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The 2.8 Megawatt Man And Mini Habits.... (Interview With Michael O'Donnell)
107 Plays7 years ago
In this episode of the Solarpreneur podcast we've got Michael O'Donnell in studio to share some of his success secrets to closing over 2.8 megawatts in solar deals in 2018. You won't want to miss this!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Success
00:00:00
Speaker
Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
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Speaker
There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
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Speaker
The question is, which one will you be?
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Speaker
Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
00:00:23
Speaker
So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
What is the Solarpreneur Podcast?
00:00:28
Speaker
This podcast is your answer.
00:00:31
Speaker
Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Who is Michael O'Donnell?
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
00:00:51
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:00:54
Speaker
Today on another podcast, we are excited to have a guest that I've been thinking about having on for a long time now, and he's got his Go Solar mug there.
00:01:03
Speaker
So we're excited to present the one and only Michael O'Donnell.
00:01:08
Speaker
That's how you say your last name, right?
00:01:10
Speaker
It is O'Donnell.
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, not McDonald or O'Donnell.
00:01:13
Speaker
It's Michael O'Donnell.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, great to be on with you.
00:01:16
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:01:17
Speaker
It was great to connect with you at D2D and I've been looking forward to doing this.
00:01:21
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Glad to have it be today.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, appreciate having you on the show, Mike.
00:01:27
Speaker
And yeah, we ran into each other at Door to Door Con.
00:01:31
Speaker
And Michael, he's what I would consider a legend in the industry.
00:01:35
Speaker
He won his Golden Door Award there, which for anyone who doesn't know, what's a Golden Door Award?
Michael's Sales Achievements
00:01:43
Speaker
Well, there's a GOAT on it.
00:01:45
Speaker
I don't know if that means anything.
00:01:46
Speaker
Sam tells me that GOAT stands for greatest of all time.
00:01:50
Speaker
The funny story about my Golden Door Award is that I went to last year's D2D
00:01:57
Speaker
Because it sounded super interesting to me after Spadio had invited me, gave me a free ticket, whatever.
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So I said, yeah, that sounds awesome.
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Speaker
I went with a couple of members of my team.
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And then Sam's like, hey, anybody who's done a megawatt, come up and we're doing a thing.
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And I go, hey, Sam, yeah, Mike Wadon, what's your name now?
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He goes, yeah, megawatt of solar, you're getting an award.
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I'm like, wow, I'm coming to this thing, I'm getting an award.
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I'm like, that's pretty cool, right?
00:02:22
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What did you sell last year?
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I said, 2.5 megawatts.
00:02:27
Speaker
oh my god i was like no no how much solar did you sell not the company i go well i i closed 2.5 megawatts that was me oh my god you know 30 sales guys that work for uh the company i'm a part owner but all i do is sell i just i'm one of the sales guys so i sold 2.5 million he's like that's that's okay 2.5 so anyway i come up to the stage that night and he has me two awards because the awards for a million he goes i don't know what to do we don't have a
00:02:52
Speaker
a 2 million award.
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So he handed me two awards.
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My goal this year was to have him need to give me three.
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I ended up at 2.8 million watts this year.
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Personally closed.
Why Sales Over Management in Solar?
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And so he still handed me only two.
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I was kind of bummed out.
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I'll take the two.
00:03:10
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They're on my wall.
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I'm starting a collection.
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All right.
00:03:13
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Well, that's awesome.
00:03:14
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And yeah, I know Sam was blown away too, because he talks about it all the time, as far as he's concerned.
00:03:19
Speaker
From what I hear, you're the top dog of the solar.
00:03:22
Speaker
I don't know.
00:03:23
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I had no idea what the, maybe I should have not, maybe it was a good thing.
00:03:25
Speaker
I didn't know that a million was a thing or 2 million wasn't a thing.
00:03:30
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We've just been going at it, doing what we can do to, you know, to be in as many appointments a day and close as many of them.
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And that's, that's just happened to be the math.
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uh, 17.
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And of course I couldn't not try to make it a bigger number in 2018, which I did.
00:03:44
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And I was pretty happy that that worked out as well.
00:03:47
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Yeah.
00:03:47
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Well, that's incredible, man.
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What a, what a awesome accomplishment.
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I'm still working on my first one.
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So don't work on it.
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Just do it.
00:03:58
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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Must be because solar must be easier to sell in Arizona.
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That's the only way you use it.
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Well, we got plenty of inventory.
00:04:05
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If you're selling sunshine in Arizona, there's lots of inventory here.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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That's awesome.
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Well, cool.
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It's awesome to have you on the show.
00:04:14
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And yeah, we're definitely looking forward to hearing some of the things that have helped you progress into that.
00:04:19
Speaker
And my question is, I mean, you've been, I've talked to a lot of solar owners, solar companies, and you don't typically see that where one of the owners is actually like still selling themselves and actually out there in the grind and the hustle.
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So how is that?
00:04:33
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You want to know why that is?
00:04:34
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Yeah, why is that?
00:04:35
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I'll tell you why that is because I'm very thick, dense, and stupid in some ways.
00:04:40
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And I realized in 1984 that I could make just really obscene, sick, unbelievable money per hour, per day, per week, per month selling solar.
00:04:50
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I started selling solar in 1984.
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I'd been in the phone room setting appointments as an appointment setter.
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I happened to just kind of walk
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randomly wander into the conference room where the sales manager was given a little tabletop training demonstration to some new guys.
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And he walked them through the old school three-ring buying
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with your what would have to today be PowerPoint slides or whatever of how people would walk somebody through a solar presentation and at the end of it he did the clothes I said well I think I could do that in fact I know I could do it I happen to be in the phone room working I went in there got an appointment for that night drove out to it grabbed a three-ring binder sat down with someone and at the end of them put the clothes on it and they signed up and bought solar like I didn't even have permission to do that
00:05:40
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Called into the phone room and said, give me another one.
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That was at five.
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Give me another one at seven.
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And they gave me another appointment at seven.
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I went and closed that one.
00:05:48
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I said, wow, that's awesome.
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Is there anybody who'll see me at nine o'clock tonight?
00:05:51
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And I went to a nine o'clock appointment that night and sold it.
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So I sold three solar systems.
00:05:57
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The very first day I ever sold solar was in 1984.
00:06:01
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And then I got,
Limitations of Corporate Comp Plans
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you know, I made stupid money for the next whatever, worked at it for the next year and a half, two years selling solar.
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But I...
00:06:10
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I think the problem with lots of guys that are good at this is that they think they're smart and that thinking that they're smart ends up doing stupid things.
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So even though I was making a lot of money, I really felt like I needed a real job.
00:06:22
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We've talked about that at D2D.
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Your grandma says, this door-to-door thing is really nice, honey, but when are you going to get a real job?
00:06:29
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Yeah, exactly.
00:06:29
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I was like, well, you've made a high six-figure income.
00:06:32
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Is that a real job, grandma?
00:06:34
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No, no, no.
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Real jobs are things I can explain to the other people in my Marshawn game.
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And so, you know, I went to be in my mind, Taylor, a real job was a guy who wore a blue suit and worked for IBM.
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Yeah.
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And so I got a degree and, you know, I went to college for computer engineering and that was my thing.
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So I actually went to work and sold IBM mainframes because I thought that's what a real job was.
00:07:00
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And then as computing, you know, evolved, I went and sold AT&T communication systems and
00:07:06
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network communications i spent 25 years selling it communications and it infrastructure stuff okay and i got really good at that and i was able to sell that what i didn't understand is that when you work for a big corporation they employ mbas and their whole job is to run calculations for comp plans you never want a comp plan what you want is a deal
00:07:30
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Because when an MBA hands you a comp plan, the comp plan is designed to figure out how they can pay you a lot of money, but not too much money and how little of the money you're worth can they pay you before you leave.
00:07:44
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Yeah.
00:07:44
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And they're really good at it.
00:07:45
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They know that if you make $173,000, you're probably not going to quit.
00:07:48
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Yeah.
00:07:51
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And that if you made $173,000 selling $3 million worth of stuff, and the next year you sell $6 million worth of stuff, they want to pay you $175,000 for twice as much.
00:08:03
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And then they want to hand you a comp plan that says if you don't sell $9 million the year after, you're going to make less.
00:08:09
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So that's called a comp plan.
00:08:11
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It's what Fortune 500 companies do and what big companies do to make sure that great salespeople make just enough money to keep their golden handcuffs on.
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Stay around, yeah.
00:08:20
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Yeah.
00:08:20
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And so I had golden handcuffs on for 25 years making between, you know, somewhere between 125 and $250,000.
00:08:25
Speaker
Why?
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Cause I wouldn't quit.
00:08:29
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I couldn't support my family if I quit.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:32
Speaker
Stuck around in jobs like that.
00:08:34
Speaker
And of course, if you're smart and you're talented, you're good.
00:08:36
Speaker
You,
00:08:36
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get promoted to sales manager, you get promoted to a VP of sales.
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And I've been the VP of sales for several big companies and stuff.
00:08:44
Speaker
But what I didn't realize I was still making, you know, one 50 to two 50 and maybe some breakout years would get me into say three fifties and stuff like that.
00:08:51
Speaker
But there were MBAs whose whole job was to make sure I didn't make more money that regardless of what outcomes were.
00:08:59
Speaker
So I have,
00:09:01
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been lucky in that I was able to take the outcome of that and turn it into wisdom that says salespeople who have a deal can make lots of money.
00:09:12
Speaker
Being a sales manager or a VP of sales is always like an 80% cut and pay.
00:09:19
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And if you're in solar trying to get promoted, you're trying to get a cut and pay.
00:09:23
Speaker
There isn't a job in the whole world that
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Speaker
And there's no job in the solar world, including being an owner that pays more than being an outstanding salesman
Impact on Company Culture
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Speaker
in the solar world.
00:09:37
Speaker
There just isn't a job.
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Speaker
So why would I want to get promoted into that job?
00:09:41
Speaker
And now as one of the three owners of the company Sun Solar Solutions, why would I be trying to get myself promoted to a job that pays 80% less?
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:52
Speaker
So anyway, that's the long answer to a short question of why the heck am I out being a sales guy?
00:09:58
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I'm a sales guy because there isn't another job at my company in any way that pays more.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's interesting.
00:10:05
Speaker
I never thought about it that way.
00:10:06
Speaker
And I'm sure it helps in the company.
