Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Speaker: I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one. Hey, what's going on, Sorpreneurs? Today we're to talking about how to find easy deals. We always want the lay down deals. We always want the least resistance possible, but how do we actually find those deals? So we're going to be talking about that and a whole lot more today. Thank you for tuning in the podcast. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more el leads and referrals.
Speaker: and have a much better time in the solar industry. I'm coming back from ah Lake Powell from a little sales trip we had with our team. So i'll apologize if I sound a little bit out of it. Got back late last night and we were on a houseboat. Super awesome place if you haven't been there. Utah, Arizona, the border and some of the best, I would say, like sales incentives you could run to do a trip with your team. Had great camaraderie there.
Speaker: Amazing scenery, going out ah boating, wake surfing, wakeboarding, going out on wave runners. So check it out if you're looking for an awesome team incentive.
Speaker: But ah we are back at it. Going to be out going on the doors soon myself here, running a few appointments, knocking some doors later this afternoon. And I got thinking about one of my favorite books in door-to-door sales. You recently heard him on the podcast. His name is Lenny Gray. If you haven't heard his podcast from a couple weeks back, go check it out. We had him on for the second time on the Soulpreneur podcast here. But ah one of the biggest takeaways I got from his book, this his second book, it's called More Door-to-Door Millionaire.
Speaker: And he talks about this concept of off the beat off the beaten path knocking. We've mentioned it on the show before. It is my favorite way to go out and knock doors, especially as a more experienced rep. But I'm going to review just this section here. we've We've released a few podcasts on it. But ah as I was thinking about this, there's a new app, a new way of off the beaten path knocking that I'm particularly excited about. going to have to wait till the end to hear what this new strategy is.
Speaker: okay But just to review this concept and then review a couple of the ways i like knocking to find easier deals. We're going to review some of it and then we're going to talk about a few newer ideas that I'm going to be experimenting with that I think are going to be working great. okay So if you have the book, you can check this out, but it's on page 114. He talks about off the beaten path. And so I'm going to read just this section here and um you can buy the book if you haven't. Go support our friend Lenny. But he says, several several years ago, while knocking doors in a cookie cutter neighborhood with one of my rookie sales reps, we quickly found out that there had been as many as three other sales reps from different companies knocking that neighborhood within the last 24 hours.
Speaker: For over an hour, we didn't finish one initial approach without getting cut off and rejected. I could tell my sales rep was getting frustrated, so I suggested we walk to the main road leading into the heavily knocked neighborhood and knock on the doors of the handful of...
Speaker: homes along the highway. We almost sold the first person we talked with and he gave no indication that anybody else had knocked on his door recently. Even though he didn't buy, the fact that he hadn't been blitzed by several other sales reps gave us hope for his four other neighbors along the highway. After selling the next two houses, I left the sales rep so he could finish knocking the last home on his own.
Speaker: Then 15 minutes, he texted me letting me know he had made another sale. This experience spawned the off-the-beaten-path strategy. The tactic is to simply knock doors that have likely been ignored by other door-to-door sales reps. Although homes off the beaten path don't generally come in bunches, they do offer the opportunity to talk with people who are approached less frequently. This can be a welcome relief from knocking on the doors of potential customers who have been targeted consistently by their sales reps.
Speaker: This strategy is a quality over quantity play. Although sales reps will likely decrease their contacts per hour by knocking off the beaten path, They will likely increase the amount of people they qualify and of course potential customers who qualify are more likely to purchase what is being sold. Off the beaten path homes can be found along major roads and highways built on large lots or even homes in the middle of farmlands.
Speaker: Wherever you find them, homes off the beaten path are likely to be occupied by prospects who are more willing to listen because they haven't had sales reps constantly knocking on their doors as is the case in cookie cutter neighborhoods.
Speaker: So there you have it. That's the strategy. And the reason I love this so much is because, you know, I'm in San Diego, one of the so-called most saturated solar markets in the country, right? This market has been knocked for over a decade now by people trying to sell solar.
Speaker: And so the best way I found longevity in this market is by thinking, okay, where are areas that haven't been drilled by as many sales reps? There's going to be deals wherever you go, but especially as I'm out searching for my own deals, I'm looking for the path of least resistance.
Speaker: Hey, and quick disclaimer, if you are a new sales rep, I do believe that you should go out and knock regular doors. you should learn how to overcome the objections because if you're a new rep listing this, you don't even know you know your presentation, you're not confident overcoming objections.
Speaker: then none of this matters. You're going to burn doors that are maybe softer that haven't been talked to as much just because you haven't put in the reps and you haven't gone through the drills to master your presentation.
Speaker: So make sure you've really ah put in the time to master the skill of knocking doors. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called SolarScout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later 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. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need give my listeners a great deal. 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. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show. But ah once you've got your bearings under you, Here's some particular off the beaten path areas that I have used that work extremely well.
Speaker: So I'm just going go through a few of them. So the first one, many of you know, I'm big on ah the Spanish speakers out here in around San Diego. We have a lot of people, a lot of Hispanics, a lot of Mexican families. My favorite app, you guys have heard it, SolarScout.com.
Speaker: and I trust them. I use this app to help me target off the beaten path areas. And one of the ways they do it, they show the filters and you can go to areas like this. You can target different ethnicities, different languages.
Speaker: And ah it's been a huge help for us because the Spanish market, that's typically people that have not been talked to as much, depending on where you're at. right, so that's the first one. Second one, gated communities. This is great. Some people are scared to go in gated communities, but if you can find your way in a gated community, book an appointment in there, build some trust, you might open up an entire new dimension. you know, i always think of it One of my friends, Jack, he always calls it like Mario Worlds. You know, when you beat the next level, when you beat Bowser's Castle, it opens up a whole new world, right? And so if you can get in areas like this, all a sudden you've got access to a whole new world of people that maybe we haven't been talked to.
