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The BEST Appointment Setting Framework In Solar
210 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
From Financial Struggle to Success in Solar
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 the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
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.
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.
Best Practices for Solar Appointment Setting
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
00:00:42
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.
00:00:53
Speaker
Welcome to the show.
00:00:53
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:55
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.
00:01:02
Speaker
We are free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can listen to podcasts.
00:01:08
Speaker
We're coming at you on Tuesday.
00:01:10
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and Friday every week.
00:01:12
Speaker
So thank you for being a listener to the show.
00:01:15
Speaker
I wanted to give a quick thank you to our latest review on the podcast.
00:01:20
Speaker
They're known as FFGGG.
00:01:24
Speaker
Hi DF.
00:01:25
Speaker
Interesting name.
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Speaker
But they left us a nice review.
00:01:29
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over on iTunes saying, thank you for the knowledge you share with us, gave us a little five stars.
00:01:36
Speaker
So thank you, FFGGG.
00:01:39
Speaker
You are the man or the woman, non-binary, whatever gender you are.
00:01:44
Speaker
Thank you so much for leaving us the review and hope you crush it in solar this week and next week.
Recording Challenges Due to COVID
00:01:50
Speaker
So today I wanted to do a podcast on appointment setting.
00:01:55
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.
00:02:03
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So I apologize in advance if you're birds chirping or fire trucks.
00:02:09
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Who knows what's going to happen?
00:02:10
Speaker
We got a bird's nest sitting in one of the lights on our deck.
00:02:13
Speaker
So do get some birds flying around out here.
00:02:16
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.
00:02:25
Speaker
And long story short, mother-in-law came out to help us.
00:02:30
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But she ended up getting COVID.
00:02:33
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So she's here with us.
00:02:34
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But she is crashing in our spare room where I usually record the podcasts.
00:02:40
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So my studio is out on the deck today.
00:02:43
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But hey, I like the vibe.
00:02:44
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Always nice to get out in some nature, do some recording.
00:02:49
Speaker
So that's why I'm doing it outside.
00:02:50
Speaker
That's why you're probably hearing some wind and birds and all that.
00:02:53
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
Continuous Learning in Appointment Setting
00:03:06
Speaker
program.
00:03:06
Speaker
I think it's called Platinum Elite League.
00:03:09
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So he has a little mastermind group.
00:03:11
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Decided to link up with him and join his coaching group, his mastermind.
00:03:15
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And that group was
00:03:17
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They do monthly calls and competitions.
00:03:21
Speaker
Fun group to be in.
00:03:22
Speaker
I'll probably do a review of it later.
00:03:25
Speaker
I think I have four months or so in it now.
00:03:28
Speaker
So I'll do a review on my feedback for the program, those that are wondering.
00:03:33
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.
00:03:47
Speaker
And the call was about setting.
00:03:51
Speaker
So at first I was like, what are we doing a call on about setting?
00:03:55
Speaker
When a lot of these guys are like high level managers and that is all different industries.
00:04:02
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So I guess there's that.
00:04:03
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.
00:04:12
Speaker
Once you figure it out, you don't need to talk about it as much.
00:04:15
Speaker
I know for me in our office here in San Diego, we run the meetings separated.
00:04:19
Speaker
They have a setter training and then a closer training.
00:04:23
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Then they separate.
00:04:24
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They do like an intro with the whole team.
00:04:26
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And then usually 30 minutes in, we separate, divide it into setters and closers.
00:04:32
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So it's good.
00:04:32
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I think it is necessary to have separate trainings.
00:04:36
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But the downside is I think sometimes people think of setting like a lower level thing.
00:04:42
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Only new guys should be in there.
00:04:44
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.
00:04:59
Speaker
like a lower level, entry level thing if they're sitting in setting training.
00:05:04
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And I myself, a lot of times I'll sit in the setters training.
00:05:07
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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.
00:05:23
Speaker
So I think it is the most important skill we can have to set an appointment is
00:05:27
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Because we have no closing opportunities.
00:05:29
Speaker
We have no opportunities for new business.
00:05:32
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.
00:05:39
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Hey, so that's why whether you're an experienced rep, maybe you've been closing,
00:05:45
Speaker
or maybe you're new, just remember this is a skill that you constantly have to work on.
00:05:49
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?
