How 3X Crown Champion Chris DeShields from Moffett Plumbing in Orange, CA, Sold Nearly $800K in Residential Plumbing Work in 2020

Support for this podcast comes from Synchrony Financial. Allow homeowners to pay at a rate that fits their budget with a merchant fee that fits yours. Visit www.toolbox.mysynchrony.com for more information.

And we ask permission to write options first.

Okay, you do.

You know, because I mean—

So how do you frame that for me? Because that's interesting. I don't always hear that. Just, I just normally hear people just do it.

Bob, you know, you're out here for your water heater, water heater leak. We're putting it— obviously, you know, we need to replace it, put a new one in there, right? But 9 times out of 10, you know, the condition of the water is what's causing issues for water heaters to leak. You know, we do offer water filtrations. Is that something that you're remotely interested in?

Okay, sure.

And if you are, do you mind if I put that on an option?

Okay.

Just so you can see, you know, what's entailed, what needs to be done. Right.

And it's not— it's obviously that way is very passive and it gets them to open their mind.

Do all that and they're saying yes. Now it's Their option. They gave you permission to do it. So when you do present them an option, like say for filtration, they can't sit there and say, I didn't ask for this. Well, yes you did. You said okay.

Right. Welcome to The Successful Contractor powered by Success Group International, a show for residential contractors about residential contractors. We chronicle business journeys, share insights, and celebrate successes in this wonderful industry. I'm your host, Bob Hauschen. I'm incredibly excited to bring to you another show in what I'm calling our Crown Champion Series. It is Christa Shields of Moffett Plumbing in Orange, California. Now, as a quick reminder, in SGI world, we call a Crown Champion, at least when it comes to plumbing, any plumber that sells over $500,000 worth of residential plumbing work. Christa Shields has done that 3 times. He is a 3-time Crown Champion. And then last year, he blew it out of the water, did $800,000 worth of residential plumbing work. Hugely impressive. I think you'll, you'll notice what I noticed. Chris is just a really calm customer, an exceptional communicator. He's funny. You can just tell how he connects well with, with customers and gets them to like him. And ultimately they trust him to manage their plumbing, their plumbing work. So I really hope you enjoy our show and I'm sure you'll take away a nugget or two. Chris, thank you so much for being on the show. Very excited to have you. If you could just share with everyone your name and your company name.

My name is Chris DeShields. I work for Tom Moffett Plumbing.

Very good. And we're here today, we're in San Antonio, Texas for an SGI Expo and you're here For a very good reason. Can you share with everyone what kind of a year you had last year?

Remarkable, to be honest with you. When I first started with the company, the first 9 months I got Crown Champion, just did over $600,000. Then last year, or 2 years ago, I did just over $700,000. And then this last year, I actually just hit under $800,000.

That's incredible. A 3-time Crown Champion. So there's not a whole lot of those walking around. That's a lot of revenue out of one plumbing truck.

Yes, sir.

Very, very excited to have you. Want to learn your story, how you talk to customers, Before we dig into the service side and what you do day to day so well, let's talk about your story. I love to hear how people ended up where they are. How did you get into plumbing trade?

Well, honestly, I was working, I was a service technician for Nextel. I don't know if you remember Nextel.

Oh sure.

The 2-way radios. And a gentleman came in that had his preventative maintenance drain cleaning company, and he liked the way how I talked to him and how I presented it, and he actually offered me a job. So I took him up on it, was there for about 2 and a half years, and we would outsource to plumbers. And, uh, they loved my commitment with work, what I was doing. And what ended up happening was that they offered me an apprentice job. So that's how I really got into plumbing, is I started with them, and then from there moved to different companies.

Now I'll be darned. And then you, uh, you landed at Moffett's, so it was 3 years ago?

Yes, sir.

And, and maybe explain how, uh, how that connection happened.

My sales manager, Kevin, he was a manager at another company. My application came across his desk, we interviewed, but that company just wasn't a fit for me or my family.

Right.

So I declined. And then Kevin since left there, went over to Moffitt, and again I was putting out applications, and then my name came across his desk over at Moffitt, and he gave me a call, and I went in there, didn't have to re-interview with Kevin because he already knew me. I went and had my 3-hour interview with Mike.

