Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a 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: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.
Speaker: Today, we're going to be talking about how to explain a power purchase agreement like a pro.
Speaker: If you are not offering PPAs or power purchase agreements in your market, don't worry.
Speaker: I think there's still things that you can apply from what we're talking about today.
Speaker: but out here in California, we are selling a lot of them lately.
Speaker: So that's why I'm thinking about it.
Speaker: Top of mind.
Speaker: Okay, but let's jump into it.
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.
Speaker: Hope you're closing lots of deals whenever you're listening to this.
Speaker: Currently, we're at end of the summer.
Speaker: For me, great time because people are feeling the pain from their summer bills.
Speaker: Full summer of getting high bills, running AC.
Speaker: So I love it.
Speaker: It's my favorite time of the year.
Speaker: Add college football on top of that.
Speaker: The only tough thing about me as a college football fan, all these games are on Saturdays.
Speaker: So it does get tough.
Speaker: I know I got to be out knocking doors on Saturdays meeting with people.
Speaker: So that is the only tough thing for me.
Speaker: Sometimes I fall into that temptation to pull up some games while I'm knocking doors and all that.
Speaker: I have been known to knock a door with my phone on the ESPN game.
Speaker: Wouldn't recommend it.
Speaker: It's cost me money, so learn from my mistakes.
Speaker: We're going to be talking about the PPAs here.
Speaker: If you did not listen to the previous episode, I would highly recommend you go do that.
Speaker: We heard from Ricardo Richie, absolute beast, closing so many deals, did 110, 120 in the 60 days.
Speaker: which even more incredible considering that out here in California, we switched to net metering 3.0.
Speaker: And a lot of people thought that it was going to be impossible to sell, thought that solar was over.
Speaker: Ricardo, he came out and did 120 in two months.
Speaker: So it can still be done.
Speaker: Maybe not 120 like Ricardo, but you can still do it.
Speaker: So I hope you enjoyed that episode.
Speaker: But Ricardo, just like myself, we are selling primarily for
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.
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.
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.
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
Speaker: things that make sense in their brain.
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.
Speaker: But this guy, the way he explains it, I love it.
Speaker: He just says, hey, right now you're in something called a power purchase agreement with your utility company.
Speaker: And if you don't know what that is, that's just they produce power and you buy it.
Speaker: So Mr. Homeowner, all we're doing here, what this program is, it's the exact same thing.
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.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: insanely simple, easy to understand, makes people go, oh, okay.
Speaker: Thoughts of words more complicated than that.
Speaker: And that's it.
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.
Speaker: Like if someone crashes into the power pole out front,
Speaker: you guys don't pay for the power pole to be replaced, right?
Speaker: It's all on the utility.
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,
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.
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.
Speaker: And again, really relatable.
Speaker: So whatever you are offering people, you want to make it relatable.
Speaker: You want to make it easy to understand.
Speaker: This is a common trait of all the top producers I interview.
Speaker: And something that I'm always trying to do as well is make it super simple.
Speaker: KISS, right?
Speaker: The acronym KISS.
Speaker: Keep it super simple.
Speaker: So just be thinking of that.
Speaker: And that's what I do like about these PPAs.
Speaker: It's easy to relate that.
Speaker: So what I'm going to do is I had an appointment just today, actually.
Speaker: Got a little recording of it.
Speaker: And this appointment, I did not close.
Speaker: It was an 80-year-old lady.
Speaker: I think she was 86.
Speaker: Pretty old lady.
Speaker: She was on top of it though.
Speaker: I honestly thought she was like in her 70s.
Speaker: She had some concerns about solar.
Speaker: She's bringing up all the typical concerns with her roof.
Speaker: She doesn't want complications in her old age.
Speaker: She needs to talk to her kids.
Speaker: So a lot of obstacles in that.
Speaker: Kind of main thing was she needed to talk to her kids and wanted to research companies, all this thing, skeptical lady.
Speaker: But I feel like I did get her to open up a little bit.
Speaker: I explained to her how the PPA works and sparked her interest.
Speaker: And I tried to keep it quicker.
Speaker: She brought up all these things.
Speaker: And the thing that I hate doing is being in a deal that you know is not going to close.
Speaker: So that's why it's so important to have a good fact-finding process, ask questions at the beginning.
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
Speaker: You want to figure out if you can do something to pique the interest, figure it out if that's just a smokescreen.
Speaker: But when it's an old lady living by herself, yeah, tough situation.
Speaker: A lot of times they are going to talk to kids.
Speaker: But anyways, I'm going to play part of this recording.
Speaker: It's how I explain the power purchase agreement.
Speaker: Then we're going to go over some of what I did in there.
Speaker: It's not perfect, but I feel like there were some good things in here.
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 it.
Speaker: Let's get into it.
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
Speaker: Don't be coming out and taking our deals here.
Speaker: You have to be on our team.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: But yeah, you notice one thing I did there is I'm not going to tell her the rate straight out the door.
Speaker: She was being a little bit iffy on the whole thing, saying, oh, I don't think I'm going to.
Speaker: Like apply.
Speaker: So what you want to do is you want to keep your cards close to the chest.
Speaker: You want to give people a reason to apply.
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.
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.
Speaker: So I could just run the credit, fill out the application right there.
Speaker: Did not work, but it has worked many times where I just keep my cards close to the chest.
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.
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.
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
Speaker: What you're hearing me do here, very important sales technique you got to use there.
Speaker: Hey, is contrasting, right?
Speaker: I've talked about it in the show before, but she's saying, how long would that last?
