Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
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.
Speaker: I teach you 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.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's going on solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here with another podcast.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: I'm just coming back from door-to-door con 2023.
Speaker: Wanted to share some highlights with everybody.
Speaker: Had a great time.
Speaker: So for those that weren't able to attend, you missed out.
Speaker: but your boy is going to be bringing all the highlights, everything you missed, and a little recap for you.
Speaker: So we're going to get into that and want to thank everyone that was there that came and said what's up.
Speaker: Have some funny stories with that, but it was great to see everybody.
Speaker: Great to hang out.
Speaker: We did a little hangout, so great to meet up with some folks over there.
Speaker: And yeah, just a good time, good networking, good content, and great events overall.
Speaker: So let's get into some highlights.
Speaker: I think there's some awesome takeaways that I'm going to share with you that hopefully, even if you weren't there, are going to help you get a couple more closes this week.
Speaker: And so I'll give you my perspective and I'll preface it by saying I did not see every speaker.
Speaker: So I'm not going to give you, you know, 10 speaker highlights today, but just a couple key takeaways from a few speakers that I was able to catch.
Speaker: I think I caught five or six different speakers.
Speaker: So
Speaker: But for me, a lot of it is about networking because, yeah, I mean, that's one of the key purposes in going for me is just connecting with other people, networking.
Speaker: And sometimes I do miss some speakers.
Speaker: So I think that's just as important if you are going to some of these events.
Speaker: So I get there and I mean, started off with this.
Speaker: I actually missed my flight to get to the event.
Speaker: It's a little bit stressful.
Speaker: Getting to door to door con.
Speaker: I was supposed to fly out at 730 in the morning here from San Diego.
Speaker: I'm three quarters of the way to the airport.
Speaker: I check my pocket.
Speaker: My wallet is not there.
Speaker: And of course, my ID is with it.
Speaker: So I have to turn around.
Speaker: Then by the time I get there, I'm yeah, without a flight.
Speaker: Miss my plate.
Speaker: And I did get a little confident because now I have TSA pre-check.
Speaker: So I'm like, well, I can just show up like 30 minutes beforehand.
Speaker: Be fine.
Speaker: San Diego airport is not that busy.
Speaker: It's going to be no big deal.
Speaker: But of course, came back to bite me.
Speaker: Ended up missing the flight.
Speaker: So long story short, had to book a new flight.
Speaker: Luckily, it was only $100.
Speaker: But booked me a new flight, got on a plane, and made it there just later than expected.
Speaker: So I didn't get there until late Thursday night and was hoping to do some networking, go visit a few people, but did not get around to that because of the missed flight.
Speaker: So don't be like me.
Speaker: Moral of the story, check to make sure you have your ID with you at all times and probably leave a little bit earlier than 30 minutes before the flight.
Speaker: But I thought I could make it because when I first, before I had rebooked the flight, I was like, man, maybe this is a sign.
Speaker: Maybe I just need to go out and sell instead of going to the event.
Speaker: But luckily, it wasn't crazy expensive to go ahead and book a new one.
Speaker: So get there Thursday night, wake up Friday, head to the event, get some good networking in Friday morning.
Speaker: And what was really cool is I sent out a little Instagram asking who wanted to meet up.
Speaker: I think I had mentioned it in the podcast too, that we were doing a little door-to-door meetup.
Speaker: And had 10 or 15 people reach out and come and hang out.
Speaker: And we met up, had a nice lunch, was cool to connect with some of everybody.
Speaker: And, you know, just see what everyone's doing, where they're from, what's working for them in sales.
Speaker: So I think I'm going to do that probably next event.
Speaker: It's cool, just because it's tough to meet up with everybody at these events.
Speaker: So I think it is nice to kind of organize something, a little meet and greet, a little hang, a little lunch.
Speaker: It was a good time.
Speaker: So thanks to everyone that made it out to that.
Speaker: And then after lunch, I did get to catch a really powerful speaker.
Speaker: This dude is incredible.
Speaker: If you're not following, his name is Adam Shantz.
Speaker: He is one of the top dudes in alarms and his just incredible energy that he had until he's one of the top salesmen in the industry and all door to door.
