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The Biggest Closing Mistakes You Are Making - Blake Randall
103 Plays3 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Blake Randall's Journey in the Solar Industry
00:00:43
Speaker
Hi, what's going on?
00:00:44
Speaker
We're here live at the Pure headquarters here in Waco, Texas.
00:00:49
Speaker
Excited to be here because we have someone that is one of the goats of solar, Mr. Blake Randall coming on the show with us today.
00:00:56
Speaker
Blake, thanks for coming on today.
00:00:57
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:00:57
Speaker
Been a long time waiting.
00:01:00
Speaker
I know, right?
00:01:02
Speaker
He almost didn't agree to do the podcast because we're talking about the last Noxstar event.
00:01:06
Speaker
And then I get ghosted.
00:01:08
Speaker
I know.
00:01:09
Speaker
But it's all good.
00:01:10
Speaker
I know.
00:01:10
Speaker
But hey, man.
00:01:11
Speaker
Repentance is real, right?
00:01:12
Speaker
You didn't send me my $10,000 check yet.
00:01:13
Speaker
Still waiting.
00:01:16
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:01:17
Speaker
But no, thanks for still doing a podcast with us.
00:01:19
Speaker
I'm excited to be here.
00:01:20
Speaker
And even cooler that we're in this studio, it's probably going to be hopefully one of the best quality podcasts we've had.
00:01:26
Speaker
You guys got a great setup here.
00:01:27
Speaker
And it's funny, you're not even using it yet, right?
00:01:30
Speaker
We're testing it out right now.
00:01:31
Speaker
All right.
00:01:33
Speaker
So yeah, what a cool, I'll be the test dummy for this.
00:01:36
Speaker
You guys bought all the fancy equipment.
00:01:40
Speaker
But cool man, so yeah, I'm excited to get into your story, get into here, hear what you guys are doing over here at Pure.
00:01:45
Speaker
So Blake, he's the VP of sales, right?
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:48
Speaker
Okay, VP of sales here at Pure Energy, runs the wake office, the corporate closer trainer, right?
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:55
Speaker
And I know you're closing deal doors.
00:01:57
Speaker
You won the Nox.
00:01:59
Speaker
Which Noxstar competition was that?
00:02:01
Speaker
It was the second round.
00:02:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:04
Speaker
Second round.
00:02:04
Speaker
Of the Noxstar.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yep.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yep.
00:02:05
Speaker
So if you go to any Noxstar events, yeah, I've always seen your name on the posters there.
00:02:10
Speaker
Poster child.
00:02:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:12
Speaker
How many deals did you close for that round, do you remember?
00:02:15
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:02:16
Speaker
I just noticed I won it.
00:02:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:18
Speaker
But, yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
All right.
00:02:19
Speaker
Most important part.
00:02:21
Speaker
But, yeah, so we're going to get into your story, how you got into solar, and then, most importantly, how you can sell.
Choosing the Right Solar Company
00:02:28
Speaker
Because we were just talking before we started the recording here.
00:02:31
Speaker
Actually just got off a blitz in Dallas, and we got our teeth kicked in pretty bad.
00:02:36
Speaker
So.
00:02:38
Speaker
I thought selling San Diego was hard, but these Texans are no joke.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, for real.
00:02:42
Speaker
Had a ton of ghost appointments.
00:02:45
Speaker
Ended with three sales.
00:02:47
Speaker
A couple cancels, though, and so trying to see if we can pull some out.
00:02:51
Speaker
So definitely want to pick your brain about that.
00:02:53
Speaker
But yeah, man, let's get into, like, how'd you get into solar and what's your story for all those that haven't met you and everything?
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, so I got into solar.
00:03:03
Speaker
So before I even got into solar, I was doing alarms.
00:03:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:08
Speaker
I had a roommate that introduced me into the door-to-door industry.
00:03:11
Speaker
I was actually going to go sell pest control.
00:03:14
Speaker
So I had two roommates, one that was selling pest control and the other was selling alarms.
00:03:18
Speaker
So the one that was selling pest control, he kind of more tried recruiting me, recruiting me.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so I was going to go sell pest control with him.
00:03:26
Speaker
But then this other roommate that was selling alarms, he didn't try recruiting me.
00:03:30
Speaker
He just took care of me every single time.
00:03:31
Speaker
Like would take me out to eat, didn't even talk about sales.
00:03:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:35
Speaker
And so, like right before I was about to go sell, my roommate that didn't try recruiting me tried to recruit me that like the day or two before I was supposed to go out and sell.
00:03:48
Speaker
And he's a good friend and he's, I'm still in contact with him, but he literally said that he would take care of me.
00:03:55
Speaker
That's what got me.
00:03:56
Speaker
I'm like, I swear, if you screw me over, I know people in Mexico, you know?
00:04:01
Speaker
And so, ended up going, selling alarms, sold alarms for like three and a half years.
00:04:07
Speaker
Did good at alarms.
00:04:08
Speaker
And then my last summer doing alarms, it was in Houston.
00:04:13
Speaker
And I was selling with Tevita.
00:04:15
Speaker
We were in different offices, but like in the same office in Houston.
Building a Successful Sales Team
00:04:20
Speaker
And that year I was the number one rep in that office, in the Houston office.
00:04:27
Speaker
And I ended up staying for extension, which means you're selling longer than the summer season, just to hit my numbers.
00:04:34
Speaker
And Tevita gave me a call and I was like, hey, I think there's more money in solar.
00:04:37
Speaker
I like your work ethic.
00:04:38
Speaker
I know you can sell.
00:04:39
Speaker
Nice.
00:04:40
Speaker
If you want to come check this out with me you can just go finish hitting your numbers and then we can talk about it later much dope and to be a took care of me during the whole season even though I wasn't in his downline or anything and We ended up searching solar companies and we ended up here at pure Okay, nice.
00:04:58
Speaker
So to be that he wasn't even like your manager or anything in alarms He just like yeah, so there's two different managers.
00:05:04
Speaker
There's a guy named Bryce and a guy named to be to Vita.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah
00:05:07
Speaker
And then I was under Bryce.
00:05:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:09
Speaker
And then Tevito just always took care of me.
00:05:12
Speaker
Bryce took care of me too, but Tevito didn't have any reason to take care of me and he still did.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, nice.
00:05:18
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:05:19
Speaker
How many alarms you finished with that summer?
00:05:21
Speaker
I finished with over 200 funded, so.
00:05:24
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:05:28
Speaker
And so, yeah, what year was that?
00:05:30
Speaker
I'm bad with years.
00:05:33
Speaker
Three years ago, so 2019, I want to say.
00:05:37
Speaker
2018 2019 somewhere around there nice okay so yeah I mean were you like when Tavita first told you about this really go totally on board or were you pretty hesitant because you know you going from something that you know that you're gonna make good money in and going into the unknown that's a big like
00:05:57
Speaker
leap of faith and big pit in the stomach even thinking about leaving you know a six-figure income which you know you'll hit every summer yeah so yeah gotcha that's cool and so uh you guys found pure um been with them for a little bit with was there a lot of other companies you're checking out was it a tough decision uh yeah pure yeah so tavita's like an old dog in the industry lots of connections and
00:06:24
Speaker
We had CEOs from other companies flying in and meeting with us, trying to recruit us.
00:06:29
Speaker
We ended up going with one company in Florida.
00:06:33
Speaker
And we tried it out.
00:06:35
Speaker
We didn't sell anything, but there's like, you know, 18 year olds making crazy amounts
Sales as a Competitive Sport
00:06:40
Speaker
of money.
00:06:40
Speaker
And we're like, how the heck is this kid making way more money than me?
00:06:44
Speaker
And I can sell and work harder than him.
