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Shitfting Tides in the 2025 Solar Industry - Jeramie Rose
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Jeramie Rose is back again on today's podcast to touch base on the rapid developments we've noticed in the solar industry. We go through the logistics and scale commercial solar, the rise of the RSA, and surprising market trends that everyone needs as a frame of reference for their careers going forward.
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Success in Solar Sales
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:18
Speaker
I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Solopreneurship and Mastery
00:00:30
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one. Hi, what's up, everybody? We are here in studio. Got an exciting guest that's coming on, not once, but for the second time now on the podcast.
Jeremy Rose on Solar Industry Changes
00:00:50
Speaker
So Mr. Jeremy Rose in the house with us. Thanks for coming back for the second time, Jeremy. Thanks for having me again. I mean, you know what's crazy? What was It's been about a year. Yeah, I think so. Since we met. Yeah.
00:01:02
Speaker
It's completely different. Yeah. A few months later, we're in a whole new world. Yeah. And so I'm excited to go back through it again with you. And I remember the first time we went through quite a bit. We have been a
Unexplored Topics from First Episode with Jeremy
00:01:14
Speaker
little bit. So we'll link the first podcast in the show notes for anyone that hasn't listened.
00:01:18
Speaker
But even the first one, there's quite a bit we didn't get to. and we're like, oh, have to plan a second podcast. And we had to kind of, you know, commercial solar, some stuff we want to talk about. But then now looking back, it's like there's a ton of new stuff that's happened. You're like, wow, we have like 10 other things we can talk about um since in the year that's happened.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, since since the all the political changes, it changed the landscape a little bit. Some of the things we hinted out the first time I was on is ah now in full effect, and it's just different. So I'm excited to be on and answer whatever questions you guys have. And if there's any guys out there in solar that are
New Opportunities in Fringe Solar Areas
00:01:54
Speaker
trying to learn and...
00:01:55
Speaker
figure out new things. There is a lot of fringe areas where you can win that maybe weren't a big deal last time we met. There's a lot of good stuff. So i I'm pretty excited to go through it.
00:02:08
Speaker
I'm excited to see you still going yeah and the company you're with still going. I mean, I've seen, so everyone knows I've been doing this 12 years and I have seen, i can't tell you how many companies have Yeah. Come to SoCal, tons of money, millions of dollars. Yeah.
00:02:24
Speaker
Go out of business in two years. Another one comes, they go out of business. They all go out of business. Yeah. Somehow here we are 12 years later, we're still doing it. and I know. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
It's crazy, man. Things are changing. Seems like almost daily, um, with everything going on, but yeah, glad to see, uh, maybe it'll just be me and you standing eventually. guys There's going to be a lot of consolidation and a lot of coming together on the larger side of the industry, but we've still got some time before before that.
00:02:54
Speaker
We're still good. Yeah, should be good. Yeah. Well, um yeah. So it's been, like you said, I think about a year since our first podcast. And so last time, I mean, you were doing quite a bit, but yeah, I guess let's catch up our our audience that listened the first podcast.
Jeremy's Shift to Smaller Solar Business
00:03:10
Speaker
What's new with you, man? What are you what do you owe doing mostly right now since we last talked So last time we talked, i what's happened with me a lot in my career is I've been picked up to do consulting for larger companies. and And when they buy a solar company or something like that, they'll bring me in to help them build up and scale. And yeah I've probably been a part of every big company, not all of them, a handful of them that you know about that that I've been a part of those. So since then, I've been able to get away from that and focus on my thing, which is smaller, normal little sales and install, but there's a lot.
00:03:44
Speaker
The traditional way or what a lot of guys are used to, the big volume, it's go out, knock doors, sell the easiest thing, which is probably a PPA, a big PPA. Do as many of those you can on repeat, yeah um which is not a bad model. But now you're you're going to have you're going to have to learn more options as the end of the year comes.
00:04:02
Speaker
the The bigger companies almost have like this tight grip on market share and moving forward. And so they're going to get tighter and tighter on how you can perform within those products. Yeah.
00:04:13
Speaker
So you're going to want to have a variety of products. um i do I've done a training for years. It's kind of the same. It's changed a little bit over the time, but it's differentiating a closer from a true professional.
00:04:26
Speaker
And that's not always skill, man. It's not always like the professional is more skilled than the closer. Yeah. it's He has more tools to work with and knows how to use them. And and it's not a big stretch from one to the other. Yeah.
00:04:39
Speaker
I think that's going to come alive at the end of the year like crazy. um and And seeing all those things you can be doing yeah to win even more, um you know, regardless of where you work. I keep this agnostic. So regardless of where you work, this is things you can do.
00:04:54
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah. Well, that's something I always, um, you know, hit you up what what you're really good at Jeremy's you're super well connected, you know, a lot of people in the industry. So Jeremy's kind of like my go-to guy when I get stuck on things and yeah, matter of fact, we'll have to talk more after this, but just text him the other day when,
00:05:12
Speaker
um had a super weird, but had a Spanish a Mexican family. We're trying to do a PPA for, but and turns out we're trying to do it through Enfin and they only, um I guess our company is only approved to do English deals through them.
00:05:28
Speaker
then we try to do the welcome call. Of course they didn't pass it cause they noticed that they don't speak great, great English. And so it's just like little things like that. Like I didn't, I didn't really know that. I'm like, uh, it's gotta be a different solution.
00:05:41
Speaker
So there's like little things like that where the closers, it's not necessarily all about the sales skill because there's a lot of great closers out there where if they don't know these little things like these, they can cost them deals just like that. Yeah. like not really what you article to use and Highly accomplished closer. If there was a Spanish agreement there, that's a done deal, right? Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
So simple as that. Yeah. You just got to know where the Spanish agreements are and you get that one. Yeah. That's the difference. Right. So, so, so yeah, we'll get into that. Um, but yeah, I think we can talk and before we started recording, um, I think we can focus, um, on the commercial side.
Residential Solar Association's Role
00:06:17
Speaker
A lot of people I think that listen to podcasts.
00:06:19
Speaker
Myself included, we haven't done a lot of commercial deals. So I think it'd be cool to just hear from you how people can get started in that. know, Neil, you're pretty involved in the Is that where they're adding batteries to it, right? Is it still RSA? Yeah, it's RSA. It's called Residential Solar Association.
00:06:36
Speaker
It'll probably be called Residential Storage and Solar Association soon. Something like that. It's like i'm getting a little bit of a facelift. But ah RSA, anyone in the industry needs to get involved with that.
00:06:49
Speaker
Not just because it's the right thing, like it really is helping bring legitimacy to our industry. We were able to accomplish a lot of political pull from that little group this year. showed up with some muscle. The people that I work with there put in a lot of, I mean, a lot of time. And we pulled a lot of money and we had, ah you know, we had political pull this year. And I would say they're partially responsible for some of the things we still enjoy today that almost went away. Wow.
00:07:15
Speaker
So, and now there's a voice for them yeah that didn't exist before. There was, they were proved out during that process. So we were kind of in the shadows doing all this political stuff um and just grinding on our own businesses and, and, It's been a crazy year, but some winds came out of it.
00:07:34
Speaker
And to your point, the the small commercial kind of falls under the residential umbrella. When we say commercial, when the industry hears commercial, they think of megawatts and hundreds of kilowatts per project.