00:10:08
Speaker
I can only imagine that it's helping the company culture out a ton because they're seeing, okay, our own, one of the owners of the company is out there with us.
00:10:15
Speaker
It's not just him talking.
00:10:17
Speaker
Well, it's not only the culture.
00:10:18
Speaker
I'm a, you know, I'm a double-digit.
00:10:20
Speaker
right absolutely i think that's part of it i you know i i like to be a leader and not a manager and i think i am a leader in that regard people look at and say well you know if i put this kind of time into it if i knock this many doors uh if i get into this many presentations if i pay attention to what works and doesn't work in closing uh i maybe i could make that kind of money as well but in in addition to that you know i mean as an owner of the company
00:10:44
Speaker
Um, I also am, you know, looking for, you know, people that are going to make a difference.
00:10:49
Speaker
I'm a double digit percentage of the total sales of the company.
00:10:52
Speaker
I mean, why, why would I make that not happen so that I can, uh, herd cats and manage people that aren't any good at this, you know?
00:11:00
Speaker
Uh, and that's kind of what a manager's job
Challenges and Motivation in Sales
00:11:03
Speaker
is.
00:11:03
Speaker
He spends all of his time trying to prop up and, uh, improve and help people that are nowhere near as good as this, as the,
00:11:11
Speaker
The rock stars don't need a manager's time.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
So you end up spending your time with the guys that aren't moving the line.
00:11:17
Speaker
So at any rate, that's what I learned over a long, long, long, long time.
00:11:22
Speaker
And I'm lucky to have kind of figured that out a little bit and said, you know, I'm just going to actually spend my time doing the stuff that actually pays really well.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, and that's crazy.
00:11:32
Speaker
I mean, it's a lot of interesting things because, I mean, number one, you're still out there knocking.
00:11:37
Speaker
You're still out there generating leads, closing the deals.
00:11:40
Speaker
Then number two, a lot of things I hear, I mean, you saw at Door-to-DoorCon, you don't see too many guys that have the gray in their beard that –
00:11:47
Speaker
that you know yeah no thanks for pointing that out i hadn't noticed i feel like i have a massive advantage when i'm at somebody's door when somebody peeks out the people on their door yes a guy out there in a blue blazer and a dress shirt and a gray beard and gray hair they're like i must be like this guy's not selling i better i better find out what this is about you know yeah as opposed to and and there's there's days when i put on the polo shirt and cargo pants and
00:12:17
Speaker
And, you know, go knock for four hours with guys in that getup.
00:12:20
Speaker
But at the end of the day, when you look out that peephole and you see a guy in that stuff, and I'm not downing that because it works.
00:12:27
Speaker
There's a different impression.
00:12:29
Speaker
I might look out that peephole and go, I don't really need to see what this is about.
00:12:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:35
Speaker
And so and then when I walk into a door and sit down with somebody at their kitchen table, they don't.
00:12:40
Speaker
know that my time is valuable their time is valuable we're going to sit down and talk about doing business i'm not here to do a commercial yeah i could have sent you a youtube video if you needed a commercial about why all your customers why your neighbors are going solar i'm here because we're going to talk about doing business yeah we're i'm here because we're going to be getting the process started
00:13:03
Speaker
for solar being on your house in 60 days.
00:13:05
Speaker
That's why I'm here.
00:13:06
Speaker
And I, I, I feel like I look that hard.
00:13:08
Speaker
I feel like that's really an advantage.
00:13:10
Speaker
I don't feel like that's, Oh gee, what's the old guy doing selling solar?
00:13:14
Speaker
I feel like I bring a little bit of weight to that conversation that I think might be a little harder to construct as a, as a young guy.
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
So it's cool that you're kind of breaking those misconceptions.
00:13:25
Speaker
At least I've had them.
00:13:26
Speaker
Is it, Oh, you shouldn't knock on doors when you're, I don't know, past 30.
00:13:30
Speaker
Cause I've talked to guys that think, okay, door to door is just should be a summer thing doing like a sales job.
00:13:38
Speaker
Like this should be a summer thing.
00:13:39
Speaker
Maybe you do it through college, but it's cool to see guys that have made it into a career.
00:13:43
Speaker
And I mean, it gives me hope because yeah, I'm the same way.
00:13:46
Speaker
Like you said, my mom's telling me when are you going to get a real job?
00:13:49
Speaker
When are you going to go finish your degree?
00:13:52
Speaker
When are you going to do all that?
00:13:54
Speaker
You know, the problem that we all have is that our brain is absolutely broken.
00:13:58
Speaker
There's a severe disconnect between what we're doing and what creates money.
00:14:03
Speaker
Last night I came out of my appointment at 9 o'clock.
00:14:08
Speaker
I had four self-generated appointments yesterday.
00:14:11
Speaker
My daughter happened to be with me because she's a closer working with me in my group.
00:14:16
Speaker
And the customer gave me the names of two of his neighbors.
00:14:20
Speaker
It was 9.30 at night.
00:14:22
Speaker
And my daughter really had to kind of tackle me to keep me from knocking on the door across the street at 9.30 at night.
00:14:31
Speaker
So I had four appointments yesterday.
00:14:32
Speaker
I closed all four of them.
00:14:34
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:14:35
Speaker
It was 65 kilowatts, and they were all self-generated.
00:14:38
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:14:39
Speaker
Incredible.
00:14:40
Speaker
But let me ask you a question.
00:14:41
Speaker
How in the world could I talk myself out of not knocking on a door at 9.30 at night
00:14:47
Speaker
when it leads to part of the day where you sold 65,000 Watts solar, $250,000 worth of sales and a five figure commission day.
00:14:58
Speaker
I mean, if my brain was operating properly, what would stop me from walking across the door at 930 at night and knocking on that guy's door?
00:15:08
Speaker
Like you would have to like literally tackle somebody if their mind was functioning properly.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:18
Speaker
really understand what was the value of walking across the street and do that.
00:15:25
Speaker
The problem is, is that our brain doesn't do that.
00:15:27
Speaker
Our brains are broken.
00:15:28
Speaker
Part of what, you know, you heard me talk about at D2DCon and what I'll be talking about at the sales summit in the D2D sales summit in Vegas on March 28th is,
00:15:37
Speaker
recognizing how our brain is broken and then what are the hacks to overcome a broken brain so that it's perceiving the situation correctly and then putting yourself into the kind of action that's appropriate to the situation that's really difficult to do but once you understand it and you do it you literally would have to tackle you you would have to tackle somebody to have them not knock on a door at 9 30 if they're perceiving the opportunity properly
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah.
Understanding Sales as Probability
00:16:06
Speaker
Cause yeah, I mean, it's like, if we know that's, especially when you're on a roll like that, before we close deals, who's going to not keep going, but it's like, what am I going to do tomorrow?
00:16:15
Speaker
Are you going to talk me out of not doing that tomorrow?
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:19
Speaker
Talk me into taking an hour out of my day to do a podcast.
00:16:22
Speaker
I'm like, I, okay, I'm going to block this hour out because what am I going to do?
00:16:27
Speaker
Say no to making a four figure amount in the next couple of hours.
00:16:31
Speaker
How do you talk yourself into that?
00:16:32
Speaker
I know people only knew it's behind that door.
00:16:35
Speaker
You got 10 grand in commissions waiting.
00:16:38
Speaker
I mean, it doesn't matter.
00:16:38
Speaker
I'll go knock on a door at two in the morning.
00:16:41
Speaker
If I know there's going to be a sale, there's going to be commissions.
00:16:45
Speaker
So we don't see a door and perceive that if you and I were in a truck and you know, uh, I drive around in a Ford F-150 that's in a go solar and
00:16:59
Speaker
you know, in a, in a ghost solar wrap, the billboard, you know, my thing, I like to pull up, uh, in front of somebody's pods with an open door, you know, circle around a neighborhood until I see a guy in a garage door, I pull up my truck, but one we on the sidewalk or leave it open and leave my truck and appear guys driveway where he's, you know,
00:17:26
Speaker
on a motor or whatever, I'm nearly out of breath because I have a reason for being here.
00:17:37
Speaker
If you understand what's happening and what the value of that opportunity is, if you and I were in that truck, Taylor, and I pulled $100 out of my wallet and I said, Taylor, if you will go into that garage and save me
00:17:55
Speaker
there's no world would like a solar quote is there and then as no because he's going to I'm gonna do $100 bill would you be able to not do that could you talk yourself I don't think so I don't think anyone would talk themselves out of doing it if you understood that I was gonna get out of the truck walk into a driveway
00:18:21
Speaker
confront this man working on his vehicle and ask him, there's no chance you want a solar quote, is there?
00:18:27
Speaker
Get the truck and get $100.
00:18:30
Speaker
I'd be like, you couldn't make me not do it.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:36
Speaker
But the problem is that's not how we perceive knocking on a door.
00:18:40
Speaker
But if you get into reality and figure out exactly what's going on, that's what you understand.
00:18:45
Speaker
So when I understand that I talk to about maybe seven or eight people before I get an appointment,
00:18:51
Speaker
And that, you know, if I suck on any given day, if I suck, I close one out of three of those.
00:18:56
Speaker
But on my rock star day, close four out of four in a day.
00:19:00
Speaker
Wow.
00:19:01
Speaker
And that out by the seven people that I talked to to get one appointment.
00:19:06
Speaker
I understood that I make $500 every time I knocked on the door.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:12
Speaker
And if I were to perceive that, how the hell could I stay in my truck?
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:16
Speaker
The problem is that it's difficult for me to perceive that.
00:19:20
Speaker
I have to do certain things every single day so that I perceive that correctly.
00:19:25
Speaker
I cannot stay in the truck when I'm perceiving that correctly.
00:19:30
Speaker
But I have to do two things.
00:19:31
Speaker
I have to overcome that.
00:19:33
Speaker
the negative emotions that are putting me into the neighborhood in my truck where I can knock on a door.
00:19:38
Speaker
I have to overcome things that happen to me all the time.
00:19:42
Speaker
And then B, I need to perceive that opportunity correctly.
00:19:45
Speaker
So I get out of my truck and go knock on the door.
00:19:47
Speaker
Those are very good things to do.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah, and that's huge.
00:19:51
Speaker
I think that's one of the biggest things I had to realize is once you actually start tracking your numbers, I started up in Corona, California.
00:20:00
Speaker
At first, it was just knocking mindlessly.
00:20:02
Speaker
And I think that's why reps get discouraged.
00:20:04
Speaker
I'm sure you've seen it.