00:06:46
Speaker
And then we overheard someone talking about how they haven't gotten paid.
00:06:50
Speaker
And we're like, bro, we just left Vivint.
00:06:52
Speaker
We left Vivint for that reason.
00:06:53
Speaker
We went back and it's getting messed up.
00:06:55
Speaker
But yeah, and then we ended up searching more and more.
00:07:00
Speaker
And then we came across Pure.
00:07:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:03
Speaker
Okay, that's cool.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah, because, yeah, I get a lot of people asking me, you know, how to choose a company.
00:07:09
Speaker
I know that's been, unfortunately, there's a lot of companies in solar even where people aren't getting paid on time.
00:07:16
Speaker
Installs are taking way longer than they should be.
00:07:19
Speaker
There's stuff going on that's maybe not ideal.
00:07:23
Speaker
So in your experience, because you've been with Pure ever since then, right?
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I never looked back.
00:07:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:28
Speaker
That's good.
00:07:29
Speaker
Isaiah, you've been super loyal.
00:07:31
Speaker
But yeah, what's your advice on maybe reps that ask that?
00:07:34
Speaker
Like, hey, how do you choose a company?
00:07:36
Speaker
And like, how do you stick it out, be loyal, or maybe when you should leave?
00:07:40
Speaker
Do you have any advice for people that are, I don't know, trying to find a good company to work for?
00:07:46
Speaker
Besides, I guess, come work for Pure?
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's the secret.
00:07:48
Speaker
No, I don't know.
00:07:51
Speaker
Definitely appears not where it was when we came on the reason why we ended up coming to pure is just because we would be very close to the owner Justin and so That means less people are touching our money.
00:08:04
Speaker
So that would be as much of an issue But then also the fact that pure own their own fulfillment that's huge because
00:08:11
Speaker
they control the whole process so if I ever need any help or need anything or need to contact you know sales support to figure out where the deal is I'm not fishing around and same thing for the customer too yeah so that's a big selling point but now where peers at I think the biggest thing is who you surround yourself with okay and that's the biggest I would say selling point because you know
00:08:35
Speaker
being able to rub shoulders with rick and sue lee and jared and austin stoker who's over 200 accounts this year wow you know surrounded by all these people and when we do these blitzes or we get together or when we have meetings just the gold nuggets like even though i train all the closers i still learn from everybody else and i'm always adapting my presentation and pitch so that way we continue to get better and stay ahead of the curve of everybody else
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, okay,
Challenges and Techniques in Sales
00:09:02
Speaker
I like that.
00:09:02
Speaker
No, I think that's generally what I tell people too is because if you follow the, you know, heavy hitters, you've heard like you're the average of the five people you're with.
00:09:10
Speaker
Exactly.
00:09:11
Speaker
And so I think more than the company, that's obviously you got to have a company that fulfills, that gets installs in, that has culture and all that.
00:09:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, I think that's great advice following people that's, um, are high level or selling a lot themselves.
00:09:25
Speaker
Cause if you're going to a company that's like the best pay, the best installs and all that, but the best rep is doing two a month or whatever, then it might not be the best idea.
00:09:34
Speaker
Right.
00:09:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:36
Speaker
Um, I think the Bible says by your fruits, you shouldn't, you shall know them or something.
00:09:41
Speaker
Even the Bible tells you how to pick a good solar company.
00:09:45
Speaker
But cool, man.
00:09:46
Speaker
And so, yeah.
00:09:47
Speaker
And you've been, are you the number one install?
00:09:49
Speaker
Have you had the most installs at Pure?
00:09:52
Speaker
I'm not sure.
00:09:53
Speaker
I know last year and the year before I was the number one sales rep.
00:09:57
Speaker
This year, Austin Stoker beat me.
00:10:00
Speaker
And a couple other reps because I've been out with an ACL tear and making sure other reps are getting fed.
00:10:06
Speaker
But no, I'm happy.
00:10:08
Speaker
I'm actually...
00:10:10
Speaker
Records are meant to be broken.
00:10:12
Speaker
And so it's actually a proud moment for me where having these reps beat my records and selling over 200 deals in a year, that's astonishing.
00:10:21
Speaker
That's great.
00:10:23
Speaker
I'm just happy about it.
00:10:25
Speaker
So you train Austin.
00:10:26
Speaker
Is he your protege or something?
00:10:28
Speaker
I train Austin, Sue Lee, Jared, McKay.
00:10:32
Speaker
Okay, so you're a proud parent just seeing these guys take off.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's fun seeing.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's incredible.
00:10:38
Speaker
So how much do you think is training?
00:10:41
Speaker
It was obviously really cool to people.
00:10:44
Speaker
Did you also recruit them or you just train like most of these guys?
00:10:48
Speaker
I recruited some, trained some, but I mean the EI train would be the biggest thing, training most of them.
00:10:55
Speaker
Okay, gotcha.
00:10:57
Speaker
Well, yeah, super high quality people.
00:10:58
Speaker
And I know like Suli's been on the podcast.
00:11:01
Speaker
She's just like work ethic and saying, Oh yeah, I'm real work ethic.
00:11:06
Speaker
And it's actually a funny story.
00:11:09
Speaker
So Suli was actually selling for another solar company when we did the whole Noxstar thing.
00:11:15
Speaker
And her and I were just head to head, like neck and neck.
00:11:18
Speaker
Like she would be winning one day, I'd be winning
Leadership and Sales Evolution
00:11:20
Speaker
the next day, that competition between us too.
00:11:22
Speaker
And I told her, I texted her, I'm like, dude, whoever wins this thing at the end of the day, like you're a baller, I'm gonna take a selfie with you.
00:11:29
Speaker
And so she was in Corpus, I was in McAllen, so it's like a three hour drive.
00:11:34
Speaker
And I'm like, Suli, like,
00:11:36
Speaker
I'm gonna come knock with you, get that selfie.
00:11:38
Speaker
Well, I didn't tell her I was gonna knock with her, I just said, I'm gonna get that selfie that you owe me.
00:11:42
Speaker
So, went over there, I knocked with her for like 30 minutes.
00:11:47
Speaker
Crazy work ethic, that woman.
00:11:49
Speaker
Nothing but respect for her.
00:11:50
Speaker
And I remember, like I had my iPad and I'm taking notes on everything that she's like doing wrong.
00:11:57
Speaker
She did stuff wrong?
00:11:58
Speaker
Oh, dude.
00:11:59
Speaker
At the beginning, yes.
00:12:01
Speaker
At the beginning now, she's solid.
00:12:04
Speaker
And I was following her around taking notes, and I had a note, probably 20 things that she did wrong.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I told her, this is a testimony on how hard you work.
00:12:16
Speaker
The fact that you're like, I'm astonished you're getting deals with how bad this presentation is.
00:12:20
Speaker
So it was pretty bad, huh?
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, but I'll give you three gold nuggets to take away from this.
00:12:25
Speaker
And she's like, oh, give me the rest, give me the rest.
00:12:26
Speaker
And I'm like, no, I can't because I'm training pure reps.
00:12:31
Speaker
I'm not going to just give everything out.
00:12:33
Speaker
I'm like, here, I'll give you three gold nuggets, take it.
00:12:36
Speaker
But I was shocked with how hard her work ethic was and how many deals she was able to pull with just her work ethic.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:12:44
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:12:46
Speaker
I've seen some reps that have almost zero training, but
00:12:50
Speaker
I remember a guy, my first company I worked with, he would get like, I don't know, he'd get one or two deals a week, pretty good.
00:12:56
Speaker
And then I went out with him one day and his pitch was just like, hey, we're selling solar, do you want to buy some?