A 3-hour interview, that's a pretty impressive interview. Well, was it super in-depth about plumbing or maybe not so much?

We barely even talked about plumbing. It was all about ice hockey because Mike plays and my stepson plays, and we just hit it off. We had, you know, we had that same, what do you call it, connection, so to speak. You know, he loved hockey, I loved it because my son dominated in it.

Yeah.

And it just— relationship grew from there.

That's awesome. What's it like to work over at Moffitt? And what kind of team is it? What kind of culture is it?

It doesn't feel like work. You know, you're with a bunch of group, a great group of guys. You know, I'm honored for you to have me here, but ideally, you know, every one of us at our office can do what I can do. You know, we do. We have 3 Crown Champions this year.

Yeah, that's awesome.

You know, which is awesome. But I mean, it's— sorry, I lost track.

No, that's all right. Just what's it like working at a company like that? What's the culture like? What's the vibe like?

Family. Hands down, family.

Yeah.

Example, stuff that Mike's done for me and my family, never had an owner do before. You know, when my wife and I hit 6 years wedding anniversary, Mike Sent us to a hotel, you know, paid for the room. Here, use the company car, take your wife out to a nice dinner, you know. And what owner does that, you know, to his technicians, right? You know, he's, uh, we hit a goal my first year, he closed down shop for 3 days and took everybody on a cruise to Ensenada.

Oh wow.

You know, and you just can't ask for a better owner. Yes, he's not your owner. He is, but he's not. Yeah, you know, like I told Mike last night, you know, I look at him like an older brother. Because he looks out for us just like we look out for him.

Yeah, Mike's good people, known him a long time, so that's super neat to hear from the other, the other side. Before we get into the in-the-home stuff, what is— what's training like? You said you got 3 Crown Champions, that's a lot of successful people. Mike's got a good— obviously it's a good business. So what's your training regimen like? I mean, I know you're very good at what you do, but, you know, training is still important to keep your skills sharp.

We train every morning at the office.

We're all—

all of us are in a class or in a room. Our service manager, Kevin, he's up there and we just go over steps, you know, what issues are we having, what complications that we're having with clients, how do we overcome them, you know, just teaching us every single day. And then we have Scott, who's our other manager, so to speak, and he's more on the technical side. So he's training up, teaching us more like on like OSHA. Sure.

Sure. So every day, every day you're working to get better. That's great. I mean, it's a huge message. I mean, to be good, that's what it takes. And there's— the most successful ones typically do that.

Yes, sir.

Um, all right, let's get in more of the mechanics of the call. Um, but before we even get, get to the home, I know so many successful salespeople, technicians, um, they get their mind right before, you know, and especially if it's like the 3rd call of the day and maybe it was a rough couple first calls, cranky customers, and you did— even if you did everything right. You can't carry that from one call to the next, right?

No.

So how do you, how do you get your mind right, you know, before going into every home?

Honestly, uh, before I go to every job, I have the radio up but not too loud, just kind of where I can just almost like background noise, so to speak. But I just clear my mind. I don't think about it. But when I do get to my client's house, I go in there with an attitude like this job's going to get sold.

When you go, before going to the, the house and knocking on the door and doing all the steps, do you do any background on the person, you know, previous jobs, Do you have a history of jobs that have been out there so you kind of know what you're walking into?

I do. You know, we have on our phones that email us the calls, but it shows the history of what we've done, what they've spent. You know, are they someone that just shops around or if they're someone that actually does work? But even the ones that don't, that just shop around, still a challenge. You know, let's turn them around. Let's get them, you know, on board and get some stuff done.

Sure, sure. All right, so you pull up your truck and you make sure you get out of there at a decent time, right? Do you knock on the door and you pivot and then, you know, you introduce yourself, and then they let you— do you put the mat down? Do you guys do the red mat? Yes, sir. Very nice. And do the shoe covers, right? Floor savers. Yep. People get mad at me if I say shoe covers.

I say shoe covers. Okay, good. That's all right, I won't get mad at you.

Okay, good. I appreciate that. But, you know, obviously the call can be made in those first couple minutes, right? And how you connect with a customer. So maybe talk about how do you— what are some things you do to break the ice with people? Hey, no one wants to have a plumber in their house. Sorry to say that. I know that just breaks your heart, but But you know, they have a problem, they're frustrated. So how do you kind of get them to chill out and then maybe start talking to you and connecting with you?

