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Underground Training Program That's A MUST For Sales
36 Plays5 years ago
What's this underground training program? Are you using your commute time as learning opportunities, are you really doing whatever it takes to learn every day, to improve, to be reading books, to be going through programs, if you're not doing that and you're not seeing the type of success that you want. You have got to start to look at a question and start to ask yourself why you weren't putting the time to train every day.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
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 solarpreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong, here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals, and make your life better as a solar sales professional.
Listener Appreciation
00:00:51
Speaker
Let's jump into it today.
00:00:53
Speaker
It's just me on the mic here, and I have some exciting stuff to share with you.
00:00:58
Speaker
But before we do that, I just want to thank any of you that have shared the podcast or have left a review.
00:01:05
Speaker
I really appreciate it.
00:01:06
Speaker
That is what has kept the podcast going.
00:01:09
Speaker
I've mentioned it in previous episodes, but there's been times where I've gotten busy selling.
00:01:15
Speaker
I'm trying to lead my own team, grow my office, and it's not always easy to keep a podcast going.
00:01:21
Speaker
And we're not really running ads, anything
Importance of Reviews and Feedback
00:01:24
Speaker
like that.
00:01:24
Speaker
This is just to add value and help you guys crush it.
00:01:28
Speaker
So I just wanted to give a shout out to a few new reviews up on the show.
00:01:33
Speaker
We got someone, Sue Garet.
00:01:37
Speaker
It's a cool name if that's your real name.
00:01:39
Speaker
But he says, the podcast that I look forward to more than any other podcast.
00:01:44
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:01:46
Speaker
Then one that actually scared me for a second.
00:01:50
Speaker
I was like, what the?
00:01:52
Speaker
This one is from Game Changer.
00:01:55
Speaker
And, oh, actually, so the name, I don't know if this is the name or the name of the review, but it says product is awful.
00:02:03
Speaker
But then right under that, it says this podcast has completely changed the way I do door-to-door.
00:02:07
Speaker
Absolutely awesome content.
00:02:09
Speaker
Keep it up.
00:02:10
Speaker
So love to hear that.
00:02:14
Speaker
I thought I was talking about the podcast when it says product is awful.
00:02:18
Speaker
So I'm glad that wasn't the actual review.
00:02:21
Speaker
But glad we could add some value.
00:02:23
Speaker
A couple other ones that are recent and really appreciate it.
00:02:27
Speaker
Again, if you have found value in this show,
00:02:30
Speaker
Go share it with someone.
00:02:31
Speaker
Go help with all the people who have left me comments and reviews.
00:02:35
Speaker
I know it's for sure going to help someone in some way, especially for those guys that are just getting going in this great industry of ours.
00:02:45
Speaker
So let's jump into the episode.
Teaser for Underground Training
00:02:48
Speaker
We've got some exciting stuff, actually sort of an exciting announcement at the end.
00:02:53
Speaker
So you're going to want to listen to the end of the show and we're announcing something noteworthy, something groundbreaking, not going on to miss out.
00:03:02
Speaker
So keep listening or I guess you can skip the end, but keep listening though.
00:03:09
Speaker
Before we get into that though, I just want to talk about...
00:03:13
Speaker
Well, the title of this episode is called an underground training program.
00:03:18
Speaker
That's a must for sales.
00:03:21
Speaker
Pretty exciting stuff.
00:03:23
Speaker
Everyone's probably thinking, what is an what's what's this underground training program?
00:03:28
Speaker
So before I tell you what it is, you're probably not going to be expecting it.
Early Sales Story and Learning from Zig Ziglar
00:03:33
Speaker
But before I get into that, I just want to tell a quick story.
00:03:36
Speaker
When I first got into sales, I was devouring every book, every program I could get my hands on.
00:03:42
Speaker
I wanted to be the best guy out there, even though I started out sucking really bad in sales and it went on for a long time.
00:03:52
Speaker
I thought if guys are dominating this, there's got to be some sort of way to get better.
00:03:57
Speaker
And I was doing pest control out in North Carolina.
00:04:00
Speaker
I remember me and my buddy Bonzo was his nickname.
00:04:04
Speaker
We drove out from Utah, North Carolina, just the two of us in the car.
00:04:09
Speaker
We had a super long ride, obviously, like 30 hours or something like that.
00:04:16
Speaker
But in this ride, I got an Audible book.
00:04:21
Speaker
I think it was Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Cell.
00:04:25
Speaker
And this is like, I think it was like a 20-hour, 25-hour book, something like that.
00:04:30
Speaker
So what I did, I'm like, all right, Bonds.
00:04:33
Speaker
I'm going to listen to this book the whole way out there.
00:04:37
Speaker
Might as well get better at sales while we're driving.
