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TITAN SOLAR CLOSURE - Reaction and Lessons Learned
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
Industry Challenges: Titan Solar Closure
00:00:42
Speaker
So today, we are coming to the podcast with a heavy heart.
00:00:46
Speaker
As most of you know, we got the notice that Titan Solar has closed its doors, is no longer doing business.
00:00:56
Speaker
Probably old news to most of you listening to this podcast.
00:01:00
Speaker
but another one bites the dust.
00:01:02
Speaker
And so today we're going to talk about it, the effects of it, my thoughts on it, and just a couple things that we can, lessons learned from this.
00:01:11
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast.
00:01:12
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:13
Speaker
We are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:01:20
Speaker
and also not go out of business.
00:01:21
Speaker
But these things happen.
00:01:23
Speaker
And I'll tell a little bit of my story.
00:01:26
Speaker
I know I've shared bits and pieces here and there in separate podcasts.
00:01:31
Speaker
But, you know, I've been in solar since 2016.
00:01:34
Speaker
And in solar years, that's a lot of years, right?
00:01:40
Speaker
I have seen a lot of companies come and go.
00:01:42
Speaker
I've been with multiple companies that have closed their doors.
00:01:45
Speaker
And it's a tough thing to see, tough thing to go through.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'll get into a little bit more of my story and share some lessons I think we can learn from
Community Support and Belief in Solar
00:01:53
Speaker
this.
00:01:53
Speaker
But before we get into that, I wanted to give a quick thank you to our latest reviews over on Apple Podcasts.
00:02:02
Speaker
We have two new ones.
00:02:04
Speaker
So I want to give a quick thank you to, we got Mary Elizabeth Tracy,
00:02:09
Speaker
She says, very encouraging.
00:02:10
Speaker
I'm just getting started in solar in industry.
00:02:13
Speaker
I believe in, but don't know a lot about.
00:02:15
Speaker
I appreciate this podcast because it's so inspirational.
00:02:18
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:02:19
Speaker
Appreciate that, Mary Elizabeth Tracy.
00:02:22
Speaker
And hopefully this podcast does not discourage you from the industry not being inspirational or from lessening your belief in solar.
00:02:33
Speaker
I think there's solar still great industry.
00:02:36
Speaker
We're going to talk more about that.
00:02:37
Speaker
And then another review we had from T Wilkerson 03.
00:02:41
Speaker
He or she says from Kentucky to DFW, I started listening a few months back and you gave me the confidence I needed to take my career to the next level.
00:02:51
Speaker
I just relocated from small town Kentucky to big DFW Metroplex to take an appointment setting job.
00:02:58
Speaker
My first day was honestly so rough.
00:03:00
Speaker
I didn't get a single lead.
00:03:01
Speaker
Then you dropped the episode on appointment setting and I got the confidence to go back out there.
00:03:05
Speaker
Appreciate that to you, Wilkerson.
00:03:07
Speaker
And hey, if it doesn't work out in DFW, our company's hiring.
00:03:10
Speaker
Hit me up.
00:03:11
Speaker
Hit me up if you want to be with some killers.
00:03:13
Speaker
Texas is good.
00:03:15
Speaker
But, you know, San Diego is better.
00:03:19
Speaker
But thank you again to those that did leave us a review.
00:03:22
Speaker
And then also quick thank you to our sponsors.
00:03:26
Speaker
We have Solar Scout that is helping us here with the podcast.
00:03:32
Speaker
And you've
Resilience in the Face of Financial Loss
00:03:33
Speaker
heard us talk about SolarScout, a great tool that you can use to recognize new homeowners, expired permits, but wanted to give, especially right now with all this craziness, Titan Solar going out of business, it's like,
00:03:48
Speaker
How many people now, how many homeowners are with possibly a permit that's expired that they're not getting installed?
00:03:55
Speaker
So just a great use of this tool.
00:03:58
Speaker
All these companies that are going out of business, they need people like ourselves to step up and serve them.
00:04:04
Speaker
So another great use for that tool.
00:04:06
Speaker
If you've not checked it out, go check it out.
00:04:08
Speaker
Do a demo with them.
00:04:09
Speaker
You'll promise just from the demo, you'll learn a ton of things that you can go out and make some money with, even if you don't decide to use their software.
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay, so let's get into the topic here.
00:04:19
Speaker
So just wanted to give my background.
00:04:22
Speaker
Again, I've been in solar since 2016.
00:04:24
Speaker
My first company I was with for about four years and I was seeing signs of them starting to go downhill, ended up leaving that company.