00:13:02
Speaker
And that's what he said, every door.
00:13:04
Speaker
And especially in San Diego, like that doesn't really work.
00:13:07
Speaker
I'm like, dude, how are you getting deals, man?
00:13:08
Speaker
Like, no one buys all this.
00:13:10
Speaker
But yeah, he was just hitting so many doors that you're going to find some people.
00:13:14
Speaker
Exactly.
00:13:14
Speaker
So, like, that's a secret that, that's probably maybe the biggest secret that
00:13:19
Speaker
For real, everyone's always looking for shortcuts, but at the end of the day, it comes down to like how hard you work.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, no doubt.
00:13:27
Speaker
But yeah, well, so what were these?
00:13:28
Speaker
Do you mind sharing what the three?
00:13:30
Speaker
I don't know.
00:13:31
Speaker
It is like two years.
00:13:32
Speaker
I don't even remember.
00:13:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure you got a lot of trainings going on.
00:13:38
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so yeah, you've trained a ton of people.
00:13:40
Speaker
Um, I want to talk a little bit about just competitions cause yeah, you won the knock star competition.
00:13:46
Speaker
Um, I think you said before we started that you haven't lost the competition at period.
00:13:50
Speaker
Right.
00:13:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:51
Speaker
So you must be, you must be doing something right with competition.
00:13:55
Speaker
So yeah, for you, I mean, I know you're working super hard, but yeah, do you have what, like, what's the secret to winning all these competitions?
00:14:00
Speaker
I think something that clicked for me and it was earlier in my career is you treat sales like a sport.
00:14:06
Speaker
Right.
00:14:06
Speaker
So growing up playing baseball, if we had a game on Saturday, it's not like you're going out and hanging out with your friends super, super late Friday night.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:14
Speaker
Because the next day you have a baseball game to go to.
00:14:17
Speaker
So I think treating everything like a sport.
00:14:19
Speaker
I mean, we're paid professional money and you got to act like a professional at the end of the day.
00:14:25
Speaker
So I think that has been a big secret to my success is just doing the small things, going to bed on time, not staying up late.
00:14:35
Speaker
And my mind is constantly thinking of the competition, competition, next deal, next deal, next deal.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:43
Speaker
What about, because not everyone has, like, that sports background, unfortunately.
00:14:47
Speaker
I know, yeah, I think the best reps, they have a sports background like yourself.
00:14:51
Speaker
But, like, what do you do if you have reps, maybe they're not in sports, they're not fully bought in?
00:14:56
Speaker
Do you have anything that's worked to, like, get people just a fire lit under them or get them, like, more competitive for those people, like, oh, I don't care as much?
00:15:04
Speaker
Like, what do you guys do or any tips on that?
00:15:07
Speaker
I don't.
00:15:07
Speaker
You fire them.
00:15:08
Speaker
You let them go.
00:15:09
Speaker
If they're lazy, you just let them go.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, you're not.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:15
Speaker
Like the thing here in the wake of office is like if you as long as you have a good attitude and you're working hard, we'll keep you around and train you and try to get you to be the best salesperson you can.
00:15:26
Speaker
But once like laziness or non-competitiveness comes into play or they're just satisfied where they're at, that's a battle that I'm not like willing to fight.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:38
Speaker
Well, that's something I've noticed just in your culture in general.
00:15:41
Speaker
Up here, I was talking to our friend Rick Martinez here.
00:15:44
Speaker
No slithering, bro.
00:15:45
Speaker
Just about like, you know, if you guys are like trying to recruit like crazy, bringing a ton of reps.
00:15:52
Speaker
And I know you are recruiting, but something he's telling me, he's like, yeah, we don't beg people to come.
00:15:56
Speaker
It's just like, if they want to, we let them on.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:59
Speaker
And we're not like super strict on the schedule and all this stuff.
00:16:02
Speaker
I'm like, so it was really interesting because I think we see it all the time where companies just are pulling teeth, trying to get guys to stay on and trying to micromanage.
00:16:11
Speaker
And you guys are just like, whatever.
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
If you don't want to work great, if you don't, then just leave.
00:16:17
Speaker
And I think it's kind of more of that like abundance mindset, abundance versus scarcity.
00:16:21
Speaker
Like if you want to be here, be here.
00:16:22
Speaker
But if not, then just go somewhere else.
00:16:25
Speaker
Would you agree with that?
00:16:27
Speaker
100%.
00:16:27
Speaker
And I think the nice thing about solar is there's just so much money to go around where you kind of get to pick your headaches.
00:16:33
Speaker
Where selling alarms, we were just trying to get anybody and everybody through the door kind of thing.
00:16:39
Speaker
And please stay, please stay.
00:16:41
Speaker
This will work out.
00:16:43
Speaker
Here it's like, hey, if you want to be here, great.
00:16:45
Speaker
If you don't, great.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:48
Speaker
We'd rather grow and build around people that want to be here and are here for the right reasons.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:53
Speaker
And it's a lot less heading for us.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, no kidding.
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's a nugget for, I think, any company.
00:17:01
Speaker
Now you're in more of a leadership role.
00:17:03
Speaker
Were you in leadership from the beginning, pure, or were you just kind of starting to solve it?
00:17:08
Speaker
No, so we just came on as normal reps.
00:17:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:13
Speaker
And we ended up breaking
Closing Techniques and Building Trust
00:17:15
Speaker
like every record peer ever had before in the first three months we were here.
00:17:19
Speaker
And then that's when we started gaining leadership roles and everything like that.
00:17:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:24
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:17:25
Speaker
So they just saw, they're like, dang, these guys know how to sell them.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, like we literally just figured it out.
00:17:31
Speaker
Because when we went to go sell for that company in Florida, we didn't have any sales at all.
00:17:36
Speaker
I'm like, well, this is going to be a great pitch to my wife.
00:17:38
Speaker
I'm like, here we are making six figures.
00:17:40
Speaker
Let's jump ship and go to an industry that I haven't made a penny in and I don't know how to sell.
00:17:46
Speaker
But, yeah.
00:17:47
Speaker
So she was pretty nervous about it.
00:17:49
Speaker
Oh, 100%, dude.
00:17:50
Speaker
So many, like, bless her heart.
00:17:52
Speaker
Like, she's been through a lot.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
I'm not the easiest guy to be married to, definitely, but she's the best.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, yeah, especially during competitions and all that, I'm sure you're like, it's all like crazy.
00:18:08
Speaker
So you just thought beforehand, you're like, okay, I'm in a competition.
00:18:10
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:18:11
Speaker
Working 24-7 just so you know.
00:18:13
Speaker
Phone call, everything.
00:18:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
Any high level sales guy, it's like, yeah, you got to have a good wife to like, you know, be behind your back.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, I don't pretty much are married to the game for a while until it's over.
00:18:32
Speaker
But I know it's like Tom Brady just had a divorce because he's so focused on the game.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
It's if you don't get the buy in from your wife, it's extremely tough.
00:18:42
Speaker
So it's an uphill battle for sure.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:44
Speaker
Filling on that.
00:18:45
Speaker
But yeah, so what's your take on like the leadership?
00:18:48
Speaker
So you were just so on like regular, you've been in leadership ever since.
00:18:52
Speaker
What's like your, I don't know, golden nuggets of leadership or how do you lead your guys just kind of like in general, would you say?
00:19:00
Speaker
I think it's a quote, you teach them correct principles and let them govern for themselves.
00:19:07
Speaker
I think just leading by example is big.
00:19:10
Speaker
So for example, this last blitz that we were on, I've been sick for two weeks.
00:19:16
Speaker
You can probably hear it in my voice.
00:19:17
Speaker
I'm still a little bit sick.
