The Home Service Expert Podcast
00:33:34 · Tommy Mello, Kyle Erdmann, Becca Erdmann
[00:33:34] S0: So, like, you know, now we service from 6AM to 10PM. And it's hard. It's hard because not a lot of people like those shifts. Right. [00:33:42] S2: No. But that's where a good visionary for a company, you know, like yourself or, that's what I try to do, is it's continuously talking to those people that have to work those shifts and reminding them what the vision of the company is and how they fit into Yeah, [00:33:55] S0: how they fit. Yeah, what's in it for them. [00:33:57] S2: And the one big thing is right now we're doing a book club with our leadership team. We're reading 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It's constantly reselling the vision to everybody to make sure that the passion never wanes. And I think that that's how you can keep people around for so long and keep dynamic growth going. [00:34:13] S1: And now that this is new to us having a leadership team that's like a wall kind of in between us and the employees, which is brand new, because I'm so used to going to talk to every employee, and we're great at selling the vision, and they've all bought into us, but now we have to get them to buy into our leaders. So we started the book club this year, and we're trying to get the leaders to make sure that they're expressing the vision as well to their... To all their departments below because it's just not the same as it was. So I mean, growing and scaling and and growing as fast as we are, it's just it's all new. It's like we've never been here before, right? So everything's, we're learning as we're going, Now, you
00:34:49 · Tommy Mello
[00:34:49] S0: it's good to have mentors. I'll tell you this, it's why reinvent the wheel. Always say, look, we'll keep, we're not gonna reinvent the wheel. We might throw new hubcaps on That's about it. And that's, you know, I've had Brian Gottlieb come speak at my events. He's worked with us as a team. And there are so many things you can do to really enhance the culture. And when you do it correctly, you know, home improvement, although it's very like home service, is so much different because you're using dollars that people want to spend. I'm using dollars that they have to spend. When Correct, the pipe breaks, when the roof goes bad and it's leaking. So like, I'm an immediate need, need to service it, I need to be right out there. You're more like, well, what do you like better? You know what I mean? And it's fun, when the economy is not doing good, it's a lot harder. Like, your garage door is stuck closed and your car is in there, you're gonna pay us to fix it. You might not replace it. What do you guys think about the home improvement space that you guys are in? Because garage doors could fall into that.
00:35:46 · Becca Erdmann, Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:35:46] S1: I mean, really quick before you go, I just wanna say decking is a need. So, like, people's decks fall apart all the time, and they do need to replace their deck. So that part of the business, I would say, is a need. Not And understand. Not necessarily want. And if you are gonna replace your deck, you know, we can go over all the reasons why not to get wood and why to get PVC. But it makes sense. And you can sell it as an investment on your home and for resale value. So to me, that portion of the business is a... It still is a need for a lot of people. It's just a matter of, are you gonna try to do it the cheap way and just get wood really fast and replace it immediately? Or do you wanna have an investment on your house for better resell value down the road? So it's about, I'd say, how you sell it. [00:36:27] S2: And then to to answer your question, if there was ever, an economic downturn with us being in a wants business, how we deal with it? Well, most of our clients would fall into high high net worth individuals. High net worth individuals tend to double down during economic crisis, and they'll take advantage of dips in pricing, because they're smart with money. Mhmm. But also, I mean, affordability, offering financing to every customer, and selling financing, which I think there's a massive difference between telling a customer you have it and actively selling it to them to make it affordable for them. [00:36:57] S1: Definitely. [00:36:59] S0: Yeah. It's a promotion.
00:36:59 · Tommy Mello, Kyle Erdmann, Becca Erdmann
[00:36:59] S0: Yeah. It's a promotion. [00:37:00] S2: Correct. And then, you know, when an economic downturn does happen, people do tend to spend more time at their home. So why not make your home more comfortable for you to spend time at it? Same idea, the pandemic came around. Outdoor living boomed during the pandemic because everyone was at home. [00:37:14] S1: Yeah. They're [00:37:15] S0: so... Everything boomed during the pandemic. We were deemed essential. What are... So what are you... When you say financing, because I love talking about financing, I've heard, I had a guy, Paul Kelly, in town with Parker and Sons yesterday. They do 300,000,000 here in Phoenix in one market, which is pretty great to talk to. And he goes, How much do you think it would cost you guys to replace your air conditioning in your car if it went out? [00:37:40] S1: Oh, $5. [00:37:41] S0: $5, let's say $5. How many people does that cool? Are you usually, maybe one of your sons, maybe two of your sons are in the car. So one to three, maybe sometimes the family is four. But usually it's just you most likely. Yeah. And how often do you... How much do you spend on your time in your car? [00:38:00] S1: Well, I drive every day. [00:38:02] S0: So maybe like half an hour to an hour? At least. [00:38:05] S1: Yeah, probably two hours a day. [00:38:06] S0: So you're spending two hours a day. Now how much time is your family spending in your home? Probably more than two hours a day. [00:38:14] S2: Yeah. Definitely more.
00:38:14 · Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello, Becca Erdmann
[00:38:14] S2: Yeah. Definitely more. [00:38:15] S0: So let's just talk about this. You said $5 for your house or $5 for your car and that's this many cubic square feet. [00:38:23] S1: Mhmm. [00:38:25] S0: What if we could get you the comfort system, the air quality that you need rather than this breaking every six months and we'll make it for $3 a day? And he just related it so good and we're talking through this and he goes, do you always leave the highest quote? And let them decide. And we've got a whole structure that we do this, but he was just... We just talked about this yesterday so it was fresh on my mind and he's like, always go to the day. Yeah. Like, if it's $2 a day just to have it. I mean, anybody could have say $2 a day. [00:38:53] S1: Don't think we go to the day. We go to the month. [00:38:54] S0: Like, how much We always do the month because the system... It's usually CRMs will talk us to the month. [00:38:58] S1: Maybe a week could be good too. [00:39:00] S2: So some of our better guys, though, we we we do the dwindle down to dumb. I mean, if we can make the payment seem so dumb that you don't spend it, like like $2 a day for more comfort. That's that's... It sounds so dumb. Like, why wouldn't I do it? [00:39:12] S1: Yeah. Right. [00:39:13] S0: So Yeah. Especially... Well well, the deal is that's a fifteen year plan. [00:39:17] S2: It's $2 a day. I spend more than that on coffee every morning.
00:39:17 · Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello, Becca Erdmann
[00:39:17] S2: It's $2 a day. I spend more than that on coffee every morning. [00:39:19] S0: Oh, I mean, easy. Yeah. So what else do you do when you're using what we call promotions? And by the way, there's three types of buyers, no interest, low interest, no payment. Correct. And it's understanding the three types of buyers, then it's understanding why the technicians should be interested in doing this. And then it's telling them that it's not something bad. It's bad to go buy a Harley because it goes to half the value the next year. Mhmm. Most of these home improvement things we're talking about add value to your best investment. [00:39:44] S1: Oh, [00:39:44] S0: yeah. So I think there's a different way of having the technicians look at it because some of them live in apartments. Some of them don't have nice cars or a nice garage for my sake. So how do you sell it to your techs or your salespeople, then how do you sell it to the homeowner?