Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how 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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A 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.
Speaker: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We are here live on another episode.
Speaker: I guess you won't be hearing this live, but I am live with the one, the only Tyler McAllister.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the show with us today, Tyler.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks for having me on, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm excited for it.
Speaker: And anyone that I always tell people, my grandma calls me Tyler because I have like a cousin that's Tyler.
Speaker: And so anyone that sounds close to my name, I know they're going to be a quality guest.
Speaker: So it's going to be a good time.
Speaker: But Tyler, he started Fusion Power.
Speaker: And correct me if I'm saying anything wrong here, Tyler, but 2017, you started the company, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you guys have been dominating out there in Arizona and you guys are just in Arizona.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Any other markets that you're in?
Speaker: We're in Texas, but we're in Texas through a remote inside sales center.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: So yeah, I know you guys have been crushing it and I first heard you speak, Tyler.
Speaker: I know you, I don't think you remember this, but I heard you speak a few years back at door to door con.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, blew my socks off.
Speaker: I think a lot of guys had some really good takeaways from it.
Speaker: So, uh, we appreciated your, your presentation there at door to door con.
Speaker: And I know you've been training tons of reps.
Speaker: Um, I've gotten a ton of value over just seeing, I know you've posted like a door approaches on a lot of the Facebook groups.
Speaker: You're always adding a lot of valuable comments.
Speaker: So, uh, yeah, we appreciate you.
Speaker: And thanks for all the value you're, you're sharing with the industry.
Speaker: And to you, man, thank you for all that you've done to share in the industry as well.
Speaker: Solarpreneurs has been a great value to the industry.
Speaker: Appreciate that.
Speaker: That's what it's all about.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I want to jump into it.
Speaker: Tyler, just kind of hear about how I know you were selling alarms before, but can you give us kind of your background and why you decided to start Fusion Power and transition into solar and all that good stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Well, I never thought I'd be in sales.
Speaker: I never thought I'd be a salesman.
Speaker: I had this perception of what a salesperson was and I never thought that was me.
Speaker: But
Speaker: I found out I'm very good at sales and really all sales is, is building a relationship with someone of trust and re-educating somebody to help them make a new decision than what they felt, than however they thought before was.
Speaker: So I've really gained a passion and a love just for the one-on-one consultation type experience that we get to have on a daily basis.
Speaker: It's really an intimate experience.
Speaker: Whenever you can go into someone's home, they invite you to their dinner table and you get to sit down and learn about someone's life.
Speaker: and you create a friendship and a relationship there that becomes a customer.
Speaker: So early on, I enjoyed that process.
Speaker: I mean, we do that in alarms as well.
Speaker: We do it on, on steroids at a much faster rate.
Speaker: You have to build rapport and trust really quick.
Speaker: And that was super awesome for me whenever I was just married, didn't have kids, got into leadership management, started running sales teams.
Speaker: And the, um,
Speaker: Made amazing money and made me the salesman that I am today.
Speaker: And it created a really great lifestyle for me.
Speaker: But the summer program was taxing as...
Speaker: my family was needing to start to have a little bit more stability in their life.
Speaker: And, you know, the on schedule, off schedule of summer sales was difficult to balance from just having a long-term lifestyle.
Speaker: And so I started maturing in the industry.
Speaker: I had been at Vivint for eight years and I started to think like, man, what else can I do?
Speaker: Because this is what I'm really good at.
Speaker: And I had heard about people transitioning into solar.
Speaker: And so I started telling my buddy to go do solar.
Speaker: Not that I wanted to do it, but like, dude, you should go check this thing out.
Speaker: Everyone's like, you know, saying it's really awesome.
Speaker: I hear all these people doing really well.
Speaker: And he was like, well, why don't you do it?
Speaker: I was like, hmm, I don't know.
Speaker: So then I pulled myself out there, ended up getting recruited to an office out in New York, Albany, New York, upstate New York.
Speaker: And found myself going out to do solar and just leaving behind everything that I had built over in the alarm side and just wanted to start something new and fresh.
Speaker: And it gave me like new life.
Speaker: There was this new zest about selling and the whole sales process, what I was doing.
Speaker: And it just woke me up.
Speaker: And so I realized that this is what I want to do.
Speaker: I like helping people.
Speaker: I like the product and I like the sale.
Speaker: And it kind of fit me more as I had matured and really became a sales professional.
Speaker: It was a larger sale, a bigger contract.
Speaker: So I enjoyed that process.
Speaker: I got really good at solar and I started again, building teams, recruiting and training.
Speaker: And I got to the point where I was like, you know, I've been doing this for a decade and I really want to have the responsibility of owning the entire process.
Speaker: And that was a step for me and kind of a step in my growth and maturity and progression in the process.
Speaker: And I feel like that kind of gave credit to everything that had been taught in the industry.
Speaker: I've been mentored by very phenomenal people.
Speaker: who today that are very meaningful and very close to me.
Speaker: And I just felt like I, it was kind of a tribute to everything that had been shared and taught to me to become an entrepreneur and to take that risk, which is what we're programmed to do in this industry is, you know, we live in a high risk lane where everybody else wants a paycheck.
Speaker: We go out and we make the paycheck.
Speaker: So as I went through that, that journey, I ended up
Speaker: founding Fusion Power and decided to build my future and my destiny with this company and that it would become whatever I chose to make it and partnered with some really good people.
Speaker: And we've had a very successful run.
Speaker: So I feel very grateful and blessed for the industry and for the day and age that we live in.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome today.
Speaker: Yeah, let's go.
Speaker: Now and I can tell you guys are doing some incredible things.
Speaker: So something I wanted to ask you, Tyler, you said you found out pretty quick that you're really good at sales.
Speaker: So how did you how would you say that you kind of found that out?
Speaker: Like what click for you?
Speaker: You were like, wow, I'm I'm like super good at this.
Speaker: I don't know if it's like at a door where you're selling alarms.
Speaker: Was there like a moment where, I don't know, maybe it's a super tough customer and you switch them over and you're just like, wow, I'm the man.
Speaker: This is like my calling, my destiny.
Speaker: Any stories with that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Those thoughts kind of happened before I ever did door to door.
Speaker: It actually happened.
Speaker: So I went on an LDS mission.
Speaker: I came home.
Speaker: My dad got me a job at RC Willis in Boise, Idaho at this retail store.
Speaker: It was a furniture and electronics store.
Speaker: And I got a job in the car audio section.
Speaker: I didn't know anything about car audio, but I
Speaker: I had an interest for it.
Speaker: And so I learned all about it.
Speaker: And we obviously in that area, I grew up in Boise.
Speaker: And so tons of friends and family came to RC Willys to buy stuff.
Speaker: And I saw them all and people would ask me questions like,
Speaker: hey, I want this car stereo system, I want this or that.
Speaker: And they would look at something on the shelf that was really shiny and expensive.
Speaker: I would say, I mean, you can buy that, you don't need that.
Speaker: And I would ask them a bunch of questions like, what kind of music do you like to listen to?
