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End of Summer Blitz Recap
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Our last blitz of the summer gave us challenges that tested both us and our systems in the diversity of California. Despite changes in logistics and solving extremely rare cases with our customers, we ended with great results and new insights to carry over in our next blitzes.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
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.
Taylor's Journey to Success
00:00:10
Speaker
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.
Podcast Goals and Audience
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.
Defining a 'Solopreneur'
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. What's up,
Blitz Outcomes and Lessons
00:00:42
Speaker
solopreneurs? We just finished up our last blitz of the summer.
00:00:45
Speaker
Wanted to give you a little recap, some good, some bad things we could have improved on. Hopefully you can take it away to your next blitzes that you plan or maybe join us on the next one. So welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a but much better time in the solar industry. We're free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can find podcasts. also youtube coming at you ah almost every tuesday and friday you know it is sometimes we get a little uh grind mode closing deals but uh we try to keep it fresh new original content every week so thank you for sharing the show thank you for spreading the word because that is what keeps the podcast going and if you have not left us review or shared the show, please go do that. and That's the way we grow this thing.
00:01:37
Speaker
And that's what's kept the podcast going throughout the years.
Featured Guest: Melissa Ramizon
00:01:40
Speaker
Hey, and some of you heard last podcast, we had Melissa Ramizon. She is, I think, probably one of the yeah the greatest people doing blitzes right now in the solar industry. Just the way she organizes them, the attention to detail, insane, and learned a ton from her podcast. So if you're not listening to that podcast, go get
Challenges During the Blitz
00:02:02
Speaker
a listen.
00:02:02
Speaker
and uh you know i just decided hey since we're on the topic of blitzing we just finished up one let's talk about some results of our blitz so it's a little bit different style podcast kind of just going to be a recap talk about our deals some of the things that happen just a little uh maybe journal entry of the blitz okay so i hope you enjoy the uh just kind of the story of our blitz okay so i'm going to start this was a five day blitz We left on Tuesday, came back Saturday night.
00:02:32
Speaker
So little bit shorter one. um But, you know, most people in our company right now, we typically keep it five, six days. And that's about the amount of blitzed. I like to do just because anything more than that gets little tough, got a family, got wife, three kids and everything. And I'll be honest, it's tough to ah be constantly Blitzing. So that's why I think it's important to not only learn to master the Blitz model, but also master selling in your own markets because it's just a lot more sustainable.
00:03:03
Speaker
And especially if you're married, have kids, ah makes it way easier on the family. Hey, but that being said, um here's what we did. We left... Tuesday. and it was a little bit hectic, was planning on leaving in the morning, got behind, had but had to do wrap up a few calls with customers. And as I was packing up my stuff to go, i lost, I have one of those little aura rings.
00:03:26
Speaker
Maybe some some people have those tracks, your sleep and everything. I ended up losing that before I left. And I'm like, man, um Right now, probably is my only shot at finding it because the battery is still charged and ah fresh in the mind. So I'm going try to find it. So I spent an hour, hour and a half searching for this stupid ring to no avail and still don't know where my aura ring is.
00:03:48
Speaker
um You know, it's connecting to the Bluetooth. I know it's somewhere in my room because that's where it was connecting to. So if you want to come help me dig through my room, try
Adapting to Unexpected Issues
00:03:57
Speaker
to find this ring. then hit me up but uh delayed us on the blitz i left i had to go pick up one of our setters in la around la where he lives so he carpooled up with us and uh we ended up getting there at that night hey we we went to uh the place we got the airbnb for the blitz was kind of this place in the middle of nowhere it's called lake isabella it's in california so we went there we got the airbnb there
00:04:25
Speaker
Some people were planning to knock around there. we were running late and we passed through Bakersfield to get there. Bakersfield is like Central California. So we're like, you know what? um Let's just try to hit some doors around there because we have an hour, hour and a half of daylight. So we decided we're going to see what we can do.
00:04:42
Speaker
So we ended up booking a few appointments and... As we did that, I knew that's probably where we're going to be the rest of the week. Kind of sealed our location. Looking back, I don't know if that was the smartest thing. We did get deals, but it was about an hour away from where we were actually staying.