00:04:34
Speaker
went to a different dealer, they sold to another dealer, and now all three of those companies have closed their doors, they're not doing business anymore.
00:04:46
Speaker
And really only my first company, company called New Power, they, you can go back, listen, clear from the beginning episodes, I started the podcast when I was with that company.
00:04:57
Speaker
And they were doing their own installs, they eventually stopped doing installs,
00:05:02
Speaker
And then they were using other installers.
00:05:06
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But it's just sad to see.
00:05:08
Speaker
I still get calls to this day where customers are asking, hey, I'm calling the company.
00:05:13
Speaker
I thought they were going to come service my panels.
00:05:16
Speaker
What's going on?
00:05:16
Speaker
Have you heard anything?
00:05:18
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And I, of course, still take those calls, still have to listen to these customers.
00:05:22
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You know, the latest big company that fell was at the dealer IAE.
00:05:28
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came from before I joined Legacy Power over here.
00:05:31
Speaker
We had a local company here in San Diego where we were using, seemed like a great company on paper, but eventually they stopped, they started having more and more pay delays.
00:05:42
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We were getting paid on like backdated deals.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, eventually they just stopped paying us all together.
00:05:49
Speaker
And I think they're out of business.
00:05:50
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I guess I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure they're out of business or at least close to it because I call their offices.
00:05:57
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I don't get anyone to pick up.
00:05:59
Speaker
So just sad to see.
00:06:00
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Happens to everyone.
00:06:01
Speaker
And I myself, I'm owed a lot of money from
00:06:04
Speaker
a few of these companies, particularly the one I came from, the local company, local installer we're using.
00:06:10
Speaker
All of us did not get paid out a lot of money.
00:06:13
Speaker
And there's different fingers we can point.
00:06:15
Speaker
I know there's fault on probably both sides of the table, right?
00:06:19
Speaker
The people, our dealer, I know we didn't do a lot of things correctly.
00:06:23
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And then installer, of course, they struggle with a ton of things.
00:06:26
Speaker
So I didn't get paid out.
00:06:28
Speaker
And if I added up all the money that's I have not been paid out by companies that have gone out of business issues that have happened, it's well over six figures that I have personally not been paid out just by issues companies going on going out of business.
00:06:42
Speaker
So it's a sad thing to hear.
00:06:43
Speaker
Okay, but obviously I am still in solar.
00:06:46
Speaker
I still believe in it.
00:06:47
Speaker
I still think it's modern day gold rush.
00:06:50
Speaker
One of the best industries we can be in.
00:06:52
Speaker
And even after not getting paid out
00:06:54
Speaker
a lot of money.
00:06:55
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Like, you know, I look at any pretty much any other job I could do.
00:06:59
Speaker
I just don't see the potential still, even with the issues we're seeing in solar.
00:07:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:03
Speaker
I don't see the potential in almost every other industry.
00:07:06
Speaker
So I just have a deep belief in it.
00:07:08
Speaker
I think we will recover.
00:07:10
Speaker
I think we will learn lessons
Lessons for Solar Sales Reps
00:07:12
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from this.
00:07:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:13
Speaker
But let's talk about a few of the lessons that maybe we can recognize.
00:07:16
Speaker
Maybe if you're an individual sales rep listening to this, maybe you're thinking, okay, how can I
00:07:22
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maybe like no to not be with a company that's going to go out of business.
00:07:27
Speaker
I'm not like an expert on these things necessarily, but again, I have been through the ringer.
00:07:32
Speaker
I have seen these things happen.
00:07:35
Speaker
So I'll share a little bit of my experience.
00:07:37
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:07:42
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.
00:07:49
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:07:53
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app.
00:07:58
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:08:02
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:08:12
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:08:16
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
00:08:20
Speaker
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.
00:08:26
Speaker
And they did.
00:08:27
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.
00:08:36
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
00:08:42
Speaker
and the lessons I've learned.
00:08:44
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about three quick lessons we can learn from this.
00:08:48
Speaker
And number one, you probably heard this, but don't just chase the lowest red line.
00:08:53
Speaker
Don't look for the highest pay.
00:08:54
Speaker
Instead, look for, hey, what's a good pay, but what's a company that's paying well that will be around to service my customers, that will answer their calls, that has decent reviews, that tries to improve things,
00:09:09
Speaker
that goes back and resolves issues quickly when they happen.
00:09:13
Speaker
Look for a company like that.
00:09:15
Speaker
And we all see these people that just go chase the lowest red lines, the most pay.
00:09:19
Speaker
I watched two guys that I thought had really good things to say about this.
00:09:24
Speaker
Sam Taggart, John Frampton.
