Transcript
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
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.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
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.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Okay, what's up, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Got a very special episode today with the one and the only family man, entrepreneur, investor, QB of Life, and Two Comma Club Award winner, Chris Lee here.
Speaker: So welcome to the show here, Chris.
Speaker: Hey, appreciate it.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks for coming on.
Speaker: We're excited to have you on.
Speaker: I think you can add a ton of value for our audience here.
Speaker: And so, Chris, you just got back from China, is that right?
Speaker: That is right, yeah.
Speaker: We did a trip to China.
Speaker: We were first in the tour there.
Speaker: Pretty exciting.
Speaker: Spent a week over there, met with six different manufacturers, so pretty cool.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I saw you went and met with Jimmer, too, is that right?
Speaker: Yeah, we did.
Speaker: We did.
Speaker: We did go watch a little Jimmer over in Shanghai.
Speaker: So that was kind of interesting.
Speaker: Definitely not the same type of a USA crowd, but, you know, it was cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: So it was basketball.
Speaker: Did the fans love them as much there as they did at BYU?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: They love their people, but it was just a strange culture for basketball for sure.
Speaker: It wasn't your typical American game.
Speaker: Yeah, it looked like it.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, yeah, it looked like a good time in China.
Speaker: So you were just meeting with solar manufacturers out there?
Speaker: Yep, various different manufacturers.
Speaker: We're actually extending our business into the distribution arm.
Speaker: So we're actually going to be supplying solar to other solar installers outside of our sales and installation business.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And so, Chris, you got your company is SoulGen Power, and you started on what?
Speaker: Has it been a year and a half or so, or how long have you been in business now?
Speaker: It's actually just been over a year.
Speaker: We hit our year mark in November.
Speaker: So we're month 13 right now as we speak.
Speaker: And yeah, it's been a ride.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys do pretty much everything online, right?
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Our background, uh, myself and my business partners, we, we come from the background of the door to door world.
Speaker: And for us, the longest time we, you know, just like any door to door guy, we, uh, want to figure out how we get out of it.
Speaker: How do we take the, how do we take the skill set that we've learned and, and the money that we've made and be able to multiply that across in a different industry.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: you know, so I was in the door to door industry for almost 13 years and various different companies.
Speaker: I owned, uh, owned a couple of companies, worked for, um, legacy power.
Speaker: I was part of the foundational group there.
Speaker: You know, I came on the legacy, uh, before, before they ever had an install on the roof and, and I was the VP of human capital over there, helped build that.
Speaker: And, and, uh,
Speaker: But yeah, during that whole time and being in the door-to-door world, we were looking for a better way, a better solution.
Speaker: And it wasn't until we started getting involved in internet marketing, we figured out a way to not only go door-to-door, but go screen-to-screen and take ourselves exponentially across many screens instead of just one door at a time.
Speaker: You know, 3,000 doors, 3,000, 5,000 screens at a time is a much, much better success rate than just going door-to-door.
Speaker: So, yeah, in the last 13 months, we've built everything online.
Speaker: We do not do any door-to-door.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, that's impressive.
Speaker: And I don't see that too often.
Speaker: Typically, like, once a door-to-door guy, these guys get into that door-to-door culture and they're hooked on it.
Speaker: The company I'm working for right now, I know we were talking before, but Thomas Schaefer, he came from door-to-door, and we're all about door-to-door here.
Speaker: And typically, the guys that start the companies that have been in the door-to-door industry kind of lean towards that since that's what they know, that's what they've been good at.
Speaker: And so how did you get into the online marketing stuff?
Speaker: How did you know that was going to work for your company going into the solar industry?
Speaker: Well, I think going back, you know, most people in the door-to-door world, you know, they want to stick to the door-to-doors because of what they know, right?
Speaker: It's a fear-based mentality.
Speaker: They're scared of what they don't know.
Speaker: They're scared to take it in.
