Replay - Sales : They're Catching On to Us

0:00 Welcome to Entrepreneur Secrets, the Electrician's Podcast. I'm the host, clay Neumeier, with my esteemed co-host, as always, joseph the sales bot, luke Canney. Guys, we're here five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level service. You always compose that part, guys. If you can't see us, good news you could If you're just listening right now. Please know that we're live five days a week in the entrepreneur secrets uh, the podcast community on facebook. You can grab that link and head on down there to engage with us through all of these, as we've got, uh, about a dozen people doing so right now. Live with us, joseph, how you doing today I'm doing absolutely amazing.

0:42 I feel like we've had a good day and I just want to touch the reason why I compose. It is I love your cadence. So when you say that the exact same way, I'm like ah, that's where it is, that's the sweet spot. Let's go. I love it, I absolutely love it. All right. What are we talking about today? Big topic. Oh, today was fun, I gotta admit. I'm to admit I'm going to roll up the sleeves a little bit on this one because a client and actually a potential future client reached out on one of our posts and was like well, hey, people are catching on to the sales stuff. Our industry, all our homeowners are smart, they're really catching on. They, they'll know if you're selling them.

1:24 And, honestly, it was one of those situations where I had to, like, take a step back and be like how am I going to? respond to this without breaking this guy's ego, cause it's a big topic, but there's also a lot of fallacy behind them, absolutely the first thing that comes to mind and I'm big on quotes, you know me, generalizations kill clarity, exactly, and that's one of my favorite quotes of all time. That is literally built in. That thing's hammered into this brain of mine as my mental model, and I do it sometimes too. But we say things like all the homes in this area are lower class, so the homeowners must not have money. They're all engineers in my community.

2:04 They're all this over here community. They're all this over here. You can't sell this in South Florida. It's like okay, tell me why this is now the mecca of the most unsellable clients in the world. And we've heard this to a damaging extent. I mean even in our own groups. Well, I can't do that because my clients won't appreciate it. I can't do that on the West side of the Mississippi. That language won't work in the south, in Texas. I mean we've heard it all. But just to remind everyone, like we didn't just make this stuff up, it's built off thousands of years of human psychology. It's not like we just coined this stuff and it's like, wow, this new revolutionary technique. And as my mentor, our mentor Jim Rohn, would would say you got to be aware of new antiques.

2:48 Knowledge is old. Beware the person that says come over here, I got this new antique for you. Right? The human psyche hasn't changed much at all. I mean, the fight or flight is still there it's still like when you think about it, like how many of us were shivering in caves with pelts, wondering what new crazy mammal was going to come eat us. I mean, there's a reason why we have lizard brain. It just stays there and your customers are still affected by it today. But if you're not aware of what's going to make them react in certain ways, you're right, you're going to end up spooking them every single time. So it's a lot of the approach, but even more so it's the intention behind the approach. Sometimes it's just good to be a good person.

3:29 Is that really hard to ask for so many? No, no and that, honestly, that's one of my favorite things about our approach in this process that we help teach people is that it all comes back to. You're representing yourself wholly as a premium provider and a good person. I wouldn't let that go at my house, so I wouldn't want to do that at yours. That's the general undertone. This is what I would want for my family. This is what I would want for my home. Is it something that you would also appreciate in yours? Correct and you know there may be some clients that may think differently than we do, and that's okay. But the only time I'm willing to generalize is when it actually benefits the whole, Like saying okay, I know that if I introduce a price before I've described what you're going to be getting for the price, the average person probably is going to make a prejudgment within the first two seconds of whether they want to move forward or not.

4:27 And if they decide before you've even done anything, they're probably not going to want to move forward. They called you for the ceiling fan. That's in there from Home Depot. It's right there. The ceiling fan is right above you. But you recognize that when you looked at the panel that there was corrosion, Sure, but you recognize that when you looked at the panel that there was corrosion, Sure, it may not be an immediate hazard, but this is the defining moment. Would you at least want to know so you can approach your customer and ask now, I don't expect to find anything because you know what. I'm sure this house was wired great. I'm sure you don't have a single concern. But on the chance, I did notice something that would be outside normal safety standards. Would you want me to keep it to myself, or do you want me to tell you?