00:09:27
Speaker
Both these dudes have been around in solar.
00:09:30
Speaker
Also seen a lot of companies go out of business and they posted.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'd encourage you.
00:09:34
Speaker
You can go watch what they posted on it on Instagram, Facebook, their social medias.
00:09:39
Speaker
But these guys, you know, John Frampton obviously led like
00:09:43
Speaker
was one of the original SolarCity guys, I think led the entire East Coast of SolarCity.
00:09:50
Speaker
So this guy knows companies, has been around, and he did a video just talking about this, like how we all need to not just race to the bottom.
00:09:57
Speaker
We need to build value.
00:09:59
Speaker
We need to look for companies that will serve.
00:10:01
Speaker
We ourselves need to serve the customers, not just be chasing the lowest red line.
00:10:05
Speaker
So that's lesson number one.
00:10:07
Speaker
If you are running a dealer, don't fall for this like lowest red line thing.
00:10:12
Speaker
Okay, you got to do your research.
00:10:15
Speaker
You got to understand, you know, the installer you're working with and just make sure you
Customer Service and Integrity in Solar
00:10:21
Speaker
don't fall in that trap.
00:10:21
Speaker
Okay, so that's lesson number one.
00:10:24
Speaker
And then number two, maybe more for the sales reps.
00:10:27
Speaker
Maybe you're currently with a company that you're seeing some red flags or seeing some signs.
00:10:33
Speaker
Just like I was, you got to be,
00:10:36
Speaker
loyal, but I would say don't be loyal to the point where you're like falling, like going down with the burning ship with the sinking ship.
00:10:46
Speaker
If I could have gone back to when we were working with this local installer at my previous dealer, I saw the signs.
00:10:54
Speaker
I was seeing more and more pay delays.
00:10:56
Speaker
And I get it.
00:10:57
Speaker
Sometimes there's things that happen, even bigger companies.
00:11:00
Speaker
Sometimes maybe there's, I don't know, issues with payroll, whatever.
00:11:05
Speaker
So you got to be patient.
00:11:06
Speaker
But it's like, come on, when these things happen over and over and over,
00:11:11
Speaker
Um, I don't be like me.
00:11:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:14
Speaker
Don't say if the issues keep happening over and over and over.
00:11:17
Speaker
I went months and months and months where there are multiple delays.
00:11:21
Speaker
Um, I was getting paid out just like 25% of what I was owed and then told I was going to get paid out the rest later.
00:11:27
Speaker
And it just kept happening over and over and over.
00:11:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:30
Speaker
And then same with my first company.
00:11:32
Speaker
It's like, we were paid less.
00:11:34
Speaker
We were told that, um, we were going to get money.
00:11:38
Speaker
We had these carve out units.
00:11:40
Speaker
Um,
00:11:40
Speaker
We're going to told we were told that when the company sells, we're going to make this huge bag.
00:11:44
Speaker
Right.
00:11:44
Speaker
We're all going to be rich.
00:11:46
Speaker
Billionaires, pretty much not billionaires, but make tons of money off this transaction.
00:11:50
Speaker
And a lot of it was just like a pipe dream.
00:11:53
Speaker
Right.
00:11:53
Speaker
And we saw one of the owners leave.
00:11:55
Speaker
Hey, and clues can happen.
00:11:57
Speaker
Right.
00:11:57
Speaker
So just make sure you're paying attention to these things.
00:12:00
Speaker
Be loyal, but don't be loyal to a fault.
00:12:02
Speaker
Hey, recognize the writing on the wall.
00:12:04
Speaker
If you're having delays, delays, delays.
00:12:07
Speaker
If the back end of your company is just super disorganized.
00:12:10
Speaker
If you're having troubles getting updates, if your customers can't call on and get updates, maybe that's a sign.
00:12:16
Speaker
Either stop using that installer or I don't know, consider a different company.
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:21
Speaker
But make sure you like, I hate to see people not get paid with their own.
00:12:27
Speaker
So learn from my lessons with that.
00:12:29
Speaker
And then the third lesson is just serve your homeowners even after companies got a business for all those people that use Titan.
00:12:36
Speaker
I myself, I probably have around five deals that I did with Titan.
00:12:40
Speaker
Haven't heard this was a couple of years ago.
00:12:43
Speaker
It's been a while, but I'm sure I probably will get calls from these people
00:12:47
Speaker
that I installed with Titan.
00:12:49
Speaker
And like I mentioned from the beginning, I still get multiple calls from people from my first company that were installed, especially because this first company, in the agreement, we included like a service plan to where they would get their panels cleaned.
00:13:05
Speaker
They would have like yearly service checkups.
