Be the Premium Electrician Even Before You Feel Like One | YT LIVE REPLAY

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast. We help home service pros like you supercharge your business and cut those sales.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

I'm Joseph McCanny, and today's my co-host, Claydia Meyer, and we're here to share the secrets of how electricians sell over a million dollars in a single service net.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Now it's time for sales. It's time for sale. It's time to become a million-dollar electric.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Alright. And we're back. That we are. This is perfect. Joe, how was your weekend, brother?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I'm feeling nice and shiny. So, but uh are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:43

You get a fresh shave?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I literally, literally just today, I wanted to make sure they look good. You know, can't even show that clients anything other than our best, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

But uh we could be good though. I mean, you know what? You hide it under the air. We we can't all be uh bald and waxed. What are you gonna do? That's right. Throw a hat on, throw a hat on. All right. Only downside is I threw my back out on Thursday night, ended up taking me out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I think I'm like at an 80%. So I'm good enough to be sitting and doing my stuff. Um but you know, other than that, honestly, I'm just I love what we're doing. Your room's almost ready. We're almost done assembling the majority of the furniture at this point.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Very cool, very cool. I love that, man. That's awesome. You're making great progress. Uh, I'm super pumped to be here, back with everyone. I am not in the office today in a little place called Las Vegas, uh, joining uh home service freedom this week. So uh on the live, I did want to mention that. If you guys are listening to this, see this on the YouTube, uh, hear it in your in your earbuds on the podcast while you're working away and you happen to be here in Las Vegas, please do come take selfie with me. Uh, we've got some really cool gifts to go out here. Oh, and I wanted to pump everyone up, Joe, for uh Tony. You'll have to confirm. I think we have Dan Antonelli coming out this week from the podcast we just recorded. All right, this Wednesday. So I'm actually gonna be able to chill with Dan and actually go get some feedback from the podcast. But I know that was a great one. Joe, what did you love about that podcast we just recorded with Dan?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Dan is an interesting individual because I feel like no matter how many times you talk to him, there's more depth. Like it's almost like when you throw a coin down a well and you expect to hear something, and you just realize it goes further and further and further. So I loved how we talked about the organic marketing, even though he's a rap specialist. I loved learning how your brand makes you money and it's an investment that actually works for you continuously ongoingly. Honestly, I feel like I could just sit and listen to him all day. He just has so much to give.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Yeah, and that uh he released this book, uh Branded Not Blanded, years ago, and we had him on the podcast before around that time. We went into some really great stuff with Dan, but this this one I think really did add quite a bit of depth. If you're interested in like why buyers would choose your brand over someone else's, or the opposite, which is part of what we wanted to talk about today, how to become a premium brand without the huge investment right now. Like, how do we just get started? How do we just get it going? That's a big part of what we're gonna go into today, and uh that was a great start towards it.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Now, something that was like oh, yeah, I was gonna say go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

No, no, it's fine. It was one of those things where like you and I were just talking the other day about having the sending the insurances out and having it set up where we're doing the meet the text message. I mean, like the more and more I reflect on that, the more I feel like that's a great way to start acting as if. Like you could have a team of two and still say, We're meeting your tech, even if it's you, you're like, you're the one who's going out. But it's like, here's your tech, here's how long you've been doing it for, here's what he's interested in, you know, husband, family, father, master electrician, Star Wars enthusiast, send. Yeah, at least then I feel like I'd have a much clearer understanding of who's coming to my door. So it's not a who's this the moment they show up and figure on having to break the interaction that way.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Totally. And there's some really good hacks that you can fully leverage today. Uh so whether you've trained with us before or not, there's some awesome stuff coming in this podcast that I want to get into. But Joe, we were just interrupted by uh what appears to be win of the week. Ooh, let's hit it. Can you see that? Can you see the comment?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Let's see. Oh, yeah, I'm looking at now. So Rick was in class with Joseph a few weeks ago, they worked together some options. Well, into three options, sold the gold at 62,000.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah, okay. So you ripped through that, but there's uh this goes on the podcast too. So I want to make sure everyone hears this. Uh so this is from Stephanie and Rick. They actually joined us in our first night school this year, uh, back in April, May. I think it was 001, wasn't it, Steph? I'm sure you guys were on the first one. Uh, and what Stephanie's saying is okay, Rick, her partner, and the electrician in their business was in class with Joseph a few weeks ago and they worked through some options together and they ended up with only three options to present, but they sold the gold, a full rewire at $62,000. That is incredible, Stephanie. How big is that sale for you guys? Please let us know.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