00:04:40
Speaker
And when we get out there, we're going to be like sales pros.
00:04:43
Speaker
We're going to sell so much pest control.
00:04:45
Speaker
We're going to be, you know, the best in the industry, even though there's only like three of us out there.
00:04:50
Speaker
Just my buddy started a pest control company.
00:04:54
Speaker
But I'm thinking, all right, it's a small company.
00:04:56
Speaker
It's a startup that my buddy started.
00:04:58
Speaker
So we got to have some type of training.
00:05:00
Speaker
Zig Ziglar, he's going to train us, even if no one else can.
00:05:04
Speaker
So we get on this ride, we're switching off driving, and every time I drove, I would turn on this Zig Ziglar, Secrets of Closing the Sale.
00:05:13
Speaker
And good book, good book.
00:05:15
Speaker
Obviously an older book, Zig Ziglar, passed away a while back now.
Using Commute Time for Personal Development
00:05:21
Speaker
But we listened to this book for so long.
00:05:23
Speaker
Zig Ziglar's just talking in his southern accent he has.
00:05:28
Speaker
And we get going, and my buddy Bonzo, he eventually gets to the point where he goes, Taylor, if I have to listen to Zig talk one more time, I'm literally going to rip my hair out.
00:05:38
Speaker
I can't go any longer.
00:05:39
Speaker
So if you want to make it on this ride, we're not listening to Zig anymore.
00:05:44
Speaker
This was probably like 15 hours into the book.
00:05:46
Speaker
So...
00:05:48
Speaker
That's my story on Zig Ziglar.
00:05:50
Speaker
We listened to this guy for so long.
00:05:52
Speaker
My buddy wanted to blow his brains out.
00:05:55
Speaker
And we learned some good stuff.
00:05:58
Speaker
But, yeah, it can get to be long if you listen to Zig Ziglar for 20 hours straight.
00:06:04
Speaker
But the point of that is, are you using your commute time as learning opportunities?
00:06:12
Speaker
Are you really doing whatever it takes to learn every day, to improve, to be reading books, to be going through programs?
00:06:19
Speaker
If you're not doing that and you're not seeing the type of success that you want, then you've got to start to look and question and start to ask yourself why you aren't putting in the time to train every day.
00:06:32
Speaker
All the greats are doing it.
00:06:34
Speaker
Anyone you look at that's been great in any industry, sure, there's guys that have natural talent.
00:06:40
Speaker
But the very best are guys that have a little bit of natural talent and then are also training or also putting in the time or also putting in the effort.
00:06:49
Speaker
Right now I'm doing this, uh, knock star program.
00:06:52
Speaker
I think I talked about it in the previous episode.
00:06:55
Speaker
But my boy Danny Pesce, I know he suggests investing 10 to 20% of whatever you make back into personal development, back into training, back into mentors, back into something that can help you improve.
Exploring Sales Improvement through Improv
00:07:09
Speaker
So I thought that was a great tip.
00:07:11
Speaker
If you're not doing that, start doing it.
00:07:13
Speaker
Just take 10%.
00:07:14
Speaker
I mean, we're in solar.
00:07:15
Speaker
We should be making tons of money.
00:07:18
Speaker
So you want to be improving, take that money, invest it in the, you know, training programs books.
00:07:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:26
Speaker
But now I want to talk about this underground training program at the moment you probably all been waiting for.
00:07:33
Speaker
And this is actually something that's way cheaper than you would think too.
00:07:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:39
Speaker
So here's what I'm going to recommend.
00:07:42
Speaker
I actually read this in a book.
00:07:44
Speaker
It's called Sell It Like Sir Hunt.
00:07:47
Speaker
I think that's how you say his last name.
00:07:49
Speaker
But it's by Ryan Sir Hunt.
00:07:54
Speaker
He wrote this book.
00:07:55
Speaker
He's the guy that does the million-dollar listing.
00:07:57
Speaker
He sells real estate in New York.
00:07:59
Speaker
He's one of the top real estate brokers in the world is what he claims.
00:08:05
Speaker
Um, good book though.
00:08:06
Speaker
Definitely recommend it.
00:08:08
Speaker
But what he suggests in this book was actually something I hadn't really heard before.
00:08:13
Speaker
And his background is he is, he was actually trying to be an actor before he got into real estate.
00:08:19
Speaker
He was going, I think he was in all like the drama clubs, you know, the kids we all picked on in high school, gave wedgies and, you know, flush them down the toilet, all that.
00:08:29
Speaker
He was one of those kids.
00:08:30
Speaker
At least that's how he explains himself.
00:08:32
Speaker
And the reason he got into real estate was because he was making no money trying to get into acting in New York.
