S3 EP17 The Winter Storm Plan: What Smart Electricians Do That Most Don’t

When the storm hits, most electricians react. But in this episode, Joseph Lucanie flips that mindset by showing how proactive service not only protects homeowners, it builds unstoppable loyalty. From pre-storm generator checkups to post-storm empathy calls, you’ll learn how to turn chaos into your greatest marketing and service advantage. Joseph breaks down the tactical moves, like anti-theft anchoring and emergency lighting installs, that separate the amateurs from the white-glove pros.

Whether you're in a Corolla or a ten-truck fleet, this episode will reshape how you see your role in the home, not as a fixer, but as a trusted protector.

💡 What You’ll Learn:
How to prep generators before a storm hits
What to say to customers after an outage
The difference between basic service and white-glove loyalty-building

⚡️Learn how to present service options that increase average ticket, reduce price objections, and put customers in control, without sounding salesy.
Mastering the Art of Options. Feb 4th, 08:00 PM - 9:30 PM EST
Pre-registration link here!

⚡️Want to learn how to multiply your service calls without burning out?
Join the SLE Pro App for tools, strategies and next-level support!

⚡️Podcast Powered by Duromax Generators.
Making turnkey power solutions easy.
📧 Email: jesse@duromaxpower.com
🌐 Website: www.duromaxpower.com
📞 Call: 909-490-5789

⚡️Jump into the Million Dollar Electrician Community and connect with real business-minded sparkies!

⚡️Learn more about electrical service pricing, flat-rate vs. hourly, and how to lead your market through service. Contact us, we’d love to help!

 #Electricians #GeneratorPrep #WinterStorm #PowerOutage #ElectricalBusiness #CustomerLoyalty #MillionDollarElectrician 

Transcript

Blizzard Sets The Stage

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We just dove in into this blizzard that just happened. And the concern that we had with it was we knew that it was coming. We had like four or five days in prep time. And because of that, a lot of us were proactive and were able to avoid the power outages that some weren't able to do simply by having the generators prepped and ready to go. Now, just because we're electricians, we were able to have that done, but the average customer doesn't have that mindset. They're out there buying milk and eggs when the fridge isn't going to have power in the first place. So what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast, where we help home service pros like you supercharge your business and spark up those sales.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

I'm Joseph Lucani, and together with my co-host Clay New Meyer, we're here to share the secrets that have helped electricians sell over a million dollars from a single service band.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Now it's time for sales. It's time for scale. It's time to become a million-dollar electrician.