I talk to them in a calm voice, for one. I go off of— it's a thing that I've learned in my plumbing years, it's called FORM, which stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation, Material. So I get to know my clients, look at pictures, find out what they do, what their family's about. You know, I'll crack jokes. You know, especially when we go over options, you know, I got to talk to my wife. You know, I don't blame you. I wouldn't want you to make a decision. Then you're calling me at night saying, hey, you need a place to stay because your wife got upset and kicked you out of the house.

Right.

That normally gets a laugh out of them. Sure, sure. But yeah, I'm just very easygoing.

Right.

You know, I get to know my clients, you know, more on a personal level.

Right. We, you know, we talk about this thing called credibility statements so people understand, you know, that you know what you're talking about. You're not just hired off the street. Do you guys do a credibility statement? Is it— do you do it early on or do you weave it into the call?

Well, as we're going in there, as I'm talking to the client, first of all, I'll ask them how they hear about us, you know, where'd they hear it from. And I let them know, look, we've been in business since 1969, family owned and operated. I myself have been plumbing going on for 21 years. You know, every day we always learn. You know, there's things that I don't know that I get the younger technicians will bring to my attention. It's like an aha moment. It's like, oh my gosh, you're absolutely right.

Sure.

So we're learning every single day, you know, even the most Seasoned texts, you know. But, but yeah, it's just really just getting to know the client.

Yeah. We talk more and more at SGI about trying to understand people's personality types and how they respond to communication. Do you try and diagnose what kind of customer, what their personality is, and try and kind of reflect that so they're comfortable? Or you just kind of act calm and like— you seem like a very chill guy, so you just kind of act that way and that seems to help you connect with Are you familiar with the mirror effect? I think maybe a little bit. Go ahead, get into it.

So like if I'm coming to your house and you're talking and your voice is a little elevated, I'm going to match your pitch.

Okay.

Because obviously you like yourself.

Right.

Subconsciously you're going to be sitting there going, you know, there's something about this guy that I like. It's because it's making you think like you're— obviously you like yourself.

Right.

So I use the mirror effect a lot.

Okay. And if someone's real passive, you just take it real easy with them? How about those types that are really— You know, they probably did 3 hours of research online before they called you out to have a quote on some work. How do you kind of approach those types?

I compliment them. You know, it's like, Bob, that's fantastic. You know, you seem like you know what you're doing. You know, why am I here?

Okay, right, right.

You know, and again, it's like, I'm the professional. Yes, you know, you are having me come out here, you know, to help you with an issue.

Sure.

And that's pretty much just what I do.

Yeah, I like it. So we talked about your credibility statement a little bit. We talk a lot, SG, about asking questions, right? Trying to understand what's going on in the home. How many questions do you like to ask right away, or do you just kind of use your mirror effect? If they take you right to the problem, you follow them, and then do you get into questions there? How do your calls typically go?

I'll slow the call down if they're going to bring me right to the issue. It'll take me roughly about 45 minutes to an hour just before I even leave.

Wow, okay.

Because I want to get to know my client. Yeah, you know, it's a saying that we were taught— I was taught years ago that it's better to be a guest than a pest. You know, so if I can get to know my clients on a personal level, it's harder for them to say no because now I'm a guest in their home.

Right, right.

Just like I tell my guys, if a customer offers you, would you like a bottle of water, you always say yes even if you don't want one because they're opening up the home to you.

Right.

You can actually Offend people by saying, no, no, I'm good, thank you.

Sure, sure. No, that's true. There's— I try to always offer service techs water and stuff because I do this and have for a long time. And you're right, like, okay, I mean, it— I don't really get offended too much, but you do have that minute where you're like, oh, all right, we don't need to have one.

I'm being friendly to you. Yeah, telling me no.

Yeah, yeah, like, oh, that's true, let's get to the work, right? I won't— I get that for sure. Um, there's a lot of personalities, especially, you know, in In this group, there's a lot of sales-oriented personalities, D-oriented, hard-driving people. I'm sure you get those as customers, right? They're like, come on, let's hurry up. Let's, you know, how do you manage a personality like that? That's just go, go, go, I got work to do. Um, it's gotta be tricky.

