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 the 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 solopreneur, you might ask?
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.
Speaker: Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Today, we're going to be going through the best solar appointment setting framework you should be following, should be teaching your reps, and hopefully helps you set more appointments.
Speaker: Welcome to the show.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: We are free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can listen to podcasts.
Speaker: We're coming at you on Tuesday.
Speaker: and Friday every week.
Speaker: So thank you for being a listener to the show.
Speaker: I wanted to give a quick thank you to our latest review on the podcast.
Speaker: They're known as FFGGG.
Speaker: Hi DF.
Speaker: Interesting name.
Speaker: But they left us a nice review.
Speaker: over on iTunes saying, thank you for the knowledge you share with us, gave us a little five stars.
Speaker: So thank you, FFGGG.
Speaker: You are the man or the woman, non-binary, whatever gender you are.
Speaker: Thank you so much for leaving us the review and hope you crush it in solar this week and next week.
Speaker: So today I wanted to do a podcast on appointment setting.
Speaker: Some of you, if you are watching the video or clip of this, I'm actually outside on my little deck recording this podcast.
Speaker: So I apologize in advance if you're birds chirping or fire trucks.
Speaker: Who knows what's going to happen?
Speaker: We got a bird's nest sitting in one of the lights on our deck.
Speaker: So do get some birds flying around out here.
Speaker: The reason I'm doing it out here is because we actually just had our third kid at our baby about two weeks ago now.
Speaker: And long story short, mother-in-law came out to help us.
Speaker: But she ended up getting COVID.
Speaker: So she's here with us.
Speaker: But she is crashing in our spare room where I usually record the podcasts.
Speaker: So my studio is out on the deck today.
Speaker: But hey, I like the vibe.
Speaker: Always nice to get out in some nature, do some recording.
Speaker: So that's why I'm doing it outside.
Speaker: That's why you're probably hearing some wind and birds and all that.
Speaker: But that aside, the other reason we're doing an appointment setting podcast is because I am actually, this year, I'm in Sam Taggart's Door-to-Door Experts program.
Speaker: I think it's called Platinum Elite League.
Speaker: So he has a little mastermind group.
Speaker: Decided to link up with him and join his coaching group, his mastermind.
Speaker: And that group was
Speaker: They do monthly calls and competitions.
Speaker: Fun group to be in.
Speaker: I'll probably do a review of it later.
Speaker: I think I have four months or so in it now.
Speaker: So I'll do a review on my feedback for the program, those that are wondering.
Speaker: But we had a call this morning, and a lot of these people in the group, a lot of them were on track for Golden Doors, really high-producing reps and their managers, I think a few owners.
Speaker: And the call was about setting.
Speaker: So at first I was like, what are we doing a call on about setting?
Speaker: When a lot of these guys are like high level managers and that is all different industries.
Speaker: So I guess there's that.
Speaker: But I think sometimes with us in solar, a lot of us, we think solar is, we think appointment setting is maybe like the low level skill.
Speaker: Once you figure it out, you don't need to talk about it as much.
Speaker: I know for me in our office here in San Diego, we run the meetings separated.
Speaker: They have a setter training and then a closer training.
Speaker: Then they separate.
Speaker: They do like an intro with the whole team.
Speaker: And then usually 30 minutes in, we separate, divide it into setters and closers.
Speaker: So it's good.
Speaker: I think it is necessary to have separate trainings.
Speaker: But the downside is I think sometimes people think of setting like a lower level thing.
Speaker: Only new guys should be in there.
Speaker: And even at our company, I see sometimes guys that probably shouldn't be in closer training that just want to jump to it just because they feel like they're just, I don't know, a new rep or something.
Speaker: like a lower level, entry level thing if they're sitting in setting training.
Speaker: And I myself, a lot of times I'll sit in the setters training.
Speaker: And this is what I was reminded of today too in our call in the mastermind is that we can never stop learning about setting because if we don't know how to set and if we don't know how to teach others to set appointments, then that's where the business stops.
Speaker: So I think it is the most important skill we can have to set an appointment is
Speaker: Because we have no closing opportunities.
