do some lights work for me for free, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, so that relationship didn't last out that very long.

7:38 On the other side of the coin, I have sold to family members where they did believe in what we were doing, they did want to support us and they didn't pose a lot of issues. So I'd like to go through the different scenarios of one how to identify who the right kind of family member is to work with. And then two, how can we qualify working with them. And then three, what can we do to support them with options and what is the ethical boundaries that we need to maintain. Sounds like a fun lesson. Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like already that you're siding with and siding for working with friends and family under the right conditions. Correct. So the reason of it is this every single one of us ideally at least I know you personally and me personally we didn't get into electric as a get rich quick scheme.

8:28 We got in because this is what the trade we knew. We knew that it was the way that we could provide for our families and a lot of us just feel a great level of satisfaction when we're done with an install. I know when I left a home and that panel was perfect and every individual wire was parallel and it's labeled and it's perfect, it felt good and that dopamine rush carried me through the day, and especially when the customer would praise you and love it. That's why most of us got into this. So when people look at us like, oh, you're just out to get money, that in and of itself shows that they don't understand what we're really trying to focus behind and go ahead. You got a question there.

9:10 I just want to pump this in. That's why most of us got into this. But even if that's not why you got into this, that's what gives us staying power, because money just will not continue to fulfill us. There's no way. At some point you realize, hey, I was doing this for money, but I'm fucking miserable, I don't like what I'm doing because I'm focused on the wrong thing. If you focus on the money, you will not connect to the owners, family or friends or anyone that you're trying to serve, and thus you'll fall short in the end. Exactly so. The thing, then, we need to focus on is this Now that we know who the right person is to work with in that, are they here to truly support our business or are they trying to get a favor?

9:57 And there's a couple of ways you can ask that. You can simply ask, be like well, I'd be honored to help you with this, if you don't mind me asking. There were so many other electrical companies you could have called. Why did you choose to call us? That's simple there, because the thing is is that you'll find out very quickly their motivating reason, because when you're working with the average customer, they're usually trying to mince words or trying to say things you know tried, taxfully or subtly. They're trying to tell you what they're thinking, but when you're working with family, they're like this is why it is. You mean, you're an electrician, you're in the family, like who, who else would I be using? I mean, of course, you're going to give us the best deal, and now we know the motivating reason why they're calling us.

10:39 So if you find someone that is saying well, you know what, joe, you're in the family and I want to make sure I gave you the business that's good, then we're going to treat them as if we would treat no other customer. Every customer is going to be treated at that level because we want to provide that white glove, top tier, premium level of service, no matter who it is. If they've called us, they should experience that service. So if they're that kind of category, great, no harm, no foul. On the other side of the coin, let's say someone says well, I mean, I know you're in the family, therefore you'll give me the best deal. That's where you want to start asking questions. So it might sound something like well, clay, I really really appreciate that you'd consider me and you know what we are.

11:23 I really really appreciate that you'd consider me and you know what you know we are family. It does make sense that we take care of each other. But can I ask you a question, of course Now, is this something that you're asking me to do personally, or is it that you're asking my company to do it for you? Why do you think that's such an important question to ask? Well, I think it begins to separate that favor feeling of the personal, the person, and the sustainability of a company. Correct and now, based on what they say, they also now have a second direction, because the goal is we want to get them to client one. I want to use you because I want to support your business, because I love you. That's what you want to do. You want that person.

12:04 So you're giving them a second chance to determine what side of the line they're on. Are you looking for me to do it personally? Are you looking for my company to take care of it? They say, well, I want the company to take care of it. I mean I'm not asking you to side job this. Great, okay, now they're qualified A. But if they're like, well, I mean it's your company. So I figured you know you're going to come and help me out or they. You know it's not your company and they're like, well, I mean I'm not looking to pay company rate. That's why I figured I'd go with you. Now you're going to do acknowledge, reframe and ask again. We want to thank them for their transparency. We never want to come across as angry.

12:47 If we come across as angry in that response, thanksgiving dinner is going to be a little awkward. You wouldn't believe what Joe said. He wouldn't come and help out grandpa and it's like no, we don't want that either. So we want to let them know and be like Clay. Thank you so much for not only being able to call me, but being so transparent with me. That's what makes family so important the fact that we can clearly communicate with each other. If you don't mind, can I equally speak freely with you, of course, getting them an opportunity to let them know back? Yeah, what's going on. Be like well, the reason why I asked if you wanted me to personally do it or whether you wanted the company to do it is because there's going to be a very big difference, not just in price, but in the level of quality, service and comfort you're going to receive from it. If you're looking to have me do it personally, I'm sure I could do a great rate.