Speaker: And for me, I always knew that online was where it needed to be at.
Speaker: And, you know, I started my first internet marketing company back in 2011 with a search engine.
Speaker: search engine optimization company.
Speaker: That was back when SEO was, which was really big, you know, is inquiry based type business, but also, you know, quickly found out that that wasn't going to be the future of internet marketing either.
Speaker: Cause the inquiry is only really for when, when a customer is inquiring about your
Speaker: your company, they're looking for bottom price, highest ratings, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, same, same reason when we go onto Amazon, we, we type in a certain product, you know, as long as it's got four stars or better and it's the cheapest one available, we're going to get it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's what inquiry based internet marketing is about.
Speaker: And I knew I didn't want to be involved in inquiry because of that.
Speaker: And then I love door to door is that, you know,
Speaker: having worked for companies like Vivint and other things, we can go and sell a premier priced service, right?
Speaker: Because you're able to build so much value when you go door to door.
Speaker: And so for me, once I figured out how to be able to replicate that on a screen,
Speaker: you know, particularly using click funnels and Facebook ads and, you know, other, other different types of things that the fact that, you know, we can educate and build value on a screen, not just on a door, then that's where it really started appealing to me.
Speaker: And I knew it would work.
Speaker: So, so that's, you know, and initially, of course, it wasn't the first time, it wasn't the second time, it took a lot of, a lot of time and effort to be able to figure out
Speaker: Facebook marketing and sales funnels and everything else.
Speaker: I mean, a lot of trial and error.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, so there was various different events that led up to, you know, finally launching our own company and going full bore into it.
Speaker: Huh?
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And do you feel like stacking up against these companies that are going purely door to door?
Speaker: Do you think you're getting just as many leads closing, growing a lot quicker than them?
Speaker: Or what's your thoughts on, um, I guess on there?
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: So the problem with door to door is you're not building a brand, right?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You knock, you knock on somebody's, you knock on somebody's door.
Speaker: They don't know who they're buying from, just ultimately that it's a good offer, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: You there?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I keep getting phone calls here.
Speaker: Let me put this on do not disturb here.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So back at it.
Speaker: So, so the thing is with most door to door companies, like I said, they're not building a brand.
Speaker: Like if you, if you go and query the national population, most people aren't going to know who Vivint is, even though they're the second largest home automation company in
Speaker: in the nation.
Speaker: They're not going to know who Vivint Solar is for the same exact reason because their marketing is strictly being done door to door.
Speaker: And when someone makes a decision to go with them, like I said, it's not based off of brand recognition.
Speaker: Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, but it's very, very little.
Speaker: Where with internet marketing, the value that we're really able to bring is that we're able to
Speaker: you know, in typical marketing, right?
Speaker: To a customer buys after they see your brand seven times.
Speaker: And because we're able to get across three to 5,000 screens a day,
Speaker: people are able to see our brand over and over again.
Speaker: And on top of that, we're able to educate them in the same way.
Speaker: So it's really the best of both worlds.
Speaker: We're creating a brand that's long lasting.
Speaker: We're creating, you know, one that's, that's recognizable.
Speaker: We're, we're creating, you know, something that actually, actually works.
Speaker: And so as far as value, like I believe that we're bringing 10 X the value and able to do just as much business as any door to door and, and better.
Speaker: Like, I mean, we've done,
Speaker: uh, first, first year in business, 25 million.
Speaker: Uh, you know, it, it, I, I'd be, you know, pressed to find a first year company that has done that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, with, uh, you know, 35 to 40% margin.
Speaker: Um, so, you know, if you, if you can show a door to door company that's done that, like good, good on them.
Speaker: But, but at the end of the day, like I said, they're not building a brand that could be potentially sold off.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause, uh,
Speaker: So in the, and that's the other thing is like in the solar world, if you're ever looking to sell your company, uh, your, your company really is about branding because companies that are buying solar companies aren't buying them for the solar.