5:07 Tell me, that's it. That's as simple as it. Right there, You've now just gotten permission to explain your services. I love. that Would they really be upset with you. No, no, no, no. This is where it gets like we all try to take a hard stance here too, I know, when we're thinking through this, we're trying to be objective, we're trying to really think, well, what if they're being a dickhead? Because that happens? that happens. But the whole process is designed to disarm people in those moments, so that it's it's like coming out and saying I'm a dickhead when you go against those questions, when you go against the grain and say, no, I don't want you to tell me if you see something that would benefit my future.

5:48 It sounds insane when you say it and they'll realize that it might even cause a second of silence before they give you permission. And you know, in addition to it, let's say you do have that dickhead. I have a good explanation to handle that. Let's say you go into a home and you say is everything perfect? That's a good question. So the customer will be like, okay, everything's perfect, we don't have a single problem in this house. Okay, that's great, I'm so happy. That makes both of our jobs easier. So just to confirm everything's perfect, that would mean and then you can start stitching the things that they're saying is perfect, so everything's perfect. Your house is perfectly wired, so you never have lights flickering.

6:29 You've never had a breaker trip, You've never had your GFI trip, You've never wanted to reach for a circuit and didn't have an outlet close enough. You've never worried about being cold in the house. You've never like you can just keep going and going and going and going and eventually it'd be like well, I mean, yeah, I've got those things. And now you're going to be like, okay, well, I know you called me for this. You may not have expected for it, but if I found a way to affordably take care of that for you, what would happen? Not saying if it's a thousand, 2000, 4,000, if I could affordably take care of it Now Clay. Quick question for you, buddy. Why do you think we're saying affordable?

7:10 Why is that such an important word? Rather than inexpensive? Affordable more is relevant to the value provided for the fair price than inexpensive, which really is more an implication of how cheap it is. Correct, you're 100% right on that. So the thing is that when you have someone saying like, hey, it's affordable, affordable to some person, I remember one customer I had financed the job. Now this is one that I've really stuck in my mind because it turns out I found out he owned an island. I didn't know he owned an island when I was quoting it to him. At the time. At the time yeah, that's that black swan. If we had that information, this would be easier, I know.

7:52 He was asking me to quote him for an outdoor kitchen. He was just like stretching everything, every cent, was like, well, can we do this, can we do this, can we do this gets a job financed. Financed, this like four or $5,000 job. And then he looks at me and I was like, well, if I was able to make it affordable. What happened then? He's like, well, I mean, as long as it's under 6,000 a month, we should be good. And I'm like like what? Like what do you mean under six? You mean 600? . He's like no, you said affordable, is this going to be under 6,000 a month? I'm like, yes, he financed a $4,000 job and he had to report his monthly income. He was making over 30 grand a month. But when I said affordable, he was like, yeah, it's got to be at least 6,000 or under.

8:33 That's what affordable meant to him. Yeah. So if we just said inexpensive, we could have missed an entire presentation, right? Yeah, Contextually, you customized it for his income level without having to guess no stab at he, provided that. I would have never figured out how much he was making. He didn't have to tell me and it wouldn't have affected my price. But when I said that it was affordable, I knew I was covering a blanket, because the number he had was a much higher number than what I had. Because the number he had was a much higher number than what I had. Yeah, yeah for sure. And at this point I'd like to also bring to attention of listeners, viewers right now, that there's different personality types that we're dealing with and everyone knows this, but maybe you haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it and there are different profiling, like disk profiling.

9:23 You can do this stuff and begin to actually understand how certain people tick, but at the end of the day, there's still simple ways to just ask the questions and put the ball in their court and disarm that personality trait effectively. Would you agree with that? I would agree with that. Yeah, there's certain questions that people are going to ask that you can simply reply with simple answers. Like, realistically, someone can say, hey, are you local? Doesn't sound like a terribly dangerous question, right? Yeah, I'm working with can get to my area fast, okay.

10:06 Well, if I was able to tell you that we service this area very consistently and it would be very rare if we didn't have a van in your town at least once per day. If I said that was the case, would that be local enough for you? Yeah, all right, that's great. That's all I wanted to hear. It doesn't matter if you're three cities away, if you cover? that area, go for it for sure I know for myself. Guys, everyone here has hired a small business for something like dig deep here with me for a second and answer this when's the last time you truly had exceptional service? It's not easy to find that answer. The second piece I can tell you is because of that and because of the way I am, I know that I'm a fairly assertive person and I tend to be dominant in situations where someone's going to come into my home.

