¶ Challenges in Low Voltage Sales
Hey wire monkeys , welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling . On tonight's show we're going to do a two-part series on how to sell your low voltage services . Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers , project managers , estimators , customers , all types of ICT personnel .
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So sales is one of those misunderstood things , especially maybe not to a salesperson or someone who operates in Efficint , but to a field person like somebody like me or a technician who's trying to venture in this new world of business and stuff , sales is totally foreign .
So what do you think are some common challenges or misconceptions that somebody new might have when it comes to sales ?
Good , question Don't think every salesman is a used car salesman , because that's a thin , thin slice . I would never be a probably a good used car salesman , because that's a whole different thing . But that's what most people are exposed to . They're exposed to the guy that knocks on their front door and trying to sell them aluminum siding .
When you get in the commercial space , a salesperson is a different type of individual . It's not the same function . They're not trying to close the deal before they walk out the door . It's really something that has never done sales . Just think about it , as they need to build relationships with people and be the face for the company that they represent .
You'll get opportunities . Just don't try to sell . I had managers that felt like you should sell the person something that day . Well , that was never me . I was more about let's just build a relationship first .
The way that I feel that somebody's successful in sales and low voltage is because , again , being a project manager and estimator is when I didn't view them as a salesperson because they were helping me solve problems . We even got to know each other on personal levels . He too is well , I mean , I knew his family , he knew my family and stuff .
You don't know that they're sales . It's not the like you said . I'm so glad that you said that A salesperson is not the used car sales . There are those out there , but they're a vast minority . They truly are a good salesperson . Those kind of people don't last long . A good salesperson . You don't even realize they're a salesperson .
Well , I mean , you kind of , in the back of your mind , know they're salesperson but you don't view them that way , just somebody else who's a good friend and they help you solve problems . I couldn't have more than one occasion . I would call one of the . We used to use AccuTech quite often and the outside sales guy would come visit . If I had an issue .
I'd call him up and say , hey , here's what works with this , this and this . And he'd say , oh yeah , well , I'll get the answer for you . I guess that's the homework you're talking about that , mr Lovelace . We used to use all the time and stuff , right , yeah .
Or if you know if you can get to a customer , but whenever he has a problem , yes , he's going to call you . You're that resource for him . He needs you . I always try to say put yourself in a position where they feel like you're part of the company , that you're part of their success , that they need you , what you do .
Contractors I know it's like they start out in a bid things . What happens when you win a bid you are the low bid and the lowest maybe not necessarily the lowest profit , because it depends what different people's costs are but you are . Your profit is less because you have bid it lower .
Ideally , a contractor wants to be as hey , whenever this company has work , they call me . They don't question my price . I give them a fair price . I don't overprice them . I give them a fair price and they understand that I have a business to run and that we all deserve to make a fair profit .
But they just call and I have many contractors that their customers just call them and they do that work for them . That's the ideal situation . I have some contractors that say I don't do any bid work . Well , when you start out , you probably have to do some bid work . You know bid work . You got to get your name out there and that's okay .
You know , as you get bit more and more known , you know you'll build those relationships and you won't have to do so much bid work .
Even when you get big , you're still going to have to do bid work . I mean , when you start breaching certain dollar values with certain customers , it has to go out to competitive bid .
And if you nurture that relationship to the point where the customer says , well , we only want to have you and this actually happened to one of our customers they would break up their projects into dollar values that would always fall below that threshold so they didn't have to go out to competitive bid .
And that's the kind of customer you don't want to be bidding against . You know 20 other contractors because , like you said , it's not necessarily , it's lower profit work and , like you said again , you're solving a problem for somebody , right ? So let me ask you about the sales pipeline . Right , it's kind of like the estimating pipeline .
There's always stuff going through it , right ? What are some tips to maintaining a strong sales pipeline for low voltage ?
Well , you have to keep I don't know how to say this . You have to keep selling . So say a contract . All of a sudden they have 10 jobs and they're running crazy .
Still take time to go out and find new customers , find new opportunities , because at some point those 10 projects are going to be done and if you don't have anything that you're working , you're going to be there sitting with no projects . So you have to kind of put some time aside all the time to keep working contacts , opportunities and things .
