Transcript
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: What's going on, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: We're back for another episode.
Speaker: Taylor here, and today I'm here with the one, the only, the George Washington of solar lead generation, founder of Solar Cheat Code, Bill Murphy.
Speaker: So thanks for coming on the show, Bill.
Speaker: George Washington?
Speaker: Does that mean I'm old?
Speaker: I got fucking wooden teeth or something?
Speaker: Okay, someday.
Speaker: Someday you'll be on the Mount Rushmore of solar lead generation.
Speaker: What about like Michael Jordan or something?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We can do that too.
Speaker: But yeah, Bill here, he is, I mean, he's been up on our faces.
Speaker: I'm sure everyone in the solar industry hopefully has heard of you, Bill, because I know I definitely have.
Speaker: I see you every day, probably 20 times on my Facebook feed.
Speaker: So thanks for, thanks for hitting us up and putting yourself out there.
Speaker: I think you've been a game changer in the industry, man.
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
Speaker: Happy to be here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Bill, here we got about 25 minutes.
Speaker: We're going to pick Bill's brain today and see what he can tell us.
Speaker: He's got a lot of tips, strategies to share with us.
Speaker: We're barely going to scratch the surface here.
Speaker: But Bill, let's hear just a little bit of your background.
Speaker: How did you get into this?
Speaker: Well, first of all, the solar industry and then just where you are today with all this digital marketing and online lead generation stuff you're doing.
Speaker: So I've been in solar power since 2013 and I was in Gold Gym before, right?
Speaker: So I sold gym memberships and it was okay.
Speaker: I had just gotten out of college.
Speaker: But I was referred to a very, very small solar company in New Hampshire, where I'm from, by a guy who I knew.
Speaker: He was like, hey, this company is looking for a sales manager.
Speaker: I know you're looking for a change.
Speaker: So I interviewed there, and I'll never forget it because it was November 1st where they hired me, right?
Speaker: Like my first day was November 1st.
Speaker: And we were going into winter months, obviously, in New Hampshire.
Speaker: And on November 30th, the manager who had hired me took me
Speaker: all the installers and left the company and formed a competing business, leaving me as the only employee, right?
Speaker: So I viewed at the time because I had left a six figure job.
Speaker: I just had my first kid to try the solar thing.
Speaker: And all of a sudden this happens.
Speaker: And, but I viewed it as an opportunity, right?
Speaker: So I was able to,
Speaker: to stay on with the guy who still owned the company.
Speaker: He took off for like two months.
Speaker: Like I didn't even talk to him over the winter because he was just so distraught as to what happened.
Speaker: And when he came back, I think I had sold like 13 jobs or something like that or 14 jobs with no training in the middle of winter in New Hampshire.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And from like from that, he got back in February that same year, like 2014,
Speaker: We did eight, I think we did like eight and a half million dollars right in our first 12 months.
Speaker: So at that point it was like, okay, this is the industry that I should really be a part of.
Speaker: I was able to be an owner of that company.
Speaker: We did very, very well.
Speaker: We ended up selling that company to Sunrun at the time because we were doing all of their fulfillment.
Speaker: Like I was doing all of their leasing.
Speaker: They just moved into New England.
Speaker: We're doing all our installs in New Hampshire.
Speaker: in massachusetts and they just scooped us up bought us and um at the time uh you know my wife is from houston so we had this opportunity you know i had all this money that we we had made and we were able to move down to houston and i figured well maybe in texas we could install year-round we wouldn't have to worry about you know slowing down in the winter months yeah uh that's what brought me down here in um
Speaker: The digital marketing thing is really out of necessity.
Speaker: I was buying $50,000 a month of leads from clean energy experts and solar reviews or modernized leads just like everybody else.
Speaker: It was okay.
Speaker: The problem was the things that the homeowners would say to you when you contacted them, right?
Speaker: They'd be like, well, the ad said
Speaker: because I'm a veteran, I don't pay for solar power or, you know, the ad said that solar power is free or all this, this stuff.
Speaker: And I basically educated myself on how to duplicate their landing pages.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: And I began writing my own ads and the ads that we wrote were like, we're salespeople, you know, so we were writing ads that,
Speaker: you know, homeowners would resonate with and wouldn't mismanage their expectations, right?