Sponsor And Storm Context

Proactive Generator Outreach

Pre-Storm Service Checklist

Portable Generators Done Right

Inlet Location And Accessibility

Post-Storm Check-Ins For Generators

Following Up With Non-Buyers

First Class Membership Benefits

Empathy That Drives Renewals

Emergency Lighting And Safety

Anti-Theft Anchoring For Portables

Audience Wrap And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Hello, hello, hello, my friend, and welcome back to the Million Dollar Electrician. I'm Joseph Lucani, and I am so excited to be diving in and helping you out and what can you do prior to the storm and after the storm to serve your customers at the highest level. Now, conveniently, this episode is actually sponsored by Duramax, great system for quality backup power, and we're going to be talking great about what we can do about it. Now, we just on the East Coast, I'm in New York, as you guys know, and a lot of people in our area got dumped on with snow. Personally, I got 18 plus inches, and it was around four to 20 degrees at the highest. Granted, the temperature doesn't have much against certain people. I know there were some who were down to the negative 20s. That's pretty intense. I'm pretty sure that we should not be living there if it's that cold. But I digress. Now, what I wanted to do today is talk about what we can do during storms that we know are coming, or what can we do with storms that we don't know are coming in order to make our customers not only feel seen, but let's get our foot back in the door so we can serve them at a higher level and generate a fair profit in the process without being pushy or salesy. So let's get into it. Now, as a result, we just dove in into this uh blizzard that just happened. And the concern that we had with it was we knew that it was coming. We had like four or five days in prep time. And because of that, a lot of us were proactive and were able to avoid the power outages that some weren't able to do simply by having the generators prepped and ready to go. Now, just because we're electricians, we were able to have that done. But the average customer doesn't have that mindset. They're out there buying milk and eggs when the fridge isn't going to have power in the first place. So, what do you do? The first thing that I recommend is calling every customer you currently have a maintenance agreement with. Now, the reason being is one, we want them to feel seen and we want them to renew, but we also need to do so in a way that serves them. So there's a real tangible value of them working with us. So this is what I recommend doing. If you have a list of all the customers who've ever worked with you or ever purchased a maintenance that revolves around a generator, you're going to be reaching out prior to the storm. And that could be simply along the lines of, hey, this is Joe at Service Electrical. Hope you're doing really well. I want to check in because you're currently a generator customer, or we had the pleasure of taking care of your generator in the past. And because of the storm we suspect is going to be coming in, we wanted to make sure you're prepared for any kind of power outages. Would you like us to come and do a pre-storm service to make sure that everything's operational and you won't have any concerns? Now, the reason why we're doing that is because there are some real situations where dumb things causes the customer to not have power. And the worst part about it is imagine this is the first time they would have lost power and you installed the system and now it doesn't work. That could be if it's an automatic, something as simple as you didn't put it back into automatic and the customer doesn't have the key to open it back up. Or it could be that the customer is counting on the electric start for the portable generator to work, but it didn't have any charge to it because they haven't done anything with it in the past year. Now, those two things could be the difference between a customer not being taken care of and being really pissed at you in the process. So by going out and offering a pre-storm service, you are doing a full consumable maintenance. You're whether it's an automatic, you're doing everything involved in that, updating the software, doing a one-over check, but also doing the full operational test, meaning I'm gonna throw the main and I'm gonna make sure that it's gonna transfer. And then I'm gonna go through the house to make sure all your critical things are done. Like that could be your de-icing system. That could be the heat, it could be the fridge, it could be the sub pump. We don't know what is backing up, but we're if it is and we think it's critical, we're gonna inspect it. The same with portables. Now, sometimes people they really sleep on portables, and I really think that's a shame because I prefer portables over automatics. So if you have portable customers as well, you should still go out to do the service. Because if you didn't previously, who's gonna make sure the carburetor is clean? Well, quality is the oil. Does the battery have any charge? It would even have a spark. So these things are very important to do. Now, the same time that we're gonna do with the automatic, we also do the power outage simulation with the portable because that's gonna reveal a couple things. Let's say the customer's with you, and you're like, hey, I want to show you how to do it to make sure that you know everything that you need to do in order to make sure you've got the power outage covered. Now, the way I'd like to do that is I'm going to have them physically wheel the generator out. I'm going to plug it into the inlet, and I'm going to do a pole start as well as transfer power. But this is really great for certain customers that didn't have the ideal installation. My personal opinion is that the inlet where you're plugging in the generator should be as close to where you're going to store the generator as possible. The reason being is we got over 18 inches. And if the inlet is on the opposite side of the house from the garage, you either have to have an extremely long cord or you got to wheel this generator after shoveling a path through the snow in order to get it out there. And then maybe you get there in advance, it's going to be covered in snow anyway. So that's not super convenient. So if you can have the customer walk through and understand that's a factor, that's something that you can offer and be like, hey, it we'd love to get this taken care of for you, especially if you have a few days in advance, so that when the storm does come, if you are at a power, you're not dealing with it. Now, another great thing about that is