Transcript
Speaker: Hey, hey, Taylor Armstrong here again, back with another episode.
Speaker: Just wanted to give a little intro.
Speaker: Brent Attaway is our guest for today's episode.
Speaker: He is a marketing genius.
Speaker: He's going to be talking about what processes he's set up in his teams and what systems he's developed in order to retain customers, get more referrals.
Speaker: And also he's going to talk about just marketing in general.
Speaker: Why is it important?
Speaker: So if you haven't delved much into marketing in your solar company,
Speaker: This episode might change your mind.
Speaker: Check it out, see what you think, and enjoy the show.
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Speaker: What's going on, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: We're back with another episode.
Speaker: And I know you've heard from me a lot the past couple of weeks.
Speaker: We're starting up our summer interview series and we're going to get some bomb guests on the show.
Speaker: I'm stoked here today because we're in the studio here with my man, Brent.
Speaker: And Brent is a marketing mastermind, marketing genius.
Speaker: He's going to challenge probably some of the sales beliefs that we have here.
Speaker: We're just talking a little bit before the show.
Speaker: So excited to jump into it.
Speaker: Brent, thanks for coming on the show with us today.
Speaker: Yeah, you bet, bud.
Speaker: Excited.
Speaker: Yeah, good.
Speaker: It's going to be a good time.
Speaker: So we've been working together a little bit now, Brent and I. He's taught me a lot about marketing, just in some of the sales we've done together.
Speaker: He's getting a lot of leads, and some of the conversations we're having is...
Speaker: Like we're talking about door to door and he was saying, why, why would you go door to door?
Speaker: I'm getting leads that I don't have to be good at selling.
Speaker: I'm just showing up and doing a phone call and they're buying solar.
Speaker: I'm like, well, shoot, that is true.
Speaker: I'm knocking, I'm grinding doors and Brent's passing on leads that,
Speaker: You know, sometimes our laydowns.
Speaker: So it got me thinking about it.
Speaker: But we'll get into that here in a minute.
Speaker: Before that, though, Brent, do you want to tell us kind of how you got into the solar side of things?
Speaker: And I know you've got a lot of other businesses, a lot of marketing things you've done.
Speaker: But how did you get into solar?
Speaker: What made you decide to jump in the solar game?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: So 90-second history is –
Speaker: I mean, I started off my first official business when I was like 21, went on one of those Mormon missions, you know.
Speaker: And so I guess I had a business.
Speaker: I've always been entrepreneurial.
Speaker: I thought I was selling like drawings door to door.
Speaker: Yeah, drawings door to door is definitely when I was a kid.
Speaker: I mean, that was the first thing if you want to call that a business.
Speaker: But like an actual, I had to make money and pay taxes on it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that was my window washing company.
Speaker: And that was when I was 21.
Speaker: And then painting.
Speaker: So just standard stuff.
Speaker: And then I worked for a crew and earned enough money to do that.
Speaker: And so just hard work, right?
Speaker: And going to college at the same time.
Speaker: Married when I was 21.
Speaker: So just a lot of.
Speaker: Once you get married, you're just obligated to do all kinds of shit.
Speaker: I'm just joking.
Speaker: I love my wife, by the way.
Speaker: We've been married 19 years now.
Speaker: But, yeah, the point is that's the first.
Speaker: And then from there, we bought a sign company.
Speaker: I went out and got a loan, like an SBA loan for a sign printing company.
Speaker: And that's when I really started understanding marketing and watched these owners –
Speaker: I bought a previous company.
Speaker: So, like, it was already operating.
Speaker: I was managing it while I was going to college, printing, and I thought I'd go into graphic design because I loved art growing up.
Speaker: So I was like, just logically, just go into that.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: I enjoyed the sign company.
Speaker: To this day, I think it was probably one of the funnest business I've owned.
Speaker: Not great profits, but profitable, just not great profits.
Speaker: And, yeah, that's kind of what got me into it.
Speaker: It was a franchise called Signs by Tomorrow.
Speaker: It's like a Fast Signs or a Signs Now or all the other ones you see around.
Speaker: You can order vehicle wraps and all that stuff.
Speaker: So we got into that, and then I quickly became marketing.
Speaker: Like I learned, wow, I'm going to go network, but mostly we're going to market to these people in education.
Speaker: Then eventually 2008 hit and it's like the equivalent of chaos going on right now.
Speaker: And yeah, we ended up, I would call that a short sell, the equivalent of a short sell on our business.
Speaker: Like we're going to either go out of business or sell it as fast as we could.
Speaker: One of the two.
Speaker: So we sold it.
Speaker: Not profitably, but sold it.
Speaker: At least we got something, you know.
Speaker: And then...
Speaker: That was 2008.
Speaker: And that's when I got introduced.
Speaker: I was at the time being coached by Dave Crenshaw.
Speaker: Shout out to Dave.
Speaker: Who, if you look him up, he's like a freaking genius now.
Speaker: He wrote a book called Myth of Multitasking.
Speaker: And a few others now.
Speaker: But
Speaker: The point is, is he was coaching me at the time.
Speaker: That's when he's getting his coaching career started.
Speaker: And I was like, what's this coaching world about?
Speaker: Like, what is this?
Speaker: And I started looking into it and I got into like Mike Koenigs, Frank Kern, Tony Robbins.
Speaker: And then also I'm like, what is all this stuff?
Speaker: These guys are making money with knowledge and information.
Speaker: You know, that was where I got started.
Speaker: So marketing for me, I had to learn that quick.
Speaker: got into Infusionsoft and learned that like the back of my hand.
Speaker: That's, I can speak Infusionsoft and do all that.
Speaker: I'm not a programmer at all.
Speaker: I can't stand programming.
Speaker: Um, but that's kind of where I got started.
Speaker: So I was just, um, those were my heroes, you know, like at that point I was like, these guys are phenomenal, you know, phenomenal.
Speaker: I can't even say it.
Speaker: These guys are amazing.
Speaker: So that's where that started for me.
Speaker: And from there, um,
Speaker: There's some transitions.
Speaker: Christy, my wife, is a fitness and nutrition expert.
Speaker: And so I just like, hey, let's build an info product.
Speaker: Let's do this.
Speaker: Let's do that.
Speaker: And we did.
Speaker: And it took off right off.
Speaker: Like, what business can you start?
Speaker: And it just first try goes.
Speaker: Besides solar.
Speaker: Solar is one.
Speaker: I'm in it.
Speaker: But, man.
Speaker: But, you know, we're making $50 a pop.
Speaker: off of these infos.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's like an info book type thing, meal plans.
Speaker: And at the time, this is 2009, so now that seems old news.
Speaker: But 2009, that's new.
Speaker: That's not very common.
Speaker: It was around, but no one doing it well.
Speaker: Especially in Utah, where we're at.
Speaker: We're like Salt Lake City area, basically.
Speaker: So we're doing that, and it takes off.
Speaker: A company buys that.
Speaker: Nothing crazy.
Speaker: When I say buy, they just bought it.
Speaker: It was Zango.
Speaker: Bought it out to be their nutrition program.