Speaker: And you're going to hear me do this many more times.
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?
Speaker: If you can make the utility company look terrible,
Speaker: then what you're doing is gonna look great.
Speaker: It's gonna give them that breath of fresh air.
Speaker: Especially around potential objection moments where they could potentially object to something.
Speaker: Because what if people say, oh, I don't wanna be stuck in a long-term contract.
Speaker: I don't wanna be tied into this forever.
Speaker: So you need to make the negative thing that a lot of people complain about sound like a really positive thing.
Speaker: What does she ask?
Speaker: How long does this last for?
Speaker: How long would that go for?
Speaker: Unfortunately, it's only 25 years.
Speaker: Most people look at that as a negative, that they're locked into something at 25 years.
Speaker: You're making it sound like a really great thing.
Speaker: And it is a good thing, right?
Speaker: They get it guaranteed for 25 years.
Speaker: I wish it could go longer, but hey, I'm sorry, Mr. Customer, it's only 25 years that it lasts.
Speaker: Okay, so very key thing.
Speaker: And we'll get into a few more situations where you can use this.
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
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, explaining it here, I could have done a better job.
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.
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?
Speaker: Do you understand that?
Speaker: Especially with older people, a lot of times they're not getting things.
Speaker: So you definitely need to check in more.
Speaker: I could have done a better job at checking in, making sure she is picking up what I'm laying down.
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.
Speaker: So I just tell her you make it a good thing, right?
Speaker: And super powerful way to do this is
Speaker: If you can put it on paper, right?
Speaker: And just show exact comparison side by side.
Speaker: Hey, here's what your utility is going to increase to over the next three, six, nine years.
Speaker: I usually do a nine year projection.
Speaker: And here's what your solar is going to increase to in the next three, six, nine years.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And they'll be blown away by what the difference is.
Speaker: Out here in California, utilities are going up like crazy, but most utilities probably have
Speaker: I would say, you know, five to 10% increase from what I've seen.
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.
Speaker: And then I like to throw in the explanation because some people are like, oh, why do you guys have to increase?
Speaker: So I like saying that it's because we're going to cover all the maintenance.
Speaker: We're covering the long-term costs with this.
Speaker: So we're just going to make sure we have, you know, money to pay our guys to keep up with inflation.
Speaker: And most people I see that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker: It's like, hey, yeah, we have a small increase, goes up about the rate of inflation.
Speaker: And that's just so we can maintain your system over time and continue paying our guys to upkeep it.
Speaker: Most people we do help actually are retired or kind of in later stages.
Speaker: Because you're right.
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
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then her objection, I think she had asked a question.
Speaker: It seems like the recording may be cut out or something, but her big objection was, Hey, I'm so old.
Speaker: This doesn't make sense.
Speaker: So again, I turned that into a positive.
Speaker: It's like, here's why that's why I'm here.
Speaker: That's why we're meeting with you.
Speaker: Most people on this are retired people.
Speaker: This is a senior program and it's true.
Speaker: PPAs, they are more beneficial to people that are retired on fixed incomes.
Speaker: They don't have to wait for a return on their investment.
Speaker: They don't have to have debt showing up on their credits.
Speaker: Just a lower rate.
Speaker: Hey, and I get it.
Speaker: There's some markets where ownership probably is still a lot better.
Speaker: But at the time of this recording, dealer fees are high.
Speaker: Interest rates are high.
Speaker: So especially out here in California with batteries included, it just makes so much more sense right now, in my opinion.
Speaker: Get people this power purchase agreement.
Speaker: They don't have to worry about that.
Speaker: They get free battery replacements and easy explanation and boom, you lock them down.
Speaker: Hey, so that's the general gist of how I explain a power purchase agreement.
Speaker: Hey, future episodes, we're probably going to go more in depth.
Speaker: I'll do a full breakdown.
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.
Speaker: But when I'm in a full close, hey, I'm breaking it down pen and paper.
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.
Speaker: And whether I'm doing a power purchase agreement or a loan, I like doing it that way.
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.
Speaker: which by the way, we actually have a little freebie for that.
Speaker: If you want the exact sheet that I use in my closes, you can hit me up, taylorasolarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: I'll see if we can post the link in the show notes here.
Speaker: But we have the exact T-chart that I used where you can put utility on one side, solar on the other side.
Speaker: It makes it super simple to break down, easy to remember what you're doing.
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.
Speaker: And that's what you want to do.
Speaker: Because the more pain you can create, the deeper you can press on that wound.
Speaker: the more they want relief of that.
Speaker: We are solving a problem.
Speaker: Never forget that.
Speaker: The best salespeople, they're not selling because they focus on the commission.
Speaker: They focus on themselves.
Speaker: We're out there solving a problem for people and saving the planet.
Speaker: So if you have that attitude, you're going to have much more success in your sales career.
Speaker: But I hope that helped.
Speaker: Okay, send this to someone who could use some help on their PPA closes, power purchase agreements.
Speaker: I hope you will leave us a review.
Speaker: Shoot me a comment.
Speaker: Shoot me a DM.
Speaker: If you have any topics, suggestions, or things you want to hear.
Speaker: Hey, but it's been a minute since we got a review.
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.
Speaker: always helps the show grow, helps us keep bringing quality content.
Speaker: So that being said, we'll see you guys on the next episode and keep crushing it.
Speaker: Hope you close lots of deals this week.
Speaker: Hope you continue to have a successful solar career wherever you're selling.
Speaker: We'll see you on the next one.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
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.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
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.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet.
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.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