Speaker: They're actually buying them to be able to leverage their brand for additional verticals like HVAC or electrical or those types of things.
Speaker: There's no, but if there's no brand established,
Speaker: They're not going to be able to market that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So if you have a well-established brand, like, for example, Stolzium Power, we're well-established here in the Tri-City area for us to get into electric or HVAC or some other additional service.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That would be much more easy than like a door to door company.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cause yeah, like I'm working for my company.
Speaker: We're going mostly door to door.
Speaker: And that's one of the things I've started to want to figure out is how to build a brand around that.
Speaker: I don't necessarily want to start my own solar company right now.
Speaker: Um, but I guess when you were working for Vim and the other companies before you started your company, is that something you were trying to delve into building your brand around that as the solar guy or.
Speaker: So, you know, I always built, yeah, you know, Chris, the solar guy was always my own personal brand that I built and I did as much as I could.
Speaker: Like when I worked for Vivint, it was a big deal.
Speaker: I was building that brand on Facebook just through traditional types of social media.
Speaker: I wasn't running sales funnels.
Speaker: I wasn't running Facebook ads, but I was building a brand.
Speaker: And because of it, you know, when I was with Vivian, I was getting about 70 to 80% of my business through referrals, right?
Speaker: Because of, because of that personal brand, right?
Speaker: People knew me as, people knew me as Chris, the smaller guy in my neighborhoods, in,
Speaker: the areas that I was working door to door.
Speaker: But, but yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't doing the amount of internet marketing or anything else like, like I am now.
Speaker: Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker: So 80%.
Speaker: And was that just from your past customers or was this people like seeing you on social media that were seeing Chris the solar guy and just reaching out to you?
Speaker: How are you getting these referrals?
Speaker: Well, one of the most effective ways to utilize social media without spending money on ads is having your customers post pictures with you, right?
Speaker: Or you posting your customers and tagging them.
Speaker: uh, you know, and then just getting referrals that way.
Speaker: So, but yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't through like organic traffic, but yeah, it was, it was a referral base for sure.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you would just go every install you'd add, you'd show up their house, snap a picture with them and then have them post it.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And tag, tag me in it.
Speaker: And then, uh,
Speaker: And not only tag me in it, but as their friends and family commented on it, I would not comment.
Speaker: I would actually coach my people on how to respond to it because they're much more likely to respond to their friend or family than they are to Chris the solar guy.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: And you still in your company today, is it still very referral based?
Speaker: You still getting a lot of referrals?
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: It was like that.
Speaker: we do get a significant amount.
Speaker: Um, but, uh, I mean, like I said, we've, we've moved the majority of our stuff just to, you know, Facebook advertising and, and, uh, you know, sales funnels and, and we do a lot of, uh,
Speaker: creative ways to incentivize our customers to give us referrals.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: And so Chris here at the solar printer podcast, basically we're all about teaching reps how to not only get leads from knocking doors and from the traditional things we're trying to teach and build the brand around teaching reps how to do what you're doing.
Speaker: That is building their own funnels, building out their systems to get referrals.
Speaker: and that, and I know you built your company around that so far.
Speaker: So how does your sales process work?
Speaker: Is it pretty much just all sales funnels, Facebook ads, you know, kind of walk us through your process in your company?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, so we run, we run, you know, the full extent of sales funnels.
Speaker: You know, we have our different, our different traffic drivers,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: So we are different hooks through, through traffic and main sources of our traffic are, you know, social media.
Speaker: We do a lot of Instagram, Facebook.
Speaker: We do some YouTube advertising.
Speaker: We do, you know, various different, various different things.
Speaker: And it's typically funneled into a, a landing sales funnel, which is either hosted on click funnels, or we do some Facebook forums.
Speaker: We do, you know, a few different things.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And there, you know, they sign up for a free quote, a free proposal.
Speaker: They get some additional value add through videos and education that is done through that sales funnel.