Speaker: We have no opportunities for new business.
Speaker: We have no opportunities to get glass on the roof unless we know how to set an appointment and make it stick and make it solid.
Speaker: Hey, so that's why whether you're an experienced rep, maybe you've been closing,
Speaker: or maybe you're new, just remember this is a skill that you constantly have to work on.
Speaker: And even if you've been in solar for eight plus years like myself, I'm still learning things about setting and I'm still trying to like continually master it because I know that if I can't set, how can I teach others to do it?
Speaker: How can I get more deals if I know not how to set, right?
Speaker: So even if you are maybe running a set or closer program, you don't do a lot of door knocking yourself.
Speaker: I think you should still learn and still get out there definitely from time to time.
Speaker: Hey, so let's jump into this topic.
Speaker: I'm going to take you through this framework.
Speaker: And some of these things we went over on our mastermind call this morning.
Speaker: Good reminder.
Speaker: But this guy, his name is Jordan Adams.
Speaker: He is one of the DDD experts.
Speaker: He ran our mastermind call this morning.
Speaker: And he was just talking about the number one way he's seen people have success in setting appointments and having success on the doors is he calls it the authoritative approach.
Speaker: And it's actually very similar to what I follow and what I feel is the best way to set appointments in solar.
Speaker: So I thought, OK, let's go through this.
Speaker: Got some nuggets in here.
Speaker: And all of these things I have touched on in the podcast in previous episodes, but I'm going to break it down.
Speaker: And hopefully if you do have setters or if you're trying to improve your setting, hopefully there's a few things you can take from this.
Speaker: Okay, so he has seven steps that are part of this authoritative approach.
Speaker: And so the first one is the homeowner name.
Speaker: Hey, and many of us, we have access to this data.
Speaker: You guys have heard me talk about SolarScout, one of the sponsors on our show, or pretty much whatever door knocking app you're using, whatever software, a lot of softwares out there have it where they tell you the name of the homeowner.
Speaker: But what's interesting, Jordan, the guy that ran this call, he has been doing door-to-door forever.
Speaker: But he talked about how even before there were apps, even before there was data like that, he would just go to white pages.
Speaker: He'd literally open a phone book.
Speaker: And in his old street sheets, they would write the homeowner data.
Speaker: Obviously, it was way less accurate back then and a pain.
Speaker: But he would actually do this way before we had...
Speaker: The rep cards, the cells rabbit, the solar scouts.
Speaker: He would go and literally just write this data on his street sheet on his little map quest thing that showed all the homes.
Speaker: He'd write it.
Speaker: So people apparently have been doing this for a while.
Speaker: But a really powerful way to approach it is having that data, the name of the person.
Speaker: So that's step number one.
Speaker: And then step number two is just talking about the program.
Speaker: So you bring up the name of the homeowner.
Speaker: Hey, just making Shremer at the right spot.
Speaker: Is this still the Johnson's?
Speaker: It's the right place.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then that's giving you a little bit more authority just right off the bat.
Speaker: You got to sound different.
Speaker: And then from there, he is basically confirming he's at the right spots.
Speaker: So again, you can do something like I just did.
Speaker: Is this still the right house?
Speaker: Just making sure I'm at the right place, right?
Speaker: And then doing that, it confirms that you're legit official.
Speaker: And then it really just makes it seem like you're not selling something.
Speaker: That's how we all want to be perceived, right?
Speaker: That we're not doing sales.
Speaker: That we're just like the UPS guy showing up.
Speaker: That we're the pizza delivery guy.
Speaker: And my favorite time to knock is right after the Domino's delivery guy.
Speaker: Or right before, I should say.
Speaker: Because everyone opens the door, they're happy, they think it's pizza.
Speaker: And our job is just to keep them happy, make them think that we're not bugging them with sales.
Speaker: And then, yeah, from there, you got to get into the problem.
Speaker: So a lot of us know you need to bring up the problem before you can introduce a solution.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
Speaker: It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show.
