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How To Make $100k On Your Next Solar Blitz
517 Plays1 month ago
Brandon Forrester is back for another episode to show us how to adapt to different markets. We'll never know what's coming when we step into new areas, and it's important that we strive to find value in every market.
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Solar Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Generating Leads and Closing Deals
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, following up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solar printer you might ask? A solar printer 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.
Live from Door to DoorCon 2025
00:00:41
Speaker
All right, what's going on, everybody? We're here live at Door to DoorCon 2025. We've got someone that is coming back on the show. Return, repeat guests. This guy, he brought a ton of knowledge, a ton of great content last
Brandon Forrester's Work Ethic
00:00:55
Speaker
time. So we got Brandon Forrester back on the show. Thanks for coming back on. Thanks for having me, man. I'm fired up. The event's been awesome and it's been good to see everybody again. Like a giant family reunion every year. That's right. I'm stoked, man.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's been fun and always ah take advantage to get together and do some more podcasts, especially with studs like Brandon. And if you have not listened to Brandon's first episode, we will link it in the show notes. So check that out. And ah yeah, you can hear for yourself, but the fun one yeah crazy story about how he knocked on Easter Sunday in Utah and just absolutely insane work ethic.
Brandon's Solar Success Stories
00:01:34
Speaker
So check that one out. But yeah, today we're going to be catching up with Brandon and he's still been ah just dominating solar. I know you've done a lot of blitzing. Brandon experienced a lot of different markets, um had a ton of success. So yeah, do you want to, I don't know what, do you remember what has it been like two years since we did the last podcast? Yeah, roughly. Okay. Yeah.
00:01:53
Speaker
So a couple of years. So yeah, I don't know, maybe Reader's Digest for what you've been up to the past couple of years, catching your listeners up. Just been grinding, man. Just been putting in a lot of time out there, trying to really master the game of sales and door-to-door sales with solar.
Universal Sales Principles
00:02:08
Speaker
It's been really fun. So cool um yeah, last year was incredible.
00:02:14
Speaker
it's It's weird to say that because it's already 2025. It's like thinking 23 versus 24. And then obviously 2024 was a really good year too. So we did a blitz, a couple of different blitzes in different markets. I think I've sold in 17 states now. wow then going Airbnb to Airbnb, just going around, trying different places. And it's been really fun, man. like going Going to different markets, being able to learn what works and what doesn't work, and understanding that sales is all the same no matter where you're working at. right It's all the same. Same psychology. It's the same process. it's just you create a new You find the pain point for that market. You adapt it to what you know what people are seeing out there. yeah And then it's you just plug and play with your process and yeah get results.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, and it's something that I think I know myself, I've struggled with it sometimes just going from market to market, because there's differences in all the markets, there's differences in the products and the utilities. I was just talking to some people today that are doing a lot of blitzing in Texas and all that. And um I've done some blitzes that have gone okay, but some of like, totally tanked in other markets. So in all these different states, do you have any advice on um maybe people that are switching from market to market. What's like your go to thing? Is there stuff you're researching before you get into a market? Or what do you think helps you make it like a super smooth transition into adjusting from market to market?
Mindset and Market Saturation
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, so great question. It's about being strategic. So you never want to vary from your process. And a lot of it is also your mindset and what you're telling yourself before you go into that market. Because a lot of people they'll come in. The huge example here is California.
00:03:56
Speaker
like You hear everybody talks about it, it's so saturated. right um After selling and across the country, like when if you go into a market and you're telling yourself, hey, this area is saturated, this is tapped out, your manager is telling you, bro, this is going to be like the hardest hood ever, whatever it is, like they're almost setting you yourself up setting setting you up to fail. And then you get out there and you find if you if you keep that belief that they're projecting on you, then yeah, like it's going to be saturated, air quote. right yeah and And you're going to struggle. But if you can come in with the mindset of like, dude, I got this, because before I went out and I blitzed in a few different California markets, I was on like the solar objections Facebook, actually saw someone, they wrote it out and they're like, dude, a specific city in Cali is the number one most saturated market in the entire United States.
00:04:44
Speaker
And then I found out later, that's the same place that I went to go blitz, which we'll talk about in a second. yeah And dude, I ripped it out there. And I was like, I'm going to go prove that this is not the most saturated place. wow And a large part of it is because you put in the repetition, you put in the training, it might be saturated for everybody else. But most people in the door to door space, especially in sales in general, they're not professionals. There's so much turnover. There's so many people that there's a lot of homeowners out there where they've talked to somebody.
00:05:13
Speaker
maybe nine or 10 times, but most of those people literally just started or they might have been in solar for a long time, but again, they're not trained. Like they don't really know what they're doing. So to the homeowner, they're just going to tell them no, but if you can be trained and you can know what you're doing, you don't have your process dialed stepping into a new market, you you fall back to your process and it doesn't matter how quote unquote saturated it is.
Tailoring Sales Pitches
00:05:36
Speaker
So so true. The other one I would say is Try to find market-specific pain. I learned a lot of this in Knockstar. Go to Google, type in utility rate increase. so If it's PG, if it's Excel, whatever your your utility that you're working in is, yeah and be like, hey, what's the recent news here? What are the increases? What are the the projects, like the the grid projects that they're working on that people might not know about? or That might have made the news either way.