00:07:46
Speaker
To them, a 50 kilowatt gas station is not, that doesn't count as commercial, right? Okay. So there's this area in between, and I've been, you know, I've been talking about this for years. yeah There's such opportunity in that, in that zone, these little, you know, 30 to a hundred kilowatt businesses, that that is very good market to be talking to.
00:08:08
Speaker
The hangups before was it was a neglected market. yeah No one would finance them. They had to do cash. And um now there's all this pressure for tax credits. Commercial's got a little longer window.
00:08:20
Speaker
Residential's almost done with tax credits. The window's longer for commercial. So there's ah there's a runway there. How long is that hotel? It's a couple more years still. how Okay, cool.
00:08:31
Speaker
It's the reason you can still do PPAs. It's that same rule, just so you know. So that was the win, by the way, that I'm talking about ah politically. So there's just this market where it's been underserviced. And I have guys call me all the time. Dude, where should I go? Should I go to Florida?
00:08:46
Speaker
Should go to Texas? The Carolinas are booming. ah you know Now it's from West Virginia, I think, and and um and in Kansas City and like you know all these great up-and-coming areas. But I say, look – If you can get into that smaller mid-commercial stuff, it doesn't matter where you are geographically.
Opportunities in 30-100 kW Market
00:09:03
Speaker
That's a great market. Yeah. um Now that we can finance it easy ah and all you're giving up is that really instant residential feel where it's like you apply, they get the answer right now. Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
Underwriting still takes a few days. It's probably the biggest difference at this point. i'veve We made a system that it's like, that's all you wait for. yeah okay Customer feels like they're done before that happens. So the sales rep side, it kind of feels the same. Okay.
00:09:29
Speaker
That's been accomplished. Something to check out if you're in California for sure. Because you guys run into those on accident. You go sit at a restaurant, eat somewhere for a break. So we did. Yeah. We, that's a customer. Yeah. Which now it's a good thing to do. um yeah, just the restaurants we asked the, the people serving us, say, do you have a house? And they're no, but we have solar on the restaurant here.
00:09:50
Speaker
We need more panels though. And then I need to follow up with that lead. Cause I think they never responded to us. But yeah, a lot of, lot of opportunity for that. That's just like, we weren't even really trying, but, uh, would you say that's for like a, for a regular person that's just selling residential solar? What do you think is the easiest way to get started doing these commercials? You think just like that, or easiest way on fun businesses and stuff like that. We've actually tried to make it easy and I'm not trying to like sell what I do. I'm just telling you what we've done.
00:10:18
Speaker
We've just made it so it's an intake form. if You run into commercial and you fill out the form. It comes into us. Then we talk to you. We say, how involved do you want to be? You want to take this thing A to z or do you want to make half and let it go and see what happens? It's up to you.
00:10:33
Speaker
Okay. I recommend learning this stuff, but I also know right now, if you're selling residential solar, you need to be all in because it's there's this massive push right now. Yeah. And nothing happens in November.
00:10:45
Speaker
Nothing happens in December. It's October. So if you don't want to take your eye off the ball, send some, yeah see if they happen or not, and then learn along the way.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah. But if you're selling residential solar, keep your eye on the ball. Like know what you're working with. If people are trying to get the tax credits residentially, you they they need all your attention right now.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah. Because those need a PTO before the end of the year. Right, right. Yeah. So keep your foot on the gas pedal. Take a break maybe at the new year for a week. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, with commercial deals, can you do them?
Viability of Small Commercial Solar
00:11:20
Speaker
I know we're talking we're both in California here, but commercial deals, can you do them pretty much every market for people listening?
00:11:28
Speaker
I don't know. Should people be be selling commercial on every market? Or is there some states where it's not as beneficial for commercial? i don't know if you know that. Honestly, it's like everywhere. Like some are really good and some are not right.
00:11:39
Speaker
I've ran numbers in more than 33 markets. most of them and Most of them work out commercial. Commercial different in that those business owners really want the tax credits okay most of the time.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah. So they don't really care that much if they're saving a ton of money on their utility bill. Like if it can be the same or even a little bit more. And I've got this $30,000 tax bill and now I don't have to pay it.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah. that's That's a big deal. So that's kind of the market you're running into there. um As a side note, this is a precursor to a product we have coming out that'll be a ah small commercial PPA, straight up PPA.
00:12:17
Speaker
It can go from zero to three, nine escalator. yeah Okay. And that's going to be new. It hasn't happened yet. Nice. So that's a new thing. yeah that'll that'll change a lot that'll guys like you will have a crazy opportunity once that hits and i'll keep you guys posted yeah no that's awesome but no i like what you're saying especially guys that are more focused on residential um that's cool that we can you can just we you know send you a lead or something and then still stay focused on uh residential because i mean you know me i'm all i'm more residential and so i like the idea idea of just being able to focus on what i'm good at and then
00:12:52
Speaker
um You guys can take care of the rest. Yeah, I do want to learn, but I haven't done. i think I've only done couple commercial deals where I've sent people the deals and they've done it. um But do you think it's pretty important for people to know how to run commercial deals? Or like if you're talking to a guy that's just residential, and don't know, would you try to convince them, hey, you should get in a commercial too? Or do you think people should just focus on if that's what they've done, stay in residential? or what would you say to a guy like me that's just been...
00:13:19
Speaker
I think my take is just more fundamental like than that. I think it's if you have the opportunity to learn something that could take you up a level, but be strategic. Like I wouldn't tell all the residential guys go learn commercial right now. It's just too important of a time
Strategic Focus on Residential Solar
00:13:34
Speaker
to be focused right now. Yeah.
00:13:36
Speaker
But I would say, hey, when the first of the year comes, give it one, you know, give it an hour a day for a week. Yeah. It's not like you're going to a four-year school to learn this. There's three little things that are different than what you already do. Yeah.
00:13:48
Speaker
Learn those and you're good. Or pass them on and and let it do what it does and make some money doing that. But I think i think it's gotten me, learning everything I can learn has gotten me more business.
00:14:01
Speaker
Okay. When I'm sitting with a customer in a house for residential, And I say, oh yeah, and you know, just down the road at this mini mall, I did that one. Like when another guy comes in, if I'm getting shopped against that, those types of statements way more than you think. Like people are like, okay, no, I want the guy that did the, right. So I think that it pays back though, that way.
00:14:25
Speaker
be Be careful with commercial. a lot of people think they're going to do a 50 kilowatt job and make resi money on it. It's, it's a slimmer margin. Understand that going in. Yeah. um But still well worth the time.
00:14:37
Speaker
I think that's the part of the development of being a closer to a professional is just knowing that side of it, whether you want to participate it or in it or not. Yeah. Just like understanding it. Because I've had some, I know how to do it.
00:14:48
Speaker
And I've had some where I've given them to guys. I'm like, I don't have time. Here's the details. Go run this. Yeah. Someone I trust. I still do that. Yeah. that's That's good. Got to know when to delegate.
