Latest / Simplified Sparky Marketing / Running an electrical business is like playing a game of poker | 171

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Running an electrical business is like playing a game of poker | 171 · Simplified Sparky Marketing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Drop your pants and kick them off into the corner, said Vinny.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had this podcast made yesterday and I thought about it after it was made.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, fuck, there's no point in putting it out.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was a little bit disappointed in myself.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the stars aligned once I finished the podcast and removed it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Vinny had sent me an email and it was very interesting with his response in today's podcast is going to be about Vinny.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why there's a delay and it's all Vinny's fault.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Vinny, a previous client of mine, reached out to me for some electrical work.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I checked my system and I had two previous jobs for Vinny, and I was able to look back at the photos from the years gone past, and I recalled the job well.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: There was numerous stuff done in the past.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I did ceiling fans, I did outdoor lighting around a pool, there was powerpoints and stuff like that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Odds and ends.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember flagging the switchboard previously, and there was some breakers in there that were questionable, and there was Mandarin writing on them.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Vinny's father-in-law hails from China, and he allegedly is an electrician.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now I kind of forgot about all of this, and I just did my bits and pieces a few years ago, and Vinny reached out to me to do further work, and he said to me, This is what I need to do.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want a switchboard upgrade, I want fans installed, pendants installed, and some lighting around the house as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I was doing some just some updates.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I said that was fine.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: He sent through some photos, and then my memory was jogged with the switchboard, and lo and behold, there was some Dita branded breakers in the switchboard.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But firstly, I was questioning why he wanted the switchboard upgrade.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I always like to know, and even for you as an electrician, it's always interesting to know what's triggered the upgrade.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a fault that's persisting that they think this upgrade is going to fix?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is it somebody that is quoting the job and now they're just fishing for an additional price?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's always a story behind someone flagging their own switchboard upgrade, I believe.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I always think it's a bit sus when someone asks you for a switchboard upgrade.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, unless they're educated, I had it recently where a guy bought a house and his mate had an upgrade done, and they I think it was very recent and very very well aligned that they were looking around the house, and I think he goes, Oh, what's your switchboard like?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then he went around and he was like, Oh, mine was like that, you need to get that upgraded.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that was legitimately how I got that job.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Was the guy flagged his his switchboard and told him about it, and then he reached out to me and I did it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Back to Vinny.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So Vinny gave me a list of things to do, and I did up the quote and I sent it to him, put some options on it, and he didn't reply.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he got a follow-up, he didn't reply, he got a follow-up, he didn't reply.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: He eventually got back to me, and his exact email says to me, Hi Alan, I finally looked at the quote.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything you can do to reduce the price?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently reviewing other quotes for comparison.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for context, I am booked out probably for three to four weeks with little windows in between.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a supply and demand situation here.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And before you think I'm a cockhead as I continue this story, this wasn't always the case.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: If I wasn't this busy, I would have probably come to the table, offered to install probably cheaper breakers, remove the warranty, remove some items on top of the quote that he might want to get rid of to reduce the price.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a way around reducing the price and not just call it as it is.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's a definitely a way you can do this, is instead of saying, you know, actually dropping the price, is to remove things from the quote and say, Do you really need those fans?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really need those outdoor lights?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really need that extra PowerPoint?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can remove two of those and we'll reduce the price, thus, we can do the works.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The worst thing that you can do, and I it kills me when electricians do this, is they immediately reduce the price, i.e., drop your pants, just to get the job.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where it's very, very vital that you know your operating costs, you know your hourly rate, you know what it costs for you to go to work, to sit in the van and go to work every day, you know that figure.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I call it my floor number.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've spoken of this on previous podcasts.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I believe the podcast is actually called your floor number.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So flick back along the catalogue and have a look at that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's just knowing your pricing because if you're oblivious to your pricing, and let's say hypothetically, I always speak about this of like, let's say, for instance, a job is worth you're you're in, you're quoting two grand, and there's a thousand dollars profit on that job, and Vinny goes to you, I've had a quote for 1500 because you think of the bigger number, you're like, Well, it's fifteen hundred dollars, that's a nice day, but there's a thousand dollars in material, and you're like, Oh, fuck it, okay, I'll do it for fifteen hundred.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've just sliced your profit by 50% by offering a$500 discount.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you offer a$200 discount, you've taken 20% directly off the bottom line.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what kills me about oblivious electricians.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are listening to this podcast right now and you are an electrician, you are in the one percenters that are actually wanting to better your business.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is what I do with this podcast is I give my lived experiences that you can learn from them and move on.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe someday you'll check out the links in the description below because there's only a few limited spots left.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I said back to Vinny was, hey Vinny, I'm sorry, there isn't full stop.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently booked for three to four weeks.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to help you with your works, however, I do not compete on price.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Full stop.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can close this job for now and stop pestering you.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Alan.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I finished at that, and then I started recording the podcast yesterday, and I was back and forth with it, and I was kind of like, ah, this is a stupid podcast.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And once I finished the podcast, I opened up my email and it said, Hi Alan, okay, I'm happy to go ahead with your quote.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he's gone ahead, and a few things were unearthed here, and it was the psychology behind this is it's like playing poker.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever played poker, there is times where you have to bluff, there's times where you have to pretend like you've got something in your hand, and you try and force their hand by either them calling you out or else they'll fold.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, Vinny folded, and he was just like, nah, okay, cool, yeah, I'll go ahead with you.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: He mightn't have even been shopping for course.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: He it might have been his wife saying to him, Hey, look, ask, he's a tradeie, can we get a discount?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the fucking problem is a lot of trades, a lot of Sparkies will just accept that and go, What are you thinking?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he'll go, Oh, will you knock 200 off and you got the job?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you stand your ground and you have got the work backed behind you, that is it's it's it's supply and demand.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: If if they say no to the job, they don't respect you, they don't respect your pricing.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you immediately drop$200 off, it kind of shows to Vinny that you were kind of having him on the whole time, that there was just a$200 buffer, you just hand it straight back to him.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly didn't care if I got the job or didn't get the job.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just purely want to work for the right people who respect me and respect my pricing.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's gone ahead and he's accepted it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I get the job, I get the quote for what I quoted it at.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just a big lesson again to just stop dropping your pants.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good think about it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are they bluffing you?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are they just looking for a cheeky couple of hundred dollars off it?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Figure that one out.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, his name's not Vinny.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I had to hide his identity for legal reasons.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'll catch you next week.