Speaker: Are you gonna do a sub?
Speaker: Are you gonna do amps?
Speaker: Are you putting speakers in your car?
Speaker: Is this a new car, old car?
Speaker: I was like, well, based on all that, this right here is exactly what you'd need.
Speaker: And if you want something that looks fancy, you can go that route, but this is all that you need.
Speaker: This is super simple.
Speaker: And had a family friend tell me, he's like, man, you know what?
Speaker: I've been at a lot of car shops and no one has asked me all the questions that you asked me and really pinpointed what it is that I need.
Speaker: I feel like everyone's trying to sell me what they want, but no one has cared about what I wanted or what I needed.
Speaker: And like, you really helped me feel good about this process.
Speaker: And that kind of landed with me because I was like, to me, that was just second nature.
Speaker: Like, okay, this person wants this thing.
Speaker: Let me find out what they need.
Speaker: And then I'll direct them.
Speaker: And then that attitude just carried on further into sales.
Speaker: And what it was is I was learning that I was naturally building rapport and trust with people.
Speaker: And then I was actually putting people first.
Speaker: I wasn't putting my commission first.
Speaker: You could definitely feel a difference of the sales guys on the floor that are known as the sharks.
Speaker: And those guys would just go for the jugular.
Speaker: They shove you out of the way as they run to the customer, walk into the door.
Speaker: Learn very quickly that I am not that person.
Speaker: I do not want to be that person.
Speaker: That's not how I tick.
Speaker: I don't, I don't, I don't enjoy life that way.
Speaker: I like helping people and feeling like I'm adding value to someone's life.
Speaker: And I really enjoy the process of connecting with someone by asking them really good questions.
Speaker: And so as I translated into the door-to-door sales,
Speaker: Right out the gate, I did really well, because I think I carried that sentiment and that mentality of like, hey, I want to connect with these people and ask good questions to find out what their needs are, because that's all that we do.
Speaker: in the service industry or what you can call a sales industry.
Speaker: We're there to serve people.
Speaker: We're there to serve solutions to their problems.
Speaker: And if I'm not asking the questions or I'm not helping that person become present to what their problems or their needs are and how my product can give you a solution, then I'm just not going to land that.
Speaker: on their landing pad.
Speaker: And it's a very uncomfortable feeling as a sales rep to just throw a bunch of darts in the dark and hope that something lands.
Speaker: Like I really wanna have as much influence on who I can help as I can.
Speaker: And so having the mentality of connecting with people, helping people asking questions
Speaker: Because when I take that approach, Taylor, I can be very tenacious because I believe in what I'm doing and the process works.
Speaker: It makes sense.
Speaker: And so I can be way more tenacious with that approach and that attitude than some guy can, some shark shoving a dude out of the way to go grab a customer off the floor, right?
Speaker: And that customer 100% sees and feels that from that person.
Speaker: And people are very quickly judging you to see if they want to do business with you or not.
Speaker: And so that's kind of how I discovered that.
Speaker: Before I did my first summer sales thing, I went to a Zig Ziglar training.
Speaker: One of the training, the quote that always stuck out with me was, you can never change someone's mind.
Speaker: And then everyone's like, well, Ziggy, we're here to sell people stuff.
Speaker: And he's like, but with new information comes a new decision.
Speaker: And that's all we do is we help people.
Speaker: Yes, I know you think this way.
Speaker: So therefore you've made choices in your life this way, but I'm going to pull back the curtain on this new information.
Speaker: And together today, we're going to make a new decision.
Speaker: If you see this the way I see it,
Speaker: By default, you're going to make the same decisions that I would make because I've arrived here.
Speaker: So I think it's the attitude of helping people come along the journey with you when you're selling somebody or helping them through a product.
Speaker: It's just really being aware of where that person's at and how they're feeling.
Speaker: And I just I saw early on that I was selling more than other people as a rookie at Apex.
Speaker: I was the top rookie in my region my first year doing alarms.
Speaker: And to me, it was just like, why aren't, why isn't everybody selling like this?
Speaker: It doesn't make sense.
Speaker: It's, it's kind of an easy thing, right?
Speaker: It was just something I learned about myself early on that I ask good questions and can connect with people.
Speaker: And I'm, I don't consider myself like the best salesman in the world, but I can get people to trust me and make decisions with me.
Speaker: Yeah, no.
Speaker: And I can tell you're not, you're just super genuine person.
Speaker: Like, I don't know when, when people think of salesmen, they think of like, I think a lot of guys think of bouncing off the walls, super energy, all that.
Speaker: But I can tell you're just like a chill guy.
Speaker: And even in videos I've seen of you, you're just, you know, asking questions, building some relations, being super chill out there and, uh, works.
Speaker: And I love what you said though, just about really like believing in what you're doing and like benefiting people because, um,
Speaker: um i'm sure you'd agree we both did i did you know the two-year mission too and that's one of the big things is we had to sell ourselves so much that we're bringing people like salvation right like saving their souls yeah and so it gives you it gives you i guess that extra like boost you need to like hang in that deal if you know okay i'm literally saving this person's soul right now and obviously we'd have probably not to that level when we're uh selling solar alarms whatever but
Speaker: if we can have that level of belief that we're like genuinely helping people that we love the product that we're not screwing them over then, uh, yeah, I think, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know how sharks do it if they don't have that level of belief and they're not benefiting the customer, but yeah, for me, I know you too.
Speaker: I think that helps a ton, you know, the hanging the deal like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Having higher motives and just the commission is, is helpful.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You got to make fun, but definitely you can also care about people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: And so Tyler, I want to transition kind of like how you started a fusion.
Speaker: And so you started it in Arizona.
Speaker: Was there a reason you picked to go into Arizona versus like California or any of these other markets?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, I, I've lived all over the country doing door to door and my wife and I thought we'd never live anywhere besides Idaho because I was freaking awesome.
Speaker: That's where we grew up.
Speaker: And, um, we moved to upstate New York and six months out of the year, that place is just freezing cold gray and everything is dead.
Speaker: And my wife started getting depressed and her brother lived here in Arizona and asked me to come help run a
Speaker: manage a team for him with him and um I was like I don't want to live in the freaking desert so hot there there's no greenery everything rocks that's what I thought and so but I told my brother-in-law I'd come check it out and I talked to I went knock doors with him and everybody I talked to in Arizona was like we love it here
Speaker: I was like, all right, well, there's something I don't know.
Speaker: But anyway, we prayed about it.
Speaker: We just trusted that this is where we're supposed to be.
Speaker: We moved here.
Speaker: And my wife fell in love.
Speaker: I fell in love.
Speaker: It's just a fantastic place to raise a family.
Speaker: And when I started a business here, it makes a ton of sense because there's just sunshine everywhere.
Speaker: So there's this secret combination in this secret combo in Arizona that makes Arizona fantastic for solar.
Speaker: It's very low cost of living.
Speaker: you have very large rooftops and huge utility bills and tons of sun.
Speaker: And so one equals a need.
Speaker: We have a solution.