00:06:01
Speaker
How can I get more deals if I know not how to set, right?
00:06:04
Speaker
So even if you are maybe running a set or closer program, you don't do a lot of door knocking yourself.
00:06:10
Speaker
I think you should still learn and still get out there definitely from time to time.
00:06:16
Speaker
Hey, so let's jump into
Authoritative Approach to Appointment Setting
00:06:17
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this topic.
00:06:17
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I'm going to take you through this framework.
00:06:22
Speaker
And some of these things we went over on our mastermind call this morning.
00:06:26
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Good reminder.
00:06:27
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But this guy, his name is Jordan Adams.
00:06:32
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He is one of the DDD experts.
00:06:34
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He ran our mastermind call this morning.
00:06:36
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.
00:06:49
Speaker
And it's actually very similar to what I follow and what I feel is the best way to set appointments in solar.
00:06:54
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So I thought, OK, let's go through this.
00:06:57
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Got some nuggets in here.
00:06:59
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And all of these things I have touched on in the podcast in previous episodes, but I'm going to break it down.
00:07:04
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.
00:07:10
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Okay, so he has seven steps that are part of this authoritative approach.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so the first one is the homeowner name.
00:07:20
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Hey, and many of us, we have access to this data.
00:07:23
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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.
00:07:37
Speaker
But what's interesting, Jordan, the guy that ran this call, he has been doing door-to-door forever.
00:07:44
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.
00:07:51
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He'd literally open a phone book.
00:07:53
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And in his old street sheets, they would write the homeowner data.
00:07:57
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Obviously, it was way less accurate back then and a pain.
00:08:00
Speaker
But he would actually do this way before we had...
00:08:03
Speaker
The rep cards, the cells rabbit, the solar scouts.
00:08:06
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.
00:08:12
Speaker
He'd write it.
00:08:13
Speaker
So people apparently have been doing this for a while.
00:08:16
Speaker
But a really powerful way to approach it is having that data, the name of the person.
00:08:21
Speaker
So that's step number
Identifying Problems and Introducing Solutions
00:08:23
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one.
00:08:23
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And then step number two is just talking about the program.
00:08:28
Speaker
So you bring up the name of the homeowner.
00:08:30
Speaker
Hey, just making Shremer at the right spot.
00:08:33
Speaker
Is this still the Johnson's?
00:08:35
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It's the right place.
00:08:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:37
Speaker
And then that's giving you a little bit more authority just right off the bat.
00:08:42
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You got to sound different.
00:08:43
Speaker
And then from there, he is basically confirming he's at the right spots.
00:08:48
Speaker
So again, you can do something like I just did.
00:08:50
Speaker
Is this still the right house?
00:08:52
Speaker
Just making sure I'm at the right place, right?
00:08:55
Speaker
And then doing that, it confirms that you're legit official.
00:09:00
Speaker
And then it really just makes it seem like you're not selling something.
00:09:04
Speaker
That's how we all want to be perceived, right?
00:09:06
Speaker
That we're not doing sales.
00:09:07
Speaker
That we're just like the UPS guy showing up.
00:09:10
Speaker
That we're the pizza delivery guy.
00:09:12
Speaker
And my favorite time to knock is right after the Domino's delivery guy.
00:09:15
Speaker
Or right before, I should say.
00:09:16
Speaker
Because everyone opens the door, they're happy, they think it's pizza.
00:09:21
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And our job is just to keep them happy, make them think that we're not bugging them with sales.
00:09:25
Speaker
And then, yeah, from there, you got to get into the problem.
00:09:29
Speaker
So a lot of us know you need to bring up the problem before you can introduce a solution.
00:09:34
Speaker
Right.
00:09:34
Speaker
And so.
00:09:36
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:09:41
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.
00:09:48
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:09:52
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app.
00:09:57
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:10:01
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.
00:10:11
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:10:15
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to
Solar Scout Promotional Offer
00:10:19
Speaker
partner up.
00:10:19
Speaker
But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show.
00:10:23
Speaker
You need to give my listeners a great deal.
00:10:25
Speaker
And they did.
00:10:26
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.
00:10:35
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:10:39
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
00:10:42
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.
00:10:49
Speaker
Hey, for us, we talk about how they're having to buy a lot of power from out of state.
00:10:53
Speaker
I know a lot of guys are doing the power poles being swapped out.