I feel like my heart wants to burst out of my chest. And the reason being is I get so excited. I love options class. Pretty much in a nutshell, it's where three times a week you can come in and you can give me my favorite thing. Put an option, a situation, or a scenario, put it on the table and say, Joe, we can't build options for this. And then I love when we get to honestly, Rick, Stephanie, I'm so proud of you. You guys deserve this win. And thank you for giving me the honor of building it with you. Honestly, it truly is a blessing to be able to serve you. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

And Steph says, loving the deposit. Steph, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? What happened? What's this deposit stuff you're talking about? All right.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Getting that 50% of SSR, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah. Yeah. I I would hope so for you guys. That must run a big check that they were writing for you. But yeah, incredible stuff. Super proud of you guys. That's amazing. Oh yeah. 62K.

unknown 6:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Was it 50% stuff? I'm sure you guys were following that process. On 62, that's like 31,000 capital injection before the work even started. Joe, how do you justify that just quick? How do you collect 31k and not feel bad about that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah, there would be no issues with it. And the reason being is that you have to treat every job as if it's the same. Like I would take a $5,000 deposit on a $10,000 service change. And for the reasons being, this secures your spot, it allows me to guarantee you never get moved. I'm going to start immediately permitting, inspections, coordinations, material ordering, scoping, designing. I'm doing all this stuff, right? So I'm going to take that and I do 50% for there. But now I've just exponentially increased this job by 6x. And now I wouldn't take a deposit, even though there's more work and more material and more coordination and more. It just the logic just checks out. And at the end of the day, you know, I get it. So you're in P you can only do 33%. So you did the maximum legal limit that you could have done. Great. Still okay. You know, I don't blame you in doing what you have to do. It's better off than some people do who just say, Don't worry, I know you're good for it. And they have that good faith and they say I'll front the money. So I love that you're doing that.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, for sure. And the reason for the 50% guys is we want you to have a 50% gross profitability, which working backwards just means that it literally costs you at least 50% to do the work. I say at least generally, that might not be always fair. Uh, in some cases, um, we're celebrating some record gross profit right now with one of our clients, Alan, actually uh hitting about 62, 63 percent. Really incredible. So that means cost of good gold are down to like 37 to 40 percent on average. That's fantastic. But if we can collect that up front and already cover the materials, already cover the people that are being scheduled for the work, this is a massive cash advantage. I think too often electricians um, and I get this question a lot, which is why I'm spending a little more time. Too often electricians don't correlate that cash flow is the blood to the business. And without blood, I mean you could have all the heart you want, but it's just gonna be pumping air, it's just gonna be whiffing. At some point, cash is always a crunch. That's the whole game of business. Would you agree with that, Joe?