13:31 But the concern is that we're not going to be able to have a license on it, because the license goes through the company, which means there's going to be no permit and there's going to be no inspection. As a result, there really wouldn't be any warranty either, because if I can't permit this and I can't license this and it's not insured, how can I warranty it Then? In addition to that I mean you know what's going on in my life. I mean I've got two kids that I'm trying to raise and maintaining a new home. I'm running a business full time. I'm going to help you, but it's going to have to be a time when I'm conveniently able to do so. So, just so we're on the same page, you're not looking to do this anytime soon, right? What do you think that's communicating to the client?

14:16 Well, a number of things for sure, but right off the bat, I'm starting to feel like this is doing a disservice to both of us. I mean trying to wedge myself into your busy schedule and then falling short of all the quality framework that you have in place. So now you have the justification to explain why going with the company is better. Be like Clay. I understand you're a busy person and I know you're not looking to wait six months to get this taken care of, because that's when I'd personally be free. I mean, you know what it's like when you've got two kids. My weekends are booked forever and it's not like I could take time off of work to do side jobs. That wouldn't make sense either.

14:57 So that's why we designed the company the way we did. We agreed that, no matter what we were going to do, every customer we work with gets absolute white glove experience, turnkey service, an ironclad warranty, and is done in a timeframe that they feel is reasonable. With that being said, obviously it's going to be more of an investment than getting someone to side job it, but I can guarantee your level of satisfaction if we go that route. Would I be wrong to suggest we do that? Not at all. So we've created a divide, right? So imagine this I'm going to take, as you mentioned, the 30,000-foot view. Yeah. The first was are you the client that's looking for side job, or are you looking for company?

15:43 I'm looking for company Great, no issues, we don't have to do anything further. I'm looking for a side job Okay, now we go into a second category. Are you looking for me to do it personally, or are you looking for the company to do it? You want the company to do it? Okay, great, we move on like a standard customer. They want you to do it? Now we've gone into this description. Now we've described the things of I can do this and I probably can do it at a less cost. But the reason why is because there won't be a warranty, there won't be an insurance, there won't be a license, there wouldn't be a permit, there's not going to be an inspection and it's going to be on my timeframe of when I'm free, which means I can't give up time with my family, and I can't give up time off work, because who would take time off of work to side job?

16:33 Yeah, so I'm available, but it's like way out there. Is that something you're comfortable with? If they're not, sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say as your friend or family member, no, I'm not. And the path of least resistance is now taking hold and I'm still in recognition that you are still my best option. Correct going with someone else is a whole other effort and sacrifice, plus the lack of trust, the no like and trust. I mean you got to build all that up. You're still at an advantage to do business with you, or I'm still at an advantage to do business with you exactly and the situation comes down to then you either say this is what it takes for me to do it, and this is why we made the company the way we did.

17:18 We recognize that that level of service isn't good, which is why we're making this the normal way we operate business, where you get a warranty, you get turnkey service, it's white glove the entire way, highest levels of comfort and convenience, and it's done on a timeframe you feel is fair. Was I wrong to suggest we do it that way? Not at all. Do you want to hear? no, it wasn't wrong. Yeah and I just want to put this out there that this may be one of the biggest value podcasts put out, because every single person listening to this right now has and was, has and will be really past, present and future is what I'm going for here.

18:03 Presented these problems with friends and family that want work done, and if you can pivot and turn this into high paying clients or keep those pains in the ass off your schedule which again we've identified that there's still gravity towards them hiring you, you're still the best bet. But I do want to back this up 30,000 foot view a bit more, because we did come in with an assumption, and I think this little spin is going to help us with the action items today too. That assumption is that we recognize the detriment of working with family and friends at a discounted rate. So let's back it up a bit more and just say, if you're not at this point yet and you're feeling like, hey, my friends and family in that discounted rate, that's work on the schedule and that's an opportunity, then we do need to acknowledge that there's danger in that water.

18:56 We do need to acknowledge that discounting is a very difficult place to then come back from. It sacrifices profitability in more ways than you likely understand. So the best thing to do for discounts and for charity work is to actually call it what it is charity work. Okay, so it can be done. Guys and gals, If you're listening to this, you can do charity work, but, just like Joseph said, the way we built this business, the way we plan this business right. So assuming there's a plan means I want to see on your budget for the year how many charity jobs or what value of charity work you're actually going to do for the year, and then I want you to stick to that, because that's something you build into your pricing.

19:41 That's something that's on the backs of all the shareholders of your company, all the stakeholders, which includes your clients, your staff, yourself and your salary. Is that an important understanding? I think that is absolutely crucial and it ties in perfectly with what I was thinking about talking about. Next Awesome, where some people say should I offer options to my family members? They're like well, I mean, sometimes they don't want to hear this, they just want the. No, they don't. You don't know how they want to spend their money, you don't know how they live in their home, you don't know what emotional problem they're trying to fix. And I'm going to tell you from firsthand experience in three different categories, exactly why we do the things we do.