00:06:02
Speaker
and then you go on you go on there and you google it and you go to your excel you go to your spreadsheets or whatever and you create some some sort of document and then you put it all together where it's like, hey, I have the slick that shows exactly what's going on with your specific area in regards to the electric costs going up or down. Hopefully it's going up, right? yeah And then you go up there to the door, and you're like, knock on the door, hey, I'll be super quick. I don't know if you know. I don't know if you've heard about the recent rate hikes going on, or I don't know if you've heard about like the new plan that your utility just imposed on you. Whatever it is that the article that you found that you feel like could create a lot of pain, then you show them that. So you have proof of concept, right? And then it's like, oh, this is different than what the last guy talked about. Because a lot of people, they might just go over, like, hey, what are the rate increases going on? But it's like, what are the big changes or the biggest drivers
00:06:52
Speaker
That could create the most curiosity at the door and create a lot of pain at the door. And then that's what I show them where I have a slick printed out. And then I'll do that for every market that I work in. So I'll go find out what are the market specific pain points. I'll print it out. I'll present it to them. And I literally do the exact same thing with my presentation after that. So I'm changing like two sentences and then I keep the rest of it the same as my other presentation. And dude, it works no matter where you're selling it.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's absolute fire. And it's funny, we we just went to Melissa remind us a little training today too. She was talking about a lot of the same stuff, how she prepares for what's this. And yeah, she makes the slicks for her whole team, prints them out based on the market. And so getting you don't have to, I think some guys think you need to learn a whole new script or like presentation or something.
00:07:37
Speaker
But it's like you said, if you can just you can keep most most of it the same, but just have a few things. And it literally makes you seem like you're the expert in that market, just because you know what's going on with their local circumstances. Like, I better check this out. it Sounds like a big deal. Dude, yeah. Yeah, it's specific to them. like You want to personalize the opportunity and the pain to their current situation. So you want to make it personal. Because what a lot of other reps do is they just have like their cookie cutter approach that their manager told them to do. Like, here's your script. Oh, rates are going up. I do solar. yeah That's it. So it's like, if you can make it more specific, you can build more curiosity, build more pain around it. And it just makes your job a lot easier.
Solar Blitz Achievements
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah, so good for sure. So yeah, I want to talk about, ah before we hit record here, you're going over some of the numbers that you've hit on these blitzes. And I'm pretty mind blowing, man. So we'll talk a little bit more. about But yeah, for our listeners, what are this past year going on these blitzes? I know you're in California for a little bit. Maybe talk about what are some of the numbers you were able to hit day it with you and your team with like, I don't know, sales, commissions, whatever you want to talk about. Yeah, so we did two blitzes.
00:08:45
Speaker
the The second one, everyone ended up getting sick. so like That one, I'm not even going to bring up. like that was and We were also knocking like tons of renters. so it was and It was Christmas. Everyone was checking out for the year. The the first splits that I ran, it was it was that one I was talking about earlier. I read i read this article, dude, this market is so saturated, so hard. I throw it up on Instagram, like bro, like because I saw some of the the margins out there and how much you're actually able to help some of the homeowners. and I saw that and I was like, dude, why can't I do it?
00:09:15
Speaker
All these people are going out and they're doing six figures in a month, half a month or whatever. It's like, what if I did that in less than that? What if I could do that in 10 days or something, right? because And it started with the belief that i that I had where, hey, I can do this. What I did is I went out there and I was in some like hood area.
00:09:34
Speaker
i tried I tried some of the hood, I tried some cookie cutters. This is like all different types of ah neighborhoods that I was working in. so Some of it was cookie cutter, some of it was like country roads, and I got deals in all of these all these different places. and I've never sold in California before previous to this. I sat a little bit for other closers for a couple of days, but previous to this, I never i never went out there before. So my first experience going out, I ended up getting four self-gens in in that time period. one Two of them were like within two days of each other. And then I got, ah the rest of them are closes for setters. So I ended up with nine total deals. So in a period of
00:10:12
Speaker
seven working days. I was working roughly six to seven hours a day because I started getting some really bad stomach pain. I got this last summer, I ended up not being able to work for most of the summer because I got something. I think it's IBS is what it is. So it's irritable bowel syndrome. So it's like you just have constant stomach pain. It's just not fun to deal with. I spent over 10 grand on lab work and getting exams from but different doctors. No one knew anything, so it was fun to deal with. but sort of Just shy of the golden door this year, had I been able to work this summer, it would have been easy to hit that. But again, it's like I like to work in truth. and you know say say hey like I like to be very transparent with what I do, and I want to actually hit it and hit it. That makes sense. and Say that, oh, i I would have got it. but
00:11:00
Speaker
You know, or I got it, but I didn't really get it, which yeah don't, don't want that either. People do, but no, it's impressive. And I was joking around with you that you're working with all these health issues is still like more than an average solar person is working. So Brandon at 50% is like most solar reps, a hundred percent. This is this guy's work. It worked out that way. That's pretty incredible. Even, you know, dealing with health issues, you still hit some insane numbers and yeah made a lot of money. and yeah Almost 900 kilowatts last year. yeah Roughly like six, seven months of actual working time, maybe six, seven hour days. So pretty solid. Half of those are self-generated.
00:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, not a bad year. Yeah, but I wanted to ask you because some guys, they deal with health issues or I've had reps on my team deal with stuff going on in the family, whatever personal circumstances going on, and sometimes it's just like they tank, they get in their own heads. And also we just started making excuses, oh, I'm never gonna be successful. I can't do as good. But yeah, you kept working. So maybe on like the mental side, how did you keep yourself in like a good mental sphere? How did you overcome that and not let it affect you?
Mental Resilience and Visualization
00:12:10
Speaker
Any tips on that for you guys that are struggling? It's a balance. It's not, I mean, it can be tough, right? I know a lot of people may be listening to this.
00:12:18
Speaker
Everyone deals with something. Like some people it's health, some people it's mental. um What I've realized because I went through a couple different transformational experiences last year. I was telling you about there's an event called Journey to Nobody. It was the most transformational thing I've ever been a part of in my entire life. awesome But I realized a couple things is manifest and I created all those things that happened to me. The mind is very powerful.
00:12:43
Speaker
and you get what you focus on and everything that you want in life is because but everything you have in life is because that's what you want and I was snowboarding the other day right and you guys might have heard of this but I was snowboarding literally just yesterday I was going down the mountain and I suck it's like I'm not very good I've gone four times and i'll I'll crash all the time on that thing dude I'm so sore today but now I realized I was like looking and I was thinking about like crashing and I would start crashing more. I would start falling down the slopes the the wrong way and have to get back up again. and I pay attention to where my eyes are looking. and If I'm looking um in the places I don't want to end up, i usually like my board goes in that direction. yeah I correct where where my eyes are at. I correct my focus and I start moving in that direction. I start actually snowboarding in the the right way. so It's the same thing with like my health stuff. is
00:13:35
Speaker
when i When I'm focused on what was me or, oh, this sucks, my situation, whatever it is, you know it might be tough. I can acknowledge it for what it is. like I don't have to look at it in a negative light. I could look at it in a neutral light or even in a positive one, like, hey, there must be something to learn from this. I believe there's no accidents. like Everything in life does happen for a reason. and yeah so It's just like I focus on, well, what can I control? right so You can't necessarily control everything, but like what are the foods I'm eating? eating right what are the What are the doctors I'm going to? like There's always something within your influence that can allow more opportunity for you. yeah so For me, it was like i'm goingnna go and so like, I'm going to go talk to 10 different doctors because I'm supposed to be out there with my team right now. at Dude, it was full summer season. like It's the worst time to so end up in a situation like this. I couldn't even get out of freaking bed, dude. It was so rough. so i would I would just spend as much time as I could. And I actually started recruiting like crazy too. So into Instagram, I started cool DMing people, recruited a bunch of people over that same time that I was six. So it's like find opportunities to go out and be successful, even if XYZ is happening in your life. There's always something else that that you can do that you you just need to zoom out.
00:14:45
Speaker
Sometimes we're two we're too zoomed in on our current situations or own problems, but we're the ones creating those problems yeah right because we're we're focused on them, but they're not even really problems because you're your mind is programmed to create these problems. yeah there're just there They're just situations. yeah right it's It's just something that has happened. so If you can look at it in a neutral neutral way, hey, this is just something that has happened to me,
00:15:10
Speaker
let's find ah Let's find a way of dealing with this or working through this in a healthy way that can serve me um and then utilize my talents, my skills, and and looking at this in ah in a better way instead of like ah a negative light. Yeah, that's so good. Yeah, it's funny. I just got REM almost done reading that. I don't know if you read that miracle morning book.
00:15:30
Speaker
Oh yeah, I'm proud, right? Yeah, dude. Good book. Incredible classic right there. But I was just reading that the other day and I don't know if you remember the part where he's talking about setting the alarm and waking up because he recommends that people get up, you know, like early 5am or whatever to do this miracle morning routine.
00:15:50
Speaker
And he talks about something similar where like whatever he was thinking the night before, if he's thinking, oh, it's going to be so hard to wake up in the morning. I'm going to be so tired. Oh, I'm only going to get like six hours of sleep. It's not enough. Whatever he was thinking about before he went to bed, that's what ended up happening in the morning, yeah basically. And I'm like, well, that's true. And he's he's like said he's done all these studies and tests and it didn't really matter how much sleep he got. It was more just what he was thinking about the amount of sleep he was going to get.
00:16:20
Speaker
there's ah There's a book I'm reading right now. It's called Psycho-Cybernetics. There's a recommendation from one of my friends. I listened to it on my drive up here. Long drive. yeah But ah they did they actually did a lot of studies on the like the power of the mind, manifestation, visual visualization. um One example that they gave was people that were throwing darts. So they had three groups. One of them was a control group where these people had zero experience and it was a test done. I think it was over a couple of months.
00:16:44
Speaker
So, three groups of people throwing darts at a board, right? And first group, they'd go in, they'd test them. Of course, they didn't improve at all, but they would they would go in like once a month and throw darts, and they would study this over three months or so. um The second group would go in, they'd do it every day. Like, they'd do it for like an hour or two, they'd practice every single day. At the end of the test, they had 23% of an improvement of playing darts.
