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115. My 3-Step Method I Use to Coach Better Sales Reps
64 Plays5 years ago
Everyone of us has times where we need to improve our selling. I do my best every day to improve my own.
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Transcript
Introduction to Taylor Armstrong and Solar Business Strategies
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Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
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My name is Taylor Armstrong.
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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 cells are upspill.
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I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing 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.
What is a Solarpreneur?
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What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
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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.
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What's up, solarpreneurs?
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Taylor Armstrong back here to help my solarpreneurs close more deals, generate more referrals, and dominate the solar industry.
Podcast Relaunch: Shorter Episodes for Better Implementation
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If you're listening to this, you are on episode five now of the relaunch, the podcast.
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I think we're actually at episode 110, 115, something like that.
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But if you've been following, we did a little relaunch, made some changes, and we're
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Most notable change is we are shortening the episode lengths and doing more frequent episodes.
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Talked about this a little bit before, but the idea is that I'm going to give you guys bite-sized, actionable tips that you can go out and implement today because that's what it's about.
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If you're not implementing...
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You're not improving.
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It's all about the implementation.
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Let me know what you think of these episodes.
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Has it helped you?
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Do you like the shorter ones?
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Are you taking more action?
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That's what I like to hear.
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I apologize if I'm a little out of breath today.
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Just got done with a little jog.
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I'm in terrible cardio shape.
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I'm trying to get back in the fitness game, been going to the gym, but have definitely been slacking on the cardio.
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It's a little bit tough for me to breathe, but we're going to jump right into it.
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No excuses.
Scaling Sales: Insights and Common Mistakes
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The topic we're going to get into today is the three secrets I use to scale other people's selling.
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We're going to get more into coaching as I've been training other reps and coaching others.
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I've seen three things in specific that I frequently see mistakes on or things that are not done.
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And after a long three, four years of selling now through some pretty down times, some pretty up times, I not only learned what I needed to do, but I've also seen mistakes I've made and what other people have made.
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And I think these three things are key in something that perhaps you're not doing right now.
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Okay, so
Sales Secret 1: The Assumptive Close
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here it is.
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Let's jump right into the secrets.
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Secret number one is being super assumptive.
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Any salesperson should know this, but how do we be assumptive in solar?
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Quick story with this.
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When I was probably two years in the industry, I took one of our regional, I was going through a little
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slump in my cells so i decided to take one of the regional managers at the time with me to a appointment help me close it we went to this appointment and i'm like oh it's gonna be a guarantee close this guy's regional manager we're gonna easy get the cell here and we go into the appointments um my manager is obviously the one doing the closing i'm just kind of shadowing
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We get to the close.
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He gave a lot of good info.
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They like the solar.
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By the close, he says, so do you want to go solar?
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And a couple problems with it.
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First of all, the husband was in the living room and he wasn't even taking place in the appointments.
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He was out watching TV in the living room.
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I knew at the time we need to get decision makers there, but in my head, I'm like, well, this guy's the regional.
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He doesn't need all decision makers.
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He can close anybody.
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He doesn't have to have the husband there.
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So that was his first mistake.
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And the second was he just said, do you want to go solar?
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That was the close, essentially.
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I don't remember the exact words, but it was basically, what do you think about going solar now?
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Can we do this?
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And I mean, it was OK, but you combine the two little things, just asking a question like that if they want to go solar.
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And then on top of that, both decision makers not being there.
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Guess what?
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The deal did not close.
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And I'm like, man, what is going on here?
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Do I really know something that this regional manager doesn't?
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Or is he just not doing it?
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And in all fairness, he, I mean, as a regional manager, he basically was just, you know, he wasn't really going to that many deals and closing them.
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So I know he was probably out of practice and, you know, probably forgot some steps.
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But you got to be assumptive in the clothes.
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And I think that was the second big mistake is I definitely do not suggest people asking, do you want to go solar?
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I don't think that is a very strong close.
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So how can you be assumptive, especially in closing?
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It applies in any aspect of the cell.
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And hopefully you've been taught this if you've been in cells, but especially in closing, how can you make it assumptive?
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Mr. Jones, we've got two more spots on the list.
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When would you guys want your solar installed up there?
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Giving the ownership to it.
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When do you want your solar?
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or think of assumptive questions you can use.
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What part of the roof do you want your solar to go on?
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Already assuming that they're going to do it.
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When we install your solar, do you guys want it to be in the morning or the afternoon?