20:27 So my best friend in the world, lovely guy to death, I've known him since fifth grade. He trusted me with his grandmother. He said little old Mrs Jones, she needed help Right now. There was an issue with her generator. She wanted a generator. She did, and you know what. Who better to serve them than me? Right? So I went out and met with her and by asking, like, what are you really trying to accomplish? She had in her mind that she wanted a manual generator. That's the 90 year old woman with arthritis and she's saying I want a portable generator. Would it be in your customer's best interest to just agree with them and say your family is what you want? No, no, it wouldn't be.

21:11 So what we ended up doing was we ended up having a transitional period where I told her I was like, listen, you already have a portable. If that's truly what you want, then this is what we can do. But would you be upset if I told you ways that would require you to not have to leave your home? And, as a result, she had never even thought of an automatic and she had the money to afford it and the peace of mind of knowing she never had to stress about it was taken care of. It just wasn't an issue. And I told her I was like you know what? I'll, even for me as assigned to you being my best friend's grandmother, I'll maintain it for free. I'll come by. All I ask is that you make a cake.

21:51 When I do so Every year, I expect she makes an amazing rum cake. So I was like, just make a rum cake. I'll come maintain the system for free, but you're paying full price for the installation and everything. And she was great with it. She picked, actually, I think, our second option. It was the silver option or gold option, nice, nice. Second thing, and she thing is, is that if I didn't do that, what would have ended up happening was she would have purchased a system that would not have been in the best interest of her because her family was insisting that she gets a portable, because she didn't want they didn't want her spending the money. Yeah, I had other circumstances where I've sold generators to both my biological parents as well as the biological aunts and uncles, and the thing is, in both situations I offered options.

22:34 The reason being is not because I'm trying to sell them more, but specifically because I never want them to feel like I'm boxing them one way or the other. I want them to say that's the choice I want and then be like why? Why that one? Tell me specifically because I want to make sure that you're comfortable with what we're doing. I like it because of what it's doing. I don't need the whole home. I like that you're doing all the gas connections. I like you're doing all the permits and the inspections. It sounds like a turnkey project, great. And then when you sign them up with the best financing options you have now you're truly providing a family service. I'm doing everything, you are doing nothing, and once again, clay.

23:18 If you want to mention throwing in charities, you can. You can gift years of service, you can say you know what. We're going to give you a first class membership on us because you're family, you can do those things. That's totally viable. But you have to make sure that you're listing it on your items as charity. That way it could be taken off your line item and you don't have to get taxed on it. Yeah, yeah, I agree, and here might be another way to spend it. You tell me if you agree, if you know that it's an opportunity, call like adding a generator to spend it. You tell me, if you agree, if you know that it's an opportunity, call like adding a generator. Then you have that opportunity. When they, when they're deciding, hey, it's personal or it's company and of course now we're we're gravitating towards the company if you have staff that would be running that call for you and you're the business owner and they're approaching you, then you could offer the assurance that, hey, in in our program we do a two-call close.

24:09 Of course they don't call it the close right, but you can go back and listen to that episode and you can assure them that, after the person's done investigating their home and helping them make the decisions, that you'll be the one to come back, you'll be the one to sharpen the pencil and make sure that they're getting the fairest price available and you'll personally come back and present those options with them and help them decide. That's one way to win without ever sacrificing any price, really. And that's the best part about it, because, at the end of the day, they need to know that you want a personal relationship with them, but that you're also representing a professional business and that, yeah, I can help you, but I'm not going to do things where it's going to hurt both of us.

24:53 We're only going to move forward if this is a win-win. If you're winning and I'm losing, I'm going to resent you. If I'm winning and you're losing, you're going to resent me. So let's do this the right way. I'm going to create a range of choices, from the finest money you can buy to the most bare bones you can do. If you choose to go with the company, you'll have a warranty, you'll have a service agreement, you'll have a permit, you'll have an inspection, you'll have a license behind it, you'll have the 24-7 service or the after-hour service all the benefits of being a customer you get. And if you want to strengthen this even further, you can say and the reason you're getting those services is because you're an official client, because if you decided to sign job it, you would have to go at the end of the line behind all our full paying clients, despite being family or otherwise.