Speaker: So I can say that now, I guess, because there's no non-compete at this point or non-disclosure.
Speaker: But yeah, they turned it into whatever their program was.
Speaker: So that's where I cut my teeth on marketing is learning that way.
Speaker: It had nothing to do with solar.
Speaker: It had nothing to do with sales, like door-to-door, nothing.
Speaker: Then eventually came around my – I promise there's a reason I'm telling you these things because it actually comes full circle, and it's crazy.
Speaker: of how it's working in solar now.
Speaker: So then I'm getting going.
Speaker: I started an agency, marketing agency.
Speaker: I mean, this is back before everybody's like all in the solar world.
Speaker: It's funny to me.
Speaker: I'm like, you guys are talking about ClickFunnels like it's God.
Speaker: ClickFunnels is okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like it's okay.
Speaker: Russell Brunson is amazing.
Speaker: I don't mean people.
Speaker: I mean the software.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: It's amateur software.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like I'm used to using the bad-ass, really complicated stuff that gets results like so well.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I look at click.
Speaker: I've never even had a click funnels account.
Speaker: I got it and I was like, cancel.
Speaker: No, no, thanks.
Speaker: That just doesn't do what I need it to do.
Speaker: So I'm trying to give you an idea.
Speaker: It's not because I'm good at it.
Speaker: It's just because I'm used to doing more advanced stuff.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Like ClickFunnels will do what you need to, by the way.
Speaker: Get a subscription, do whatever you need to.
Speaker: I'm just saying don't cancel your account today.
Speaker: I'm just saying that's how I look at marketing and online stuff because I've just been doing it too long to settle for amateur stuff at this point.
Speaker: So that's what that's where I was.
Speaker: And so we had an agency.
Speaker: We got going.
Speaker: And sure enough, within like a couple of years, the short story is, is my hero, Frank Kern, and I partner up and he invites me to come speak on a stage.
Speaker: We're doing cruel stuff.
Speaker: He and he I mean, I'm building funnels for Frank's clients.
Speaker: We're partnering on that and sharing revenue on that.
Speaker: And he's so cool.
Speaker: Frank's a goofball and really weird at the same time.
Speaker: And I don't know what he would, hopefully one day he hears this.
Speaker: It'll be funny.
Speaker: Like, he's so welcoming.
Speaker: He welcomed me in my house.
Speaker: I'll have to tell you that story another time.
Speaker: Like how that went down.
Speaker: It was weird.
Speaker: Like how it came to, like how that came about.
Speaker: So anyways, we partner up and it goes really well.
Speaker: And that takes off.
Speaker: Obviously, when you say, yeah, we do funnels with Frank, everyone wants to do funnels with you.
Speaker: So it just takes one celebrity to get you others.
Speaker: So then that took off and we build a multi-million dollar business in marketing funnels and agency type work over like in 18 months.
Speaker: It was just like boom, boom, done.
Speaker: And then we moved to Tonga, lived there a little while for a summer, tried that out.
Speaker: loved it, but we just stayed for the summer and then came back.
Speaker: And now I'm just doing consulting at that time.
Speaker: That's 2016.
Speaker: And I'm thinking, what am I doing next?
Speaker: Consulting, consulting, high-end stuff.
Speaker: And then that got into marketing more and more.
Speaker: And then Bennett, my brother, my younger brother is how I got into solar.
Speaker: Bennett Maxwell, we're officially half brothers, but we grew up together.
Speaker: I didn't even know what a half brother was.
Speaker: My last name's Attaway, so Brent Attaway and Bennett Maxwell.
Speaker: But we're partners in our company, and we like to rock and roll.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: So Bennett's been in sales, like, door-to-door since, like, Cutco Knives.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, like, he's been in it.
Speaker: And he's only 27.
Speaker: He's your age, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, anyways.
Speaker: So I know that hopefully everyone listening gives you an idea, like, everything I'm about to tell you, I'm not just –
Speaker: saying BS, okay?
Speaker: This is coming from somebody, I'm 40, so I've done all this, been through all the hoops, have plenty of failures to come, but certainly I've had plenty of failures now and lots of successes as well.
Speaker: More failures, but plenty of successes.
Speaker: So when we go through this, just be patient.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Most people I have on the show, it's like, how'd you get into solar?
Speaker: He's like, oh, did the mission, sold alarms three years, sold some pest control, and now I'm doing solar.
Speaker: So it's cool to hear from.
Speaker: marketing guys.
Speaker: I call it the Vivint churn.
Speaker: They came through the Vivint churn and they ended up on the end of it in solar.
Speaker: Not that they all go through Vivint, but that's just how I say it.
Speaker: No, it's cool to hear it.
Speaker: And I don't even know half this stuff.
Speaker: That's Frank Kern.
Speaker: I mean, anyone that knows marketing, he's a big deal right there.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: You don't know marketing if you haven't heard Frank Kern's name.
Speaker: If you're, if you're listening right now, you're like, who's Frank Kern?
Speaker: You're like,
Speaker: Yeah, you know, you haven't looked into marketing yet.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That's pretty cool.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, I was talking to Brent, too, and I was telling him, like, oh, we should have used this software in your marketing.
Speaker: Use ClickFunnels.
Speaker: And he pretty much told me the same thing.
Speaker: He's like, bro, ClickFunnels doesn't work for what we're doing.
Speaker: I was telling him.
Speaker: I forgot about that conversation.
Speaker: I was telling you about this high level like CRM thing I use and he's like, yeah, man, just for the volume of leads we're getting, it doesn't cut it.
Speaker: We would break that thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, so Brent knows his stuff.
Speaker: He's a, yeah, hardcore marketer knows what he's doing here.
Speaker: And, yeah, I just want to hear from you.
Speaker: We talked to Bennett.
Speaker: If anyone hasn't listened to that episode, that was, I think, a month or two ago we had Bennett on the show.
Speaker: And he kind of talked about his side of things, more probably on the sales aspect, but also some of the processes that you guys have thought up together.
Speaker: And it just blew me away when I heard Bennett talking about this.
Speaker: I'm like, man, no one's doing this stuff in solar.
Speaker: Like, they got this whole plan.
Speaker: They're sending out customer gifts.
Speaker: They've got a whole process, a system put together.
Speaker: When you guys get a cell, this happens.
Speaker: And even now, as we're knocking doors, it's been cool to see the way that Brent kind of integrates both the worlds together.
Speaker: We book appointments.
Speaker: You've got processes that are getting set up where reminders are going out, a whole team of virtual assistants, things like that.
Speaker: So I want to hear kind of your side of Brent.
Speaker: How did you guys come up with all these processes and systems?
Speaker: And is it stuff that you kind of were doing in other businesses?
Speaker: Or did you just kind of think of it?
Speaker: Yeah, you know, it's stuff that I've learned to do in other businesses.
Speaker: It's mostly from failures and then regrets.
Speaker: And I believe in regrets.
Speaker: I don't think there's anything wrong with regret.
Speaker: Guilt's a different thing, but I regret a lot of decisions.
Speaker: Guilt, who cares?
Speaker: You know, you don't need any of that.
Speaker: But a lot of regrets in business, right?
