Replay - Service Electrician Success: The TRUTH About Follow Ups

0:00 Welcome to Electrepreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast. We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. I'm Clay Neumeier, your host, with me, as always, my esteemed partner and co-host, joseph, the sales bot Lucani, and today we actually have a bit of a topic for you where we're gonna address a big problem for almost everyone is the lack of follow-up, the lack of confidence in follow-up, why that exists and how to get over that, how to really begin to have a measurable improvement in this area, because there's a ton of value, or, as they say, the fortune is in the follow-up. Have you ever heard that before, joseph? I have.

0:41 And I don't want to just say I heard it from you, because it's one of those things that it comes up a lot and I feel like follow up is just grossly neglected, not only in the industry but particularly with us electricians. And here's that feeling I want to talk through this guys with you, that feeling of maybe later. I don't have time for that. I'm working with today's customers. Uh, it's not fruitful. I don't know if they're even going to answer. I left a voicemail last week, so I'm going to leave them alone. I already touched base with them once. If they wanted my services, they would have called me back. On and on and on. Have you ever heard, felt or thought any of those thoughts?

1:24 yeah, it's unfortunately for lack of better words and, forgive the language, it's just a stream of bullshit that we give ourselves on a regular line and it's just like we're doing it to soften the blow to our own ego in a very big way, because we'd rather avoid following up on someone who really could use or want our services to avoid that feeling of, oh, I don't want to get rejected. Yeah. And who loves rejection? No one, no one likes being rejected. In fact we've been on record and I just want to acknowledge stream of bullshit I love that term. I think we should coin that, the stream of bullshit but we've talked about the sales process and how it can protect you and your staff from that personal rejection and follow-ups, no exception.

2:12 This isn't about someone rejecting you or saying they don't want you personally, but it could be about just timing. We've acknowledged this before. Sometimes you're at the door knocking good neighbor program we suggested advocates. Sometimes the door ends up back in your face yeah, that unfortunately happens but what's the likelihood that that person is actually rude? what is the likelihood we're doing something actually wrong? so there's a lot that goes behind that and that I actually, when I've worked with people before, I've heard it, and it's a common phenomenon that really happens, where people will begin to give the excuses that they feel would defeat them on the behalf of the customer who would never have come to that conclusion in the first place customer who would never have come to that conclusion in the first place.

3:07 The stream of bullshit speaks again. I know, right, yeah, we kind of manifest that a little bit, right. Um, there's good news, though. I'm going to go ahead and give the foundation to this solution in again saying don't listen what we say, watch what we do. If you're on our contact list, if you've put your hand up for anything, if you've become on a radar, then you know that we do not end and follow up. It doesn't end. Sometimes there's gaps, we get busy. We're still busy. It's not perfect, but we will not end. And if it means to get a win and be your cheerleader, if it means to see if the value piece you took like we mentioned in the bank episode has value for you yet, whatever the case may be, you told us your goals and we're trying to help you realize it.

3:53 Whether you're on the inside paying us or not, electricpreneurs, we're committed to serving you. Here's the big difference. We know this stuff works. Did I say that loud enough? We know it works. I know you can do better with my product or service in your hands, in your world, in your life. That's why I don't mind following up forever until someone says you know what? I don't want to be followed up with anymore. It's not for me. And the best thing about that is there are so few people that would rather say no, because it doesn't matter what the product is being. I was always taught If you chase a no, you'll only end up with a yes.

4:36 It's like I want the no. I want you to tell me no. I don't want your service because it only ends in two different things. One is I'm never going to disrespect you If you tell me no. I don't want it because it only ends in two different things. One is I'm never going to disrespect you If you tell me no, I don't want it. That's it Fine, consider it. Consider, I'm not going to bother you anymore. Yeah. But I'm going to ask you know what, Before I leave you alone which I 100% will can you at least tell me what would have happened or what it would have looked like to have gotten you to want to say yes? Is there a better way that I could have communicated my service? Is there something that you found would have been more valuable? That's offering elsewhere, Because I'm either going to win or I'm going to learn how I win. Yes, that's it.