00:08:40
Speaker
So what does he do?
00:08:40
Speaker
He gets into real estate instead.
00:08:44
Speaker
And in this book, he talks about...
00:08:47
Speaker
really just his acting background and then his secret weapon that he goes on and on about in the book is an improv class so that's what this training program is i read this in the book i'm like what the heck improv class isn't that like my first thought was if any of you watched the office um michael scott he goes and takes improv classes and he's he's the guy he's pointing the air guns at people and
00:09:14
Speaker
pretending to shoot people and they're all like i don't know just like these weird people in this class acting out scenes that's what i thought in improv classes i'm like what why would that why how is that going to help me in sales what's the point of all that so i started digging deep into it i'm like all right well if this guy says it top real estate guy in the world supposedly maybe it's worth checking out
00:09:37
Speaker
So I do a little bit of research.
Benefits of Improv Classes for Sales Professionals
00:09:39
Speaker
I go do some Google searches on it.
00:09:41
Speaker
I'm in San Diego.
00:09:43
Speaker
And luckily, even during COVID, they had some improv classes.
00:09:48
Speaker
And I start reading some reviews.
00:09:49
Speaker
And there's like reviews of people that are entrepreneurs, business owners, salespeople.
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm like, huh, okay.
00:09:57
Speaker
I mean, this isn't just some geeky, nerdy acting drama class.
00:10:02
Speaker
There's actually entrepreneurs and people trying to improve their presentation skills that are taking these classes.
00:10:09
Speaker
I'm like, all right, well, it's worth a try.
00:10:11
Speaker
And then it was actually only like, I think 150 bucks or something for
00:10:18
Speaker
for maybe like seven classes.
00:10:21
Speaker
Nothing too bad.
00:10:22
Speaker
Maybe it's a little more.
00:10:24
Speaker
Might have been 300 actually.
00:10:26
Speaker
But nothing too bad, especially in solar, right?
00:10:29
Speaker
That's pocket change for hopefully all of us.
00:10:33
Speaker
Hopefully you're making 300 bucks at this point.
00:10:37
Speaker
So I decided to take this class and I was surprised.
00:10:42
Speaker
There are there actually a lot of principles that help a ton in cells.
00:10:48
Speaker
I went through level one, so I'm no expert.
00:10:50
Speaker
But when I got there, I was surprised to see it wasn't just people interested in like, I don't know, learning acting or learning to be funny.
00:10:59
Speaker
um the reviews were right it was entrepreneurs there were several people that were like business owners trying to improve their presentation skills and then fast forward i've actually heard from other you know sales people podcasters things like that that these improv classes are one of the best things they could have taken to improve their presentation skills
00:11:23
Speaker
So I took it and I did see an improvement in my results.
00:11:29
Speaker
I did see an improvement in my confidence.
00:11:31
Speaker
And the biggest thing, you're getting up in front of people.
00:11:35
Speaker
It's something that makes you uncomfortable, right?
00:11:38
Speaker
We've all heard do something uncomfortable every day.
00:11:40
Speaker
You should be doing it.
00:11:42
Speaker
But it's something once you get out of your comfort zone, you're going to make improvements.
00:11:48
Speaker
Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
00:11:50
Speaker
So if you put yourself out of your regular comfort zone, it's going to force you in uncomfortable situations.
00:11:56
Speaker
And what do we do in cells?
00:11:57
Speaker
We get in uncomfortable situations.
00:12:00
Speaker
It's not easy to ask for the cell.
00:12:02
Speaker
It's not easy to go door to door.
00:12:03
Speaker
It's not easy to go interrupt someone's day and, you know, annoy people out knocking on their door.
00:12:12
Speaker
That's what we're doing in improv.
00:12:13
Speaker
It's not easy to get up in front of people and act like a fool and act out these scenes.
00:12:21
Speaker
I felt super uncomfortable doing it.
00:12:23
Speaker
At first, I'm no actor.
00:12:26
Speaker
I consider myself a huge introvert.
00:12:29
Speaker
I have to work super hard to put myself out there to connect even in social settings.
00:12:37
Speaker
I have to like take breaks.
00:12:38
Speaker
I'm definitely not a person that can go to parties and then just want to keep it up, keep socializing.
00:12:43
Speaker
I have to go take breaks.
00:12:45
Speaker
So that's the point of these things, especially if you're an introvert like me, you need to be putting yourself in uncomfortable situations.
00:12:52
Speaker
And that's what this class did is it made it uncomfortable and you're up there, they're throwing out scenes, you have to act out.
00:12:59
Speaker
And of course this was level one, so I know it gets progressively harder, but yeah, it makes you think on your feet.
00:13:08
Speaker
It makes you just think on the spot.
