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: Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: So today, we are coming to the podcast with a heavy heart.
Speaker: As most of you know, we got the notice that Titan Solar has closed its doors, is no longer doing business.
Speaker: Probably old news to most of you listening to this podcast.
Speaker: but another one bites the dust.
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.
Speaker: Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
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.
Speaker: and also not go out of business.
Speaker: But these things happen.
Speaker: And I'll tell a little bit of my story.
Speaker: I know I've shared bits and pieces here and there in separate podcasts.
Speaker: But, you know, I've been in solar since 2016.
Speaker: And in solar years, that's a lot of years, right?
Speaker: I have seen a lot of companies come and go.
Speaker: I've been with multiple companies that have closed their doors.
Speaker: And it's a tough thing to see, tough thing to go through.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll get into a little bit more of my story and share some lessons I think we can learn from this.
Speaker: But before we get into that, I wanted to give a quick thank you to our latest reviews over on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker: We have two new ones.
Speaker: So I want to give a quick thank you to, we got Mary Elizabeth Tracy,
Speaker: She says, very encouraging.
Speaker: I'm just getting started in solar in industry.
Speaker: I believe in, but don't know a lot about.
Speaker: I appreciate this podcast because it's so inspirational.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: Appreciate that, Mary Elizabeth Tracy.
Speaker: And hopefully this podcast does not discourage you from the industry not being inspirational or from lessening your belief in solar.
Speaker: I think there's solar still great industry.
Speaker: We're going to talk more about that.
Speaker: And then another review we had from T Wilkerson 03.
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.
Speaker: I just relocated from small town Kentucky to big DFW Metroplex to take an appointment setting job.
Speaker: My first day was honestly so rough.
Speaker: I didn't get a single lead.
Speaker: Then you dropped the episode on appointment setting and I got the confidence to go back out there.
Speaker: Appreciate that to you, Wilkerson.
Speaker: And hey, if it doesn't work out in DFW, our company's hiring.
Speaker: Hit me up.
Speaker: Hit me up if you want to be with some killers.
Speaker: Texas is good.
Speaker: But, you know, San Diego is better.
Speaker: But thank you again to those that did leave us a review.
Speaker: And then also quick thank you to our sponsors.
Speaker: We have Solar Scout that is helping us here with the podcast.
Speaker: And you've 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,
Speaker: How many people now, how many homeowners are with possibly a permit that's expired that they're not getting installed?
Speaker: So just a great use of this tool.
Speaker: All these companies that are going out of business, they need people like ourselves to step up and serve them.
Speaker: So another great use for that tool.
Speaker: If you've not checked it out, go check it out.
Speaker: Do a demo with them.
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.
Speaker: Okay, so let's get into the topic here.
Speaker: So just wanted to give my background.
Speaker: Again, I've been in solar since 2016.
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.
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.
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.
Speaker: And they were doing their own installs, they eventually stopped doing installs,
Speaker: And then they were using other installers.
Speaker: But it's just sad to see.
Speaker: I still get calls to this day where customers are asking, hey, I'm calling the company.
Speaker: I thought they were going to come service my panels.
Speaker: What's going on?
Speaker: Have you heard anything?
Speaker: And I, of course, still take those calls, still have to listen to these customers.
Speaker: You know, the latest big company that fell was at the dealer IAE.
Speaker: came from before I joined Legacy Power over here.
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.
Speaker: We were getting paid on like backdated deals.
Speaker: Yeah, eventually they just stopped paying us all together.
Speaker: And I think they're out of business.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: I don't get anyone to pick up.
Speaker: So just sad to see.
Speaker: Happens to everyone.
Speaker: And I myself, I'm owed a lot of money from
Speaker: a few of these companies, particularly the one I came from, the local company, local installer we're using.
Speaker: All of us did not get paid out a lot of money.
Speaker: And there's different fingers we can point.
Speaker: I know there's fault on probably both sides of the table, right?
Speaker: The people, our dealer, I know we didn't do a lot of things correctly.
Speaker: And then installer, of course, they struggle with a ton of things.
Speaker: So I didn't get paid out.
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.
Speaker: So it's a sad thing to hear.
Speaker: Okay, but obviously I am still in solar.
Speaker: I still believe in it.
Speaker: I still think it's modern day gold rush.
Speaker: One of the best industries we can be in.
Speaker: And even after not getting paid out
Speaker: a lot of money.
Speaker: Like, you know, I look at any pretty much any other job I could do.
Speaker: I just don't see the potential still, even with the issues we're seeing in solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I don't see the potential in almost every other industry.
Speaker: So I just have a deep belief in it.
Speaker: I think we will recover.
Speaker: I think we will learn lessons from this.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But let's talk about a few of the lessons that maybe we can recognize.
Speaker: Maybe if you're an individual sales rep listening to this, maybe you're thinking, okay, how can I
Speaker: maybe like no to not be with a company that's going to go out of business.
Speaker: I'm not like an expert on these things necessarily, but again, I have been through the ringer.
Speaker: I have seen these things happen.
Speaker: So I'll share a little bit of my experience.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
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.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
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.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
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.
Speaker: And they did.
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.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: and the lessons I've learned.
Speaker: Okay, so let's talk about three quick lessons we can learn from this.
Speaker: And number one, you probably heard this, but don't just chase the lowest red line.
Speaker: Don't look for the highest pay.
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,
Speaker: that goes back and resolves issues quickly when they happen.
Speaker: Look for a company like that.
Speaker: And we all see these people that just go chase the lowest red lines, the most pay.
Speaker: I watched two guys that I thought had really good things to say about this.
Speaker: Sam Taggart, John Frampton.
Speaker: Both these dudes have been around in solar.