10:50 So if I call a home service provider like a plumber, no, I'm not calling any electricians, I'll do the shit work myself. Just kidding. No, I am the mechanic with a crappy car, though Probably the worst electrical on the block, right, no one puts it into their own house unless it's fun gadgets. But point being, I'm super assertive. Dirty little secret though right Like I will do what I can to get pricing out of people ahead of time, I will do all of that stuff that your customers will try to do to you and you'll hate them for it. But my dirty secret is their dirty secret too. The assertive ones that are difficult to get past that point with also cave bigger than anyone else, and I'm no exception.

11:34 If you run the play well and you get me to that point where we can have a true conversation about value articulation. Like we mentioned in REBS last night no prices, value options, what serves you and get through to the core needs desires of that person. I'm a high paying client and I'm a friend for life because I don't want to dick around. I know the value of my time but that's the actual reason why I'm trying to get price up front. That's the reason why I'm assertively handling the situation, because I don't want to waste time. You're 100% right. The question that I want to bring to the attention, though, is that people are saying, like, well, they're going to catch on to it.

12:14 The question I have for you is catch on to what? If you're going in there saying I'm going to try to sell them stuff, you are a dick. I wanted to just let you know. You are not someone. That is someone that you should be proud of. Your goal is I'm going to just sell them stuff, then you deserve to get that kind of custom, but if your goal, instead of I'm here to sell them, is I'm only here to tell them what their choices are, they could take the top option, I'll be happy. They could take the bottom option, I'll be happy. I just want them to be aware of their safety concerns and make an educated choice towards it. Now you've changed from being a salesman to a service provider, and when was the last time a service provider was ever kicked out of a house?

13:00 For what Exactly? It's illogical. You called me. There's a problem. We agreed I should be here. I'm here. I'm trying to serve you with everything I've got. Unless there's a conflict we discovered along the way, why kick me out? Doesn't make any real sense. Why not play? ball. The only thing I can think of as to why someone would feel this way is this is not a question that's entirely based in reality and from a logic standpoint. This is a conversation that happens emotionally. So when that person said people are catching on to the sales, it's not that the customers are opposing and opposition to it, it's that person himself is creating an opposition to it.

13:48 If you feel that you're doing something unethical, I do not blame you for feeling bad about it. Remember I've told you guys a story of $3,000 for two fluorescent light fixture changes two foot by four foot on a six to eight foot ceiling. I still really resent selling that job. And think about it. I sold it. I'm not regretting a job I didn't sell. I'm regretting one I did sell. But the fact is is that if you're doing things for the right reasons, where you're doing things for the right reasons, where you're like you know what this is going to help the customer. This is going to make their life better. This is going to reduce their utilities. This is going to make their life more convenient. This will give them enhanced levels of comfort and service Then you're not doing it for the wrong reason and usually people won't quote, unquote, catch on to someone really trying to serve them at a higher level.

14:36 Yeah, that's my stance. What are your thoughts on that? There's nothing to catch on to other than, hey, this is the kind of person I want to be around, or I don't. Hey, the way you serve me makes me afraid. In which case, honestly, process kind of deals with that too, because we're not going to leave without knowing why. Exactly. Let's get to the root of this problem, right, like, here's a real situation. That was difficult and we talked about it on a podcast already. Sure, let's dig into it. And I can't remember even what we called it. Joseph, you gotta help me out here. But remember, uh, roy, we brought roy's case where he had the husband and wife. They were in disagreement but they kept him outside of the house. They were physically running, and maybe even subconsciously to a degree running an interrupt play.

15:18 What did you call that again? So what the issue is is that that is what's known as competitive selling, and it's also something known as where the customer is in direct opposition to you. That is when they you can also call it like a stalemate in a way where our goal just to touch on that. Is it okay if I touch on that a little bit? Yeah? let's do it Okay. So, in the most simplified way possible, our process's goal is to be in alignment with the customer every step of the way, both physically, emotionally and mentally. If you could picture a line drawn in the sand, you want to be staring, with you and the customer on one side of it, both facing the problem.