No, I'd sit there, and if it's getting to that point where they're busy, and I'd straight out ask them, you know, look, is now a good time? Because obviously you're a busy person, which I get. Do you want me to come back at another time when you have a little bit more time? Right. Because what I have to do and everything else is going to take some time to diagnose. Do you have that time on your hands?

Okay. And say, there you go.

If they're on the phone, sometimes more than likely, you know, they'll get off the phone. Look, I gotta call you back, I gotta deal with the plumber. Got it, got it. Or if they're on the phone, you know, and a lot of— actually pretty much every time, I've never had a client say, yeah, come back.

Right, right, for sure, for sure. They understand it's showtime.

Yeah, I'm there to help them out.

Right, for sure. What kind of questions, I mean, it's hard without, I don't know, let's say you have some, you know, a toilet's constantly running or there's just a plumbing fixture that they wanna change out. What kind of questions are you asking to maybe get them to think about, you know, all that you guys offer and stuff like that? How do you kind of set the stage?

Um, well, I mean, if they have their fixtures or whatnot, you know, obviously look at the fixtures and you compliment them. This is a lovely faucet, you know, where'd you find it from? Okay, you know, that's fantastic. You know, you're, you're building them up and they're making them feel like they made a good decision on, you know, picking up a faucet. Or, um, I ask questions like, how often does this Problem happening to you? Is it happening more often than not so much? How much are you paying every time we gotta come out to do this job? How much have you spent in the last year or 2 years on this particular problem?

And you know that because you did the research before and get them to think about it a little bit. Very good, very good.

It's like, do you want to throw money away on something that eventually you're gonna have to replace? But why lose that money? Why not put that money towards the replacement?

This message is brought to you by Redesign.co. As an SGI member, you can receive a 100% fully optimized website that's hosted for free. Have a website you like already? Redesign.co can dramatically boost your presence on Google free for 90 days. Redesign.co is also a full-service digital marketing agency that can assist you with all of your online needs, including PPC. Call 208-261-9898 or visit sgileads.com for more information and see how you can get a free consultation of your current website.

Welcome back to the show and my conversation with Chris DeShields of Moffitt Plumbing in Orange, California. As a reminder, Chris is a 3-time Crown Champion. That means he has sold over $500,000 worth of residential plumbing work 3 years in a row. And last year, 2020, he sold almost $800,000. So hugely impressive numbers. So far, you know, we've met Chris, you've learned his spec, his background, you've learned a little bit what he's doing in the home to be so successful. We're going to dig into it even more. We're going to talk about how he introduces the inspection. We're going to talk about how he asks permission to build options. He's going to share some of his analogies that he uses with people for them to understand what's going on with their plumbing, and he's going to share a whole lot more. So let's jump back into my conversation with Chris DeShields. I'm sure you'll take away another nugget or two. So they take you to the initial problem, right? And then you talk about a little bit. When do you do like the whole house home inspect, the plumbing inspection? I don't know what you guys call it, safety inspection or what. Do you do that as you start kind of evaluating what you were called out to do, or when do you bring that up and introduce that to the customer?

Well, what I'd like to tell the clients is if I'm sitting there going, okay, you told me about this issue here, Before I take a look at this to see what's going on, is there any other issues in your home that you want me to look at while I'm here? And they'll be like, no, or yes, or if it's an angle stop leak, look, this angle stop is leaking. You know how old it is? Original. Okay, if this one's like this, what do you think the rest of them look like? Do you mind if I take a look at it?

Right.

Just to make sure that you're not going to experience this somewhere else in the house.

Mm-hmm. And so, and so at that point, do you fill out like a paper form or anything online as you go?

No, it's more notes, mental taking. Because we do give options and we ask permission to write options first. Okay, you do. You know, because I mean—

So how do you frame that for me? Because that's interesting. I don't always hear that. I just normally hear people just do it.

Bob, you know, you're out here for your water heater, water heater leak. We're putting it— obviously, you know, we need to replace it, put a new one in there. But 9 times out of 10, you know, the condition of the water is what's causing the issues for water heaters to leak. You know, we do offer water filtration. Is that something that you're remotely interested in?