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There's tons of books.
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You can go look up Grant Cardone's solar, or sorry, not solar, clothes or survival guide.
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And you can find 100 clothes.
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I definitely don't use all of them.
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But look for ways to be assumptive and you'll be shocked at how many times if you're just assumptive, you'll get the close.
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I can't tell you how many times I've closed a deal where people were on the fence.
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I knew they definitely weren't planning on making a decision today.
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But I just said, all right, we're going to submit the application, run the credits, make sure you guys are good as far as that goes.
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Whose name do you want on your application?
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It's okay if we just put it under your name.
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I knew they weren't planning on making that step, but you're not given the option.
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You're assuming it.
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You're going straight in the documentation.
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We did it too when I was selling pest control.
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You never say, do you want to sign up for pest control?
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You go straight in the contract.
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Say, what's your name?
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You start filling out the contract as you're on the doorstep.
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It's not an option to not fill it out.
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So I started thinking about that.
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How can you be more assumptive?
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That's one of the biggest mistakes I see, even from experience, guys.
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You got to be assumptive in closing and knocking.
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And we'll definitely get more into this in future episodes.
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But that is definitely a secret that I see people missing out on.
Sales Secret 2: Creating Urgency
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So number two, you got to create urgency.
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And people probably know all this in general.
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Okay, I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record sometimes.
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But people are not creating enough urgency.
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And it made me realize that even more, if you study marketing, if you go on Facebook right now, start scrolling through the Facebook feed, look at any Facebook ad or basically on any website you're on, any ad you see, you'll notice that if it's a good ad, then they're creating some type of urgency in the ad.
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Maybe you're seeing the ad to buy more cat litter.
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The ad should be something like limited supplies, right?
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You're seeing stuff like that.
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Limited supplies, 30% off for the first 20 people.
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Why do they do that?
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Why is it so big in marketing?
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And why is it in every ad they're doing stuff like that?
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It's because people do not buy if they don't feel the need to.
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People aren't going to do something today when they think they can just do it tomorrow.
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No need for them.
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And especially now as we release this episode, we're coming up on the holidays.
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People are going to use that as an excuse.
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So if you don't give them a reason to get solar now, they're saying, well, I'm going to wait till after Christmas.
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I'm going to wait till after Thanksgiving.
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I'm going to wait till after the new year, whatever.
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You've got to give them the reason to do it now.
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So what are some things you can use to create urgency in solar?
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Right now, at the time of this episode, we have the federal tax credit is getting ready to go down to 22%.
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So basically, you're on your last probably couple weeks of being able to get this for homeowners, depending on how long your install times are.
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So that's a huge one, tax credit.
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Another big one, if you've been following the industry, you just saw that what happened in Utah was
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the buyback rate for solar went down from I think nine cents to six cents.
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Don't quote me on that, but it went down in the solar industry.
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Definitely took a hit on that.
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No excuse.
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Still plenty of deals to be sold for my Utah peeps, but it hurts right now.
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You got to make the systems bigger.
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Now you got to build in batteries to compensate for that.
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Things like that.
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So even if you're not in Utah, wherever you're at, you can use that as an example.
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Mr. Homeowner, guess what just happened in Utah?
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The buyback rate went down.
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So now people are actually having to put more solar on their roof and it's costing a lot more to go solar because of that.
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And even if something, I'm in California and most likely that's not going to happen here.
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Well, anytime soon, I hope.
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But use that as an example.
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Even if it's not happening where you're at, say it's very likely it can happen soon.
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What we're doing with this is we're getting the solar up, getting your application in as soon as possible, and then that will grandfather you into the current rates.
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I know in Utah, all the people that had existing solar there grandfathered into the old buyback of the kilowatts until 2030.
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So use that as an example.
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Use that to build urgency.
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Okay, and another thing you can do to build the urgency is, especially if you're working with the EPC, a dealer, you can build in your own incentives, basically.
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Like a big one we use here is, you know, you can get your first six months of electricity paid for.
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And the key with that, you got to give them a reason.
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Mr. Homeowner, we're helping three more people in your neighborhood.
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While our trucks are still here, we're actually going to get you the first six months of electricity paid for.
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So you actually won't pay anything for the first six months.
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And that's just helping us out so we can do everyone at the same time.
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So it makes more sense if we can have our trucks do your whole neighborhood at once rather than jumping all over the place.
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So we will get you that today if we can get your application in.