Speaker: You need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: If you don't have a solid problem in your area, wherever you're selling, make sure you have a really dialed down problem.
Speaker: Hey, for us, we talk about how they're having to buy a lot of power from out of state.
Speaker: I know a lot of guys are doing the power poles being swapped out.
Speaker: That's a good one there.
Speaker: Hey, they're replacing all the wooden poles with the metal ones.
Speaker: Guess who's paying for all that?
Speaker: Yeah, we are.
Speaker: So make them buy into a problem.
Speaker: And hopefully it's a problem that a lot of people are aware of.
Speaker: If not, you need to be using slicks.
Speaker: You need to have at minimum pull out like an article from the news, something that you can show them that really just validate the problem you're introducing to them.
Speaker: And then he talks about having a program deliverable.
Speaker: And this is before giving them the solution.
Speaker: And so this was interesting.
Speaker: And again, he is applying this for different industries.
Speaker: So if you were in roofs, it could be like a damage report.
Speaker: I think you talked about other ones, but that was the main focus, roofs and solar.
Speaker: Energy audit is one he used for me personally.
Speaker: My deliverable is that we're going to a custom brochure for the home.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so I do do that a lot of times, bring up the problem, then just be like, hey, we're going to see if the home qualifies.
Speaker: And then we would get you a custom report from there, get you all the details about it.
Speaker: I like just bringing up this deliverable though, because...
Speaker: At the door, you just don't want people to think that they're being sold something.
Speaker: You want to think that you're just the first step, you're coming back.
Speaker: Because most people will agree to get information about something.
Speaker: But if they feel like they have to commit something at the door, then it is harder.
Speaker: I did pest control for two years and I thought it was hard getting people to commit right at the door.
Speaker: Granted, it is a lower ticket item, but I do like that about solar because you're not necessarily trying to get them to commit right away.
Speaker: Okay, so that's step number four, program deliverable.
Speaker: Then step five is telling them the solution, right?
Speaker: So our solution is instead of people buying so much power from out of state and paying all the fees and surcharges that go with that,
Speaker: Um, we're look, they're looking for homes.
Speaker: They can potentially produce their own power on site.
Speaker: So that would eliminate the need to buy so much power from out of state.
Speaker: So that's the solution, right?
Speaker: It helps the state out in California.
Speaker: We have Senate bill 100, which is just the renewable energy goal for the state.
Speaker: I'm saying they need to reach, I think it's 50% renewable power by 2030.
Speaker: So I'm sure there's all types, whatever state you're in, there's got to be mandates.
Speaker: There's got to be stuff going on with green energy.
Speaker: Should be pretty much every state has some green energy initiatives.
Speaker: So you can bring those up.
Speaker: One thing I will say, be careful.
Speaker: You never want to get yourself in too much trouble talking about like government things.
Speaker: I made this mistake when I did some blitzes in Texas and I started talking about too much, you know, kind of politics related things, government.
Speaker: And just keep that in mind.
Speaker: If you're in a place where people are kind of like, you know, a little more conservative, you know,
Speaker: a little more anti-government be involved in things, then you want to be careful with throwing out that it's like a government program or they're using federal funds.
Speaker: Just be careful with that because sometimes I got a few doors slammed in my face in Texas with some people that just did not like that at all.
Speaker: So something to keep in mind.
Speaker: But you're telling them the solution and then you're giving them proof or evidence of it.
Speaker: That's where it goes into using a slick, using some type of news article.
Speaker: California, you got the CPUC.
Speaker: So you can literally print a lot of these things out and show them really solid proof.
Speaker: But again, your state should have something like this.
Speaker: And then last but not least, you have the pullback and transition.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So everyone needs to be making sure they're doing a solid pullback saying I'm out here because not everyone qualifies.
Speaker: So my job is just to see if the home is a candidate or not.
Speaker: And then going into a few qualifying questions.
Speaker: So you're the homeowner here, right?
Speaker: You should already know that.
Speaker: long before.
Speaker: But cool.
Speaker: And then your bill has to be... It doesn't work.
Speaker: It depends on what rate plan you're on.