00:14:58
Speaker
you're short on time. What's have you had any like crazy commercial deals? Like, I don't know, i'm done massive, like a Walmart or something crazy like that. What's the craziest? commercial I had a heartbreaker. Here's the story for you. The political stuff. Okay. That's it. There's this really cool place north of l a It's this huge ranch and it's, and it's very historical is literally where the first people landed other than like Columbus on this side of the on this side of the world in this part of the united states it's right there so it's got a lot of history it's it's like it's the home of native native people yeah um it's a shared land between native and those people that came and settled and it's just beautiful it's this is huge orchards and it comes all the way down to the to the ocean so it's a beach and it's just the most beautiful place they're turning it into a full-on like educational center
00:15:53
Speaker
They raise sea life there, like tanks, and then they do these orchards, and it's just this big, beautiful ranch. And we were going to do a solar farm there, and it was going to be an off-the-grid place, fully self-sufficient, running its crops, raising this plant or sea life, and being an educational center.
00:16:11
Speaker
That's that deal's done. It was being funded by subsidies that got literally awarded and then taken back when do Doge got it. no way And um they proved that it wasn't fraudulent. And then they said they were going to fund it again. And then it got pulled back again. that so that one would have been my favorite local one.
00:16:33
Speaker
um It was a little over a megawatt. it was almost two megawatts. and you know that takes a lot of work i several trips up there months and a lot of paperwork and a lot of preparation for one like that but there's little bit of a heartbreaker that would have been my best local one other than that i've done every kind utility i've done out of the country and ah some things like that but that one locally would have been it everything else is like 50 100 kilowatts i've got several right now that we're yeah working on Well, speaking of like the financial part, would you say that money is better? Like counting the time you'd have to spend for a commercial deal?
00:17:08
Speaker
What would you say to guys and doing more commercial deals make just as much more money than someone focused on residential or is the time worth it? Or what do you think? That that's ah depends on how you do it, and I'll tell you why.
00:17:20
Speaker
Some resi guys are ripping a lot of money per cell. Yeah. And look, you can be mediocre at Residential Solar and make good money. Yeah. um If you really dedicate yourself, look, anyone on here, i'm look at the camera and just say, if you want to make a ton of money, knock doors for 12 hours a day, residential, and don't blink.
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Just do that. You will make grip, have Taylor close your deals. If you're not a closer, you guys will do 30 a month yeah and you'll make a lot of money.
00:17:53
Speaker
It's an easy recipe, simple, not easy. I should say it's a simple recipe, easier said than done, but that's how you make a
Financial Insights: Residential vs. Large Commercial
00:17:59
Speaker
lot of money. yeah um If your, if your goals are expansion, personal and expansion, I would say learn more because that's the simplest way to money is what I just told you. Yeah. 12 hours a day, every day, nonstop. Just go. Yeah, it's true.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah. Simple recipe. um Go find a few megawatts projects. Do that. You will make a lot of money on those, but you're rolling the dice on that deal getting done. Okay. I spent months on that one.
00:18:26
Speaker
Done deal. Signed. Yeah. And it got pulled off for some weird thing. Right. So you kind of roll the dice on it. Yeah. um I like being a part of those. i like the expansion. i like learning. There's always new challenges in those. Yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
Residential, you're probably not running and into a lot of new challenges. Every day. You've probably seen 99% of the challenges you're going to see. You know what's coming, right? Yeah. So I like the adventure of it.
00:18:53
Speaker
um But to answer your question, anyone who just wants, if they're money focused, all day, every day, knock Rezzy. Yeah. Don't blink. Head down. Go. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:03
Speaker
That's it's sure pretty simple. When you take your lunch break, tell the restaurant you can do solar. Send it out. Forget about it. It'll probably make you some money. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, it's true. I mean, not a lot of people are willing to do that. But yeah, our top guy, right? Our top like setter at our company is this, you know, like Asian guy and he just goes out 12 hours a day.
00:19:23
Speaker
And yeah, that was 20 to 30 a month. And that's it. He's just happy. He knows what he's doing, just goes and knocks. So yeah, it's true. And it is more simple. But um yeah, I like school learning new stuff. And probably some guys like more that side of it to the commercial stuff.
00:19:40
Speaker
And then as you were talking, made me think about, i didn't really think about this before, but ah you talk about like land and everything. So down by us, there's a lot of you know, like Native American land and things like that where we never, we we get quite a few people that want it on there, but it's just as complicated with the land. It's owned by like, you know, and the tribe or whatever.
00:20:00
Speaker
So do you have any experience or have you done deals where it's like, like tribal land like that or know anything about it? I've actually been in a few. they It's very hard when it's tribal because they live by different rules. And so I've had a couple that were that were almost to the finish line and then they got like some kickback and they just were able to have it do in a different way. and Okay. and and this so So you just got to be careful with the travel stuff. They are very great to work with. But then when it comes time to do the project, usually, they like I said, they get some sort of native ah help.
00:20:35
Speaker
and And then it's it kind of goes out of your hands at that point. Yeah. Yeah. Um, done a lot of good work with, with people from some of the tribes and I've been in tribal councils with some of them and and I've done all that, but I've learned that's, that's, it's literally easier to fly overseas and do that land than like do land here. Yeah.
00:20:55
Speaker
Okay. All right. Well, yeah, we'll just stay away from those, I guess, but. It's crazy a lot those people get like free houses and everything. um least ones we've talked to just for living on the land or being Native American. And then I think they get like profits from the casinos and things like that. Yeah.
00:21:13
Speaker
But, yeah, Mike, yeah, we've tried to do a few and it's always fallen through. Well, they can't. you're You're never going to get it. You can do it if it's cash. Yeah. But you no finance company will fund that because technically those people don't have to pay.
00:21:28
Speaker
right So none of the banks are going to say, sure, let us finance them and they're going to not pay us. And there's no, there's no repercussions. So that's the problem there. i have talked to a native bank where i was like, Hey, why don't you guys offer a loan to these people and we'll do solar? And they did look at that. They have a whole system where they control all their money.
00:21:48
Speaker
So they would just literally take it out of their check. They give them, nice so there's but I haven't had any of that actually go through. Okay. Yeah. I've done enough of it to learn all what we're talking about, but that I can tell you, it's, it's got me a lot of cool stories. Okay. No money. Yeah. No, that's tough.
00:22:02
Speaker
Well, I'll you some golf discounts. Yeah. Hopefully free, free nights, stay at the casinos. No. So one of the tribes near me owns a golf course and we were going do the parking lot and then they got some native thing and they were able to do it instead of me. And so.
00:22:17
Speaker
Now I go in the pro shop and they give me like employee discounts and I golf for free. Okay. At least you got something out of it. Yeah. They literally felt bad. They're like, no, we're so sorry. Just come whenever you want. That's awesome. Yeah. No, it's tough.
00:22:29
Speaker
Well, that's cool, man. And I think that gives people at least a little bit of intro on the commercial side. And, uh, I mean, we'll definitely put Jeremy's contact info for anyone that wants to learn more about the commercial stuff.
Improving Industry Practices through RSA
00:22:40
Speaker
Um, but yeah, no, uh, I wanted to get in before we're out of time, just the whole RSA, you know, side of things. And I guess start with for the people who haven't really heard about that. What's the whole like goal? Maybe give us some like background on the RSA so people can know. You said it's, you know, doing some cool things, important stuff. So what's the whole background on the RSA? So if you'll do me a favor, I'll send you the link. You can put it on here. i But it's the Residential Solar Association. it'll It'll have storage in the name like a soon.
00:23:10
Speaker
Because if you've noticed, storage is big deal. yeah Solar is kind of becoming the backup to storage now. It used to be the other way around. But the batteries are very valuable on the large scale. So yeah that's kind of getting to the front of the the front of the the line.