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And worst case, I mean, let's say you can't close them.
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You try everything.
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You're assumptive.
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You go through.
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Six, seven closes.
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They won't close.
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Then use those incentives as urgency to follow up too, right?
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Okay, well, I'll give you till you have till the end of this week.
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If we can get your application in, we'll still get you that six months of free electricity.
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Okay.
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After that, we won't be able to.
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Whatever.
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I mean, build these in.
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You should be making huge commissions on your shoulder.
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So what can you offer the homeowner to create more urgency?
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Use your imagination.
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Be creative.
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And I'm excited to hear what your
Sales Secret 3: Using Social Proof
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ideas are.
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Okay, and so the last secret is you need to build massive social proofs.
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This is another thing that you see in marketing all the time.
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Go to any sales page, any website, any like program that you've purchased.
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What do they have?
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They have testimonials or they should.
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They should show people that had success with it.
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People that are getting what they wanted out of the product.
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People that are happy.
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And it's no different in solar.
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Why aren't we using more testimonials, more social proofs?
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And again, there's lots of ways you can use this, whether it's knocking doors or in the close or following up.
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But just in general, we'll get more into these in the specifics in future episodes.
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But if you're knocking doors, you can use a name list, just talking about other appointments that you've all already set in the neighborhood.
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Who have you talked to that's going to hear you out?
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You should be using those people to overcome objections.
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and to build the social proof on the doors.
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Do you have a reference list of people that have already purchased your product, preferably super nearby, that are happy with it?
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This is huge for people that are shoppers or
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that want to talk to their neighbors.
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You give them this reference list.
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And the funny thing is nine times out of 10, they probably won't even contact these people.
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But I ran into, I'd say one out of every maybe six, seven deals where they actually want a reference list and they just want to know that people nearby have gone slower with your company.
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And then the other thing, YouTube channel with video testimonials.
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You should have a compilation of video testimonials that you can show the homeowner.
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This is something we've started doing and it's super handy.
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If you're in a deal, it can be that one thing that pushes the homeowner over the edge to buy ink.
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And then the last thing I'll say on this, if you don't close the deal, these testimonials, the social proof, it becomes super powerful and follow up.
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Because guess what?
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If you have a reference list, if you have a YouTube channel with video testimonials, you can send them the reference closest.
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Say, hey, Mr. Jones, this is a neighbor that got installed.
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Just wanted you to be able to go check out the system.
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Let me know what you think.
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Great follow up, right?
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If you have the video testimonials, send them a link to a specific video.
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Hey, Mr. Jones, this guy had a lot of the same concerns that you had, and he's super happy with this system.
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Thought you might enjoy this video.
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Great reason to follow up with.
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So be creative with it.
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These are three secrets.
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And we're going to get, again, more into specifics in future episodes.
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But this is what I am coaching my reps on.
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This is what I will be coaching in a lot of the training programs that we're launching in my course.
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So if you are a manager or if you are a rep, remember those three secrets.
00:15:07
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Be super assumptive, create urgency, and build massive social proof.
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I guarantee you're not doing them as much as you should be.
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So think of how you can do these even better.
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Let me know what you think.
00:15:20
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Let me know if you got value from this episode and we will see you on the next one.
00:15:25
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Peace.
The Podcast's Purpose and Encouragement to Share
00:15:26
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Thanks so much for tuning into today's episode.
00:15:29
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I know when I got into the industry, I had almost no resources like this.
00:15:33
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So I hope this show is helping you get the success you deserve.
00:15:37
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If you found value from anything in this episode today, think about someone who can benefit so you and I can help people fulfill their potential.
00:15:45
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Zig Ziglar said if you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.
00:15:50
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So I promise by sharing this it will help you grow and improve.
00:15:53
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The value bombs on today's show will take you one step closer to success, but it's always to the degree that you apply and execute the principles.
00:16:02
Speaker
I've spent the last few years interviewing the top solar experts and helping other reps and businesses discover their potential.
Exclusive Video Training Offer
00:16:09
Speaker
If you want more help achieving your goals, then I put together an exclusive video training on three hacks that helped me close multiple deals a week while knocking less than 10 hours.
00:16:19
Speaker
And who doesn't want that?
00:16:20
Speaker
So go check it out at webclass.solarpreneurs.com.
00:16:24
Speaker
Once again, that's webclass.solarpreneurs.com to get exclusive access to the training and take your skills to the next level.