Speaker: And because homes are newer, you don't have a ton of MPUs.
Speaker: We don't have shade issues.
Speaker: We don't have roof issues.
Speaker: Everyone's got concrete tiles.
Speaker: I mean, you have some roof issues, but just as a market in general, it's an amazing place to come make money, raise a family, live year round.
Speaker: We can knock year round.
Speaker: We don't shovel snow off panels.
Speaker: So I freaking love it.
Speaker: Sounds awesome.
Speaker: Well, Idaho, isn't that pretty much the same as New York?
Speaker: Cold and gloomy six months of the year?
Speaker: Or is Idaho sunny and gloomy, but just cold.
Speaker: It's a different cold in New York when you have all that humidity flowing off the ocean, it's just frigid.
Speaker: So, like in Idaho, I would walk around my neighborhood for 45 minutes, I pace while I'm on the phone, and I could be in a t-shirt and shorts in Idaho and 30 degrees and be fine, but New York's a little different.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess that's true.
Speaker: Yeah, I love me, I know.
Speaker: No, that's awesome though.
Speaker: Arizona, yeah, I know it's an awesome market.
Speaker: In 2017, so I know there's been some changes with like the net metering and I don't know, rates, stuff like that.
Speaker: So yeah, I was just asking, 2017 is when you guys started it there.
Speaker: So since then, I know Arizona has had like some changes, I've heard with, I don't know, rates, net metering, stuff like that.
Speaker: Has there been any big changes since then that you guys have had to like pivot or adjust how you sell or anything like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So shortly after I moved to Arizona, half the entire market shut down.
Speaker: So SRP changed their policy and their rate plans and to where we basically couldn't sell here or sell an SRP, which was amazing because it created a massive vacuum in the market and a ton of solar companies and solar guys left.
Speaker: And they're like, well, the market's screwed.
Speaker: We're out of here.
Speaker: And, um, like Vivint completely vacated and, um,
Speaker: And it really just left SolarCity and a couple other companies, but nobody was doing business here really.
Speaker: And APS was the best market.
Speaker: APS was a phenomenal market, still is.
Speaker: Big homes, pure net metering, and tons of people were
Speaker: buying solar and it's a very pro solar state.
Speaker: So we basically abandoned half of the utility market out here and just started focusing on APS and had a phenomenal start.
Speaker: So we were selling lights out, big systems and very easy to sell.
Speaker: And then over time, the utilities have changed.
Speaker: They got rid of net metering and put in place a buyback rate plan.
Speaker: And every time the utility company makes a move that's detrimental to solar, it's detrimental to solar, but it's not detrimental to the sales part of it because all they're doing is creating a need to go solar now before it gets worse and then...
Speaker: here's evidence it's getting worse so let's go again solar before it gets worse because nobody's going solar and APS to lose money and then recently SRP opened up some rate plans again that we figured out the math on how to do it and how to sell an SRP and be successful so our volume actually has shifted we were
Speaker: 100% APS and now we're 70% SRP and about 30% APS.
Speaker: So it's, I think we're really, really good at adapting, especially when COVID hit.
Speaker: We're just, you know, I'm partnered with some very tenacious people and people in our company are really willing to adapt and we figured out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I feel like we've done better at,
Speaker: at transitioning and market climates than other companies have and have been really successful at it.
Speaker: That sounds like it's almost beneficial to you guys because all these bigger companies just hung up shop and you guys still stayed there and you're like, all right, sweet.
Speaker: More doors for us, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I didn't like sharing that because it was like this perfect storm that worked in our favor.
Speaker: And I was like, all right, I don't want other people coming here because it's so good.
Speaker: And people are flooding into Arizona a little bit now, but they're also kind of occupied by all the new markets that are open.
Speaker: So Arizona is still a phenomenal place.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, the reason I ask is because as I'm sure you might know, and I'm in San Diego in California, they're trying to pass the whole net metering 3.0 thing and supposed to get worse and a lot of solar guys are kind of like losing their heads over it.
Speaker: Oh, we're not going to be able to sell it's not going to work anymore.
Speaker: So just for people like that, I don't
Speaker: I don't know if you guys were like super worried when all this was happening, but would you say it's almost more like a mindset thing and you guys just stayed calm and kept going or just, uh, I don't know, any tips on kind of knowing how to just deal with all that and maybe helping your reps transition to if I don't know, reps are nervous about not being able to sell anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think it's really important to, um,
Speaker: have really strong market awareness at all times.
Speaker: So when these things happen, I don't think they should ever come upon you as a surprise.
Speaker: If you're keeping updated on what's happening in policies and in the market and kind of where the winds of the solar product are moving, I think there's
Speaker: you know, having a five-year plan with some expectations of what could and will happen down the road prevents you from, you know, being caught in this tornado with no wind shelter.
Speaker: So I think we've been really good at that, being aware.
Speaker: So we don't have these panic freak out modes where we're making really bad frantic business decisions and having...
Speaker: Matt Bolian, You know, massive decisions happening in short periods of time, I think we're really stable so one thing that can kind of help you guys with all of that is just understanding what that you know what your options are and either how to sell around it or.
Speaker: Matt Bolian, um.
Speaker: how to work with it really.
Speaker: I mean, I don't think anything's going to stop the solar industry from moving forward.
Speaker: People want solar.
Speaker: It's been very well, um, accepted and adopted.
Speaker: People want to go solar.
Speaker: They're going to go solar.
Speaker: Um, it's just a matter of how they're going to do it and who they're going to go with.
Speaker: And, um, like we're seeing right now, SRP, that utility company, their rate plans were pried open by, um,
Speaker: you know, federal legislation.
Speaker: And there's another big case right now that's going up against the SRP was just found guilty for creating hostile rate plans that were specifically designed to help
Speaker: snuff out solar.
Speaker: And so these plans might be opening back up again, but so just, just understanding what's happening in the market, being aware of what your options are.
Speaker: But the other thing is, is making hay while the sun shines.
Speaker: I think a lot of guys are kind of sleeping on this opportunity.
Speaker: And the last five years have been phenomenal for solar.
Speaker: And the next five years are going to be really good for solar too.
Speaker: But I think you guys got to really take advantage of what you have right now, because what we have right now is super unique.
Speaker: You guys are basically selling the value of a brand new car or a boat.
Speaker: So maybe you guys have...
Speaker: you know, $50,000 average contract prices and you're making 10%, 10 to 15% of these massive contracts.
Speaker: You got to ask yourself if, you know, how long is that sustainable and how much money do you guys want to be able to, you know, what kind of value do you want to extract from this industry while it's here and how much value you can add to people while it's, while it's on the table.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: The people that have made their millions in the industry so far, yes, they care about what the future looks like, but they're really making the most of every day that they can.
Speaker: And if you're tenacious, you'll just pivot, you'll figure it out and work through it.
Speaker: Yeah, no, so true.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, there's, it's like you said, there's guys that are literally making like five, 10, 15, 20 grand on single, single deals on their commissions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so that's where I'm at too.