Speaker: Dang, I left a lot of money on the table doing that way.
Speaker: One example why we do gifting and treating our customers like gold, because they are, is if you don't, good luck getting a referral.
Speaker: Good luck getting a review.
Speaker: Good luck getting a, I mean, everything.
Speaker: And why do you want those?
Speaker: Well, it'll double your sales.
Speaker: Do your first year getting customers.
Speaker: Try your second year getting referrals and you'll double your sales without marketing, without spending an ad, a dollar on ads.
Speaker: Now, it would be dumb not to keep spending money on ads.
Speaker: I'm just saying you literally could go pull referrals out of all your customers the next year if you treated them like gold.
Speaker: And you spent an extra few hundred bucks getting them cool stuff while they're waiting to get solar.
Speaker: What if they buy their new home?
Speaker: This comes from real estate world.
Speaker: Real estate...
Speaker: I had a couple of clients I was consulting with and doing funnels for, and his biggest thing was that like in real estate, and some guys maybe be like nodding their head because they're in real estate too or have been.
Speaker: And I mean, real estate makes their money from people.
Speaker: If you sell a home for somebody, well, guess what?
Speaker: They stay in touch with them.
Speaker: They don't let go of them.
Speaker: Why would they do that?
Speaker: The person just bought a home.
Speaker: They're not going to buy another house, are they?
Speaker: Yeah, they are.
Speaker: The average American moves every six years.
Speaker: So six years later, you got another sell.
Speaker: That's how real estate works, dude.
Speaker: It's like, and they build that up.
Speaker: And so they build up their portfolio.
Speaker: So now it's just about reaching out to their portfolio and saying, you ready to sell your home again?
Speaker: You know, so what happens when somebody moves and they want solar again?
Speaker: instant customer unless you're a jackass the first time you sold them now you got an instant somebody who's going to post something on your yelp yelling at you because that's what people do on yelp they should have named it something else yelp just ask for people to go yelp you know but yeah anyways yeah no that's cool um and yeah something we're doing now that i had never really i don't know if this was yours or more bennett's idea but like add-on systems nothing's bennett's idea it's all mine
Speaker: That's the same thing you said in his podcast.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I bet it's a stud.
Speaker: I'm just joking.
Speaker: But, yeah, like even add-on systems, this is something that I had never done.
Speaker: I've been selling solar for four years, and I thought, okay, you sell them solar once, and then you never have contact again.
Speaker: And that came from pest control, so maybe it's from that because that's what we did in that too.
Speaker: But, like, now –
Speaker: We're getting so many sales just off people that need add-on systems.
Speaker: They're already sold solar, but now they need more panels.
Speaker: And everyone's skipping those doors.
Speaker: Everyone's skipping those homes.
Speaker: I'm probably giving away a golden nugget right now.
Speaker: So hopefully everyone doesn't start doing this in San Diego here.
Speaker: That's all right.
Speaker: We'll just do it better.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: But, like, some of that stuff and then just keeping track of, you know, all the data that you have on customers.
Speaker: You've helped me see more of that.
Speaker: Like, if you can't book an appointment, get their email, get their phone number, and then send it to Brent.
Speaker: Because they hit him up after that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: We...
Speaker: The follow-up system is key, and that is what will double our sales next year all the way.
Speaker: So, one, if you're young, I get it.
Speaker: You're 21.
Speaker: Let's say you're listening.
Speaker: You're 21.
Speaker: Let's say you're 25.
Speaker: Now, once you hit 30, you start having to think long-term because suddenly you're like, I mean, unless you're just slow, I guess, but, like, that's fine.
Speaker: I'm slow.
Speaker: But, like, suddenly you're like,
Speaker: I probably better build a little portfolio going now because I don't want to go look for a job again.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I get it.
Speaker: You're 21.
Speaker: You're trying to make a buck or a lot of bucks in the summer.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: But you might as well do a good job.
Speaker: You might as well help your customers out because who knows?
Speaker: Maybe you'll get into real estate.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: Now you have like whoever you sold in solar, go back to them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Get them to buy a house from you.
Speaker: They like you.
Speaker: But if you don't treat people well, that's the first key.
Speaker: Just be nice.
Speaker: You know, be good to them.
Speaker: Overdo it with them.
Speaker: So that's the first key, I think, for us.
Speaker: And so that's where that whole process came from.
Speaker: I mean, we can go into the details of that.
Speaker: I don't know if that would waste people's time because they're probably, I mean, likely, everyone listening –
Speaker: If 100 people listen to this, maybe one will go do it.
Speaker: Maybe one.
Speaker: Maybe a half.
Speaker: Half percent.
Speaker: Unfortunately.
Speaker: Hopefully you do.
Speaker: Hopefully five of you do.
Speaker: Go do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That's why I've had a couple guys on.
Speaker: They are almost like afraid to share what they're doing and
Speaker: I had one guy that he was just going on like, I think it was Zillow and looking for new homes and that was a strategy.
Speaker: And he's like, dude, I don't really want to share this.
Speaker: I'll share the whole playbook, dude, but it'll take me a month.
Speaker: You know, like I learned this from my football coach in high school, Randy Rarer.
Speaker: So he taught me with a playbook.
Speaker: He would teach us like, how would he put it?
Speaker: Basically, we had our playbook, and he didn't care.
Speaker: Something came up.
Speaker: I forget what triggered that conversation.
Speaker: But overall, he said, we were asking, well, what if the team sees our plays?
Speaker: Because we're practicing from other teams or something on a camp.
Speaker: And he's like, do you think I care if they – I would hand him my playbook.
Speaker: All we got to do is execute it better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was like, good point.
Speaker: And that has stuck with me ever since.
Speaker: So I'm happy to share.
Speaker: One, there's a wealth of knowledge and abundance out there that you don't need to worry about.
Speaker: I can compete with you.
Speaker: I'm probably going to win anyways.
Speaker: But you might as well compete.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: I can give you the whole playbook.
Speaker: The chances of you doing this, it's taken me...
Speaker: 15 years to learn.
Speaker: Well, if you haven't done it for 15 years, you're probably not going to do it in three.
Speaker: You might be able to shortcut it and do it in eight, but that means I got an eight-year head start on you even if I give you my plan.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Like, good luck.
Speaker: Even if you do it in three years, I got a three-year head start on you, bud.
Speaker: So, like, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker: I can shortcut it for you, but, like, I'm still going to be ahead.
Speaker: So as long as – and it's not about me being ahead of you.
Speaker: I'm just not worried about it.
Speaker: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: anyways yeah well it's true because I was before I kind of hooked kind of connected up with you guys I was already trying to start that process because I heard her from Bennett I'm like sweet I'm going to start using that in my own cells and doing it yeah and now look where I'm at no I'm just working with these guys and
Speaker: Come join us.
Speaker: Join the dark side.
Speaker: They can do it better than I tried to set up, so I'm just going to come have them do it.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So that definitely made my life easier.
Speaker: I know we talked a lot about that in Bennett's podcast, so if you want to hear the specifics on that, go listen to his podcast.
Speaker: But yeah, they're sending out gifts.