00:04:59
Speaker
So yeah, got some appointments the first night, ended up getting to the... the Blitz house about 1130 pretty late by the time we went to grocery store, some food and all that.
00:05:10
Speaker
What was funny, this place Lake Isabella, it's like a bunch of windy roads it's through mountains, through canyons. um It's along like the Kern River. It was quite the trek to get there. it was like a cabin basically we rented. Guy i was with, the setter won't say his name, and but ah he was he does not do well on these windy roads.
00:05:32
Speaker
So by the time we got there, he was he was about ready to just cancel the Blitz just because he hates these windy roads. He hates feeling like he's going to drive off a cliff. So that was definitely ah interesting and, you know, entertaining, but sad. but We had to go through all these windy roads and that was going to be what we were doing for the next five days.
00:05:51
Speaker
And he did not like it one bit.
Cultural and Logistical Hurdles
00:05:53
Speaker
the Airbnb. That was day one. And just to recap recap a few of these other days, I'm trying to not drag on too much. But ah day two, we ended up going back to the town around Bakersfield. We found a town that's mostly Mexican.
00:06:09
Speaker
It's actually crazy in this particular town. guess I won't say where because, you know, we might go back there. Don't be still in our area. But this town, it was like, I would say 90% Mexican.
00:06:20
Speaker
There's some definitely some Mexican areas up there. And lot of people worked on, you know, like grape fields and all that. So we ended up, if you so follow me on social media, so by the end of this, we had like,
00:06:32
Speaker
I don't know, I would say like 15, 20 bags of grapes that we went home with. Just an insane amount of grapes. So if you want some grapes, I got grapes. Come over to my place. Got tons of grapes.
00:06:43
Speaker
um But we went to the Spanish area. lots of Mexican families. yeah We did end up getting the same day. That was great. um But another thing that was surprising, this town, a lot of people, they're just like super old school Mexicans, people working in fields. We found out pretty quick that a lot of these people, a few of them actually didn't even have cell phones, crazy enough. But a lot of them, if they did have a cell phone, it was like a flip phone.
00:07:09
Speaker
They didn't know how to text at all. And actually ah surprising amount of people did not have bank accounts, which was pretty shocking. so the first same day we closed, that day on Wednesday, she didn't have a regular bank account. She had a check-ins account.
00:07:25
Speaker
So if any of you have used Goodleap, we're selling a lot of Goodleap power purchase agreements, you know that it asked for the banking information. So we put in the the savings account, pushed it through, thought that was good. But then I ended up getting a message the next day that they didn't accept that account.
00:07:44
Speaker
So more on that in a minute. But that proved to be a little bit of a challenge that week is just quite a few people without bank accounts. So it made it difficult for us because most people, most companies that do the PPAs,
00:07:58
Speaker
which is our primary product right now. Most of them want like a valid checking account. um So we found out the hard way that we had to go with some that were a little less strict on that.
00:08:09
Speaker
um We use Sunrun for a PPA option as well. And they're a little less strict on the bank accounts. So we were able to push some through that, but was one of the challenges we
Dealing with Credit and Sales Issues
00:08:21
Speaker
experienced. Okay. um The third day,
00:08:23
Speaker
We went back and we this is I know everyone that's been in solar for a while has encountered this, but I got the classic cat lady for the first appointment of the day, Wednesday. Going to home, I just get slapped in the face by the smell of cat urine.
00:08:40
Speaker
She had 10 cats in the house. Just ah insane. She invited us to sit down at the table and she pulled out the chairs that her the chairs are just cakes in cat hair.
00:08:51
Speaker
And I have cat allergies. So I don't know how I survived this appointment. But by the grace of God, somehow I survived this appointment without having like a sneezing attack. Once I saw the cat hair everywhere, I'm like, ah this is gonna be bad.
00:09:06
Speaker
And I scoped it out. She didn't have any place outdoors to sit that I saw. So I'm just like, I'm gonna have take one for the team, just suffer through it. Did get a runny nose, but somehow avoided having like a sneezing attack, which has definitely happened in appointments before.