00:20:05
Speaker
Because if they're thinking, oh, I just got to drag myself out of the car.
00:20:09
Speaker
I got to pull myself to a door.
00:20:11
Speaker
Maybe I make a sale today.
00:20:13
Speaker
Maybe not.
00:20:13
Speaker
Maybe I book an appointment.
00:20:15
Speaker
Then, of course, it's going to be much harder to...
00:20:17
Speaker
get out there and actually work.
00:20:19
Speaker
So that was one of the biggest secrets that I had to learn is just tracking those numbers and getting out.
00:20:24
Speaker
And I think you've got to even work that out.
00:20:27
Speaker
That's exactly right.
00:20:28
Speaker
And you have to understand that the perception and the reality don't match.
00:20:33
Speaker
And so you have to find ways to get yourself to understand and perceive the reality.
00:20:37
Speaker
Have you ever played Texas Holden?
00:20:38
Speaker
Have you ever played poker where you get, you know, two cards and they put out a flop and all that abuse of that game?
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:45
Speaker
Okay, so when you're in that game, they deal you two cards and you look at them, almost invariably, it's two crappy cards.
00:20:51
Speaker
You get a jack and a six and you're like, how am I supposed to play poker with a jack and a six?
00:20:56
Speaker
And you go, well, the answer to that is you're not supposed to play poker with a jack and a six.
00:20:59
Speaker
You're supposed to fold that hand.
00:21:01
Speaker
Take that as a no.
00:21:03
Speaker
You're supposed to receive and understand that's a no.
00:21:06
Speaker
I'm not playing that hand.
00:21:07
Speaker
And then you're supposed to wait until they deal the next can and you look at it and it's a queen and a three.
00:21:12
Speaker
And you're like, how am I supposed to play poker with a queen and a three?
00:21:15
Speaker
You can't.
00:21:15
Speaker
So you throw it away.
00:21:16
Speaker
That's a no.
00:21:16
Speaker
All right.
00:21:18
Speaker
And that the problem is, is that can be 20 times in a row that you look down at two crappy cards.
00:21:23
Speaker
Your brain starts to perceive that good cards are never coming ever again.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, that you're never going to look down and see an ace and an ace.
00:21:32
Speaker
It's over.
00:21:33
Speaker
Whatever you were doing the days before when that used to happen once in a while, it's over.
00:21:38
Speaker
Your brain perceives it incorrectly.
00:21:40
Speaker
The reality is every 20, 221 times that they deal you two cards, you're going to look down and see one of them is an ace.
00:21:48
Speaker
And then you're going to look at the other one and see that it's an ace.
00:21:52
Speaker
When that happens, you're going to perceive that to be something to be really lucky, like weirdly lucky, like, oh my God, both of these cards are an ace.
00:22:00
Speaker
It's at that point, you're going to need to employ your poker face, right?
00:22:03
Speaker
Hopefully you don't look like a guy who just looked at two aces, right?
00:22:06
Speaker
So you're going to hopefully have your poker face on because your emotion is going to be, holy Toledo, man, both of these cards are aces.
00:22:15
Speaker
Something really bizarre just happened.
00:22:17
Speaker
That's not.
00:22:18
Speaker
Every 221 times you're dealt two cards, you will see
00:22:23
Speaker
In fact, every 16 times that you're dealt a cards, you'll pick up one and it'll be an eight, and then you'll pick up the other one, and it's also an eight.
00:22:33
Speaker
That means you have a pair.
00:22:35
Speaker
That's a pretty good way to start a poker hand is if you're starting with two cards and they both match.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's a pair.
00:22:40
Speaker
It feels kind of weird that they both match, but if you do the match, you'll realize that happens every 16 times they deal you two cards.
00:22:50
Speaker
You're probably not going to win money with two eights in your hand.
00:22:54
Speaker
Right?
00:22:55
Speaker
Texas told them after the two cards are dealt, they put out three new cards that everybody gets to look at and play.
00:23:02
Speaker
And when you're playing cards and you have three of a kind, you know, you have a great hand.
00:23:06
Speaker
I'm probably going to win a lot of money.
00:23:08
Speaker
So you're praying secretly, a poker prayer.
00:23:11
Speaker
God, I hope one of those cards is also an eight.
00:23:14
Speaker
Three cards come out.
00:23:14
Speaker
There's no eight.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:16
Speaker
And the next time you have a pair, the three cards come out.
00:23:19
Speaker
There's no third card.
00:23:21
Speaker
And again, and again, and again, and again.
00:23:24
Speaker
And your brain starts to perceive that as if this doesn't ever really happen much.
00:23:30
Speaker
In fact, probably it may never happen at all.
00:23:33
Speaker
And your brain starts to like say, well, maybe I should play this queen in a six because I'm never going to get a good hand again.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:41
Speaker
You start having bad judgment because your brain is perceiving something incorrectly.
00:23:45
Speaker
If you understand the math and know that every eight times that you start with a pair,
00:23:51
Speaker
that there will be a third card that matches the other two in your hand.
00:23:56
Speaker
And if you're a poker player, the poker player parlance of that is I just flopped a set.
00:24:03
Speaker
And people in a poker game that just flop a set and hopefully don't look like they just flopped a set, they've just put their poker face on because on the inside they're going, oh my God, I just flopped a set.
00:24:16
Speaker
They got their poker face and they go,
00:24:19
Speaker
the world sucks.
00:24:20
Speaker
Nothing ever good ever happens to me.
00:24:23
Speaker
So they're going to
00:24:25
Speaker
almost always win that hand.
00:24:27
Speaker
They're going to win that hand like eight, nine, 10 out of 10.
00:24:30
Speaker
They have a monster and they're going to do a lot.
00:24:32
Speaker
But when you see someone at the table that has a set, they look to you to be really lucky or to be like a magical good poker player.
00:24:39
Speaker
When it happens to you and you're like, oh my God, I just swapped the set.
00:24:42
Speaker
You don't understand that happens every seven or eight times you have a matching pair in your hand.
00:24:48
Speaker
You're going to have a set and you're probably going to win a big pot.
Overcoming Sales Discouragement
00:24:51
Speaker
a good poker player understands that math and he brings that math to the situation so that he makes judgments based on that math.
00:24:59
Speaker
And as a salesperson, what we need to understand and you need to do your math.
00:25:03
Speaker
I've done mine.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:04
Speaker
Right.
00:25:05
Speaker
Four or five or six conversations I have.
00:25:07
Speaker
But I've been doing this a long time.
00:25:10
Speaker
I'm, I'm pretty good at it.
00:25:12
Speaker
I may be better at it than other people.
00:25:14
Speaker
So that's my math.
00:25:16
Speaker
But if your math is every 10 conversations or 11, you know,
00:25:23
Speaker
18 conversations that you have with a homeowner at the door, you end up with an appointment.
00:25:28
Speaker
You have just flopped a set.
00:25:29
Speaker
When a homeowner says to you and you've said, how about, you know, have our engineer do this and I'll come and show you your proposal and they go and you say, you know, does that sound good?
00:25:35
Speaker
Like, oh, that sounds pretty good.
00:25:37
Speaker
Bam.
00:25:38
Speaker
You just flopped a set.
00:25:39
Speaker
When they answer the door, you have a pair.
00:25:42
Speaker
And when they say that sounds good and they make an appointment, you just flopped the set.
00:25:47
Speaker
When they say that sounds good, it feels weird.
00:25:50
Speaker
It feels weirdly lucky, kind of strange, but it's not.
00:25:55
Speaker
Every seven or eight times I talk to someone at their door.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:01
Speaker
If my brain perceives that, you can't get me to stop jumping out of my truck and going knocking on the next door.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:26:12
Speaker
But most of the time, my brain is not in the process of perceiving that.
00:26:15
Speaker
So I have to construct ways to have my brain in the middle of perceiving that to get me to the door.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great comparison.
00:26:25
Speaker
I never thought of it like the poker.
00:26:27
Speaker
Not only you're a solar expert, you're a poker expert too.
00:26:32
Speaker
You bring it up into every situation, right?
00:26:34
Speaker
If you understand what the odds are or the probability of things,
00:26:40
Speaker
and you start dealing with the app instead of the way your brain perceives the situation, you're going to behave differently, and that's the idea.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
No, I definitely agree.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things.
00:26:53
Speaker
Took me a long time to learn, track the numbers, and I think that's how you improve it.
00:26:59
Speaker
You just got to be tracking, measuring, and then, of course, learn the little steps you need to take to improve it.
00:27:04
Speaker
And it's funny that even after –
00:27:07
Speaker
I mean, reps know this, I think.
00:27:09
Speaker
I think a lot of people do know that we should be tracking, but they still struggle with demotivation.
00:27:14
Speaker
They still struggle to get out on the doors.
00:27:16
Speaker
They still struggle to do the prospecting piece, stuff like that.
00:27:21
Speaker
Though, I mean, that's the big question.
00:27:22
Speaker
How have you?
00:27:23
Speaker
You've been in this industry forever.
00:27:25
Speaker
You've been in sales forever.
00:27:26
Speaker
So you know all this, but why do you think it is that reps still get discouraged even maybe knowing this?
00:27:32
Speaker
Why is there discouragement in this?
00:27:34
Speaker
the door-to-door industry, would you say?
00:27:36
Speaker
So number one is the thing that I just said.
00:27:38
Speaker
They're out there trying it and they're perceiving it incorrectly when you have, by the way, when I say one out of eight times you flop a set, in reality, you could go 20 or 30 times without flopping a set.
00:27:49
Speaker
But if you did it a thousand times and divided it the sets by hand, you'd see it happened every eight times.
00:27:54
Speaker
But that's not going to stop you from going 20 or 30 times without flopping a set.
00:27:58
Speaker
And now you're feeling like it's never going to happen again actually has evidence.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's wrong.
00:28:04
Speaker
The conclusion is wrong, but you actually have a good reason for thinking that.
00:28:08
Speaker
And so I think that causes discouragement.
00:28:09
Speaker
When you knock on doors for three hours without making an appointment, discouragement is going to set in.
00:28:17
Speaker
But I don't think that's the bulk of the problem.
00:28:20
Speaker
I think the bulk of the problem is that the real magic isn't happening.
00:28:24
Speaker
The real magic is someone actually being at the door.
00:28:29
Speaker
I think for most people in straight commission sales that don't have somebody cracking a whip behind them, watching them walk up to the door, because they're being paid by the hour or something like that, if it's truly on you, I think most solar sales reps are not on a door right now.