5:16 That's the only two outcomes we can have to be successful entrepreneurs. I love that and I got to say I really admire the commitment to a result. Admire the commitment to a result. Ghosting is not a result. I need to be able to put a column a check in one of these columns right, we got it. Or they went with someone else. Yeah, and that's the same thing we do in our process. We don't get the. I mean, how many times does it come up with? Oh, they're going to get back to us. I think we're going to get this one. This was a good lead, right, a good lead. Really, there's only three outcomes you can suspect Either yes, I got the job and they gave me a deposit. No, they didn't want it.

5:56 Or they didn't give me a deposit. Or I have a date to where I will come back to get a final conclusion of yes or no. If you can have every call in with those three wins, you'll find out that very few times you get the no. Absolutely. I want to say I wish I knew this stuff from a young age. And don't worry guys, this isn't about us, it is about you. We're using ourselves as an example because we teach the very things that we exercise. But if I knew this at a younger age, I can promise you I would have been with the lady of my dream sooner. Took me years of natural organic, you know, crossing paths, follow up to land mario for myself, but I knew I loved her 25 years ago, right in life we should all be doing this.

6:43 We should all have that resilience and intestinal fortitude. But what stops us circling back to the problem is our own self-objections, that dark cloud of doubt. And the problem with that is that, more likely than not, the objection that we're giving ourself is way more on point and way more targeted than the customer would ever have come up with. Absolutely. So let's make this for you guys for a moment here. Let's get hyper focused. I want to tell you specifically why. I know you're the best option to serve. Whatever customer you're with today, whatever customer you were with Friday last week, thursday, the weeks before and have now got to follow up, I know you're the best solution for them to provide your service or product.

7:33 And the reason is because you're here. You're investing in yourself, you're trying to master your sales, simplify your pricing but, most importantly, perfect your service as a premium service provider, an electricpreneur that cares that much to serve at the highest level. If someone else gets the work, it's out of your control. So I say you're the best person for the job. Would you agree with that? I would. I would say, if you're the kind of person that's listening to this podcast, that usually means that you're the kind of person that's willing to invest your time into performing a better level of service or, at the very minimum, being willing to learn how to perform a better level of service, and that's the kind of person we want to work with Someone who says you know what I may not know, but I'm willing to find out.

8:20 Would you rather that guy in your house or the kind of one who's going to bullshit you and says I know everything, I don't need to learn from anyone else, and the job is going to be just as good as it was. But he specialized in doing it in the nineties, so now it's never gotten improvement. I know my answer and it's the serenity prayer which I butcher all the time but there's things in our control and there's things outside of our control. Right, we need to keep those things in our control when it comes to this subject, and the best way to do that is in relying on yourself and your 110% commitment to your self-confidence in that execution. Because here's the big shift, guys, I'm telling you, follow-up changed for me when I realized how important our service is for electricians, for me, when I realized how important our service is for electricians, when I realized how important our services for homeowners.

9:13 When you have that shift, you recognize that they haven't chosen me yet, the works not done here. I owe it to them to help them make this decision. That's why I'm committed to the follow-up. In fact, sometimes I almost drive it with we've talked about this before places to use our anger when you continue to get ghosted or people are delaying in response and they won't give you that commitment. Of course there's a self-reflection and I'm not saying go and be mad at people, but I almost put a little ounce of anger behind and go. My mission's not done here. They don't recognize it yet. They haven't realized the value of that deposit I made.

9:53 My work isn't done here. Does that sound like the time to walk away and leave it to chance? Or does that sound like the time to press on and put some pressure on? Make a phone call drop by again? Send the message, whatever you got to do. I feel like there's also something else that I want to kind of weigh into that I think might help a lot of people as well. All right, and that there are some times where, when we don't follow up and we come up with reasons that we shouldn't, we never feel better. At best, we're only feeling just as bad as we were. In the worst case we feel worse because we didn't take action and we know we should have.

