Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How To Explain A PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) Like A Pro
289 Plays2 years ago
- https://www.youtube.com/@solarpreneurs
- Help Reagan Beat Cancer!!!
- goals.solarpreneurs.com
- oneliners.solarpreneurs.com
- https://solciety.co/ - JOIN SOLCIETY NOW!
- SIRO APP - LEARN MORE!
- Thanks to our sponsor Pi Syndicate for this episode!
- DOWNLOAD THE CHEAT SHEET HERE!: TOP 10 MOST DOWNLOADED EPISODES OF ALL TIME
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
00:00:41
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
Understanding Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
00:00:42
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.
00:00:44
Speaker
Today, we're going to be talking about how to explain a power purchase agreement like a pro.
00:00:51
Speaker
If you are not offering PPAs or power purchase agreements in your market, don't worry.
00:00:57
Speaker
I think there's still things that you can apply from what we're talking about today.
00:01:02
Speaker
but out here in California, we are selling a lot of them lately.
00:01:06
Speaker
So that's why I'm thinking about it.
00:01:09
Speaker
Top of
Seasonal Solar Sales Strategies
00:01:10
Speaker
mind.
00:01:10
Speaker
Okay, but let's jump into it.
00:01:13
Speaker
As usual, we are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:01:21
Speaker
Hope you're closing lots of deals whenever you're listening to this.
00:01:24
Speaker
Currently, we're at end of the summer.
00:01:27
Speaker
For me, great time because people are feeling the pain from their summer bills.
00:01:31
Speaker
Full summer of getting high bills, running AC.
00:01:35
Speaker
So I love it.
00:01:35
Speaker
It's my favorite time of the year.
00:01:37
Speaker
Add college football on top of that.
00:01:40
Speaker
The only tough thing about me as a college football fan, all these games are on Saturdays.
00:01:45
Speaker
So it does get tough.
00:01:48
Speaker
I know I got to be out knocking doors on Saturdays meeting with people.
00:01:53
Speaker
So that is the only tough thing for me.
00:01:55
Speaker
Sometimes I fall into that temptation to pull up some games while I'm knocking doors and all that.
00:02:00
Speaker
I have been known to knock a door with my phone on the ESPN game.
00:02:05
Speaker
Wouldn't recommend it.
00:02:06
Speaker
It's cost me money, so learn from my mistakes.
Inspiration from Ricardo Richie
00:02:09
Speaker
We're going to be talking about the PPAs here.
00:02:13
Speaker
If you did not listen to the previous episode, I would highly recommend you go do that.
00:02:17
Speaker
We heard from Ricardo Richie, absolute beast, closing so many deals, did 110, 120 in the 60 days.
00:02:25
Speaker
which even more incredible considering that out here in California, we switched to net metering 3.0.
00:02:31
Speaker
And a lot of people thought that it was going to be impossible to sell, thought that solar was over.
00:02:37
Speaker
Ricardo, he came out and did 120 in two months.
00:02:41
Speaker
So it can still be done.
00:02:44
Speaker
Maybe not 120 like Ricardo, but you can still do it.
00:02:48
Speaker
So I hope you enjoyed that
Simplifying PPAs for Customers
00:02:49
Speaker
episode.
00:02:49
Speaker
But Ricardo, just like myself, we are selling primarily for
00:02:53
Speaker
these PPAs, power purchase agreements, which if you are new to solar or if you're in a market that you have no idea what I'm talking about, a PPA is just an agreement that you put people in that's similar to a lease except for they are only buying the power.
00:03:11
Speaker
And what's really, really cool about it and the reason it's been so popular on California is because it's the same thing they're in right now with the utility.
00:03:21
Speaker
Okay, and this is what I explain to people and this is a pro tip that I would definitely do is, you know, you want to make things relatable to what people already know.
00:03:32
Speaker
Especially if solar is a foreign concept, if solar is something newer in your market, you need to just relate it as much as you can to things they already know, things they already trust, and
00:03:44
Speaker
things that make sense in their brain.
