Hey all you guys in the electrical business. Those of you who are electricians and electrical contractors, this article is for you... I hope it helps!

Increasing electrical sales is always an interesting subject because you can't have customers doing there own thing. So, when you think about increasing your sales, you have to get creative. In this article I hope to do just that

Offering information on how to lower there electrical bill

Giving people information they need to make better decisions in their life as it relates to electrical systems in there house, in there appliances, in there businesses will win. Information in video, photo, written and audio will win because in the climate we're living in people want to stop giving their money away to bills and other things they don't view as enriching their lives. If you do residential, if you sub contract or if you do commercial... it does not matter. It does not matter what you do, you need to give people and businesses good information that can enrich their lives and save them money.

If you're in commercial work you need to remember that you can give a ton of tips for businesses AND talk about peoples homes, because there are people behind those businesses.

One tip maybe you could have some sort of savings calculator on your website that can grab email addresses for your business.

Offering yearly/quarterly/monthly inspections

I think THIS could be a huge product for a lot of businesses. Building a recurring revenue model into a business is for everyone and those of you who are electricians and electrical contractors can do this, too. You can do it for businesses, you can do it for residential.

What I would do is build an inspection product that gives business and individuals peace of mind. I would build revenue models where they can pay you monthly, quarterly or yearly. Where you do an X number/point inspection on all things electrical in there house, give them recommendations on money savings, health of different systems in their house or business. wrap up with a report that they get a digital copy of (make it pretty). This can be low cost and may not be a HUGE revenue stream for you, but it keeps you connected to your customers and potential customers so that when something happens or someone asks for a recommendation, they think of you.

Note - This advice applies if you do commercial work. If you do all commercial work and play in the system of bidding and tenders.. I REALLY think that this is important for you. I know large companies will have a maintenance electrician on staff but the small to medium businesses won't! That is a space you can play and make additional revenue not predicated on being "the lowest bid" or not having visibility on what others are doing.

Using the customer base you already have

This may be straight forward BUT so many of you don't do this. So many of you bill people and move on... There is a huge opportunity in the customer information you already have. If all you do is bill and have accounting data, that's ok! That means you have a company name, phone number and a contact person as a starting point and you can start building a database you can call, email and more importantly, start bringing value to.

Tip - it is less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to find new customers.

I talked about this in a recent daily video I did on our Facebook page. You can use Hubspot which is a FREE CRM service. (Google Hubspot CRM) and you'll find it. You can plug your existing customer data in there. Company name, contact name, phone number, email etc. They can all live inside that CRM for free and you can keep notes there, and if you want to pay, you can even make phone calls from the software. (Oh, and they have Android and Apple apps)

Tip - Start talking to your existing customers about some of the other things we've talked about above and below AND remind them there here. You could even call and say "Hi customer. This is who we are, do you or anyone you know need help?"

Website

This one is self explanatory, but so many of you Do. Not. Have. One... Why? Most of you don't think you need one because you do business XYZ way. But you need to think of it this way; Do you invite people over to your house/condo/apartment? You probably do and why can you invite them over? It's because they have a place to go to visit you!

Same thing with having a website, you can't invite people into relationship with you and your business if you don't have a place for them to go. And in 2020 we live on the internet. EVERYONE, no matter how old they are, Google you before deciding to work with you.

If you sub contract, coming up with a complimentary service for residential may be the play

If you subcontract you can't always (if ever) talk to the DIRECT customer, BUT you have the addresses of everyone you've worked at - whether it's residential or commercial, does not matter. You have those addresses, now if you come up with another service or product to offer, like the service I talk about above, or something completely different. Maybe you get into another vertical, maybe you wash windows, maybe you pressure wash, maybe you install thermostats. Whatever it is, what can you do to connect with customers that DOES NOT get in the way of your sub contract relationships?

If you do commercial only, plugging into a monthly contract business of maintenance

If you do commercial work, more then likely you do the work before the business moves in. And once you're done and the business moves in you generally never talk to them again. REALLY pushing into a monthly maintenance service contract will keep you connected to people. It will bolster your monthly revenue. I think this is VERY important.

Partnering with other services and companies for affiliate fees (off the back of your subscription model)

Just because you do XYZ work as an electrician or electrical contractor does not mean there are not other opportunities... No matter what you do, whether it be residential or commercial, I think there is a huge opportunity to partner with other company's like an appliance company, a fire/safety company, or a whole host of others. Then, as you're doing work in homes and business, you can recommend services to the direct client or you can offer warm leads to partners and simply make a referral fee. I really think there could be BIG opportunity here if you think it through smartly!

Note - If you do these ideas you will need dedicated people. You can't half do these things. You don't need to hire more people but you need someone inside your organization to champion the process. Whether it's a new product, calling new and existing customers, or making brand partnerships with other companies. It needs to be championed by an employee or you have to have a partner consultant in your corner to create content, talk to customers, come up with new products etc.