00:23:26
Speaker
um What it is, it's just we're trying to improve our industry, give the whole industry a good name, not necessarily put rules in place or anything, but give best practices. yeah And what we'll do is award like badges or certificates or something that says you're part of the RSA. And what that'll do is it'll make, like if you came to me and you said, Hey, I'm an installer.
00:23:49
Speaker
First thing I'm going to do is look and see if you're in the ah RSA. Cause if you are, I know you're already in it for the right reasons. You're doing best practices. You're not doing the crazy unethical stuff. Yeah. that's That's kind of the commitment when you're in there. Yeah.
00:24:03
Speaker
You're doing clean, good business, forward moving business, moving the the whole industry forward. So that's what the RSA does. Yeah. I'm actually the board i'm on the board of directors over the sales side. So I have this crazy bridge, like this crazy gap to bridge where it's like yeah the the industry, let's be honest, they see the sales guys as like the thing that's messing it up.
00:24:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But without the sales guys, where do all the accounts come from, right? And the reason they see it that way is because the big part of the industry is like doing solar farms and stuff. They don't need guys out knocking doors. they don't They don't do that. So it's hard for them to understand. So my role is to kind of bridge that.
00:24:40
Speaker
Okay. Um, ah so the idea is to bring integrity in, show people that our industry is not just what you see on Instagram, a bunch of kids partying and driving exotic cars and ripping off grandmas.
00:24:54
Speaker
That's what they think we are. Yeah. And and the ah RSA is a big effort to help get that image off of us. um on the That's my part of the thing on the sales side. Now, there's manufacturing, financing, installation. There's every part of the industry represented in there. But my part's the sales side, and it's like the...
00:25:15
Speaker
It's where the clash has happened, right? it's So here's the point. We want guys to go out and make money. yeah Otherwise, what' why are we doing it, right? I know why I'm doing it. yeah there's Money's part of it, not all of it. But we got to tell people, look, these guys do need to go make money, but there's a good way to go about it.
00:25:31
Speaker
I think you're one of the guys that we could shine a light on Taylor and be like, look, he's got all these happy customers. You know what I mean? And we need that. Yeah, well, no, that's an important job for sure. So what do you what do you where do you see like the most pushback? that The guys on the other side, do they think?
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'm curious. I don't know if they say anything like, oh, these guys make too much money. No, it's just kind of this, this there's this solar bro like stigma that we're trying to deal with. And we want to tell the renewable industry that we are credible people.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah. Right. And so there's a little bit of that. The ah RSA in itself is to uplift the whole industry. We got heavily involved in policy and politics this year. Yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
Where our original role is to do these membership calls and uplift everyone and show them like, Hey, here's an example at the end of the year, here's the things you're going to want to do at your business to stay relevant and just keep going when the end of the year comes. So you don't have to do all this adjusting, like be in front of it.
00:26:35
Speaker
That's the information we provide to the industry. So any of the members, anyone that's involved, they get that info. They had a front row seat to the politics. Okay. I mean, we had good representation. Yeah. but And we were getting live feeds here's you know you know from the House. Here's what's going on. Here's where the votes are going. this you know This representative is on our side. Let's pull on him a little bit. Okay. And so we had, we got, a we got real poll political poll, which matters, but more than anything, man, I think soon it's going to mean something when you send your customer an email and in your email signature, it shows, you know, RSA, excellent status, whatever. Yeah, that's cool.
00:27:14
Speaker
I know in the business side, it already means something. I think in the future, it'll mean something to your customers too. Yeah. Be cool. Do you think, so with all the political stuff going on and you're talking about, you know, the commercial credit getting extended, things like that. do you think that would have happened without you guys doing what you did or you think you had a pretty big part in that? I can't say it would have or wouldn't have, but I can say for sure we were a big part of getting it done. Okay. Okay.
00:27:39
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was enough to get real, real attention. OK, so now coming off of that, we've got big, big people saying, oh, those guys actually came and made a dent in that thing.
00:27:52
Speaker
And we're a little group. It's it's probably an understated accomplishment. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was it was a lot of work. Well, yeah, i didn't I didn't know that. And probably most people listening didn't know that. so um So we appreciate you guys because probably all these solar bros are just like, oh, we can go sell our PPAs or whatever and didn't think twice about it. but and that's why. The PPA is a commercial product. yeah That's why that worked. yeah you Just so you know.
00:28:17
Speaker
yeah um And so that it gave everyone a little bit more of a runway. What we did get, um there's more pieces to that too. I'm not going to dive too much in. I don't want to really put a...
00:28:28
Speaker
There's some things we don't want to put a spotlight on because we want to let them stay how they are. okay We don't need them getting attacked. But right now it's working. Yeah. Well, I know a lot of people at my company that would have, that I think we're going to quit if, if yeah, like the commercial stuff didn't get extended.
00:28:44
Speaker
and that was like a big ah relief for us, at least here in California, still having access to the PPA because that's what we sell most of right now. Right. We're like, sweet. We got another couple of years of this where we don't need to make drastic changes and i keep doing what we're doing. So.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's huge, man. So like how can people, I mean, I'm sure we'll talk more at the end. We'll put the links and everything, but is there just something that guys can sign up for? and just Yeah, yeah. i'll put the I'll give you the link and maybe you can put it when this and this releases. um It's Residential Solar Association. Okay. Right now, you can find it online. I don't know if the website's changing as we speak, so that's why i keep saying going to give you a link. yeah um But Residential Solar Association is what it is at this moment. Okay.
00:29:27
Speaker
Um, and you'll be able to find it. You'll always see us at the shows, you know, the, the, the, the big trade shows and stuff. we always put on events. Yeah. Um, and, and they're getting to be high level, right?
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. So we've been, uh, doing a lot of this stuff with SIA, S E I A. Okay. Which is kind of the big entity of the, of the industry. Yeah. They, they don't deal with residential a lot, which is now why we're kind of and working with them.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah. Well, speaking of batteries, um I guess I didn't ask this about the commercial, but something we're seeing more is just batteries being sold by themselves, even without solar here in California.
00:30:10
Speaker
And um that's almost made it easier for us even knocking doors just because at least in Southern California here where we're at, everyone's been here in solar for like the past 10 years now. Right. Solar, solar, solar.
00:30:22
Speaker
But ah you go to door, you talk about batteries. It's something that most people haven't really heard about um and like didn't know that you can even. Yeah, we even have access to where we can do just a battery and offset their peak rates and everything.
00:30:35
Speaker
So is that something you guys are? Well, commercial, I guess, first of all, can commercial, can people just get batteries without solar? Do you know if that's the thing? Yeah. So, so understand this. When I talk about being a professional, uh, over a closer, when you're closer, you're given something like go sell this. Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
And that's what you have. When you're professional, you kind of find all the ways you can help a customer. Yeah. So be well informed about batteries. yeah That's a great piece of advice for anyone who's selling because the batteries themselves are valuable and you can sell them.
00:31:10
Speaker
You can sell them on their own. They do good things for the customers. Learn that for sure. Yeah. um So I would say going into the new year, battery alone is going to be a big deal. Yeah. Like b be ahead of that.
Rising Battery-Only Market
00:31:23
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. Mark my words, everybody learn batteries, learn how to sell them by themselves. Okay. If there's not an easy way to do that, where you are, I can show you ways to do it. Okay. Battery only at the end of the year, traditional PPAs will still be intact.