00:19:18
Speaker
But even though I'm sick, I still show up for the guys.
00:19:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:22
Speaker
every day in and day out it doesn't matter what's happening i always try to show up for the guys and i think that's the biggest thing with leadership and and that's one thing i didn't like of the leadership at my previous company uh was you know typically you know higher-ups like regionals they're not in the trenches with the guys right you know teaching them how to sell or going out and knocking i still go close deals yeah
00:19:47
Speaker
And I don't want my guys to ever think that I'm lazier.
00:19:51
Speaker
I'm just riding off of everybody's back, even though I have certain responsibilities where I have to go train, go to other offices and stuff like that.
00:19:59
Speaker
But I think always leading from the front and never leaving the trenches.
00:20:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree.
00:20:05
Speaker
I mean, yeah, a lot of
Handling Objections and Perseverance
00:20:07
Speaker
door knockers, that's the goal.
00:20:08
Speaker
It's like, oh, how can I get off the door or something?
00:20:10
Speaker
Exactly.
00:20:10
Speaker
No.
00:20:10
Speaker
Not to go to deals.
00:20:11
Speaker
Let's just be a regional manager.
00:20:13
Speaker
And then I just go around and talk.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
But yeah, all those companies that do it that way, yeah, I see that they're not like as successful because the guys don't take it as serious.
00:20:22
Speaker
They're not seeing them out there, like you said, in the trenches.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:20:27
Speaker
So what does it look like for you?
00:20:29
Speaker
You're just going around, you're still selling a lot, but you're just traveling around all the offices and training or what's kind of like your training schedule and all that?
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:37
Speaker
So in a month, three weeks out of the month, three weeks out of the four, I'm here in the Waco office most of the time.
00:20:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:45
Speaker
closing the guys' deals and then one week out of the month I'm in a different office training.
00:20:52
Speaker
Now sometimes there's like emergencies where we have a brand new office coming in where I end up being there for
00:20:59
Speaker
you know, the whole month almost just training their guys, holding their hand through their whole process because they're taking a risk also coming into a whole different company, a whole different industry.
00:21:10
Speaker
And that's a lot of trust to have.
00:21:11
Speaker
So I don't want to fall short in that aspect.
00:21:14
Speaker
So most of the time I'm here
00:21:17
Speaker
in Waco three weeks out of the month.
00:21:22
Speaker
But there's times where, for example, we're opening up another Houston office, I'll probably be there for a month.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, okay.
00:21:30
Speaker
Well, something I was curious about is I was talking to some of your guys, and it sounds like each office kind of has, from what I heard, kind of has control a little bit over their own processes and schedule.
00:21:44
Speaker
Seems like maybe a little bit how they pay their center.
00:21:46
Speaker
I don't know.
00:21:47
Speaker
Stuff like that.
00:21:48
Speaker
And so where you're kind of giving each office kind of their own direction, autonomy or something, how do you, I guess, how do you keep the culture all together when every office is separate and kind of keep everyone together where they're separated like that?
00:22:04
Speaker
What do you guys do?
00:22:04
Speaker
I think that just everyone has the main goal of getting sales.
00:22:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:08
Speaker
I think that's the biggest key.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, each office runs a little bit differently.
00:22:13
Speaker
At the end of the day, they're just trying to produce as much as they can and they think that's the best way for their office to produce.
00:22:20
Speaker
Now, we have guidelines on what should be paid or how they should structure if they come to us and they're like, hey, I think about doing this.
00:22:29
Speaker
We poke holes at their idea.
00:22:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:34
Speaker
Got it.
00:22:35
Speaker
That's good.
00:22:36
Speaker
But yeah, I think it comes back to, again, just like the abundant stuff.
00:22:39
Speaker
You don't have to micromanage them, just if it's working.
00:22:42
Speaker
And then if you see that they're not performing, then you kind of give them like, hey, you should be doing it probably this way.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, and then let's say they end up finding out something super cool that, you know, oh, pay a rep this way or do this in your training or do these times because of this, that, and the other.
00:22:59
Speaker
I mean, there's...
00:23:02
Speaker
Thousand ways to skin a cat and not just because we're doing is the right way But there's other ways to do it and it might there might be better ways.
00:23:09
Speaker
So we're open to new ideas Okay, what about with blitzes because I know you guys do a lot of blitzes and I know Sui's team does like kind of like a hybrid type thing where they're coming in summer three weeks on a week off and
00:23:22
Speaker
i think is what she told me um so same thing with that you just like guys kind of plan their own blitzes or do you plan the blitzes or how do you guys so sully's office runs like a blitz model so she plans her blitzes around going and knocking in her area but the company does a blitz every single month on the off season okay and we end up determining what area to go to whether an office needs help or pipeline is low okay and so okay
00:23:51
Speaker
So it's not like everyone is required to come do this Blitz.
00:23:55
Speaker
You just say, hey, we're doing a Blitzer, whoever wants to come, and people show up.
00:24:00
Speaker
And it's nice because it adds camaraderie within the company.
00:24:03
Speaker
You get to see friends from different offices.
00:24:05
Speaker
You get to rub shoulders with high producers.
00:24:08
Speaker
So it's a good time.
00:24:10
Speaker
It's a lot of fun memories definitely are made on the Blitz.
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's fun.
00:24:15
Speaker
This was actually, I think, yeah, probably the first solar blitz I've really done.
00:24:20
Speaker
I guess I kind of did the summer program, my first summer.
00:24:23
Speaker
But out here in Dallas, it was the first really like where I've traveled out and just been Airbnb with the guys and all that.
00:24:30
Speaker
And they kind of, even though we were working hard, it did kind of feel like a vacation too at the same time.
00:24:34
Speaker
Cause you're just all like chilling and it's almost like you're back at college or something.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:39
Speaker
It's definitely a break.
00:24:40
Speaker
So yeah, it's, but I think if you're trying to push, um, cause I think there's always something in my head, uh, I don't know if I can like,
00:24:48
Speaker
Because in California, we're kind of just knocking afternoons and all that.
00:24:51
Speaker
And, yeah, I've gotten a little bit lazier than I should be in my old age and all that.
00:24:57
Speaker
And so I was just like, I don't know about this blitz stuff.
00:25:00
Speaker
I don't know if I can.
00:25:01
Speaker
I'm not as young as I used to be.
00:25:03
Speaker
I don't know if I can get on the doors all day long and be out there.
00:25:06
Speaker
But, yeah, once you're out there, like, when you're surrounded by everyone, you know everyone's doing it.
00:25:10
Speaker
You know everyone's out there for the same goal, same purpose.
00:25:14
Speaker
It's, like, it was hard work, but I'm, like, wow, this is actually a little bit easier than I thought just because you're all out there doing the same thing.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:21
Speaker
And I think it also helps you feel younger.
00:25:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:24
Speaker
At the end of the day, like, when going on blitzes or being around the guys, I feel, I'm 28, I feel old.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:28
Speaker
But I know I'm not old.
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
but being around the guys makes me feel a little younger.
00:25:34
Speaker
So it makes me happy.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:25:37
Speaker
Well, cool.
00:25:38
Speaker
So I want to kind of transition into the sales stuff, the training.
00:25:42
Speaker
I know you're a corporate trainer for closing.
00:25:46
Speaker
Do you still knock?
00:25:47
Speaker
Because I know you're primarily focused on closing and training and all that, but how much are you still doing a ton of knocking yourself?
00:25:52
Speaker
There's times where I'll actually go knock with guys.
00:25:54
Speaker
I'll text out, hey, I'm available.
00:25:57
Speaker
Who wants me to come knock with them?
00:25:59
Speaker
So I'll still go knock with reps.
