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Stop Making This Mistake In Your Close
211 Plays3 days ago
What do you use as a selling point for solar? In this episode, I'll go through a fairly recent close with a persistent homeowner who saw through my usual presentation, asking for better reasons to go solar.
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Journey to Solar Sales Success
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. 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 fail.
What is a Solopreneur?
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? 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.
Discovering SolarScout: A Game Changer in Sales?
00:00:42
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:00:46
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:00:57
Speaker
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. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:01:16
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Special Offer: SolarScout Discount
00:01:21
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, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:01:31
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.
00:01:44
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Focus on Customer Needs vs. Numbers
00:01:47
Speaker
Today we're going talking about why you need to focus on what the customer wants. Remember, this is all about what other people want, not what we want.
00:01:57
Speaker
So I had an important reminder that I wanted to share with you all today. So welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals.
00:02:09
Speaker
and having a bunch better time in the solar industry. ah Words getting a little twisted here. Been at it all day long. Left at 7 a.m. this morning. Got back at 9, 9.30 and now running up a podcast for everybody.
00:02:25
Speaker
ten thirty now So a little bit brain dead, but hey, wanted to share a very important principle. And this was something that happened just two days ago in an appointment. And I thought, we got to make a podcast episode about this.
00:02:40
Speaker
um So just to give some context, we're going to play some live footage from the experience, from the appointments that this happened during. But I was sitting down with this guy. Things were going OK. And you'll hear this guy has a sense of humor.
00:02:55
Speaker
He was ah kind of grilling me at times. And, um you know, very educated guy, college professor, asked for a five references, um you know, wanted quotes, things like that.
00:03:10
Speaker
Things that um sometimes you get with more oh yeah educated people, um you know, very detail oriented. and um as we were going through it, we we started going through the numbers and he pretty much stopped me.
00:03:25
Speaker
and was like, hey, dude, I don't care about the numbers, which you'll hear here shortly. But it just got me thinking, like, how many times are we focused on the numbers, the savings,
00:03:37
Speaker
the yeah the things that we find important about solar? But at the end of the day, customer, they might not care at all about those things. ah So the principle of today is we need to focus on what's important to the customer, not necessarily what's important to us.
00:03:56
Speaker
And so I'm going pull up this recording. Once again, we record with the best way to um learn from your sales footage, and that is zero. If you are not using zero at this point, I don't know what you're doing. It's great for analysis, great for ai and great for looking at what could have gotten better in your appointments.
Adapting Sales Pitches to Customer Motivations
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay, so let's get to the meat and potatoes here.
00:04:23
Speaker
tell the advantage to having solar energy is. So besides day don't money doy talk me about kind of the same concept of over time if we're going up last it's more about what you'll save over time.
00:04:33
Speaker
So, I don't know. Because if you could go back... So, if you would sell on money. Well, there's other benefits, but yeah. So, what are they? What are they? I mean, you're the salesman. Sell me on solar power. solar power Why don't I just stay with SDG&E?
00:04:45
Speaker
What are you giving me that they don't decide for more bills? Well, just showed you like seven. Did you not see the picture? They're just really... Seven pounds? No. There's like seven other benefits. Yeah, so what were they? You didn't see? Yeah, of course I did. But tell me what they were. Don't look at that. Tell me every day.
00:04:59
Speaker
Well, you're controlling your power and you're adding value to your home. It's only the three main things. You use more power. and things one no That's financial again, but you're not going to talk to me about environmental.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah. Do you that? Renewable energy is huge for me. Renewable energy is huge. Yeah. I have some homeowners that have gone renewable energy more than money. That's more important to me. than the had to buy a filter, right? Filtered water.
00:05:26
Speaker
yeah everybody and by yourel right so the water was I had to Chinese bottle to buy from here. Why are you drinking here? I just, right I'm going to the Green Garden House. That's the best thing you do during summer is just drink shit from the house.