00:31:38
Speaker
You're definitely going to want to know how to do prepaid PPAs if you don't know how to yet. Okay. Like for sure. Yeah. There's a whole section of the industry, of the market that wants to own their stuff.
00:31:51
Speaker
that That plays to that part of the market. Okay. Right? um And so know these things. And again, small commercial is going to take off and we'll have a traditional PPA for that, probably Q1. Okay.
00:32:02
Speaker
So know all these things. And if you don't know where to get them, call Taylor, yeah call me, you know, we'll talk to you guys. This is nothing I talk about as a secret, by the way. Yeah.
00:32:13
Speaker
This is the information everybody can get. Yeah. um You know, I love it when they use my services to put those things in play, but if they don't and they go do well, I'm, I'm happy. Yeah. That helps the industry be full of more professionals. And we'll see that, right?
00:32:28
Speaker
As the year ends and um you have to become more and more adaptable to things. Guys like you that have been in how long you been going? Nine years, 10 years? Yeah, 10 years, 2016. So coming up on 10 years.
00:32:39
Speaker
So nine years in, it the path is set for guys like you and brand new people coming in. Yeah. The ones I fear for are the ones that came in and it was just super easy. Like you go lower their bill. It's all free. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
That's the group that'll have a hard time. So adapt. There's tons of opportunity. Yeah. There's so much opportunity. For sure. Commercial EV chargers is a massive opportunity right now. We'll talk about that another time. Okay. Wow.
00:33:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, well, because, yeah, with batteries, um yeah, I think I didn't know this until recently, but um especially here in Southern California, you get the peak rates.
00:33:19
Speaker
So people can just get a battery and be on the battery during the peak rate times. And they're still getting a massive benefit even without solar and still getting savings. So, yeah, what a lot of us are starting to do is just just even offer a battery. And then solar is kind of like the upsell thing, because like we can.
00:33:37
Speaker
talk about a battery. People generally listen more. then it's like, once we're in the home, oh, hey, by the way, did you know that if you wanted to consider solar with this, then here's the benefits of adding solar with it too.
00:33:48
Speaker
um And we're seeing some traction in that. I'll tell you where I see a lot of movement right now. Okay. It's a little harder in high volume situations like the one you're in. So I want to be, I don't want to say if it's better or worse or anything like that, but there's massive opportunity in this when you're doing a but a lot of people have solar.
00:34:07
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And it's very easy when you show up and they're like, I just spent $2,500 on my true up bill. Yeah. That's a layup, right? Yeah. So how do you handle that? How do you treat that?
00:34:18
Speaker
That's the question. Yeah. What's the best way to go about that? It kind of is in your toolbox right now. Uh, well, yeah, I'd say, I don't know for us and now I'm still learning this, so I'm sure you have better ways, but, um, for us, I think we just look at their usage and kind of see the hours they're using it too.
00:34:37
Speaker
And then similar to doing a new one, you see what they need, right? Yeah. And you add up some panels, batteries. I know some people do the green button data and all that that shows um the hours.
00:34:51
Speaker
So let let's take it one level deeper and talk California specific, right? This is not a big deal in other states. The second system thing is California is ahead of that. Yeah. Right. Maybe there's Jersey, some stuff out there, maybe a little bit of Texas, but it's mostly California. Yeah.
00:35:07
Speaker
And the reason why it's different in California is because we have, what, net metering three, different than everyone else. yeah So what if you show up, someone has a system, they got big old true up bill. The first system is in net metering one or two.
00:35:22
Speaker
This is the place where extreme opportunity lives to serve customers or not serve them. Right. So what's kind of like your understanding? and And I'm asking you because I want people to learn this.
00:35:34
Speaker
When you show up, you know, they've got a net metering one or two system, but they need more. What's the move? um I mean, I just add up more panels based on what they're using, the hours and then the battery.
00:35:47
Speaker
um i don't know. is that right? Is that wrong? This is good. So it's hard when you're in a company that wants to do a thousand installs a month. That's why I'm treading lightly. It's, it's hard to manage all this. Yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker
But for someone like me who does a little bit and just, I want to do each one of them, right? The right answer comes down to the financing. Now, how many panels you're probably giving them enough energy and all that stuff.
00:36:11
Speaker
Here's the, where the real problem hits. Okay. If you give them like a normal PPA or pretty much any of the traditional financing you know about and you do a second system, that's going to pull their first system into net metering three.
00:36:26
Speaker
Oh, okay. That's what you're saying. And it just, ah now they end up with two systems and they still have this massive bill and they don't know what happened. Yeah. What happened is changing from net metering two to three, all those credits they were getting went down to like three cents instead of 40 cents.
00:36:43
Speaker
ah Okay. Yeah. So that happens. Okay. I'm bringing this up because in California, hundreds of these happen a day. Yeah, yeah. And what reps tell people is, oh, we'll just take care of that leftover part, put more panels, we'll take care of it. Yeah.
00:36:58
Speaker
There's truth to that statement. But if you use a traditional PPA or the wrong financing, they pull it all in an M3. Right. Yeah, we do have like ah the non-export system. so Non-export is the right word I'm looking for. Yeah, okay. So yeah, we... I knew you knew. So I was waiting for you to say we do a non-export. So non-export is a little bit more tricky. You have to use certain financing.
00:37:19
Speaker
um And there is one, one traditional PPA out there that allows non-export systems right now. Good Leap is doing it right now too. With a lot of restrictions.
00:37:31
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Good leap. Good leap will do them, but they're going to make you use a certain amount of batteries. and And my take on that, I'll let them speak for themselves is if that whole system gets pulled in and M three, they've backed it up with a bunch of stuff.
00:37:45
Speaker
Okay. And like, as a rep, you can't control that. Um, so there's other ones that still allow you to call the ball. There's one other way. okay So that's another thing. Get to know those things. Yeah. Um, and, and that comes down to financing.
00:38:00
Speaker
If the financing requires PTO more than likely, you're not going to get non-export. I don't know that non-export doesn't do PTO. It's a not, it's actually called non-export.
00:38:11
Speaker
yeah Okay. Right. Permission to operate. It's not. So they don't have to get that from the utility. Yeah. they have to get something like pto but it's actually a non-export okay yeah little different so if the financing company doesn't accept that that's where the problem hits yeah so i know this is probably boring to everybody but it's i think it's if you're in california this is necessary yeah um and there becomes an easy market for you to create a really good path of happy customers again
00:38:42
Speaker
Where if if you're using the wrong product in that conversation, it's a month later you're hearing from these people. What the heck? know, and you don't want that. Yeah.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. So, yeah, I mean, another is California the only market where if you add on systems, it kicks them to the different plan? i don't think anyone else is in a net metering three situation. Yeah, I don't think so either.
00:39:06
Speaker
So it just wouldn't matter as much. Yeah. Okay. And if it varied a couple cents on the different buyback methods, it's not like here where they would lose 40 cents a kilowatt hour and drop to like two cents. yeah yes Yeah.
00:39:20
Speaker
That's a big difference on the, on the credits. Right. Yeah. So that's where they would lose, but, um, correct battery sizing, correct use of the right financing for second systems. And man, you have a lot of opportunity in California.
00:39:34
Speaker
I think we'll see a lot of people coming to California. Yeah, I'm sure. um to To kind of grab these parts of the market and hopefully they do it right. Yeah. What about with batteries? Because I know like California can still get benefits just selling batteries. do you know in other markets people might be listening? Is there a lot of benefit just selling a battery to someone?