Speaker: But he talked about the really just like the elements of the sale, the things you need to do to really just master selling master door to door sales.
Speaker: So just a little recap from that.
Speaker: He talked about the things you need to do.
Speaker: Number one is break down every objection, write them all down, memorize your responses.
Speaker: Most people get caught in objections or they only have one response.
Speaker: Adam talked about how he has dozens and dozens of objections written down.
Speaker: He knows exactly what to say right off the bat when he gets these objections and he memorizes them.
Speaker: And then another element was honing your sales skills.
Speaker: Then time management talked about don't have bad days, only have bad hours, which is awesome.
Speaker: How many of us let ourselves have an entire bad day and just throw it out the window and then try to start over the next day?
Speaker: He says, do not let yourself have a bad day, let yourself have a bad hour, but don't let it affect the whole day.
Speaker: That's the difference between the greats and the not so greats.
Speaker: Then energy is another key element.
Speaker: He talks about how he jogs door to door and it's not because he's trying to get to the next homeowner quicker or burn a couple calories.
Speaker: It's because
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Then belief, he talked about how the meetings should be like a football huddle and you need to have fun with your teams, have charisma.
Speaker: Momentum is another element.
Speaker: If you put yourself in that Kobe Bryant mindset, you'll crush it and get there as quick as possible.
Speaker: He mentioned talking to yourself, doing those positive affirmations is a great way to get that.
Speaker: So really some great takeaways I got from Adam Schantz, all the elements that we need in order to be successful as door-to-door salespeople or just salespeople in general, if you're not selling door-to-door, but hopefully everyone is that's listening to this podcast.
Speaker: And then the next day, that was Friday, one of the speakers I caught.
Speaker: And then Friday, what was funny is Friday, there was a little after party.
Speaker: I didn't make it to the door to door con after party because actually had planned to hang out with my family a little bit there in Utah.
Speaker: I went to jazz game with them and it's
Speaker: really funny at the Jazz Stadium at Vivint Arena there.
Speaker: It's just so funny how prevalent door-to-door sales is in Utah.
Speaker: I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker: You sit in this stadium and you're seeing ads for pretty much every single door-to-door company out there.
Speaker: Aptiv, The Grits, of course, Vivint.
Speaker: I think there's a few others, but just crazy to see how prevalent it is in door-to-door.
Speaker: Really has become the mecca, I guess, of door-to-door sales.
Speaker: But went to the Jazz game and then after I got invited to a little hangout that, of course, Danny Pesci always plans a hangout there.
Speaker: Everyone should know Danny Pesci if you're in sales, but he is, you know, one of the biggest characters we have in our industry.
Speaker: He plans a meetup.
Speaker: He sends us an address.
Speaker: We drive up to this address and it is at Denny's.
Speaker: And we're going, what's going on?
Speaker: Danny Pesci at a Denny's does not seem like a place where you'd plan a little after party.
Speaker: So we're like, OK, we walk in there.
Speaker: There's like old people sitting, enjoying their...
Speaker: ham and eggs what is going on here and then we keep walking along we hear some music we go to you know a little side section of the restaurant and they have it all blocked off basically is turned half a denny's into a nightclub and there's like incense burning there's a dj there there's people just breaking breaking it down on the dance floor
Speaker: I'm like, wow, I've never seen a Denny's converted into a nightclub.
Speaker: And I'm not sure how they got away with that because right next to all this, there's like 70-year-olds eating their ham and eggs.
Speaker: So a pretty interesting sight to see, but you got to hand it to Danny Pesci.
Speaker: He keeps you on your toes.
Speaker: He plans stuff.
Speaker: And I'm sure there's other people involved in this, but quite the event.
Speaker: So that was what went on Friday night.
Speaker: And so Saturday, get up, sleep in a little bit, was out late, so missed the early morning speakers, which probably should add some more discipline.
Speaker: But I made it at 1030 and I ran into my good friend Tanner Williams.
Speaker: And he was speaking on really just how to run a successful setter closer program.
Speaker: And I actually had the privilege of bringing him on the podcast the day before.