00:17:08
Speaker
And then the the last group, they didn't practice at all. But instead, they they took their darts, held it in their hand, and they looked at the dartboard. They closed their eyes. And they just sat there for 10 minutes every single day over the course of the study. And they just visualized them hitting that dartboard. Just visualization of the the dart releasing from their hands, hitting the dart, hitting the target right in the center.
00:17:34
Speaker
for 10 minutes every single day. At the end of the test, they showed an increase of 23%. So it's 1% difference than the first group. Guys that do it every single day. So it's like, holy if you're dealing with all stuff, whatever it is, like start viewing your life and take being more intentional on taking time out of your day to actually visualize and and really internalize in depth what it is that that you want, right? Like the positive outcomes instead of focusing more on the negative. yeah Because ah it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, that's good. So you'd say that that's the main thing that helped you get through that
Lessons from Viktor Frankl
00:18:12
Speaker
old stuff. Oh, yeah. yeah i just thought I just kept the vision the whole time. I was like, it doesn't matter what's happening. I mean, you hear about those crazy, like,
00:18:20
Speaker
What is it? Back in the day, they had the Holocaust and the Holocaust survivors, the people that survived it. There were books on it. I don't remember all the details. You had a search for meaning? Yeah. The Viktor Frankl? Yeah, you could probably tell him more than I could. Yeah, just listen to that one. But he talks about that. He was one of the survivors and he's the one that wrote about...
00:18:43
Speaker
All that stuff. We went through hell and back and somehow came out and he talks about like where his mind was the entire time. And it's like, that's incredible. I thought of myself being in a better place. Yeah. So it helps a lot. Yeah, for sure. powerful Yeah. So hopefully that helps anyone that's struggling. Yeah. Cause I think everyone's going to have moments where they're going through some tough stuff.
00:19:02
Speaker
Whether it's relationships, health, whatever. And yeah, it does make this job a lot harder. But like Brandon saying, focus on things you can control. Yeah, visualization, affirmations, think all those things help a lot. And just we manifest what we're thinking about for sure.
00:19:19
Speaker
So yeah, and then I want to get into maybe some topical stuff here too, Brandon. So you did nine cells in what, seven days? Yeah, seven working days, six, seven hours a day. Yeah, ended up with a hundred grand commission. So I think it was like 103 or something. I've never done that before. My best month prior to that was in Colorado where I did a hundred grand in a month and that was in February of that year. So be able to do that in seven days is Yeah, it feels good. It's it's a cool, cool little ah trophy. Yeah, and incredible. So before I think the first podcast we did, we focused more on the setting. And I think back then you were mostly just setting. oh Yeah, you hadn't even really. Yeah. But it's mostly setting. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, now you're closing like a madman to just still setting and everything. What do you ah what are some things maybe as you you've been closing more and I don't maybe we get into yeah like some closing tips, some things that helped you? Yeah. at a really high level Yeah, I love that. no It's been's been a lot of fun to learn the different sides of the solar cells. yeah um Closing is very unique, so there is a lot that you'll learn from your team, from your managers. There's a lot that should be unlearned as well. but
00:20:35
Speaker
um I would also challenge anybody to listen to this like outside of their current network and and get connected to other people that are operating at a higher level. Because what I've learned in closing isn't just from my own stuff. It's not just from one person's. It's a culmination of many different people and seminars and platforms that I've paid to be a part of. And then obviously the biggest thing is going and implementing with that information.
00:20:59
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego. And as we were 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. 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.
00:21:24
Speaker
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. 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 get my listeners a great deal, and they did.
Using the Solar Scout App
00:21:49
Speaker
so go to solar scout dot app forward slash taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10 off your first month when you sign up that's solar scout dot app forward slash taylor okay back to the show um But what there's like there's a couple points to this. So you want to make sure that you qualify quickly, because this is one thing I'm huge on, is there's a lot of people they'll, even in setting, they'll waste so much time. like You can do three times as much volume if you can qualify your prospects faster. yeah
00:22:25
Speaker
um which which yeah i mean I'd love to actually track data. I'm huge on tracking data. But I think it'd be fun to go and and check that out. but What I mean by that is, say you sit down with them and they fail credit. I see this all the time where reps go through a whole presentation, you get to the end, oh, credit fell. Oh, I'm glad I sat here for 60 minutes trying to overcome all your objections and then you can't even like sign up for solar. So that's one of the first things I'll do. like Even before I get too into a rapport building, like I'll be like, hey man, I'm super busy, you got a lot of these that I do every single day.
00:22:58
Speaker
um Before I get into it, there are some qualifications. We're more selective than most companies out here. I'd say we're the one of the most selective ones. so What that looks like, there's three things that we look at before we can even potentially begin to think about you know approving your home for something like this. so Number one, you have to own the property. so you guys and I would ask especially in like California, and New Mexico, different places where they there's a lot of Spanish speakers, there's other people who I've realized that are into making the decision for the property. Even if they say I'm the only decision maker, you might want to ask who else is on the title. yeah Because you don't want, you know you sign up Jorge or whoever it is and you get to the end. and
00:23:38
Speaker
You know, you're ready to install and then they've got Juan out in Canada. That's like, no, don't do it. Or he's in Mexico or whatever. Don't don't do it. Yeah, because yes so you want to utilize and and make sure that you get everybody involved. So anyone else that is on the title, so asset as well. So is there anyone else on the title of the home?
