Emily Martin took us by surprise. From the very beginning of our interview with her, she didn’t hesitate to divulge things that most other electrical contractors (ECs) would be reluctant to share. Martin freely revealed, in detail, great strategies that her company has employed to consistently build the impressive list of loyal and steady customers; these strategies have made the service organization at Aschinger Electric so notably successful. Virtually all of the EC executives we have interviewed over the years have been happy to describe in broad generalities the benefits they have witnessed from developing a healthy, growing service operation within their company. Martin, however, candidly shared strategies that have worked successfully for her company. She carried our conversation a step further by spelling out four recipes for service delivery success. She prefaced her remarks by noting, “People understand the whys of pursuing service work, but most of them don’t know the hows of making it happen.”


Much of what you have accomplished with the Aschinger Electric service organization reminds us of the old adage: Companies don’t do business with companies; people do business with people.

We wholeheartedly agree with that idea. Our service activity is strictly “business-to-business.” But we pay close attention to the kind of ties that can quickly develop between our service electricians and those customers’ representatives who repeatedly tell us how much they like our work. Accordingly, my first bit of advice for any electrical contractor wanting to build a profitable service business and an ever-increasing customer base is to do what we do: Ask for referrals! We will typically say, “We appreciate how much you love our service electricians. Who else do you know who would also value the kind of service we deliver?” But we don’t stop there. In addition, we listen for information about customers’ trade associations that might open the door to even more marketing opportunities—like making presentations at their meetings.


It sounds as though you get everyone in the company involved in the marketing effort.

[SB]We do. Every EC should. That’s a second key concept in building a robust service business: Have a formalized program that mobilizes everyone to contribute to the marketing effort. We call ours the Aschinger Ambassadors Program. Through it, we coach all of our field staff, for example, on how to identify likely prospects for potential work—such as client companies that have no electrical maintenance staff of their own and/or customers’ facilities that have badly aging infrastructure. In that same vein, our service electricians make prospective customers aware of NFPA 70E safety standards, where necessary, and facilitate having one of our qualified experts follow up with a visit. We incentivize our field staff with cash prizes to recognize their efforts at producing sales leads. That kind of reward system yields additional revenues in unexpected ways—like a major contract for renovating an electrical system that developed out of a relationship initially begun via a rather small emergency repair call.


Your first two suggestions describe business strategies that have been common practice in other industries for decades.

That’s right. The third “how-to” suggestion that I would offer is an equally traditional and enduring concept that will never go out of style: Establish marketing partnerships with key vendors. If you selectively set up relationships with certain vendors, you will inevitably enjoy the opportunity to witness them “selling” for you! Hypothetically, suppose that you have put in place such a partnering arrangement with a company that sells workplace safety PPE [personal protective equipment]. If they have a commercial or industrial customer of their own seeking to buy PPE required for arc-flash protection, your PPE company partner can seize upon the opportunity to take the lead in proposing a bundled offering including the expert electrical service work, which your company can provide. That’s probably a job that you would never have known about had you not teamed up with that PPE equipment provider. Taking the partnering concept even a step further, you and the vendor might collaborate to put together “lunch-and-learn” sessions targeted at the vendors’ customer base (which almost always will be far larger than yours) to pitch electrical system upgrades from which you both can make your respective cash registers ring.


You are getting into the realm of professional marketing techniques that are typically beyond the scope of most electrical contractors’ native abilities.

Nothing that I am describing is beyond the capabilities of most of your serious readers. It just takes a little planning and forethought. Which leads me to my fourth and final tip that has also proven to be effective for us: Mount a monthly email marketing campaign. In other words, constantly keep your name in front of your present and prospective customers. Even if they push the “delete” key without reading the message, at the very least, each month, they will once again see the name of who sent it. In this outbound marketing effort, provide your customers with useful electrical information. Avoid the appearance of advertising. Give them content that they will judge as worth reading. Remember, you want customers to look to your company as a source of solutions. They are counting on you for your technical expertise, but more important, they are depending on you for their peace of mind.