00:09:21
Speaker
So had to ask for some tissues, but made it through, got the deal. Her house was definitely run down. We're going to need to trim some trees and we're going to need a fix the roof up for this account.
00:09:32
Speaker
But ah somehow, some way she a she passed credit, which was pretty shocking. And that's something for those maybe newer closers. If you see people like that where it's just they have a run down house,
00:09:44
Speaker
maybe lower income area. um You know, I don't think it's rude. We're not judging people out there. The truth is most those people have bad credit if their houses, if they got 10 cats in there, much higher likelihood that they got bad credit. So the first thing you should do to make sure you are being smart with your time is run a credit application when you get in the home.
00:10:07
Speaker
No one really has a problem with it. It's like, hey, Mr. Homeowner. So a lot of people, I know it's tough times, but there is credit requirements for this. Do you know ballpark what the credit is right now for you? If there's any question at all, pull out the app, run it.
00:10:23
Speaker
If you just come across low key, it's like, yeah, um well, we have a quick forum that'll tell us right off the bat. If that's going to be an issue, if it is, then yeah, i definitely don't want to waste your time with this. Let's see what it says.
00:10:35
Speaker
Let's see what it tells us and then pull it up. Boom. You can save yourself a lot of time, lot of headaches if they're not going to pass credit. Speaking of not passing credit, we did have three sell, three deals on this blitz that did not pass credit. If you don't have something up your back pockets,
00:10:52
Speaker
make sure you get like a credit repair option. I can definitely refer you to some of our guys that are great with credit repair. um But we have an option right now that's improved in most cases proving people's credits to 650, which is what they need to pass the credit. And so two of the three people that didn't fail credits are We were able to get them enrolled in the credit repair program. I had them sign a doc. ChatGPT had them make them a doc that says if they decide not to go solar, then they're responsible to pay the cost of the credit repair program, which I told them it costs about two grand to pay repair their credit. Yeah, we got two people enrolled in that then that did not pass credit.
00:11:33
Speaker
So those people should be sales the next couple months once they get their credit repaired. So make sure you're not throwing away your leads that fell credit. So many people, so many sales that I've gotten over the years are just from customers that they fell credit with another company. They weren't qualified.
00:11:49
Speaker
And if those companies would actually kept track of the leads, got them enrolled in some credit repairs, that could have been sales right there. So make sure you're keeping track of those leads. Shoot me a DM, shoot me a message if you want more info on credit repair.
00:12:02
Speaker
So that was day three. yeah fell on one of the credits at like 11 o'clock at night. So we got back at like 1130, 12 that night after everything everything was ever everything was said and done.
00:12:14
Speaker
ah Day four, we had another failed credits. To start off the day, got him enrolled in the credit repair program. We did close the same day. This day was a little bit tougher. The same day we closed, it already canceled. It was, you know, same day that wasn't great. Single Mexican lady, she just had, was not confident in making the decision and Yeah, unfortunately, she canceled it. So Friday was a tough day. Gotten a couple appointments, had the failed credits, had the same day closed. But yeah, not a great day. Got her teeth kicked in a little bit. And ah on top of that, Friday, when we try to go home, the canyon that we go through to get back to our Airbnb, of course, it closed down. There's like a power line that fell down. So closed down.
00:12:59
Speaker
So we drive clear basically dimensions in the canyon, which is like half an hour. they tell us we can't take that way. So we have to go clear around back way, which was like two hours
Final Day and Reflections
00:13:09
Speaker
to get home. So we ended up getting home almost at midnight again. so we had some late nights.
00:13:13
Speaker
It was definitely an exhausting blitz. And then ah the last day. which was day five on Saturday. Could have gotten out a little earlier, was just exhausted from now the all the late nights, getting back late, and i wanted to hit a little gym workout. So ah did get out a little bit later, wanted to get and get going early, but didn't get to our area until about 11.
00:13:36
Speaker
which anyone that's listening Saturdays, you want to try and start early because people are going to be home 9 to 1130. It's a super prime window. It's like the prime time of Saturday.
00:13:46
Speaker
So that was something we could have done better. But we went, had a ghosted first appointment. And then continuing on the story of the other deal that had they failed a bank account.