00:13:08
Speaker
So naturally that
00:13:09
Speaker
It's going to get a lot more calls because people are expecting like a service checkup and a panel cleaning.
00:13:14
Speaker
Obviously, they're not doing it anymore.
00:13:16
Speaker
So if you did work with an installer where they've gone out of business, just like still serve your customer.
00:13:22
Speaker
Hey, don't be scared.
00:13:23
Speaker
Answer them.
00:13:24
Speaker
All the experience I've had with it, I still pick up the calls for my customers from five, six, seven years ago.
00:13:30
Speaker
Sometimes they're really upset, but I'm always honest with them.
00:13:33
Speaker
Hey, unfortunately, company isn't around anymore.
00:13:37
Speaker
You still do have a warranty with your manufacturer.
00:13:40
Speaker
What's going on with the panel?
00:13:42
Speaker
Have them contacts.
00:13:43
Speaker
And I've had to contact Enphase with them a few times.
00:13:46
Speaker
Some of the different panel manufacturers.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, I want to say I've still gotten a decent amount of referrals just from people.
00:13:52
Speaker
Even though my company has gone out of business, I still continue to serve and do everything I can.
00:13:57
Speaker
Just be honest with them.
00:13:58
Speaker
Right.
00:13:59
Speaker
If it were your family,
00:14:00
Speaker
How would you treat them after the company's gone out of business?
00:14:03
Speaker
Right.
00:14:03
Speaker
Which my family is installed with my first solar company that's out of business.
00:14:08
Speaker
I'm still going to do everything I can to service them and help them.
00:14:11
Speaker
So make sure you do the same thing.
00:14:12
Speaker
And that's how we're going to get through this as an industry.
00:14:15
Speaker
If we were thinking of our customers, if we were thinking of the families we serve and always having that mindset, not trying to avoid people, not trying to race to the bottom.
00:14:23
Speaker
I think that's how we're going to continue as an industry and still make great commissions.
Engagement and Future Episodes
00:14:27
Speaker
not be regulated.
00:14:28
Speaker
Hey, these are what we need to do.
00:14:30
Speaker
Hey, so hopefully that gives you just, I don't know, some lessons learned.
00:14:35
Speaker
Maybe you're in a similar situation to what I was.
00:14:38
Speaker
But yeah, let's just keep moving this thing forward.
00:14:40
Speaker
It's going to take a joint effort.
00:14:42
Speaker
We all have to bring like integrity to this industry.
00:14:46
Speaker
We all have to not race to the bottom.
00:14:49
Speaker
We can't just focus on commissions, right?
00:14:51
Speaker
We can't just be the solar bros trying to go out and make the bag, get the car, not answer our customers' calls, not serve our customers.
00:14:59
Speaker
That's how we're going to like crash this, crash and burn this entire industry.
00:15:03
Speaker
So make sure you are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
00:15:06
Speaker
And let's learn from this together.
00:15:09
Speaker
But hey, rest in peace, Titan.
00:15:10
Speaker
It was great hanging with you guys.
00:15:12
Speaker
I knew a lot of great people over there.
00:15:14
Speaker
And let's serve those homeowners and potentially people looking for other opportunities that we're working with Titan.
00:15:21
Speaker
Let's do everything we can to serve those people, help them back on their feet, help them get solar from hopefully a company that's solid.
00:15:28
Speaker
Those are my thoughts.
00:15:29
Speaker
Hopefully you took something from that.
00:15:32
Speaker
And next podcast...
00:15:34
Speaker
I'm really excited.
00:15:34
Speaker
We have someone that's coming on that just, I think a two time golden door has a team of just super tight knit team.
00:15:44
Speaker
I think he has like less than 10 setters.
00:15:46
Speaker
And this dude is like doing 200 plus deals a year, like clockwork.
00:15:51
Speaker
I'm just crushing it has a team of like people that came from pest control and just producing insane results for the amount of people he has.
00:16:01
Speaker
So make sure you tune into that podcast.
00:16:02
Speaker
His name is Josh hair.
00:16:04
Speaker
I actually worked with him for a little bit at this previous dealer.
00:16:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:08
Speaker
So make sure you tune in.
00:16:10
Speaker
He might share a little bit about that experience, but we'll see on the next one.
00:16:14
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on the show today.
00:16:16
Speaker
We'll see you next time.
00:16:19
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:16:20
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:16:22
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:16:32
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:16:39
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:16:42
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:16:47
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solopreneur.
00:17:00
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:17:09
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:17:11
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:17:15
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:17:20
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:17:22
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:17:24
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:17:26
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:17:31
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:17:33
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.