Speaker: They're sending them out pizzas, dinner.
Speaker: They're sending them out action figures.
Speaker: It's pretty entertaining.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I had never heard of stuff like that.
Speaker: It gets better and better, too.
Speaker: Since Bennett's talked, I think that was like when you record it, it was probably December, I think, or January, somewhere in there.
Speaker: And it's now July.
Speaker: We've already improved it probably five-fold.
Speaker: And not necessarily more stuff, just better ways of doing it and easier.
Speaker: Let me give you an example, guys.
Speaker: Here's a gold nugget.
Speaker: When somebody gets mad at an install going wrong
Speaker: damaging the stucco on their home around the MPU or the MPU, the, the, the main panel.
Speaker: Like, Oh no.
Speaker: You know, in our minds, we're like, it's all right.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: It's just the stucco.
Speaker: But to them, it's their house.
Speaker: Like before there was nothing.
Speaker: Now that you just scratched it, you didn't scratch it, but somebody did.
Speaker: And you're the point of contact.
Speaker: Instead of just saying, oh, man, I got to save the cell.
Speaker: I got to save the cell.
Speaker: And oh, no, no, no.
Speaker: It's like send them some wine.
Speaker: Send them a cake.
Speaker: Send them some cookies.
Speaker: Send them something.
Speaker: That's all they care is that you show you cared.
Speaker: And then fix the problem, of course.
Speaker: But as long as the problem gets fixed.
Speaker: And you show that you care.
Speaker: That's all you got to do.
Speaker: So we and then give your team, if you have one, permission to do that for you.
Speaker: And you don't have to worry about it ever again.
Speaker: So Jamil on our team, she sends a or a client is having a good time and she sounded frustrated.
Speaker: It wasn't even about us doing a bad job.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: And I might botch this story a little bit, but the point will come across.
Speaker: The customer is just not having a good day or a good week.
Speaker: And Jamil heard that in the conversation with her, checking in on the updates of the installation.
Speaker: So this person's already signed but waiting for install.
Speaker: And she hears that it's her birthday.
Speaker: And seriously, an hour later, a birthday cake shows up at the customer's house saying happy birthday from switch to solar.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Like, what do you do when you're that customer?
Speaker: Like, what the hell just happened?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like nobody's done that ever.
Speaker: No one's done it for me.
Speaker: I mean, I've never had that happen in my life.
Speaker: No one's sent me a birthday cake on my birthday from a company when I just expressed that I'm like.
Speaker: So we learned that from Tony Hsieh and Zappos.
Speaker: If you haven't read Delivering Happiness from there, that's great.
Speaker: And then also the old school book, man, I forgot who it's written by now, but Raving Fans.
Speaker: So those two books are what influenced this whole model of what we do.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So that's it.
Speaker: I mean, you can make up anything.
Speaker: You don't have to do what we're doing.
Speaker: But that's what influenced the whole thing.
Speaker: And so now that we have that down now, yeah, let's just market and sell the hell out of this stuff.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Well, it's huge.
Speaker: Cause I mean, yeah, it got me thinking how many cancels have I had where it's just been something little that customers frustrated about.
Speaker: And maybe if I would have sent them that bottle of wine or cake, whatever, like changes thing.
Speaker: Even now, since I've sold some deals, um, yeah, even there's been delays cause of COVID whatnot.
Speaker: I mean, permits take longer generally cause all that stuff.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: um it's like we have customers frustrated about it so deals that would have canceled because of that for sure i think send them that happened to me too yeah one of my deals uh jamil sent him a bottle of wine i didn't even ask her to do anything no you don't have to yeah you don't have to that's how it should be sales men or women sell that's all you need to do that's my opinion
Speaker: If you can focus on selling and not like, oh man, I hope they're doing good.
Speaker: Hope they're going to stick with me after the permitting.
Speaker: And I hope, oh, the permitting, well, I hope they still go to the install.
Speaker: Like if you're hoping and crossing your fingers, man, you're doing it the wrong way.
Speaker: So, and everybody that's been in this long enough, you're just like, it's that grueling pipeline game you're playing where you're like, okay, for every 10 I sign, maybe X percent will get installed and
Speaker: Hopefully they go through and no mistakes happen.
Speaker: Oh, man, this installer sucks.
Speaker: I'm always getting cancellations.
Speaker: Because, like, all those stories, you don't have to rely on them anymore.
Speaker: Just have a good process.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: It's huge.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Let me turn this off.
Speaker: But, yeah, I know it's so important, especially for newer reps.
Speaker: Like, guys have been doing this a long time.
Speaker: They already have deals in the process.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: Newer reps, anyone that's leading teams, anyone that's recruiting newer reps, how powerful would that be to say, hey, you're coming on, the system's already there set up for you.
Speaker: When I first started, I had X amount of deals cancel.
Speaker: But how powerful is it bringing them into a system where you already know if they sell a deal, then most deals are going to get installed.
Speaker: Where like when I came in, I think I had four deals, had to close four deals to get one installed.
Speaker: So many would cancel and all that and think about it.
Speaker: So I think it's super powerful.
Speaker: But I think one of the main things I wanted to ask you, Branch, we were talking before the recording a little bit, just kind of why you think it's important to have marketing.
Speaker: We talked to so many guys that are on the show and even companies that I worked with that they're all just door-to-door guys, that that's all you're doing is hitting the doors.
Speaker: Just like alarms, that's all you need to do is hit the doors and get leads.
Speaker: There's no marketing involved, though.
Speaker: There's no follow-up, really.
Speaker: So why do you think it's, and I don't think most companies, well, I don't know about most companies, but a lot of companies that are just started by guys that have been in door-to-door, they're not following up, they're not, like, setting up systems like this.
Speaker: So why do you think that's important, and I don't know, do you think these people even can be successful just, like, if you're door-to-door?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, well, first of all, yes, they are being successful, right?
Speaker: So it's not about that.
Speaker: You're being successful before that as well, right?
Speaker: And now, even if you stop doing everything we just talked about, you're still going to make money if you call that successful.
Speaker: If you want a long-term play, no, you're not going to be successful.
Speaker: You're going to burn out.
Speaker: You're going to want something else.
Speaker: That's just how it is.
Speaker: Wait until you get three kids and a wife or spouse or whatever, and now try moving around every summer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: See how that goes for you.
Speaker: Like, it's not going to work.
Speaker: You got to establish yourself.
Speaker: You got to have a long-term play.
Speaker: And that's called long-term thinking.
Speaker: So it depends on your stage of life.
Speaker: Obviously, I'm at a different stage of life than some people listening, right?
Speaker: But not many.
Speaker: I think, I don't know your listeners, but a lot of these guys have been in this for years, right?
Speaker: And second and third year selling whatever they're selling.
Speaker: So now it's like, how do you do that?
Speaker: So...
Speaker: My opinion on marketing.
Speaker: Let's just quote other people instead of mine.
Speaker: Is that okay?
Speaker: So first of all, everything I've learned in marketing is not mine.
Speaker: It is, I've learned it from like every, I definitely credit Frank Kern, Mike Koenigs, all these online people.