00:28:47
Speaker
I'm not.
00:28:48
Speaker
You're not.
00:28:49
Speaker
We had a couple of guys here and me that we just finished a sales meeting.
00:28:54
Speaker
We're not on doors right now.
00:28:55
Speaker
Why is that?
00:28:56
Speaker
Well, maybe we have a good reason, but I'll tell you what, every reason on the planet sounds like a really good reason to not be on a door right now because you know what?
00:29:05
Speaker
It's dark outside.
00:29:06
Speaker
It's cold outside.
00:29:09
Speaker
I have to call this guy.
00:29:11
Speaker
back who I've talked to three or four or five or six times should have thrown that name in the trash after he told me no the first time.
00:29:19
Speaker
We all have excellent reasons why we're not on a door right now.
00:29:23
Speaker
And that's the problem.
00:29:24
Speaker
The problem is, and you know what, the better we get at this, the worse it is.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:29
Speaker
The better salesperson you are, the less you think you should be prospecting.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:33
Speaker
The better closer you are, the less you're going to find yourself on a door.
00:29:37
Speaker
Why?
00:29:38
Speaker
Because we can get away with it.
00:29:39
Speaker
A great closer can have a good week with only three appointments because he's a great closer.
00:29:44
Speaker
He's going to sell two out of three.
00:29:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:46
Speaker
How do you look yourself in the mirror and say, if I can close two out of three, how the hell was I not in 12 appointments this week?
00:29:51
Speaker
What happened?
00:29:52
Speaker
True.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
And what happens is, is that we'll do anything in the world to avoid and have a good reason to not be on the next door.
00:30:01
Speaker
And, and there's two reasons for that.
00:30:03
Speaker
One of them is in our head and one of them is just out of the universe.
00:30:06
Speaker
We can't overcome it.
00:30:07
Speaker
What's in our head is we've been programmed to feel like rejection is a tragedy.
00:30:13
Speaker
Right?
00:30:14
Speaker
We think rejection is an epic, unbelievable, overcomable problem.
00:30:23
Speaker
We are wired.
00:30:24
Speaker
Our DNA is wired to avoid rejection.
00:30:28
Speaker
And when you're in the process of knocking on doors, I'm sorry, six out of seven people are going to say, no, you're going to suffer their rejection.
00:30:34
Speaker
Worse than that.
00:30:35
Speaker
One of those guys might be a complete a-hole.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:38
Speaker
So I'm out knocking on doors with,
00:30:44
Speaker
with Joseph the other day, and I'm across the street from a guy I sold a $90,000 solar system to.
00:30:50
Speaker
The guy's a big guy and sold him a solar.
00:30:53
Speaker
I'm across the street, his neighbors walking across his yard to go from the RV gate to the garage.
00:31:01
Speaker
And I said, excuse me, sir, do you know...
00:31:05
Speaker
Brian across the street and he looks at me like what I said excuse me do you know your neighbor Brian across the street we just put you know a hundred solar panels on his house I just wanted to meet you and drop off a car and he looks at me with dude I'm in the finance business you and I both know solar does not have a reasonable
00:31:39
Speaker
I said, well, excuse me.
00:31:41
Speaker
And he goes, you're in the street as a door-to-door salesman.
00:31:44
Speaker
How in the world could you possibly think you have the right to start a conversation with me?
00:31:49
Speaker
Don't tell me about my neighbor.
00:31:52
Speaker
Now, that's the guy who we're all afraid of.
00:31:55
Speaker
That guy, what did he do?
00:31:57
Speaker
He just shamed me.
00:31:58
Speaker
He made a big deal of himself and he made me to be a little guy.
00:32:01
Speaker
It's almost impossible not to take that on.
00:32:04
Speaker
This guy is right.
00:32:05
Speaker
He is a big guy.
00:32:05
Speaker
He's wrong that I'm not a big guy.
00:32:08
Speaker
He made a tragic mistake.
00:32:11
Speaker
He underestimated who I am, but that's fine.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's his prerogative.
00:32:15
Speaker
We are afraid that we're going to knock on a door and someone's going to open the door and grumble growling up Shane, your existence, a fricking sales guy.
00:32:25
Speaker
What the hell is this?
00:32:27
Speaker
You bothered me to come to my door because you're selling some shit.
00:32:31
Speaker
What's going on here?
00:32:32
Speaker
And we're just deathly afraid that this is going to happen.
00:32:34
Speaker
And I'll tell you what, that guy would have blown me out of the saddle.
00:32:40
Speaker
If I hadn't been using one of my hacks, so you have to hack the fact that your brain is afraid of that happening and the fact that it is going to happen.
00:32:51
Speaker
You have to have a hack that's going to overcome that.
00:32:54
Speaker
I happen to be lucky, not lucky, but I happen to be in the middle of employing one of my hacks.
00:32:58
Speaker
I had Joseph with me.
00:33:01
Speaker
And because Joseph was with me, one of my hacks is to always be knocking on doors with somebody else.
00:33:06
Speaker
He's showing you.
00:33:07
Speaker
somebody else how to do it he's showing somebody else how to make money all right so he happened to be with me i'm showing him how to knock because he was there instead of getting blown out of the saddle i showed off i go joe uh he's the guy we're worried about and he's the guy that's gonna do what keep us from knocking on the next door that's the guy that blows you out of the saddle if you find your ass back at starbucks yeah i said but you know what we're gonna do we're not gonna let that guy
00:33:34
Speaker
be the reason we're back at Starbucks.
00:33:36
Speaker
We're going to go knock on the next door.
00:33:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:39
Speaker
And you want to know the truth?
00:33:41
Speaker
I didn't knock on the next door because I didn't want him to see me walking up the driveway to the next door.
00:33:46
Speaker
I didn't want to look like a door to door guy.
00:33:49
Speaker
I walked three houses away and knocked on that door because I was feeling ashamed and I was scared that the next person was going to do that to me.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:58
Speaker
Thank you.
00:34:00
Speaker
But what I did instead of going to Starbucks is I showed off to the guy I was with and I said, come on, Joe, that's the guy who's going to get us to the next door.
00:34:08
Speaker
We went and knocked on the next door a half an hour later, an hour later, we had two more appointments.
00:34:14
Speaker
Wow.
00:34:16
Speaker
That should have, should have not happened because we had the right to go back to Starbucks after that.
Creating and Maintaining Sales Momentum
00:34:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:25
Speaker
So,
00:34:27
Speaker
We're dealing with this emotion of fear and we're dealing with this state of shame.
00:34:33
Speaker
I don't know about you, but when I'm not in the process of knocking on doors, I go to knock on my first door.
00:34:37
Speaker
I feel like I could throw up in the bushes.
00:34:41
Speaker
Don't laugh at that.
00:34:43
Speaker
Let me say that again.
00:34:44
Speaker
I just like hearing that because I feel that way too.
00:34:48
Speaker
I'm in my truck and I go to walk.
00:34:51
Speaker
to the very first door when I'm not in the process of knocking on doors, like I haven't done one yet.
00:34:58
Speaker
I feel like throwing up in the bushes.
00:35:01
Speaker
And I have a lot of evidence to support the fact that that's an irrational thing, but it doesn't matter that it's irrational.
00:35:07
Speaker
I feel like throwing up in the bushes.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
And that's about fear and that's about shame.
00:35:12
Speaker
So I have to find a way to overcome that.
00:35:14
Speaker
One of the hacks of overcoming that is to be a show off and have somebody with you that you're showing off in front of.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:21
Speaker
So anyway, we have to overcome those emotions of fear and shame, feeling like we're going to be embarrassed.
00:35:30
Speaker
I feel like a panhandler.
00:35:32
Speaker
When I'm walking up to a door for the first time, knocking on a door, I'll give you an experience I had two weeks ago.
00:35:37
Speaker
I was in Vegas right after D2D.
00:35:39
Speaker
A few weeks ago, I flew from Salt Lake to Vegas.
00:35:42
Speaker
I'm meeting with a brand new guy.
00:35:44
Speaker
I'm going to show him how to knock doors because I'm the legendary Michael Donald.
00:35:49
Speaker
Come on with me.
00:35:49
Speaker
We're going to knock on doors.
00:35:50
Speaker
It happens to be raining.
00:35:52
Speaker
If he hadn't been with me and I wasn't showing off and it was raining, do you think I'd have been knocking on doors in the rain?
00:36:00
Speaker
It would be tough.
00:36:01
Speaker
I've been through that.
00:36:01
Speaker
Probably.
00:36:03
Speaker
I don't know the answer to that, but I'm going to tell you this.
00:36:05
Speaker
Probably not.
00:36:06
Speaker
He and I went to an appointment.
00:36:08
Speaker
The appointment slipped.
00:36:09
Speaker
It's raining.
00:36:10
Speaker
We're standing at the door that's not answering.
00:36:12
Speaker
I was going to show him how to do a presentation.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I said to him, because I'm showing off, I'm with a guy.
00:36:16
Speaker
And I said, I said, Kurt, when we go to a door and it doesn't open and we find out we don't have an appointment for the next two hours, let me show you how we handle that.
00:36:27
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:36:28
Speaker
We go and we knock on some doors.
00:36:31
Speaker
I said, there's a gated community right across the street.
00:36:34
Speaker
It was a gated community that I was too afraid to sneak in and tailgate into.
00:36:39
Speaker
And I wanted sadly to knock this gated community with these gigantic houses.
00:36:43
Speaker
I said, Kurt, we're going to roll in behind here and we're going to go knock these gated doors.
00:36:47
Speaker
Let me tell you how we're going to do that.
00:36:48
Speaker
I'm going to show you.
00:36:50
Speaker
how the legendary Michael Donald goes through the gated community and then gets out and knocks on doors where he, you know, is afraid of getting arrested.
00:36:59
Speaker
The answer to that is I would have not been doing it if he wasn't with me.
00:37:03
Speaker
The hack is I got a guy with me.
00:37:05
Speaker
So I'm showing off.
00:37:06
Speaker
We go through the gated community.
00:37:08
Speaker
The very first door we knock on is a woman.
00:37:10
Speaker
Katie answers the door and she says, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:37:13
Speaker
It doesn't matter.
00:37:14
Speaker
And I say, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:37:15
Speaker
It doesn't
00:37:16
Speaker
matter and she says you know I think my husband I really want to take another look and we looked at solar city a year ago we didn't like it uh but it was a lease yeah sure let's look at a purchase I make the appointment with her
00:37:28
Speaker
And because I'm a three cooler guy, remember the Wolf of Wall Street?
