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What Is The Future Of Solar Lead Generation - Rich Feola
95 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction and Host's Success Story
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.
00:00:41
Speaker
How's it going, everybody?
00:00:42
Speaker
We are live here with another podcast, and this is someone that did a podcast, I think,
Industry Changes and Lead Generation with Rich Fiel
00:00:48
Speaker
what, two years ago?
00:00:48
Speaker
Two years ago, yeah.
00:00:50
Speaker
And so we've got Rich Fiel in the house.
00:00:52
Speaker
He is CEO over at Solar Exclusive.
00:00:56
Speaker
The top guys in the game right now as far as getting leads for your solar business.
00:01:00
Speaker
So I'm excited to do a little follow-up episode here.
00:01:03
Speaker
We're going to talk about how it's changed in the past couple of years.
00:01:06
Speaker
Obviously, things have gone nuts with just AI and things like that.
00:01:11
Speaker
So we're going to jam on that, how we can use it in our solar businesses.
00:01:15
Speaker
So, yeah, man, thanks for coming on the show with us.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:01:17
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:19
Speaker
So, yeah, I think two years ago, you know, the industry was in a much different place.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:24
Speaker
You know, but now I think there's some exciting stuff on the horizon because there's this new law that was just passed by the Federal Communications Commission.
00:01:32
Speaker
And basically it's saying that you can't generate a lead going forward, like starting in a few months.
00:01:38
Speaker
It's already been passed.
00:01:39
Speaker
Starting in a few months, you can't generate a lead unless you have exclusive consent.
00:01:43
Speaker
All right.
00:01:44
Speaker
Basically, all the companies that do shared leads or do work age leads and all these things, like throwing them into auto dialers, cold calling homeowner data, all that stuff's going to become illegal with this new law.
00:01:58
Speaker
It basically positions Solar Exclusive as one of the only go-to companies
00:02:03
Speaker
to buy leads from going forward in 2025 and beyond because it's gonna be really tough to get shared leads anymore because people have to literally fill out the form like multiple times for every company they want to call them.
Impact of FCC Law on Lead Generation
00:02:16
Speaker
And like, so the lead costs for shared leads are gonna go way up.
00:02:19
Speaker
And so, you know, seven years ago when I started Solar Exclusive, I really had the option to go two ways.
00:02:24
Speaker
I could either be like everyone else and be a lead aggregator where we just funnel all the leads from like one page and then just distribute the leads afterwards.
00:02:33
Speaker
So you don't know who you're going to sell the lead to until you generate it and then sell it.
00:02:37
Speaker
But the way we did it was that we set up exclusive campaigns for every client.
00:02:41
Speaker
So every client has their own dedicated campaign, dedicated marketing, so that it's exclusive to them.
00:02:48
Speaker
And I didn't know seven years ago when I built that model that that's how it would be when the federal government bans all the other models.
00:02:56
Speaker
So it's kind of like, it's good for us, but a lot of lead gen companies are going to have to adapt and change, and solar companies are going to have to adapt and change because they're so used to cold calling and using dialers.
00:03:08
Speaker
I know a lot of people in your podcast, in your world, they doorknog.
00:03:13
Speaker
Well, obviously, that's not going to be impacted.
00:03:15
Speaker
But like cold calling through dialers, robo dialing, like it's going to be totally changed, which is actually going to make the lead quality better for exclusive leads.
00:03:23
Speaker
Because now when people actually fill out a form, they're not going to be getting blown up multiple times from like just random people calling them through dialers.
00:03:32
Speaker
Because right now, like, everyone says, oh, there's no, there's not really truly an exclusive lead.
00:03:36
Speaker
Like, they're all shared with multiple companies.
00:03:38
Speaker
That's not really the case.
00:03:40
Speaker
The reality is that people are just filling out multiple forms, and they're getting multiple quotes, and they're getting called by multiple companies.
00:03:46
Speaker
And, like, everyone and their mom is, like, cold calling every single number, like, in America right now, selling them solar.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:53
Speaker
So, like, all these big dialers and these call centers are doing this, and, like,
00:03:59
Speaker
If your lead filled out a form online, that's your exclusive lead.
00:04:02
Speaker
But if they get a million calls from some cold caller, that doesn't mean the lead would have shared.
00:04:07
Speaker
It just means that there's big competition.
00:04:09
Speaker
But now that cold calling is going to stop because it's illegal with a robo-dialer.
00:04:13
Speaker
So now the exclusive leads are going to be a lot more, they're going to seem a lot more exclusive than they ever have been because they're not going to be getting blown up by so many other people.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:21
Speaker
So it's kind of like a cool thing that's
AI's Role and Legal Considerations in Lead Generation
00:04:23
Speaker
happening.
00:04:23
Speaker
I think it's a good thing for the industry.
00:04:25
Speaker
I think it's going to help improve the industry, but it's going to force people to have to have some type of exclusive lead partner, you know, starting in 2025.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:04:34
Speaker
Now that reminds me, you're like, I think that's where you see some insanely successful businesses come is where they kind of like, you know, start something before it's like a trans business.
00:04:45
Speaker
I don't know, that makes me think of like, I don't know, Netflix or something where they're starting to first like ship out the DVDs and all that.