00:05:39
Speaker
with a just from the tap yeah this goes was the refrigerator you join a union then doesn't want fishing you perplexed ah you're a pretty earth consciouscious guy Are you a new writer? am. I am. I am saying, yeah, unfortunately most people don't even care about that. Sadly, but yeah. yeah that's what i wish I wish everyone was like, dude.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah. Clean energy or dirty energy, right? Which one do you want? Which one do I want? Or which one is, it looks like the direction America is going. We're taking a huge step backwards. The house.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You're right. so Don't worry. Don't worry. Once your kids graduate, you're going to get real political real quick. and Yeah, so we'll play you a little bit more, but you can hear he the yeah he caught he got me good. He's kind of grilling me right now. And I had to check myself.
00:06:30
Speaker
I'd be like, wow, he actually got me, right? It's like I was focused so much on the money. And, you know, we didn't play the recorded part before this. But I was focused on, man, you're going to be cutting your bill. You're going to lock in a fixed rate. This guy, he had a low bill to begin with.
00:06:46
Speaker
Right. um We're in San Diego. A lot of people that haven't gone solar it out here. It's like they have low bills under $100. And so this guy, he was no different. We're basically fixing his bill.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I was like, so I guess worried that he gonna be like, oh, it's not worth it. I'm not saving money. um so I was really just like trying to have him see the long term savings and this and that.
00:07:08
Speaker
And when it came down to it, he cared very little about any savings. i don't even I don't want to do this for that. I want to do it to help the environment. So just a kind of a slap in the face for me. that I'm like, man, what am I doing? Why did I not go through this more in the fact finding? Why did I not ask better questions the beginning?
00:07:25
Speaker
I should have figured this out way before this, that this guy wanted to go solar for the Earth aspect. And you don't get a ton of those people. But, ah you know, I should add some clues. Right. This guy has a huge garden area, you college professor, um you know, definitely definitely left leaning.
00:07:44
Speaker
ah doesn't like Trump, those types of things. So those are clues that people that care about in the environment had a degree in anthropology. you know I didn't recognize the hints. And so I'm sharing these things so you can avoid the same mistakes.
00:07:57
Speaker
Don't be like me. Look for the clues beforehand and ask the questions beforehand. It could have cost me the deal. hey um The good news is i did we did end up closing this deal. You know you hear My guy, ah Andrew, he actually set this appointment up and he had some good perspective in the background. You can hear he's from Sri Lanka, um you know, grew up in very humble circumstances. So he's telling some cool stories that kind of you drove home those points.
00:08:23
Speaker
But I made the mistake ah being so money focused, focusing on the reasons that I thought he was going to want to do it. Turns out that wasn't even the reason. Yes, let's play a little bit more. and And then we'll drive it home after this ah last little section here.
00:08:38
Speaker
yeah but that's good because it's true out most people in other states No one really saves money going solar, except in California. California is one of the other states where people actually save money going solar. So I will say people that do this in other states, it's basically only for that reason. The green energy concept of it. but Yeah, there's more people cared about that.
00:08:57
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, i mean i mean, we can go over numbers more because yeah, there is definitely... I think that would make you more comfortable, would make more comfortable. ah Okay, well, if you don't care about it, then. Because it sounds like you're someone, if it was more than what you're paying, but you got to go green, then you would still do that? i' Possibly, but you already sold me on the idea that I'm going to be spending less to go green.
00:09:17
Speaker
Especially that's the main thing for you, then. and So what's the next step? Scheduling them to come out and do the assessment? Yep. So why do you want to that? Up to you. you have preference? You do it.
00:09:28
Speaker
like and if you're go to your salesman youve got to listen to the customer off summer i still don't do it on saturday okay okay can be you can You can let me know. But we'll call and see what their availability is. see oh It's all on you, man.
00:09:41
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you. It's easier for us. Okay. yeah well so that come do that It takes us, I would say, about a week. Okay. So there you have it. Once we figured it out, this is his main motivation.
00:09:53
Speaker
He asks a buying question. He's like, boom, go straight into the clothes. Could have figured that out a lot earlier. So, so many reps, they talk themselves out of a cell. People want to do this. People love solar. People love our product.
00:10:06
Speaker
But how many times are like, oh, they need to know this. They need to know this. They need to know this. We talk ourselves out of a cell. So I'm glad I didn't make that mistake, right? Once we figured that out. And once we figured out, hey, if you would do this, you would do this even if you had to pay more, just help the environment.