Speaker: I'm hearing from a lot smarter people than me, guys like you and all that solar commissions.
Speaker: They're probably not going to be as high as they are right now.
Speaker: And so I think the guys that are having the success, they're just, you know, it's like the gold, gold area.
Speaker: They're just digging the gold while it's still there.
Speaker: Cause yeah, who knows?
Speaker: So we're still going to, going to be there.
Speaker: I'm sure.
Speaker: But yeah, I think that's a great point.
Speaker: Maybe commissions go way down.
Speaker: Maybe it gets more regulated.
Speaker: Who knows what could happen.
Speaker: And in a large margin product, customer education is always going to drive down margin.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so we're seeing that happening across the market.
Speaker: I mean, you guys are still making plenty of money in California on these deals.
Speaker: There's a lot of value there still to be had, but just understanding that when margins like that exist and customer product IQ is going to grow, the margins are going to adjust.
Speaker: And on top of that,
Speaker: The big players in these industries, um, again, these are just, these are just Tyler thoughts.
Speaker: I'm not speaking for the industry and anyone specifically, but, um, when the largest cost in the entire system, the entire acquisition of, of gaining a customer to go solar is the sales rep commission.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: you know, the big players in the industry are going to try to find out how to reduce the expense.
Speaker: And so I think it's really important to sell ethically, sell the right way, to not gouge a customer and to keep it a fair customer experience.
Speaker: Because when,
Speaker: you know when that stops being a fair ethical experience for the customer there's opportunities for things to get adjusted so it's in everyone's best interest just to treat everyone the right way yeah no i agree around yeah 100 because yeah in california i don't think arizona has this yet but california we got the consumer protection guide that every solar customer has to sign now and
Speaker: where it's, you know, telling them to go get three quotes.
Speaker: It's telling them all the fair practice and stuff.
Speaker: And we still sell a ton.
Speaker: But yeah, I think as you hear more shady people out there and, you know, I see on some of these Facebook groups, these solar groups, people like posting their commissions and all that and saying stuff.
Speaker: And there's customers in the same group.
Speaker: There's customers that are going on these groups too.
Speaker: It's like, guys, you got to be careful, like what you're posting.
Speaker: I don't think you should be.
Speaker: talking about gouging people or just a lot of stuff we talk about and you never know there's customers on these groups there's um there's people getting more awareness so yeah i think that's it's got to be equitable all the way around for it to be sustainable and yeah sure
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: It's a great point.
Speaker: And so, so yeah, for those who don't know Tyler, he just did a solar objections training.
Speaker: It's on the solar objections Facebook group.
Speaker: So I was actually just listening to that before we did the podcast here.
Speaker: So that's a great, Tyler grows in a bunch of objection handlings, sells training on that.
Speaker: So go listen to that if you haven't already, when we released this podcast might be a month or two back, but definitely a great resource with that.
Speaker: And then the other thing that's really cool, as I was talking about, kind of as we started the podcast is I see you posting all the time, especially lately, Tyler, in a lot of these groups, posting your videos, giving just fire comments, taking a lot from it.
Speaker: But something I saw the other day that I was like, whoa, I've never seen that before.
Speaker: Someone made a comment asking, I don't know if it's about meetings or something or how you get guys like fired up.
Speaker: And you posted a picture of like your office and you have like a fog machine in there.
Speaker: You had like these huge speakers, all that.
Speaker: I'm like, is this a, is this a sales office or just like a Metallica concert or something?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I've never seen fog machines running at a, at sales trainings.
Speaker: So I'm like, wow, that's freaking awesome.
Speaker: I want to go to one of the meetings just to, just to hear about that.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I'm going to have to.
Speaker: And so can you tell us a little bit about like,
Speaker: I've never seen anyone like take it to that level of, of going all.
Speaker: So can you tell us all about that and how you guys decided to like, I don't know, get all that high production going?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Well, I think, I think it's fun to keep things interesting in life.
Speaker: It's fun to keep things from being monotonous and boring.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I come from a very creative background.
Speaker: My, you know, I thought I was going to go to school for art and all of that.
Speaker: In high school, I was, I was voted as best artist.
Speaker: And I was, I've just always been very, very creative.
Speaker: And I think, and I don't like when things get really stale and repetitive and boring.
Speaker: I think sales meetings can be a challenge to keep engaging and
Speaker: people want to be a part of your company because of the way that you make them feel.
Speaker: And they want to feel proud and excited about what they do.
Speaker: And, and they want to feel that whoever is in there, you know, the stewardship that's watching over them is putting consideration and thought into their experience and how we make these people feel.
Speaker: And so, you know, we've had, we've had, um,
Speaker: sales reps and employees bring their kids to the office and like dance around in the fog machine and turn the music on and they just want to see that it's a fun environment and it really sets the pace for a fun environment a fun meeting to start and so when people come in we've got these crazy disco lights that are dancing the music on the ceiling we've got loud music subwoofers and i found this low-lying fog machine really expensive but we piped it in through the wall
Speaker: and it's all automated so that when the sales meeting starts, you've got the fog going and lights and people just get jazzed up, but it creates this environment where people can connect.
Speaker: People are coming in, it raises their heartbeat, their endorphins, and they just feel happier.
Speaker: They're talking to the neighbors, they're connecting.
Speaker: And then we start out the meeting with just a lot of energy and we start with the Kings of the week and
Speaker: One of our guys, his name is Jason Gallagher.
Speaker: He's super energetic and very loud and he'll start the meeting by yelling and everyone comes in and comes together.
Speaker: So it's just fun.
Speaker: I think you got to invest some time just into thought.
Speaker: You don't have to do what I'm doing, but just showing your people that you're investing into them and investing into the culture of what you want to build and keeping it on, I think is very important.
Speaker: Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker: And then what do you have like big chairs that the Kings of the Week sit in or something like that?
Speaker: Get them their favorite drink.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: We got a, we have a closer fridge.
Speaker: So yeah, for closers, but the people that when the King chairs, we have their favorite drink ready and I hand it to them and just make them feel special and really feel acknowledged.
Speaker: I think, you know, what you, you might feel super important.
Speaker: If you're the owner of a company, you might feel super awesome, but none of that is important at all.
Speaker: The only thing that matters is how you make your people feel.
Speaker: And when you make someone feel good and important about themselves and you ask them questions about themselves and, you know, the value that they're bringing to your life and that you're grateful for them, I think it goes a million miles.
Speaker: So I think it's worthy to invest in that.
Speaker: We hired a designer to come build out our whole space.
Speaker: And the whole thought on the whole design process was around our people.
Speaker: And, you know, what can we do to make these guys feel at home, feel fun and,
Speaker: and appreciated for what they do because everything that we we have is because of them so really a tribute yeah that's awesome yeah gotta give respect to the guys out there working and yeah you guys are doing that that's awesome high production i set up you got there thanks um like and so how often do you guys do meetings is this like a daily thing you're doing or is it just like once a week you pick a king and all that do you guys have daily meetings
Speaker: No, we have one meeting a week.
Speaker: So we have a lot of people in our company that have kids and they're running appointments.
