Selling multiyear maintenance contracts is an everyday event for mechanical contractors’ service departments. It has never been that easy for electrical contractors. However, there are far more types of eligible systems and potential tasks in electrical service and maintenance than any other kind.

When we rolled out electrical service and maintenance 2.0 in our August 2023 column “A Bold New Dimension to Business,” we explained how electrical contractors could have a service offering to take to market with a brand-new rate of success. Below, we expand on this new sales strategy, but first let’s revisit what “Version 2.0” is all about.

A quick review

Version 2.0 contains all the elements of a traditional service and maintenance agreement, but it adds a critical “peace of mind” component—uninterrupted operation. Under the terms of the agreement, the EC will install and maintain on-site generators, batteries, solar panels or some combination thereof to guarantee uninterrupted operation of predetermined systems in customers’ facilities.

That guaranteed operability will protect specifically designated systems against power outages. With Version 2.0, an EC would wrap customers’ systems in the security blanket of an individual or shared microgrid to achieve guaranteed operability.

Remaking the customer experience

By offering guaranteed operability, Version 2.0 will remake the decision-making and fulfillment phases of the customer experience.

Customers may produce rational justifications as to why they selected a particular product or service in any given situation. But customers’ buying decisions, even in a business­-to-business transaction, are almost always rooted in emotional responses to the alternatives they are examining. The bridge between one’s physical senses and emotions is apt to play a decisive role in the selection of products or services.

For instance, an electrician at a big box store comparing different brands of side-cutter pliers may choose the pair with the grip and heft that appeals most to their sense of touch as opposed to utility or cost.

More germane to this discussion, office building managers listening to a pitch from an HVAC services sales rep will naturally sense the air flow and room temperature in the space around them. As they do, they cannot fail to imagine the effect on hundreds of occupants if the system shuts down.

In the meantime, an EC proposing a traditional service and maintenance agreement to the same office building managers does not enjoy that kind of sensory reinforcement. A customer can easily imagine the consequences of the lights going out. But visualizing a blackout will never match the sensory-based imagination of tenants sweltering or shivering. Besides, building managers know they can count on borrowed light streaming in through the windows.

Version 2.0 with guaranteed operability of essential systems will open up a new perspective for customers about the desirability of having coverage under an electrical service and maintenance agreement.

Value versus price

By guaranteeing the availability of energy to power all or part of a customer’s facilities, electrical service and maintenance 2.0 represents a major departure from the norm in the scope of the service agreement an EC is proposing. Accordingly, it will redirect the discussion from price to value.

Undeniably, the fees for this higher level of protection will be greater. The additional cost of installation and upkeep of energy-­producing assets will be notable. But customers that see the value in Version 2.0 coverage will acknowledge they must pay for it. The on-site equipment—generators, batteries, solar panels or a combination—of course would be leased monthly.

As well, by offering guaranteed operability, the electrical service contractors will necessarily have to charge for routine inspection visits, which in turn will lead to additional revenue from “pull-through” work.

The best salespeople for Version 2.0

In every contracting company, no matter its size, the most effective salespeople will always be the service and maintenance electricians. Customers will ordinarily place more faith in recommendations and suggestions from those service electricians. That’s why ECs must invest in the continuing education and training of service electricians to prepare them for this critical role.

If the contractor makes a commitment to offering electrical service and maintenance 2.0, everyone in the company will require initial orientation and related ongoing training. Again, the role of each service electrician will become even more critical to success.

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