So make sure that you have time where you're doing that all the time .
What would you say ? Would you say one hour a day , two hours a day ?
one hour a week . I would say maybe more on a weekly basis , because Mondays might be days where you have to go out to every job site , or Mondays might be the day you have to take care of all the financials . I would say put , make sure you have three or four hours a week set aside for looking for new business .
It's not always easy to do , but do that . I had a vendor once and they I want to companies we rep . Then they would have trainings and it's funny how you remember certain things . Well , they had different sessions on and they had one on how to be more productive and the one thing I remember was they talked about outlook .
When you open outlook , what do you see ? My email , your email . Almost everybody opens up to your email . He said open it up into your calendar , because what happens when you open it up into your email ? You just start rifling through emails . You don't even realize what you have to do that day .
And you set up Outlook and I have Outlook set up to open up into my calendar . So the first thing you do is look at your calendar , see what you have that day . Also , make sure you have time in there for the different functions that you need to do .
If you need to set aside time , set some specific time for sales , and then you get to your emails , but understand your day first , because if you start rifling through emails , before you know it it's 11 o'clock and you've answered 30 emails and you really didn't do what you probably needed to do first .
So that's what I would recommend for anybody , not just any business person Understand your calendar first . You don't have to spend a whole lot of time on it . Just spend five minutes , but open up your Outlook into your calendar .
That's a great tip . That's absolutely great tip . My fact is so great I was writing it down when you were saying it Because more than once I've chased that rabbit hole of what we call emails , Especially with me because I travel .
Sometimes there might be a day over 24 hours where I don't see an email Because I'm traveling and I'm working 15 hours or whatever , and then you open up , you see that 75 emails and you go . I just don't want to say zero . Well , no , you're right , I like that idea . I'm definitely changing my Outlook to open up into calendar .
And it's your time first and then . That way you better , you can segment how you spend your time and it leads into making sure you set away time for sales . Just put hours , put a couple hours per week , two , three hours , and make some five to 10 good sales calls . It will make a big difference into your business , I feel . So Manage your time well .
So you talked about how important it was to for networking and building those relationships , right , so you talked about , you know , always calling them stuff . What are some other tips that you can give them to help manage that ?
¶ Build Business, Increase Customer Confidence
Well , when I first started the business , nobody knew me . So what I did was I just made up these little four page newsletters and I spent time and I put little tidbits and reminded them of what I did . You know who I representative some new technology information .
So the first , probably three , four , five years , I would put those out about every two , every three months . I do about three or four year and I just would send them out to you know 300 different distributors , contractors . You know you have to .
Really nobody knows you , or or well , let me not say nobody knows you , but when you go from , you know , starting something to trying to develop , build a company , you're at the very beginning . People need to know who you are . So that's one thing I used to do is just newsletters . You could do it , you know , via emails now , but you know emails are tough .
You know we all get 100 emails a day and even I do , even even when I'm not working anymore , I still get emails . How many do I really love ? So you know , you know newsletter or just you know , just try some different things . You know there's new technologies that come out all the time .
You know I , you know , maybe have like some , like one thing we used to do would be work with a distributor and go in over the lunch and bring hot dogs in , you know , to introduce themselves .
You know that that would be from a rep standpoint , but but you know , maybe a contractor could say , hey , I'm going to have a grill out there , I'm going to have hot dogs and hamburgers . Come out and just come and see where we are and meet us and introduce us .
People will come out for a free hot dog , or you know , or a hamburger , try anything , if you can think of it . I mean , if sometimes you're going to do something one time and you go ah , six people showed up .
But that's six more people that you would have met if you didn't have it .
It only takes one sometimes . You know you don't know , you know it's that one , you know you figure , you know in my 26 years you know how many big , big projects that I hit Probably a few dozen . But you know that's a result of keep working and working it . You know , you know , don't be so defined to say , well , I'm looking for this particular thing .
Be flexible to what the answer is , because you might be looking for an answer that's not the best answer . So so be open . This is kind of going off in a different tangent . But be open to different solutions to what you're trying to accomplish . You know we might say , ok , my classic thing is , for my knowledge is to do it this way .