00:37:31
Speaker
Are you a one cooler guy or a three cooler guy?
00:37:34
Speaker
Because I'm a three cooler guy and I'm showing off because if I hadn't been showing off, I probably would have called it a day and snuck the hell back out of this gated community.
00:37:42
Speaker
We knocked the other 22 homes that happened to be in this community and we wrote two more appointments.
00:37:48
Speaker
Nice.
00:37:49
Speaker
Well, we came back two days later and sold Katie and her husband a 22 kilowatt solar system in Las Vegas that would not have happened if I hadn't been showing off because I sure as hell probably wouldn't have been knocking on doors in the rain behind a gated door, behind a gated community.
00:38:04
Speaker
So, you know, those are.
00:38:07
Speaker
That's just the reality.
00:38:09
Speaker
And why wouldn't I have been behind that gated community if I was by myself in the rain?
00:38:17
Speaker
Two reasons.
00:38:18
Speaker
One, I would have been afraid.
00:38:20
Speaker
I would have been feeling anxiety.
00:38:21
Speaker
I would have been embarrassed to somehow be somewhere where technically I'm not supposed to be.
00:38:26
Speaker
But the other reason is because of inertia.
00:38:29
Speaker
So when I walked into that gated community,
00:38:32
Speaker
I'm like looking for a house that I can know a name of or a reason to knock on the door.
00:38:36
Speaker
So I have some sort of rap about why I'm in this gated community.
00:38:39
Speaker
I'm going to lie and say I have an appointment across the street and they're not home.
00:38:43
Speaker
Just wanted to drop off a card.
00:38:45
Speaker
I'm like going through this elaborate BS thing about why I'm on your street knocking on doors.
00:38:50
Speaker
And I'm scared and I'm looking down the street to see if anyone's coming.
00:38:53
Speaker
I'm thinking we're going to knock these three doors and run around the corner so that we're not near.
00:38:57
Speaker
We're knocking on doors in case somebody calls the cops.
00:39:01
Speaker
So we do that because I'm a three-cooler guy and I'm showing off.
00:39:05
Speaker
We keep knocking until we get three appointments.
00:39:06
Speaker
The last guy is right near the gate.
00:39:09
Speaker
in his driveway, tells me three times he needs to talk to his wife.
00:39:13
Speaker
I tell him three times, that's okay, we're gonna do the proposal and then we'll be back when you and your wife are good.
00:39:18
Speaker
Is she off on Wednesdays?
00:39:19
Speaker
You're both off on Wednesdays, so Wednesday night at six o'clock will probably work.
00:39:22
Speaker
Fantastic, we'll be back here on Wednesday night at six o'clock.
00:39:26
Speaker
I just wrote my third appointment behind this guarded gate.
00:39:28
Speaker
The difference between the guy who rolled into the gate and the guy who's standing there that just wrote up the third appointment is as I walked down his driveway,
00:39:37
Speaker
to where my truck was down the street, somebody's coming through the gate.
00:39:41
Speaker
Someone's coming through the gate right now.
00:39:43
Speaker
The guy who snuck into the thing an hour and a half ago is now standing in the middle of the street with my arm out, stopped traffic.
00:39:53
Speaker
He's stopping traffic.
00:39:54
Speaker
Who's the guy in the car coming through the gate?
00:39:57
Speaker
He's one of the doors that I knocked that wasn't home.
00:40:00
Speaker
Really?
00:40:01
Speaker
Sir, I'm sorry to bother you.
00:40:02
Speaker
I was just at your house.
00:40:04
Speaker
I just wanted to hand you a card.
00:40:07
Speaker
I'm selling solar to two of your neighbors.
00:40:09
Speaker
We're doing their design right now, and I just wanted to meet you.
00:40:11
Speaker
Here's a card.
00:40:12
Speaker
Wow.
00:40:13
Speaker
So, you know, I mean, they say if it's true, you're not bragging.
00:40:17
Speaker
I'm not bragging.
00:40:18
Speaker
I'm the guy who didn't want to go through the gate, who wouldn't have been knocking on the door, who would have been sneaking around the neighborhood.
00:40:25
Speaker
But once I overcame that, I'm the guy.
00:40:31
Speaker
walking into the middle street stopping traffic.
00:40:34
Speaker
That's bizarre.
00:40:35
Speaker
That's a bizarre transformation.
00:40:37
Speaker
The transformation is about overcoming the negative emotions associated with being a panhandler, scum of the earth, door to door guy in my mind that none of those things are true, but I'm afraid of the guy who's going to say that to me or make me feel that way to actually being in motion.
00:40:53
Speaker
The trick and the real thing is Newton's first law.
00:40:56
Speaker
You know what Newton's first law is in physics.
00:41:00
Speaker
Isn't it gravity always brings stuff down?
00:41:03
Speaker
The second law is gravity.
00:41:05
Speaker
That was his next law.
00:41:07
Speaker
Okay, that's first.
00:41:08
Speaker
It's that an object in motion tends to stay in motion.
00:41:12
Speaker
Oh, right.
00:41:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:13
Speaker
An object at rest tends to stay at rest.
00:41:19
Speaker
A salesman on the couch tends to stay on the couch.
00:41:25
Speaker
A salesman at Starbucks tends to stay at Starbucks.
00:41:30
Speaker
True.
00:41:31
Speaker
But a salesman who just came off a door tends to go to the next door.
00:41:37
Speaker
True.
00:41:38
Speaker
And so what the hack is about is a way to hack those negative emotions and a way to overcome the inertia.
00:41:45
Speaker
The energy, the force that keeps something at rest from not springing into motion is called inertia.
00:41:53
Speaker
We have to overcome inertia.
00:41:56
Speaker
The energy that overcomes the inertia is called momentum.
00:42:03
Speaker
The reason an object at motion tends to stay in motion is an energy and a force called momentum.
00:42:11
Speaker
The reason someone knocking on a door tends to knock on one more door and then another door is because they're taking advantage of momentum.
00:42:19
Speaker
Momentum builds on itself.
00:42:22
Speaker
If you can overcome the inertia and knock on the first door, overcome wanting to vomit in the bushes and get yourself to the next door, this thing called momentum is going to build.
00:42:35
Speaker
And before you know it, you're stopping traffic because what you have to say is freaking important.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:41
Speaker
You know, so those are just, those are natural things.
00:42:44
Speaker
They're things that we can't do anything about.
00:42:46
Speaker
When I gave my talk at D2DCon, there's, you know, a couple hundred people in the room, whatever I said, is there anybody here in this room that when they have not been knocking on doors, walks up a driveway to go to knock on a door that doesn't experience this rising out of their gut anxiety?
00:43:01
Speaker
Is there anyone in this room that doesn't experience this?
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, I remember that question.
00:43:06
Speaker
One guy raised his hand.
00:43:08
Speaker
I said, dude, you are the guy.
00:43:11
Speaker
You are the man.
00:43:13
Speaker
I remember that.
00:43:14
Speaker
And he was a great guy, I guess, but I mean, he kind of had that crazy look in his eye.
00:43:18
Speaker
He looked like a guy that didn't experience the same things most of us experience.
00:43:23
Speaker
The reality is every single person in that room, they were all experienced door knockers.
00:43:28
Speaker
all experience that feeling.
00:43:30
Speaker
How do you get yourself to knock on doors, even though you're one of 99 out of a hundred that experienced those feelings?
00:43:37
Speaker
You need a trick, you need a hack, you need a way to get over it.
00:43:39
Speaker
And that's, that's what we're talking about.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, and that was something that was really impressive about what you talked about.
00:43:45
Speaker
I know you talked about one of the comparisons you made was like doing just one push-up a day.
00:43:50
Speaker
You're not going to get down and just do one push-up a day.
00:43:53
Speaker
Right.
00:43:54
Speaker
Hopefully, if you can convince yourself to do one, then it's going to be a lot easier to do a couple sets because, yeah, it's just like you're saying.
00:44:01
Speaker
You're in the – Exactly right.
00:44:02
Speaker
Building that momentum.
00:44:04
Speaker
So one push-up a day is called a mini habit.
00:44:08
Speaker
That's right.
00:44:10
Speaker
The guy who wrote the book called Mini Habits.
00:44:13
Speaker
Oh, there it is.
00:44:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:44:16
Speaker
So the guy who wrote the book called Mini Habits is Stephen Geis.
00:44:20
Speaker
Stephen Geis.
00:44:21
Speaker
Cool.
00:44:21
Speaker
We'll link to that.
00:44:23
Speaker
He's famous for having to say, if you want to get in shape and be fit, do one push-up a day.
00:44:29
Speaker
Do not work out for 30 minutes or 40 minutes a day.
00:44:34
Speaker
You're not going to end up in shape.
00:44:35
Speaker
Do one pushup a day.
00:44:36
Speaker
So that sounds ridiculous, but it's a mini habit.
00:44:40
Speaker
What you'll find is if you get off your butt and get onto the ground and get your face into the dirty carpet and then do one pushup,
00:44:53
Speaker
it's irresistible to do one more pushup because you're in, you're now taking advantage of momentum.
00:44:59
Speaker
And by the way, I'm already fricking here.
00:45:01
Speaker
Why would I do one pushup?
00:45:02
Speaker
And so do you do one more?
00:45:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:04
Speaker
More times than not, you find yourself having done 10 or 20 and then you get up and you say, you know, I might as well stretch.
00:45:11
Speaker
And maybe why, why wouldn't I do 20 jumping jacks and do it, you know, so that's the, that's the mini habit for physical fitness is to do one pushup a
Importance of Aiming for 'No'
00:45:20
Speaker
day.
00:45:20
Speaker
What is your mini habit, Taylor, for getting yourself to get one no per day?
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, mine is ever since I heard you talk is just I know you talked about going to the appointments that you're around and just going to their neighbors, if anything, because in my case, I have our company has the setter closer model.
00:45:44
Speaker
So I have guys that are knocking that are setting up appointments that I can go to.
00:45:49
Speaker
So I spend a lot less time knocking, which is kind of a catch-22 because it makes it that much harder for me to go and knock.
00:45:55
Speaker
It's like you said, oh, I can just wait until someone sets up a deal for me and then go to that deal.
00:45:59
Speaker
So that's the downside of it.