00:10:57
Speaker
That's a good one there.
00:10:58
Speaker
Hey, they're replacing all the wooden poles with the metal ones.
00:11:02
Speaker
Guess who's paying for all that?
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, we are.
00:11:05
Speaker
So make them buy into a problem.
00:11:08
Speaker
And hopefully it's a problem that a lot of people are aware of.
00:11:11
Speaker
If not, you need to be using slicks.
00:11:13
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.
00:11:23
Speaker
And then he talks about having a program deliverable.
00:11:28
Speaker
And this is before giving them the solution.
00:11:31
Speaker
And so this was interesting.
00:11:32
Speaker
And again, he is applying this for different industries.
00:11:36
Speaker
So if you were in roofs, it could be like a damage report.
00:11:40
Speaker
I think you talked about other ones, but that was the main focus, roofs and solar.
00:11:44
Speaker
Energy audit is one he used for me personally.
00:11:47
Speaker
My deliverable is that we're going to a custom brochure for the home.
00:11:53
Speaker
Right?
00:11:54
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.
00:12:02
Speaker
And then we would get you a custom report from there, get you all the details about it.
00:12:07
Speaker
I like just bringing up this deliverable though, because...
00:12:11
Speaker
At the door, you just don't want people to think that they're being sold something.
00:12:16
Speaker
You want to think that you're just the first step, you're coming back.
00:12:20
Speaker
Because most people will agree to get information about something.
00:12:23
Speaker
But if they feel like they have to commit something at the door, then it is harder.
00:12:28
Speaker
I did pest control for two years and I thought it was hard getting people to commit right at the door.
00:12:35
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.
00:12:42
Speaker
Okay, so that's step number four, program deliverable.
00:12:46
Speaker
Then step five is telling them the solution, right?
00:12:49
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,
00:13:00
Speaker
Um, we're look, they're looking for homes.
00:13:02
Speaker
They can potentially produce their own power on site.
00:13:06
Speaker
So that would eliminate the need to buy so much power from out of state.
00:13:09
Speaker
So that's the solution, right?
00:13:11
Speaker
It helps the state out in California.
00:13:12
Speaker
We have Senate bill 100, which is just the renewable energy goal for the state.
00:13:18
Speaker
I'm saying they need to reach, I think it's 50% renewable power by 2030.
00:13:23
Speaker
So I'm sure there's all types, whatever state you're in, there's got to be mandates.
00:13:27
Speaker
There's got to be stuff going on with green energy.
00:13:30
Speaker
Should be pretty much every state has some green energy initiatives.
00:13:34
Speaker
So you can bring those up.
00:13:36
Speaker
One thing I will say, be careful.
00:13:37
Speaker
You never want to get yourself in too much trouble talking about like government things.
00:13:43
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.
00:13:53
Speaker
And just keep that in mind.
00:13:54
Speaker
If you're in a place where people are kind of like, you know, a little more conservative, you know,
00:13:59
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.
00:14:09
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.
00:14:19
Speaker
So something to keep in mind.
00:14:21
Speaker
But you're telling them the solution and then you're giving them proof or evidence of it.
00:14:25
Speaker
That's where it goes into using a slick, using some type of news article.
00:14:32
Speaker
California, you got the CPUC.
00:14:35
Speaker
So you can literally print a lot of these things out and show them really solid proof.
00:14:39
Speaker
But again, your state should have something like this.
00:14:42
Speaker
And then last but not least, you have the pullback and transition.
Pullback and Transition Techniques
00:14:47
Speaker
All right.
00:14:47
Speaker
So everyone needs to be making sure they're doing a solid pullback saying I'm out here because not everyone qualifies.
00:14:55
Speaker
So my job is just to see if the home is a candidate or not.
00:14:58
Speaker
And then going into a few qualifying questions.
00:15:02
Speaker
So you're the homeowner here, right?
00:15:03
Speaker
You should already know that.
00:15:05
Speaker
long before.
00:15:06
Speaker
But cool.
00:15:07
Speaker
And then your bill has to be... It doesn't work.
00:15:10
Speaker
It depends on what rate plan you're on.
00:15:12
Speaker
It depends on how much you're paying.
00:15:14
Speaker
Do you know ballpark what you guys pay on average here for electricity?
00:15:20
Speaker
And then a solid line, this is a hack right here.