Speaker: We wouldn't position solar power as this free thing or we wouldn't pitch vacation vouchers just for having somebody out there.
Speaker: Digital marketers don't really know how to sell solar power in digital marketing because they've never sold solar power before.
Speaker: And that makes sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so anyway, it became so successful.
Speaker: We went from like 30 installs a month to over 200 installs a month in less than two years.
Speaker: And we, yeah, it's been bad-ass.
Speaker: So we, we moved away from doing our own sales and now we provide fulfillment services, 50 different solar companies throughout a few different States.
Speaker: And we stopped doing our own sales because of that.
Speaker: So these, these lead funnels and the app, these advertisements that I had created and made millions on, we weren't using.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So the solar Chica was really just a,
Speaker: a repurposing of those things so that I could actually teach other solar businesses, um, how to essentially do the same thing that we've done here in Texas.
Speaker: And, um, man, it's been a, it's been a big hit.
Speaker: Like the first month we signed up like 30 companies.
Speaker: Um, now we're over 250.
Speaker: Uh, we're in like six countries.
Speaker: Uh, you know, we've been featured on entrepreneur.com and,
Speaker: I've been on Brad Lee's podcast which I don't know if you he's like Grant Cardone's best friend yeah you know so it's like what's that incredible man Brad Lee's heavy hitter definitely got the attention he's the character that dude he's a character but he's a high-level performer you know so you gotta have a big personality I think but um yeah
Speaker: You know, really like the difference with us is we have like this massive track record of people getting huge results, you know, and we just, it's all visible for everybody on social media.
Speaker: So that's usually the X factor as why people end up joining us.
Speaker: And usually what they do is they'll, we're not the least expensive by any means.
Speaker: We're actually probably the most expensive, but what happens is people join other programs and
Speaker: you know, and then they, then they join us after they've joined other programs.
Speaker: It's usually, usually takes about 90 days for someone to be aware of me.
Speaker: Then to actually convert into a solar cheat code member about three months, you know, it's a natural progression upward, you know?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what's really amazing to me is, um, it's been a
Speaker: And incredible.
Speaker: And all the groups we're in, I mean, everywhere on Facebook, solar groups, anytime someone posts anything about solar lead generation, you get like probably 20 people right away, just tagging Bill Murphy in it.
Speaker: Bill Murphy, Bill Murphy, Bill Murphy.
Speaker: And I'm like, what has this guy done?
Speaker: He's converted these guys into like raving fans that they're just, he doesn't even have to launch ads anymore.
Speaker: He has like 50 people just advertising for him for free on Facebook.
Speaker: So results, I mean, to have those kind of testimonials and results you've gotten for people definitely speaks for itself.
Speaker: And I know you've gotten killer results for people.
Speaker: No doubt about that.
Speaker: But Bill, what's some of the, I guess, what's different from what you do compared to all these other marketing agencies?
Speaker: Because you got, there's dozens of companies trying to do solar lead gen.
Speaker: So what do you think it is that's setting you apart?
Speaker: That's giving you all this success with people?
Speaker: So I think the best way to describe it is to tell you the story about the Wright brothers who designed the first airplane.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I mean, essentially these two brothers beat the U.S. government
Speaker: in terms of creating something that would fly.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So during that time, everyone was obsessed with the engine, right?
Speaker: Like who could get the biggest, baddest engine to make this thing go up in the air.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the Wright brothers took a different approach.
Speaker: They built a glider that flew without any engine first.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And once they were successful with that, they were able to pair it with something that was like an engine to make it actually propel.
Speaker: So it's the same thing with digital marketing and solar lead generation.
Speaker: Everybody's obsessed with the new shiny object, the new click funnels, the new widget, the new landing page, the new automation sequence, the new follow up this text that chat bots.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But the problem is, is those are all engines.
Speaker: right?
Speaker: They're just tools.
Speaker: That's not the hard part.
Speaker: The hard part is getting people to land on those things, right?
Speaker: So the difference with us is we give you the right message and the right targeting to give your landing pages and your automation systems wings to grow, right?