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yes, and I'm gonna double down on it even further. So I actually have had situations where people have insisted to pay in full in advance. And the reason why I bring that up is because it's a complete brain bender when you're used to not collecting deposits. And collecting 100% actually changed my mind to say 50% to no-brainer now. And here's pretty much what happened where the client came in and it was a generator project, go figure. And he I wanted that, I was like, you know, 50% down, 50% upon completion. He's like, Well, I have the money now. Can I just write you the check and be done with this? And I'm like, no, like, don't worry about it. We don't we don't work that way. I don't, I don't want it. 50% now, 50% later. He's like, we've worked together. I know you, I know you're gonna do good work. You're not running away. I've hired you before. Why are you fighting me on me giving you the money? And then he just stopped and I was like, I have no good answer to that, other than I just assume that's what you want, even though directly what you're telling me is contrasting to that. So when I realized that some people actually like paying up front and squashing and being done with it, I said, Well, then 50% should be a no-brainer. Because at least then I'm giving you my 100% up front. I'm doing all the work, I'm doing all the coordinations, and even more so, if someone wanted that day and they were begging me on crawling knees and grabbing my shirt saying, Joe, I have no power, can you please take care of me? We still shouldn't move that install because they paid the deposit for a locked date. And if the moment you compromise on that, then what's the justification that you can still stand behind? So I guarantee you a locked date that I'm not gonna move under any circumstance. I will front everything that we need, you know, all material, because luckily it's not gonna be over the 50%. I'll do all my coordinations, I'll prep all my team, I'll do all the meetings in advance. When I show up, I'm gonna be a 10 the moment I show up. But in order to have me do that, I need you to have some skin of the game because there's nothing worse, and I've done not collecting before. There's nothing worse than saying I've got this whole job, I've mapped it out, I got all the materials, they're ordered in the back of my van, I'm getting ready to load it for the next day. And then my CSR goes, hey, uh, they said that they ended up finding someone who could do it for less, and they're gonna want they're just gonna cancel the job. And now I'm sitting there like, well, how the fuck do I return all that stuff? And what am I gonna do for tomorrow? So if they got 50, they gotta tell you in advance that they're trying to cancel something, and even that time respect alone is an advantage. What are your thoughts, Glenn?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up generators too, because generators, especially whole home standby units, can be one situation where 50% can be not enough. I'll break this down and explain. So uh one of our providers right now actually is crushing it in the game, uh, Austin Matthews. We just had uh a bunch of meta ads. We have a very specific way that we're doing these meta ads, and it's created a major win. They're having a record month, Cam's having record sales right now, everything's going great. But at the same time, it's like, wait, why is there a cash pinch all of a sudden? And it's because especially when you get a surge of high equipment ratio jobs, then what happens is you end up displacing capital for that equipment. And if you're not careful about measuring it, and especially if your installs are efficient and you've got someone that does the gas fairly affordably and quickly, et cetera, then cash moves better later. But at first, it first moves into the hands of others, and that kind of defeats the point. Yeah. So even in PA, though, like Steph and Rick, they said 33% uh in PA. Well, in California's just coming up too. And so let's speak to this, right? What you can actually do is separate the job out. Correct. So you can just write it up in your terms and conditions and just say, hey, because we want to serve you at the highest level, and with these home standby units, we've found it actually can expedite the entire process if we can break these jobs into a couple of separate subjobs. And so the first one is the procurement of equipment and the scheduling of our contractors. And so for a home standby unit of this size, we're always at $10,000 down, um, no matter the size of the job. But if your job gets over $20,000, now we're 50%. Does that make sense, too?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, it does. And I think it's good to tell them upfront. Like the cool thing is that a lot of times people would be like, well, is it going to be written in my contract somewhere? It's like, no, we're not surprising them with this information. And with Christian Electric, like I understand where you're coming from as well. Like, you know, you could do this in a lot of different ways. And in addition, financing companies are also great too. Because there's nothing saying you can't get financed. And when I remember working with Synchrony, the cool thing about them was that we would get paid in full and the job didn't even have to be completed yet. It was like they're gonna pay them and they're gonna have that 18 months at 0% or whatever term they're gonna have. But I know my bag is secured, so I'm gonna go in feeling great. They're gonna go in feeling like they made a huge deal because they did. So there's no loss either. So, Christian, if you don't have a financing company, I would definitely look into that as well because that's another avenue for those who are very hesitant about the deposit, where they're like, you're not putting anything down, nothing's leaving your account, but synchrony is paying me and you're gonna pay them.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