00:26:02
Speaker
And I think a lot of leaders should do that because, one, you gain respect from your rep, going and knocking with him.
00:26:11
Speaker
But two, you get to know your rep a little bit better.
00:26:15
Speaker
And then you get training with that rep and know exactly what he's doing wrong.
00:26:21
Speaker
It's a win-win-win for everybody at that point when you're knocking with reps.
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah, and then three, it gets you out there because if you just told someone you're going to be a place, you can't.
00:26:29
Speaker
Exactly, 100%.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah, that was me.
00:26:33
Speaker
Cool.
00:26:33
Speaker
And so what's kind of your training?
00:26:37
Speaker
So you bring people in.
00:26:38
Speaker
Do you guys have, is every office different as far as like transitioning from setter to closer too?
00:26:45
Speaker
No, everything is different in every office.
00:26:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:49
Speaker
Here in our office, if you want to be a closer, you can be a closer.
00:26:52
Speaker
You just have to have at least a month, two months, three months under your belt.
00:26:58
Speaker
You're just going to come in here and start closing.
00:27:00
Speaker
That kind of thing.
00:27:02
Speaker
But that's it.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:04
Speaker
So yeah, let's talk about like your training.
00:27:06
Speaker
So you train guys all the time in closing.
00:27:09
Speaker
What's like your framework or what's kind of like the way you lay it out for your guys as they're starting to learn to close?
00:27:15
Speaker
Super simple.
00:27:16
Speaker
I think being in all these competitions, being in different trainings and hearing other people's presentations, I think people end up over-complicating the process.
00:27:25
Speaker
So if you're able to sell a five-year-old on solar, you're doing great.
00:27:30
Speaker
Where I think people get into like,
00:27:33
Speaker
Way too in the nitty-gritty of like panel degradation.
00:27:36
Speaker
I'm like dude.
00:27:37
Speaker
I don't even bring that up.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, you know
00:27:40
Speaker
What type of inverter are we using?
00:27:43
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff I know and I'll bring it up when I have to, but if I don't have to bring it up, I don't.
00:27:48
Speaker
Because a confused mind always says no.
00:27:51
Speaker
And so I'm not going to give them all this information where all of a sudden they have analysis paralysis where they can't make a decision at the end of the day.
00:27:59
Speaker
I think a lot of sales reps in the industry tend to overcomplicate the process.
00:28:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:04
Speaker
Is that typically the biggest mistake you see?
00:28:06
Speaker
I think so.
00:28:06
Speaker
With just people starting out?
00:28:08
Speaker
Yep.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yep.
00:28:09
Speaker
Overcomplicating the process is for sure probably the biggest mistake I see people making.
00:28:14
Speaker
What other mistakes do you think you see that like beginners make all the time?
00:28:20
Speaker
Overcomplicating the process, I think also the way that they close.
00:28:26
Speaker
Sometimes they ask for the close when you don't need to ask for the close, you just close them.
00:28:30
Speaker
And they're already closing themselves.
00:28:33
Speaker
There's a difference between selling and closing, right?
00:28:37
Speaker
Selling is when you're telling the customer, this is a good idea, this is a good price, this is smart to do.
00:28:44
Speaker
Closing your customer, and I think a lot of people get confused, is when you actually have the customer saying those things instead of you telling the customer that.
00:28:53
Speaker
And I think that's a big paradigm shift that I took when I was learning how to close, I guess you can say, when you get the customer to say those things instead of you having to say those things.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah, so how do you get the customer to say these things?
00:29:08
Speaker
Is it just questions you ask them or how do you get the customers?
00:29:11
Speaker
Questions you ask them, framework that you do, bringing up certain aspects or pain in the process of solar so that way they're forced to say it.
00:29:22
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:23
Speaker
But certain things like that, yeah.
00:29:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:25
Speaker
So what tech, can you give us an example, like some questions, what are like some good questions you ask for them to get, like, you know, start repeating, you know, to you and start selling themselves?
00:29:36
Speaker
I mean there's a question that I'll ask in my cell I'm like hey so what would you so for example over here in Texas we'll say TXU would be like hey what would you do if TXU ended up lowering your rate yeah they're like oh that'd be great I would love to have TXU lower my rate just things like that yeah okay
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there's a lot, and I think, yeah, good exercise is guys just go right out all the questions they can think of, because sometimes for me, I know questions, but I just haven't gotten it down like pen and paper, and you start experimenting with it and, you know, asking other people.
00:30:10
Speaker
But yeah, so we were selling out here, and like coming from California, I just obviously noticed right off the bat that people weren't saving as much money, and then you're dealing with all the deregulated stuff, and a different process and all that, so...
00:30:25
Speaker
I know I asked you a little bit, but yeah, man, what's your advice?
00:30:29
Speaker
If someone like me coming from a different market that's like, dang, this is way harder than I thought, what's your advice to kind of learn to get those skills to where it works in Texas too?
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, I would say the two biggest things, one, stick it out because it is learnable.
00:30:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:44
Speaker
And then number two, surround yourself with people that are doing it.
00:30:48
Speaker
Get training from them because they will shorten your learning curve a lot.
00:30:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:53
Speaker
And those would be the two biggest things because if you don't have someone holding your hand, dude, it's going to take a while for you to figure out the Texas market for sure.
00:31:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, I wish we would have done that more.
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, we did a week blitz.
00:31:06
Speaker
So I kind of think it wasn't, like, long enough maybe to get it figured out.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:11
Speaker
But, yeah, we had Rick out there and everything.
00:31:13
Speaker
But if I could have done it all over again, maybe I would have kind of just come to your office or something and then.
00:31:18
Speaker
hang out with us in Waco.
00:31:20
Speaker
I know, like, for you guys, because I think that probably would have been better for us, just, like, learning all your process, because we just kind of came out here, and yeah, we had Rick, he helped us out, but it was still to a degree, just kind of trying to figure out on our own, and telling so many times, so, yeah, it got kind of rough, but yeah, and it was freezing, too, man.
00:31:38
Speaker
I know.
00:31:40
Speaker
That's my kryptonite right there, it's like, knocking in the cold, it's like the worst for me.
00:31:45
Speaker
I know.
00:31:45
Speaker
Like, I just shut down, I'm like, dude, it sucked.
00:31:49
Speaker
I know.
00:31:49
Speaker
The first day we came out, it was like, I don't know, 37 and raining all day long.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
Like, man, what did we get ourselves into?
00:31:57
Speaker
It was miserable.
00:31:59
Speaker
But that actually was one of our better days for appointments, though, when it was raining, clearly or not, because people were letting us inside and stuff like that.
00:32:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:09
Speaker
Okay, well cool.
00:32:10
Speaker
And then, yeah, so Texas market and deregulated, like, so you're selling here with not as much savings.
00:32:20
Speaker
So for you guys, is it more just selling on the equity?
00:32:24
Speaker
I know some people save money, but we ran into a lot of people where they weren't saving.
00:32:27
Speaker
There's a lot more panels.
00:32:29
Speaker
I noticed the roofs out here generally, at least where we were at, had way more angles.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, you definitely have to be more strategic with your knocking for sure.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
So, yeah, is that something you guys are considering as you're sending people out to areas or what type of strategic knocking are you guys doing to maybe avoid some of that stuff?
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, definitely scouting out areas before we send guys into them is huge.
00:32:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:32:53
Speaker
When you were asking the first question, you asked about, like, how are you selling your customers?
00:32:57
Speaker
A lot of it, like, Texas loves ownership, you know?
00:32:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
And just being with a Texas company helps sell that ownership too.
00:33:05
Speaker
But it's mainly ownership that you're selling on and future savings.