10:36 So even if you still end up with a no on the follow-up, I promise you that you personally feel better, because the kind of person that says I will take action and I will do it until it stops being in my control and once it stops being in my control, then it's out of my control, but I'm going to keep swinging as long as the ball's on the tee that's the kind of person that's always going to end up more successful. Absolutely I agree and live in the Facebook group with us, robert, saying I follow up until I can remove them from my list and will still keep them in my system to send an end of year. Thank you to all my customers, even if they didn't go with me, that's great. Rob, I love that man. I really, really love that, because what is that saying about your appreciation of the opportunity to meet with someone, even if they didn't work with you?

11:24 You're going to be way more top of mind than any of the competitors, because more than likely, they're going to be at the bar complaining about the customer and didn't want to invest, whereas you're like, you know what? My mission's not done yet. So, rob, hats off to you brother, absolutely Super important piece. And now, guys, we're thinking about this from a level still of today's transaction. You have to consider lifetime customer value and if you don't know what that number is, then I want you to take a stab at it. Think about how many of your customers are repeat customers. How many left a review? Think about how many of your customers are repeat customers. How many left a review? How many referred someone else, whether it was direct or even just on Facebook, in your local group, your neighborhood apps, and they're just saying good things about you.

12:09 That's resulting in other clients. If we really broke this down and had to say an average client value in their lifetime of service with you, wouldn't it be a lot bigger than your average ticket? I mean, your average ticket might be somewhere between 500 and 5,000. That's the information I don't have. But wouldn't it be fair to say, hey, some of these good customers could be worth tens of thousands of dollars? I would say even more. And I have a very specific example as to why. Perfect, my best customer, we sold over $300,000 to within the course of, I think, two years, but the first sale that he made, the first purchase he made, was, I think, about a $10,000 or $12,000 purchase.

12:52 If we didn't continue the relationship, there would be somewhere around $280, 000 just sitting on the table. So the question I have for you is why are you not maintaining the relationships and how can you maintain a relationship without the follow-up? absolutely. And now just to really finalize this, I want to help you guys with understanding something. If currently you're thinking, yeah, I should do that, I should start doing that, but we're not at a hard date yet, we're not at a hard commitment to doing it yet, and we've got a gift for you. All you need to do is jump on our facebook group, entrepreneur secrets, the electrician podcast, and on this post type in fu script.

13:40 We have a follow-up script that you can literally call all of your recent opportunity calls hell, even the ones dating back a bit. Call everyone from this year that didn't make a commitment yet because they may still be in limbo. It's perfectly understandable that if you don't have a process like ours that identifies the timeline of these opportunities, then you might not even have that information. It may be lost in just the fog of war, going to house to house to house and doing these estimates and and looking at your conversion rates and stuff and trying to figure out what, but not taking this specific action. So just committing yourself to hey, I'm going to grab the FU script, I'm going to start following these people up and find out when they're taking action, if they haven't already, and see if I'm still in the running to help them with that.

14:30 Wouldn't that be just a massive difference. Instead of sitting here humming and hawing, we could actually take action on this guys. My God, yeah, what would you do to go even further, joseph? To go even further. If the bare minimum is to say I'm going to get in contact with us for us to send in the script. The all-star action is to give yourself the absolute cutoff date of when you're doing. What I mean by that is this you all have access to your calendars. Every one of you could add, remove or change dates if you could. Why are you not physically blocking out a day for follow-up? If you have that much follow-up to do and you're like it's too much to do, I can't make time for it.

15:12 You paid for those leads, guys. You paid for them. Money came out of your account to acquire these customers and you lost them. What's stopping us from recouping on money we've already spent? If we can get just one customer back in the door, how much would that cover of all the other customers that didn't so physically schedule the date on your half day, quarter day? Do something to say I will follow up on this date. It's on the calendar. You do that. You are an all-star. Massive Love it. This feels like a mic drop episode. If you didn't catch the drift earlier, this could largely just be a confidence issue.

15:54 The same thing that gets in the way of pricing could be the same thing getting in the way of follow-up, and if you could imagine something getting in the way of both pricing and follow-up, how much would we be losing from that? Yeah, that's pretty gross. We help with that, guys. In fact, we're here five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. Let us know if today helped you on the Facebook page, right, you can reach out and DM us personally. I'm Clay Neumeier. This is Joseph Lucani. We'll catch you guys again next time. Cheers to your success. See y'all soon.