00:10:22
Speaker
It's like, yeah, what's the next steps? It's buying question. You can go straight into a close right there. Right. So don't talk yourself out of the cell. They start asking buying questions. Go into your close.
00:10:34
Speaker
Go into taking next steps. Hey, so many people, they just talk. They just talk. They just talk when the person was ready to buy. They're ready to schedule the next steps to schedule a site survey. But we lost the cell from there.
00:10:46
Speaker
i had someone today, actually, as I'm recording this, where, you know, older guy in a wheelchair, Didn't go over numbers at all. Started explaining to him little bit until he just didn't want an explanation.
00:11:00
Speaker
And he's like, you know what? this I'm going to do this. How can I get started? Basically, i think I have that recording. Maybe we'll play it future episode. We didn't even talk numbers. We went straight to the close. Of course, explained to him after the fact.
00:11:13
Speaker
But these people, some people, you got to read the room, right? Some people, they just want to go to the next step. ah You can explain as you go. They don't need to know 100% of the details. Of course, they're going to do like a welcome call. We're going to go through the contract, the agreement. Never say contract.
00:11:28
Speaker
but We're going to go through the agreements. show them exactly what the numbers are. And they're goingnna they're going to understand that. But don't make the mistake of just being the person who gives way too much information when the person was ready to buy. Hey, so I hope that illustrates an important point for you.
How to Engage Potential Solar Customers?
00:11:48
Speaker
Make sure you ask good questions at the beginning. And this was a question I ask a lot of times, but failed to ask in this appointment. It's just their motivations for even looking into solar, right?
00:12:00
Speaker
um So it should have been like, hey, Homeowner, mr homeowner ah So really, it comes down to typically three main things, sometimes four main things that people want to go solar.
00:12:11
Speaker
um Some people like the of saving money. Some people like that it's going to add value to their home. lot of people like that they can use more power. And then there is a green aspect. a lot of people just like going green.
00:12:23
Speaker
It's helping the environments. So for you, what is what would you say is the main motivation for you looking in into solar? Or where do you think you would benefit most from it of those four that I gave you?
00:12:34
Speaker
Right. And most people, it's going to be one of the three, right? Using more power, adding value to their home, saving money. But, ah you know, you will find people that like the idea of helping the environments.
00:12:46
Speaker
And if you can get them to tell you what their main focus is you know you can focus in on that one thing. You know that's the focus of the presentation. The rest you can just go over as minor details.
00:12:58
Speaker
But make sure you focus on what they want, not what you think they want. Right? So that was my big mistake. I think I could have been a lot better. Homeowner would have been satisfied. ah he would have been um sold a lot quicker if I would have taken the hint.
00:13:14
Speaker
So I hope that helps someone out there today. Send this to your team. Send this to anyone who could use some help. Remember, we're in prime time. we We're in crunch time. The time is now to get out there at the time of this recording.
00:13:26
Speaker
you're listening to this like 10 years later, we are in. the middle of a lot of things changing with Trump's big, beautiful bill. We don't know what's going happen. Solar incentives could be getting just axed tomorrow, basically.
00:13:42
Speaker
You know, I think everything's going to fine. I'm super confident in the future of the solar industry. And we've got some exciting things coming, um you know, for for our guys down here. and things that i think every company should be implementing. So more on that later.
00:13:57
Speaker
But for now, get out there, take advantage of the opportunity, sell like you never have before, and I promise you're not going to regret it. a Live with the pain of working hard now, so you don't have to live with the pain of regret later.
Community Building and Opportunities in Solar Sales
00:14:09
Speaker
Hey, please leave us a review on the podcast if you haven't already.
00:14:13
Speaker
Check out our partner sponsors, Ciro, and um you know we got SolarScout. These guys are great. And ah hit me up if you want an opportunity to blitz with our team to fully maximize the opportunity.
00:14:29
Speaker
We'd love to have you out here. We got a few spots. and We got our July Blitz upcoming. So we got a link you can click or you can also send me a DM. We'd love to connect and chat.
00:14:40
Speaker
So go sell a lot of systems this week and we'll see you on the next episode. Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day.
00:14:58
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:15:20
Speaker
And it's called Solcite. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 day.
00:15:40
Speaker
and forty five cents a day Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.