00:39:55
Speaker
Texas is getting a lot. okay Okay. The future use of batteries is very attractive, meaning you're starting to hear about virtual power plants. This this was a conversation coming up from the last couple years, but the virtual power plant plant yeah concept is is a good, really good, like kind of a long-term play. And that's all about batteries. Okay.
00:40:18
Speaker
It's all about batteries. You're seeing things like in Texas I'm seeing. um I think they they're calling micro grids. It's kind of the same thing. Pay attention to that stuff. That's forward thinking. Okay. Long term moves. That's all about batteries.
00:40:33
Speaker
um It's all going to be how the utility interacts with it. Yeah. And there's a lot of movement there. So, again, long term vision in our space. there's There's a lot in that conversation.
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not a lot to learn about. um And then, yeah, before we start wrapping up here, I wanted to ask, you were talking about some of these different products, like a prepaid PPA, um some different options we have.
00:41:00
Speaker
So I guess you want to explain for maybe people that haven't really heard about that, what are some important products to know that maybe we haven't sold a lot of? um I know we've done prepaid PPAs in California, but what's the easiest way to explain that for
Prepaid PPAs and Credit Challenges
00:41:14
Speaker
someone? I'll break it down like this.
00:41:15
Speaker
Like, let's say you're at a... table with a customer, yeah you run them like that one you just talked about. Oh, they're Spanish. Yeah. Deal's dead or they fail credit. Yeah.
00:41:26
Speaker
Deal's dead. It's over. um You're going to be able to fill those gaps with these products. Okay. And so there's really not a lot of reasons to make someone not have solar. If they want to have it, there's a way to get it to them.
00:41:38
Speaker
Okay. Right. Very few can just not have it. Yeah. And that's what I want to show people. So let's say you're in one, they fail credit. I know what I do because I'm in California is I'll look at pace financing. And I know a lot of people think they're the devil.
00:41:53
Speaker
Actually one of my favorite products when done right. Yeah. So I use pace headache to get approved sometimes. so If you know how to do it from the front side all the way, like it's not too bad, but they are a little picky.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yeah. No credit though. So some of you already know that I run my own door door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:42:19
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:42:33
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:42:47
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:42:58
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:43:10
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. So I'll run that. They don't care about credit. If they qualify there, I can get them the tax credits through a prepaid PPA. Or maybe the customer just liked you pitched them a PPA and they failed. And then you can say, well, here's another way to get a PPA.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah. And you do that. um That's a whole training. I'll teach you guys about it. Okay. But prepaid PPA is the word and that's what you want to look for. it is an actual PPA at the year six mark. Yeah.
00:43:39
Speaker
Just like any other PPA, it says, hey, you can own this if you want to. Well, a prepaid is already paid. It's done. So they own it? so they Yeah, they just say, hey, now you can own it.
00:43:49
Speaker
And they'll do some like little token thing, like maybe a $1 transaction or something. It's theirs. yeah So then they own it. It's their stuff. They got the tax credit out of it because it was a ah PPA. yeah And there's no escalator.
00:44:04
Speaker
ah Zero escalator. So when you stack that against a traditional PPA, it stomps it, just so you know, like price-wise. um And it's very good for the customer. So you got to know when to use it, when not to ah There's a lot of value on batteries in those. You can actually make money on those instead of just the battery being like a pass-through add-on thing. yeah You can make commission on those.
00:44:26
Speaker
um And it might lend value to those cut to those customers later when the utilities start making deals on battery power. you're going to see that start coming. Yeah. um So there's a lot of value in those.
00:44:39
Speaker
It's very good for failed credits. Yeah. um But they have to pay. They have to pay all up front, right? They pay it all up front, but they use a financing tool. Like I would use the PACE money to pay it all. And then they just pay the the monthly payment for the PACE.
00:44:53
Speaker
Okay. that's So you give them the price, it's all the same. You're able to take a finance deal and cut the tax credit off the top. So if it's, you know, if it's $50,000,
00:45:05
Speaker
You know, now it's 40 something, 43,000, something like that. yeah Pull that right off and they get the same benefit. So that's going to matter for people to want to own their systems and still get the tax credit after the end of the year.
00:45:17
Speaker
Cause the tax credits on a normal loan won't work. yeah You have to have it on something like that. Yeah. Big, big thing to have that in your arsenal. That's cool. Yeah, we've been doing, um you know, we've, yeah, our company, we don't really do pace deals, but we have, sometimes we do people in like credit repair and then get the credit up. And um it's nice because you kind of give them double benefits. They improve their credit. And then once it's improved, get improved for the solar.
00:45:44
Speaker
um But if you have the option, maybe people sell on if they have the option where they can put them through credit repair, get their credit up or
PACE Financing Advantages
00:45:52
Speaker
just putting them through. i guess I don't know if other states have pace where it's like going on the property tax. well i'll tell i'll tell I'm sorry to cut you off, but there's a lot there. So I've used credit repair in the past.
00:46:02
Speaker
It's helped me get people's credit up and sell them like a little bit. Okay. But when I did that, I did it for all my customers. And I can tell you where it had the bigger impact was the good credit people. Cause I would run their credit and I'd say, don't worry, I'm going to repair it.
00:46:16
Speaker
And their credit would go from like a seven 50. Then it would drop a little bit cause I ran it and then it would go up to like a seven 60. I got more referrals from that than anything. It's like 60 days would go by and these people are always checking their credit, making sure or looking at their credit, not checking it, but they're always monitoring it. So when they see it bump up, then right around then they get their first bill utility that's way discounted and they're going to nuts. and that's the first moment they realized they never paid me anything, by the way.
00:46:44
Speaker
Like, wait a minute, I never paid for any of this. And they get all excited. So I got a lot more out of good credit people repairing their credit and making it slightly better than actually bringing people up to the bar. Okay.
00:46:55
Speaker
Well, now although don't all of them do soft checks now? So it shouldn't affect their credit, right? Well, they do a soft check, but then if they qualify, they end up, it'll turn into a hard one. Pretty much everybody. Okay. So either way, I haven't done that for a while, but when I did it, I saw a great effect on customers. So the credit chat thing, that's the advice I would give you there is it's very good for people with good credit.
00:47:18
Speaker
They're the ones that love it actually more. And there was another piece to that question. Well, I just saying, if you had the option between, guess, speaking for California, if someone, say someone fails credit and you can maybe get them approved through pace, do that. Like you'd go to that option versus trying to improve your credit. Yeah, thanks for bringing it back. I was having all these happy memories of these customers. I still remember their names.
00:47:39
Speaker
So here's what's up and coming. As professionals know this, um no credit options are around the corner. Okay. So you'll be able to have a traditional PPA, zero, 1.9, 2.9, 3.9. You pick the escalator situation, no credit.
00:47:56
Speaker
Oh, sweet. That's probably q one maybe earlier. That'll be a big deal. So how I'm teaching you, I've always gone to PACE and then i do if then there's a no credit option, but it's like a really slim margin deal. yeah Now I'll probably go straight to that product. Okay.