Okay.

And if you are, do you mind if I put that on an option?

Okay.

Just so you can see, you know, what's entitled, what needs to be done. Right.

And it's not— it's obviously that way is very passive and it gets them to open their mind.

Know that and they're saying yes, now it's their option. They gave you permission to do it. So when you do present them an option, like say for filtration, they can't sit there and say, I didn't ask for this. Well, yes you did. You said okay.

Right.

Right, right, right. Yeah, so you don't seem like you're the pushy salesperson once you sit down.

I like that. Well, sometimes.

Yeah, sometimes.

Sometimes you just gotta rip the Band-Aid off.

Yeah, yeah, especially if it's good for someone, right? And they're just being naive or whatever, right? What are some certain— I mean, does that happen a lot where you just get like, man, this is really— you need to replace this water heater, it's 40 years old and it's leaking constantly?

I'll give an example. Several years ago with another company, Went to a house, pilot light was out, but I noticed that the T&P valve was capped off, which is a safety issue. Gave him options to do it. The guy said no, he doesn't want to do it. Guy had kids in the house and everything else, and you don't want to have a water heater, you know, anything to happen to it.

Right.

You know, so what I ended up doing too, and a lot of plumbers probably would do the same thing, is I ended up calling the gas company and told them that they have a serious situation over there. The guy does— this is what was going on. Gas company came out, shut the gas off until they fixed it.

Right, right, right, right. I mean, you don't want to put people in, you know, potential harm's way.

Because I even told the guy, look, I got to shut your gas off. This is not safe. Well, as soon as you do it, I'm just going to turn it back on. Okay. Well, just call the gas company. They're going to come out and lock it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now what are you going to do?

Right, right, right. Yep. No, that's— you're the expert and you don't want to put people in harm's way.

Correct.

What are some other things? I mean, you talk about water heaters is obviously a big ticket item all the time. What are some other things that you kind of look for? I mean, you never want to put— you're never pushing stuff for not, you know, just to push it, but what are common problems you guys see in your market all the time that you can write options for?

Pinhole leaks.

What's that?

Pinhole leaks.

Okay.

Angle stops, toilets, pretty much everything.

Right.

Repipes, re-drains, cleanouts, liners, epoxies. Tankless water heaters versus regular water heaters.

Right.

Filtration softeners.

Yeah, and I know you said before we started recording you do, you sell a lot of, you know, sewer work and stuff like that. But most of it you said comes from your just normal service calls, right?

Yeah.

So, well, I mean, in instances where it's not a drain call at all, you'll just say come for a toilet call and it just leads to that.

I went to a client in Orange and he had a backup inside the house. And while we were there, I asked him like, have you ever had your mainline camera Right. And it was this guy's rental property. He's like, no, no, I haven't. I said, well, I'm here. Would you like me to do it for you? I'll do it for you complimentary. Put the camera in there, found out up underneath the street, found out sewer line had a hole in it. So we ended up giving him options on lining it. So now he has that peace of mind that his line's not going to collapse in the street now.

Right. Yeah, we'll talk about what are different ways you guys have to handle sewer problems. What do you guys offer?

Liners, pipe bursts, jetting. A lot of them. Tuberculate cabling, which is a Picotee machine. It's like a chain cable that reshapes the inside diameter like cast iron pipes.

Yeah, you got the gamut. So when you're building options for that type of stuff, does each way of fixing it become its own option?

Yeah, I mean, you can do like, if you have roots in the line, you can give them an option on just a spot repair.

Okay.

Or you can give them that peace of mind to where we can jet it. Jet it's more like your Band-Aid option. Let's just clean the roots out now, but they are gonna grow back and they are gonna grow thicker.

Right.

To the point to where you have to, you're gonna be forced to dig.

Right.

Or you can get that peace of mind to where we get in there and line it and you never have to worry about roots ever penetrating it again.

Right, right. Off camera we were talking a little bit, just kind of, just, you know, get the feel for what we were going to talk about, and you mentioned it was a really good analogy to help people understand what's going on with their home is you used like a health analogy. Kind of maybe share, you know, that your house is sick, that you said to me specifically. Could maybe share with people what you told me off camera and how you communicate with people so Not in a tech— you know, you don't throw them with a bunch of technical jargon, I'm assuming. You probably relate to them in ways that they understand.