this. Recently, I actually threw my back out. One of the benefits of getting a little older is you do it just in random ways. But the reason why I'm bringing that up is because I consider myself a strong individual. But if I was counting on that during a storm and as a result said, you know what? I don't need to have the inlet brought closer. I am going to be strong enough to get the generator across the other side of the house, or I've got this huge, like 100, 200 foot long cord and I'm just gonna wheel it out no problem. I threw my back out. Walking was not fun, let alone shoveling a path for a generator and wheeling a huge extension cord along the way. So if someone had brought that to my attention during that situation, it would actually still be top of mind enough to say, you know what? Maybe we should consider moving the inlet because I don't know what kind of health I'm gonna run into. So that's something we could great we can do. So let's go even further into this. There's also things that you can do if they're first class customers. And that also happens before and after the storm as well. Backing that up, let's stick with the generator customer first, and then we'll dive into first class. What I'm gonna suggest with additional with generators is after the storm, if you have customers who for some reason did not pre-chose the pre-storm service, you can reach out to say, hey, we have you listed as a generator customer. We want, we know that you're on our maintenance plan. We just wanted to make sure that A, you didn't lose power. And if you did, then the generator worked for you. Regardless, we just want to make sure you're taken care of. Was everything good? Was everyone safe? Now that comes across really, you know, compassionate. And that's the goal. We are leading with empathy and compassion, but also as a secondary benefit, too. If we are reaching out to someone who just lost power and for some reason the generator didn't work, well, maybe it wasn't us who took care of it, maybe it was something else. Regardless, I want to know about that so I can go take care of that customer. Additionally, maybe they lost power, but they didn't have everything they wanted. They only backed up the essentials and they're like, you know what? It was, it was really uncomfortable. We were camping out. That's the kind of customer that would be interested in the upgrade. So you reach out to your customers before to make sure the system is serviced and there's no issues prior to the storm. And you reach out to those same customers after to make sure that the system operated the way they wanted it to, that it was convenient, that everyone's safe, and that they didn't need any additional circuits while they were out. Now, there's another person you follow up with generators too, and that's all the customers that didn't buy a generator from you. That whether they're existing customers or whether they were just leads that you had. What you'd want to do is get all those customers on file and reach out after the storm. Say, hi, this is Joe at Service Electrical. Hope you're doing well. Um, I know that we originally talked X months ago when we talked about getting you a generator system. I know it wasn't something you move forwarded with. I just wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and that it wasn't a situation where you lost power. I assume you still had power the entire weekend, right? Now we're going through assuming they had power because I want them to either agree and say yes, and therefore we're not seeming like we're pushing anything, or they're gonna say, well, actually we did. And if they did, then we can volunteer a solution. You know, I'm sorry you lost power. You know, I didn't expect that that could be the case. But at the same time, you know, we actually would love to prevent that from happening from you in the future. Would you be open to discussing some solutions that we have that we can actually prevent this from happening again? And if they did say they didn't lose power, that's totally fine. I'm so glad to hear that. I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of. And if nothing else, know that here at SLE, we're thinking of you both before the storm and after. Hope you have an amazing day. If it's ever something you want to consider in the future, you can always reach us at this number. So that's if you got generator customers. Let's say that's not a niche you're into. You can still proceed with something really helpful, and that's first class customers. So our first class members are our club membership, where we want to treat someone with the benefit of you have priority service, meaning out you're gonna go to the front of the line in front of anyone else. You're gonna have after hours emergency service. Doesn't mean 24-7, but whatever your hours are, you're offering to all come earlier or later than those. You're going to be doing no diagnostic charges for anything that they call you to inspect. And you're gonna offer a one annual electrical service for their home, making sure you do a whole home electrical inspection. Now, this is what we're gonna do with that. You reach out to all your customers prior to the storm. Just say, hey, you know, this is Joe SLE. Really want to just reach out and say thank you again for being a first-class customer. We do know that the storm is planning on coming this weekend. We just want to make sure that everything was taken care of and you have everything you need in order to feel comfortable. That's great because one, it makes them feel seen and heard, but it also could be something where they say, you know, honestly, can we talk about a generator? It happens. Or it's something where they say, you know, actually, I had XYZ. I didn't need anything for the storm, but while we're on the phone, I was actually thinking of something else. Great. Wonderful. The second thing that you can do is go in further and reach after the storm and say, This is Joe at SLE. As a first class customer, I went to first, thank you, being uh the best part of SLE. And I wanted to make sure that you didn't lose power or that everyone's okay. Is there anything that's going on? Is everyone safe in the home? Were you guys okay after the storm? That is top-tier service. Because if you really think about it, what we're doing in this moment is we're showcasing to the customer we want to take care of you. We are thinking about how we can help you, and we're doing everything in our power to make sure you feel seen and taken care of. That kind of treatment gets people to renew. And the more people renew because they're so satisfied with your service, not only generates revenue for