It's probably not the best way to do it , but you can figure out the best way to do it by just keep working it and you will figure out a better way than you think how to get it done . So just be , I guess , to answer your question , be open to different ideas and try different ideas . Some work , some don't work .
Yeah , you were really good with the newsletters because I remember you would always ping me for resources for RCDDs , free training and stuff , and that was one of the ways it used to provide a value for the people that you were meeting with . So and that's and that's easy to do because , look , that just takes just a few minutes .
So , like when , once you're , when you're on all the list , like Cable and Station of Mainstream Magazine , all the others , and you get notified , you know , hey , they're doing a free webinar .
If they say they're doing one on data centers , and you know one of your contractors trying to get their , you know their foot in the door doing data centers , just send them over the link . you know , and again that's , you're bringing them information , you're building that relationship and it gives you an opportunity to talk to them , see how they're doing .
And I think we would . We would from a rep standpoint . We would be helping the contractor learn and see new segments in the market . Plus , also , if there are CDDs and needed the credits , they could get credits and we would also help our manufacturer to get people to look at the product . So , yeah , there's different ways to work things .
Just like I said , be open to different ideas and talk to other people . I used to know all the other reps out there so if I was a contractor , I would try to be friends with all the other contractors out there . You know , don't feel like they're your competitors .
Feel like you're both trying to figure out this business together and if you can kind of work and share things , yeah , you're not going to give them intimate details and why and how you and customers and things , but be open to know all your competitors on a friendly basis .
It's all about empathy , right ? I mean , you're both chasing the same piece of cheese and there's enough room in this industry for everybody , you know .
And what will happen is if a customer gets a taste that you are somehow bitter towards one of your competitors , that doesn't make your competitor look bad , it makes you look bad and a customer could quit using it .
So when you have to meeting with your customers , you know you're going to be meeting with you know , people who might be just like an office manager at a company , or they might be an IT manager , right ? So ? Which means that you've got to somehow be able to effectively educate some clients , right ?
Because some clients are not going to know the difference between Cat5e or Cat6 or Cat6 , or even UTP cabling or Platinum or Rosarick . What are some benefits of teaching customers who don't know about low-voltage solutions ?
That's a good question . You know , after a number of years , the one thing that we started to do , you know , would be help customers design their own specifications for their organization , you know , and help them come up with a standard so that they understand why they should do that .
You know , you get some folks at some places and they were in charge of the infrastructure for a company but they didn't care what was put in the infrastructure , in the buildings . You know we would help different organizations come up with a standard specification for their cabling . So what did that do ?
It helped the customer feel more comfortable that he could better judge his contractors bidding projects . He knew he was going to get consistent products . He was in control of what went into his buildings and infrastructure .
And if you are a contractor , I had many contractors that would help their customers write their spec that they would recommend what they should use . You know , and bring resources in .
You know , you know , ideally a customer , a contractor , has an end user and you know this might be a good way to do it , but they have an end user they're working with and they see that there's no standard spec . They could say , okay , let me help you , we'll help write a spec here , I'll bring in a manufacturer that their RCDs will help write this spec .
So then you have something that's consistent in your company be able to better evaluate bids and things like that . So that's something a contractor could do as being a pretty strong resource for an end user . Now what happens ?
When they do that for their customer , they're probably going to get the business , probably all or most of the time , just because they've helped them improve their company . So , yeah , that's one thing . Yeah , there's and there's probably lots of those , you know , things that you can do to help your customer to get confidence with that .
So one of the hurdles that you got to clear is rejection and also customer's objection to the price that you submitted . Right , so we were kind of talking about you know , rejection . You just keep plugging away . How do you handle when a customer says , man , you know your price is kind of high , how do you ?
What's a good sales way to address that with a customer ?
Okay , well , are they saying it just because that's a classic answer to say ? Is that you're high ? I mean , that's well , you're high . Well , what are you comparing it to ? Do you have any other bids ? You know , maybe I haven't quoted the right thing . You know , let's review the bid and see if there's somewhere we can , you know , reduce the cost .