00:48:12
Speaker
Um, cause they don't even run credit. Yeah. So there's that on top of that, what you're going to see from a lot of companies like mid, like mine that are kind of smaller to midsize, we're now getting the opportunities to get funds and start to, so if I get a failed credit and I know this is a good customer, I can, I'm to a point where I can be like, okay, how about I finance this? My company will take the monthly payment and the rep that sold it can get A little bit of money every month for selling that one instead of nothing.
00:48:44
Speaker
That is around the corner. That's something we're kind of pioneering. And so these are all coming, you know, stay in the know. I do calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you want to learn resi or commercial, I do it on Wednesdays. okay Maybe that's agnostic. Anybody can get on those last questions. I spend about 30 minutes to an hour on those. Okay.
00:49:05
Speaker
But that's where you can learn this stuff. I'm an open book. Put it in play. Keep the thing going. If you're in this industry, try to be in it for the long term. Use this money you're making to make smart investments. Move on. and And I just want to say this, that like I've seen guys come in.
00:49:19
Speaker
I've seen them make the millions. I've seen it go away faster than it came. Oh, yeah. Sure. So have put put your long-term vision into it. I haven't been that guy. You've never seen me on Instagram, you know, driving the exotic cars. And I've done a lot of fun stuff, but yeah yeah you don't see that for me.
00:49:37
Speaker
What I've done is, dude, I don't miss practices. I don't miss... meets like today track meets soccer games i've been able to run this little company and be a consultant and literally like be at all of my kids stuff awesome and live a decent life and like that's kind of been my goal and so i just want to talk to the people out there that are they've got families and and you're in the grind right now you can do You can be okay at this and just know that it's not all hinging on a single PPA or yeah one thing you're doing right now. That doesn't live and die by that.
00:50:13
Speaker
There's so much opportunity in here. Make yourself some long-term goals. If you got kids, get that time with them ah because you can and you can do fine.
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:50:23
Speaker
This comes with, I'm one of the ones that has been non-paid on large scales yeah and still been able to keep going.
00:50:29
Speaker
That happens. Companies going, like banks going out of business. We've all lived through that. yeah um And so i I just think if your long-term goals are in mind, you kind of are prepared for things like that to happen.
00:50:43
Speaker
Like anyone, we've had close calls, but just put your head down and work and it seems like you come out of it good every time. Yeah. Like ah luck maybe luckily I have. Yeah. I know you've done just fine.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, well, no, and that's what I respect a lot about you because I'm kind of like, you know, a little bit like I've got three kids and that's something my wife is talking about all the time. Like, hey, we need to figure out a way for this to be sustainable and all that. Not just every single day, not being back for dinner and, you know, kids are in like jujitsu and stuff now. So, yeah, it is tough. And um something I've had to like think about a little bit more is like, hey, I can't just like burn myself out just like Just, uh, always having to rely on, um the next deal and that one deal going through.
00:51:27
Speaker
So that's what I like about what you do is, um, I think you've found a way to make it more sustainable and even guys that are knocking a ton of doors and all that. Yeah. I think there's like a boundaries, um, we can set and everything, but, um,
00:51:41
Speaker
I just think it goes with this. Like, but let's say you do 10 deals in a month. What's the difference between 10 deals and 15 deals? That gives you a little more free time. The extra five deals. It's like, okay, I can schedule some some things. Yeah. A little bit more money.
00:51:56
Speaker
The difference is literally being able to service a no credit deal, being able to run the gas station I was just in. That's true. Being able to like, you don't need to do it better. You're true guys like you and you, you're really good at your craft.
00:52:10
Speaker
Like you can't, I can't come to you and be like, dude, if you would change your approach a little bit, if you would just use this closing tactic a little bit better, it's not going to move the needle for you. You're already constantly getting better at that.
00:52:21
Speaker
Couple tools here and there gets you three or four deals a month that you would to let go. So with that, you're you're buying time. it is something you have to schedule. So I would say this, and I've been able to do this in the past when I was like, I've been in the boat where it's just knocking, knocking, knocking. I'm coming home at after dark every single night. Like I've been in that.
00:52:41
Speaker
For guys out there that are struggling with that, I would just say take two nights a week. And if this is an idea. Do it how you want. But this kind of worked for me. yeah guy yeah Take two nights a week or three, whatever you think you need, and just say, I am going to work super late these three days.
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah. That's the expectation. That's it. Probably won't see me. ands I'm working late those days. Okay. But the other days, I'll be home for dinner. That's good. It's hard as a sales guy because someone will be like, oh, I can only meet this day at this time. Yeah.
00:53:14
Speaker
And you want to be like, okay, I'll be there. yeah But I promise you, if you say, well, that's perfect, except I have a, I'm already booked. Can we do it the next day or the day before? 90% of the time they're like, oh, sure. Yeah, yeah.
00:53:27
Speaker
Like you're you're not going to lose out on a lot doing that. From experience and from putting that stress on my family, like that's kind of the conclusion I came to. Okay. And that that worked.
00:53:39
Speaker
Now I'm to a point where I've gotten good at moving time around. Nice. There's a lot more appointments you can do at 10 a.m. than you think. Especially if you're going out during those hours because – It's funny, like, you know, I was working for a long time, just afternoons and evenings. And I'm like, ah why why can no one like or try to set appointments in the mornings, but they're always at work. But i'm like, okay, well, maybe if I go out and work in the mornings, occasionally the people that are there in the morning, they're probably going to want book an appointment for the morning time because that's when they're home.
00:54:10
Speaker
ah That's right. And you'll find them. You'll find that guy that works from home. He's at his desk. Like you'll find them. Yeah. This is another thing. And again, maybe this isn't the right time for this, but after the first of the year, the guys that work with me directly, they go out in the morning, the morning hours, they start when they want eight or 9am. They get their hustlers, yeah but they'll do until about 11am straight businesses. Yeah. Okay.
00:54:36
Speaker
a hundred percent like they're talking to someone yeah in all these places. And it's more likely they'll actually catch the business owner during the early part of the day. Yeah. Then they take a break. And then the second half the day is when they do resi.
00:54:48
Speaker
Okay. And so they're just catching people home after, you know, that early part of the day. So it's both, they, they do that, that commercial side stacks slower, but like it doesn't take long to start getting consistency out of it. Yeah.
00:55:04
Speaker
Um, So that's what the way they solved it. That's not my idea. They solved it because it was their schedule. Like they were the ones running it. Right. And they just said, why don't we just do these in the morning and these at night?
00:55:14
Speaker
That's good idea. And they've had success. Okay. So it's, it's, you have the freedom in your schedule. realm to do those things how you want yeah you know that's the beauty of our business is like it's very self-managed yeah it's the best and worst part about it yeah if you're like me you'll end up working you know 15 hours a day every day unless you unless you consciously like say no i gotta do other things and so it's it's the best and worst part is is that you get to do what you want yeah that's tough man
00:55:48
Speaker
Well, what's the, i didn't ask this, but what's the average timeline for a commercial deal? People want to start doing those? Because that's been like kind of an objection area. Might take a year to get paid on this. See it go through.
00:56:01
Speaker
What do you see? what's I mean, not usually a year. Okay. yeah I would say the biggest difference, like think of it as a resi timeline. The permit might take a little longer. We're talking a week. Okay. Because you're dealing with different electrical systems, three phase type stuff.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah. So that might take a little longer, but not a year longer. And then financing, like the underwriting, probably going to take three to five days instead of an immediate credit check.