Speaker: So that's really what we focus on is we focus on the salesmanship and the targeting of
Speaker: of getting in front of the right people at the right time when everyone else is focused on landing pages and chatbots and those type of things.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So is your business, Solar Cheat Code, you're teaching the people how to implement your system in their specific markets, right?
Speaker: Are you building it out for them or is it just you teaching it to them?
Speaker: We're teaching it.
Speaker: Yeah, I call it done with you, right?
Speaker: So I will essentially hold your hand via screen share like we're doing here.
Speaker: Um, the reason that is, is we tried to do the whole done for you thing, but it's like every time I would add a client where I built everything for them, yes, I would receive money, you know, but I would also lose my time.
Speaker: So it was like this never ending cycle.
Speaker: So it's like every time I grew, I would have less time, which really resulted in poor results for everyone else.
Speaker: So, you know, instead to have like a group session or an online training platform,
Speaker: Every time I add somebody, I get money, but I don't sacrifice my time.
Speaker: So I can actually dedicate more of my time into improving the product, which results in better, better stuff for you guys, you know?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So what are some of the tools you're using?
Speaker: I mean, everyone talks about click funnels, Facebook ads, um, and I know everyone's doing similar things, but when you first get a client, what do you have them set up?
Speaker: And I guess what ads do you start pushing right off the get go to get these people leads?
Speaker: Um, well really it's like we look at whatever market we're in, right?
Speaker: And we, and we look at whatever incentives are available in that market and we craft
Speaker: customized messages to wherever we're dropping our campaign, you know, so everything from the image to the ad copy to the landing page is speaking intimately to people in that particular market, right?
Speaker: Because Facebook is so loud and there's so many, you know, videos and music and gifs and memes and all these, all these things you have to get someone to stop scrolling.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: in like millisecond, right?
Speaker: So they have to be able to see something that they're like, oh, that's for me.
Speaker: We don't run ads that are like Texas offers new solar program.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like that's just too broad of a net.
Speaker: We go a little bit more mineral with our targeting.
Speaker: So that's why people tend to resonate.
Speaker: because they believe it's customized to them.
Speaker: They think, okay, this is for me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, so you cut out there for a second, but so it's just a specific ads.
Speaker: And I know last time we talked, you were targeting specific communities.
Speaker: So is that still kind of your thing?
Speaker: You target these specific communities and make ads even just for, just for that, like HOAs, communities, things like that.
Speaker: That's still kind of your process.
Speaker: That's one type of,
Speaker: That's one type of funnel.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Well, one thing I've noticed, Bill, is the company I work for, and I know several companies, it's like they try out this digital marketing thing.
Speaker: They have a little bit of results, and then the results start dying down.
Speaker: Maybe, you know, ads start decaying, stuff like that.
Speaker: So what's kind of your strategies to keep this from happening?
Speaker: Everyone gets the ad decay, but what do you suggest for companies to get them results for, like, years at a time versus just, like...
Speaker: maybe a month or two, which is what I've seen over and over.
Speaker: What you're referring to is companies not understanding how the Facebook algorithm works.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I'll try to do it visually with my hands because I'm on my whiteboard.
Speaker: It's at my office.
Speaker: But most companies will set up an ad with an audience, an image,
Speaker: in an angle, like a hook, right?
Speaker: Say you target 100,000 people.
Speaker: So you got this big box of 100,000 people.
Speaker: Facebook looks at who interacts with that post the first day, right?
Speaker: And then it optimizes down to a smaller group of people.
Speaker: And then the next day, it optimizes to a smaller group of people, right?
Speaker: All of a sudden, day four and five, it's like you're pushing a watermelon through a straw, right?
Speaker: That's why so many people's ads work for like four or five days and then they go back to the drawing board and they try to swap out an image or swap out a headline or try a different audience.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, in our program, we teach you how to structure the campaign to where you can actually have an ad run for one to two years without ever slowing down.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because we give the Facebook algorithm what it needs to optimize.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I didn't even I this is totally different from even when I started with, you know, this is like this is part of the reinvestment that we do.
Speaker: We learn new things.
Speaker: We we, you know, get in the room with people who are much, much more successful than we are all the time so that we can provide the latest and the greatest to our members in the program.
Speaker: Yeah, sounds too good to be true, man.