You're looking for duplication here . Maybe you don't need duplication here or maybe you know this is part of the project we can do down the road . But my point is , you know , get back to , you know , sit down with the customer and say , let's go through it and let's see if we can't fine tune this and better , you know , get to where you need to get to .
And then in the process , the customer say , well , you know , I really do want that . Okay , well , you know that's . Then that's , there's a cost of that , and they go . Well , I didn't think I needed it and the other bid I got didn't have that in it . And if they explain why he thinks you should have that , he go . You know what . You're right .
You know what that is . Maybe a class example is that if somebody's looking at category six or six A and they go , well , why do I need six A ? It's more expensive . It's 50% more expensive .
Yeah , what's your ? What kind of network you're running now ? Are you running 10 gig ? Do you plan on running 10 gig anytime soon ? The answer is no . Cat six is okay .
But I'll give you an example NC State , back in 2010 , said we're going with six A . Everybody thought they were crazy . Why are you spending the extra money for six A ? Well , what happened in 2020 ? Wireless exploded and what ? What happens with wire wireless ? You need six A . So they were already .
Their infrastructure is already in place to handle the 10 gig requirements . So I guess that leads to a point is the customer needs to understand not what their needs are today , but maybe what their needs are down the road . And , like I say , maybe six . You're saying , well , we're only going to be in this building for five years . You know what ?
Six cat six might be fine , but they're saying you know what , like a , like a school or something they build , a university builds a building and it's going to be that building for a long , long , long , long time . So it probably makes sense for them to spend more money on the front end so that they extend the life of it .
¶ Handling Customer Objections and Building Relationships
So I can get back to your question is handling the objection ? Have them just go over with , just say you know that's our price , you know that's what we bid out . Build a report with the customer and say , okay , let's look at it and say , yeah , let me better understand what your expectations are .
You know , maybe they can change it , reduce it , or maybe the customer will go . You know what ? You're right , I get it now . So you know . Just , it helps build rapport with the customer and in confidence that you're not just trying to sell them a job , you're trying to get them the most for their money .
I love the fact that you didn't say , oh , just cut your price . I love the fact that you said ask questions , seek understanding , because a lot of new people starting off , you know they got their new Louisville company to get the first customer to . You know , first win . Or the first customer says that's expensive .
Then the customer says why is it so expensive ? First thing you want to do is slash the price and that's , you know , your price is your price . You know , if there's a misunderstanding , maybe it might have been customer expectation might have been off or , like you said , it might be a misunderstanding of what they wanted versus what you priced .
And I love the fact that you didn't automatically start off with cut the price . I love that .
Well , it can work against you . If you say , well , then I'll take price , a lower price . Then the customer starts saying , well , then you're overcharging me and now you can cut the price . I think that sets up a bad precedent that they think , okay , well , this guy is , all he's trying to do is make a bunch of money off me , you know .
But if you just say , hey , well , if a company is going to just charge a fair price , I think that comes off better in the long run . You know , maybe this guy is looking for the cheapest product and you know what , he's probably not a good customer for you . And that leads to another thing not all customers are good customers . Some of them are just not .
They can be fired . Their name might not be good customers . You know , I've met with contractors that all they worried about was the cost of a jack . Well , I said you know what , if you weren't worried about a cost of a jack , I'm probably not your guy , because I know you can go buy a Chinese jack for $1.25 and if that works for you .
But let me just tell you this , and I didn't even say this to this one contractor in my head I'm thinking that if he's worried about a jack and he's going to buy the cheapest product , well , what happens ? When I get a call , somebody looking for a contractor to do work for them ? I'm not going to refer him .
I'm going to refer one of my good contractors that I know are going to support me and are not worried about the cost of a jack or a foot of cable . So it's not all about price . You know , maybe that's what that leads to is don't make it all about price . Make it about what you're doing for the customer .
Well , respect that and you'll have a longer relationship with them .
One a , one shot job doesn't build a relationship either , doesn't build that relationship . Yeah , you know another thing that does too , as you were talking it . Just this is the ADHD in my brain .
It also teaches the customer that if they throw up a red flag of why is it so expensive , if you slash your price the first time , they're going to start saying that every single time you submit them a price because they they they learn it behavior every time .