00:04:51
Speaker
And probably like people that are going to Blockbuster, they're like, what are these idiots doing?
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:04:57
Speaker
It's like, okay, jokes on Blockbuster.
00:05:00
Speaker
You're the ones that didn't adjust quick enough.
00:05:02
Speaker
Right.
00:05:02
Speaker
So that's cool.
00:05:03
Speaker
And no, I mean, super smart and obviously puts you guys in a good position.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
That's cool.
00:05:10
Speaker
Well, so yeah, I want to talk about like before we hit record, we were talking about just, you know, like how AI has changed things.
00:05:19
Speaker
And this podcast, it's like we have a lot of just I think sales reps that listen, maybe managers.
00:05:24
Speaker
And so I think there's definitely some things we could talk about even if maybe they're not like buying their own leads.
00:05:29
Speaker
Like how could you maybe use that just if you're like, you know, a dealer running with your own appointments, whatever.
00:05:37
Speaker
So, yeah, like when did you guys start using AI and what does that look like?
00:05:41
Speaker
I guess in two years when we first talked, how has maybe like the lead gem process changed?
00:05:46
Speaker
How have you started using AI or maybe other things have changed in the process?
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, we started using it last year for like text message marketing.
00:05:55
Speaker
So like when leads would opt in, like we would reach out to them via text and AI would like kind of have a conversation with them and get them to schedule an appointment automatically.
00:06:03
Speaker
So that was really effective.
00:06:05
Speaker
You got to be really careful about how you use AI because now it's blowing up so big.
00:06:10
Speaker
And a lot of people are like talking about just like throwing in a bunch of numbers that are like homeowner data and then just blasting it with like an AI voice bot.
00:06:21
Speaker
But that actually was just made illegal by the Federal Communications Commission like two months ago.
00:06:26
Speaker
So two months ago is because like someone like took Joe Biden's voice and like blasted like every American in the country and like said all this untrue stuff.
00:06:36
Speaker
You know, so like they're like, all right, we got to ban this.
00:06:38
Speaker
So they just banned it.
00:06:39
Speaker
Like you can't call anyone without exclusive consent with AI.
00:06:45
Speaker
So that's the one thing about like AI.
00:06:47
Speaker
Like there's a lot of ways you could use it, like tools and stuff to use it to like maybe, you know, help your business, like create like responses to emails, maybe from customers or like create like a support platform.
00:07:00
Speaker
Box like on your website or something where people can chat with support and that has like its program with all like the most common questions like post sale Before their install comes or something like that like that's kind of stuff you could probably play around with But I mean for us on the lead gen side, you know, we use it a lot for like scheduling appointments So like once someone opts in like our call center will call them but also we'll have like the AI bot call them like a couple days later just to like
00:07:24
Speaker
on like two, three day old age data and just have it dial and set appointments for people.
00:07:31
Speaker
So, you know, you can use it, but you have to use it carefully because you don't want to just like just upload a bunch of numbers to it and then just like let it go crazy.
00:07:40
Speaker
Like you'll get shut down because like it's now illegal.
00:07:42
Speaker
But yeah, so there's other ways that AI can benefit solar professionals.
00:07:49
Speaker
Like I think with...
00:07:52
Speaker
When it comes to setting up an AI assistant, you could easily set up a high level account, which is this software called Go High Level, where you create this bot where basically you ask the homeowner when you're knocking on a door or you're in a home or something, and you get their phone number or ask them to text your assistant to answer any questions that they have.
00:08:15
Speaker
And they just text the number.
00:08:17
Speaker
And then the AI bot will just answer any questions they have about solar and schedule an appointment for you.
00:08:21
Speaker
So you can go back to the house after you knocked, you know, like that's a really cool thing like You know Nito AI is like talking all about that, but you know, they have a really cool software You know, we've tested out a little bit But I mean AI is advanced so much that you could easily do that with like your own software like you can do it with your own account and high-level I guess I mean, I know they have some like specific differences that they claim they have but
00:08:45
Speaker
I mean, it's pretty much all conversational AI.
00:08:48
Speaker
It's all ChatGPT, the latest version of ChatGPT, right?
00:08:51
Speaker
So it's not tough to duplicate on a very low budget.
00:08:56
Speaker
Like you don't have to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to do it.
00:08:58
Speaker
You could just set up a go high level account, set up a phone number and just have your leads at the door, just text that number and they can answer.
00:09:04
Speaker
Like you could program it with like,
00:09:05
Speaker
every single most commonly asked question about solar, and then they could schedule an appointment for a follow-up for you to come out, call them, or come back to their house.
00:09:13
Speaker
So that's some pretty cool stuff that you could do with AI.
00:09:17
Speaker
And yeah, so on the lead gen side, it's just drastically improved our conversion rates from leads to appointments.
00:09:25
Speaker
Because a lot of leads go dead.
00:09:27
Speaker
They just don't pick up the phone.
00:09:29
Speaker
But if we're texting them via AI and calling them via AI,
00:09:32
Speaker
It's like we don't need a lot of manpower because like we have limited people in our call center, right?
00:09:36
Speaker
So like we have to be calling the freshest leads at all times But like after leads like go three days five days seven days old like a lot of those other leads are neglected So like it's good for AI to like, you know go through those and like because there's no it's not gonna get tired, you know, it's just gonna keep going So it's pretty cool
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, and that's what's cool.