00:23:55
Speaker
Is there anyone else that is involved with this type of stuff or is it only just you? and I'll actually make sure that you have both spouses there. If not, I would just go back and reset it. Hey, I'm super busy. I'm just going to swing back when she's around. you're go she She'll be here in about like an hour or two. You just reset it for another time. yeah so You want to make sure you qualify them, make sure you got good credit. Number one, you own the property equal, how old is your roof? Get that out of the way because if you don't have a good roof, like you need to make sure that they do or you can sell them with a roof.
00:24:24
Speaker
That way it's not you sell the deal when it's just sitting there forever. Learn the hard way again. And then obviously the last one, cool. So the last thing is between you and your spouse, someone in the property needs to have a credit score over 9,000. I'm just joking. Usually they look for a 650 or higher. So would you say you guys are pretty good there?
00:24:42
Speaker
yeah If they don't know how to pull it up right there. So this is all stuff you want to train your setters. But that's one of the things I'll do as a closer
Qualifying Prospects Efficiently
00:24:49
Speaker
as well. is Just make sure they're super qualified. um And then I'll even go a step further and say, so the biggest difference between us and a lot of other companies is we work a lot of referral based business. So we don't just do solar for anybody that breathes. We like to work with people that are going to be excited about it. And ideally, people that share this with their friends and family. So, hypothetically, say this all made sense. You love that, you know, we could save you a ton of money. Is this something that you would be open to sharing with people in your network?
00:25:16
Speaker
yeah Because it's like we don't spend all this money on advertising. We want to make sure that we spend you know we we have more more um more affordable costs and we can keep costs down because we're not blowing lots of money on TV. We'd rather just put those savings on to you. yes right And then you can send us referrals. So it's more of like a volume game um and and doing it the right way.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah, I love that one, especially when they're like, Oh, this sounds too good to be true. Or how do you guys make money like throwing that in? So usually something clicks in their head. Oh, maybe that's why they can give me such a good deal because yeah it makes it seem more like believable in their head. Now, they don't think it's but less of a scam. Yeah. Okay. I guess that makes sense. We have to send them a bunch of referrals. Yeah. And yeah, I think Taylor McCarthy calls it like the model home program model. day agree Basically be like a marketing home for you.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, so that's that's a big one. And then you can go back, like leverage that when you like after you close the deal. Go back, knock on the door, whatever, call them, send them a text. I always set the expectation that you're not going to never see us again. like A lot of companies, you're going to it's a one and done.
00:26:27
Speaker
right There's a lot of people that are kind of in town for the week and they're gone, like fly by night type companies. yeah So the difference here, even though I'm traveling all the time, I'm blitzing all the time, like I give them access to my number, I have a project manager.
00:26:43
Speaker
um Shout out London. yeah so i yeah like I get them connected, I get them looped in, I get them feeling really comfortable because they don't want to like they don't want to be abandoned. like they don't want and like That's one of their biggest fears, is well what happens after the deal is closed? like Say it's on my roof, like what's going to happen? like they're They're already thinking that your company is going to go out of business. or they're not If they need something, they're going to be high and dry. So you want to give them as much assurance as possible to overcome that, um if that's their concern. yeah But usually you want to find those things out pretty quick, like at the beginning, like, hey, what are the biggest things that have held you back? I know you've talked to 10 people already. yeah um like What's like the number one thing for you that just wasn't quite lining up? Okay, cool. You write it down. What else? What else? You get all the info on why they didn't want to do it.
00:27:31
Speaker
And then you also want to get the info why they are wanting to do it, especially if they've met with so many people, there's obviously interest there. So the other aspect is try not to present as much, like don't go into as much as my presentation if they've already done and seen a lot of those. yeah For me, it's more of a conversation.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I used to be like grab the pen and paper and like do a whole like, you know, like a whole thing, which can work. It can work. I've had a lot of success with that. But it's, it's tailoring my presentation, right? Yeah, to the person I'm talking with. Yeah. So if they've already seen it 100 times, they don't want to go through that. It's a conversation. yeah But if it's like someone brand new and they're a lamb type personality and they're kind of just going to go with the flow, cool, I can show them something on paper. yeah So just kind of tailor it to the the needs of that specific prospect. Yeah, I love that. I think that's a big secret that new guys maybe don't do as well as just, like you said, tailoring it to the person.
00:28:31
Speaker
So I remember when I started, it was like, we just had a slideshow presentation. Yeah. And I was like, this is the only way that I know how to do it. And no matter the person in front of me, I was going through the exact same slides. Robot. People were practically falling asleep. I'm like, oh, I can't skip this part. I got to go through everything.
00:28:48
Speaker
And yeah, it it you can close deals, it works. But I think there are also people that like, you know, you see people with like a short fuse or... like watching it a yeah They're washed like, oh, shoot, you did it or whatever. Yeah, you got to learn how to... you know, interact and cut things out, do whatever you need to do. So that's a big secret. And then, yeah, you talked about a project manager you have. So especially if you're Blitzen, when you're leaving, how do you work with like um your project manager? how What's maybe some secrets on working with the project manager, getting the accounts to install? Because I know that's a tougher thing, even when I'm not Blitzen, even if I've left one area and gone to another. Yes.