Speaker: And then from there, we have a lead specialist that reaches out to them and then sets them up with an appointment with our sales reps.
Speaker: And then we do have in-home consultations where we close out the deal.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So walk us through, um, lead hits the website there and goes in.
Speaker: Are you guys, I think this is one of the biggest struggles I've seen.
Speaker: And as I've launched my own funnel, um, as you know, sometimes you're calling these people, they're not answering, um, or sometimes it's tough to get through to them.
Speaker: What's your best strategies?
Speaker: Are you guys calling them right off the bat once they hit the forum or, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, if you don't contact a lead within 15 minutes of getting a lead, you're, so within the first 15 minutes, you have 85% chance of contacting them.
Speaker: And every minute after that, it goes down by 5% until it reaches about, you know, 15, 20%.
Speaker: And, and so, you know, we have various different follow-up mechanisms and softwares where, you know, immediately after they, you know,
Speaker: You know, they submit information, they'll receive a text message letting them know the next step of the process is exactly what's going to be happening.
Speaker: And really just setting the proper expectations of what the process is.
Speaker: If your sales funnel isn't setting that proper expectation, they're going to be a little freaked out when they're getting a funnel or not.
Speaker: If you're expecting that, then they're much more likely to answer or respond to a text message.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So does your funnel say at the end that someone will be contacting them shortly or something?
Speaker: So they're expecting it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's, yeah, that's, uh, you know, part of, uh, like that aspect is, is, is some of our stuff that, uh, that we hold proprietary exactly, uh, exactly how we do it.
Speaker: Um, but, uh,
Speaker: You know, we do.
Speaker: So another, another business that I run is called Biz Hacker and we actually educate solar companies on how to do their own marketing.
Speaker: And we've had a few sales reps that work for bigger organizations that have come to our live events, but usually it's solar owners that, that we deal with.
Speaker: But yeah, we actually, so I'm a, I'm a big advocate that you should never farm out your marketing.
Speaker: That, that marketing is your, is the baby maker of your,
Speaker: of your business and the same way you wouldn't, uh, you know, farm out your, your baby making, you shouldn't farm out your marketing.
Speaker: Uh, don't outsource your, your, your baby making for sure.
Speaker: And so I'm, I'm a believer in that.
Speaker: And, and so instead of telling people, Hey, I'll, I'll build a funnel for you or anything like that.
Speaker: I tell guys, Hey, the most important thing is, is to master your marketing and master how to do it yourself.
Speaker: And then if you want to outsource it, then you can once you're able to course correct.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because most most guys, they want to just go hire some lead gen company.
Speaker: They want to hire some random person to go and create leads or build a sales funnel for them.
Speaker: But whenever that person isn't delivering for them, they have no idea how to course correct them.
Speaker: They don't have, you know, they can't tell them, hey, you need to make this change or make this change because they themselves don't understand marketing.
Speaker: And so the most important thing that you can do as an entrepreneur, as a salesman, as a business owner is to understand your marketing inside and out.
Speaker: That way, if you do hire somebody else, you can guide them or you can do it yourself because, because really, like I said, that is the most important.
Speaker: That's what makes your babies.
Speaker: That's what makes your customers.
Speaker: And, and so, um,
Speaker: So one of the things that I do with my business is I have these business owners that fly in for three days and we build out a full funnel, a fully functioning funnel.
Speaker: We don't teach them how to do it.
Speaker: We actually do it with them.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And so that way when they leave my place, they have all the tools.
Speaker: All they have to do is turn it on and it's ready to go.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: It reminds me of, I think Russell Brunson used to do something like that, the funnel hackathon, where they go weekend and just build out the entire funnel.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's really cool that you do that.
Speaker: And I think it's what the industry needs because there's so many people that want to
Speaker: maybe not knock as many doors they have, want to diversify their ways of getting leads.
Speaker: And what's the biggest, how long would you say it takes to kind of learn this stuff?