00:46:01
Speaker
But what I've tried to start implementing is like you talked about, at least going, if I'm at an appointment, it's a no-show or what have you, go to the neighbors, right?
00:46:10
Speaker
And go across the street, go talk to those people.
00:46:14
Speaker
So I've thought about that a lot since you talked about it.
00:46:16
Speaker
Just what things can I do?
00:46:17
Speaker
And I think the other one, didn't you say you're like paying people to just come out and knock with you?
00:46:22
Speaker
Didn't you say like, those are, you nailed it.
00:46:25
Speaker
I mean, you were listening exactly.
00:46:26
Speaker
So those are two of my most effective mini habits.
00:46:31
Speaker
I would say the one where I cannot leave a neighborhood without getting a no.
00:46:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:37
Speaker
And going, unless I'm late for the next appointment, I'm not allowed.
00:46:41
Speaker
no matter what time it is to get one no before I leave the neighborhood.
00:46:45
Speaker
So why is it that I'm trying to get a no?
00:46:49
Speaker
Because Steven guys in many habits says, if you find yourself, I had the, I had the mini habit.
00:46:54
Speaker
I'm going to, I'm going to knock one door.
00:46:57
Speaker
I'm going to have one conversation before I leave the neighborhood.
00:47:02
Speaker
I found myself not do it.
00:47:03
Speaker
He says, if you find yourself not doing a mini habit is because the mini habit is not absurd enough.
00:47:08
Speaker
It's not ridiculous.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:11
Speaker
So the reason one pushup is famous is because it's absurd.
00:47:17
Speaker
It's ridiculous, but it's also absurd and ridiculous to not do it.
00:47:21
Speaker
If you had a goal of having one pushup a day and be able to look at a calendar and you had an X mark on 30 out of 30 days and you were like seriously jazzed about that accomplishment and that accomplishment was
00:47:35
Speaker
was at least one push-up a day, that would be an awesome, really cool accomplishment.
00:47:43
Speaker
But one push-up a day is absurd.
00:47:44
Speaker
So I realized that having a goal of getting one pitch at a door was not absurd enough.
00:47:51
Speaker
I had to change that mini habit.
00:47:53
Speaker
And this one works for me all the time.
00:47:56
Speaker
I must get one no.
00:47:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:59
Speaker
Because I'm a closer Taylor and I'm always trying to get a yes.
00:48:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:04
Speaker
And especially if I'm leaving a house with a 10 kilowatt contract, 30 grand sale, I'm feeling on top of the world.
00:48:10
Speaker
The last thing I want to do is crush that with rejection.
00:48:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:14
Speaker
And if I try to get a yes and someone tells me no, I've kind of, I've gone from a great mood to a kind of a bummed out mood.
00:48:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:21
Speaker
So that's the, so my brain was defective.
00:48:24
Speaker
It didn't understand this properly.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
So what I had to understand is I'm not trying to get a yes.
00:48:29
Speaker
I'm trying to get a no.
00:48:31
Speaker
I tell my doorknockers all the time, you're not trying to get yeses.
00:48:33
Speaker
You're trying to get noes.
00:48:35
Speaker
So I had to drink my own Kool-Aid and say, all right, I got to get one pitch in before I leave the neighborhood.
00:48:41
Speaker
What I need to do is get one no.
00:48:43
Speaker
When I think about going to a door and getting one no, it's absurd.
00:48:49
Speaker
But it's also too absurd to not try and do.
00:48:53
Speaker
I mean, I've literally been known, for me, I like to cut corners.
00:48:56
Speaker
I've literally been known to roll up to a guy walking his dog at 9 o'clock at night.
00:49:03
Speaker
Do you live in this neighborhood?
00:49:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I do.
00:49:06
Speaker
Hey, listen, one of your neighbors has our solar system.
00:49:09
Speaker
I saw you.
00:49:09
Speaker
I just wanted to make sure there's no chance you wanted a solar quote.
00:49:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, we're not.
00:49:14
Speaker
Hey, dude, really, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you telling me that, but I appreciate the no, and off I go.
00:49:20
Speaker
And I'm driving down the road, and I'm, like, bumping off the top of the roof of my Ford F-150 going, dude, I got the no.
00:49:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:27
Speaker
Okay, so my brain is perceiving properly now the value of having stopped that guy.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:34
Speaker
So that mini habit, I sat down and just tried to do a checkmark of how many, uh, that checkmark that, that mini habit made me at least $50,000 last year.
00:49:44
Speaker
One, no, one, no.
00:49:46
Speaker
After every appointment I can, I can pick out, uh, you know, a handful of sales that happened because I literally said to somebody, dude, there's no chance you want a solar quote is there.
00:49:58
Speaker
And I'd go, well, actually we're shopping right now.
00:50:00
Speaker
Or, you know, actually my wife told me to get a quote.
00:50:02
Speaker
I'm glad you stopped.
00:50:04
Speaker
You know, that's just random, but that's math.
00:50:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:08
Speaker
Incredible.
00:50:09
Speaker
So you change when you're trying to get a no, you get out on appointments.
00:50:12
Speaker
Do you change your pitch a little bit?
00:50:14
Speaker
You're actually like trying to get a no at that point.
00:50:17
Speaker
I mean, when I, when it's nine 30 at night and I really, really want to know, I'd actually try to get the no.
00:50:22
Speaker
And sometimes that doesn't work out.
00:50:24
Speaker
And the guy's like, well, actually I would like to quote, but when I'm at a door, I'm a closer.
00:50:28
Speaker
I can't not try to get.
00:50:30
Speaker
Exactly.
00:50:30
Speaker
But I need to understand that.
00:50:36
Speaker
not with the accomplishment.
00:50:38
Speaker
The accomplishment was propelling my ass up the walk and knocking on the door and then getting the no.
00:50:47
Speaker
The accomplishment is the no.
00:50:50
Speaker
And that's what I say, you have to understand what the money's for.
00:50:53
Speaker
I spend a lot of time with the guys that I work with having them understand what the money's for.
00:50:58
Speaker
So if I had a referral from a neighbor and the neighbor calls me and says, Mike, you did my neighbor's solar.
00:51:04
Speaker
I've been looking at the solar.
00:51:05
Speaker
I want solar.
00:51:06
Speaker
My neighbor says, you're the guy.
00:51:07
Speaker
Could we get together tomorrow night and could you do a design and get me written up for solar?
00:51:14
Speaker
So Taylor, I'm going to ask you a question.
00:51:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:51:17
Speaker
If I offered you $300, would you go take that appointment for me?
00:51:25
Speaker
Yes.
00:51:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:51:26
Speaker
You would, right?
00:51:27
Speaker
I mean, honestly, if I offered you $300, would you go take that appointment for me?
00:51:32
Speaker
Heck yeah.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah, you would.
00:51:34
Speaker
I mean, I would too.
00:51:35
Speaker
I would do it for 300 bucks.
00:51:37
Speaker
Who wouldn't do it?
00:51:38
Speaker
Then why the hell am I paying you $2,000 for someone who says yes?
00:51:44
Speaker
That's true.
00:51:45
Speaker
I don't know.
00:51:46
Speaker
Because the money is not for going to meet with someone and writing them up for solar.
00:51:51
Speaker
That is not what the money's for.
00:51:53
Speaker
Our brain perceives that because it's the event that triggers a check.
00:51:58
Speaker
But if I'm the owner of a solar company, and I am,
00:52:01
Speaker
And I had a guy that just needed his questions answered and a proposal shown to and write them up.
00:52:07
Speaker
I would pay you, you know, somewhere between 250 and $500 for an hour, hour and a half of your time to go to his house.
00:52:13
Speaker
So why the hell are you making a thousand, 1500, 2000, whatever the math works out to be, you know, on your, on your, on your,
00:52:23
Speaker
Car plant, why am I paying you that much money?
00:52:26
Speaker
And it's because that's not what the money is for.
00:52:29
Speaker
I paid you $500 because I had the guy who said I want solar.
00:52:32
Speaker
That's not what the money's for.
00:52:33
Speaker
The money is for the seven people that you had to talk to to get the appointment that said no.
00:52:38
Speaker
True.
00:52:39
Speaker
That's why I know that I get paid about $500 a no.
00:52:42
Speaker
Wow.
00:52:42
Speaker
Wow.
00:52:46
Speaker
$250, whatever it is.
00:52:46
Speaker
So you need to understand that the money is not for the yes.
Motivating Sales Teams
00:52:51
Speaker
I would not pay you.
00:52:52
Speaker
I would not pay you that much money to go show a design, answer their questions, and write them up.
00:53:00
Speaker
The money is for the seven guys who said no at the door and the three appointments you had and two of them said no and one of them got written up.
00:53:07
Speaker
The money is for the seven guys at the door and the two that you visited that said no.
00:53:12
Speaker
That's why I'm paying you $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, whatever that number is.
00:53:17
Speaker
That's why you're getting paid that money.
00:53:19
Speaker
It's important to get your brain to understand that.
00:53:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:53:23
Speaker
And yeah, it's something, I mean, I've done it a couple of times before, but yeah, I don't even think about that anymore.
00:53:29
Speaker
So I think it's worth going through those numbers and doing the math because that's true.
00:53:34
Speaker
What a, what a huge mind shift.
00:53:36
Speaker
You can get your mind to think, okay, I'm making 500 bucks.
00:53:39
Speaker
I just made 500 bucks.
00:53:40
Speaker
Someone said no.
00:53:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:43
Speaker
So it's the difference between can't get out of the truck.
00:53:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:47
Speaker
And can't keep myself from getting out of the truck.
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:51
Speaker
The difference from skulking up to a door that I just, you know, crashed the guarded gate or whatever, and walking out and stopping traffic.
00:54:03
Speaker
The difference is understanding and perceiving that accurately versus inaccurately.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:54:12
Speaker
Well, thanks, Mike.
00:54:12
Speaker
That's some huge shifts that I realized that I need to make and go back and review.
00:54:17
Speaker
Because, yeah, it's just – and I think it's little things like that that we forget over time, too.
00:54:22
Speaker
Because, yeah, everyone's heard – I think most people have heard track your numbers.
00:54:26
Speaker
But, like, how many reps have actually sat down and figured out how much every no is worth?
00:54:31
Speaker
Right.
00:54:31
Speaker
How much – what the math is?
00:54:33
Speaker
How much are you making hourly?
00:54:35
Speaker
So I think that's a huge shift that reps can make and how –
00:54:38
Speaker
we can find that extra motivation and hopefully last as long as you and all have gray gray in our beard someday and still be doing this.