00:13:58
Speaker
um we went I had to go back We you know figured out that they weren't gonna accept a savings account and we had to switch it to another PPA provider. If you are selling these power purchase agreements, if you are, assume that's in other states, but California, yeah, now you know if you try to sell Goodleap, you can't use a savings account, it has to be a checking account and they verify it to make sure that account's correct. You can't just put in like random account numbers. So learn from that.
00:14:27
Speaker
We had to go and actually almost lost the deal because she was taking it as a sign that maybe I shouldn't do this. I have to start from scratch and had to fight to get the deal back on track. But luckily, we got her going. Everything's good. Learned a lesson with that.
00:14:42
Speaker
And then the rest of the day, it was a little slower and, you know, got one of our previous failed credits enrolled in credit repair. And then we were gunning for a same day, but things were just...
00:14:54
Speaker
not appointments were canceled at the door. We had one that sat and then ah the wife kind of killed it. And it was tough. And we went and grabbed some food. And then we' we're just going hit it for another hour, maybe two hours after we grabbed some food because we had like a four hour drive to get home.
00:15:11
Speaker
You know, we got back out there. And by the grace of God, we went back or I should say, our um my guy, our setter, he went back and to this one where the wife killed the deal, it was funny. She had actually like basically hid in her room during the appointment. She was there for a little bit of it. We had to use our email for the docs.
00:15:32
Speaker
Then she left. She went and hid in her room and the husband's just like, yeah, she doesn't want to do this. We went back and somehow, some way, the wife was there. We talked to her and she's like, oh, OK, well, yeah, you know, if my husband wants to do this and whatever, he's the one making the money.
00:15:48
Speaker
So I guess that's fine if he wants to do this. And we're like, yeah, well, sounds like we're good to go then because he doesn't want to do it. And if we were able to get the Hail Mary. were and We thought we were in in the day and in the weekend on a low notes.
00:16:01
Speaker
Friday was tough. um But we were able to lock this deal down last day, plan to leave like at five at the latest. We went back at 4.30, gotten this deal, wrapped it up, and were able to get on the road by five.
00:16:15
Speaker
So some lessons from it are just... Always ask one more time, right? Maybe it's a situation like that where the husband is shutting it down, the wife is shutting it down.
00:16:26
Speaker
Maybe you try one more time. Maybe you go back one more time after lunch because you never know what's going to happen. It's a difference in getting a deal that day. That was our miracle appointment.
00:16:36
Speaker
And then a few other lessons, make sure you plan your area before the blitz, right? um We were driving lot, driving pretty far from where our Airbnb was.
00:16:47
Speaker
So in hindsight, probably should have either planned to stay closer to where we were, gotten a separate Airbnb, which we knew we were going be working that area. So it was a lot of extra driving. yeah check traffic before you head out okay we had we ended up doing that two hour detour because we didn't check the traffic if you think roads might be closed or whatever so just some lessons from the blitz hope there's those are some things that you can think about before the next uh bullets you go on and uh more important than anything i would say just track your numbers track your appointments track your sits hey we ended up sitting and i would say
00:17:24
Speaker
About 10 appointments, we closed four of them and we had three failed credits. So two are enrolled in credit repair. And then a few didn't close for whatever reason. We had one, the daughter killed the deal, happens.
00:17:41
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, we're able to end the blitz with five closed deals, one canceled already, but Hey, that's how it goes. I'm happy with our results. I feel like we, um, you know, overall was a good blitz.
00:17:55
Speaker
So if you would like to join us on the next one, this was our last blitz of the summer. But if you would like to join us for the next one in the best markets in the country, hit me up. We have a few spots available for our next one. Hope you can join us. But in the meantime, go close some deal this week, push hard and take advantage of the best time to sell solar. We'll see on the next episode. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San
Introducing SolarScout and Solciety
00:18:23
Speaker
Diego.
00:18:23
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.
00:18:34
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 cancelled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:18:53
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use 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.
00:19:08
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.
00:19:21
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. 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?
00:19:35
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. and It's called Solciety. 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
00:20:12
Speaker
by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day. Currently, Soul Society is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to soulciety.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to soulciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.