Speaker: So I'm just, all I'm doing is bringing an online world to an offline world, to a door-to-door world.
Speaker: And that's not new though, right?
Speaker: Like man, how many times do I get hit up
Speaker: somebody trying to run my ads per week, ask me three or four, three or four a week.
Speaker: Hey, we'll run your ads and you can buy leads and you only have to pay per lead and, or per appointment and qualified appointments.
Speaker: Solid.
Speaker: I'm like, guys, you're just bugging me.
Speaker: Hey Solarpreneurs, real quick, if you've been in the solar industry any amount of time, you know that in order to take it to the next level, you need to always be recruiting.
Speaker: What is it, ABR?
Speaker: Always be recruiting.
Speaker: So if you need help with recruiting, I wanted to share with you something that helped me take my recruiting skills to the next level.
Speaker: We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
Speaker: And we did this with reps that continue to sell with us.
Speaker: Two or three of them went on to become managers.
Speaker: Several of them were top producers in our office.
Speaker: And there are multiple reps that are still with us to this day, more than a year later.
Speaker: So what is it that helped me?
Speaker: I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Sells Recruiting University.
Speaker: He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
Speaker: And he really helped me follow up with the recruits, schedule group interviews with them, get a huge pool of applicants coming in day after day.
Speaker: I wanted to share with you guys his link.
Speaker: If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to calendly.com slash sru forward slash solarpreneur.
Speaker: Once again, that's calendly.com slash sru slash solarpreneur.
Speaker: SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
Speaker: Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
Speaker: Like, keep doing your job, keep selling.
Speaker: I just took an online course last week.
Speaker: Yeah, they sound like everybody else.
Speaker: They went to, you know, ClickFunnels annual event.
Speaker: They went to Funnel Hacking Live, and they got excited and started an agency and started selling.
Speaker: And they looked at, I want to target solar.
Speaker: And now everybody's targeting solar to sell this agency stuff.
Speaker: Do they have any history?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Do they have any success?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: They're just quoting things.
Speaker: I already know this game.
Speaker: I used to do it.
Speaker: So like it's not a problem that that's happening.
Speaker: I'm just saying marketing for me online is not new.
Speaker: And it's not new to solar anymore.
Speaker: But relatively speaking, it's brand new.
Speaker: And that excites me.
Speaker: Um, marketing online in solar is how I told Bennett last year.
Speaker: We started this a year ago, dude.
Speaker: It's been one year and we're just barely, barely getting started.
Speaker: This is about to take a whole new turn, man.
Speaker: Like it's gonna, this is gonna, we're not even to an exponential hit yet.
Speaker: Once we hit exponential growth, it's going to be all hands on deckless roll.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So it's exciting for me, but it's like stealing candy from a baby.
Speaker: Literally that.
Speaker: I'm like, how simple can this be?
Speaker: This cannot be that I just made 10 grand off of this.
Speaker: I didn't even do anything.
Speaker: I was making $150 off the same effort.
Speaker: And now it's 10 grand.
Speaker: I'm like, this can't last.
Speaker: And I know it won't.
Speaker: It won't be like this forever.
Speaker: But it still will be $1,000 a pop in 10 years.
Speaker: Like 10 years from now, you're still going to make $1,500 a pop.
Speaker: Will you make 15 grand?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We make six, probably not.
Speaker: You'll still make two and three thousand bucks a pop for selling these things.
Speaker: So it's like, why not get good at marketing it?
Speaker: So anyways, marketing, I learned from Chet Holmes, Tony Robbins, Frank Kern.
Speaker: Chet Holmes, Tony Robbins, I say that because Chet Holmes is dead now, first of all.
Speaker: I've worked with his daughter, Amanda Holmes, as well now because she kind of took over for him on his stuff.
Speaker: And we've done a few things together.
Speaker: And Ted Miller was his head sales director, one of the head sales directors that worked directly with Chet Holmes.
Speaker: And Ted and I are good buddies.
Speaker: I mean, I've been to his house for Thanksgiving type thing.
Speaker: So he's a stud.
Speaker: And he's come to our house for snowboarding when we lived in Park City.
Speaker: Oh, cool.
Speaker: I learned a lot from him too, right?
Speaker: And the insides of what happened there and how that worked.
Speaker: But Chet Holmes, if you don't know, Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins started a thing called the Ultimate Business Mastery System.
Speaker: And you buy their course and buy the big box.
Speaker: I mean, it was gigantic.
Speaker: It was DVDs, dude.
Speaker: It doesn't feel that long ago, but it was a while ago.
Speaker: It was 2010.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I mean, that's 10 years ago.
Speaker: DVDs back then?
Speaker: DVDs still.
Speaker: Streaming was happening, but it was still.
Speaker: expensive um internet so it was like do i want to waste my it's like when minutes were happening on your phone yeah you probably you don't even know what that is like we paid per minutes you know like so you're like should i use my minutes or not you know well i lived in columbia two years they did there you go okay they still do that yeah yeah that's true so the point is is um that's that's where i've learned all this um
Speaker: Peter Drucker, I learned this from the Business Mastery and going to Business Mastery and learning from Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins.
Speaker: I just love information.
Speaker: But what makes it powerful is I think everyone listening acknowledges nothing without applying it, right, and doing it and getting results.
Speaker: Not getting success, just doing it and being like, shit, I failed at that.
Speaker: And then, oh, do it again, do it again, do it again, and then reiterating.
Speaker: And finally, you're like, I can do this in my sleep and be successful 99 out of 100.
Speaker: If you can get that repetition, that's what I learned.
Speaker: Chet Holmes taught me pick ahead of discipline.
Speaker: Tony Robbins taught me to change my state and not get frustrated when I fail.
Speaker: Frank Kern just taught me to market the hell out of anything and sell anything.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Online.
Speaker: And he just taught me to be chill.
Speaker: Like he does not have, he doesn't stress over anything.
Speaker: I don't think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, he would text me every day and be like, hey, what's up, boo?
Speaker: I was like, who's boo?
Speaker: And I had to learn what that term was later.
Speaker: Anyways, but the point is all these people have influenced me heavily, and that's how this is coming out.
Speaker: Peter Drucker, though, taught me, or what I learned was, Tony Robbins kept quoting this over and over, business is two things.
Speaker: It's marketing and innovation.
Speaker: Now, let me ask you, did you hear the word sales in there?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay, now, if you go do your research, guys, and look up Peter Drucker, let me just challenge you to see who Peter Drucker is, the god of business and business consulting, okay?
Speaker: And Tony Robbins, one of the top-rated business minds of all time right now, although he's a motivation guy, they look at it, or, you know, he doesn't like being called that.
Speaker: I don't even call him that, but I'm just saying, people look at him like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He quotes Peter Drucker.
Speaker: So just challenging you there.
Speaker: Sales isn't even in that term.
Speaker: Marketing and innovation.
Speaker: And then he says this, Peter Drucker, you can go look up this quote too, is the purpose of marketing is to make sales superfluous.
Speaker: I didn't know what superfluous was.
Speaker: I had to go look that up.
Speaker: In short, pointless.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: You tell me sales are pointless, Brenton?