Speaker: And what are some of like the biggest mistakes you see as people are trying to create their funnels and that?
Speaker: So I know it can take a little bit to get going.
Speaker: Some people get the unrealistic expectations.
Speaker: What are some, I guess, mistakes you see as people try to launch these?
Speaker: Well, I think the biggest mistake is that, you know, you're only going to, you're going to learn either one of two ways.
Speaker: You're either going to learn through putting the sweat and tears and making a ton of mistakes, right?
Speaker: Or you're going to pay for it, right?
Speaker: Those are the only ways you can do it.
Speaker: And so you got to ask yourself, do I have more time than money or do I have more money than time?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So if you have more money than time,
Speaker: it's better for you to go and pay and learn, hire a coach, go to a workshop, go to some of these different events, spend the money to go and learn it.
Speaker: Or if you have more time than money, right, then you can actually just go and put in a bunch of time.
Speaker: Then that's what you got to do is just put in the time, make the mistakes,
Speaker: you know, learn through lots of reading, research, listen to podcasts.
Speaker: So I, like I said, the biggest mistake people aren't willing to put in the time or people aren't willing to put in the money, right?
Speaker: They want, they want to just know it today and they're not willing to sacrifice.
Speaker: And when I talk sacrifice, we're talking not just weeks or months, we're talking potential years, you know, you got to be willing to go at it for, you know, I, like I said, I started my first internet company in 2011.
Speaker: And it didn't finally click until 2017 for me.
Speaker: So that w as a long time.
Speaker: Obviously, I wasn't working just in that market for those years.
Speaker: I was constantly studying and learning.
Speaker: And then on top of that, what really accelerated my growth is once I really started paying for education.
Speaker: This last year, I spent $150,000 in education on coaching.
Speaker: on coaches and conferences and everything else.
Speaker: And my only regret is I didn't do that sooner.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's true.
Speaker: I think it's the fastest way to accelerate your growth.
Speaker: And I've seen I would have not known how to do any of this.
Speaker: But yes, just like you had to hire the coach, had to invest in myself.
Speaker: And, you know, people get afraid to pay out the bucks to learn, but got to take the risk, got to put it on the line to learn.
Speaker: And I think people are starting to see that because yeah, when I first put out my funnel, I had some initial success was getting the leads coming in.
Speaker: But then what I didn't realize is that a funnel, it's not like you put it up and then you can never, and then you never have to touch it again.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I mean, you gotta be adjusting things.
Speaker: You gotta be always testing.
Speaker: Cause I had mine launched for about a month and I started seeing it slowing down and I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker: The guy that's,
Speaker: the guy that coached me, I just thought I'd put it up there and then be good for life.
Speaker: But I mean, you gotta spend the money in it.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, the reality is the market's always changing.
Speaker: The algorithms are always changing, right?
Speaker: So Facebook algorithms, Google algorithms, you know, the way, like I said, the market responds to certain things.
Speaker: Like you've got to have new, fresh content, new, fresh additions to your funnels on a regular basis.
Speaker: Like it's one of those things, although we like to say in the internet world, like just, you know, you're one funnel away or whatever.
Speaker: like it it really is a bunch of bs like there's no there's no such thing as free money and you you got to put in the time you got to put in the effort you got to spend the money to to get there and you got to constantly be educating yourself on on the new changes of the algorithms of the marketplace how they're responding and you know being willing to to change with the tides yeah it's very true and chris can you tell us a little bit more about your uh
Speaker: your funnel building event that you did, how did that, um, what's been the success of the people that came to that?
Speaker: They've been crushing it with their funnels.
Speaker: Yup.
Speaker: So actually we just, we just held our first, uh, actual live event, uh, in November and yeah, these guys just all launched and, and not only did we, not only did we teach them how to, uh, or help them create a marketing funnel to be able to get end users, uh,
Speaker: get customers, but we also did recruiting funnels for them as well, which was a huge thing.