Yep, absolutely. And Christian, fully agreeing too. We've seen many people in California get around that kind of problematic rule. Let's be honest, that rule is in place for all the jokes that are out there trying to rip people off. It's not for honest providers that follow or put time into listening and bettering themselves on this podcast and our program. And so we've always found that that's uh been unfair to our providers because really, when you think about only being able to take 10% and then relying on payment at the end is the exact problem that honest providers have in their business. It's a major cash flow pinch, and it relies on you holding the bag for 90% of a job until it's done and accepting payment. That's just too much risk in my mind, Joe. Way too much risk.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

I'm with you there. It's actually pretty scary because if you think about it, like, and I've had those situations happen prior to getting my sense put into me and collecting deposits. There have been some people who are just like, Yeah, I appreciate you doing all that. Can I? And I'm like, Well, I ordered the generator. Well, can I just can you just deliver the generator to my house? It's like, no, no, I'm not going to deliver the generator for the cost of the generator. So if you're gonna have a money conversation, I'd rather have it before the work starts. Because once your hands are in it, they can always pull and be like, Well, you didn't tell me that. And now it's a bait and switch argument. But it's like, hey, I didn't even show up without the deposit. So what are we doing?

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Yeah, yeah. Uh couple good comments here from Doughboy. I have not run into Billy yet. I understand he'll be here. I'm looking forward to seeing Billy. Uh, question Do you believe in offering financing after going through the options? And they say we can't afford anything, have it shown in each option.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

So there's a couple of views that you could take with that. Personally, for me, I found that it was a great objection handle. When, but I've seen pros and cons. I'll explain the pros and cons of each. So if you wanted to reserve it as a objection handle, the logic therein would be you're avoiding dealer fees or any additional tag ons that come with working with a financing company. They're gonna take a percentage of what you do. And if you're not structured in a way that you can handle that up front, then you're like, I'm not gonna offer it unless I really have to do it. And that's helpful when you use it as an objection handle, like, well, I don't have the money. Well, time out for a second. Have I given the impression you have to pay for this all at once? Oh, well, oh my god, that's my fault. Of course, I no one's got $10,000 lying around. Let me show you about our easy flexible payment options, and then we would transition as a way past the objection. There are others, though, who will put financing with their number. So I'm I'm a stickler on the bottom right of the option, you're gonna see the number and it's gonna be the total, and it could be or as low as. Now, I think that's great, provided that you can build your financing rate into your pricing so that you're not losing at the dealer fee costs. And if you have it built in and you're structured properly, then what you're doing is giving more people the option of taking you up on your bigger packages. Because some people may not even think you finance. Like they're gonna say, he's just you're an electrician, my painter doesn't even take credit cards. Why is he gonna offer a financing plan? So, on some sides, you use an objection handle if you're really struck with the dealer fees, and on the other side, if you're like, I want to go more for the volume and I want more people to take me up on these offers, and I'm already factoring in the dealer fees into my SSR, then great. Either way works. It just depends on how you're structured and how often you want to offer it.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Yep, for sure. And more and more I've been recommending in night school where we only have so much time, and it's very much like more of a um, I don't want to say a beginner's track, but it's a fast track to see success. Uh I just encourage people to throw the number there because it's less talking tracks and more just customer realizing there's an option because anyone at this point, you see 10K or 333 a month, they know what it means, basically, and they understand already, like there's an inherent understanding in the marketplace that oh, I'd have to do a soft check. And obviously that's gonna come down to my credit. And they know if they have bad credit, it's likely to cost more, and if they have great credit, maybe it comes down to that amount. Um, so there's a lot that's just kind of implied. And the follow-up here is an unfortunate one. How would I handle a customer who took financing, then used the money with another company?