Speaker: Yep, sales are pointless.
Speaker: No, I don't think Peter thinks sales are pointless.
Speaker: I think he thinks chasing people, a.k.a.
Speaker: door-to-door, is pointless.
Speaker: I would say that.
Speaker: I wouldn't say you shouldn't do door-to-door.
Speaker: I would say if you're going to do door-to-door, put something in front of them before you go to their door.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Get them warmed up.
Speaker: Mark it to them.
Speaker: Make it almost pointless that you're even knocking.
Speaker: Well, let me ask you this.
Speaker: What if you were in front of an audience for solar and you went into this massive neighborhood with an average of $300 plus bills?
Speaker: They're all, every home, south-facing roof, everything.
Speaker: And they said, we're going to have a conference for you, Taylor, and you can stand on stage, and they're all going to listen.
Speaker: What are you going to tell them?
Speaker: Do you want to buy solar?
Speaker: Well, probably not that, but give them my pitch.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so what do we tell them?
Speaker: What's our pitch?
Speaker: I'm not going to challenge you right now.
Speaker: I'm just trying to say, everyone listening, like, think about that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Would you start giving the same pitch at that point that you do on their door?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Because why?
Speaker: Everybody else is doing that.
Speaker: Because, by the way, I didn't tell you there's a line of 12 people behind you about to give their pitch, and they're going to choose one.
Speaker: So now what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You see what I mean?
Speaker: Now imagine doing the best pitch
Speaker: to them and everybody comes and signs up with you most people right now what does that have to do with marketing and sales well marketing's education sales is enrolling like says what's the job of sales is just to get them enrolled yeah if if they could if they could just find a way to sign up online by the way when people are trying to do that it's just hard because it's a home improvement project and we have about it's like trying to buy shoes online 20 years ago no one did
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't buy shoes.
Speaker: I want to turn them on first.
Speaker: I want to do this.
Speaker: Well, solar is a home improvement project.
Speaker: Don't come get on my roof.
Speaker: And I signed up online.
Speaker: They want to talk to somebody.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's the only reason we still exist right now, door to door or just having to enroll somebody.
Speaker: You still have to get on the phone with them or online and Zoom meetings or in person to enroll them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And there's a lot of regulations around that because people have been ripped off.
Speaker: So I'm just trying to say those are the types of things you think about.
Speaker: And if you think about your pitch now, going back to that audience, you'd totally change your pitch.
Speaker: You wouldn't even go for the sell.
Speaker: You'd say something like, did you know that one of the worst investments you can make is buying solar?
Speaker: and get their attention.
Speaker: You'd say something like, instead, you could do XYZ and get solar for zero down, zero this, zero this, zero this, zero this, zero this, zero this, zero this, and then choose to buy it out later if you want.
Speaker: And did you know that you might have the average American moves every six years?
Speaker: So why would you buy solar and then not get any ROI anyways if you're moving?
Speaker: So you start educating them, and now they're like, well, Taylor knows his shit, so we should just go talk to him.
Speaker: So like they've already seen you.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now and now pitch them later.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's how I look at it.
Speaker: And that's what we're doing.
Speaker: We're about to change door to door is our new method now.
Speaker: It just takes time.
Speaker: I say change the door.
Speaker: I don't mean this revolutionary thing that we're going to take out door to door.
Speaker: I want I like door to door.
Speaker: I think it's great.
Speaker: I think we do it.
Speaker: But marketing's job is to make door-to-door sales pointless.
Speaker: It should be door-to-door enrolling.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: And so that's what I want to do, if that makes any sense at all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I can't talk too much to this either, Taylor, because there's a lot of people that could challenge me, say, hey, Brent, have you ever sold door-to-door?
Speaker: Do you know what my answer would be?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I haven't.
Speaker: I haven't had to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You've never sold door-to-door.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: I mean, I went on a mission, I guess, so I've sold God.
Speaker: You know, like, that's what I always tell people.
Speaker: I've had to make, like, I've had to, like, get people to actually talk about Jesus with me on a door.
Speaker: That's hard.
Speaker: But, like, you know, solar is simple compared to that.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Well, even, I mean, you have no excuse.
Speaker: I talked to one of my marketing buddies.
Speaker: He did that for missionaries even.
Speaker: He took a Facebook.
Speaker: He took a video of the missionaries, made a Facebook ad out of it, and targeted the neighborhood where they're going to go.
Speaker: Like knock on doors.
Speaker: These guys are coming by?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They said, hey, you probably saw us on Facebook there.
Speaker: And even that, so it's crazy.
Speaker: That's so good.
Speaker: Free Book of Mormon, sign up now.
Speaker: Free Book plus shipping and handling.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: So we're running short on time here.
Speaker: But last question I wanted to ask you, Brent.
Speaker: I know it sounds like it's all been smooth selling and easy and all that.
Speaker: But what's been your biggest challenge of setting up the solar marketing that you do?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Your biggest challenge?
Speaker: There's so many right now.
Speaker: So the biggest one I would say is, I don't know if I have one.
Speaker: Let me think.
Speaker: So just solar specific, do you think?
Speaker: I can give you some.
Speaker: I'm just trying to be helpful.
Speaker: For me, or let's say as a company, and maybe as me, as a company, it was really dialing in what we want to focus on.
Speaker: We're still doing that.
Speaker: We're constantly, I mean, again, back to it's innovation and marketing and innovation, right?
Speaker: That's business.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Innovation, if you're not sure what that means, it means constantly improving, constantly staying ahead of the curve, innovating.
Speaker: So we're constantly doing that.
Speaker: As we're doing that, the biggest challenge I've run into is getting caught up.
Speaker: buy shiny objects like anybody else and trying to the worst thing you can do is go after cheap leads so if you're you are going in and you're doing online because online you should be doing both you probably are if you're listening at this point or you're buying leads you should be trying it out and you're thinking man i'm getting oh man i'm probably losing like fifteen hundred dollars a deal on this out of my ten grand commission wow it's like you guys are such whiners
Speaker: I should never met more whiners in solar about their commissions.
Speaker: And like, do you have any experience at all?
Speaker: Well, no, but I want my 10 grand.
Speaker: just laugh i'm like take the 85 dude just buy just go sit on your couch while somebody gets them for you and take a 1500 hit per deal it's gonna be okay you know what i mean we were complaining about the other day because you wanted to send them a gift before we met up for the appointment yeah yeah some of us were like but brin but brin it's gonna cost us 25 i'm like oh my gosh you're making my brain hurt
Speaker: But yeah, I get it though.
Speaker: I get why.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: You just got to see a bigger picture.
Speaker: But the hardest thing has been not getting caught up in some of that and doubting myself as I get into solar, which I don't know that game.
Speaker: But thank goodness, you know, I was taught
Speaker: Well, to change my state, change what I'm doing and think, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: You know what you're doing.
Speaker: Just keep going.
Speaker: Keep plugging away.
Speaker: And now we have.
Speaker: And the other challenge you run into with online leads, cash flow, dude.
Speaker: Like you can turn through leads.