Speaker: The city of Phoenix, like the metropolitan area in Phoenix is huge.
Speaker: So it's some guys are coming in 45 minutes, sometimes an hour to get there and we just don't want to interrupt their week.
Speaker: And
Speaker: We have one powerhouse meeting and then we have good connection with them throughout the whole week.
Speaker: So we have a, you know, an app that everyone is constantly chatting on every single day posting and we have a really good connection.
Speaker: And then we have closer training once a week on Thursday morning.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Historically I've ran those, but so we have a door knocking training.
Speaker: That's part of our company correlation at 9am on Thursday.
Speaker: on Mondays.
Speaker: And then we have a closer training at 9am on Thursday for everybody that wants to come.
Speaker: So those are very voluntary, but okay.
Speaker: We keep it simple.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like do what they do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: How many reps do you guys have now in your, in your Phoenix area?
Speaker: So on the books, it's a revolving door.
Speaker: It's between 70 to 80 active reps that actually have accounts on the books, probably 50-ish, 50 to 60, depending.
Speaker: So it's changing often.
Speaker: And one of our challenges is continuing to grow that number and grow into other markets and help other leaders rise up.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, no, what's cool is, um, you were saying that, is it you that usually runs the meeting or do you kind of switch off with people or do you still run the meetings yourself and give trainings and all that?
Speaker: So for the last five years, I've ran those trainings myself.
Speaker: Um, um, I have a passion for it and a love for it, but at the same time, I think it, it, um,
Speaker: keeps others in our organization from being able to rise up and have those opportunities as well.
Speaker: So this year we've restructured and we've delegated and are allowing other people to participate in those trainings.
Speaker: So I'm there to help support always, but we want other people to have those opportunities and focusing on leadership growth this year.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's that's huge helping people grow themselves.
Speaker: And I've been leading teams here in San Diego for a while to something that I struggle with at times.
Speaker: Maybe have some advice on this.
Speaker: Tyler is just like as you're running these trainings over and over and you guys do it once a week.
Speaker: So it's not as much.
Speaker: But the team I'm on now, we're we're having meetings every single day.
Speaker: And yeah, it's like some days you show up, there's like fire trainings, but some days it's kind of like the same stuff over and over.
Speaker: So how do you, I know that's cool what you guys are doing with all the production fog machines and all that.
Speaker: But as far as like trainings and really helping guys improve and focusing on the needs of like all 60 people.
Speaker: how do you guys kind of identify, oh, okay, this is what's going to be super valuable training for the team this week, or this, this is going to be still, I don't know, how do you keep it like fresh and like new trainings?
Speaker: And you've been doing this five years straight.
Speaker: So do you have any tips on maybe for like managers or company owners that just like, man, I don't know how to keep training on something new.
Speaker: I've trained on this 20 times now, but so what would you say to that?
Speaker: So this might be unique to me, but I come with nothing prepared.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: I, I show up and, um, so the, the way the training starts is I just say, Hey, let's, let's hear one good story, one bad story.
Speaker: So someone shares a victory.
Speaker: We clap.
Speaker: Someone shares a challenge and, um, we just work through that.
Speaker: And then I just put myself out there and say, Hey, what do you guys need me for today?
Speaker: So if it's a closer training, I'm not going to have some new guy there that is going to ask really basic, you know, door questions or things that everyone in the, in the audience knows, cause then I'm going to lose 99% participation.
Speaker: And so the trainings are split out into, Hey, these are door trainings for newer guys.
Speaker: These are closer trainings for the people in the home or people that want to get to closer and have already, you
Speaker: put in the time and the work to get past the door part.
Speaker: Now they want to focus.
Speaker: So they're split up right there, but that way I'm very accessible and I don't come with any agenda other than I say, hey, let's go through and everyone raise your hand on what you want to talk about today.
Speaker: And we'll take five topics, I'll put them on the whiteboard and say, hey, we can get three of these.
Speaker: What do you guys want to hit?
Speaker: So we'll hit three of those.
Speaker: And then we'll just jump into it and I'll just pull guys up.
Speaker: I'm like, all right, we'll talk to you about this.
Speaker: What are you seeing?
Speaker: And then I'll put it to the audience.
Speaker: What do you guys feel about all this?
Speaker: What are you guys seeing happen here?
Speaker: What would you guys do?
Speaker: And then we'll just hit that one and we'll do a super solid, you know, 20 minutes of just crushing it on that one.
Speaker: And then we'll move to the next one, the next one.
Speaker: And so every, I really want to make sure that when people are showing up to the training,
Speaker: that they're getting heard and they're getting exactly what they need because there's no point in training if what I'm sharing with them doesn't translate onto the door.
Speaker: It doesn't translate into them making money.
Speaker: And so I just try to keep it extremely relevant
Speaker: I can train on the fly on anything.
Speaker: And so whatever they throw at me at that moment, we're just going to train on it.
Speaker: I just feel like people are really receptive to that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So this sounds like you're almost doing your training the same way you sell.
Speaker: You're asking them, Hey, what's your needs?
Speaker: What do you need to focus on?
Speaker: And just boom, go from there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I've, I've done it myself for over a decade constantly.
Speaker: So I just, I don't feel like,
Speaker: they're going to run into everything I've been through and we're just gonna smash it out together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so other thing that's really cool is, um, well, obviously you're not doing this every day, but you're still posting these videos of you out there, you know, knocking doors with your reps.
Speaker: I saw one just the other day.
Speaker: So how often are you still going out and knocking with your guys and giving them like that hands-on stuff too?
Speaker: It's that pretty often still.
Speaker: Um, I'm, I'm doing it less and less, but, um, I go out on occasion.
Speaker: So, um, I mean, I used to be the one out selling with, with my whole office, but I'm not at that point anymore, but, um, um, I probably go out
Speaker: maybe once a quarter okay yeah good we'll make sure you get the camera crew when you do go out because yeah get some good footage out there i love it yeah that's a challenge sometimes but when i do go out and i have amazing doors i'm looking back wait did you record that and i'm like no dang it
Speaker: I definitely, I need a, if anyone has a recording solution, I've messed with like 10 or 15 different, I've looked at the pens.
Speaker: I've looked at the hats with the hidden cameras in them.
Speaker: And somehow I need to record myself because people forget to record stuff.
Speaker: I think there's like glasses or something.
Speaker: I remember in California, it's a, well, it's a league.
Speaker: I don't know if it's how the laws are in Arizona, but California, I guess it's illegal to like record people without them knowing or something.
Speaker: So the previous company I worked for, they got, I think it was like glasses, sunglasses or something, or just little glasses that had the cameras in them.
Speaker: And they drove out to just some tiny town in Nevada, like cross the border by like five minutes or something and went into Nevada and got a bunch of footage there because they knew they couldn't do it in California.
Speaker: So yeah, ways to do it.
Speaker: But no, that's good.
Speaker: And so, yeah, obviously you've trained tons of reps, Tyler, you've helped out your teams, you guys have grown.