00:29:29
Speaker
Sometimes it can kind of be a hassle like managing accounts where I've had to try to get in touch with the customer, get a hold of them later. So there's like a lot a lot that goes into that. The biggest thing is the right expectations at the
Managing Customer Expectations
00:29:40
Speaker
end of the deal. yeah guys So like, hey, like, you know, this isn't gonna happen right away. Usually it takes time. Everybody I assign, they know they're going solar. It's not I'm not selling a site survey. I'm not selling a maybe, maybe you'll qualify a thing. It's like, No, we're going to move forward. like They're confident they're going to move forward. They're going to take the next steps. I do tell them based off their location, there's a chance your utility could deny you. Sometimes that fires them up. yeah But in terms of the the expectation to get the job to the roof at the end of the deal, it's it's it's just setting the right frame in for in terms of here's what to expect moving forward. So what likely happens is our installs are 60 to 90 days. And I'll tell people worst case scenario.
00:30:18
Speaker
Usually it doesn't take that well long, right? But I'll tell it people worst case scenario, it's it's going to take 60, sometimes 90 days if we have to do some structural work to the property, like say we have to upgrade your main panel or something like that. Just understand that it is construction, it does take time. So what I'll do, and then I'll highlight, if there's something that they liked in the presentation, I'll highlight this at the end, or something they were worried about. So like, hey, like that last company that you met with,
00:30:42
Speaker
You mentioned you didn't want to work with them because they ghosted you or your projects for months. You didn't hear anything from them, right? So this is why so many of the neighbors like working with us is because we have this dedicated project manager just for your job. So what that means is you're going to have direct access um to any information you want to know about your job at any point in time. Her name's London. She's a hyper up. She's the number one project manager in the entire United States. She is so cool. I know her personally when I'm best friends.
00:31:10
Speaker
Such an amazing human, but she'll send you updates and she'll make sure that the ball doesn't get dropped because there's a lot of other hoops. There's a lot of people that we have to talk to to make sure that this your your job actually goes to installation. um So she's going to make sure that the city the guy at the city or the guy you know handling the permits doesn't drop the ball on us. yeah like She's going to keep balling up and so until this thing is actually moving.
00:31:33
Speaker
So that's a huge expectation. like People want to know that they're taken care of. If you ever need anything, if you have anything that you need at all at any point in time, just know that you can texture text her and she'll get back with you in 24 hours. nice So just letting people know that they're in really good hands, you hype up the project manager and you set the expectation that if you need something, she's got you, which leaves you more room to go out and sell more deals instead of playing project manager. yeah yeah So, your job as a sales professional should be spent in front of as many so as many qualified leads as possible. like That's the most productive thing you can be doing, not doing pipeline work. yeah right that's That's not what you should be doing. I know. One in the hard way. I know. That's your time. Yeah. And then I'll be like, hey, if you need you got referrals, I'm your guy. Like, send them my way. I specialize in this. But when it comes to projects and project management, anything that of that nature, London's got your benefit.
00:32:28
Speaker
And to make sure that they know, and and usually they're pretty excited about it. And then I text them, I get them in a group chat right away. Before I leave the house, I'll be like, hey, London, this is Joe just getting you in touch and just letting them know you're going to help them out with this project. London's like, congrats on going solar. I'll be here if you need anything.
00:32:45
Speaker
And then we do weekly calls every Tuesday. So we just go through the whole roster. Just like, hey, here's your job. Here's where you're at. Here's what this person might need. So anything that I need to do on my end, or if it's like, hey, you need a, whatever it is, like anything that she can't do, I'll step in and help with. But 99% of it is off of my plate, which is huge. That's awesome.
Role of a Project Manager
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's the key. And we've heard a bunch of speakers today. I think every top producer, I don't think I know of any that doesn't have someone helping with their accounts, especially if you're doing a high volume like yourself. Yeah, it's like you're either going to have to take a break from selling just to catch back up or yeah you're going to have tons fall off, right? Because, yeah, they're not getting updates. There's holds on them. Yeah, they just fall through. Yeah, find an installer too. That's the other thing that we've active been actively been working on and and improving as. Making sure that your installer can fulfill. Especially when people come from other companies and they start selling solar, they they get a lot of dopamine right away. Like, oh man, I just made 30 grand, whatever, like this month, that's amazing. And then nothing installs. Yeah. So that's like making sure you really vet out the people that you work with.
00:34:01
Speaker
to ensure that the installs won't even just happen quickly, but that they're they're done the right way, that customers do have a good experience, and that way you can honor your word and and the promises that you made to them to begin with, so you can work the referrals from there. yeah Yeah, and I think knowing the differences between the install partners Because just because it works one way at one or their timelines, I've made that mistake of just yeah giving kind of the same updates and like basing the experience, thinking it'll be a similar experience with a different installer. Completely different. And then, yeah, it's like timelines took longer or they did things different. So I think getting familiar with it.