25:46 Yeah, it does make sense, no one wants to go to the end of the line right. Why work so hard to build this beautiful premium service provider business and then, just like we talked about yesterday, our shortcuts are so bad, and then go and take a shortcut because someone's friend and family, leaving them short-ended, short-changed on the value and leaving you short-changed on the currency, makes no sense? I'm also reminded, as you talk about options and presenting, of my favorite kind of books. When I was a kid, you ever read those. Choose your own ending books. Oh my God, rl Stine for the win yeah. You still love those books. You're dating my 90s scholastic book fair knowledge.

26:26 Right there we go. Yeah, there we go. Dating my 90s scholastic book fair knowledge. right, there we go. Yeah, there we go. Why did we love those books so much? Because it felt like we had control, and even though I would read it, I would always just be like, oh, skip to this. Was this the right choice? Was that the right choice? Was this the right choice? All right. So you get the parallel there. I mean, it's so important. That's why options are so great. Many people are stuck on the three options, or maybe just trying to get to two. We know already that one choice is no choice at all. I think we can all agree on that. Don't give your clients ultimatums or you'll end up with very few clients. People don't like ultimatums. But imagine if you had a choice between these two books choose your endings.

27:07 Would you choose three, or would you choose maybe six? I'd want to know where the other three would be. I'd want to know that there were some other choices. So I agree with you wholeheartedly there. What are we going to do for actions then, today? So action, the bare minimum I want to say is actually a mental exercise. Because, the bare minimum is that a customer is a customer no matter how they approach you, especially if they're family. You need to mentally assign yourself and say if family were to call me today, how would I be feeling? That means I want you to take a step back, close your eyes and imagine your phone rings right now and a family member were to call and ask you for service.

27:50 What is your default response? What would you normally be telling them? The reason why I want you to do that exercise is that if you don't know what your knee-jerk reaction is, you won't know how to properly overcome it, to respond to the situation instead. So I'm first asking you know thyself. Know what you would have done. That way you can figure out the corrective efforts going forward. And I'm going to give that a plus sign because I know All-Star is going to level it up Know thy company, know thy company culture, know thy company plan, not to overwhelm you, but knowing yourself and knowing your business in this regard are very much the same and they both need to have a plan.

28:31 So, again, just going to tie that charity piece in there. Don't give it away if it's not already on a spreadsheet and part of the plan. Otherwise you're doing yourself and your future self a major disservice. All-star pumped, what do we got? All-star action is actually a two-part thing, because I feel like there's an all-star action but it requires a prerequisite, right? So we keep talking about charity. Every one of our businesses has done jobs at low cost, whether it's pro bono or whether it's a discount. We've all experienced that. My question for you as an all-star is do you know how many charities and the financial amount of the charity stops becoming a benefit to your business as a write-off and starts becoming a hindrance?

29:19 Do you know an X amount that you've accounted for in your budget that says I can give away this without it affecting the margins? If you don't know that, you don't know whether you can even do this job for free or discounted. So the very first is know where your items are. The second thing and this might sound a little bit messed up is just because you're biologically connected to someone does not mean that you are obligated to financially compensate them for that. You are not obligated to do work for anyone at a discount that you don't want to give them.

30:00 The reason why I say that is remember, I came from a very unusual family where familia es puto family is everything, and the concept is because there's a biological connection. That biological connection is rock solid and you have to do everything you can to maintain it. I don't think that's fair. Personally, I think that you should have your own personal judge on what is your family and what is not. And when you've established who is your family and who is not, you'll start to establish what parameters are acceptable. Like you have your closest friend in the world, known him for 25 years, would this person get a discount?

30:41 I can't blame you if you did I really wouldn't. But if your cousin, who calls you, who never sees you except on holidays, never reaches out to you for anything, but then asks you for a generator system, why should that person get a discount? So understanding where those lines are drawn will not only help you in business, but it'll also start to break apart the trauma that you didn't even realize you had. Yeah, I love that I do, and, as we've said before, I just want to really hammer this home again and again and again Discounting does not mean more satisfaction. Quite often it's the opposite, because discounting means you're going to give less value as well.

31:28 Very rarely is there a situation where you're going to cut the price tag and not cut the value. That's just an organic and intuitive thing. That happens Way rather value stack and hammer home a great review from a family or friend, repeat jobs referrals from family or friends. Imagine if you mastered this, just like anything else. This is like a little niche, because there's a lot of power in your network, and if you can turn those close contacts into good paying customers that are equally as happy, imagine how much more powerful your business could be. It'd be next level, really would be.

32:10 And, clay, I think you did a great job dropping it up on the all-star action. All right, perfect. So, guys, this has been another Entrepreneur Secrets Electrician Podcast. We're here with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. Thank you so much for all your counsel and help today. Joseph, I know that you just gave some people some rockstar value here. Guys, go ahead, take this out there, try it out, follow your play. Do not give family and friends deals, and if you do, make sure it's accounted for. Cheers to your success. Take care all.