Well, there's a saying, too techie, no checky. Once you start getting too technical, you've lost your client.

Right, they check out.

Exactly. Yeah. Um, but to, to what you're asking me about, the, uh, telling the house is sick. So for instance, if you had a house that you lived in there and the history that you know of that you've— you're on your first slab leak. I'll just give you an option on doing a rewrap. You want to rewrap that one line? You want to do both hot and cold? Just the one? You know, how do you want to do it? With drywall patch? Without drywall patch? But as you get more, it's like the domino effect, right? Once you get one, you get it figured, more is going to come. So as you get more, it's like, okay, well, your house is telling you that it's ill. It's starting— it's starting to fail, right? It's like a common cold to bronchitis to a cardiac arrest to Flatline, right, so to speak.

Right, right. So that you start getting them— they can think of it in their own sense. Oh my goodness, you know, ill. It's like you— it becomes almost a person, right? And you're going to protect that person.

That's why I get to know, like, what they do with, um, like what type of work they do. That's where that form comes in, you know. Um, if they're doing cars, you know, for example, garbage disposals on cars, I'd be like, okay, we have our 3/8 horsepower, 3/4 horsepower, and then you have This 1/2 or 1/3 horsepower. The 3/8 or the 7/8 horsepower is going to be like your Lexus, okay? Your 3/4 horsepower is like your Toyota Avalon. Now the 1/2 horsepower is a used '84 Corolla. And it's like you use that and they can see, okay, Lexus, Toyota Avalon, okay, now an '84 used Corolla.

Yeah.

No one wants that '84 used Corolla.

Sure, sure.

And you just— I just try to explain it to them in ways that they can understand it.

Do you try and stay in constant communication with the homeowner that whole time, even while you're looking through the house? I know a lot of plumbers will go, we'll do a warm-up and I'll talk to the homeowner and, you know, they warm up to me and then I'm going to go do my thing. Or do you find most of your customers are with you at the hip?

I encourage it.

Right.

I encourage it because, I mean, it's like you can tell them they have an issue, but if they can physically see it themselves, right now it's real. We take pictures. So even if it's to the point where if they can't be there with you, I'll take pictures and then I'll show them, hey, look, this is underneath your sink. This is this. This is— then I'll show them pictures. This is not an immediate issue now, but it will be in the future.

Right.

You know, do you want to be proactive or do you want to be reactive? You want to take care of it now and have that peace of mind that you're not going to come home to a flood? Or do you want to take that chance and cross your fingers that you're not going to come home to a flood?

Good. Good stuff. When you build out your options, is it all handwritten or do you guys use tablets? All handwritten, I like it.

Okay.

Do you go to your truck to do that, or will you find a place in the home and sit down with them as you handwrite it? What do you do?

I find out what they're looking for first.

Okay.

So if both husband and wife are there, I'll ask the wife, because every husband knows that, hey, the wife's the boss.

That's pretty accurate, yeah.

So you find out what she wants. Okay, we're doing a hot water heater. Does it take a long time for you to get hot water? Yes, it does. Would you like to have that? Would you like to see an option on getting you instant hot water? where you're not wasting it.

Okay.

Or filtration, you know, does your skin feel itchy when you get out of the shower? Are you using a lot of lotion? Well, yes, I am. Well, that's because of the chemicals that are coming in the water. Do you want to see that option where we can take care of that to where you come out and your skin's going to feel hydrated?

Okay.

So you don't have to deal with that.

Yeah. And does that happen after you've already been led to the problem area before you offer, you know, build that into one of your options? Or just when do you, when do you bring up those, those other items?

Just as I'm going.

Just as you're going.

As I'm going, but before I actually get permission to write the option, I ask them first, what are you looking for? Are you looking for just this, or are you interested in something extra? Sure.

And do you ever— I mean, I think it's great, and obviously it's very successful. Do you get much pushback ever when people are asking? Do they ask, well, why are you asking me about that? You're out here to fix a toilet. Or do customers really appreciate that you're making them aware of things?

I get some pushback.

Sure.

