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How to Be More Effective When Calling Leads
116 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, we're going to be talking about a topic that I don't think we've ever talked about before, and that is how to be more effective when you are calling leads, calling people.
Improving Call Efficiency
00:00:52
Speaker
I know most of this is door-to-door, but hey, we all got to make calls and
00:00:56
Speaker
We're probably calling referrals, leads.
00:00:59
Speaker
So how can we be a little more effective when we're making calls?
00:01:02
Speaker
Okay, so we're going to be jamming on that and a whole lot more.
00:01:05
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
00:01:08
Speaker
We are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:01:16
Speaker
It was actually my birthday yesterday at the time of this recording.
00:01:20
Speaker
So thank you to everyone that told me happy birthday.
00:01:23
Speaker
And the biggest present I could ask for is if you guys would go leave a review, share the podcast, spread the word.
00:01:32
Speaker
That's what helps us grow.
00:01:33
Speaker
That's what helps us make an impact over here at Solarpreneur.
00:01:37
Speaker
So it'd be much appreciated if you have not done those things.
00:01:40
Speaker
Please go out and spread the word, leave us a review.
00:01:43
Speaker
That's all we ask.
00:01:45
Speaker
That's all I ask.
Listener Reviews and Feedback
00:01:46
Speaker
And speaking of reviews, we did have a few new ones I wanted to feature on the show.
00:01:52
Speaker
So I wanted to give a quick thank you.
00:01:54
Speaker
Our most recent review was from Bill Solar Pro.
00:01:58
Speaker
And Bill is a friend of mine, actually hopped on a call with him.
00:02:01
Speaker
We've known each other for a little bit, connected through the podcast, actually.
00:02:05
Speaker
And he said, like a trusted friend, five stars,
00:02:10
Speaker
This positive review is long overdue.
00:02:12
Speaker
I've been listening to Solopreneur for years now as the best use of my commute, and it has helped me immensely.
00:02:17
Speaker
Taylor has such a chill style and is a skilled interviewer, able to bring together talented players from the industry and able to ask the right questions from guests to bring out golden nuggets to share with all of us.
00:02:29
Speaker
Thank you so much, Bill, brother.
00:02:30
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:02:30
Speaker
And keep crushing your solar in Hawaii.
00:02:32
Speaker
And shout out, if you need a plug for solar in Hawaii, hit Bill up or hit me up.
00:02:34
Speaker
I should say, and I'll connect you with him.
00:02:36
Speaker
And then our second review is
00:02:59
Speaker
Shout out to EJ Hernandez.
00:03:02
Speaker
This is on a negative note.
00:03:05
Speaker
He left us a one-star review.
00:03:07
Speaker
I apologize, EJ, that we're not living up to your expectations.
00:03:10
Speaker
But the only thing he said is monotone and much.
00:03:15
Speaker
So EJ, I'm sorry we failed your expectations.
00:03:18
Speaker
And I know I can be a little monotone sometimes.
00:03:21
Speaker
So I try to keep it a little animated.
00:03:24
Speaker
And unfortunately, I've just had a monotone voice.
00:03:29
Speaker
Probably my whole life.
00:03:30
Speaker
I do everything I can to, you know, not be super monotone.
00:03:33
Speaker
But hey, we're getting there.
00:03:35
Speaker
Probably should do some voice coaching or something.
00:03:38
Speaker
So EJ, hopefully that is not relating to the value of the podcast, because I believe we are sharing the best, the latest, the greatest tricks and tips for solar cells.
00:03:49
Speaker
So I hope you'll give us a shot.
00:03:50
Speaker
But I'm sorry that apparently I'm too monotone.
00:03:54
Speaker
But come on now, one star review.
00:03:56
Speaker
Can you at least give us like three stars?
00:03:58
Speaker
And say, hey, work on your work on not being so monotone.
00:04:01
Speaker
But OK, it is what it is.
00:04:03
Speaker
Haters going to hate.
00:04:04
Speaker
Right.
00:04:05
Speaker
All right.
00:04:05
Speaker
So anyways, enough about reviews.
00:04:07
Speaker
Let's jump into the topic of the show.
00:04:09
Speaker
And that is how can we be more effective when we are calling people on the phone for solar?
00:04:15
Speaker
And I think it's a skill that isn't talked about very often.
00:04:19
Speaker
I don't think I've ever really heard this brought up in any like door to door training.
00:04:24
Speaker
I've been in the industry eight years on mostly door to door teams.
00:04:27
Speaker
And I can't remember ever doing a training about how we should call people.