Speaker: And so we kind of customized it according to the needs of the guys that were there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, some are, some are struggling with sales, some are struggling with recruiting.
Speaker: And so we, we adjusted according, but yeah, the guys have seen a ton of success.
Speaker: Like, I mean, if you go over to,
Speaker: If you go over to my page, Biz Hacker, I think it's either Biz Hacker or Biz Hackers on Facebook.
Speaker: You'll see a number of different testimonials and just the experience that these guys had coming to the live event.
Speaker: It was an absolutely incredible experience for all of them.
Speaker: That's sweet.
Speaker: And it was – how many days was it?
Speaker: Just two?
Speaker: It w as a three-day event.
Speaker: And I actually – we hold it very –
Speaker: We keep it to a limited amount of seats.
Speaker: I do it at my house.
Speaker: I do it out of my house.
Speaker: And so, you know, we make it a very personal experience.
Speaker: And it's not just, you know, come build a funnel and leave.
Speaker: But, you know, we do Q&As.
Speaker: You know, we leave.
Speaker: We give as much value as possible to these guys by the time that they leave.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And we got, we got another one coming up.
Speaker: We haven't set the date.
Speaker: It'll probably be end of January, early, early February, trying to balance around a few events that I'm going to speak at.
Speaker: Right on, right on.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And that's, so I'll be three day event probably into January.
Speaker: And then people can find more about that.
Speaker: You said on the biz hacker, was it biz hacker.com?
Speaker: No, it's just a biz, just biz hackers on, on Facebook, go to our Facebook page.
Speaker: That's the best way we'd like to keep everything right there.
Speaker: So right on, right on.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: I know you got something here shortly, Chris, but just take us through when you get these leads, what's,
Speaker: and you're going to sit in the home now, what's kind of your sales process, if you're comfortable sharing, what's your sales process in the home that you have your guys go through as they're trying to close these deals?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So for us, we typically do a two-touch close, whether the first touch is over the phone from the sales rep or in the home.
Speaker: It's kind of preferential depending on the sales rep and what comfort level they have.
Speaker: the first appointment's all about setting the proper expectation of what's going to happen in the second appointment, right?
Speaker: The usage, you know, we, we explained to them the sales process for us.
Speaker: It's an eight step sales process of, you know, the, of step one from when they're first in contact to when the system's turned on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so we go through that.
Speaker: We set it proper expectations.
Speaker: Like the most important thing you can do in sales is,
Speaker: is create the frame and then fill it, right?
Speaker: So we frame it out, say, hey, step two and three is we're going to come in tomorrow.
Speaker: You know, we always make sure that the second follow-up appointment is within 24 to 48 hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hey, tomorrow we're going to be coming back and, you know, we're going to be going over the design numbers, show you how it pencils out, show you why it's such a no-brainer.
Speaker: And we're also going to get you approved for the financing.
Speaker: Then, of course, we go over, like, some of the financing requirements in that first so that we're not wasting too much time.
Speaker: with the customer.
Speaker: And we actually hit on those two steps twice in that first appointment.
Speaker: We go through it once and then we let them know again, Hey, this is what we're going to be doing tomorrow.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so that way, when we show up in the home the very next day, the very first thing that we do is we go over the steps again.
Speaker: Hey, this is, this is the steps to go in solar.
Speaker: This is what we're going to be covering.
Speaker: This is what we're going to be covering today that you're going to be making a decision.
Speaker: You're going to be signing a couple of things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, and, and just letting them know what to expect.
Speaker: And then we go through the,
Speaker: you know, the sales pitch and presentation and close them out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And what are your stats between how many leads that you're getting?
Speaker: What's kind of the close ratio on that?
Speaker: How many leads do you need to go through to be able to close one of them typically?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if we, if we're able to get ahold of a qualified customer, meaning that they're a homeowner, right.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, verify that they do have good credit over the phone.