15:59 On the other side, what was happening was the customer was continuously rotating away from Roy, was continuously rotating, so he would try to get shoulder to shoulder and they would turn, and he actually said that they were doing almost like a full circle around the yard, and in addition to that, the wife and the husband were in opposition too. So no matter what he was doing, they were moving away from him. What that's showing is you can't take two opposite magnets and push them together With great force. You can do it, but none of us have the energy to force people to do anything. It's way better to bring them in with warmth than is to bring them in with fear, right?

16:42 Definitely. So in that situation you need to be in alignment with the customer, and when you're not in alignment, sometimes that's in their own internal objection that may not even be with you. So, tying this back now to, to me that's a situation where maybe they were catching on. But really what? When we dissected that situation, we all come to agree and realize that they were hurt in a sales situation. There must have been some conflict that had been created or they felt wronged. They wouldn't even live in the house. Right, yeah, exactly, so they're catching on. I would say more, like those specific people were afraid it was a fear-based sale.

17:27 Otherwise, again, catching on, to what? Can I dig into it a little more on like an emotional level? Let's do that. I think that might resonate with some people. So I don't mean to make the wrong comparison, but it's the closest one that comes top of mind. It's whether you're dealing with children, or whether you're dealing with pets or dealing with people in general, we all have this subconscious fear and this natural opposition to want to experience that same fear again. Every single living being has this program to. This was bad. I don't want this again. Now, if they were burned in the past, they would say well, what happened?

18:10 More than likely some sleazy sales guy came in, was flipping a nickel and chewing on a toothpick, and came in and said this is great, I'm going to fix everything for you. We're going to be great Arms over dancing out into the sunset. And then they find out that he took advantage of them or charged more than he needed to. So what do they do? We won't let anyone into the house. We won't let anyone at the kitchen table, we won't let anyone bond with us, because I don't want to feel that way again. That's really what they're doing. They're trying to protect themselves emotionally. The only way to get past that objection isn't a sales line. It's really just asking hey, can we just call a timeout? I'm recognizing that it seems like we're in slight opposition at this point.

18:52 I hope I'm not giving you the impression I'm trying to sell you anything. I just want to serve you at the highest level. I feel like I'm losing you in some way. Can you tell me where I'm going wrong here? Which is an incredible piece, and it's really in the root of, like, anger management, any emotional management, anxiety, depression, any of this stuff. Guys, if you've ever done therapy or heard about this or you start reading into books like Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference. Famous FBI negotiator. We have to label that shit. You have to say it in a respectful way that puts it out so you can deal with it. It's incredibly powerful. I agree with you completely. It's one of those things where we're not in the business of sales At the end of the day, none of us really are we're in the business of communication and service.

19:41 He who can communicate his service better is the one who gets the job. You can be the best freaking electrician in the entire country. You could be like no, every take up for every conduit off the top of your head, every voltage drop, every ampacity you could know. But if you can't communicate that level of expertise, you're going to be probably pretty pissed when tank top Terry shows up and he gets the job instead. right, definitely. And the reality is that doesn't make anyone happy. Let's go through that. You lose the job. Tank top Terry stays on the bottom of the bottom feeder, never gets up because his pricing is so low and the clients feel like they won when they got that price.

20:22 But you know they're not going to be happy with the result. Everyone loses in that situation. It's really unfortunate and no jobs are created. Throw that one up too. Oh my God, yeah, you could throw that in there. No jobs are made. And that one up too. Oh my God, yeah, you could throw that in there no jobs are made. And then, in addition, you can take it even further and say okay, this guy may or may not have been licensed. He's not, maybe he is, but maybe did he file for a permit Like anyone who's-. Did he even follow code? Yeah, I want to speak to any Tesla installers right now. Anyone who's installing an EV charger you need to get a permit on that, the reason why Tesla's warranty was structured in a way that said we will honor any insurance concern, but we need to prove that this was installed by a licensed electrician to the standard of Tesla, which is why every single job requires a permit and an authorization inspection.