Speaker: But no, I know you're getting the results.
Speaker: Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker: So tell me about, I know you've just off the camera before this, we talked about how you've invested yourself, probably hundreds of thousands into learning these processes and optimizing them for all the people that are part of your program.
Speaker: What are some of the ways that you've been able to learn
Speaker: everything that you've gotten, um, I guess where you've gotten to today, how did you first get into all this digital marketing and learn all this stuff?
Speaker: Uh, well, um, I bought, um, I bought Ryan Steumann's break free Academy.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Digital, uh, back in 2015 when he was first started it.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: it didn't work for me at all.
Speaker: It was more geared towards real estate agents and loan officers and stuff like that.
Speaker: Solar power is a bit of a nuance.
Speaker: He turned me on to the whole idea of digital marketing on Facebook and Instagram and whatever else.
Speaker: I basically had to figure out exactly how to get these things.
Speaker: Really what we do is we find
Speaker: solar ads run by big companies, we copy their landing pages, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The engine is the engine.
Speaker: It's a dime a dozen, right?
Speaker: Landing pages are landing pages.
Speaker: They're all effective.
Speaker: The difference is really just how you drive people to it and how you get a message together that will make people take action.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, awesome.
Speaker: So I know we're short on time here, Bill, but the last thing I wanted to ask you about with the leads and the ads and everything, part of what I see other reps and companies struggle with is they get these leads coming in, but then what do they do with the leads once they come in?
Speaker: And how do you nurture these people?
Speaker: I mean, I know not everyone's picking up the phone.
Speaker: So what's your process for getting these leads to actually convert into sales and
Speaker: actually be able to follow up effectively with them and get an answer to phone and everything like that.
Speaker: Uh, well, um, the biggest key, you know, and if you watch my videos, uh, this, you'll, you know, you'll see this, but, um, the biggest key to lead management is speed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, our attention spans are very, very small.
Speaker: And if you're not reaching out to this person within the first five minutes, statistically speaking,
Speaker: your chances of contacting them drop off a cliff.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, so furthermore, nobody answers phone calls from numbers they don't recognize.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So the biggest tweak that people can do when contacting the lead is sending a text message first.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: 98% of text messages get read.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: 90% of phone calls don't get answered.
Speaker: Think about that.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's huge.
Speaker: The complete opposite, right?
Speaker: And with these text messages, you know, all you're saying is, hi, this is, or hi, Jim, it's Taylor.
Speaker: I got your message.
Speaker: I'm about to call you.
Speaker: Please answer.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's all you're trying to do is pair the phone number with who you are and you're telling them your phone's about to ring.
Speaker: Please answer.
Speaker: Because, you know, all you're trying to do is solicit a response.
Speaker: If somebody texts you back, okay, then fantastic.
Speaker: If somebody texts you back, no, no, I'm busy.
Speaker: I'm at work.
Speaker: Don't call me.
Speaker: You've already won.
Speaker: You're in communication.
Speaker: You just have to figure out a time where it's convenient for both of you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I wish someone would have told me this when I first started running ad, Ben.
Speaker: I think I would have gotten double or triple their results.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: But that's the beauty of investing in people like you and programs because, I mean, it just cuts the learning curve in half, I think.
Speaker: I could have been making a thousand dollars.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The hack to success is finding someone who is where you want to be and then paying them for a result.
Speaker: That's all it is, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's the same thing with college.
Speaker: Like you're paying professors to teach you stuff.
Speaker: So why not invest in mentors?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: So for our solopreneurs, if you are afraid of investing in yourselves, then just keep that in mind.
Speaker: If you're trying to figure stuff like this, you can pay guys like Bill or other people with that on the show that will cut the time in half.
Speaker: Or you can try and figure out yourself.
Speaker: Stuff like listening to the podcast will help.
Speaker: But just consider investing in these guys because they're really going to cut the time down.
Speaker: I know I wouldn't know anything about this if I hadn't invested a significant amount.
Speaker: Still got a long ways to go.
Speaker: But Bill, it's incredible what you've done.
Speaker: And thanks for giving us some little tips here.
Speaker: I know we don't have too much more time, but I wanted to talk about your event you got coming up.