00:33:10
Speaker
Because most of the time it's like a bill swap or pretty close to what they're paying right now.
00:33:16
Speaker
So it's framing up your presentation so that way they can see that, oh yeah, this is actually super smart.
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:25
Speaker
How do you build pain?
00:33:26
Speaker
Because in California we have all this stuff, like the rates went up like crazy.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I know they have here a little bit, but like California, there's so many ways we can build pain because there's all this stuff going on with like,
00:33:38
Speaker
Nuclear power plant's shutting down.
00:33:39
Speaker
California's obviously super liberal, so they're cutting out all the nuclear, all the gas, and getting power from different states.
00:33:49
Speaker
So there's a ton of reasons we have to build pain, and pretty much everyone knows it in California.
00:33:55
Speaker
But out here, it's probably just lack of knowledge for me.
00:33:58
Speaker
But how do you guys build more pain here?
00:34:00
Speaker
Because I don't think the rates are going up near as much compared to California.
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely not California.
00:34:05
Speaker
This year actually has been like the biggest rate increase that we've seen.
00:34:08
Speaker
So when I first started solar, I think they were paying like 8 cents, 10 cents per kilowatt.
00:34:13
Speaker
So literally it's like a bill swap.
00:34:15
Speaker
Now, if you look at people's bills, they're 14, you know, 16, 18.
00:34:19
Speaker
Sometimes you hit 20.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:21
Speaker
And so different pain points are like, for example, the two years ago, the freeze that happened.
00:34:26
Speaker
That's a big pain point.
00:34:27
Speaker
How the infrastructure of the grid is at risk.
00:34:32
Speaker
They're going to have to do a whole bunch of updates to it.
00:34:34
Speaker
That's another pinpoint.
00:34:36
Speaker
We pin like Texans don't like Californians.
00:34:40
Speaker
So we point that out too.
00:34:41
Speaker
It's like, dude, Texas is becoming more like California.
00:34:43
Speaker
Like the rates are increasing.
00:34:45
Speaker
A bunch of Californians are moving here.
00:34:47
Speaker
I like that.
00:34:49
Speaker
But yeah, those are the main pain points that you can use in your presentation while selling in Texas.
00:34:55
Speaker
OK.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's something I wish I would have done too, is just figure out all these pain points.
00:35:00
Speaker
Because my first door I went to, I was going to try to build.
00:35:04
Speaker
I went to the door in California.
00:35:05
Speaker
You say, oh, you guys, I'm sure, have seen the rates go up.
00:35:08
Speaker
First door in Texas, like, oh, no, our rates have never gone up.
00:35:12
Speaker
I'm like, oh, it's never gone up?
00:35:15
Speaker
What are you talking about?
00:35:16
Speaker
I'm like, shoot.
00:35:18
Speaker
And so I wish I would have studied up some of that too and talk more to you guys and ask some of these questions.
00:35:23
Speaker
So we do something real quick.
00:35:24
Speaker
So we still use that.
00:35:26
Speaker
Like we'll say, hey, everybody's rates are increasing.
00:35:28
Speaker
So here's the thing.
00:35:30
Speaker
Here, I'll give it a gold nugget.
00:35:32
Speaker
So when you say, hey, everybody, all your neighbors have noticed the price of energy has been increasing.
00:35:37
Speaker
So we're the ones actually doing the solar.
00:35:39
Speaker
When was the last time you looked into that?
00:35:41
Speaker
So you don't pause.
00:35:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:43
Speaker
Because if you say, hey, all the neighbors have seen their rate increase and you pause right there, most of the time, nine times out of 10, your customer will interject and say, no, I haven't seen my rate increase.
00:35:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:54
Speaker
But if you say, hey, everybody out here knows how the price of energy has been increasing, so we're the ones actually doing the solar.
00:36:00
Speaker
When was the last time you looked into that?
00:36:03
Speaker
Their mind goes to when was the last time I looked into solar because of the rates increasing, not whether or not my rate has increased.
00:36:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's fire.
00:36:12
Speaker
I wish, yeah, I was not doing that.
00:36:13
Speaker
So that's money.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, because just people weren't giving me, yeah, they weren't like taking my bait that I was giving them.
00:36:22
Speaker
It was a lot tougher, I realized.
00:36:25
Speaker
Okay, but no, I was just going to say though, anyone that's starting out like a new market or doing a blitz like this, it's definitely something I would do different is just asking someone like you, what are the problems, what are the pain points?
00:36:37
Speaker
And we got like a, you know, the presentation, we got kind of the pitch you guys use on the doors, but just knowing stuff like that and how to like phrase it, the intonation, like the way you just said it, because we were saying the same words, but we weren't, yeah, we were doing a pause, you know, I was doing a pause, like you've seen the race go up.
00:36:54
Speaker
And so things like that, I wish we would have got, like, maybe some recordings and things like that from you guys saying it.
00:36:59
Speaker
I don't know.
00:37:00
Speaker
I'm training.
00:37:00
Speaker
But just some observations I had.
00:37:02
Speaker
You just come to Waco.
00:37:04
Speaker
All your problems will be solved, Taylor.
00:37:06
Speaker
I know.
00:37:08
Speaker
I know.
00:37:08
Speaker
No.
00:37:09
Speaker
Probably will have to.
00:37:10
Speaker
But they hate Californians, though.
00:37:13
Speaker
That's true.
00:37:15
Speaker
we'll convert you to a texan real quick i know yeah i just got this deal i just got out of before this i told her i was kind of back and forth selling between here and california um but she's like oh you better not tell anyone that like people out here say she was telling me she has a shirt that says don't california my texas or something like that i'm like uh okay gotta be careful who i tell that yeah no you have to be careful yeah but
00:37:41
Speaker
well cool um so yeah just to start wrapping up here blake um was your closing um you tore your acl yeah it's not the way you're describing it sounds just like a pro athlete you sound like kevin duran or something out this evening it's just messing in a friend's backyard we decided to wrestle on eastern yeah acl gone
00:38:02
Speaker
What are you doing?
00:38:03
Speaker
So how do you get to doors?
00:38:04
Speaker
So you can still like walk and you have to go on crutches for a little bit.
00:38:08
Speaker
So a crazy thing.
00:38:09
Speaker
So I was actually in a competition when I tore my ACL.
00:38:11
Speaker
It was one of Sam Taggart's competitions and it was the grit competition.
00:38:16
Speaker
Sui and I were in it.
00:38:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:19
Speaker
And I, dude, I tore my ACL and I would literally go to houses with a brace and an ice pack just strapped onto my knee.
00:38:28
Speaker
And because we only had two weeks left, thankfully, like Suli threw down those two weeks.
00:38:33
Speaker
I pulled enough weight, but, um,
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
You still got to go out there.
00:38:39
Speaker
You still got to show up for your guys.
00:38:42
Speaker
And I mean, even after my ACL surgery, I would still come to the office in crutches.
00:38:47
Speaker
Even though I'm not going to closes because I'm worried that some kid or some dog is going to jump on my knee.
00:38:53
Speaker
But just showing up, it helps build morale.
00:38:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:56
Speaker
Were you getting sympathy closes, you think?
00:38:59
Speaker
People like, oh, I feel bad for this guy.
00:39:00
Speaker
I better sign up for someone.
00:39:01
Speaker
Hopefully.
00:39:02
Speaker
I mean, I have no idea.
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:05
Speaker
That's good.
00:39:05
Speaker
Well, yeah, most people wouldn't even show up, so that's their turn.
00:39:09
Speaker
And then for those, I think we get a lot of people like, man, how does Blake close so many deals?
00:39:16
Speaker
But walk us through what's like in these competitions, how much are you actually working to get to the level of success you've had?