00:54:45
Speaker
That's what would you like to make $50,000 more this year right now?
00:54:48
Speaker
You Taylor?
00:54:50
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:50
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:51
Speaker
Add one, add one more mini habit.
00:54:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:53
Speaker
All right.
00:54:55
Speaker
Big time Taylor who has all these centers out working for him because he's a time closer.
00:55:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:02
Speaker
Get real and make an appointment once a week.
00:55:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:08
Speaker
with a door knocker and you go be the big time guy.
00:55:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:14
Speaker
Make an appointment once a week with one door knocker and go show him how it's done.
00:55:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:20
Speaker
He's gonna get to go out with the big time closer and go knock doors.
00:55:24
Speaker
I like that.
00:55:25
Speaker
It's a hack.
00:55:26
Speaker
One thing, you're gonna set the appointment for three o'clock at Starbucks.
00:55:31
Speaker
All right, spend a half an hour getting a coffee and talking to the guy.
00:55:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:37
Speaker
I'll be talking to you.
00:55:38
Speaker
Make a friend, make a friend, have him call you when he gets good appointments.
00:55:41
Speaker
Hey, I just made a great appointment.
00:55:42
Speaker
Call the boss and ask him to give this appointment to you.
00:55:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:46
Speaker
So make an appointment at Starbucks, spend 30 minutes, make a friend, have him be your bird dog and then go out knocking on doors with them.
00:55:54
Speaker
Don't do it for four hours.
00:55:55
Speaker
Go do it for two hours.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:58
Speaker
Can you knock on doors for two hours a week?
00:56:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:02
Speaker
Don't here's the hack.
00:56:03
Speaker
Don't do it alone.
00:56:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:06
Speaker
Never knock on doors alone.
00:56:08
Speaker
Always schedule that door knocking to happen with your brother, your cousin, your next door neighbor.
00:56:16
Speaker
Something we don't realize, are you a 1099?
00:56:17
Speaker
Are you paid straight commission?
00:56:21
Speaker
Well, our company switched to W2s.
00:56:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:24
Speaker
But most salespeople, you know, we're all on commission.
00:56:27
Speaker
If you're on commission, you're your own company.
00:56:28
Speaker
Most of us are on 1099, which means that technically, technically, we are a business.
00:56:35
Speaker
True.
00:56:35
Speaker
So add one person to your company.
00:56:38
Speaker
One.
00:56:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:40
Speaker
So my, the company that I helped start and I'm one of the owners of is called sun solar solutions, but I am my own business because I'm a 1099 sales guy.
00:56:52
Speaker
And so I have just, I have a mini habit.
00:56:55
Speaker
I schedule, I don't schedule time to knock on doors.
00:56:57
Speaker
I'm too big time for that.
00:56:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:00
Speaker
And I really am by the way.
00:57:02
Speaker
I knock on doors in between appointments.
00:57:04
Speaker
I have three appointments, four appointments every day.
00:57:07
Speaker
I am too big time to go knock on doors for four hours a day, five days a week.
00:57:12
Speaker
I am big time.
00:57:13
Speaker
So I don't do that.
00:57:14
Speaker
So I knock on doors for two hours a week as a door knocker.
00:57:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:19
Speaker
All right.
00:57:20
Speaker
As scheduled.
00:57:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:22
Speaker
door knocker, me, Mike O'Donnell door knocker, not Mike O'Donnell closer.
00:57:27
Speaker
I'm going to schedule at least two, and I may do that two or three times a week.
00:57:31
Speaker
Why the hell would I not for crying out loud?
00:57:33
Speaker
But I'm going to do that with somebody else.
00:57:34
Speaker
We're going to go knock on doors together.
00:57:36
Speaker
And that's maybe a door knocker in the company.
00:57:38
Speaker
That might be somebody I'm trying to show how to do it, recruit, how to do it, whatever, whatever, whatever.
00:57:43
Speaker
But I'm going to make an appointment to meet them at Starbucks at 3.30 and then we're going to knock on doors from four to six o'clock.
00:57:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:50
Speaker
And then I'm going to give that guy the appointment.
00:57:54
Speaker
When I say I pay them to go with me, it's that guy's appointment, not mine.
00:57:59
Speaker
I'm not a door knocker for Christ's sakes.
00:58:02
Speaker
So I'm too big time for the appointment.
00:58:05
Speaker
I'm too magnanimous.
00:58:07
Speaker
The appointment, I'm going to hand the appointment to him.
00:58:09
Speaker
It's his appointment.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:11
Speaker
Whatever the cents per this dollars per cent, whatever per cent.
00:58:15
Speaker
It's his, not mine.
00:58:17
Speaker
Now I'm going to make sure I get the appointment.
00:58:20
Speaker
I'm going to go run the appointment.
00:58:24
Speaker
And so there is no salesperson in all of solar who doesn't make enough per sale.
00:58:30
Speaker
Pay a guy, you know, a hundred bucks, 200 bucks, 500 bucks, whatever that number is, or per watt per sale, whatever, to go with him and knock on doors and make a point.
00:58:42
Speaker
So, you know, grow your company.
00:58:45
Speaker
You are the company.
00:58:46
Speaker
You are an entrepreneur.
00:58:47
Speaker
You're working on commission.
00:58:49
Speaker
Grow your company.
00:58:50
Speaker
Have somebody go to work for you four hours a week or whatever.
00:58:54
Speaker
That means go at Starbucks, go knock on doors for two hours, four hours, whatever, together.
00:58:58
Speaker
Do that once a week, twice a week, three times a week.
00:59:00
Speaker
You're going to make appointments because you'll be showing off.
00:59:04
Speaker
Keep knocking on doors after that a-hole blows you out of the price to blow you out of the
00:59:09
Speaker
And you're still going to be knocking on doors a half an hour later when the appointment happens, all because of the hack.
00:59:14
Speaker
The hack was have a guy with you and be shut off.
00:59:18
Speaker
I like that.
00:59:19
Speaker
So, Mike, what would you say?
00:59:21
Speaker
I know not everyone maybe is in that situation where they're like managing and.
00:59:25
Speaker
where they would go knock with other people.
00:59:27
Speaker
What about just like normal reps that maybe they're demotivated, but their company is only having them go out and knock by themselves.
00:59:35
Speaker
What do you say?
00:59:35
Speaker
What sort of hack would you recommend?
00:59:37
Speaker
Well, by the way, you could pay your cousin to come with you.
00:59:41
Speaker
Pay him 10 bucks an hour just to keep you company.
00:59:44
Speaker
And when I turn to you, hand me a business card at the door.
00:59:46
Speaker
Don't say a word.
00:59:48
Speaker
By the way, you'll be learning how to do this and maybe you might find you could be big time like me someday in the solar industry, whatever.
00:59:53
Speaker
So nobody can't not have somebody with them.
00:59:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:59:57
Speaker
Anybody can take on the initiative of have somebody go with them to keep them company or pay them whatever per hour just to hold your business cards or whatever.
01:00:06
Speaker
So that's number one.
01:00:06
Speaker
But number two is it's just about momentum.
01:00:09
Speaker
Create the mini habit that gets you to Starbucks at 3.30.
01:00:13
Speaker
every day or whatever days per week you're doing this, create the mini habit that you are going to be at Starbucks at 3.30.
01:00:20
Speaker
And then you are going to be on one door and get one no, you know, at four o'clock or whatever that is and get yourself in motion.
01:00:28
Speaker
After that, it's absolutely easy.
01:00:30
Speaker
You don't need to convince yourself to stay in motion.
01:00:33
Speaker
You're in motion.
01:00:35
Speaker
At that point, you have to decide, you know what's going to stop you next?
01:00:41
Speaker
You got yourself to Starbucks.
01:00:42
Speaker
You got yourself to the neighborhood.
01:00:45
Speaker
And you knocked on 6, 7, 10, 12, whatever doors.
01:00:47
Speaker
Now you have an appointment.
01:00:48
Speaker
Oh, my God, I got an appointment.
01:00:49
Speaker
What happened?
01:00:50
Speaker
No, just math.
01:00:51
Speaker
Math happened.
01:00:52
Speaker
All right, now you have an appointment.
01:00:53
Speaker
You know what's going to stop you next?
01:00:54
Speaker
What's that?
01:00:55
Speaker
You need another hack for this?
01:00:58
Speaker
Now you have an appointment.
01:00:59
Speaker
You've accomplished what you set out to do.
01:01:02
Speaker
And now you're going to have to figure out –
01:01:04
Speaker
You know, in the Wolf of Wall Street, Gordon Belfort, when he said, at that point, you have to ask yourself, am I a one cooler guy?
01:01:15
Speaker
Or am I a three or four cooler guy?
01:01:17
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:19
Speaker
After you get yourself to Starbucks, get out there and get an appointment, get a second appointment.
01:01:23
Speaker
Sometimes it's really hard to keep going because, holy, I just crushed, man.
01:01:27
Speaker
I just got two appointments.
01:01:28
Speaker
I'm going to sell one of them.
01:01:29
Speaker
I just made a four-figure dollar amount.
01:01:32
Speaker
I should go back to Starbucks.
01:01:34
Speaker
I should go home.
01:01:35
Speaker
I should go see my girlfriend.
01:01:37
Speaker
I should, whatever.
01:01:39
Speaker
At that point, you're going to need a hack that's going to get you to just get one more no.
01:01:44
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, I've decided to leave.
01:01:46
Speaker
By the way, every time I decide to go back to Starbucks, I can't go back to Starbucks unless I get one more no.
01:01:53
Speaker
Not a yes, not an appointment.
01:01:56
Speaker
If you say to yourself, I'm going to keep knocking until I get one more appointment, you're pretty much, you're probably done.
01:02:02
Speaker
If you say to yourself, you know what, I'm going to get one more no, and be okay with yourself if you get one no and call it a day or whatever,
01:02:11
Speaker
But the problem is, or the actual thing is, is once you go to get one more no, you're going to find you knocked on three more doors or 10 or 12, or you just, you know, you caught that second wind.
01:02:22
Speaker
Somebody said yes, and you caught fire and you find out you're still knocking on doors an hour and a half later and had three more appointments or something like that.
Preview of Upcoming Sales Summit
01:02:30
Speaker
So,
01:02:31
Speaker
you know, that to the, to the individual rep, those are the things that they're dealing with.