Speaker: And so what would you say, do you guys have like a blueprint?
Speaker: Say you take a new hire, someone that just comes in, what do you see?
Speaker: What's like the blueprint for success that you give people?
Speaker: It's like, hey, do this.
Speaker: Maybe, I don't know if it's like set this many deals and we'll have you start closing or for your company, what's like the blueprint for success and seeing guys really hit like big numbers and standards that you walk them through.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, there's very different types of recruits.
Speaker: So if I have an experienced guy that's in the industry and I'm sitting down with him, it's going to be a very different approach and conversation than if we're trying to bring in, you know, we have a recruiting service and so we have recruiting meetings every single week.
Speaker: And these are people that we're pulling in from Indeed and whatnot, and they have no knocking experience and
Speaker: you know, they're learning what it is that we do from scratch.
Speaker: So I would say the number one thing is, is I don't try to talk anyone into the job.
Speaker: I asked them a lot of questions on, you know, what are you, what are you trying to accomplish right now?
Speaker: Where are you at in life?
Speaker: Like, what is it that's important to you?
Speaker: And when I'm recruiting fresh blood into my business,
Speaker: I don't hide anything.
Speaker: I let them know like, hey, this is a marketing job.
Speaker: This is a door-to-door thing.
Speaker: We're gonna, you know, here's what an in-person consultation looks like.
Speaker: And I just say, hey, there's a lot of fallout in this industry.
Speaker: And do you know why that is?
Speaker: Why is it?
Speaker: It's because,
Speaker: These are the reasons, you know, how do you feel like you would handle this and this and this, you know, but then I also show the upside very clearly.
Speaker: And so I don't want to waste my time with onboarding a ton of people that I just know are upfront, aren't going to work out.
Speaker: So I think being really transparent is important.
Speaker: Um, but also don't do yourself a disservice and talk people out of the opportunity, show them the,
Speaker: you know, the beautiful part of the job and how important it is.
Speaker: So, and I also make it very clear that we are looking for and attract entrepreneur minded people.
Speaker: This isn't a clock in clock out job, you know, people that aren't afraid of X, Y, and Z. And then maybe to answer more about the blueprint is our company core values are very well known inside of our business.
Speaker: And so,
Speaker: We have three of them.
Speaker: Our number one core value is family first.
Speaker: Number two is add value.
Speaker: And then number three is tenacious grit.
Speaker: And that's really what I think makes Fusion Power what it is.
Speaker: And so as we're bringing in people, especially if they're experienced or whatnot, if we don't feel like they're willing to align with those core values, we really talk about and talk through and bring those values to the table and see how they align with those.
Speaker: So as I talked about earlier in our podcast, the sharks on the floor, shoving people out of the way to get to the jugular.
Speaker: Like that's not family first.
Speaker: That's a guy going after himself.
Speaker: That's a guy that creates lawsuits for my company that creates lawsuits for himself that, you know, we have to dig through his accounts and, you know, clear out fraudulent activity.
Speaker: We don't want those people, though.
Speaker: That's not a family first attitude.
Speaker: And so if we know what it is that we're looking for, I'm not just looking for a guy.
Speaker: We're not just throwing mud against the wall and seeing what sticks like.
Speaker: We're looking for people that fit our core values.
Speaker: They can maintain our identity as a business.
Speaker: Um, our presence is really important online.
Speaker: Our, our customer reviews are very important.
Speaker: The experience that we're providing as a business, I care about that customer as a business owner, as much as I care about that guy having success and be able to feed his family and meet his goals.
Speaker: And so we're really filtering through those core values to make sure we're bringing on the right kind of people.
Speaker: And you can have that conversation a million ways, but it's, it's problem to solution.
Speaker: You know, I don't know what you can, what you can do right now to make more dollars per hour.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And then for like new guys coming in with meeting one time a week, do you have your guys follow like, like a set schedule or say like, I don't know things they do to, I don't know if you guys do like set or closer or like set trainings or set steps are going to go through to kind of progress and start closing their own deals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You guys do anything like that?
Speaker: It's a super regimented structure.
Speaker: Guys know exactly where they're supposed to be at, at what times, um, what resources they have, what's expected.
Speaker: So, um, Tuesday morning at 9am, we have orientation where they come in and they have access to all the passwords, all the software it's explained to them.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Bootcamp is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 10 30 AM to noon.
Speaker: And there they're going to give a, get a crash course on what fusion is, what solar is, how all this works.
Speaker: And then they're going to be paired up with a mentor where they're going to go out for three days that week, um, to make sure that this is a job for them.
Speaker: So they have a chance to experience the doors.
Speaker: And then if they're sticking around and they're going to show up Monday meeting at 9 AM for correlation and, um,
Speaker: You know, if they're there at Monday at 9 a.m.
Speaker: and they've gone through all of that,
Speaker: then our goal is to make sure that person gets a lead within two weeks of being on board with our company.
Speaker: So they're seeing a paycheck the following week and they're seeing success and that faith is built that they can do this job.
Speaker: So there's a lot.
Speaker: And then the mentor who is mentoring that person has mentor training so that they know exactly what's expected from them, how to treat this person, how to go out and lead.
Speaker: And then we also have leadership training once a week in our company for the leaders.
Speaker: Sorry, it's actually bi-weekly every other week.
Speaker: Um, so that they know how to step up and lead.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Our team.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think that's so important because I mean, guys can use these recruiting services, ZipRecruiter indeed, but if you don't have that backend set up and good training, good steps to follow.
Speaker: Um, I've been with companies where we didn't have that set up and it was just like trying to bring in, it's still hard enough as it is even having all that set up, but yeah.
Speaker: Imagine not doing any of that.
Speaker: It was like pouring the, I don't know, pouring water in a bucket with holes all over the place, you know, it's just like falling through like one out of the guys that are responsible that are.
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: And the guys inside of our organization that are responsible, that show up to our recruiting events with us that are showing consistent work and leadership.
Speaker: We actually recruit for them.
Speaker: We, we put people underneath them all the time.
Speaker: And so we help them build their organizations and,
Speaker: We have an inside call center.
Speaker: Those guys have good closing percentages.
Speaker: we'll throw a bunch of leads to these guys are getting a bunch of closes from that.
Speaker: Um, so we really, I feel like go the 10th mile to make sure people are successful that are showing up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So important.
Speaker: So yeah, great stuff.
Speaker: And so, um, Tyler, last thing I kind of wanted to hit on before we kind of start wrapping up here, I know you did your training, um, more specific on closing, um, things that door to door con, I know you talked a lot about that and,
Speaker: um, your closing deals galore out there.
Speaker: So I want to get some advice for you just on like the clothes, um, maybe some key things that you see mistakes made, uh, maybe like a little bit of how you structure it.
Speaker: So I know, uh, you did in the objections training on, uh, the solar objections group, kind of more specific stuff, how you handle objections, um,
Speaker: Things like that.