00:34:41
Speaker
Because yeah, it's like actually got a text this morning matter of fact of the ladies, her and her sister on the home and her sister, she was kind of halfway in the presentation. But she's all mad at me because they've had to reschedule like some additional battery work they had to do. Guess the crew got sick and she's like, oh, you lied to us. You told us to be done this day. You're terrible. all is stuff but Yeah.
00:35:05
Speaker
And so yeah I'm like, for me, I'm like, oh, well, it's not my fault the crew got sick. But the thing that is my fault is I should have made sure that she had a better expectation. What to expect. Yeah, because obviously, she's all like, um and I'm trying to tell her now, I'm like, hey, that's on me for making sure you didn't have that expectation, because there's a lot of moving parts in this. Things can go wrong. Install crews can get backed up, whatever. So I'm sorry that you don't have that expectation.
00:35:33
Speaker
And I'm trying to kind of like reset it now. yeah But now she's it's obviously a lot harder now than I should have done it before, even though she wasn't as involved in the presentation. So, lesson learned. Expectations. It all comes down to expectations. And under promising and over-delivering is always amazing to do. like With your reps, with your homeowners. like i've I've discovered like you always want to set the bar super low for what people should expect. And then you come in and you actually deliver on it. Because if you can just meet people with what you say you're going to do, yeah they're going to be stoked. Because most people can't even do that. So you can just deliver on what you say you're going to deliver on, but then even go a step further and you know give them what you what what you really say you're going to give them, then that's how you build the referrals. Yeah. So yeah, definitely.
00:36:18
Speaker
Well, Brandon, I know we got a we got some, we're still up door to work on here, so I don't want to take your whole ah conference time away here. But before I forget, and before we end the podcast, I know recently you've been rolling out some ah some exciting updates and things that you're going to be working on, projects you've got going on.
00:36:35
Speaker
for this year. And so I know you've been rolling out some training programs and you got some stuff going on with that. So before we end, do you want to tell our listeners some what you've been working on and ah can maybe if they're interested in getting more training and we, yeah, Brandon and I were talking about potentially collaborating on some stuff. So may possibly stay tuned for that. But yeah, for now, do you want to tell our listeners what you've been working on? and It's exciting. yeah so guys there's a If you could listen to one thing, it it would be this. so There is a lot of training platforms and sometimes it gets confusing. right There's a lot of information. can you can You can even join one of these programs and you're just like stuck in the mud. like You log in, you got 85 videos, you got like cool, there's a call that happens. and then
00:37:20
Speaker
You might get some info, but it's like, what do you do with it?
Upcoming Solar Training Platform
00:37:23
Speaker
yeah um So I also have had a lot of people that have messaged me over the years and ask me, it happens like every week almost or someone's like, Hey, dude, do you have any courses? Do you have any like programs or coaching? I've told them no every time yeah and until today. It's not developed yet, so full disclaimer. I'm actively working on it. i'm like it's It's the whole thing. there's There's a lot that I'm putting into this, but I want to build it out the right way. so I'm investing literally tens of thousands of dollars into creating this, but what it's going to be is it's going to be a solar-only specific trading platform. It won't just have a university, it won't just have your courses, it won't just have your community calls. It's going to be in depth on how to. So it's going to be very actionable. like You have to go through XYZ to get this outcome. So it'll essentially to be like a duplicatable process.
00:38:13
Speaker
on how to go out and make six figures in a month or if you want to hit your first six figure your year, like there will be an actual blueprint on how to do that. And then the the goal behind this is, well, let's stack up as many you know testimonials, let's get as many people in on this as possible, ah potentially send this out to other companies so they can send their reps ah through this program to ensure that, hey, not only are they doubling, tripling their sales, but they're doing it the right way. They're properly explaining tax credits. They're giving people the right loan products or the right TPO product. Yeah, because I also think that there's going to be regulation happening. With that in place, it's going to help a lot of the solar reps get ahead of regulation.
00:38:54
Speaker
So that way they can be, hey, I'm actually certified to go sell solar. I'm not just licensed or whatever, but I'm literally certified for this. I've been through the training. I've i've invested in myself to go and go out and do this. yeah And it's proven results. So like I want the results to show themselves.
00:39:10
Speaker
So I am super excited about it. It's only solar specific. um It will have everything mindset, um goal setting, all that stuff. yeah The actionable deliverables on how to close the deal. There'll be different frameworks like, hey, you're you're going to have to you're goingnna have to nail your rapport building, you're going to have to nail your pre-frame, you're going to have to nail the building the pane.
00:39:32
Speaker
So it's going to have like different sections. And then once you nail that section, then even if the next one, because what happens oftentimes is you're kind of all rushed or you're overwhelmed with all this information. So this is going to be a systemized approach on how to step by step fully master the solar sail from knocking the door all the way to we're getting referrals at the end. Yeah. And then leveraging it that way. So I'm i'm fired up about it.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool, man. Well, hey, we can't wait to see what'll come out with that. And guys, make sure you're following on Brandon. I know you're going to be dropping more updates and um stuff going on with your training platform. And yeah, as always, reach out to myself. I know Brandon, he's going to be in California. I think that's the plan. You're going to be more in California to supplement here. Somewhere in Orange County. I haven't decided yet. Inland Empire somewhere. Yeah, okay. Yeah, man, just an Airbnb for now. But I'm looking to to build out there a lot more.