00:09:56
Speaker
Like, even if you're, you know, maybe we got like a new rep listening to this that's like, what are these guys talking about right now?
00:10:02
Speaker
But I think like, even if you don't know any of this stuff, like everyone probably have sort of chat GPT at this point.
00:10:09
Speaker
So even like a new rep, I think it's super useful.
00:10:11
Speaker
Just like maybe it'd be like, okay, this appointment didn't show up to the schedule.
00:10:15
Speaker
I went and knocked their door.
00:10:16
Speaker
Then they weren't there for their appointment.
00:10:18
Speaker
A lot of guys don't even know how to follow up or what to text or whatever.
00:10:22
Speaker
So I think on a very basic level, even if you're new at all this stuff, just go on ChatGPT and say, hey, my solar appointment didn't show up.
00:10:30
Speaker
What are some, I don't know, some texts or emails I could send to follow up with them?
00:10:36
Speaker
And then this is how I've started using it.
00:10:39
Speaker
It can literally give you...
00:10:40
Speaker
you know, 10 different interesting things to like follow up with them to like try to book a new appointment.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:10:45
Speaker
If you don't have a CRM or anything, like you can just copy paste what it told you and then send it out yourself.
00:10:50
Speaker
But obviously it gets a lot easier and better if you can't have like a high level or whatever and like automate a lot of these things.
00:10:58
Speaker
Right, right.
00:10:58
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like, is there, I don't know, is there any, maybe for like newer reps or people that are new, new to these things, do you have any other, like, I don't know, ideas or ways that would be easy for like a newer guy to start using AI or even just like chat GPT to maybe follow up or like help out?
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
So, I mean, like you could ask ChatCBG to set up like a 10 email sequence for like old leads that like you knock on their door, like you got their info, but like they didn't book an appointment.
00:11:25
Speaker
You could like send out 10 emails automatically through that.
00:11:28
Speaker
You could have it say like, hey, create me a, you know,
00:11:32
Speaker
Create me a text sequence over the course of the next, you know, 14 days.
00:11:37
Speaker
Like, what should I say over the next 14 days in the text sequence to like get people interested again in solar, you know?
00:11:44
Speaker
And then you could just create this automated text sequence, have it be sent out with other software and stuff like that.
00:11:49
Speaker
Or you could just do it manually if you know like your hottest leads like you want to do, you know, you could use that.
00:11:55
Speaker
Or you could just test drive solar exclusive.
00:11:57
Speaker
We're doing a 30-day trial right now where we don't charge anything.
00:12:01
Speaker
We don't charge any fees except we only have to pay YouTube for the ad costs.
00:12:05
Speaker
And literally, we won't charge you for the first 30 days.
00:12:08
Speaker
We'll give you all this software to test out.
00:12:12
Speaker
So it's pretty sweet.
00:12:13
Speaker
I mean, it is an investment, a minimum of three to five grand for YouTube ads per month.
00:12:18
Speaker
So it's not for brand new reps.
Business Strategies: Delegation and Referrals
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:20
Speaker
But I mean we add in the AI stuff we give you all that stuff like included in our service and we're not charging for the first month It does expire soon, but I'm not sure when you're posting this but we're gonna do a 30-day trial offer like a lot Just because we're so confident in our results at this point They're like we don't have to lock people into long contracts.
00:12:38
Speaker
So we used to lock people in like six-month contracts but now like
00:12:43
Speaker
We literally are confident because 85% of people after the first month are going to make sales and are going to continue.
00:12:48
Speaker
So we just say, hey, try it out for a month, test it out.
00:12:51
Speaker
And we won't even charge you for the first month.
00:12:55
Speaker
Just totally test drive it.
00:12:56
Speaker
Just pay YouTube because we can't get around that.
00:12:58
Speaker
We've got to pay YouTube.
00:13:00
Speaker
But yeah, try it out for a month.
00:13:02
Speaker
You make sales, then keep it going.
00:13:04
Speaker
If not, you tried it.
00:13:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:07
Speaker
Well, I think that's super valuable even if you're just going to be like, okay, try it, cancel it after a month.
00:13:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:11
Speaker
Then probably just the things you're going to learn alone from testing out their system.
00:13:16
Speaker
Right.
00:13:16
Speaker
I mean, not that they're going to like steal it all and like hack it, but like, I'm sure there's like maybe just like principles and things you see it doing.
00:13:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:24
Speaker
Like, okay, well, at least I kind of know like a more basic level and I can now apply this even if I don't continue with using the services.
00:13:32
Speaker
Right.
00:13:33
Speaker
So, yeah, I definitely recommend people go try that out, give it a shot.
00:13:37
Speaker
And then another thing we're talking about before, Rich, is just like, I think a big problem, like, you know, my background is door to door.
00:13:44
Speaker
A lot of guys come to this knowing nothing about like Online Legion or...
00:13:49
Speaker
automation or like AI, none of this stuff.
00:13:52
Speaker
So another big problem I see and I talk about in my podcast a lot is just like how can we be better at delegating things in the solar business?
00:14:00
Speaker
That's one of my favorite topics.