Speaker: So you're all going to hear a lot of things that he talked about.
Speaker: So I'm not going to get too deep in the weeds on that.
Speaker: But just one takeaway really I got from it.
Speaker: And also from the next speaker that I'll highlight here.
Speaker: That's just this, the top closers, the top people in solar are incredibly efficient with their time and energy.
Speaker: Tanner Williams talked about how he gets his setters organized, but really he is not going to set appointments that are crap.
Speaker: He just doesn't do it.
Speaker: He only goes to confirmed solid appointments.
Speaker: He closes 90% of them.
Speaker: That's because he's efficient with his time.
Speaker: He knows which ones are confirmed.
Speaker: He knows which ones have utility bills.
Speaker: He's not wasting his time.
Speaker: So for those that are in setter closer programs, definitely something to consider.
Speaker: Are you wasting a lot of time going to crap setter appointments?
Speaker: Is it on you to train your setters better to make them more solid?
Speaker: Or are you not demanding that they be sold appointments?
Speaker: You got to, you know, look in the mirror and figure out what's going on.
Speaker: That's just one takeaway.
Speaker: And we'll release the podcast soon we did with him and talk more about that.
Speaker: But really incredible what he's done.
Speaker: I think 132 deals in essentially like five months that he sold, really.
Speaker: So pretty incredible.
Speaker: And then the other highlight of Saturday after all this is we got to hear from one of a dude I had the privilege to work side by side pretty close with last year.
Speaker: And that's Ricardo Ritchie.
Speaker: He's come on this podcast, was able to work on the team with him and just blown away what he did.
Speaker: 419 deals in a year.
Speaker: Insane.
Speaker: And this is Installed.
Speaker: I'll admit I did not believe it myself.
Speaker: I text him after he put those numbers out.
Speaker: Like, no way did you have that, especially because we did have quite a few install issues last year.
Speaker: But he told me that it's legit.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, got to hand it to him.
Speaker: Incredible what he's done.
Speaker: And so just a few takeaways I got from Ricardo.
Speaker: Obviously, go listen to his podcast if you have not already.
Speaker: But just like Tanner, this dude is insanely efficient.
Speaker: A couple of notes I took from it.
Speaker: He says, set the hours, always work the same hours.
Speaker: And that was one of his biggest secrets.
Speaker: He just works all day.
Speaker: He sets his hours.
Speaker: He doesn't deviate from them.
Speaker: He demands that his team does the same.
Speaker: They all work the same hours.
Speaker: Control the inputs and then law of momentum.
Speaker: So that's really kind of what he does as far as, you know, work ethic.
Speaker: He just works the hours, controls all the inputs and gets momentum on his side.
Speaker: And then he talked a lot about what he does in the close because this dude, he closes almost everything he touches.
Speaker: So what he does, it just deals a lot with framing.
Speaker: He frames himself as the expert, as the doctor.
Speaker: And he just compared it to if he's going to the doctor, he does not question what the doctor says.
Speaker: He's going to do it, right?
Speaker: So he just shows up as the expert in the home in his close.
Speaker: People see that he demands it and he frames himself.
Speaker: And he knows really within five or 10 minutes if this deal is going to close or not.
Speaker: If they're not, if they're not allowing themselves to be framed as that they're going to, you know, decide yes or no.
Speaker: And he's not saying you got to decide yes or no, but, you know, he's saying it smooth.
Speaker: But if he can't get a commitment that they're going to essentially commit one way or another in the home, then he's out of there.
Speaker: On to the next one.
Speaker: He has the abundance mindset.
Speaker: Hey, and so, yeah, and then just in his clothes, he does a lot of like diagnosis.
Speaker: Hey, have you guys looked into solar?
Speaker: What made you want to look at this?
Speaker: If this doesn't make sense, then I'll let you know right away.
Speaker: If it does make sense, then we'll get your application in and get things moving.
Speaker: Does that sound fair?
Speaker: Gets a commitment every time.
Speaker: And again, if they're not committing, he's out of there.
Speaker: And then he, you know, figures out what their concerns are, why they want to go solar.