00:03:47
Speaker
So something that I recently was able to learn from my friend Ashton Buswell, also a very high level producer, been on the podcast, did like 20 deals in today one time.
00:03:59
Speaker
But this guy, the way he explains it, I love it.
00:04:02
Speaker
He just says, hey, right now you're in something called a power purchase agreement with your utility company.
00:04:10
Speaker
And if you don't know what that is, that's just they produce power and you buy it.
00:04:14
Speaker
So Mr. Homeowner, all we're doing here, what this program is, it's the exact same thing.
00:04:20
Speaker
But instead of you buying the power from the utility and wherever they're getting that power, you're just buying the power from the panels.
00:04:29
Speaker
That's it.
00:04:30
Speaker
insanely simple, easy to understand, makes people go, oh, okay.
00:04:35
Speaker
Thoughts of words more complicated than that.
00:04:37
Speaker
And that's it.
00:04:38
Speaker
And then another thing he does to make it more relatable is he just talks about, hey, so what's really cool about this program is exactly the same right now.
00:04:48
Speaker
Like if someone crashes into the power pole out front,
00:04:52
Speaker
you guys don't pay for the power pole to be replaced, right?
00:04:55
Speaker
It's all on the utility.
00:04:57
Speaker
So what's really cool about this, the reason why people like it is because the exact same thing happens if, heaven forbid, the sun stops shining and,
00:05:07
Speaker
Or I don't know if he says that, but if something breaks with the panels, if a bird hits it just right, whatever happens up there, we're on the hook for that.
00:05:15
Speaker
So we come back, we take care of it in the same way that you're used to as your utility company, taking care of the lines, doing all the maintenance.
00:05:25
Speaker
And again, really relatable.
00:05:26
Speaker
So whatever you are offering people, you want to make it relatable.
00:05:30
Speaker
You want to make it easy to understand.
00:05:32
Speaker
This is a common trait of all the top producers I interview.
00:05:36
Speaker
And something that I'm always trying to do as well is make it super simple.
00:05:41
Speaker
KISS, right?
00:05:41
Speaker
The acronym KISS.
00:05:42
Speaker
Keep it super simple.
00:05:44
Speaker
So just be thinking of that.
00:05:45
Speaker
And that's what I do like about these PPAs.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's easy to relate that.
00:05:49
Speaker
So what I'm going to do is I had an appointment just today, actually.
00:05:55
Speaker
Got a little recording of it.
00:05:58
Speaker
And this appointment, I did not close.
00:06:01
Speaker
It was an 80-year-old lady.
00:06:02
Speaker
I think she was 86.
00:06:03
Speaker
Pretty old lady.
00:06:06
Speaker
She was on top of it though.
00:06:08
Speaker
I honestly thought she was like in her 70s.
00:06:10
Speaker
She had some concerns about solar.
00:06:13
Speaker
She's bringing up all the typical concerns with her roof.
00:06:15
Speaker
She doesn't want complications in her old age.
00:06:19
Speaker
She needs to talk to her kids.
00:06:20
Speaker
So a lot of obstacles in that.
00:06:23
Speaker
Kind of main thing was she needed to talk to her kids and wanted to research companies, all this thing, skeptical lady.
00:06:29
Speaker
But I feel like I did get her to open up a little bit.
00:06:33
Speaker
I explained to her how the PPA works and sparked her interest.
00:06:39
Speaker
And I tried to keep it quicker.
00:06:42
Speaker
She brought up all these things.
00:06:43
Speaker
And the thing that I hate doing is being in a deal that you know is not going to close.
00:06:48
Speaker
So that's why it's so important to have a good fact-finding process, ask questions at the beginning.
00:06:54
Speaker
And in this case, if it's an 86-year-old lady and she's saying she's going to talk to her kids, then you probably don't want to spend a ton of time
00:07:01
Speaker
You want to figure out if you can do something to pique the interest, figure it out if that's just a smokescreen.
00:07:06
Speaker
But when it's an old lady living by herself, yeah, tough situation.