00:14:02
Speaker
We actually just did the referral boot camp a couple of days ago and talked about all these referral strategies, but it can be overwhelming if you don't know how to like delegate, automate a lot of this stuff.
00:14:13
Speaker
Because like getting referrals takes a lot of follow up and setting up systems and everything.
00:14:18
Speaker
So, yeah, like what are some, I don't know, mistakes you see in guys or maybe clients you've worked with?
00:14:23
Speaker
What do you like coach them on as far as like, OK, here's some things you can like delegate, make your life easier.
00:14:29
Speaker
What are maybe some things you guys help out with or see mistakes made in that?
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:34
Speaker
I mean, I think just general business principles is like there's like four like things that you could be working on any given time.
00:14:40
Speaker
There's like the urgent stuff that you have to be doing, like revenue generating activities, like the most important things that like pay the bills.
00:14:46
Speaker
And then there's like semi important things that could probably like be done like later.
00:14:52
Speaker
I mean, there's some things that you just hate to do that you're not good at because that's why you hate it because you're not good at it.
00:14:58
Speaker
That should be delegated.
00:15:00
Speaker
I mean, there's stuff that's probably important but not your expertise.
00:15:07
Speaker
You might like to do it, but it's not your strong suit.
00:15:10
Speaker
So those things have to be delegated too.
00:15:13
Speaker
So I mean I'm always trying to like focus on the things that are like most primary for me where my strengths are and like my team members as well and like if they're not strong in those areas to delegate but I think with solar reps and stuff like we just started using the get the referral app which has been awesome.
00:15:27
Speaker
Highly recommend their service.
00:15:29
Speaker
They set up a whole app for us so now you know you could actually be an affiliate of solar exclusive so if you're a solar sales rep and like you
00:15:37
Speaker
don't even have the money to buy a lease from Solar Exclusive, but you know other sales managers or solar companies that could use us.
00:15:45
Speaker
We pay $500 a month for every time they renew.
00:15:49
Speaker
So it's really cool.
00:15:50
Speaker
They just download the app, they just submit a referral, it goes to one of our account managers.
00:15:53
Speaker
You could actually track to see when it gets closed.
00:15:56
Speaker
and then we just pay the 500 bucks out every month and it connects with your bank so you just get a deposit every month that they renew and we do that unlimited for as many clients as you we normally only did the referral program for like people who were existing customers right and we would just reduce their fees by the 500 bucks a month but now we're like like branching it out to like all affiliates and i think that's like another thing like i think solar companies probably focus too much on like their existing client base to get referrals from
00:16:23
Speaker
But like if you're at an appointment and like they're unqualified, like they don't pass credit or like their roof just doesn't have enough space and they don't have a, you can't do a ground mount.
00:16:31
Speaker
Like just use that, get the referral app and just be like, Hey, like, can you refer your neighbors, like your friends, your family?
00:16:37
Speaker
And just like, I'll pay you 500 bucks every time they sign up, you know, like, like literally like you just connect your bank account.
00:16:42
Speaker
It's totally secure.
00:16:44
Speaker
And like, it's like, it's a no brainer.
00:16:46
Speaker
I think, you know, it's like,
00:16:47
Speaker
I think it's huge, but I think it's going to be a great way to grow our business because we've never done affiliates before.
00:16:52
Speaker
We've only ever given referral bonuses to existing clients.
00:16:56
Speaker
But now we can just literally, like, you have so many contacts in the industry.
00:16:59
Speaker
Like, you could just, all right, $500, $500, $500, $500 every time you, like, refer someone, right?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:04
Speaker
So, you know, I think that's going to be kind of cool.
00:17:07
Speaker
So I would try to set up some type of system for that, you know, to get more referrals.
00:17:12
Speaker
And, you know,
00:17:13
Speaker
As far as delegation is concerned, I think a big thing that we're helping with now is project management.
00:17:19
Speaker
So we have a partnership.
00:17:20
Speaker
One of our clients, who's been a client for four years, they've closed thousands of deals with Solar Exclusive.
00:17:25
Speaker
They have a company called Project Pros, and they're walking around Solarcon here in pink outfits or whatever.
00:17:33
Speaker
They do like project management.
00:17:35
Speaker
So like we had a couple clients who like were struggling with like some deals getting through.
00:17:38
Speaker
One was in the state of Maine.
00:17:40
Speaker
One was in the state of Virginia, I think.
00:17:42
Speaker
And like they were struggling to get deals through the pipeline.
00:17:44
Speaker
So like they came in and like took over the paperwork, resubmitted the paperwork for them.
00:17:48
Speaker
They didn't have to contact customers at all.
00:17:50
Speaker
They did everything.
00:17:51
Speaker
And they were able to get them a lower red line with the installer and resubmit those deals and get them all approved.
00:17:56
Speaker
Because like before they were getting disapproved and they weren't going to go through.
00:18:00
Speaker
And like they fixed all those problems and gave them a bigger commission even after they took their cut of like 10 cents a watt So it was like incredible.
00:18:08
Speaker
So we're offering that to our clients now who want like to just focus on selling right?
00:18:13
Speaker
Because like when you're a sales rep and you're crushing it in solar like you want to you want to close more deals like you want to focus on closing You don't want to be focusing on like oh I got a call this customer.