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Great question. And it depends on the financing company you have, but I can talk to two different alternatives, and you would tell me whichever one you're in. I almost want to be like, is it Doug H. Boyle or is it Doughboy SOG? Either way. So the first is most financing companies issue the customer what's known as like a credit card. And that credit card has to be spent with someone who is in the network of this financing organization. So if they were to take the money and have you do the permits and the inspections and the material coordination, at some point we would know that they're going to give it to someone else, right? So the odds are less likely if they're using a company credit card. The other alternative, though, is there are financing companies that pay the customer directly. Now that's actually a bit of a struggle because if they pay the customer, the struggle that you can run into is that then that circumstance they could try to find another provider. What I would recommend is if they're paying the homeowner, you would not order material, you would not start anything until you can collect a 50% deposit from what they've been paid. Because now you're treating it like a cash basis customer. Hey, I know by the 25th, you're gonna have $20,000 deposit to your account. So by the 26th, I'm gonna be scheduling myself to come over to your house. We're gonna finish the paperwork, sign off everything, and make sure we've gotten that collected, and then I can give you a guaranteed installation date. If you do it like that, then the odds of them giving that to someone else is reduced, but not gone completely. If for some reason that does happen, which occasionally does, in that circumstance, this would now become a legal matter because it would be simply I'm calling my financing company because they have me registered as the person that they're financing. And if I'm not the registered person, they can withdraw funds. Not that they're gonna give it back to you, but they could withdraw funds from the homeowner. So there's a lot of risk for the homeowner saying, I want this company to do it. This is your guaranteed provider, and you vetted them, but I'm actually gonna take the money and go here. So very, very rarely would that happen. But those are the three most likely things. Yeah. So, Brandon, you're saying they paid the customer. That's the thing. You're not scheduling anything, you're not ordering anything, you are set because when they do pay the homeowner, I'm not waiting for draws or net 90s or hopefully paying maybe 10%. I know you're getting paid. I'm not doing the thing until we've collected that. So that's a non negotiable. If the customer has issues with that, I would question how they're being paid and confirm that they're not being paid in draws, because some people will say they are when they're not. So there's a lot of like, I don't want to say skepticism. Or paranoia, but it's walk carefully, right? Do your paperwork. Make sure that you've guaranteed that you're gonna get paid. And the way you can guarantee it is by sitting down with your financing company who you work with and say, what are your terms and how do funds get dispersed? That way, when that homeowner does try to pull some bullshit, you know the rules and you know that they're aligned. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

Yep, for sure. Uh we haven't really touched on the topic, so I'm gonna shift gears back to uh where we started. We'll spend the last five minutes just helping helping you guys with this uh because what's coming out this week is again Dan's podcast. And I really wanted to tag this one in there so that you have some extra help to become this premium brand in your market without necessarily dropping massive wads of cash today. Because, as we know, the people that follow this, Joe, are already assuming a premium identity. It's just maybe the cash hasn't caught up with you yet. Maybe you're still in your humble beginning, maybe you're not quite there, you're still deciding what that brand is going to look like. And you guys have tools available to you today that were not available in the past that can make this extremely fast. So, can we just talk about like what we would do to become a rapidly premium brand, even if we were new to a market or doing even a two or three year cleanup on realizing, oh, we need to up our ante here and just step into the new identity. Is it cool if we spend just like five minutes on this?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, do you want to take the first bite or do you want me to?

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Yeah, I'll take the first bite and set this up.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Okay. So, number one, I think premium doesn't start with you know, you don't have to wear Gucci to be premium. You don't have to go and spend 10k on uh a premium swag set. But you do have to, as we've talked about before, you have to show up in the image of premium. And so there's ways you can do that, even if it was a cheap recycled polo, uh, nice pants, the good belt, the strategic look of premium. And in your web assets is where I wanted to focus first and foremost, where it used to be that you had to invest tens, twenties, thousands of dollars to get to this place. You can now use and utilize AI and set up your digital presence in the premium look that you're aiming for, and then just show up in support of that premium look, even if it's not the same brand that's on your website that looks fully wrapped. So, yes, I am suggesting go to AI, work on your branding. Even in before you hear the second episode with Dan Antonelli, go listen to the first one, grab his book, Branded Not Blanded. In fact, if you guys uh I think I said if you leave us a review and fill out our form, Tony's gonna attach it, uh letting us know that you did. We're gonna buy uh 10 10 books and send it out to you guys. Uh so do take advantage of that. But go to the AI, take the concepts, and start working yourself towards that now, is like my biggest early message. And then it's just a matter of showing up at the house, Joe. And even if you're in a white van still, I would just say, literally, like our vans are in the shop, they're getting wrapped here right now, they're getting worked on as we speak. It's okay to do that. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 25:25