00:04:31
Speaker
Hey, but recently had a guest on who you're going to hear from on the next episode
Preview of Peter Roth's Episode
00:04:36
Speaker
coming up.
00:04:36
Speaker
His name is Peter Roth.
00:04:38
Speaker
He works with age leads, which are just leads that's, you know, at some point they responded to an ad.
00:04:45
Speaker
At some point they showed interest and we have a name and a phone number for these people.
00:04:50
Speaker
So he's all about collecting these lists of age leads.
00:04:54
Speaker
and then setting up call centers calling these people.
00:04:57
Speaker
And so I'll admit a lot of people, myself, I have not done age leads, per se.
00:05:04
Speaker
And some of us, maybe we're not really planning on calling like lists of leads or anything like that.
00:05:10
Speaker
But I think there is still training needed on how we can be more effective when we call.
00:05:17
Speaker
Because we're all even if we're doing purely door to door,
00:05:20
Speaker
working referrals, whatever, there's going to be many times when we're making phone calls and maybe we're calling a somewhat colder referral or just a cold lead, right?
00:05:32
Speaker
We need to know how to be effective.
00:05:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:34
Speaker
So I'm going to talk about a few things, a few ways you can be more effective when you are making these calls.
00:05:41
Speaker
And I'll preface it by saying I'm not an expert on this.
00:05:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:44
Speaker
I am mostly door-to-door guy.
00:05:46
Speaker
But I have picked up a few things, especially as I've interviewed people that are experts that I think help tremendously.
00:05:52
Speaker
And a few tweaks myself.
00:05:54
Speaker
The most calling I do personally is calling referrals personally.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, here's a few things I learned.
00:06:00
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to give you guys three things.
00:06:02
Speaker
Okay, but the story on this was I started to increase my referrals.
00:06:09
Speaker
Over the last few years, I've been dialing in my process more and more to get more referrals from people I sign when I knock on their doors.
00:06:19
Speaker
And I realized I was getting these long lists of leads and
00:06:24
Speaker
And then I was just not calling them.
00:06:27
Speaker
So they just sat there for a long time.
00:06:29
Speaker
But then when I was calling them, the problem was people weren't answering.
00:06:35
Speaker
I would get discouraged.
00:06:37
Speaker
And then when I do these sessions, I just realized it was taking a lot of time to actually call these people.
00:06:43
Speaker
It's like I had them all scattered all over the place, these notebooks, these papers of referrals.
00:06:49
Speaker
And so it's super disorganized.
00:06:51
Speaker
And then number two, it just took a long time.
00:06:55
Speaker
I would have to like, OK, figure out where's this phone number written down.
00:06:59
Speaker
OK, let me type it in.
00:07:00
Speaker
Oh, you know what?
00:07:01
Speaker
I mistyped that number.
00:07:03
Speaker
Retype it in.
00:07:05
Speaker
And then just probably like 30 seconds, maybe even up to a minute sometimes between calls because I would have to figure out where I was doing.
00:07:12
Speaker
And that may that may not sound like a ton, but if you add up.
00:07:16
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:07:21
Speaker
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.
00:07:28
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Benefits of Solar Scout
00:07:32
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
00:07:35
Speaker
But it's not a door knocking app.
00:07:37
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:07:41
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:07:51
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use Solar Scout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
00:07:59
Speaker
But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about Solar Scout on my show.
00:08:03
Speaker
You need to give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
00:08:06
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
00:08:15
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:08:19
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
00:08:21
Speaker
however many calls you're making.
00:08:23
Speaker
If you're making, let's say 50 calls and you've got a minute between each of these calls, you know, including breaks, maybe that's 50 minutes of extra time you just added in there because you had to check your notes.
00:08:38
Speaker
You had to figure out the right phone number.
00:08:40
Speaker
So how can we be more effective?
Tips for Efficient Calling
00:08:42
Speaker
So these are some steps I made right off the bat that helped me be way more effective, speed things up.
00:08:48
Speaker
And so the first one is this.
00:08:51
Speaker
going directly off that point is have some type of dialer or CRM.
00:08:57
Speaker
And so if you're new to this, a dialer, that's what like you think of these call centers, you know, the Filipinos on head headsets or, you know, different countries that have the headsets.
00:09:09
Speaker
I know there's American call centers too, but pretty popular to start offshore call centers.
00:09:16
Speaker
So you think of them, they got their headsets on and they're not just hooking it up to their iPhone.
00:09:20
Speaker
They have a dialer software.
00:09:22
Speaker
So it's basically a software that just makes it automatic, has all your phone numbers and boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:09:28
Speaker
At the very least, it's calling them all automatically.