Speaker: But yeah, can you tell us about, um, I guess maybe just start with kind of how you structure your clothes and then, uh, maybe just some advice or mistakes that you see being made by, uh, you know, people that aren't having as much success.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: I think number one mistake is closer is going in to sit down with the customer and going right into a pitch, going right into the sales flow, the process.
Speaker: Here's how solar works, you know, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: Here's your options.
Speaker: And then they go to numbers really fast and design and they go up and they open their laptop right away.
Speaker: And when someone opens their laptop right away, what's the customer thinking?
Speaker: What's on that laptop?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the whole time they're not like listening and they just want to get to numbers and they're going to, you know, jump past all the value.
Speaker: And by the time you get to that point, you haven't had a chance to really ask them any questions to see what is it they want.
Speaker: And so I train my guys when you go into the house, leave your laptop closed and to take control right off the bat.
Speaker: I would say, Hey, everything came out really good.
Speaker: I think you guys would be really happy with, um, you know, what all this looks like.
Speaker: And I'm like touching my computer, like, hey, this looks really good.
Speaker: And I have it on my lap, not on the table, and it's not open.
Speaker: And I say, hey, before I jump into this, and so I'm setting the stage and I'm taking control and I'm framing the situation.
Speaker: Before I jump into this, I just have some questions for you guys.
Speaker: I want to go over really quick.
Speaker: And before I actually ask any questions, do you have anything burning in your mind that you want to ask regarding solar?
Speaker: And so any back pressure that's pre-existing, because at this point they've thought about canceling the appointment or they have these like horror stories or these what ifs, they just want to make sure that before they really start doing business with you, that they're in a safe place.
Speaker: And so I want to create a room right off the bat where I can get all those burning questions out of their mind.
Speaker: And they're like, well, what if I move?
Speaker: Or what about the roof?
Speaker: Or we just got our roof done.
Speaker: What happens to the warranty?
Speaker: And I'll answer any of those questions right up front, no matter how hard it is.
Speaker: And I'm just really, really straightforward.
Speaker: And so that's number one.
Speaker: And then number two is I ask a ton of questions right up front that tells me if I'm going to sell this person.
Speaker: And I pretty well know up front if this person is sellable.
Speaker: and how to sell them.
Speaker: Because right up front, if I ask all the questions to show me the exact path to get this person to the end, then at that point, it's just walking the path with them.
Speaker: And I know, okay, here's their hot button.
Speaker: Here's their value.
Speaker: Here's their fear.
Speaker: And here's what the goal is to get to.
Speaker: I'm going to make sure that we get to that goal.
Speaker: I'm going to make sure that we hit that value.
Speaker: I'm going to push that hot button a whole bunch.
Speaker: I'm going to come back.
Speaker: I'm going to true up.
Speaker: I'm going to reiterate the things that they shared.
Speaker: And I'm going to soft close all the way on those little things.
Speaker: So your process can look like whatever you want, but I think it's really important to arm yourself up front with how am I going to add value to this person?
Speaker: What is it they want?
Speaker: And so just an example, Taylor, of some of those questions, it's like, you know, on a scale from one to 10, how much do you guys know about solar?
Speaker: Okay, I like that.
Speaker: And then like right up front, they're like, well, I'm a 10 or I'm a one or whatever.
Speaker: It's like, okay, cool.
Speaker: And if they say one, then we're a zero, it means they might have some fear of making a decision today because they just literally know nothing.
Speaker: And so my comment after that is like, cool.
Speaker: Well, just so you guys know, solar is really simple.
Speaker: It's just, it's simple math.
Speaker: It's black and white.
Speaker: This is going to be really, really easy today.
Speaker: So if you guys have any questions along the way, feel free to interrupt me.
Speaker: But to be honest, solar is really, really simple.
Speaker: I want to ease that fear off the bat because...
Speaker: They're in a position of vulnerability.
Speaker: They don't know anything and they're completely trusting me to be the educator.
Speaker: I just wanna create that trust.
Speaker: And then I'll say, is the solar something you guys have ever looked at before?
Speaker: I'm gonna say yes or no.
Speaker: And if they say no, okay, cool.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: What's kept you from looking at solar previous to now?
Speaker: Like, well, you know, whatever that is, something's going to come up and that's going to be very valuable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I'll say, you know, what is your guys' biggest interest in going solar?
Speaker: Or what are you hoping to get out of solar?
Speaker: What's your expectation?
Speaker: Like, well, savings or environmental or, you know, whatever that is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And so if it's saving money, then I'm going to also ask them, have you guys done anything else in the home to help reduce your guys' energy costs?
Speaker: They might say like, well, we just spent $15,000 on an AC unit.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, 100%, I should sell this person.
Speaker: If some AC guy can sell them a $15,000 AC system, I can't give them basically a...
Speaker: no cost out of pocket solar system will be ashamed.
Speaker: So that's 100%.
Speaker: Or if they're like, well, we changed all our lights in the house to LEDs, we put window tint up or we did whatever.
Speaker: That shows us customers very invested.
Speaker: They've already made buying decisions.
Speaker: They're along the same moral thread as why people go solar.
Speaker: So again, I would profile that person of 100% of sale.
Speaker: What happens is my confidence goes up
Speaker: And I'm going to help that customer self realize that you've already made decisions that align with going solar.
Speaker: You just haven't gone solar yet.
Speaker: And there's like a million of these questions, but it's like, hey, what do you guys like to keep your AC at?
Speaker: In Arizona, people keep it really high because it's hot outside and it's expensive.
Speaker: So like, 81.
Speaker: I'm like, OK, wow.
Speaker: if money was no issue, what would you guys keep it at?
Speaker: Well, 76.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So the only reason you keep it at 81 is because of money.
Speaker: Like, yes.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: So again, hot button, right?
Speaker: They're going to self-realize.
Speaker: And so if you can ask all, all these really good questions up front, then you're going to just walk yourself through the clothes a lot stronger and listen really well.
Speaker: And then I guess the last thing I'd say is, is try to have the customer talking as much as you are or more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You should be directing all of, all of that conversation through your questions.
Speaker: So your questions should be very intentional.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do that really, really well.
Speaker: You'll just, you just will have a high close rate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: So important.
Speaker: And so for our solar printer listeners, if you don't already have a good set of questions, go rewind that.
Speaker: Tyler just gave you some questions, some million dollar questions you should be asking your customers.
Speaker: And yeah, it's so important because the other thing too is, um, your help, you're building them the perfect system off of that too.
Speaker: It's like in California where I'm at, sometimes we have their electric bill.
Speaker: We think that they're going to keep using the same amount of energy, but
Speaker: To your point, if they're like, oh, no, we're being super conservative right now.
Speaker: We want to keep the EC down at 75 instead of 82.
Speaker: So that's the other thing that's important.
Speaker: I think guys miss sometimes it's helping you build them the perfect system to maybe instead of the 115% offset, you need to do 150% offset.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: And you tie it back to what they said.
Speaker: It's not because you're doing it at the sales guides because of what they said.
Speaker: This is how we're going to set this up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because this is what you want, Mr. Customer.
Speaker: If you want to live in your house at 76, you need to build in a little bit extra energy here.