21:14 If they don't have that now let's say for some reason they had a surge, and then what ends up happening when they come and bring in their inspector, why would they pay for it? They say well, it was written in the agreement. You need to have this inspected. It's not inspected. We can't guarantee that this wasn't done unlawfully, so therefore, this is not going to be covered by our warranty. Now, who's screwed? You saved 200 bucks, 500 bucks, 600 bucks, but now you're out four or five 6,000 because you now have to change something. Yeah, which reminds me that's something that we should be checking due diligence when buying homes or representing buyers or helping that situation at all, making sure that that permit's attached to that warranty.

21:59 It's got to be done. Just another step. Just another step, okay. So I know there's some solutions here. I know there's some benefits to this. I want to go out here on a limb and just say you guys did. The benefits are numerous here, but massive too, the benefits of just understanding really the basics, the fundamentals of hey, I'm here to serve someone. This person deserves that level of service. I'm not attached to the sale, I'm attached to the process and the service. How, how much could that benefit someone in a tangible way? Joseph because let's say it's the very person who maybe mentioned this in the beginning like they're catching on.

22:41 Imagine showing up at every customer's house thinking they're catching on, they're catching on, they're catching on versus hey, I'm here to do what I do best help people with electrical concerns, desires. It's really becomes top of mind, because I don't know how to properly describe this. But the thought that comes up into mind is if you're whatever you expose yourself to on a consistent basis, you can't submerge yourself into something and not expect it to stick to you, Right? If every call you're thinking they're on to me, they're on to me, they're on to me, Every call you're thinking they're on to me, they're on to me, they're on to me, the first question I have for you is what do you think you're doing? You wouldn't have gone into a situation feeling guilty if you didn't think there was something wrong going on.

23:26 So first address and say what is the wrong that I feel like I'm committing, and I want you to write that down, physically write it down, and then I want you to look at it again and be like is this correct Before you make a sale, after you make a sale, did I do something unethical? Did I do something that was morally compromised? If you did, then yeah, maybe they are catching on because that's not right, and I wouldn't want that in my house either. But if you're doing things for the reasons that we believe at Service Loop Electric, we believe in certain levels of ethical standard that should be instilled in every single technician we train. We're not going to compromise on those values. So if someone is going to say I'm doing something wrong, my question is where are you hearing it from?

24:10 Where are you getting this inspiration to do the wrong thing? Yeah, 100%, super, super important and it makes 100 sense. Um, for us, like, our values boil down to a few things and they're literally based on maslow's hierarchy of needs, and so the values are simply balance, integrity and respect. And what that actually creates for us is what we're trying to do is help people meet the basis of Maslow's Triangle so that their physiological needs are taken care of. We want everyone to have the air, water, shelter, food, reproductive rights. Not a lot we can do with that other than encourage it. We all need that stuff taken care of. But beyond that, the safety and security of your home, their home, your finances right, having financing in place helps with this, even.

24:58 But thirdly, that love and belonging, the connection. If you'll get that piece, whether it's in your business or with your clients, then you can keep people in esteem and self-actualization, and that's where all-stars are and that's where all-star relationships are. And literally, guys, this stuff's built into our standard operating procedures to follow that exactly. Because, again, and just a reminder here, if you haven't heard of or you know of maslow's hierarchy of needs, that wasn't just this year that that came out, that's 1973, right, there's some other examples back then with some great information, how to win friends and Influence People. Everyone ever heard of that book, right, it's been rewritten eight times, but it's from like 1942.

25:45 Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich. I'm not going to just do shout outs for the rest of this, but all these things are adding up to this same philosophy. Right, think and grow rich. Think connection. Do connection be connection can I touch on that a little bit as well? do it you know it actually ties into something else. I was. Someone had mentioned to me that, I'm not gonna say who, but someone had mentioned there was an opposition to doing a club membership right and the logic was you know, maybe they'll catch on or maybe they won't like it, or things like that. That last thing, you mentioned, the third level of Maslow's, where you're talking about we're going to live to a level of love and acceptance and appreciation and belonging Belonging Correct.