00:13:11
Speaker
They say, okay, you're on the bus.
00:13:14
Speaker
Your wife just had a baby, and the guy next to you, he's 72 years old.
00:13:21
Speaker
They give you all these scenarios, and you have to basically put yourself in those scenarios and just think on your feet.
00:13:31
Speaker
Think, what are you going to say?
00:13:32
Speaker
What are you going to say?
00:13:32
Speaker
You don't know what your partner is going to say, and then you have to go off, play off of what they're saying.
00:13:37
Speaker
So basically the same thing we do as we're knocking doors.
00:13:40
Speaker
If you're knocking doors, you have a pitch.
00:13:42
Speaker
People are saying things.
00:13:43
Speaker
People are not going to let you just say your pitch word for word and then say, all right, where do I sign?
00:13:48
Speaker
They're throwing out objections.
00:13:51
Speaker
They're throwing out distractions.
00:13:53
Speaker
They're throwing out different scenario.
00:13:55
Speaker
They're throwing out that they just had a baby, whatever.
00:13:57
Speaker
There's a million different things that can happen on the doors.
00:14:00
Speaker
And even when you're in the house, you never know what's going to happen.
00:14:02
Speaker
So that's the same thing you're doing in these classes.
00:14:05
Speaker
You're training yourself for those situations and you're making it uncomfortable.
00:14:10
Speaker
Like Grant Cardone says, if you lift, if you're trying to lift 300 pounds, then you should train to lift 400 pounds.
00:14:18
Speaker
That way on competition day, 300 pounds will seem easy, right?
00:14:21
Speaker
It's the same thing where you're doing with this training.
00:14:24
Speaker
You're making it seem easy in the presentation.
00:14:26
Speaker
You're making it seem easier as you're knocking doors.
00:14:30
Speaker
So I'm not going to get super detailed into, you know, there's a ton of exercises they ever go through.
00:14:37
Speaker
You go in my class, there's, I think, about 10 people.
00:14:42
Speaker
You're interacting with each other.
00:14:43
Speaker
They were like two-hour classes, so they weren't short classes.
00:14:47
Speaker
But if you're looking for something unique, unique training, and again, it's inexpensive, it's not an expensive program, I want to suggest that you go out and take an improv class.
Encouraging Improv for Growth
00:14:58
Speaker
There might not be any in your area.
00:15:01
Speaker
I'm in San Diego, so there was.
00:15:03
Speaker
But the point of all this is look for things that can make you uncomfortable.
00:15:08
Speaker
Look for these types of classes.
00:15:10
Speaker
I think they're in pretty much any major cities.
00:15:13
Speaker
I'm sure a lot of universities have them.
00:15:16
Speaker
But do them.
00:15:16
Speaker
And then a lot of people, again, Danny Pesce, the guy from Knockstar, the program, he's one of the top alarm guys.
00:15:24
Speaker
Guess what?
00:15:25
Speaker
One of his secrets was improv.
00:15:27
Speaker
He takes improv classes, and he's a super funny guy.
00:15:31
Speaker
So go try it.
00:15:32
Speaker
Don't knock it before you try it.
00:15:34
Speaker
Pun intended.
00:15:36
Speaker
But go out and try it.
00:15:37
Speaker
It's a secret weapon.
00:15:38
Speaker
It's something that helped me really just feel way more comfortable in my presentation and feel more comfortable on the doors.
00:15:47
Speaker
And it's something that you're going to be uncomfortable with.
00:15:49
Speaker
It's going to help you improve.
00:15:51
Speaker
So that's my rant.
00:15:54
Speaker
Well, not really a rant, but that is my tip.
00:15:55
Speaker
Go out and take an improv course.
00:15:58
Speaker
See what it does.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'd love to hear your feedback.
00:16:00
Speaker
If you actually go take one, let me know what you thought.
00:16:02
Speaker
Did it actually help you?
00:16:05
Speaker
It's not going to make it worse, but it will help 100%.
00:16:09
Speaker
Go out and take it.
00:16:10
Speaker
Let me know what you think.
00:16:12
Speaker
And we'll catch you on the next episode.
00:16:15
Speaker
Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
00:16:17
Speaker
What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
Announcement of Sol Society Learning Community
00:16:26
Speaker
For the last three years I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals
00:16:32
Speaker
and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:16:38
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
00:16:49
Speaker
And it's called Sol Society.
00:16:51
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it?
00:17:06
Speaker
Less than $3.45 a day.
00:17:10
Speaker
Currently Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only.
00:17:14
Speaker
But solopreneurs can go to soulciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
00:17:23
Speaker
Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
00:17:36
Speaker
Thanks again for listening.
00:17:37
Speaker
We'll catch you again in the next episode.