Speaker: And so this is, you know, X, Y, and Z. Again, it's just trust and rapport.
Speaker: And you were listening to them.
Speaker: You're the doctor.
Speaker: You now have the prescription for them.
Speaker: That's the solution.
Speaker: And they're going to trust that pill you're giving them because you asked them all the questions.
Speaker: And you're like, because you said this, this is what we're going to do here.
Speaker: And I can't argue with myself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No question.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's so, so important.
Speaker: And something I love too, you kind of jog my memory, just what you're saying.
Speaker: Um, I think you actually talked about this in your presentation at door to door con, but just asking those tough questions.
Speaker: I think the example you gave at door to door con was like, Oh, what happens if someone asks, like if they can cancel after the solar is up there.
Speaker: And, um, I think your response was just, I'm like, no, no, you can't cancel.
Speaker: And
Speaker: like this i'm like wow tyler's not afraid to just lay it all out i think they're gonna handle it they're gonna be like okay or they're gonna be like but and then i'll say because what they're thinking is if it doesn't work right yeah and i'll just say it like but what if it doesn't work you know and i'll just finish the sentence and they're like yeah like what if it doesn't produce yeah
Speaker: Well, I'm like, well, that's, it's guaranteed to.
Speaker: So if it doesn't, you get a paycheck.
Speaker: That's on the lease.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But it's like, you just say whatever you got to say, be straight up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not being afraid to give the tough answers because I think some reps kind of beat around the bush and, you know, just say, Oh, well, well, no, like, why would you want to cancel?
Speaker: But yeah, I think it's powerful to just have that confidence where you can just give them like, you know, straight answer and going to increase, I think the, or lower your cancellation rate and all that too.
Speaker: If you can just be straight up with the customers for sure.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Well, cool, Tyler.
Speaker: Well, as we start wrapping up here, I don't want to take all day for you.
Speaker: I know we go hours and hours, but real quick, where can guys connect more with you if they want to reach out on social media or hear more about your company?
Speaker: You want to drop your social media in any way that people can connect with you?
Speaker: Facebook is the best way.
Speaker: You can Facebook message me, hit me up on Facebook, Tyler McAllister, founder of Fusion Power.
Speaker: And you guys can call me directly if you want.
Speaker: You can text me.
Speaker: You guys throw their phone number on here, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sometimes up to you, man, you might get, you might get a thousand text messages.
Speaker: So to your discretion, I'll take the chance.
Speaker: My phone number is 480-395-4907.
Speaker: And just to give you some insight, I asked people to reach out to me on anything that they want on my previous podcast that I did and had a really cool guy from Texas call me.
Speaker: He just started an install company a year ago.
Speaker: They've had some learning experiences and
Speaker: You know, we've, we've figured out a lot of the install side.
Speaker: And so we had a really good conversation.
Speaker: I just opened up like, Hey man, here's how we run an install company.
Speaker: You need to watch out for this and this and hire this person and do this and this that way.
Speaker: And he was taking notes for probably 45 minutes.
Speaker: And, um, we just dropped some super solid nuggets on that guy.
Speaker: That's going to
Speaker: save him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker: So anything from install to sales to door to door, I'm super happy to chat with you guys about anything.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, we'll put that in the show notes and make sure you don't blow his phone up too much, but Tyler, we appreciate you being so willing to.
Speaker: you know, share your knowledge and all the lessons you've learned.
Speaker: And so last question here for you, Tyler, if you had one piece of advice for maybe your reps that's struggling, maybe a guy that's in a slump, maybe someone that's wondering if they should keep selling slower when they're not making as much as they thought, what would you, what's the one thing you would tell that person or that rep?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would say get a one reach out.
Speaker: So, you know, when you're not your best self or you're not producing what you think you should, or you're letting someone down, the tendency is to hide.
Speaker: And we go within ourself and we hide in this dark little hole and it just, it grows.
Speaker: And so reach out, there's a ton of power in reaching out.
Speaker: the value of having a manager or a mentor or someone in your life that's a leader figure is be vulnerable, be willing to just say, dude, I feel like I'm never going to sell another solar system again.
Speaker: Cause I've felt that way.
Speaker: And I felt that way about alarms, man.
Speaker: I'd sell alarms for years and years and years.
Speaker: And one day I'd wake up and I had three cancels and I had a hard week and I'm like, yeah, I feel like I'm never going to sell again, you know?
Speaker: But yeah,
Speaker: The sun comes back out and you partner up and you just reach out to people that can build you back up.
Speaker: And all it is, is your belief and your faith in yourself in your head and reach out to people that are willing to dedicate their time and their love to you because those people are a godsend in times of challenge.
Speaker: So my encouragement to you guys is to be willing to get vulnerable.
Speaker: share your, your feelings and your thoughts with someone that you trust and is in a circle of high confidence with you and, and be accountable to that person.
Speaker: So that person can help you, you know, put together a plan and check in with that person every couple of days or every week, whatever your plan is, you set up and just do it, man.
Speaker: Cause people are here in this life to help you out.
Speaker: And, and,
Speaker: They can't add value to you as a person if you don't let them.
Speaker: So yeah, nugget.
Speaker: And guys, remember, even if you don't have someone at your company, you can reach out to me, reach out to Tyler.
Speaker: That's what's so cool about selling solar today is when I first started, you can really do that.
Speaker: You can only reach out to guys in your company, but there's so many given guys like Tyler, guys in Facebook groups that are willing to help and lend out a hand.
Speaker: So can I share an example really quick?
Speaker: Oh yeah, go ahead.
Speaker: Sorry to interrupt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I had a rep, I won't mention his name, but we were driving out to area one day and he has a really hard time.
Speaker: And he's like, dude, I think I'm going to go back to fixing cars.
Speaker: And I just like, I feel like I went on this because I'm so passionate about solar.
Speaker: For 30 minutes driving the area, I was just pumping this guy, pumping this guy.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, you can do this.
Speaker: Here's how you do it.
Speaker: This is what you're saying.
Speaker: Tell me what your day's looking like.
Speaker: How are you knocking doors?
Speaker: What's this?
Speaker: Okay, let's follow this plan.
Speaker: That guy owns his own company today.
Speaker: And he's very successful and doing very, very well.
Speaker: So you never know.
Speaker: what's getting what's around the corner for you if if you keep at it reach out and get some guidance and that guy's name is elon musk no i'm just kidding yeah i own 10 of his no that's so cool so yeah i love that no it's super important though have that giving attitude and it's going to add more value to what you're doing
Speaker: So Tyler, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: Guys, don't forget, Tyler, I think you're speaking at SolarCon here in a few months too.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So don't forget to come hear your boys, T. Armstrong and T. McAllister live at SolarCon.
Speaker: Go grab your tickets, use your code SOLARPRINNER25, get your discount.
Speaker: And with that being said, shoot Tyler a message.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated the words of wisdom he shared with us today on the show.
Speaker: And yeah, appreciate you, Tyler.
Speaker: Thanks again for coming on with us.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
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