Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year I'm cracking the code on why cell drips fail.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made in and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads Bowling up like a pro. and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solarpreneur you might ask? A solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery And you are about to become one. Hey, sword printers, we're going to be talking about a grave mistake that I made.
Speaker: on it closed last week hopefully give you some lessons you can learn from and make some improvements. So welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry. Hope you're gearing up towards the end of the summer, and I hope you're getting lots of deals. If you need a little jumpstart...
Speaker: Feel free to. Consider joining us on our next Blitz. We have the link in our show notes as always. So if you'd like to be considered to join. The best of the best in solar.
Speaker: would led Would love to have a conversation. So click the link below. and But yeah, I wanted to jump right in the podcast here. Last week. I started in a new area, was a little bit slower. during the week, went to this area. was uh found out was like a senior Area 55 plus.
Speaker: Went and knocked the first door. And this guy instantly had quite a bit of interest. He's like, oh, I haven't heard about this. What's going on? and actually ended up closing the same day deal, went in the home. He had his mom that recently passed away. He took over the home and had never really looked into solar and was excited to get going.
Speaker: But then the next day... I got a concerning text from the customer. And. knew I needed to go and try to save it. So I'm gonna read you off the text that he sent me. He says, hey Taylor, this is Tom. I went to a year of bills this morning and this isn't going to work. I'm going to need to cancel. The problem is that we didn't account for gas and I have three major appliances on gas.
Speaker: my heat my water heater and my dryer currently my total average over 12 month period is 148 including gas and electric your plan had me at 141 but that's only electric my average gas over 12 months is 40 a month i'd still have to pay that and that brings me to 181 in a 15 connection fee i'll be averaging
Speaker: $196 a month, which is much higher. Sorry, it didn't work out. Can you cancel the plan or do I need to call the number? So instantly, just a gut punch. That's one of the worst texts you can wake up to is his customer canceling. Customer, he tried to call while we were in a correlation. So even worse, didn't pick up the phone. And got this text right after. So I'm like, ugh.
Speaker: I'm going to have to go and implement what we talked about in the podcast. Recently, you've heard us talk a lot about saving deals. and try to get people that have canceled back on board. So you can go listen to a few of the previous episodes, but instantly, you know, I tried not to panic. I just responded calmly. You know what? I'll come back.
Speaker: We'll see what we can do. He does try to. Just brush that off. I actually told him, hey, I'll stop by and we'll figure out to figure out what we can do. People are smart. They know that we want to come by to try to save the deal, right? So he says, i actually, I'm busy today. I can't really get tied up again. I appreciate the offer, but just cancel it out for me.
Speaker: And so, you know, I, of course, tell him, well, to cancel it out, I do have to come by and go through the cancellation process. Flips the script. Then he wants me to come back. He actually makes time, right? But yeah, so I go back in the home. I attempt to save the deal, and we will play a couple live clips from this.
Speaker: But before we play the live clips, the major mistake, the grave mistake that I referred to at the beginning of the podcast is we didn't go calculate this guy's average. Very well. right You can deduce from the text he sent that he goes back, he calcs like... calculates his bills, comes up with a different average than what we had talked about. And so the mistake I made and the mistake I have made. And many deals, thinking back. This is the first time I've made this mistake. is I'll ask the customers, hey, what do you think?
Speaker: um Looks like from your bill, from what I'm seeing, looks like it's about... 170, 180 average. And then I feed them you know kind of like a rough average based on what I see.
Speaker: And they say, yeah, it sounds about right. Then we base it off of that. But the problem is if you don't calculate with them, if they don't see it in front of their faces. They'll go back. They'll calculate their own numbers, which may or may not be correct. In a lot of cases, if you didn't calculate it correctly.
Speaker: They felt like... You know, maybe you're a little bit... exaggerative Is that the word? ah inflating the numbers a little bit. I've had customers tell me that to my face. Say, hey, I don't feel that you're honest with me. You said my average was this. Well, I went back and calculated and it was this.