00:39:23
Speaker
What's kind of like your typical week?
00:39:25
Speaker
I know you're working more in blitzes, things like that, but what would you say, like, what's the work it takes to get this level?
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's next, like...
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's a lot.
00:39:36
Speaker
It's a lot of work and it's day in and day out every single day.
00:39:39
Speaker
The only day I rest is Sunday.
00:39:41
Speaker
But other than that, you know, if I have an appointment at 10 a.m.
00:39:45
Speaker
or 8 a.m.
00:39:45
Speaker
and then I have one at 9 p.m., I'm working, you know, crazy hours.
00:39:51
Speaker
And yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:54
Speaker
So it's not like set every single day, but like some days you're going extremely, extremely early.
00:39:59
Speaker
Some days you're going eight to nine at night.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:03
Speaker
So you don't have like a set schedule really in your head.
00:40:05
Speaker
It's just different every day.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:07
Speaker
Just grinding every day.
00:40:08
Speaker
Just work every day as much as you can.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:40:11
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:40:12
Speaker
All right, man.
00:40:13
Speaker
Well, just to wrap up here, Blake, I wanted to ask you, what's the, so you're in a close, what's your typical closing lines?
00:40:19
Speaker
You've built value.
00:40:20
Speaker
Well, I guess, first of all, you follow pretty much the same structure, like build rapport, intro, fact find.
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
Build a problem, give them solution, close.
00:40:31
Speaker
Is that kind of your process?
00:40:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:40:33
Speaker
And I think here's one thing that separates me from a lot of different sales reps is I tell the customer what they don't want to hear.
00:40:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:41
Speaker
because I think a lot of sales reps come off too salesy and they only tell them the good, good, good.
00:40:47
Speaker
But I also tell the customer the bad because if I tell the customer the bad, that builds a lot of rapport and trust with the customer.
00:40:53
Speaker
So for example,
00:40:57
Speaker
I have a close that I do, it's a five step process close.
00:41:01
Speaker
But in that close, I tell the customer that they'll get installed in eight weeks.
00:41:06
Speaker
Which eight, our average install time is way sooner than eight weeks.
00:41:10
Speaker
But the reason why I tell the customer eight weeks is because I know that we'll install them before the eight weeks.
00:41:19
Speaker
So like I said, it's telling the customer stuff that they don't want to hear.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:22
Speaker
Because it's like, hey, worst case scenario, if it rains, you know, every single day for like two months, then we're installing you at the eight weeks.
00:41:28
Speaker
But it's also painting the picture with worst case scenario is a big key to my success and the structure of my clothes.
00:41:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:36
Speaker
No, that's a nugget for sure because, yeah, I've experienced that the hard way and I've also done some good things with it.
00:41:42
Speaker
But, yeah, I had a customer, super big deal out in California.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, I told him it was going to be a month.
00:41:48
Speaker
We come to two months.
00:41:49
Speaker
He's like, okay, you told me it was going to be a month.
00:41:51
Speaker
I'm canceling it.
00:41:52
Speaker
just because of that i'm like dude come on man like it's like a month in one day they're hitting you up i'm like dude i don't have time for that i'm gonna tell you two months i know so yeah i learned my lesson and now yeah we got to an area where i knew permits were taken longer where it was yeah kind of these town home type homes i knew the h-way could potentially be a nightmare
00:42:11
Speaker
So I told these guys, I'm like, hey, it could take up to six months, just so you know, should be faster.
00:42:15
Speaker
We could take up to six months.
00:42:17
Speaker
And we're at four months now and it's taken a long time.
00:42:20
Speaker
But like, just because I said that they're like, they're still, they're not like throwing a fit or anything.
00:42:25
Speaker
Exactly.
00:42:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:25
Speaker
I told us.
00:42:26
Speaker
So I love that.
00:42:28
Speaker
Okay, and then, so what's your closing like?
00:42:30
Speaker
So you go through your process.
00:42:33
Speaker
Sounds like you're pretty assumptive and everything.
00:42:35
Speaker
You're not asking for permission.
00:42:36
Speaker
So how do you transition to the close, and what do you do?
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, so literally, sometimes I default to, like, an option close.
00:42:43
Speaker
There's different closes that I use, but the two most common ones are an option close and an assumption close.
00:42:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:48
Speaker
Those are the two main defaults.
00:42:50
Speaker
By then, they're already closing themselves, so there's no really need to...
00:42:54
Speaker
you know, I guess close them because they're already closed.
00:42:57
Speaker
So it's just going right into the paperwork.
00:42:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:00
Speaker
And then also if they say, for example, if they want a battery or they want extra panels, I'll use that at the very end.
00:43:07
Speaker
Hey, do you want the system with 24 panels or do you want the system with 26 panels?
00:43:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:12
Speaker
26 panels.
00:43:12
Speaker
And then once they answer that question, they're literally giving me permission to sign them up.
00:43:16
Speaker
And I think a lot of reps don't understand that.
00:43:19
Speaker
And they're like 26 pounds.
00:43:20
Speaker
Are you sure you want the 26 panels?
00:43:21
Speaker
Now it's like,
00:43:23
Speaker
okay, maybe I don't want the 26 pounds because you're telling me I have my shirt.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:27
Speaker
And for example, if you go order food and you want this, you know,
00:43:33
Speaker
Burger the waiter's not gonna be like are you sure you want that burger?
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah, cuz then you're gonna second-guess your decision So once the customer says I want this you just close them.
00:43:42
Speaker
Yeah, okay.
00:43:44
Speaker
Love it And yeah, most people don't like you see it from new reps all the time like oh Blake got the lay down customer that was way easier than my customers but
00:43:54
Speaker
They don't see all the intricate parts of like planting the seed or bringing up all these objections beforehand.
00:44:01
Speaker
Like there's a lot that goes into it.
00:44:03
Speaker
And I think that's one of the key secrets to my success is any presentation that I give, I analyze.
00:44:11
Speaker
What could I have done better?
00:44:12
Speaker
Where did I lose the customer?
00:44:14
Speaker
What were his facial expressions when I said this, that, and the other?
00:44:17
Speaker
How can I get him to express
00:44:19
Speaker
these feelings or how can I get him to react in a certain way?
00:44:23
Speaker
So I'm very analytical and I think that's the key to my success is if I say, hey, so for example, the loans, right?
00:44:32
Speaker
There's like 10, 15, 20, 25 year loans.
00:44:34
Speaker
Typically we sell a 25 year loan, right?
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:38
Speaker
But if you say 25 year loan, I'm gonna get a negative facial expression for you.
00:44:44
Speaker
So I set that out and I say, hey, this is a plan I recommend.
00:44:47
Speaker
This is a plan I have on my house.
00:44:49
Speaker
This is a 25 year plan.
00:44:50
Speaker
I don't say 25 year loan.
00:44:52
Speaker
And so it's certain things of getting certain reactions out of customers.
00:44:56
Speaker
by saying or framing it a certain way.
00:44:58
Speaker
And I think that's been the biggest key to my success is all this analyzing that goes on.
00:45:03
Speaker
When I say something, I look at the customer, see how they respond.
00:45:06
Speaker
It's a nugget.
00:45:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:08
Speaker
And do you do a lot of recording your presentations and kind of going back and listening?
00:45:12
Speaker
I actually don't.
00:45:13
Speaker
I don't.
00:45:15
Speaker
I always just take mental notes of everything as I go throughout my presentation.
00:45:19
Speaker
Like, oh, the customer gave me this look when I said that.
00:45:22
Speaker
And I think that's a cool thing is because my presentation, and I continually train, my presentation keeps on evolving.