00:56:27
Speaker
Okay. So we're talking maybe two or three weeks more than a resi deal. The problem is, is getting them through the underwriting. Sometimes you got to back go back five times and get like tax forms and ah commercial financing is more complicated than residential financing. So you got to go back and help get help those customers get all these other documents and do all this stuff. So that's where the resi guys lose their time.
00:56:51
Speaker
Yeah. Cause they're like, it'll take them forever to get back there and get that done. And that's where I'm telling you, that's where it gets messed up. Okay. So do you recommend, or I don't know if you have like project managers, you get to help with all this. Cause that's one of the biggest headaches. I brought on a stud full time that just helps with this stuff. Okay. He pushes them through the edge, like through, through PTO and everything. Yeah. Okay.
00:57:15
Speaker
Because, yeah, I lose focus and when it's I have to go back multiple times and I'm dealing with a bunch of other projects. Well, that's what saying about stay focused on
Delegating in Commercial Solar Projects
00:57:23
Speaker
Resi right now. Like you don't you don't want to spend this whole month going back to one guy yeah five times when you could have gotten two deals in that same time, right? So pass them off.
00:57:35
Speaker
We'll handle them for you. We'll keep you up to speed the whole time. But maybe January, try some because you're going to have time. um But right now, go hard, man. like ah one One more thing I want to say. Okay. Because we're in October.
00:57:49
Speaker
November and December are hard. Not because it's hard to sell, but because the ah the utility companies, the the counties and the cities, those people have been saving up their paid time off, and they're using it in November and December. I didn't
Maximizing October Sales Efforts
00:58:04
Speaker
think about that. Right? So like...
00:58:06
Speaker
If you want those jobs to get done, like you just hit this massive like wall in those months. Yeah. So it's important to hustle in October. Yeah. I have had some of my best months, not not once, but several times I've had it in November just because I have this internal fear about November and about December. So I kind of stack it.
00:58:26
Speaker
Yeah. So all those loose jobs, those fence sitters, like I am setting them all up in November and December as much as I can. Okay. And then I'm kind of loaded during those months. And i've it's caused me to have my best months during November, not December.
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah. so But November, I've rocked it a few times. Yeah. And it's just getting all those people. Like my my whole focus goes on like my fringe parts of my pipeline. Yeah. And I just go kick them all off the fence and have a good month.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's funny. Our company, they do like their biggest competition of the year in November. Yeah. I know that's when people are like, yeah, let's start getting lazy. They're like, okay, we're going at least pull out, you know, come you'll probably have one of your best months. It's just, it's the focus, right? Exactly. Yeah.
00:59:10
Speaker
So go kill it. Um, we want you guys to help selling. Yeah. Please be nice. So that when the attorney generals are looking at you, they say good, clean business. Yeah.
00:59:21
Speaker
They're looking, they're on your Instagram. Yeah. I promise. So no more videos posting of, you know, signing in for the grandma's on the iPad. and Well, people are always saying that stuff. They they see it and and it gives them the wrong message. Right. And luckily we have access to these people and we can make sure they're getting the right message. But yeah go keep building it.
00:59:44
Speaker
Hit your personal goals. That's the most important thing. All the success comes from here, comes from here out. yeah So it's your goals that really matter. We can talk about this stuff all day. yeah But what you want to do is what matters.
00:59:56
Speaker
And then your ability to execute. All I can do is give you a couple more things to fill in the gaps that you don't have yet. That's that's all I can do. Yeah. Well, I love it, man. And a lot of people don't think about that because, you know, I've always been taught, oh, just learn the next sales thing.
01:00:10
Speaker
But a lot of us, at least I didn't think about, um it's just like maybe learning one more technical thing or one knowing the product a little more. That might be able to get you one extra deal more than learning a little bit more about sales.
01:00:23
Speaker
Not that you shouldn't learn about sales, but it's like, it all helps. True. It doesn't matter how good of a sales guy you are. If you fail a credit and you don't have a product that can do a failed credit, yeah it's done. Yeah.
01:00:35
Speaker
There are things outside of your skill power. Yeah. Right. So in those cases, have have the tool. Yeah. and and And you get one. Yeah. Right. It might not pay you as well as the first one that you've showed, but like you still. Yeah.
01:00:50
Speaker
You still spent the time there. Exactly. Might as well help that customer get what they want. Yeah. um And that's how I look at it. Yeah. Keep putting the customers first. and You know, families.
01:01:01
Speaker
Sure. Get your why in order. All that. Yep. Faith, family, fitness, yeah. Finance. Finance, yeah. It's all important. Well, Jeremy, it's been awesome having you on, man. And it's cool to be able to dig in some other things that we didn't get a hit as much last time.
01:01:16
Speaker
And yeah, like we talked about, we'll post all the links to RSA, everything else, anywhere else. I'm sure you said on the first podcast, but ah best place to reach out to you. Is that like your MySpace or?
01:01:28
Speaker
Yeah. i wish I wish I could give you a MySpace link and it works. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. Taylor, look, my Facebook, no joke, got banned for life. and Remember you told me that? Yes. You can't find me. I'm i'm on Instagram. Yeah. It's just my name, Jeremy Rose. Okay. J-E-R-A-M-I-E, Rose.
01:01:48
Speaker
Okay. And I have like 20 friends on there. I don't have anyone. I had a lot of Facebook, but it got banned from someone hacked it and it got, I don't know what they tried to do, but it was really bad. Yeah.
01:02:00
Speaker
Banned. I can't get it. So maybe in a couple months. So find me on Instagram. I'll, I'll send links to you that go to my trainings and again maybe there the sun life.com. There's a place in there. You can get the links. Okay.
01:02:15
Speaker
Um, but No, man,
Becoming a Professional in Solar Sales
01:02:17
Speaker
this is great. Good stuff. It's good hearing from you. Yeah. I feel like I should have asked you more questions. There's a lot of info in there. No. We should have taken it from you. No, you're you're the pro, man. Yeah.
01:02:27
Speaker
A lot of that stuff I don't know, and it's important to know, and hopefully the people listening, um you realize that, hey, we shouldn't just... I
Appreciation for RSA's Educational Work
01:02:35
Speaker
mean, it's important to know the sales stuff, but like you said, knowing a little bit about commercial, at least how to pass on the deal to someone like you, um it can make you lots of money. And it's all about becoming a professional because lot of unprofessional people and um like you were talking about, a lot of people are looking at us. And if we don't become professionals, then think there's just going to be more and more regulations.
01:02:56
Speaker
It's going to make our job harder and harder. So we appreciate you what you're doing at RSA and teaching people how to sell correctly. Yeah. Get on there. Yeah. Get on there. Get involved. It'll be good for you.
01:03:06
Speaker
Okay. Bye, man. Thanks again. And yeah, I'm sure we'll have you again on in the future with all the changes that could be tomorrow. There's a drastic change. can New podcast in two days. yeah Everything I said last time doesn't count. Yeah. Okay.
01:03:21
Speaker
Well, cool, man. Thanks again for coming on with us. And ah yeah, can't wait. Can't wait to turn it up again. Sick. Okay. Thanks, Taylor. Yeah.
Introduction to Podcast Episode Cheat Sheet
01:03:28
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs? Hope you enjoyed the episode. Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
01:03:42
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start? What episodes should I listen to in the podcast? You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
01:03:56
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and i would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solapreneur.
01:04:09
Speaker
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01:04:35
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them. That's going to show you how. So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.