00:09:31
Speaker
There's no time between calls.
00:09:32
Speaker
It's just cranking them off one by one.
00:09:34
Speaker
Hey, and there's a few different types of dialers.
00:09:36
Speaker
You can Google it.
00:09:38
Speaker
If you Google top dialers for sales, it's going to show you all that stuff.
00:09:43
Speaker
So you can pick one.
00:09:44
Speaker
You can do it if you're calling lots of leads.
00:09:46
Speaker
Great way to handle it right there.
00:09:48
Speaker
But I would recommend that
00:09:50
Speaker
The very simple solution I have is you can use software called High Level.
00:09:55
Speaker
A lot of people are familiar with it in solar now.
00:09:57
Speaker
I've talked about it on the podcast, but it's just a CRM, right?
00:10:01
Speaker
You have all your leads plugged in there and you can use it also as a dialer.
00:10:05
Speaker
OK, so it has a feature where you can just have an entire list that will go through and just crank them out automatically.
00:10:13
Speaker
So when I discovered this, I had no idea I had been using high level for a while.
00:10:18
Speaker
But when I discovered it, it absolutely changed my approach to calling these referrals.
00:10:23
Speaker
All these lists of referrals, it made it so much easier.
00:10:25
Speaker
I would just upload them, go through my pipeline of or go through my little list of referrals.
00:10:32
Speaker
And instead of like having to double check the phone number, they're already all uploaded in the software, right?
00:10:38
Speaker
You can just upload spreadsheets and stuff like that in there.
00:10:42
Speaker
And just automatically, boom, boom, boom, I could crank out calls the speed of lightning it felt like compared to what I was doing before.
00:10:49
Speaker
So at the very least, if you are making calls, get some type of CRM, get some type of dialer because you just want to be more efficient.
00:10:57
Speaker
And so you will get burned out if you're just using your regular iPhone and making a high volume of calls.
00:11:03
Speaker
If you hardly ever call, if you're just, you know, calling every once in a while, referral, whatever, then you don't have to worry about this as much.
00:11:12
Speaker
But I would say start getting better at referrals and collecting more leads like that, more names and numbers from people.
00:11:21
Speaker
And hopefully you can get your refer to actually introduce you through a three way text.
00:11:26
Speaker
But if not, then you got to be calling them.
00:11:29
Speaker
Okay, so make sure you have some type of software, some type of solution for that.
00:11:33
Speaker
Okay, and then number two is follow some type of script.
00:11:39
Speaker
We all have scripts for knocking on doors for closing, at least we should.
00:11:45
Speaker
We should not be winging it.
00:11:46
Speaker
So why do so many of us wing it when it comes to calling referrals, when it comes to calling leads, when it comes to calling past appointments that ghosted us?
00:11:56
Speaker
We should have a separate script for all these situations, right?
00:12:00
Speaker
And even if you are experienced, even if you're like, oh, Taylor, I don't need a script.
00:12:03
Speaker
I can just call.
00:12:04
Speaker
People love me.
00:12:05
Speaker
Whatever.
00:12:05
Speaker
What about for all your new guys?
00:12:07
Speaker
You give a script to all your new guys when they're knocking doors.
00:12:11
Speaker
Why don't you have some type of script for calling people on the phone for different situations?
00:12:18
Speaker
And I noticed myself, I felt like I was experienced.
00:12:20
Speaker
I felt like I would have good conversations when I started doing these things.
00:12:24
Speaker
But as I would listen back to these calls, which that's another cool thing about using a software like HighLevel is it will actually record the calls.
00:12:33
Speaker
So you can go back, you can listen to conversation, analyze what happened.
00:12:38
Speaker
But I was really realizing that every call I was like saying different things.
00:12:42
Speaker
Sometimes I was getting confused.
00:12:45
Speaker
Sometimes they bring up some objections on the phone.
00:12:47
Speaker
I didn't know how to handle them the best way.
00:12:50
Speaker
So when I actually just wrote myself a script, things became much easier.
00:12:55
Speaker
So whether you're new, whether you're experienced, even if you're experienced, I would just write yourself a script so you can refer to it.
00:13:02
Speaker
You can follow it because trust me, when you're making a ton of calls, sometimes your mind can go blank too.
00:13:09
Speaker
A little bit different than knocking on the door.
00:13:11
Speaker
So it helps to just have like a script to know where you're leading the conversation.
00:13:15
Speaker
And just like a framework, fossil framework, if you need help with that, hit me up.
00:13:20
Speaker
we can help.
00:13:21
Speaker
We do have coaching options.