26:32 Why would someone? If I was able to tell you, you know what? I know that I've created six different options, but what I wanted to do was I wanted to offer you at this level. I don't expect you to take it, but I wanted to let you know what my finest level of service would look like. I'm going to make sure that when I come to your home, I'm going to make sure you have priority service. You get the fast pass, you get the front of the line pass every single time. I'm also going to be available for you after hours, no matter what happens. I'm going to have doesn't mean 24-7, which means that before I normally would start and after I'd usually stop, I'll stay open for you if you need me to. I'm going to make sure that I go through your home with a fine tooth comb at least once a year.

27:13 That way, if there is a safety concern, you can budget it, you can be prepared for it, you can be on top of it. So it's not a surprise and you have to spend thousands all out of nowhere. And, lastly, we're not going to nickel and dime you for service calls. You can call me as many times as you want to my home and you're not going to have to pay a service call. That fits exactly with a level of belonging, because who doesn't want to be part of a club? One of us who doesn't want to be treated better, right? One of us, yep. The higher tier, and you know what? Here's a great example for that, and we better finish this up Lamborghini, ferrari, they don't advertise.

27:57 Have you ever? seen a Lamborghini commercial. Just as many times I've seen a Rolls Royce commercial. Right yeah, why don't they advertise? Do you know? I only know because you told me, and the reason why is because their target audience isn't sitting home watching TV. That's a piece of it, but there's actually a bigger piece. Ooh, lay it on me. The people that take the top tier advertise for them. No one buys a lamborghini and parks it. No one buys your club membership and hides that from their neighbors, their friends. These are the people that show off all of their lux, luxurious, whatever the words I'm going for here.

28:39 You know what I'm saying. No, I get it. That's actually really, really clever. They'll do the marketing for you. Right? We have to consider this in business. I know this isn't the topic, but it's one of the most profound things I've learned from my mentors is like, if you don't have a VIP package, there's one thing that's sure you won't fucking sell it ever, and that's a huge missed opportunity. If you consider what we just said about lamborghini and ferrari, because they don't have to sell a million, not like kia and hyundai. They got to sell like a hundred to be profitable. How profitable would your business be selling a $25,000 package?

29:24 I wouldn't turn my nose to it. Something worth putting some brainpower to, that's for sure. Okay, we hit an action that was make the list. Did we have an all-star action today? Yes, and I feel like this one's extremely important for anyone who ever wants to give a presentation. I'm going to give you guys the magic hack to be more emotionally connected to every one of your clients in your presentations, prior to presenting it. What I need and I'm going to stress capital N-E-E-D the whole way underline bold italic every single line item. You need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say I did this for you, because Now I'm sure you guys have heard me mention that before.

30:05 But why that's so important is a lot of times customers don't understand how the technical that you're installing benefits them on an emotional level. So you have this product and you have this customer's need. The because statement bridges that gap. It becomes a literal bridge. I installed this. What I did in this package is I'm including a whole home electronic safety system for you. I did this for you because I knew that you have. You even told me you had the refrigerator with a TV camera built into it so you could see what groceries you have. And just in that room alone I see the Nest thermostat, the microwave, the stove, the laundry machine, but none of them are protected against any kind of damages.

30:45 If you ever have a power storm, my greatest fear, or my greatest concern, is that you're going to be in a situation where it's going to go bad or you're going to have to be stuck having to go shop for these things again. I know if I install this once, you'll never have to have any convenience. Was I wrong to offer that to you? No. So that because statement becomes so, so valuable and so important when it comes to bridging logic to emotion. It's a big B. It's a big B. You guys got to use that. Work it in. If you don't have a process and you want to speed things up, reach out, we help with that. If your pricing's not dialed in, you want to figure that out? Reach out, we help with that. If your pricing's not dialed in, you want to figure that out? Reach out, we help with that.

31:25 In fact, we got a simple tool we just dialed in this week that I cannot wait to share with you guys. If you're listening to this, guess what? You've got exclusive access right now. If you're live in the group, you can actually go ahead and throw a pound pricing tool and we can help you establish that service rate. It takes about 15 minutes to verify Piece of cake. And, of course, we're here five days a week to help you deliver that premium level service. Thanks for joining me again, joseph. Awesome show today. Thank you so much for joining us. Guys. If you're listening, if you're watching, if you're engaging, let us know what wins you have. Take the actions and rock it. Brian wants that pricing tool, cheers to your success.

32:06 We'll see you guys next time. Take care, gents.