Speaker: And, you know, in some cases... It's not like I try to inflate the numbers. But um there are where we're selling in San Diego Gas and Electric. There's a few climate credits that customers get.
Speaker: So when they go back and look at the numbers. They see a bill that includes a few different discounts a couple months during the year. A lot of times people just flat out calculate it wrong.
Speaker: So just going through this. experience. Again, it reminded me the importance of if you can actually calculate their bill month by month. and getting agreements. it'll help tremendously and it'll help you lock down the deal and help you save cancellations because they're not going to go out they're not going to go back and I feel like they need to look at their bills in depth. because you calculated it with them.
Speaker: hey Because what this customer did, I found out later, he went and made a whole spreadsheet. Made his own calculations. came to his own conclusions. Felt like maybe I inflated the numbers a bit.
Speaker: cause to cancel. And then as we talked about in some of the previous... Podcasts. It's much harder to go back and save the deal. when they're already set up. made their mind to cancel. So if I would have done this before, I think I would have had a better shot at saving the deal. So let's take a look at a few different clips. i Unfortunately, I didn't get the full recording of when I closed the customer of the first appointment. When I went back and attempted to save, I did get a recording.
Speaker: I have a few sections So we're going to play a couple. clips from this, you can hear some things that I could have done better. And then... um You can hear some things that I think I did good, but...
Speaker: You know, didn't work to save the dough. Spoiler alert. So let's go. through this first section here. Super quick, I'm just curious. This one, let's...
Speaker: 79. Of course. 47. It's at 126 going good. I'm not going to play the full calculation. That's where I start calculating those bills, but just a little side and note on this.
Speaker: A lot of times when you go back in customers homes, they just want to cancel it out. They want to get rid of you quick. So the line I use that I feel like worked well for this particular customer is I said, hey.
Speaker: just I just want to make sure where I went wrong with the math. So just out of curiosity, I just want to see what your true average was. you know Luckily, as this worked this worked, he pulled up his... utility account we went through and calculated the 12 months.
Speaker: And um yeah, we landed on what his actual average was. So I'll play. after we got the calculation finished here. I mean you are getting almost double the power.
Speaker: 14 more a month so i mean that's the only reason why we're coming in more is because we're talking That could be double the power. but you We want to have it make sense for you. Again, most neighbors that we've helped, it's been somewhere where they've been. But still, I mean, I came in at 148. Now, that does include the credit.
Speaker: So... i don't so i don't see that like and i'm still getting 40 a month gas so that's putting me at You know, you're just electric. that's my current bill right so that's current just electric yeah it'd And so, yeah, all I'm saying is for comparing just apples to apples here.
Speaker: We're at $14 more a month compared to what you're paying. That's the journey. You're right. There are those two climate credits. So I guess that brings you down a little bit. So if you're factoring in the climate credits.
Speaker: maybe co -op Blown under 120 probably. Seems to be, but how did I get 148 though? Did you do that? Which build did you start with? The most recent one or the one before? I started the one before. so nice That's where I started it too. So I started the 176th one we just looked at. Wait, 176 Well, that was just a record. Right? Yeah. yeah
Speaker: So, yeah, if we factored in the most recent one, it would actually be higher. I think 200 or so. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So pause there. You can hear a customer. He actually did his calculations wrong.
Speaker: um I think we we end up having to go through it again because he's still a little skeptical. So I do the math twice with him. And finally, he's like, okay, I had to calculate it wrong. So he calculated his electrics to be about, I think, 15 to 20 lower. Then...
Speaker: what the true average was. And that's what you got to watch out for. I don't know. People are always looking a way for a way to resist change. And so that's the power of doing the math right in front of them. They can't try to justify in their heads the reason they should not do this.
Speaker: Because you think about any change. people resist the change, right? they like Their brains, that's their croc brain growing. As it talks about in the book, Pitch Anything, people are resistance.
Speaker: resistant to any type of change. So you got to make sure you're doing in the math in front of them, make sure they fully understand it. And make sure they can't. they can actually get out of their heads, not exaggerate on the opposite ends. Because, you know, some salespeople, they'll exaggerate the numbers higher. But what almost every homeowner does is they exaggerate the numbers lower than they think it is. Can't tell you how many times where we are knocking a door, customer says, oh, my average, I'm only paying.