00:40:22
Speaker
I just stay out of San Diego and we're good. Right? I heard it's on fire right now. yes Yeah, literally. Got fires going on. yeah But ah yeah, so reach out. Myself and Brandon, we're both out in California, so we can get you plugged in with some incredible opportunities and um yeah as as well as training for yourself or your team if you're listening to this. So ah Brandon, it's been ah awesome having you on. And now that you're going to be ed coming to the land of milk and honey in California, yeah I'm sure we'll be doing collaborations. We're already talking about you possibly coming out and doing yeah trainings for some of my guys and happy to do the same for fewer guys your guys too out in California. But yeah, anything as as we end here, anything you want to end with, maybe for reps that are like I don't know, in a slump right now or reps said it because the store, I mean, let's be honest, it's been a tougher year for solar. I just we' we're talking about that. I'm kind of talking about training platforms that yeah a lot of guys are in slumps right now. A lot of guys are, you know, we've we've had guys on our teams go to different home improvement industries.
00:41:27
Speaker
Just because there's a lot of things going on with the lenders and with you know jurisdictions changing, net metering laws and stuff like that changing. See anything that you'd say to that.
Perseverance and Support in Solar
00:41:38
Speaker
So it's consolidating. right like ah there A lot of the bad players are exiting and some reps unfortunately are giving up faith in it.
00:41:46
Speaker
yeah so The way I see it, it's like that we've all seen this before. We've all had the visual of the guy who's just digging and digging and digging and he's trying to get gold and it's just digging. And he's literally like three feet from it. And then he turns around. So that's how I see like solar right now. It's like it's still a gold mine.
00:42:03
Speaker
right It's still an an amazing opportunity to completely change your life and make life changing wealth. It's still there. It's just you need the right training, the right platform, the right structure, the right company, installer. like You need to make sure you're with the right people to help you dig that gold out of it, or you're just going to go do something else. yeah But if you've already put in time, like if you've been in this for a few months or even a couple years like us, dude, stick with it. yeah right like Why would you quit when you're this close? And there's also a lot of positive things happening in this space as well. yeah so it's like
00:42:36
Speaker
Dude, i would I would just keep digging. Go hit that gold. Go align yourself with the right crew, with the right people, and you're you'll be so glad that you didn't quit. Imagine if I by gave up, because I was doing this for three years, working for different companies, never got paid out, I went bankrupt. like I've had everything happen to me. Seriously. And if I would have quit before I found the opportunity I'm in now, like bro, I would be in such a way, I don't know what I'd be doing, but I'd be like working subway and I'm joking. I'd probably be doing real estate or something, but I know I would have missed out on a lot of potential. I would have not been able to help as many people or as many homeowners have have as big of an impact as I can have now because I just simply refuse to give up. yeah So it's like, just keep digging. Yeah, dig down, dig further and yeah, like stick with it because it'll pay off big time. Yeah, so good. I agree 100%. And I think the guys that stick with this, they're going to merge as the leaders. And you know, there's guys that, yeah, matter of fact, a lot of the guys at my company right now, the ones that are
00:43:41
Speaker
You know, the leading massive teams, leading organizations. A lot of those guys are ones that stuck with it through the hard times when a lot of people were quitting. Yeah. And now they've came came out on the other side. Everyone talked to them and kill out they're the ones that are making the big money and stuff like that. how works I think that's how it goes. A lot of it is just like timing and sticking with it when a lot of people are or quitting, right? Yeah. I think we're a big picture. Yeah. I think we're a big picture. Definitely. Well, Brandon, thanks again for coming on. And guys, make sure you follow Brandon on on Instagram. I think that's where you're most active posting a lot of your yeah updates and content. right yeah i'm gonna be Yeah. So tune in, because I'm going to be blowing that up this year.
Instagram Content and Training Program
00:44:20
Speaker
like There's going to be posts every single day, a lot of value. So a lot of the paid stuff you guys can find out there, I'm just going to give it all for free. so i'm gonna yeah it's It's just going to be so much value. So it's ah at Brandon, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, and then the number four.
00:44:35
Speaker
and then ESTER, so Brandon Forrester. yep So check it out. If you guys want to get on the wait list for the program, just send me a son emoji or just DME and I'll get you on the wait list. I got like 40 people right now. So it is going to be a pretty niche group to start, but we'll build it out. I just want to make sure that the people that have already committed to it get the results. Yeah, sweet.
00:44:57
Speaker
Love it, brother. Can't wait to see what comes next. And ah yeah, we'll see you out in California. Thanks for coming on again. Let's see you guys. Let's turn up this year. 2025, make it your year. Let's go. OK. Thanks, Bannon. What's up, solarpreneurs? Hope you enjoyed the episode. Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind. One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start? What episode should I listen to in the podcast? You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:45:37
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on solar printer. We put them together all in one sheet. So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:45:59
Speaker
So go download it right now. It's going to be a top 10 dot.com. Again, that's top 10, the number 10 dot.com. Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs. We will have that in the show notes. Go download it right now. And especially if you have not listened to him, go listen to him and you can re listen to him. That's going to show you how. So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.