Speaker: So don't be afraid to go in the gated communities. Could be some easy deals in there. Number three, mobile home parks. And this is one, you know, it can be tricky to get these deals to the finish line.
Speaker: um At the time of this recording, there aren't a whole lot of options for mobile homes in California where I'm at, depending on if they own versus lethal land. Some of them have their own meter. Some of them have sub meters where they're basically paying the park for their electricity. And it's all kind of like a shared cost type thing.
Speaker: um I am getting access to a great option here in California if you are interested hit me up. But I do have some options for people that maybe don't have the ability to sell the mobile homes. So shoot me a DM if you are interested in that. Just Taylor J Armstrong on Instagram. or Taylor solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Be happy to hop on a call. But this is another one. People don't generally hit these mobile communities as much or just mobile homes. So another great little subcategory there. Okay, number four is condos and townhomes.
Speaker: And the thing I love most about condos and townhomes, you know, you heard Lenny mention in the book that's generally these off the beaten path areas. You're not going to have as many conversations because they're like more spread out. They're more niche. But with condos and townhomes, guess what? They're all packed together.
Speaker: So what I love about them is you can actually have more conversations knocking condos and townhomes than you would just knocking a regular neighborhood. And they're generally going to be less talked to.
Speaker: yeah Not always. Sometimes these do get hit hard out here in California. But ah generally, you're going to get more conversations in these areas. And the tradeoff is, and potentially with all of the tradeoff is you may be waiting longer for an install. Because if you think about it, gated neighborhoods, condos, townhomes, any mobile home park, they're going to have an HOA.
Speaker: the dreaded HOA and that does add some time, does add some complications. So keep that in mind whenever you're knocking these off the beat path, these more niche areas, you're typically going to trade. going to trade off potentially an easier sell with more time on the back end. It's just something to consider.
Speaker: Hey, and then a couple more before we get to the new one that I'm particularly excited about. You got spread out homes, rural rural areas. Lenny talked about this in the book, but if you can get in some of these small towns, they're lot of times much nicer people, first of all, in general. I love my my rural areas, nice people, but then i'll less talked to.
Speaker: And then the other subcategory that is duplexes. I do like duplexes. You know, sometimes they're hit just as often, but I do find that a lot of duplexes, they're more underserved. A lot of regular door knocking companies will skip the duplexes. Sometimes they can add complications with, you know, both their electric panels being shared.
Speaker: um you know, we had one where we tried to sell and they had to, in order for one owner to go solar, they had to do a panel upgrade. but to make it work we had to upgrade the panel of the neighbor too because they were like in a combined panel so just made it complicated we end up having to deque that one so just keep this in mind if you're needing quick money um you do have to look at that it's going to take longer for the install you know maybe you maybe you shouldn't hit more of these niche things are like new move-ins that's something we've talked about a lot on the show if you go to zillow
Speaker: or Scout, our friends over at Scout, you can target all these new move-ins. And these are homes with potentially ah way less obstacles, but they've probably been talked to less too.
Speaker: So don't sleep on the new move-ins. That's a great source of off the beaten path leads, potentially easier deals. Okay, and then the last one that I want to talk about today and shout out to my buddy, Rene.
Speaker: Hopefully he's not too mad at me but for sharing this on the show, but something I'm going to start experimenting with. people that have had a power outages or maybe they're like living near a fire, they got their power turned off. So I was introduced to this app just the other day.
Speaker: um It's called Watch Duty. But in this app, it shows you real time data of where power outages are happening. And so especially for us in California, we got to sell these deals with a battery anyways.
Speaker: So great little category to target because these people, they're literally in the middle of a power outage. If you come knocking their door or say, hey, I'm just following up on the power outage. how How long has it been out now?
Speaker: ah You got the ice broken instantly. Yeah, you're breaking their preoccupation and they're probably going to hear you out. You know, they're probably going to want at least listen if they're in the middle of a power outage.
Speaker: Yeah, you still got to, it's not going to be a lay down cell, but this is one that I'm excited to experiment with. This app called Watch Duty. We'll post a link in the show notes here, but check it out.
Speaker: Looks like it has data for pretty much everywhere, at least across the US. I'm pretty excited to try that out. So let me know what other forms of off the beat pathing path knocking you are doing, what you're doing to get your easy leads. I know some people are like sensitive about this stuff. They don't want to share where they're getting the easiest deals, but I'm all about abundance.
Speaker: Okay, just stay out of my ears, right? But I'm about abundance. I believe it's, you know, the more you put out in the universe, the more you're going to get back. Okay, so share this with someone. And that's what I expect you to do. If you're listening to show right now, be abundant. Go share this podcast with someone that's struggling. Let's all lift each other up. There's plenty of deals for everybody out there. I believe that there's no need to have this scarcity mindset where, oh, I can't tell people how I'm getting ah you know, easier deals.
Speaker: Hey, and it's one thing, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to tell everyone where I'm knocking this afternoon, right? Like, stay out of my areas. But I'm happy to share what's working for us, what's working for our teams. I'm an open book, and I believe that's helped me get more deals over time. And I think it will help you too. So please be abundant. Share this podcast with someone that's been struggling. Let me know any comments or ways you've been using to off the beaten path knock or get easier deals.
Speaker: Let's crush it this week and the rest of these summer months. We're about, I think, three weeks before daylight savings time, the time of this recording. So take advantage, get out there, get some deals this week, and we'll see you on the next episode.
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