00:07:11
Speaker
A lot of times they are going to talk to kids.
00:07:12
Speaker
But anyways, I'm going to play part of this recording.
00:07:14
Speaker
It's how I explain the power purchase agreement.
00:07:17
Speaker
Then we're going to go over some of what I did in there.
00:07:21
Speaker
It's not perfect, but I feel like there were some good things in here.
00:07:25
Speaker
So I'm going to play just two or three minutes from this, and you'll hear a little bit of how I explain
Sales Techniques for Engagement
00:07:31
Speaker
it.
00:07:31
Speaker
Let's get into it.
00:07:51
Speaker
that's the difference it's um around half of what you pay right now and i know right here people are gonna be freaking out what you pay 56 cents for power yeah that's why san diego is a good market so if you want to sell with the best come be with the best okay hit me up if you want a spot on our team you have to qualify first but san diego is awesome
00:08:15
Speaker
Don't be coming out and taking our deals here.
00:08:17
Speaker
You have to be on our team.
00:08:19
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:08:21
Speaker
But yeah, you notice one thing I did there is I'm not going to tell her the rate straight out the door.
00:08:26
Speaker
She was being a little bit iffy on the whole thing, saying, oh, I don't think I'm going to.
00:08:32
Speaker
Like apply.
00:08:33
Speaker
So what you want to do is you want to keep your cards close to the chest.
00:08:37
Speaker
You want to give people a reason to apply.
00:08:39
Speaker
If you show them exactly what it is, show them exactly what you're offering, especially with a lady like this, then sometimes you don't have enough intrigue.
00:08:48
Speaker
So what I was hoping it would do is get her to be like, OK, well, let's see what I'm actually approved for.
00:08:53
Speaker
So I could just run the credit, fill out the application right there.
00:08:56
Speaker
Did not work, but it has worked many times where I just keep my cards close to the chest.
00:09:01
Speaker
And I don't always do this, but in this case where it's someone that I knew there are a lot of obstacles, like I want to have all the ammo possible to get them to complete the application.
00:09:11
Speaker
Because I know if I can get them to the point of filling out the application, then chances are really good that I'm actually going to close them.
00:09:18
Speaker
right so for me it's just like okay how can i get them to go towards the application that's the goal how much parts are you saying per kilowatt hour it's about 20 25 to 30 cents instead of 45 to 56 which you're paying right now yeah so it is about half of what you're paying so how long would that last about that range yeah i wish i could
00:09:53
Speaker
What you're hearing me do here, very important sales technique you got to use there.
00:09:59
Speaker
Hey, is contrasting, right?
00:10:01
Speaker
I've talked about it in the show before, but she's saying, how long would that last?
00:10:04
Speaker
And you're going to hear me do this many more times.
00:10:06
Speaker
It's a key part of what I do, what top guys do in the power when explaining the power purchase agreement, but you're constantly comparing what you do to the utility company, right?
00:10:19
Speaker
If you can make the utility company look terrible,
00:10:22
Speaker
then what you're doing is gonna look great.
00:10:25
Speaker
It's gonna give them that breath of fresh air.
00:10:27
Speaker
Especially around potential objection moments where they could potentially object to something.
00:10:38
Speaker
Because what if people say, oh, I don't wanna be stuck in a long-term contract.
00:10:42
Speaker
I don't wanna be tied into this forever.
00:10:45
Speaker
So you need to make the negative thing that a lot of people complain about sound like a really positive thing.
00:10:51
Speaker
What does she ask?
00:10:52
Speaker
How long does this last for?
00:10:54
Speaker
How long would that go for?
00:10:56
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's only 25 years.
00:10:59
Speaker
Most people look at that as a negative, that they're locked into something at 25 years.
00:11:03
Speaker
You're making it sound like a really great thing.
00:11:06
Speaker
And it is a good thing, right?
00:11:07
Speaker
They get it guaranteed for 25 years.
00:11:10
Speaker
I wish it could go longer, but hey, I'm sorry, Mr. Customer, it's only 25 years that it lasts.