00:18:22
Speaker
They have to sign for the main panel upgrade like I got to get them to like
00:18:26
Speaker
Be at the house, like have someone come out and take pictures, like all that stuff, like the site survey, like you don't want to deal with any of that stuff.
00:18:32
Speaker
Like these guys will just handle it all for you and they'll get the deals installed faster than you will by yourself.
00:18:38
Speaker
You'll get paid faster.
00:18:39
Speaker
Who knows?
00:18:40
Speaker
Like they may even be able to get you a better deal.
00:18:41
Speaker
Like they can get you like more commission after all is said and done anyway.
00:18:46
Speaker
So it's kind of like, I think it's a no brainer.
00:18:48
Speaker
So we've been partnering with them for some of our clients and they've been seeing amazing results with them.
00:18:54
Speaker
Check them out, Project Pros, and check out Solar Exclusive, and we'll plug you in with them if you want to learn more about them.
Effective Hiring Practices
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, just great principles, even if you don't necessarily hire any of these people or whatever.
00:19:11
Speaker
I actually did this presentation at our event just barely, but just getting in that delegating mindset of thinking of things you could possibly delegate.
00:19:18
Speaker
I remember when I was new in the insurance, I'm going to do everything myself.
00:19:22
Speaker
No one can do it as good as I can.
00:19:24
Speaker
And it's just like you start to see so much time where okay.
00:19:28
Speaker
Instead of like being out prospecting, being in appointments, I just spent like two hours fixing pipeline stuff and going and taking pictures, going and getting missing documents.
00:19:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:39
Speaker
You can never be like a like a phenomenal seller if you're having all that time that's spent on those other tasks.
00:19:48
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's a great principle to just get in the habit of and I'm sure there's tons of stuff you delegate like you're not the one that's going you have a team obviously Yeah, how many how many people you got on your team over it?
00:19:59
Speaker
So we got like 30 people in the States then for running all of our ads we run so many ads We've got like 200 people overseas So we train them on like hey like click this button do this like with a Google Ads and YouTube ads and stuff and
00:20:11
Speaker
But since we're doing so many campaigns, we need like that many people overseas.
00:20:14
Speaker
So it's just cheaper to do it that way than have like 200 people in the States, you know.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:20:20
Speaker
Then you have to charge a lot more.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker
That's where I have my assistant too over in the Philippines.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:25
Speaker
Great workers.
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah, but like and then maybe someone that is like, OK, I want to start maybe like hiring more of a team, outsourcing stuff.
00:20:34
Speaker
What are some lessons you learn maybe working with these people overseas?
00:20:38
Speaker
What are some like, I don't know, maybe examples of systems or maybe mistakes you made in hiring?
00:20:43
Speaker
You have any advice on that for people?
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, so we have everyone take like this behavioral assessment before we hire them because it kind of shows It's not a disc so like this is a different type of assessment.
00:20:55
Speaker
It's called Harrison assessment and Basically what it does is it measures behavior Because a lot of these like disc assessments are like Myers-Briggs assessments like they measure someone's personality But I don't care like what type of person someone is I care about like what they're gonna do when they work for me.
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, I
00:21:12
Speaker
I care about how are they going to act in stressful situations?
00:21:15
Speaker
How are they going to make critical decisions?
00:21:20
Speaker
How are they going to invent new ideas and new initiatives?
00:21:26
Speaker
How are they going to be able to manage a team?
00:21:29
Speaker
Stuff like that.
00:21:30
Speaker
So the behavioral assessment asks a series of questions that rank all these different...
00:21:37
Speaker
categories in a work environment, but it's all based on choices and things you do and your preferences on doing certain things rather than on your preferences of how you feel and what type of person you are.
00:21:49
Speaker
Because that really doesn't matter.
00:21:51
Speaker
Someone could be a total jerk, but be the best worker in the world.
00:21:54
Speaker
They could have a really weird personality profile, but still be a great worker or vice versa.
00:21:59
Speaker
Someone could have a great personality profile, but end up being the worst worker in the world because they don't behave well.
00:22:04
Speaker
So I'd rather track people's behavior
00:22:07
Speaker
So that's like, we try to like avoid bad hiring so that we don't have to like deal with a bunch of training later.
00:22:12
Speaker
I'd rather just hire the right people that I can train easily than like hire people that I have to always be training.
00:22:19
Speaker
And like, it's just a waste of time.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:21
Speaker
So that's kind of the first step before you even like interview someone you're like, yeah, take
00:22:25
Speaker
No, it's usually like the last step.
00:22:26
Speaker
So we'll interview a bunch of people.
00:22:27
Speaker
We'll weed through a bunch of candidates and then we'll give them this assessment at the end, like with the top candidates and like just make sure that they're like a true A player.
00:22:35
Speaker
And you'll be surprised.
00:22:36
Speaker
Like sometimes we see like, oh yeah, this person is like not a good fit.
00:22:40
Speaker
They interviewed really well, but like they're not a good fit.
00:22:42
Speaker
So like we're not going to hire them, you know?
00:22:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah, no, so important.
00:22:47
Speaker
And yeah, I think that's a, yeah, because I made a lot of mistakes.