00:13:23
Speaker
Okay, little plug.
00:13:24
Speaker
Okay, but hit me up.
00:13:25
Speaker
This is what we help with.
00:13:26
Speaker
Okay, and then last but not least, number three in all this is make sure you just act like you're having a conversation with a real person.
00:13:36
Speaker
This was another thing I realized when I went back and listened to a lot of these recordings.
00:13:41
Speaker
At the door, you know, I'm seeing body language when I'm knocking a door.
00:13:45
Speaker
I see how the customer's acting.
00:13:47
Speaker
I'm mirroring them.
00:13:48
Speaker
If they're
00:13:49
Speaker
you know, grandma, happy, excited, whatever.
00:13:52
Speaker
I'm trying to be the same way.
00:13:54
Speaker
And so on the phone, this is a little bit tougher.
00:13:56
Speaker
You don't see their body language.
00:13:59
Speaker
And I guess going back to the review, I got that it's the podcast is too monotone.
00:14:04
Speaker
That's how I was sounding in these calls.
00:14:07
Speaker
So I realized that
00:14:08
Speaker
that I need to like stand up.
00:14:10
Speaker
I need to have a smile on my face.
00:14:12
Speaker
I need to act like I'm happy to talk to these people because it comes off on the phone how you're acting.
00:14:17
Speaker
If you're laying down, have you ever like laid down and tried to have a conversation?
00:14:21
Speaker
Your voice changes and people can tell anytime I have a conversation laying down, I always get, hey, did you just wake up?
00:14:28
Speaker
I guess people can hear in your voice.
00:14:30
Speaker
And maybe that's maybe EJ, the person that left us a one star.
00:14:34
Speaker
Maybe I was doing a podcast like, I don't know, sitting down or laying down.
00:14:38
Speaker
Sometimes I do do podcasts sitting down.
00:14:40
Speaker
But yeah, they probably come out more monotone.
00:14:43
Speaker
I know they do come out a little more monotone than if I'm standing up.
00:14:46
Speaker
That's why if you watch any of the videos of the podcast, usually I try to stand up because I'm getting more, I would say more oxygen.
00:14:55
Speaker
Just easier to be a little more animated.
00:14:57
Speaker
You're awake, right?
00:14:58
Speaker
Lots of a lot easier to fall asleep in the chair.
00:15:01
Speaker
Hey, so it definitely helps if you can stand up and have a smile on your face when you're making these calls.
00:15:07
Speaker
Hey, so that's just some simple tips you can follow.
00:15:11
Speaker
And again, I'm no expert in these, but these are some basic things that you all should be doing when you're making calls.
00:15:18
Speaker
And if you don't have anybody to call, then again, get more referrals, get more leads to call.
00:15:24
Speaker
And I know a lot of us were knocking doors, getting leads with other methods.
00:15:29
Speaker
But I would say, you know, when winter, fall starts rolling around, when the days are shorter,
00:15:35
Speaker
Myself, personally, I'm knocking in the dark, but I'm not knocking until 8 or 9 o'clock in the winter like I am in the summer.
00:15:42
Speaker
So how about those hours when you probably would be knocking in this summer?
00:15:48
Speaker
Why don't you use those hours to maybe make a few phone calls in the winter?
00:15:53
Speaker
All of us have appointments that ghosted us.
00:15:55
Speaker
All of us have past leads that we can follow up on, and we're hitting the phone for those hours.
00:16:00
Speaker
Okay, so I hope those things help today.
00:16:03
Speaker
Again, we have Peter Roth coming on that is a master in setting up call centers in using age leads to get more business.
Recap of Effective Call Strategies
00:16:14
Speaker
So make sure you tune into that to learn more about that topic.
00:16:17
Speaker
I don't think we've had any anyone on the podcast talking about those things.
00:16:21
Speaker
So tune into that one.
00:16:22
Speaker
And then just to review today, number one, it's use some type of CRM, pick a dialer.
00:16:27
Speaker
If you are making a high volume of calls at all, then you need some type of dialer.
00:16:33
Speaker
Number two, follow a script.
00:16:35
Speaker
And number three, don't fall asleep on the calls.
00:16:38
Speaker
Hey, you're talking to a person.
00:16:39
Speaker
So stand up, smile, whatever you got to do.
00:16:42
Speaker
I hope that helps you today.
00:16:43
Speaker
I hope you have an awesome week and close lots of deals and grow your solar business.
00:16:48
Speaker
We'll see you on the next episode.
00:16:49
Speaker
Peace.
Introducing Solcitee Community
00:16:51
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:16:53
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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