01:02:34
Speaker
They, they've, they've got to overcome inertia and then they got to figure out once they're getting an appointment or two, you know, am I going to be a superstar or just a run of the mill guy?
01:02:44
Speaker
How do I hack myself into getting, you know, two more appointments and have a four appointment day?
01:02:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:50
Speaker
Crazy.
01:02:51
Speaker
Well, that's some genius stuff.
01:02:52
Speaker
I've definitely taken my notes here.
01:02:54
Speaker
I got my, uh,
01:02:56
Speaker
forgot my notebook so I took out my scrap of paper but but yeah you shared some uh some sweet hacks and definitely something I'm gonna implement yeah I think it's just built off what you talked about at door-to-door con and I think definitely some huge secrets you've taught us here and I know we're short on time Mike but uh you're doing some stuff with with um the the summit you're doing and all that and big tell tell us a little bit about that yeah so I'll be with uh Sam and the guys there's one uh
01:03:26
Speaker
you know, superstar closer from each industry.
01:03:29
Speaker
So I'm the solar guy.
01:03:30
Speaker
We've got that, uh, Ian is going to be there.
01:03:33
Speaker
Uh, Ian went, and then we've got the, uh, the guy from, uh, pest control and the various different segments.
01:03:41
Speaker
There's one of each of us that are going to be there on February.
01:03:43
Speaker
I'm sorry, on March 28th.
01:03:45
Speaker
So the thing that we can't do in a one hour podcast or that I can't do from, uh,
01:03:50
Speaker
A one hour, you know, from a time slot at D2D to talk is we can't get into the nuts and the bolts of what the heck do you actually say at the door?
01:04:00
Speaker
And then more important than that or as important than that, what do we say in the presentation when the customer who you can tell is excited and they're all fired up?
01:04:12
Speaker
And they're starting to froth at the mouth about how compelling.
01:04:16
Speaker
And they just said to you, oh, my God, why isn't everyone solar?
01:04:20
Speaker
Don't you love it when you get through the presentation and the customer says, oh, my God, how come everyone on this block isn't solar?
01:04:28
Speaker
Solar, it should be a law.
01:04:30
Speaker
I always had a dollar for every time someone said it should be a law.
01:04:33
Speaker
Everybody should be solar.
01:04:34
Speaker
And they're going to explain to me why we're not going to write up solar today.
01:04:37
Speaker
We're going to do it on a different day.
01:04:39
Speaker
So what do you actually say when that guy says to you, oh, my God, it should be a law.
01:04:44
Speaker
Everybody should have to be solar.
01:04:47
Speaker
And it's that look in the eye.
01:04:48
Speaker
Oh, my God, I just showed the salesman my non-poker face.
01:04:53
Speaker
And he's going to realize he should be closing me for solar.
01:04:56
Speaker
And then he gets nervous and he says to me this.
01:04:59
Speaker
We've all heard this a thousand times.
01:05:01
Speaker
Are you going to email this to me?
01:05:04
Speaker
I hate that.
01:05:05
Speaker
Are you going to email this?
01:05:06
Speaker
Am I going to have this proposal so that I can give it the due diligence and time that it deserves?
01:05:14
Speaker
And every salesman in the world knows what that means.
01:05:16
Speaker
What does that mean?
01:05:18
Speaker
What does it mean?
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's what we hear in our nightmares once you've been in this industry.
01:05:23
Speaker
It means we ain't signing up solar today.
01:05:26
Speaker
Exactly.
01:05:27
Speaker
And by the way, that's actually the job of a closer hasn't even started yet.
01:05:32
Speaker
We could have sent a YouTube video to get him understanding.
01:05:36
Speaker
Oh, wow.
01:05:36
Speaker
Solar is compelling.
01:05:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:42
Speaker
The job of a closer just started.
01:05:46
Speaker
The only reason you're there is so that you're there when that guy says, are you going to email this to me?
01:05:52
Speaker
That's the moment when we understand why we didn't send a YouTube video.
01:05:57
Speaker
We sent a killer whale shark with a supercomputer.
01:06:04
Speaker
for a brain to transform that moment into 30 minutes later, walking out the doors with signatures on a contract and that guy's going solar.
01:06:13
Speaker
The guy needs you to be that guy because he's not going to end up solar if you're not that guy, but you have to learn how to be that guy.
01:06:19
Speaker
What are you going to say right then?
01:06:24
Speaker
that changes that moment from, Oh, would it be okay if I called you on Friday or whatever that thing is?
01:06:31
Speaker
What are you going to say right now that changes it from that to you and him doing paperwork?
01:06:36
Speaker
That's actually closing.
01:06:37
Speaker
That's why you're there.
01:06:39
Speaker
That's your job.
01:06:40
Speaker
You're going to have to do things that are uncomfortable.
01:06:43
Speaker
You're going to have to say things to him that are uncomfortable for you to say and are uncomfortable for him to hear.
01:06:50
Speaker
But that's why we sent you instead of a YouTube video.
01:06:54
Speaker
Exactly.
01:06:55
Speaker
So what we're going to do in the summit is get down to the nuts and the bolts of what do you say then?
01:07:00
Speaker
What do you, what are the constructs of what transforms that guy from that guy to the signed up guy?
01:07:08
Speaker
So you got to bring a toolbox into that meeting.
01:07:12
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:07:13
Speaker
And you got to have, you know, two, three, four, five, six tools in that toolbox.
01:07:19
Speaker
So when this tool takes a hammer, you put out the hammer, don't hit the guy with it, but you hit the nail on the head and drive that nail into the board and sign paperwork.
01:07:29
Speaker
Now that's what we're going to talk to.
01:07:31
Speaker
That's what we're going to talk about at the sales summit.
01:07:33
Speaker
When you're at the door and the guy says, I got to talk to my wife.
01:07:39
Speaker
Sounds great.
01:07:39
Speaker
I'm glad you spent 15 minutes on my door straight commission.
01:07:43
Speaker
And now that you've done that, can I set an appointment?
01:07:45
Speaker
No, I got to talk to my wife.
01:07:48
Speaker
Are you kidding me?
01:07:49
Speaker
You need to talk to your wife to commission an estimate?
01:07:51
Speaker
What uncomfortable things am I going to say right then to get the appointment?
01:07:57
Speaker
And when the guy says, you're going to email this to me, what uncomfortable things am I going to say then so that I walk out the door with a contract instead of a...
01:08:05
Speaker
BS, maybe call you some day thing.
01:08:07
Speaker
So anyway, that's what the summit's about.
01:08:09
Speaker
We're going to be there for days and days and days, and we're going to actually do it, actually run through it, maybe do it for real.
01:08:16
Speaker
That's what's going to happen at the sales summit in Vegas on March 28th.
01:08:20
Speaker
That sounds incredible.
01:08:21
Speaker
And I know there's, I think it's what, only 15 people per industry, something like that.
01:08:26
Speaker
Right.
01:08:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:26
Speaker
It's going to be real limited.
01:08:27
Speaker
It's going to be one-on-one.
01:08:28
Speaker
We're just going to be one-on-one.
01:08:30
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:31
Speaker
For those that want to find out more, do you know if there's still spots available or where people can go to find out more about that?
01:08:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:37
Speaker
All they got to do is email Sam and either here or one of his experts will ping you back and tell you what it's, it's, it costs nothing.
01:08:44
Speaker
It's like two grand for the whole three days or whatever.
01:08:48
Speaker
It's, it's literally almost nothing to do it.
01:08:51
Speaker
Two grand for stuff you'll learn that'll probably make you an extra 50 grand during the year.
01:08:55
Speaker
So in the first one hour, you're back home.
01:08:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:59
Speaker
One hour you're back.
01:09:00
Speaker
Something that will happen that will cover the two grand.
01:09:02
Speaker
Oh yeah.
01:09:03
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:09:04
Speaker
Cool.
01:09:04
Speaker
So we'll link to that, but I know that's probably on Sam's website and all that door to door.
01:09:09
Speaker
I would just go ahead, go ahead, email Sam at D to D experts and he'll get back to you or have somebody get back to you with the whole sum.
01:09:17
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:18
Speaker
Awesome.
01:09:18
Speaker
Well, I know we barely scratched the surface here and you shared with us just some cool, some awesome tips, things we can do, but hopefully we can have you back on maybe in the future to talk about closing.
01:09:29
Speaker
I know you're a wealth of knowledge, so I appreciate you being on the show, Mike, and looking forward to continuing to learn from you and hearing what you're doing and anywhere you want to point people to where they can connect with you more, learn more about what you're doing.
01:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
01:09:45
Speaker
They can always get ahold of me on my email.
01:09:47
Speaker
It's Michael at sun, solar solutions.com.
01:09:50
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:50
Speaker
On Facebook, Michael O'Donnell.
01:09:53
Speaker
I'm not cool enough to have some cool Twitter, Instagram thing happening, but get ahold of me on my email.
01:10:00
Speaker
You can also call me on my cell or text me on my cell.
01:10:03
Speaker
My cell is 602-818-1355.
01:10:08
Speaker
Just get ahold of me.
01:10:09
Speaker
We'll, we'll, I'd love to talk to her or chat with, with anybody.
01:10:12
Speaker
That's
Listener Interactions and Closing Thoughts
01:10:13
Speaker
awesome.
01:10:13
Speaker
Look at that.
01:10:14
Speaker
He's given out his personal cell number.
01:10:15
Speaker
So hopefully you don't get people blowing you up, but I talked to a kid named Roman sat next to him at dinner at the VIP dinner at D to D a guy actually texted me and called me and I spent about half an hour on the phone the other night, great kid up in Canada.
01:10:34
Speaker
And he was like, okay, I started reading, thinking grow rich.
01:10:37
Speaker
What do I do next?
01:10:38
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:10:39
Speaker
So,
01:10:40
Speaker
Yeah, we're giving, and that's how you're going to get it back.
01:10:43
Speaker
Good to be with you, Taylor.
01:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, appreciate you again, Mike, and we'll look forward to connecting more.
01:10:48
Speaker
Thanks again for being on the show.
01:10:49
Speaker
You bet.
01:10:50
Speaker
All right, see you.
01:10:52
Speaker
Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur podcast.
01:10:57
Speaker
Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
01:11:05
Speaker
It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
01:11:14
Speaker
And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the Solarpreneur group for more daily content that's going to impact you and help you take
01:11:22
Speaker
your sales game to the next level.
01:11:24
Speaker
See you guys in the next episode.