00:22:52
Speaker
I mean, I have a virtual assistant right now, nothing crazy, but these are things that if you are hiring someone for the first time, it's like, yeah, they can look good on paper, they can say the right things.
00:23:02
Speaker
But something that I learned too is just putting people on like, I don't know if you guys do this, but putting them kind of like a trial period or whatever.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
Saying, okay.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:10
Speaker
We're going to see how it works, bring you on for a month or whatever.
00:23:13
Speaker
Right.
00:23:14
Speaker
And then continue after that.
00:23:15
Speaker
Because when I first hired my assistants, I was like, all right, you're hired.
00:23:19
Speaker
You sound awesome.
00:23:20
Speaker
You're going to crush it in this.
00:23:22
Speaker
And they're like, sweet.
00:23:23
Speaker
And then they worked for like two days and didn't show up.
00:23:26
Speaker
Right, right.
00:23:28
Speaker
I'm like, okay, maybe I should say, hey, we're going to test it out and then...
00:23:31
Speaker
you know, kind of like make it official after that.
00:23:33
Speaker
Right, right.
00:23:34
Speaker
Exactly.
00:23:35
Speaker
In principle.
00:23:36
Speaker
But no,
Building Marketing Departments Independently
00:23:37
Speaker
cool.
00:23:37
Speaker
And then last couple of things, Rich, I know you guys just rolled out a new thing where you're actually helping people basically create their own marketing department.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker
Which is super awesome.
00:23:48
Speaker
And I know this is maybe like a higher level thing.
00:23:50
Speaker
This isn't going to be for like a new rep listening or whatever, but
00:23:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:54
Speaker
What made you guys decide to like offer that to just because I know for you guys, you're like, you're probably like, oh, I want to we just want to keep people and do all the marketing for them.
00:24:04
Speaker
So what gave you that idea of helping companies like create their own in-house marketing department?
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:10
Speaker
So for companies doing like 50 deals a month minimum, like 100 deals a month, 200 deals a month.
00:24:15
Speaker
Like they're just tired of rotating through a bunch of lead vendors, right?
00:24:19
Speaker
Like they always have to be hiring new lead vendors always be buying leads all these different places a lot of them do a lot on the doors too, but like they're trying to get like an in-house marketing team going right or like they're trying to do some leads like to feed their virtual sales team to do an inside sales team, you know and The problem is is that a lot of these bigger companies They just spend a little bit of money like five grand ten grand twenty grand that might not seem like a little bit of money, but
00:24:45
Speaker
In the grand scheme of like running ads like running five grand or ten grand or twenty grand for like a month or two Like is not a good litmus test on whether it can really work because like it takes time for these campaigns to dial in so Rather than like having them throw a little bit of money at like so many different lead vendors saying like oh Which one sticks which one does the best like you really have to go all in on like one strategy so we're gonna teach
00:25:09
Speaker
Companies how to build their own in-house marketing team for Google Ads YouTube ads Facebook Ads and like it's a significant investment But we're gonna actually provide a director of marketing for them for as little as a thousand dollars a month So they can fire all their other lead vendors because once they commit to it and they're like yeah We're gonna like invest in this we're gonna actually like commit the time necessary to like make sure this works and they actually like
00:25:33
Speaker
build it all out and they own everything.
00:25:35
Speaker
We download all of our data from $140 million worth of ads that we've run over seven years, 4.7 million leads that we've generated.
00:25:43
Speaker
We download it all into their accounts so they own it.
00:25:46
Speaker
And because a lot of these bigger organizations, they need to bring it in-house because with these new regulations passing,
00:25:52
Speaker
They're not going to be able to afford to keep paying premiums to all these different lead vendors.
00:25:55
Speaker
They're going to have to bring their marketing in-house.
00:25:57
Speaker
So rather than just like have a big company like come to Solar Exclusive and be like, hey, like we're going to throw 10 grand at this for like a month or two and see if it works.
00:26:04
Speaker
Like, all right, why don't we like actually like get down and dirty and like actually build this in your business?
00:26:11
Speaker
And like, why don't you spend 100 grand, 200 grand?
00:26:13
Speaker
Like, why don't you really go to like town with this?
00:26:15
Speaker
But like if it's in your business, you're going to feel a lot more comfortable about spending that kind of money.
00:26:20
Speaker
Then like just like testing out a lead vendor because if we build a department in your business, you can start at that 10 grand, 20 grand.
00:26:26
Speaker
Then once you see the results because your CAC is going to be way lower because you're not paying us retainer fees.
00:26:31
Speaker
You're not paying us fees.
00:26:32
Speaker
Like you're just paying YouTube only and Google only and Facebook only.
00:26:36
Speaker
And then once they see the results, they're going to be able to max out, spend as much as they want, $100,000, $200,000, $500,000 a month like some of our clients, and they're only paying us $1,000 a month.
00:26:47
Speaker
It's way cheaper to do that than have 10 different lead vendors and pay premiums for everything because then your cost per acquisition goes way up because you're paying those premiums.
00:26:56
Speaker
If you can get the leads at cost because you have an in-house team, that's way more beneficial for a lot of big solar organizations.
00:27:02
Speaker
So we're not trying to...