00:11:14
Speaker
Okay, so very key thing.
00:11:16
Speaker
And we'll get into a few more situations where you can use this.
00:11:55
Speaker
guarantee it so they just allow you know i guess at least kind of like the general inflation so you cover all those costs yeah the idea of it is yeah you're saving you'd probably be cutting your bill around in half what you're paying right now but that's i get it that's not your in like insane really what more people like is just that over time you see greater and greater savings so for you it's like yeah you gotta have a big discount now and then as yours goes
00:12:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:26
Speaker
So yeah, explaining it here, I could have done a better job.
00:12:28
Speaker
I think it gets a little, I need to ask her questions, make sure she's engaged and easier to see if she's engaged or not in person.
00:12:39
Speaker
Hey, but I don't think looking back on this, I think I need to be asking more like, Hey, does that make sense?
00:12:45
Speaker
Do you understand that?
00:12:46
Speaker
Especially with older people, a lot of times they're not getting things.
00:12:49
Speaker
So you definitely need to check in more.
00:12:51
Speaker
I could have done a better job at checking in, making sure she is picking up what I'm laying down.
00:12:57
Speaker
Hey, but again, you want to make sure the increase on a PPA, most markets they have the increase in the PPA goes up between, you know, one to 4%, depending on what lender, what funds you're using.
00:13:13
Speaker
So I just tell her you make it a good thing, right?
00:13:16
Speaker
And super powerful way to do this is
00:13:19
Speaker
If you can put it on paper,
Long-term Benefits of Solar
00:13:21
Speaker
right?
00:13:21
Speaker
And just show exact comparison side by side.
00:13:24
Speaker
Hey, here's what your utility is going to increase to over the next three, six, nine years.
00:13:29
Speaker
I usually do a nine year projection.
00:13:32
Speaker
And here's what your solar is going to increase to in the next three, six, nine years.
00:13:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:35
Speaker
And they'll be blown away by what the difference is.
00:13:39
Speaker
Out here in California, utilities are going up like crazy, but most utilities probably have
00:13:46
Speaker
I would say, you know, five to 10% increase from what I've seen.
00:13:51
Speaker
So you're just putting the projected increases and then on the other side of the page, you're putting what yours would increase to.
00:13:59
Speaker
And then I like to throw in the explanation because some people are like, oh, why do you guys have to increase?
00:14:04
Speaker
So I like saying that it's because we're going to cover all the maintenance.
00:14:08
Speaker
We're covering the long-term costs with this.
00:14:11
Speaker
So we're just going to make sure we have, you know, money to pay our guys to keep up with inflation.
00:14:16
Speaker
And most people I see that makes a lot of sense.
00:14:18
Speaker
It's like, hey, yeah, we have a small increase, goes up about the rate of inflation.
00:14:24
Speaker
And that's just so we can maintain your system over time and continue paying our guys to upkeep it.
00:14:31
Speaker
Most people we do help actually are retired or kind of in later stages.
00:14:35
Speaker
Because you're right.
00:14:50
Speaker
most people we help with this are like you know retired they don't want to make this big investment and have to worry about like maintenance with it down the road because it just goes up and then everything's taken care of for them it's like really similar to what you're doing right now with stgme just a lot less and just protected does that make sense so yeah i mean that's basically all it is like
00:15:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yep.
00:15:16
Speaker
And then her objection, I think she had asked a question.
00:15:20
Speaker
It seems like the recording may be cut out or something, but her big objection was, Hey, I'm so old.
00:15:26
Speaker
This doesn't make sense.
00:15:28
Speaker
So again, I turned that into a positive.
00:15:31
Speaker
It's like, here's why that's why I'm here.
00:15:34
Speaker
That's why we're meeting with you.
00:15:35
Speaker
Most people on this are retired people.
00:15:39
Speaker
This is a senior program and it's true.
00:15:41
Speaker
PPAs, they are more beneficial to people that are retired on fixed incomes.
00:15:47
Speaker
They don't have to wait for a return on their investment.