Speaker: So we're generating 100 leads a day interested in solar and then trying different campaigns to do that, right?
Speaker: This is just for us.
Speaker: That's not anything phenomenal.
Speaker: We're not a marketing agency.
Speaker: This is our small team that started a year ago.
Speaker: We can generate 100 leads a day in solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And in California only.
Speaker: So it's not bad.
Speaker: And then from there, we're like, but the challenge is like, wow, you got to pay all this up front.
Speaker: And it's 45 days later that you're finally getting your ROI off of that.
Speaker: So you got to have cash, right?
Speaker: So what I would say to people, if they're going to do online, go close 10 deals, door to door, self-gen, anything.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Go close your first 10 deals, get paid on your first five or however many they trickle in, but only spend 30% of that, whatever you make.
Speaker: Like flip it.
Speaker: You're probably spending 80% and saving 20 if you are saving.
Speaker: You need to flip that.
Speaker: I'd say save 30%.
Speaker: You make 10 grand off of a deal, spend three for your house, for gifts, fun, everyday living.
Speaker: Take seven and put it back into ads.
Speaker: Not all at once, but put it in savings.
Speaker: Put it right there in your ad spend.
Speaker: What will happen is eventually...
Speaker: you'll start overtaking all your hard work and that those dollars on ads will start working for you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then you're good.
Speaker: Now you're like, sweet.
Speaker: By the way, how long does that take?
Speaker: Six months.
Speaker: You're telling me you're 21, 25, 28 years old.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You're 27.
Speaker: Let's do yours.
Speaker: An example, Taylor.
Speaker: If I told you, Taylor, start today,
Speaker: With your current knowledge.
Speaker: But let's imagine you don't have any knowledge in solar.
Speaker: This is your first summer and now you're just good at it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Sweet.
Speaker: You're probably going to close how many deals?
Speaker: Tell me.
Speaker: Wait.
Speaker: So I'm already good at it.
Speaker: How many are you going to get paid on on your end?
Speaker: Let's just say how much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One deal pays on average how much for you?
Speaker: Just give it round numbers here.
Speaker: Five grand.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Five grand.
Speaker: So five grand.
Speaker: And how many will you get paid on in a six-month period?
Speaker: Um, six months.
Speaker: Average per month.
Speaker: Let's say, 515.
Speaker: Uh, let's call it.
Speaker: How many deals are you going to do per month?
Speaker: Do you think paid on after they roll in, you know?
Speaker: After they're installed.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Let's say, let's say six months, 20 deals.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So 20 deals times five grand.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what are we at?
Speaker: A hundred?
Speaker: Is that two times five?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred grand.
Speaker: So you're going to make a hundred grand.
Speaker: So in six months, how much can you live on?
Speaker: Without, you know, still dating your wife and not going broke.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Does it have to be $100,000?
Speaker: We can make it work for less than $100,000.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you see what I'm saying?
Speaker: Getting to though, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So either one, increase your closes.
Speaker: Go knock more.
Speaker: Go self-gen more.
Speaker: Do whatever you need to do.
Speaker: Get more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But end up saving $25,000.
Speaker: Not for your savings.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But for advertising.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then take that 25 grand and gradually give it to somebody who knows what they're doing with it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Kind of like financial investing.
Speaker: Like don't go do your own trading unless you know what you're doing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they'll charge you for it, but wouldn't you rather have leads that are good compared to you wasting your money on those leads?
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: And so they'll charge you for it, and now you're going.
Speaker: You're moving.
Speaker: And the next six months, you will sell double that from online.
Speaker: Double.
Speaker: So would you not trade six months of sacrificing some money to double your sales the next six months without working so hard?
Speaker: Who would not do that?
Speaker: I'll tell you who.
Speaker: Almost everybody because no one's doing that.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: It's like, but just stop and think about that.
Speaker: In one year, as an amateur salesperson, not you, but somebody that's 22 right now, just got back from wherever.
Speaker: Let's say they were on a mission, but it doesn't have to be any of those.
Speaker: And there's a lot of people that are not returned missionary Mormon dudes, right?
Speaker: So wherever you're at, you're 22.
Speaker: Don't you think that it's worth working six months hardcore, saving that money?
Speaker: You're probably not even married.
Speaker: You probably don't have any obligations.
Speaker: You can get some cheap apartment and live off of $2,500 a month and make $10,000 a month.
Speaker: Close two deals, in other words, that $5,000, right?
Speaker: Close two deals a month, and at the end of that six months, you're going to have $100,000.
Speaker: And you're going to save at least half of that.
Speaker: And you now have the power to change your world the next six months and the six months after that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why wouldn't you do it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Can you think of a reason?
Speaker: Right off on your taxes after two years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like business expense.
Speaker: Like do not touch that.
Speaker: Don't go buy a damn Tesla.
Speaker: Don't do the dumb stuff that people do just so they can take their pictures on social media and be like, I got a Tesla.
Speaker: Solar's paying for my life.
Speaker: And yet I don't run ads.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like, what are you guys doing?
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: You don't have to go live this luxury lifestyle.
Speaker: You're going to live another 20 years after this.
Speaker: What are you going to do then?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, like, so like, I'm just trying to say, have some kind of enjoyment, but don't think so stupid and short-minded, and then you'll be great.
Speaker: You'll be great.
Speaker: Solar is the biggest opportunity probably there is in the world, I would say, in my opinion, for amateur starting out salesman.
Speaker: And by the way, amateur is not a bad word if you're taking that.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I took that bad when I heard amateur.
Speaker: Amateur just means you're learning.
Speaker: You don't know it yet.
Speaker: You're not a pro.
Speaker: I mean, you've got to have 10,000 hours in something before you're a pro.
Speaker: So you're going to be an amateur for the next 10 years.
Speaker: So while you're learning, save.
Speaker: While you're learning.
Speaker: have the advantage over your competition that isn't willing to save.
Speaker: Because if they don't, if your competition is spending it on a Tesla and you're not, you already have the advantage because you're going to put it in ads.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And put it with somebody who knows what they're doing too.
Speaker: And don't think I'm advertising ads.
Speaker: I will not run your ads.
Speaker: We have a company.
Speaker: I'm not an ad agency.
Speaker: There's plenty of them though.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So the one thing I won't tell you, by the way, is who we use.
Speaker: Only because people will go steal them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, because we don't do our own ads.
Speaker: You know who we use.
Speaker: I was the one they introduced you to.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Shush!
Speaker: You already give it away?
Speaker: What's your problem?
Speaker: No, it's okay.
Speaker: They can use whoever.
Speaker: But I've just learned that my lesson on those is you've got to have diversity in your ads too.
Speaker: So at first, hire one person, but you probably want two ad agencies running for you because one will get your damn ad shut down, and then you got nothing.
Speaker: So there's a lot of strategy we can go into.
Speaker: That would be another podcast.
Speaker: But that's, I mean, dude, marketing, in summary, I would say this, Taylor.
Speaker: Everyone listening, whether you're advanced, mediocre, amateur, brand new, think long-term marketing in somebody's head.
Speaker: Get inside of the head of that homeowner and ask what they want.