00:27:06
Speaker
put us out of a job, but at the same time, we're gonna be there to consult them.
00:27:10
Speaker
They pay us $100 an hour just to consult them anytime they need help.
00:27:14
Speaker
So they're still gonna be in our ecosystem, but we're fine.
00:27:21
Speaker
giving them all this value, like $140 million worth of data so they can have like a seasoned account, like ready to go.
00:27:28
Speaker
Because I just think it's a better service to these bigger organizations than like, hey, just pay me 10 grand, 20 grand a month and pay 20 grand a month to 10 other people too.
00:27:38
Speaker
Like, why do that?
00:27:39
Speaker
Like just own it in-house, you know?
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
No, that's power home.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:44
Speaker
So if you're a company that does have different, I'm thinking of companies I've worked for where they've got like six, seven, eight different lead providers.
00:27:53
Speaker
Right.
00:27:54
Speaker
Like, yeah, I know it's like an investment to have you guys help with that.
00:27:58
Speaker
But yeah, sure.
00:27:59
Speaker
If you add up the cost, if you're paying seven, eight different people yearly, it's like, yeah, it would be super nice to have that in-house.
00:28:08
Speaker
And yeah, I think just that's something I've seen in general.
00:28:12
Speaker
It is nice to get some stuff out because I know there's like, for example, people that want to hire out outsource things or assistants and all that.
00:28:21
Speaker
You know, you can always go to like a Fiverr and Upwork.
00:28:24
Speaker
There's like
00:28:25
Speaker
stuff you can outsource.
00:28:26
Speaker
Right.
00:28:26
Speaker
But that's like, I found it a lot more valuable to get my own, you know, virtual assistant in house than constantly like paying people.
00:28:34
Speaker
Cause also they like learn your business, how you're doing things and all that.
00:28:37
Speaker
So it's like, if you bring someone in house, they can learn your style and it's not like you're having to train.
00:28:43
Speaker
your different lead gem partner on maybe how you want things every time.
00:28:47
Speaker
Right.
00:28:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's a cool idea.
00:28:50
Speaker
Well, last couple of questions, Rich.
Future of Exclusive Leads and AI Regulations
00:28:53
Speaker
So, like, I know things have changed in the couple of years that we last did a podcast.
00:29:00
Speaker
um so for you i don't know do you have any like uh insight on where do you see like the future of legion changing do you think there's going to be any other drastic changes you foresee in the market or any uh i don't know um i think this one for the exclusive leads is going to be a massive one so starting in 2025
00:29:19
Speaker
like solar companies aren't gonna be able to dial like homeowner data or Robo dial age data anymore.
00:29:26
Speaker
So they're gonna need exclusive leads.
00:29:28
Speaker
So everyone's gonna be like yearning for exclusive leads going forward.
00:29:32
Speaker
So like it's like paramount that you know solar companies do invest in this to like figure out how to do exclusive leads that whether in-house or like hire a company to do it for them because like you don't want to get caught with your pants down like you're relying on like cold calling and auto dialing and like all this stuff and
00:29:49
Speaker
Like it's gonna be gone like in just a few short months like eight months from now It's like no more, you know, and like it's crazy like this ruling in the FCC Like I put it up in my presentation at solar con.
00:29:59
Speaker
It's like on page five It says that they gave authority to like Verizon AT&T T-Mobile to just like shut businesses down from like having any of their calls go through and
00:30:08
Speaker
And it's not even just like, oh, I'll just buy another number.
00:30:11
Speaker
It's like the number is like registered with your EIN number.
00:30:15
Speaker
Like they'll just shut down your EIN number.
00:30:17
Speaker
It's like none of your calls will go through, which is like crazy.
00:30:20
Speaker
Like it's just going to shut people down.
00:30:22
Speaker
Like you don't even have to break the law for them to do that.
00:30:25
Speaker
Even if they suspect that you broke the law because you're auto dialing so much they could just not let your calls go through to cell phones like It's just gonna like totally brutal It's gonna emasculate like so many like solar leads because like most of them are done through call centers, you know It's crazy.
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah, but like I think that's gonna be like the biggest one coming up Yeah, and then I think as far as like the AI stuff we're gonna see a lot more of like
00:30:52
Speaker
AI appointment setters, like we're already building that out and using that for a lot of our campaigns.
00:30:58
Speaker
But I think it's only a matter of time before AI is banned, honestly.
00:31:03
Speaker
I think someone's going to get taken advantage of.
00:31:04
Speaker
There's going to be a series of people scammed from AI, and I feel like they're just going to be like, look, this is too dangerous.
00:31:10
Speaker
I don't know, though.
00:31:11
Speaker
It's like...
00:31:12
Speaker
How involved is the government going to get?
00:31:14
Speaker
But, like, I mean, I used to live on the East Coast, and, like, New York City wanted to, like, make it so you couldn't buy a 32-ounce, like, thing of Coke.
00:31:21
Speaker
Right.
00:31:22
Speaker
Like, yeah, like, a big gulp was, like, against the law.
00:31:24
Speaker
Like, 16-ounce was, like, the biggest one.
00:31:26
Speaker
So, like, I don't know.
00:31:27
Speaker
I feel like the government's willing to, like, ban anything that, like, isn't good for people.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:31
Speaker
You know?