You know, why are you asking especially for a toilet? Okay, well, how many, you know, your flapper's running. Okay, how much water do you think a flapper's gonna waste? You can waste up to 400 gallons of water a day just from a flapper running.

Right.

You know, result of a flapper watering is the chlorine that's coming in the water that's dissolving that flapper, which is causing your toilet to run.

Right.

Putting a system on there that's gonna eliminate that chlorine, now you just eliminated the system of having, you know, obviously a high water bill.

Right, right. So you, yeah, so you know you have, you have your answers for For each one of those situations. I love it, I love it. Okay, so you understand what they're open to, what they're not. Are you sitting down at a table then when you're writing this stuff out?

I go to my truck.

You go to your truck, okay. And I'm sure, you know, you try to get it in and out of there as quickly as you can so they're not waiting too long, or do you just take your time?

I tell them it takes about between 10 to 15 minutes for me to write up my options.

Okay, that's not bad.

Yeah, yeah.

Because if I don't tell them that I'm in there for 15 minutes writing up options, I don't want them to be looking out the window going, what's taking this guy so long? I tell them up front, hey, let's just It'll take me some time to write up these options, you know, but I just want to make sure that my options that I'm creating for you is something that is what you're looking for. Right.

Very good. Okay. And then you sit at the kitchen table or do you get people— okay, we want to stand up and maybe an island or something?

I normally ask, you know, can we sit down so we can go over this? I'll joke around with clients too. Like, you know, like you said, icebreakers throughout the day. I'll walk in like if I'm presenting options, I'll sit and look and I'll be like, how's your heart?

Yeah.

What do you mean? Do I— I mean, do I need to get defibrillators with me just in case when I show you this? I joke with them, you know, and you make someone laugh, it brings their guard down.

Sure, sure. You know, give them a smile a little bit, the tenseness goes away. I like it. If not, you guys do a decent bit of financing, don't you?

Or—

okay, now I'm assuming you always lead with the finance option.

No, you don't. Okay, I'll give them options and tell them what it is, you know, give them the price.

Okay.

I should be doing the finance options, but I mean, it's easier to say, you know, it's only $120 a month versus it's $10,000.

Right.

$120 is easier to chew than $10,000.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I do tell them, okay, this is the price, or we can have a low monthly investment of X amount of dollars. You know, I get clients that sit there and say, well, I can just write you a check. And I think that's fantastic. You're better off than a lot of people. The fact that you can just write a check for this amount, I wish I can.

Yeah.

Well, then I tell them, well, don't you want to hold on to that money? Well, what do you mean? At 0%.

Yeah.

Same as cash for 12 months. No interest, no payments. You can pay it off anytime as long as it's paid off by the 12th month. What if you have an emergency and you need that cash, but yet you spent it on plumbing?

Right.

Where are you going to get it from?

Right.

Wouldn't you rather have that for emergencies and just take the opportunity of having, you know, pretty much money right there for you without spending a dime?

Do you always present financing too?

Yes.

Awesome, great. Let's see here, I want to see if I want to get into club memberships. You guys, I'm sure, have a bunch of club memberships. Big, big company that's been around for a while. Do you build those into a couple of the options, or how does that come up?

On every option. On every option, even the Band-Aid options. Okay, so we have our standard pricing plus we have family club pricing. Okay, so once I show them what the family club pricing is and the standard pricing, then right below it I'll put down, well, this is what you're saving by joining the family club. You're paying X amount of dollars per month for a year, but yet what you're saving covers your family club for 3 years.

Right.

It's more of a no-brainer.

Sure. Do you get— I'm sure that you got to get some objections, right? Because plumbing is not cheap. Even if you did sell the financing very well, which you did, what do you say to someone like, oh man, that's a lot of money. I really should probably call Call a couple other people out just to see, you know. Well, how do you how do you respond to those situations?

I tell them, you know, I understand that. You know, it is it is a big investment. But you know, Bob, let me ask you something. What my options out of my options I provided you, which one were you thinking that's too high? Hmm.

And you make them put in put a number.

Well, it's my the top option. That's fantastic. I have more economical prices below it.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then if then you try and close on one of those those two options, we let them choose.

You know, I tell them the reason I'm creating options for you so. You can have— so you— I create options for you so you can choose what's best for you and your family. You get the freedom to choose what's best for you and your family.