So I agree with everything you're saying. I want to take it a step further and actually go what comes before that, because a lot of electricians struggle being premium at the moment the phone gets answered. Like, if you think about it, let's say you're a sole proprietor, and those are the guys who have this struggle, and there's no shame in that. We've all been there, right? I remember installing panels with a Bluetooth parrot and forcing it up while taking customers' names and writing it on my elbow. Like it's not premium. But here's the thing you could change your experience. If you're the one answering the phone, fine. But if you have a process that you can follow, like the bright array process that we teach, yeah, where you're communicating a premium experience before they've even seen you is the first step. Now it's more easily done if you have a CSR simply answering the phone, like it's a great day to service serviceable electrical. This is Joseph speaking. How can I brighten your day? Putting some love behind it, putting some professionalism is a great thing to do. Because now you're showing up as if they have a great expectation because the office set them up for success. And then when you're on your way over, we claim I were talking about this earlier. You know, I personally believe in the send the meet the tech message where I'm going to send you an automated text message about the technician and a quick description about him. And the cool thing is, is that could still be you because they don't know how big your organization is. And even if it's you and you're the CSR and you're the tech, there's nothing stopping you from saying, Hey, um, we're telling you know we're on our way. Your technician Joe is gonna be coming out soon. He's been a master electrician of 16 years, loves his family, loves his kids, especially just a Star Wars. He can't wait to take care of you. And just a big picture, just me giving a thumbs up or something. At least then I have something to connect with the tech over. I have some assurance he knows what he's doing. And when I recognize the bald head, I'm gonna be like, oh, this is the guy who's supposed to come to my house. Great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

So yeah, really, really important piece. I think there's an underlying message here that you guys, I want you to take into this podcast on Wednesday. I want you to think about it in your own brand. Is most people are waiting for results to prove they are what they want to be, but it doesn't work that way. You first have to internally become, and you said the magic words, we call it acting as if you're already that person, you're already that being, and you need to start doing that because that'll cause you to make decisions as that person. And the decisions you make are the kind of decisions that Joseph just talked about, that I just talked about. And that's what we'd call stepping into a premium identity, not waiting for it to catch up to you. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

It does. It's almost like you want to get yourself to start working out in the morning, and instead of saying, I'm not someone who works out, it's I'm someone who works out. And this may be the first day, but this is just what I do now. And getting up and saying, I'm gonna set the alarm, I'm gonna do the things, and day one, I'm gonna show up like I've already been doing this before. And eventually, the cool thing is, is within 90 days, a habit gets formed. So the so the thing that comes to mind is a song Frank Sinatra sang called uh Whistle a Happy Tune, which pretty much to super sum it up, was a man who's constantly anxious and he was given advice. Whenever you're anxious, whistle. And the result was people would see him be like, Man, this guy's cool as a cucumber, he's always whistling. And the moral of the story was eventually at the end of the song, he's actually confident because his brain has conditioned him to whistle carelessly whenever bad things come his way. So you could act like the person you want to be, and through your acting, actually become that person.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the mic drop moment, guys. So I hope that sets you up well for this Wednesday's release of the uh second interview with Dan Antonelli. We've got that and so much more coming. Thank you for joining us live here every Monday on our uh magnetic momentum Mondays here to kick it off. And I love that these are now going live on the podcast as well. So you guys are getting a double dota. But if you know someone who needs to hear this message, please uh pass this on with them. Share it. If you haven't subscribed, do that. If you haven't left a review, please do it. You could get uh a branded, not blinded book uh from your truly. Thanks, Joe. We'll talk to you guys next week.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Truly my pleasure, Clay. Everyone be blessed.