00:31:32
Speaker
This doesn't stop someone from buying two 16-ounce big gulps, you know?
00:31:35
Speaker
And people are going to use AI, I think, either way.
00:31:40
Speaker
But I think the government's going to have to crack down on it because when it starts to replace salespeople, that's where it's going to be scary.
00:31:45
Speaker
Because then they don't need you anymore as a solar salesperson.
00:31:48
Speaker
These big EPCs or manufacturers are just going to use AI to sell solar, and they're just going to install it directly and cut you out.
00:31:56
Speaker
So I think that it might be a good thing to curtail the AI a little bit.
00:32:02
Speaker
And I think that's probably what's going to happen.
00:32:04
Speaker
I think some people are going to get scammed and like it's going to be too powerful and too scary for a lot of people to like be ripped off by AI.
00:32:12
Speaker
So I think, you know, we might see some changes with that in the coming years.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:32:19
Speaker
Very good.
00:32:19
Speaker
I guess use it while it's here, right?
00:32:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:32:22
Speaker
Take advantage now.
00:32:23
Speaker
But no, I mean, I guess that's important.
00:32:25
Speaker
It's important to maybe have like other systems, not put all your eggs in one basket.
00:32:29
Speaker
Exactly.
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:32:30
Speaker
Backup plans.
00:32:31
Speaker
Well, cool.
00:32:33
Speaker
It's been fun jamming with you again, Rich.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:35
Speaker
If people want to possibly like, you know, start working with Solar Exclusive or connect with you more, what's the best way to do
Promotions and Future Learning Community
00:32:41
Speaker
that?
00:32:41
Speaker
Yeah, so either follow us on Instagram at solarexclusive or check out solarexclusive.com.
00:32:45
Speaker
We're doing a 30-day trial right now.
00:32:47
Speaker
No long-term commitment, cancel any time.
00:32:49
Speaker
Just try it out, make sales, continue.
00:32:51
Speaker
If you don't make sales, just come back later, try it out again.
00:32:54
Speaker
We're always doing these 30-day trials.
00:32:56
Speaker
So solar season's about to ramp up.
00:32:58
Speaker
People are more interested in solar when their electric bills are higher.
00:33:01
Speaker
Our lead costs are gone down so much.
00:33:03
Speaker
So many big solar companies are not spending as much anymore.
00:33:06
Speaker
SunPower's not spending as much.
00:33:07
Speaker
Sunrun's not spending as much.
00:33:08
Speaker
So many of these big companies have cut back their spending because the solar industry is struggling.
00:33:12
Speaker
So it's a great opportunity for you to get in and get leads at lower cost than they've ever been in the last three years.
00:33:17
Speaker
So try it out.
00:33:18
Speaker
Try it out for 30 days.
00:33:20
Speaker
If it doesn't work, cancel.
00:33:21
Speaker
But you can cancel any time, and we're confident we can get you results.
00:33:25
Speaker
So check out solarexclusive.com.
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:27
Speaker
Love it.
00:33:28
Speaker
So guys, go check it out.
00:33:29
Speaker
And yeah, even if you haven't done online leads in a while, like Rich said, it's probably a great time now when these big companies aren't dropping millions.
00:33:38
Speaker
Makes it a little bit easier for the smaller guys.
00:33:40
Speaker
Exactly.
00:33:40
Speaker
Like us.
00:33:41
Speaker
So go check it out and take advantage of the free trial.
00:33:44
Speaker
And how much, if it's like maybe a newer rep, how much should they expect to like, I don't know, spend on ads?
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, probably like three grand to like start out.
00:33:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, per month.
00:33:54
Speaker
But we won't charge you a setup fee or retainer fee.
00:33:57
Speaker
So it's just the three grand that goes to YouTube and you can get anywhere from like, I don't know 50 to 100 leads off that.
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:05
Speaker
So good.
00:34:06
Speaker
So, yeah, go check them out.
00:34:08
Speaker
And Rich knows I'm still a big door knocker and all that.
00:34:11
Speaker
But even if you're a door knocker list in this, like still so many things you can apply.
00:34:16
Speaker
And I always, you know, recommend the guys like, yeah.
00:34:19
Speaker
You know, you can supplement your door knocking with a lot of this stuff and still set up these systems.
00:34:25
Speaker
And I think that's what makes, you know, an even better rep and more powerful as you're knocking the doors.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:34:31
Speaker
Some of these systems in place.
00:34:33
Speaker
So thanks again for coming on with this, Rich.
00:34:35
Speaker
And hopefully we'll do one before two years and hear about some of these trends.
00:34:40
Speaker
We'll see when AA is banned.
00:34:41
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:43
Speaker
Sounds good, man.
00:34:44
Speaker
Thanks, man.
00:34:44
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:34:46
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:34:48
Speaker
What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:34:57
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:35:10
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:35:21
Speaker
And it's called Solciety.
00:35:23
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable and
00:35:35
Speaker
by the industry's brightest minds for are you ready for it less than three dollars and 45 cents a day currently soul society is open launched and ready to be enrolled so go to soul society.co to learn more and join the learning experience now this is exclusively for solopreneur listeners so be sure to go to soul society.co and join we'll see you on the inside