Speaker: We're closing about 35 to 40% of those.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I'm sure how many sales guys do you have at your company right now?
Speaker: You know, we range between six and eight.
Speaker: I have a couple partners that occasionally will sell, but I have six full-time sales reps.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So what are the top closer at your company?
Speaker: What's been his, I guess, what's the biggest secrets to closing more deals or what have you seen?
Speaker: The difference between the top closers and then the guys that aren't closing as many.
Speaker: I mean, closing is pretty simple.
Speaker: You just got to do it, right?
Speaker: Most guys don't close because they don't assume the sale and they don't ask, right?
Speaker: They tiptoe around the big questions.
Speaker: They don't have the huevos to ask for the close.
Speaker: They look for a yes or no instead of just assuming the sale and getting them qualified, right?
Speaker: So, I mean, sales really is that easy.
Speaker: And no matter how complicated we want to make it.
Speaker: Yeah, and especially solar, I mean, this isn't a thing where, like alarms, you sold alarms, right?
Speaker: Or like I did pest control, where we're adding bills onto them.
Speaker: I just look at solar as it should be such a simple thing.
Speaker: All we're doing is replacing what they're spending for electricity, right?
Speaker: And I'm in San Diego, so our people are saving tons of money.
Speaker: I don't know about what, do people save money in Washington going solar?
Speaker: Not initially.
Speaker: It takes a break even for a while.
Speaker: Yeah, we're $0.68 a kilowatt hour, so we're nothing like your $0.30 to $0.40 down there.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Big difference.
Speaker: But yeah, even not saving, it's like right now people are just renting their power, having paying rates that are going up, and dealing with all that.
Speaker: So it should be such a no-brainer thing when people can put this power plant on their roof and
Speaker: save the money and just really own their personal power plant up there, right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, that's a big, I think, secret that we can take away is just the pre-framing.
Speaker: So it sounds like you just push it really hard.
Speaker: This is what we're going to do and just walk them through the steps every time and make sure it's super clear that they are signing things, they are getting the ball rolling before you step out of the house, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And if people say no, what's your go-to if you get to the end of the closing?
Speaker: I want to think about it.
Speaker: What do you guys say?
Speaker: Well, I mean, typically if you set the proper expectations, people are not going to want to think about it, right?
Speaker: Like I want to think about it means you haven't given me enough information to say yes yet, right?
Speaker: And so you haven't educated them.
Speaker: You haven't set proper expectations.
Speaker: You know, if you start the meeting as, hey, you know, this is what we're going to be covering today.
Speaker: We're going to be signing a few things.
Speaker: And they allow you to progress after that point.
Speaker: They're basically saying, I don't have to think about it after we sit here.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: But if you're, like I said, tiptoeing, dancing around it, not setting proper expectations, yes, you're going to get, I want to think about it all the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, but if I do...
Speaker: You know, it's, I want to think about it.
Speaker: You know, it's the old Brian Tracy clothes, you know, you know, you know, everything you need to know right now to make a good decision.
Speaker: So why don't you just do it?
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Lay down the hammer.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: I mean, it's, it, you know, when, so, and, and another thing is like, Hey, typically when, when people want to think about it is because they don't, they don't have all their answers, all their questions answered.
Speaker: You know, what, what additional questions do you have?
Speaker: And then if they say, you know, they ask a question and we're like, okay, so if I'm able to answer this, is that all that's keeping you from making the decision today?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then you answer the question and then you close it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And then, yeah, so you find that the leads, would you say that a lead coming in and hitting your website, a lot more solid probably than a lead that you have to knock on a door?
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: 100% because here's the thing is when you knock door to door, people are naturally skeptical from day one, right?
Speaker: No matter how good a relationship you build, no matter how much credibility you have or confidence,
Speaker: they're still going to be a little leery because you're some random dude that knocked on the door and they never heard of your company before.
Speaker: Where on Facebook, they naturally think, oh, this is a big organization.