00:15:23
Speaker
If you are in a place, for example, like by the coast in California, a lot of people have low bills.
00:15:32
Speaker
So you flip that on them, right?
00:15:34
Speaker
I make that one of the qualifications is, hey, your bill has to be lower.
00:15:37
Speaker
Because what have these people heard?
00:15:38
Speaker
They've heard that unless you have a really high bill, solar doesn't make sense.
00:15:43
Speaker
So the secret to that is you bring it up before they do and you make that one of the qualifiers.
00:15:48
Speaker
Hey, in order to qualify for this, your bill actually has to be lower.
00:15:52
Speaker
It is a new program.
00:15:53
Speaker
Before you probably heard you had to have insanely high bills for solar to make sense.
00:15:58
Speaker
This one is different.
00:15:59
Speaker
Hey, and then you're flipping it on its head and this thing works insanely well.
00:16:04
Speaker
Been having a lot of success in lower usage areas.
00:16:08
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.
00:16:14
Speaker
But even then,
00:16:16
Speaker
You still run into people with lower usage, no matter where you're selling.
00:16:19
Speaker
Okay, so those are the steps.
00:16:21
Speaker
I'm going to repeat it one more time.
00:16:22
Speaker
So you bring up the name, you bring up the program, then they're on a list, right?
00:16:30
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.
00:16:43
Speaker
Okay, so hopefully that's a good refresher.
00:16:46
Speaker
Share this with your teams.
00:16:48
Speaker
And then last thing I wanted to mention is make sure you're just being assumptive.
00:16:52
Speaker
This is a huge mistake I see all the time is just setters asking for permission.
00:16:58
Speaker
So this is another thing we talked about in our little mastermind call this morning is just phrases to avoid.
00:17:04
Speaker
are things like, can I, will you, can you, is it okay if, maybe, we're just out here, right?
00:17:13
Speaker
You want to avoid all these iffy language patterns, right?
00:17:16
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?
00:17:26
Speaker
Hey, at least they shouldn't be saying that.
00:17:28
Speaker
You think of the Amazon delivery guy.
00:17:30
Speaker
Is it okay if I drop off the package?
00:17:32
Speaker
No, that's what they got a job to do.
00:17:35
Speaker
That's why they're there.
00:17:36
Speaker
And they're being assumptive with it.
00:17:38
Speaker
So we need to have that same thinking, right?
00:17:41
Speaker
We're there for a reason.
Belief in Solar's Value and Assumptive Language
00:17:43
Speaker
People shouldn't be saying no to this because everyone needs to get the information we have.
00:17:48
Speaker
Remember, we're not committing them to buy solar.
00:17:50
Speaker
We're not committing them to get solar at the door.
00:17:54
Speaker
All we're committing them to is to get more information and who shouldn't agree to that.
00:17:59
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.
00:18:09
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
00:18:17
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.
00:18:26
Speaker
Okay, so I hope that helps.
Next Episode Teaser: Conrad Seaman's Transformation
00:18:29
Speaker
Next episode, we're going to have someone that has mastered setting and is doing some incredible things.
00:18:35
Speaker
This kid's name is Conrad Seaman.
00:18:37
Speaker
He is a setter manager for Legacy Power over on the East Coast.
00:18:45
Speaker
I believe he's one of their blitzing team.
00:18:47
Speaker
He runs one of their blitzing teams and just has an incredible story.
00:18:51
Speaker
Super impressed with this guy.
00:18:53
Speaker
Ran into him over at SolarCon.
00:18:55
Speaker
We did an interview.
00:18:56
Speaker
So excited for you guys to check that one out.
00:19:00
Speaker
He shares a story.
00:19:01
Speaker
He used to be dealing drugs on the streets.
00:19:06
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you know, served a little bit of time and just has had an extreme breakthrough, having tons of success.
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So make sure you tune in, hear the incredible story.
00:19:14
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Big thank you to our sponsors.
Introducing Solcite: A Learning Community
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Please leave us a review.
00:19:18
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Share the podcast if you haven't already.
00:19:21
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And we'll see you guys on the next one.
00:19:23
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Peace out.
00:19:25
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Hey, Solarpreneurs, quick question.
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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?
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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.
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That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals
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to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
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And it's called Solcite.
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This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solver Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
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Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
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So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
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This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
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We'll see you on the inside.