Yeah , and I have , and I actually have a contractor that that I always leave in 5% , because I know three days before that he's got a water cable , he's going to come to me and say I need $5 a box off . Okay , I'll make a call to the factory . Yeah , but that's not a good relationship .
They were a contractor of mine and you know I , but I learned to work around it . Sometimes you have to do that , but they weren't the best customers . You know you want a customer that that you build a relationship and you're both trying to it's a mutually beneficial relationship .
And if it's not , if they're , if they're just , you know first thing , they throw up to say , well , I can get those , those , those jacks , off of Amazon for what'd you say buck and a quarter or whatever it was . That's not a mutually beneficial relationship .
Whatever ?
I call Amazon when the customer is asking you well , you know what's the temperature range of this cable . It's in a , in a wet environment . Amazon's not going to answer there's nothing wrong with Amazon , by the way but Amazon's not going to give you the support that a you know it's got to be that mutually beneficial relationship , you know .
Yeah , yeah , and something else , and I don't know if this was a question when asked , but a contractor needs to build a relationship with their suppliers . Make sure they have they have good relationship with your suppliers .
You can't be best buddies with everybody , so pick a handful you know , one or two for each product line and at least start out that way and support those , those manufacturers , because they're the ones that are going to try to help you if they know you're trying to help them .
So it goes back to being mutually beneficial , right ? Yeah , yeah , last question , last question for you . So what advice would you give that newcomer who's just starting their business in low voltage ? How to stay motivated and resilient when they're getting all those rejections you know for making sales calls and stuff ?
Good question and I thought about this a lot . You have to go into it and I call it the no plan B option . There's no plan B . You have to make this successful . You can quit , and you can quit and go get a job . But if that's your attitude , you're probably not gonna make it .
Go in the attitude that I'm gonna make this work , I'm gonna do everything I can , I'm gonna spend the hours I need to spend . When you have that positive kind of winning attitude , it gets projected to anybody you talk to your customers , your manufacturers , your distributors If they feel like , hey , I'm gonna win , that's who you wanna be with .
So I would answer your question just , it's a harsh way to look at it . But no plan B , this is I'm gonna make this work . I don't care if they get a hundred nos .
And you're gonna get a bunch of nos .
You're gonna get lots of nos , trust me , I've had lots and lots . I can tell you stories about when I heard nos that it depended on how I reacted determine how successful I was , cause I had a situation once I had a customer say I'm gonna use you on this project . There was , I don't wanna say , 300,000 feet of cable and connectors .
Okay , well , the last minute he says I can't use you . Okay , so to me , the beginning of my business , that was a big project . Okay , 300,000 feet of cable , good size project . I could have said , well , you know what the heck with you guys , you know what you know , you guys screwed me over . But that's not how I looked at it . I said you know what ?
It was a distributor and a contractor . I said you know what ? I'm coming to Charlotte , I wanna take you to dinner . So I took both of them out to the nicest dinner in Charlotte and I think it kind of caught them off guard cause they thought that I would just walk away . But I said you know , let's go to dinner , let's talk about it .
Six months later , you know what happened . He said I got another project I can work in on . It's a big project . It was 1.8 million feet of cable and I got that project .
¶ React Properly, Never Give Up
So how you react in any situation is critical to going forward . Don't overreact , react properly . Don't get mad , just say , hey , okay , didn't work out for me , let's figure out how to make it work next time . And they respect that . So just , I guess the point is to your question is just never give up . If you're in , you're in , keep working at it .
Don't worry about the no's , go find the yeses .
I can't think of a better way to end this show than with that right there , Mr John .
All right .
I appreciate you coming on today and enjoy your retirement , my friend .
Oh , I am , I am . We got our new trips lined up , so we're looking forward to have fun . So , and you too , you have fun . And if you get to Raleigh , let me know If you're doing some training , raleigh , I'll just come out and say hi at lunch or something .
Oh , absolutely Anytime I'm in at Raleigh teaching training , you're more than welcome to come show up , more than welcome .
Yeah , just come up and , like you say , cause you always take an hour break there , I'll come up and just at least say hello and shake your hand and talk for a few minutes . So anyway , this is my pleasure , thank you .