Speaker: It depends on how much you're paying.
Speaker: Do you know ballpark what you guys pay on average here for electricity?
Speaker: And then a solid line, this is a hack right here.
Speaker: If you are in a place, for example, like by the coast in California, a lot of people have low bills.
Speaker: So you flip that on them, right?
Speaker: I make that one of the qualifications is, hey, your bill has to be lower.
Speaker: Because what have these people heard?
Speaker: They've heard that unless you have a really high bill, solar doesn't make sense.
Speaker: So the secret to that is you bring it up before they do and you make that one of the qualifiers.
Speaker: Hey, in order to qualify for this, your bill actually has to be lower.
Speaker: It is a new program.
Speaker: Before you probably heard you had to have insanely high bills for solar to make sense.
Speaker: This one is different.
Speaker: Hey, and then you're flipping it on its head and this thing works insanely well.
Speaker: Been having a lot of success in lower usage areas.
Speaker: If you like selling smaller systems, if you're not about that, then just go to areas where they're all going to have higher bills.
Speaker: But even then,
Speaker: You still run into people with lower usage, no matter where you're selling.
Speaker: Okay, so those are the steps.
Speaker: I'm going to repeat it one more time.
Speaker: So you bring up the name, you bring up the program, then they're on a list, right?
Speaker: And then you bring up the event or problem, you bring up the program deliverable, bring up the solution, tell about your program, you show them proof or evidence, and then you have a pullback and transition.
Speaker: Okay, so hopefully that's a good refresher.
Speaker: Share this with your teams.
Speaker: And then last thing I wanted to mention is make sure you're just being assumptive.
Speaker: This is a huge mistake I see all the time is just setters asking for permission.
Speaker: So this is another thing we talked about in our little mastermind call this morning is just phrases to avoid.
Speaker: are things like, can I, will you, can you, is it okay if, maybe, we're just out here, right?
Speaker: You want to avoid all these iffy language patterns, right?
Speaker: It's like if you think of the pizza delivery guy, they're not coming to the door saying, hey, is it okay if I drop off your pizza?
Speaker: Hey, at least they shouldn't be saying that.
Speaker: You think of the Amazon delivery guy.
Speaker: Is it okay if I drop off the package?
Speaker: No, that's what they got a job to do.
Speaker: That's why they're there.
Speaker: And they're being assumptive with it.
Speaker: So we need to have that same thinking, right?
Speaker: We're there for a reason.
Speaker: People shouldn't be saying no to this because everyone needs to get the information we have.
Speaker: Remember, we're not committing them to buy solar.
Speaker: We're not committing them to get solar at the door.
Speaker: All we're committing them to is to get more information and who shouldn't agree to that.
Speaker: You have to have the belief that you are helping them and that there should very rarely be a legitimate reason why they shouldn't be able to look into solar or get some more info.
Speaker: So think of it like that and I promise it will help your setting and it will help your belief and make sure you have a deep belief in solar and
Speaker: If you don't, then either figure out how to get that belief or you're probably not going to have a lot of success because you got to have belief in what you are presenting to people.
Speaker: Okay, so I hope that helps.
Speaker: Next episode, we're going to have someone that has mastered setting and is doing some incredible things.
Speaker: This kid's name is Conrad Seaman.
Speaker: He is a setter manager for Legacy Power over on the East Coast.
Speaker: I believe he's one of their blitzing team.
Speaker: He runs one of their blitzing teams and just has an incredible story.
Speaker: Super impressed with this guy.
Speaker: Ran into him over at SolarCon.
Speaker: We did an interview.
Speaker: So excited for you guys to check that one out.
Speaker: He shares a story.
Speaker: He used to be dealing drugs on the streets.
Speaker: you know, served a little bit of time and just has had an extreme breakthrough, having tons of success.
Speaker: So make sure you tune in, hear the incredible story.
Speaker: Big thank you to our sponsors.
Speaker: Please leave us a review.
Speaker: Share the podcast if you haven't already.
Speaker: And we'll see you guys on the next one.
Speaker: Peace out.
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