Speaker: I don't know, 150, 160 a month. Nine times out of 10, you get their actual bill. and it's way higher Venom. what they think they're paying. So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. but it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later cancelled the deal. who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: i'm going to be one of the first to use solar scout in san diego so i decided to partner up But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about Solar Scout on my show. You need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did. So go to solar scout .app. forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: and book a demo with them and you'll get 10 % off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout .app forward slash Taylor. Okay, back to the show. so the last section here Once we find out his true average.
Speaker: I haven't gone and really tried to sell him yet. I'm just trying to build the problem again and trying to make sure we're on the same page as far as what he's paying after we go through all that. what i try to do is make them see that hey even if you are paying a little bit more Everyone we're helping has been in a similar situation, but here's why it's still working for them.
Speaker: And then I go to go on to explain that he's getting way more power to use. He's getting ray protection. You know, we're selling them a PPA in this instance. I go through and... Try to explain the benefits again, the problem benefit. right And then after that, just try to... Top it off, cherry on top.
Speaker: I do hook them up with a deal. Okay, and so I'm going to play one more section. You can hear my last attempt at trying to save this customer. It does not work, but you can hear what. what has worked in other deals. So let's check it out. So yeah, they told me... If we could keep you on board with it. They can get you $120 a month.
Speaker: Okay, which after doing that month, after doing the math on it, um I mean, you're at 127, so. That is less than what you're paying right you now. Okay. And then the other thing on top of that. And just especially because with it that we're in the only one to keep your application in so they can get incentives and make their lower rates for you.
Speaker: They told me that we would have to. probably switch it to one of our installers that has these available. they told me they would cover in the first six months of the bill for you too So that means yeah you get six months covered. You're not going to pay anything for six months.
Speaker: And not that I use commenting. 120 bucks you're still getting an additional power right you're still getting a 52 So he'd be able to actually turn the thermostat down if we have to.
Speaker: you know, lots on summers like this, manipulatolive conservative. So, yeah, I was super excited to hear that because I was planning on just coming. Yeah, it's definitely ah ite ah but more in line, but I'm still with these other uncertainties. I just feel like committing to something like this this long. Well, I'd be more inclined.
Speaker: You know, after this election, to to make a... make a decision, you know what I mean? Okay. Cause yeah, we brought that up to him too, but. um yeah i've been in this 10 years and while the rates with st have always gone up All right, so here are my attempts.
Speaker: And what I probably should have tried. I think I played a previous recording on another episode where I do the, if I could, would you close, right? So I probably should have thrown out, hey, Tom, if I could get it more in line with what you're paying, possibly slightly less, you still get the extra power.
Speaker: You still get the rate protection. ah You still don't have to be conservative from four to nine during the peak rates with the utility here. You feel like that would be a win for you? Would that benefit you?
Speaker: Then test his response. Right. And then. Go for it there, but... I just threw it out Didn't work. And then I was out of ammo. So lost it, had to walk from this one.
Speaker: he's throwing out i'm waiting till after the elections and i don't want to be in a long -term thing At the end of the day, it is tougher with people that have lower bills. It's kind of the nature of San Diego where we sell out. A lot of people have lower bills. They don't use a lot of power.
Speaker: And so we have to get creative on ways to build that pain. But the lower the bill it is, the tougher it is to build the pain. So um hopefully you learned from this number one lesson. Make sure you go through actually analyze what they're paying.
Speaker: Because many times it'll come back to bite you. And I think I would have given myself a chance at logging this deal down if I would have done the math right the first time. But I didn't. And it costs me dearly.
Speaker: So don't make this mistake. Hope you can use this this week in yourselves. Get out there. close a lot of deals and make sure you're on the same page with your customers as far as what they're paying. Thanks for tuning in the podcast today. We've got some exciting guests coming up. Please shoot me your topic and guest suggestions. For future episodes... Crush it this week and we'll see you next time.
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