00:45:28
Speaker
So the first presentation I ever gave at Pure is way different than the presentation that I give now.
00:45:35
Speaker
Just because of certain aspects of the presentation getting certain results.
00:45:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:41
Speaker
And then if you get someone, you probably don't get this near as often as a lot of people just because of all the stuff you do during the presentation.
00:45:49
Speaker
But say you're in a deal or you're getting the, I need to think about it, I don't want to sign the docs, all that.
00:45:55
Speaker
Do you kind of try to get them to go through with it and just do the soft close thing like, hey, let's just get it in.
00:46:01
Speaker
Your state gives you three days.
00:46:03
Speaker
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
00:46:05
Speaker
So no, the reason why is because if you do that close, you'll have a high cancellation rate.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:11
Speaker
So there's an underlying concern that the customer has that he doesn't trust you, the company or product enough in order to tell you what's actually going on.
00:46:22
Speaker
Because I need to think about it, it's just a smokescreen at the end of the day.
00:46:25
Speaker
So you just have to get to the bottom of it.
00:46:28
Speaker
And then I'll have reps like in training, so they're like, Blake, well, what do you do if you get, I need to think about it?
00:46:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:34
Speaker
there's 50 bajillion million reasons why that customer might say, I didn't think about it.
00:46:40
Speaker
Because it's like, okay, did you plant, like on my framework that I teach everyone, I'm like, okay, did you plant a same day decision seed?
00:46:48
Speaker
Or when the customer said this, this is the reason why they're probably saying I need to think about it because you didn't dive in and dig into what the true objection was at that certain point.
00:46:58
Speaker
So there's numerous reasons why that customer might say, I need to think about it.
00:47:03
Speaker
It might be something that you forgot in your presentation.
00:47:05
Speaker
It might be a worry or concern that they brought up that you didn't catch onto and you didn't listen and you didn't dig and assess the situation.
00:47:13
Speaker
So there's a million reasons why they say, I need to think about it, that then the day comes down to trust.
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, OK.
00:47:20
Speaker
And then any tips you'd have to, because I told you, yeah, we did have a few cancels when we were up here in Dallas.
00:47:28
Speaker
And yeah, actually Rick had come to a few of these deals.
00:47:31
Speaker
And yeah, they seemed pretty solid.
00:47:34
Speaker
We didn't like, you know, we told them they had their like right of rescission, but we weren't saying, hey, cancel anytime type thing.
00:47:41
Speaker
And they did still end up canceling.
00:47:42
Speaker
So I know probably some of just the learning curve, being out here in a new area, a new territory.
00:47:48
Speaker
But yeah, what else do you think there's anything else that you see has really helped your reps reduce cancellations and not struggle with that as much?
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think being more of a pull salesman than a push salesman.
00:48:01
Speaker
Because I think a lot of reps will push customers into the deal instead of pulling them into the deal.
00:48:08
Speaker
And typically when you see a rep pushing a customer into the deal, you'll see their cancellation rate go up.
00:48:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:48:16
Speaker
So by pull, you mean like more takeaway?
00:48:19
Speaker
More takeaway.
00:48:19
Speaker
They're the ones saying, hey, this is a good idea.
00:48:22
Speaker
Hey, this is a good deal.
00:48:23
Speaker
Hey, I really think we should do this.
00:48:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:48:27
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:48:29
Speaker
Awesome, man.
00:48:30
Speaker
Cool.
00:48:30
Speaker
I know we could be here all day, Blake, but we've gone through a lot, and, yeah, we just appreciate you sharing some of these closing tips, and it's been a learning experience out here.
00:48:42
Speaker
I wish we would have done this before I came to Texas because I think I probably would have done three more deals on top of this.
00:48:48
Speaker
No, you can't.
00:48:49
Speaker
You're always welcome back.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'll have to.
00:48:52
Speaker
But yeah, man, so where can people, if they want to ask you more questions, connect with you more, what's the best way to do that?
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah, just hit me up on Instagram, text Rick.
00:49:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:01
Speaker
If you got Rick's number.
00:49:04
Speaker
All right.
00:49:04
Speaker
No soliciting, bro.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, message no soliciting, bro.
00:49:07
Speaker
I'm always with that guy.
00:49:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:09
Speaker
Sounds good.
00:49:10
Speaker
Well, before we wrap up, any final advice or anything else, any other secrets to your success that we didn't cover that you would mention to any rep listening to this right now?
00:49:21
Speaker
I would say just don't quit.
00:49:23
Speaker
That's the biggest thing.
00:49:24
Speaker
Stick with it.
00:49:27
Speaker
You can learn how to sell.
00:49:28
Speaker
That's the biggest thing.
00:49:30
Speaker
So when I first, I didn't get into this, but when I first got into sales, I ended up selling the first store I ever knocked on.
00:49:37
Speaker
I'm like, dude, this is going to be a six-figure summer.
00:49:39
Speaker
This is an easy cakewalk.
00:49:41
Speaker
Then I ended up bageling for three weeks after that.
00:49:45
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:49:45
Speaker
And it's crazy looking back.
00:49:47
Speaker
It's like, what if I would have quit the first week of bageling or the second or the third week of bageling?
00:49:52
Speaker
I wouldn't be where I'm at right now.
00:49:53
Speaker
So I'd say sticking it out and knowing that sales can be learned was a big...
00:50:01
Speaker
aha moment for me because sales obviously has been a big blessing in my life and it's gonna bless generations to come.
00:50:09
Speaker
And if I would have quit, you know, two weeks in, three weeks in, I would have none of this.
00:50:15
Speaker
I would say that.
00:50:16
Speaker
And then also another one is,
00:50:18
Speaker
sometimes we get in our head and we think that oh i'm so lucky that i even got that cell yeah right what if i didn't knock on that door i'm so lucky hopefully i can find another lucky lay down yeah but a big paradigm shift in my head was uh luck is when preparation meets opportunity if i didn't knock on that door if i didn't put forth the effort if i didn't study the pitch that morning
00:50:42
Speaker
I wouldn't have gotten that deal.
00:50:44
Speaker
So I wouldn't give myself enough credit at the beginning of my sales career because I'd be like, oh, I just got sealed so lucky to sell that deal.
00:50:51
Speaker
But that paradigm shift of,
00:50:53
Speaker
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
00:50:55
Speaker
Help me understand, hey, the more I prepare, the more and the harder I work, the more luck I'll have.
00:51:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:01
Speaker
But those would be the two biggest things, I would say.
00:51:03
Speaker
Nice.
00:51:04
Speaker
100%.
00:51:05
Speaker
Love that.
00:51:06
Speaker
Well, Blake, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:51:08
Speaker
Remember, for our solopreneurs, there is no failures.
00:51:11
Speaker
There's only people that quit.
00:51:13
Speaker
So do not quit.
00:51:14
Speaker
Don't quit.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:15
Speaker
Push hard out there.
00:51:17
Speaker
And then just like Blake said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
00:51:21
Speaker
Great little mantra to repeat yourself out on the doors today.
00:51:25
Speaker
So thanks again, Blake, and hope to have you on someday for a follow-up.
00:51:28
Speaker
Yeah, appreciate it.
00:51:29
Speaker
Okay, thanks, man.
00:51:30
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs.
00:51:31
Speaker
Are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
00:51:37
Speaker
Well so was I and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
00:51:43
Speaker
So that's why I'm excited to announce for Eliminate Time we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
00:51:48
Speaker
We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
00:51:56
Speaker
So act now we have six bucks for this month so book a call now, don't miss out.
00:52:01
Speaker
What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:52:06
Speaker
That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s dot com.
00:52:10
Speaker
I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
00:52:15
Speaker
So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.