Speaker: Also seen a lot of companies go out of business and they posted.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd encourage you.
Speaker: You can go watch what they posted on it on Instagram, Facebook, their social medias.
Speaker: But these guys, you know, John Frampton obviously led like
Speaker: was one of the original SolarCity guys, I think led the entire East Coast of SolarCity.
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.
Speaker: We need to build value.
Speaker: We need to look for companies that will serve.
Speaker: We ourselves need to serve the customers, not just be chasing the lowest red line.
Speaker: So that's lesson number one.
Speaker: If you are running a dealer, don't fall for this like lowest red line thing.
Speaker: Okay, you got to do your research.
Speaker: You got to understand, you know, the installer you're working with and just make sure you don't fall in that trap.
Speaker: Okay, so that's lesson number one.
Speaker: And then number two, maybe more for the sales reps.
Speaker: Maybe you're currently with a company that you're seeing some red flags or seeing some signs.
Speaker: Just like I was, you got to be,
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.
Speaker: If I could have gone back to when we were working with this local installer at my previous dealer, I saw the signs.
Speaker: I was seeing more and more pay delays.
Speaker: And I get it.
Speaker: Sometimes there's things that happen, even bigger companies.
Speaker: Sometimes maybe there's, I don't know, issues with payroll, whatever.
Speaker: So you got to be patient.
Speaker: But it's like, come on, when these things happen over and over and over,
Speaker: Um, I don't be like me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Don't say if the issues keep happening over and over and over.
Speaker: I went months and months and months where there are multiple delays.
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.
Speaker: And it just kept happening over and over and over.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then same with my first company.
Speaker: It's like, we were paid less.
Speaker: We were told that, um, we were going to get money.
Speaker: We had these carve out units.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: We're going to told we were told that when the company sells, we're going to make this huge bag.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We're all going to be rich.
Speaker: Billionaires, pretty much not billionaires, but make tons of money off this transaction.
Speaker: And a lot of it was just like a pipe dream.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we saw one of the owners leave.
Speaker: Hey, and clues can happen.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So just make sure you're paying attention to these things.
Speaker: Be loyal, but don't be loyal to a fault.
Speaker: Hey, recognize the writing on the wall.
Speaker: If you're having delays, delays, delays.
Speaker: If the back end of your company is just super disorganized.
Speaker: If you're having troubles getting updates, if your customers can't call on and get updates, maybe that's a sign.
Speaker: Either stop using that installer or I don't know, consider a different company.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But make sure you like, I hate to see people not get paid with their own.
Speaker: So learn from my lessons with that.
Speaker: And then the third lesson is just serve your homeowners even after companies got a business for all those people that use Titan.
Speaker: I myself, I probably have around five deals that I did with Titan.
Speaker: Haven't heard this was a couple of years ago.
Speaker: It's been a while, but I'm sure I probably will get calls from these people
Speaker: that I installed with Titan.
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.
Speaker: They would have like yearly service checkups.
Speaker: So naturally that
Speaker: It's going to get a lot more calls because people are expecting like a service checkup and a panel cleaning.
Speaker: Obviously, they're not doing it anymore.
Speaker: So if you did work with an installer where they've gone out of business, just like still serve your customer.
Speaker: Hey, don't be scared.
Speaker: Answer them.
Speaker: All the experience I've had with it, I still pick up the calls for my customers from five, six, seven years ago.
Speaker: Sometimes they're really upset, but I'm always honest with them.
Speaker: Hey, unfortunately, company isn't around anymore.
Speaker: You still do have a warranty with your manufacturer.
Speaker: What's going on with the panel?
Speaker: Have them contacts.
Speaker: And I've had to contact Enphase with them a few times.
Speaker: Some of the different panel manufacturers.
Speaker: Yeah, I want to say I've still gotten a decent amount of referrals just from people.
Speaker: Even though my company has gone out of business, I still continue to serve and do everything I can.
Speaker: Just be honest with them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If it were your family,
Speaker: How would you treat them after the company's gone out of business?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which my family is installed with my first solar company that's out of business.
Speaker: I'm still going to do everything I can to service them and help them.
Speaker: So make sure you do the same thing.
Speaker: And that's how we're going to get through this as an industry.
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.
Speaker: I think that's how we're going to continue as an industry and still make great commissions.
Speaker: not be regulated.
Speaker: Hey, these are what we need to do.
Speaker: Hey, so hopefully that gives you just, I don't know, some lessons learned.
Speaker: Maybe you're in a similar situation to what I was.
Speaker: But yeah, let's just keep moving this thing forward.
Speaker: It's going to take a joint effort.
Speaker: We all have to bring like integrity to this industry.
Speaker: We all have to not race to the bottom.
Speaker: We can't just focus on commissions, right?
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.
Speaker: That's how we're going to like crash this, crash and burn this entire industry.
Speaker: So make sure you are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Speaker: And let's learn from this together.
Speaker: But hey, rest in peace, Titan.
Speaker: It was great hanging with you guys.
Speaker: I knew a lot of great people over there.
Speaker: And let's serve those homeowners and potentially people looking for other opportunities that we're working with Titan.
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.
Speaker: Those are my thoughts.
Speaker: Hopefully you took something from that.
Speaker: And next podcast...
Speaker: I'm really excited.
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.
Speaker: I think he has like less than 10 setters.
Speaker: And this dude is like doing 200 plus deals a year, like clockwork.
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.
Speaker: So make sure you tune into that podcast.
Speaker: His name is Josh hair.
Speaker: I actually worked with him for a little bit at this previous dealer.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So make sure you tune in.
Speaker: He might share a little bit about that experience, but we'll see on the next one.
Speaker: Thanks for joining us on the show today.
Speaker: We'll see you next time.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
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.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
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.
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.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