Speaker: ask what they're struggling with, and then talk to them that way in advance before you ever offer to give them solar.
Speaker: attach it to solar attach that conversation in their head with solar like what will solar do for me if i did this is that gonna pay my bills okay gosh what if i could lower my bills how would i do that oh through solar that's easy does it cost me anything no yeah like if you can get that conversation going in their head and meet them there by the time you're on their door they're like oh i've been thinking about solar well i know you have i've been mailing you stuff been doing this dropping stuff at your house i already know what i'm doing yeah i just is here to get you enrolled
Speaker: So does that make sense?
Speaker: Like if you can start like that, that works online.
Speaker: That works door to door.
Speaker: It works anything in marketing.
Speaker: And that's a strategy and a principle that lasts for eternity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you can't beat that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I definitely agree 100%.
Speaker: I mean, that was me for probably two years.
Speaker: I'd heard of people spending ads, but I'm like, I'm going to take money in.
Speaker: I have to pay money to do this.
Speaker: I don't want to spend.
Speaker: Because it does, in the beginning, you know how it is.
Speaker: You have to spend.
Speaker: Maybe you're spending $1,000 just mostly testing stuff, not getting great results.
Speaker: And that's how it was for me.
Speaker: I'm like, freak, I just dropped a grand and I got not that many leads and haven't even had one close.
Speaker: But then when you get it rolling, it's just a numbers game, you know?
Speaker: So here's the nugget.
Speaker: You ready?
Speaker: So everybody that does this, save up 10, plan on getting one deal.
Speaker: from your 10 grand in ad spend.
Speaker: Now I'm setting you up for failure right here, okay?
Speaker: So like you can't do worse than that.
Speaker: If you do, you got the wrong person to do your ads, okay?
Speaker: So go save 10 grand.
Speaker: Spend that 10 grand knowing that your ROI will probably be break even.
Speaker: And don't cry about it, you big freaking baby, okay?
Speaker: Like, oh, you guys drive me crazy if you cry about this.
Speaker: You lost $10,000, but I only made $150,000.
Speaker: It's like $150,000 I'm talking about.
Speaker: Like, come on.
Speaker: Okay, so now you did that, right?
Speaker: You know that in advance.
Speaker: That's the expectation to set for yourself.
Speaker: As long as I get one deal closed or two at five, but I get my $10,000 back.
Speaker: What will happen the next month with the next $10,000?
Speaker: Probably two deals.
Speaker: Two and three, probably four.
Speaker: And then the next month, you keep reinvesting another $10,000, $15,000, $20,000.
Speaker: Now you've got 10 deals in a month when you're doing two.
Speaker: You see what I mean?
Speaker: Like you're 90 days in, and now you're just like, oh, I'm glad that I listened to Brent telling me to just don't cry about my $10,000 because now I've got $200,000.
Speaker: You see what I mean?
Speaker: Like there's a big difference in that.
Speaker: So anyways, that's the golden nugget is doing.
Speaker: Going in with the right expectation of ad spin.
Speaker: I mean, Gary Vaynerchuk said it great.
Speaker: He's like, if you're crying about 10 grand on your ads, you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker: Like, stop worrying about that.
Speaker: You're just testing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, but still getting ROI.
Speaker: Still get the sales.
Speaker: Like, you're still going to have leads from that, everyone listening.
Speaker: I'm not trying to say you won't get a lead.
Speaker: You just won't get great leads.
Speaker: And they'll be expensive.
Speaker: They'll be like, wow, why is this costing so much money?
Speaker: I can't do this.
Speaker: I can't do this.
Speaker: I can't do this.
Speaker: If it's always going to be like this.
Speaker: Well, it's not going to always be like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's the key.
Speaker: So if you can do that, you're good.
Speaker: That's all we're doing.
Speaker: All we're doing is just like, man, we turned through money, and Ben and I looked at it, and we're like, dude, man, we just upped our ad spend, but we didn't increase our sales.
Speaker: I was like, give it 90 days.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: You know, like, it'll next, and then all of a sudden we're doubling it.
Speaker: So eventually there's this point where it's a tipping point.
Speaker: Read that book if you haven't.
Speaker: I think it's Malcolm Gladwell's tipping point.
Speaker: Eventually there's a tipping point.
Speaker: where it won't matter.
Speaker: You're just going to start making a lot of seven figure numbers hitting your bank account monthly.
Speaker: And then why do you care?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, definitely true.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, Brent, thanks for sharing your golden nuggets with us.
Speaker: Obviously Brent has one of his biggest secrets, I think is having mentors.
Speaker: That's another thing.
Speaker: Don't be afraid to invest in coaches.
Speaker: I mean, Brent's,
Speaker: You probably spent, what, 100 grand at least probably in coaches.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I would say triple that, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So he knows his stuff.
Speaker: He knows his mentors.
Speaker: Don't be afraid to do that.
Speaker: Invest in yourself and then invest in your ads.
Speaker: Invest in your leads and invest in your customers, most importantly.
Speaker: So Brent, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: We'll wrap it up here.
Speaker: Last thing, where can people connect with you on social media or anything?
Speaker: Smoke signals are the best way or how do people connect with you?
Speaker: Smoke signals are great.
Speaker: Here's my phone number.
Speaker: Just joking.
Speaker: Um, uh, what, what's best?
Speaker: What do people give?
Speaker: I mean, what, what can I be valuable to people?
Speaker: I can give them stuff too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, then you hit you up on, I don't know, Facebook, wherever you're most active.
Speaker: You go on Facebook.
Speaker: You on?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hit me up on Facebook.
Speaker: I'm on Facebook.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: You have some dance videos on you.
Speaker: Oh, TikTok's getting shut off still, isn't it?
Speaker: Um, yeah, no, Facebook's fine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm not always on there.
Speaker: Don't expect an immediate response, but certainly reach out.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: What I am happy to do is give them something if whatever they need so I can drop like a little infographic and give them something.
Speaker: I come from that world, dude.
Speaker: I'm going to get you to opt in.
Speaker: You know, I'm not going to sell you anything.
Speaker: But if you're going to get in my world, then I want to communicate with you.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: And I don't have anything to sell.
Speaker: I sell solar.
Speaker: So unless you buy solar from me, maybe that's how good the test, if I can get a solar guy to buy solar from me.
Speaker: Okay, there you have it.
Speaker: Anyways.
Speaker: Well, if you want to prefer something, we'll throw in the show.
Speaker: Yeah, if you get on Facebook to answer your question, Brent Attaway.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you'll, I think, I'm the white dude.
Speaker: I think there's a black dude on there.
Speaker: That's Brent Attaway.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Good to know.
Speaker: We should become buddies.
Speaker: Black lives matter, though.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You got it.
Speaker: Hashtag.
Speaker: All right, awesome.
Speaker: Well, thanks for coming on the show, Brent.
Speaker: We'll probably have you on in the future because I know we're just scratching the surface, but I'm sure people will hit you up and we'll be in touch.
Speaker: Thanks for dropping the knowledge with us today.
Speaker: Yeah, you bet.
Speaker: All right, peace.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
Speaker: And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes.
Speaker: so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.