Speaker: This is someone who's legit, right?
Speaker: And so through the process, it naturally weeds out some of that natural skepticism that exists in the door-to-door world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, cool, Chris.
Speaker: Thanks for sharing some tips on that.
Speaker: And just to kind of wrap up here, you're big on social media.
Speaker: You're known as the QB, right?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Is that a self-proclaimed QB or how did you become the QB of life?
Speaker: No, for sure.
Speaker: So I, for most of my football career, I played quarterback.
Speaker: And then later, later in life, I actually coached high school football for seven years.
Speaker: And for me, you know, I gave myself that name several years ago, the QB of life, because I, as I coach my kids, the biggest thing is in the quarterback position is taking full responsibility for everything that happens on the field.
Speaker: Running back fumbles it, it's the quarterback's fault.
Speaker: Receiver drops it, it's the quarterback's fault, right?
Speaker: And so, so for me,
Speaker: It's all about being a QB, being the QB of life is being fully responsible for any actions that I take or others take around me.
Speaker: And that ultimately I can't point the finger at anybody else, whether or not I'm successful comes down to me.
Speaker: And, you know, those are the principles that I preach, that I teach, that we have nobody else to blame.
Speaker: We are a product of all the decisions that we've made in our life up until this point.
Speaker: You know, the place that we live, the car that we drive, the person we marry, the kids that we have, the job that we work, the money we have in our bank account.
Speaker: Those are all decisions that we have made that have gotten us to this point.
Speaker: And unless we take full responsibility and ownership of that, you know, we're pointing to blame and we're never going to be successful.
Speaker: So true.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker: Have you read the book Extreme Ownership?
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I'm a big reader.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I try to read a book a week.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sounds very similar to that.
Speaker: So yeah, I think it's so true, especially in sales.
Speaker: I mean, it's so easy and you're getting leads from people.
Speaker: It's so easy to point the finger and blame.
Speaker: Oh, these are crappy leads that came in.
Speaker: Or in my case where I'm having people that knock on doors for me and send me leads, sometimes I'm like, okay, well, these people knocking doors just don't know how to explain it right.
Speaker: But it's super easy in sales to just blame areas, blame different factors, right?
Speaker: So it's something that I struggle with all the time and I think a huge limiting belief that a lot of salespeople have.
Speaker: So thanks for reminding us of that.
Speaker: You bet.
Speaker: So where can, just to wrap up here, Chris, where can people find more?
Speaker: I know you said you're a biz hacker, but you're on Facebook just as Chris Lee.
Speaker: Anywhere else that people can find more about you and what you're doing?
Speaker: Yeah, so, I mean, you can follow me at Chris Lee QB on Instagram, Chris Lee QB on Facebook.
Speaker: It's just facebook.com backslash Chris Lee QB.
Speaker: You know, pretty much all the social media platforms.
Speaker: I'm not much a fan of Twitter.
Speaker: Although I do have an account.
Speaker: I'm not a big poster there, but, uh, yeah, in Instagram, Facebook, most of my, most of my biggest content is on Facebook, you know, follow me there.
Speaker: And, um, I'll be speaking at a few events.
Speaker: So a couple of plugs for events that, that I'll be at funnel hacking live.
Speaker: I'll be hosting a round table there.
Speaker: Um, and then, and then, uh,
Speaker: uh dream 100 con uh that's hosted by dana derrick so i'll be speaking on his uh on his stage there so uh just a little plug for for those events so it'll be a good time so awesome cool well yeah definitely look those up we'll post them in the show notes but uh we're gonna be at funnel hacking live for sure i'm actually staying in a crib there so thanks for hooking us up with the airbnb the house there you bet so we'll look forward to talking more there
Speaker: Okay, sounds good, Taylor.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Appreciate all the info.
Speaker: We'll talk soon.
Speaker: Have a good one.
Speaker: What another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur Podcast.
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.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
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Speaker: It's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