you now, but allows you to get referrals for everyone in the future. Because if, hey, they called us to make sure we were okay, that's awesome. Let me tell my mother about that. Let me tell my grandmother about that. Let me tell my uncle, let me tell my friend, let me tell my neighbor. And that's how word of mouth really starts to spread. Now, the second thing is when you want to go even deeper into it, you can think about other options to save customers a lot of frustration. So we were talking about things earlier about like how do you move the inlet closer to the generator or move the inlet closer where the generator location is going to be. But that's not the only thing you can do during a power outage. Now, I personally love generator options. And I think specifically thinking of this storm, there's other things we can do. Now, the first thing is you don't lose power when the lights are on. It just doesn't happen. It's not going to be nine to five, Monday through Friday. It's usually when the rain's here, the storm storm's here, it's dark, it's early, and you're going by flashlight. So the first thing I usually would recommend is if there's a storm coming, why not make sure your customer is taking care of with emergency backup lighting? Literally just having something in place so that when the power comes out, like a commercial facility, the lights automatically come on, allowing you to have pathway guidance to the generator. Instead of walking around with your phone and trying to figure out what you're doing around the house, you have one over where the transfer stitch is. You have one over the basement stairs, over the garage is, over where the generator is stored, over where the inlet is. So the whole thing is just a seamless transition for the customer. I lost power, but my emergency lights are on. I walk like a gentleman, gentleman out to the generator. I can see the twist lock cord because it's actually eliminated. Plug it in, start the generator, go to my transfer switch, turn it all on, no cell phones needed, and I know I'm safe without tripping over the kids' shoes, which as a parent, you know is gonna happen. It's like synonymous with stepping on Legos. That thing is gonna happen. The next thing is there's a fear where when you have power and other people don't, especially as a portable system owner, there's always a fear that someone's gonna take it. I mean, that happened to Tundur and Sandy, and I'm pretty traumatized from it. Granted, you can take trauma and turn it into success if you can prevent that trauma from other people having it or have allowing keeping other people from having that trauma. So what do we do? We can offer anti-theft anchoring systems, meaning we literally will bury a support system underground, whether you're burying rebar, whether you're burying concrete footers, whether you're tying it to a massive slate foundation or you know, core drilling in. And you literally have an anchor chain, meaning it could be as simple as a bike lock, it could be heavy-duty steel chain as long as it's not rusting. And you have a long whip of it. That way, when you wheel the generator close to where you're gonna plug in the inlet, right next to the inlet is this long armored chain, which you then wrap around the generator and the auxiliary propane tanks if you have a you know portable propane system rather than just a gas or gasoline one. Now, what that does is that prevents the customer from having to pretty much stand guard overnight. Because if they're worried that people are gonna come take their generator, do you think they're gonna sleep really well? I know I wouldn't. I'd be standing there like an armed sentry ready to go. That way I want to make sure my family gets to sleep, but I'm not. But if I knew that generator was locked into place and that pretty much so and better coming with bolt cutters or a sausal to get that thing out, I'd think I'm gonna be pretty comfortable because most thieves are lazy. They want to go to the place that's easy to get in and get out. They're not coming in with extraction tools. Now, other than that, the next best thing you can do for customers is preventing this problem in the future. And the way you do that is offering pre-sold maintenance years, meaning that every time you see them or after every maintenance service you do, including the pre-serv pre-storm service, you offer a tier of options. Meaning, I if I was going to do six options off the top, it'd be five years of maintenance, four years of maintenance, three years of maintenance, two years of maintenance, one year of maintenance, and this current year's maintenance. That's six options just on the maintenance plan alone, let alone all the other options you can offer. The reason why we do that is one, it is an inflation fighting system, meaning that the customer is paying today's prices for tomorrow's service, meaning they're saving a lot when it comes to what inflation is going to be. Think about what things cost five years ago. We win because we get fronted that cash up front. They win because they save money and don't have to pay the inflated cost of everything that it is. So they win. But the secondary benefit is some people just don't think of the service. It's like you don't wake up one day and be like, you know what? I haven't maintained my generator recently. I should take care of that. It's usually I lost power, I got a poll start it, it doesn't start, and I'm like, oh babe, did you get the service this year? No, all right, I didn't either. What do we do? So that's the second suggestion I have. Now I'm gonna have to reel myself back here because I get way too excited when it comes to generators. There are way too many options we can do. And at the end of the day, it's not even about the sale. I mean, granted, it's a benefit, it's what we do what we do, but it's not everything. I personally feel that if we can take care of customers when they would need it most, if we can serve them from an altruistic standpoint, we stop being salespeople and start being service people. I want my customers to know we are going to take care of things. We are going to take care of you and we have your back, whether you notice it or not. If you can provide that level of service to your customers, you created a white glove experience. That is going to be hard to forget. So thank you, my friend, for joining us with this one. I want to know how did you do during the storm? I mean, we got 18 plus. Did you end up getting that? Did you get more than that? What was the temp? And regardless, I wish you peace, mercy, and blessings in your future. I can't wait to see in the next one. Be blessed, friend. Take care.