Speaker: Hey, are you guys more intrigued by the fact that you'd save money or the fact that the bill would stay set and give you equity in the home or the fact that you'd have independence?
Speaker: Those three questions, have them rank that.
Speaker: Why is that?
Speaker: Figure out why they want those things or why that intrigues them.
Speaker: figure out their hot buttons, find the pain.
Speaker: And then if they have looked in this lower, why didn't you do it last time?
Speaker: Let's assume that's, and he does a lot of, you know, assumptive questioning, a lot of hypotheticals.
Speaker: Hey, hypothetically, if it did do those things that you didn't like about it last time, if it did save you money, if it did, if it didn't put a lien on the home, whatever their objection was, hypothetically, if none of those things were an issue, then would you have done it at the time?
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: He gets those hypothetical questions.
Speaker: He pulls back.
Speaker: He gets the commitment and he just makes it insanely simple.
Speaker: There should never be any confusion.
Speaker: A confused mind always says no.
Speaker: And then after the close, a couple of things to get the installs in.
Speaker: He has his assistant.
Speaker: He creates a group chat with his assistant.
Speaker: He sets the expectation and then he goes back into rapport billing as he's going through the documents and gets them more and more relaxed.
Speaker: So yeah, I mean, nothing insane.
Speaker: He just does it super consistently.
Speaker: Go and listen to his podcast if you want to hear more.
Speaker: But yeah, that's really all he does.
Speaker: Just hypothetical questions, framing it correctly, making himself seem like the expert and the doctor in the transaction and locking it down.
Speaker: Incredible.
Speaker: So those were just a few takeaways.
Speaker: I don't want to make this, you know, a super long episode, but just wanted to go over a few of my key takeaways.
Speaker: We heard from Dr. Jordan Peterson, which was really good.
Speaker: Unfortunately, I only got to hear like the first half hour of that because then I had to hop on another flight.
Speaker: I think this happened last year too.
Speaker: So I need to stop booking flights too early, but...
Speaker: To my credit, Sam always puts on the schedule when the speaker is supposed to start.
Speaker: And I don't think the last speaker has ever started when it says on the schedule.
Speaker: So I guess I got a plan that that speaker is going to start late and probably go a little long.
Speaker: But from what I did here, it was really powerful about goals and mindsets.
Speaker: And, you know, Jordan Peterson, he's the GOAT.
Speaker: So if you weren't able to make it, we've got SolarCon coming up, I think in April.
Speaker: Hit me up if you want the plug on that.
Speaker: Get you hooked up with the Solarpreneur discount.
Speaker: But a great event overall.
Speaker: And these events are really powerful just to see what's out there, to see what other people are doing.
Speaker: Like I would not have known that people are doing 400 plus deals, even from a guy that's in my company was still crazy.
Speaker: And just incredible to see the things people are doing.
Speaker: If anything, if you did not learn a thing, it opens your mind up to see what's possible.
Speaker: It's that whole four minute mile mentality.
Speaker: When you see someone else do it, helps you have the belief that it's possible for you as well.
Speaker: So I think that's one of the most powerful things you can get from going to events like this.
Speaker: So that was my recap.
Speaker: Hope that helps.
Speaker: And hopefully that inspires you to come to the next one or to come to SolarCon coming up soon.
Speaker: Maybe we'll print some solar printer events coming up as well.
Speaker: But I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker: Hope you go and implement a few of these things.
Speaker: Keep crushing it week after week.
Speaker: Remember, it's the consistency that wins.
Speaker: Rome was not built in a day.
Speaker: And top closers, top people in the solar industry were not built overnight.
Speaker: But they're built little by little, step by step.
Speaker: And that's how you are going to dominate and master this craft.
Speaker: Hope that helps.
Speaker: We'll see you guys on the next one.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Appreciate you.
Speaker: Love you for listening to the show and supporting it.
Speaker: Keep sharing.
Speaker: Keep liking.
Speaker: Means the world to me.
Speaker: We'll see you guys.
Speaker: Peace out.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I, and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: so at now we have six bucks for this month so book a call now don't miss out what you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com that's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s.com i'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best so shoot that email and let's increase your sales