00:15:49
Speaker
They don't have to have debt showing up on their credits.
00:15:52
Speaker
Just a lower rate.
00:15:54
Speaker
Hey, and I get it.
00:15:55
Speaker
There's some markets where ownership probably is still a lot better.
00:15:59
Speaker
But at the time of this recording, dealer fees are high.
00:16:02
Speaker
Interest rates are high.
00:16:04
Speaker
So especially out here in California with batteries included, it just makes so much more sense right now, in my opinion.
00:16:12
Speaker
Get people this power purchase agreement.
00:16:14
Speaker
They don't have to worry about that.
00:16:15
Speaker
They get free battery replacements and easy explanation and boom, you lock them down.
00:16:23
Speaker
Hey, so that's the general gist of how I explain a power purchase agreement.
00:16:30
Speaker
Hey, future episodes, we're probably going to go more in depth.
00:16:33
Speaker
I'll do a full breakdown.
00:16:34
Speaker
This was just kind of like a summarized version of how I was explaining to this lady, seeing if I could spark some interest.
00:16:42
Speaker
But when I'm in a full close, hey, I'm breaking it down pen and paper.
00:16:47
Speaker
I'm giving them a detailed comparison of what it's going to be with utility versus what it's going to be with solar energy.
00:16:58
Speaker
And whether I'm doing a power purchase agreement or a loan, I like doing
The Bigger Picture: Customer and Community Impact
00:17:02
Speaker
it that way.
00:17:02
Speaker
Hey, I know Taylor McCarthy, he's big on this too, is just putting side by side, doing a little T chart on a page.
00:17:09
Speaker
which by the way, we actually have a little freebie for that.
00:17:13
Speaker
If you want the exact sheet that I use in my closes, you can hit me up, taylorasolarpreneurs.com.
00:17:20
Speaker
I'll see if we can post the link in the show notes here.
00:17:24
Speaker
But we have the exact T-chart that I used where you can put utility on one side, solar on the other side.
00:17:31
Speaker
It makes it super simple to break down, easy to remember what you're doing.
00:17:34
Speaker
and helps you make the utility company and whatever market you're selling just look like the bad guys, look like the devil himself.
00:17:41
Speaker
And that's what you want to do.
00:17:43
Speaker
Because the more pain you can create, the deeper you can press on that wound.
00:17:47
Speaker
the more they want relief of that.
00:17:49
Speaker
We are solving a problem.
00:17:51
Speaker
Never forget that.
00:17:53
Speaker
The best salespeople, they're not selling because they focus on the commission.
00:17:57
Speaker
They focus on themselves.
00:17:58
Speaker
We're out there solving a problem for people and saving the planet.
00:18:03
Speaker
So if you have that attitude, you're going to have much more success in your sales career.
00:18:06
Speaker
But I hope that helped.
00:18:07
Speaker
Okay, send this to someone who could use some help on their PPA closes, power purchase agreements.
00:18:13
Speaker
I hope you will leave us a review.
00:18:15
Speaker
Shoot me a comment.
00:18:17
Speaker
Shoot me a DM.
00:18:19
Speaker
If you have any topics, suggestions, or things you want to hear.
00:18:23
Speaker
Hey, but it's been a minute since we got a review.
00:18:25
Speaker
So please, if you have not left us a review, go on to Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts, write us a little review.
00:18:33
Speaker
always helps the show grow, helps us keep bringing quality content.
00:18:37
Speaker
So that being said, we'll see you guys on the next episode and keep crushing it.
00:18:41
Speaker
Hope you close lots of deals this week.
00:18:43
Speaker
Hope you continue to have a successful solar career wherever you're selling.
00:18:47
Speaker
We'll see you on the next one.
Resources for Starting in Solar Sales
00:18:50
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:18:51
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:18:52
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:19:03
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:19:10
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:19:13
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:19:18
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
00:19:31
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
00:19:33
Speaker
So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:19:40
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:19:41
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:19:45
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:19:50
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:19:53
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:19:55
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:19:57
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:20:02
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:20:03
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.