Right.

Now, I'm not selling them anything. I'm providing them a service and letting them pick what they want.

Sure, sure. I'm assuming you guys, you close probably on most of the people. Do you get a lot of people that say, you know what, I just really do want to get another bid? Do you get that very often these days, or people pretty much say, I got time that I value, I like you, the price is the price, but I, I know Moffitt's got a great name. Is that mostly the case?

It, you know, it is a high price. I want to get another bid. Say, you know, I understand that, but, you know, I've just given you 4 bids, right? You know, we're very competitive. If we weren't— we've been in business since '69, right? If we weren't competitive, do you think we'd be in business? We're not your cheapest company, but we're not your most expensive company, but yet the work that we do exceeds Than what we charge.

Do you, I mean, do you really, you try not to push too much, or is there times where you like sometimes will be like—

There's a limit, you know, when you just got to back off because if you continue going, then they're just going to flat out just kick you out.

Right, right, right. So very good. And then you, now you said some of the work you do yourself, you try to do most of it, but you all, you guys also use plumbing installers, which, you know, some people watching this, listening to this, they don't, they don't do that. You know, it's still kind of You know, it's still a newish thing still in plumbing. There's lots of companies been doing it a long time, but lots that don't even know what— how that works. So maybe just explain to people in general why, you know, how that works with you guys.

So if you're selling a big job, if you're doing like a sewer lining or cleanout or whatnot, you— we would set it up with their office to have our install crew come out to do the work, which frees you up so you can continue helping out other clients and running other calls, right? So the office isn't getting Excuse me, I'm backed up.

Sure.

Do—

what— when customers ask, oh, I thought you were going to do the work today, what— how do you kind of manage that, you know, that customer expectation?

Depends on how the work is, you know. And I'll be— and I, I honestly, I'd be like, look, I'm slow when it comes to work. Yeah, I am. Yeah, you know, if I'm gonna do the job, I'm here 2 days versus I can get my guys out here and then get it done in a day.

Yeah, I like it.

If you like seeing me for 2 days, hey, I'm here. But yeah, if you just want us to get in, you know, and get the job done like that, then We'll get, we'll get our install.

You sell the value. I like that. At every step of the way. Uh, last question for you. Well, no, I got one more after that. But, but why do people, you think, ultimately decide to buy from you and buy from Offit?

It's us. If they like you and they trust you, they're going to buy from you.

I like it. Last question. If you were talking to a young plumber technician, you know, who's just learning the trade and learning service, what, what 1 or 2 pieces of advice would you give him or her?

Listen to your clients. Find out what they want. Don't assume that they want something. I love it.

I love it.

Chris, thank you so much for all your time. This was It was really enjoyable. Thanks for being on the show, and look forward to sending you a link so you can listen to it with the fam.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you so much.

All right, sir, thank you.

That's Christa Shields of Maffa Plumbing in Orange, California, a 3-time Crown Champion who sold almost $800,000 worth of residential plumbing work last year. Thanks for watching. If you feel like you have a great story worth sharing that would also help other contractors, please email me at bhouchin@yoursgi.com. Also, if you've enjoyed today's show, please like and please subscribe. I promise we're going to have lots of other great interviews with successful contractors, industry experts, and movers and shakers in our industry, and it's going to bring lots of great content that hopefully will help you. So thank you for joining us. This is The Successful Contractor powered by Success Group International.

Support for this podcast comes from Owens Corning Air Care Contractor Program. Uncover hidden opportunities and take your HVAC business to the next level with Owens Corning. Owens Corning has done the work to provide you with a turnkey system from sales training to in-home tools with a simple story that practically sells itself. Add duct replacement and attic insulation to your service offering as Be part of our program and elevate your sales today. For more information, visit owenscorning.com/retrofit-contractor. The Successful Contractor Podcast is part of the Success Group International family. SGI is the largest member-owned best practices organization for independent residential services contractors. SGI provides its members a competitive edge through Proprietary management tools and expertise, marketing programs, training, and group buying power, along with a highly active and eager-to-help membership. For more information about Success Group International, visit www.yoursgi.com. The Successful Contractor Podcast is a production of the AQUILA Investment Group, LLC. All rights reserved, 2021.