Speaker: Speaking of ads, I've been seeing a huge mention on my Facebook feed every day about this event.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So what is this event you got going on?
Speaker: Give us a little.
Speaker: This event is basically a live,
Speaker: solar cheat code program, right?
Speaker: Instead of teaching it yourself, watching my videos, you can have everyone in the room together to build it all at once, right?
Speaker: So, you know, really when you leave this event, you're going to have systems already in place that are delivering results, right?
Speaker: In addition to
Speaker: some key speakers.
Speaker: Um, you know, we have John Paramore who is like this recruiting rockstar for contracting businesses.
Speaker: Um, you know, we have my president of sales, Johnny Ringgold, who's going to be really covering how companies, right.
Speaker: Companies need to be building their brand on social media and some real, real easy ways to become the most well-known solar company in their market without spending anything on Facebook.
Speaker: It's going to be
Speaker: game changing.
Speaker: Furthermore, we're going to be covering some new marketing techniques that not even the solar cheat code members have access to yet.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So this is, this is stuff that, um, you know, Facebook experts don't even know.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So it's going to be a massive, massive over delivering of, of expectations for this two day event, but it's in this beautiful mansion.
Speaker: It's like 8,500 square feet.
Speaker: There's a basketball court.
Speaker: There's a soccer field.
Speaker: There's, um,
Speaker: you know, a mountainside water slide that goes down into a pool.
Speaker: You know, we have live entertainment.
Speaker: We got a party going on Friday night that's fully catered with bartenders, the whole thing.
Speaker: You know, so it's going to be work during the day, you know, work hard, play hard scenario, you know?
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And this is your house, right, Bill?
Speaker: From all the money you've been raking out, isn't this your mansion?
Speaker: This is not my house.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Wouldn't that be awesome if that was my house?
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: If everybody signs up and goes to the event, maybe I'll buy the house.
Speaker: All right, sweet.
Speaker: It's making an annual thing with all the money.
Speaker: That's cool, though.
Speaker: If everyone thinks that's my house, that's pretty sweet.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah, it looks like an awesome event, and I'm seeing this mansion.
Speaker: I want to go just to stay in that mansion, aside from all the stuff we're going to learn.
Speaker: This event will be talked about for...
Speaker: months and months afterwards.
Speaker: It's going to be really cool.
Speaker: And we hope that we only have 50 seats and there's been, again, there's been 12 or 13 people who have joined.
Speaker: So don't procrastinate, make sure that you get the tickets as soon as possible because I actually can't fit more people.
Speaker: It's just a limit.
Speaker: It's a limit that we have.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I know we barely scratched the surface here, Bill, but hopefully people will take advantage of what you're offering.
Speaker: And I know that's the quickest shortcut, I think, is going to that event and then just learning from masters like yourself.
Speaker: So we appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker: And any final tips for guys that are getting into this?
Speaker: What would you say is the number one difference from...
Speaker: guys that are successful in your program versus the guys that don't have the results.
Speaker: I'm sure you get guys that don't implement as well as others, but what's the biggest difference would you say?
Speaker: So really the biggest difference in my opinion is your ability to continuously step outside of your comfort zone.
Speaker: And that could be a number of different things.
Speaker: Whenever you,
Speaker: really seek out the things that make you uncomfortable and maybe scare you a little bit, the universe rewards you, right?
Speaker: Things start to happen.
Speaker: Like you start to level up in your business and your life.
Speaker: It's just so many people are used to a routine, you know, and they, they go to the same office, they mingle with the same people, they stop at the same coffee shop.
Speaker: They eat the same thing for lunch and routines keep you in the same exact spot that you're in.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So,
Speaker: taking the leap of faith, investing in yourself, doing things that are uncomfortable.
Speaker: Those are the types of things that like literally things start to fall in place and reward you for doing that.
Speaker: You know, so just make sure that you guys understand that there is, there is something called the force of average, right?
Speaker: And whenever you try to level up in your life, usually things start to come and try to make it difficult for you to do exactly what you're doing.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: instead of thinking, what was me, the sky is falling, I can't do this.
Speaker: You just have to recognize that it's, it's literally the universe trying to keep you mediocre, right?
Speaker: So you have to constantly push back against that force so that you can get to that next level, break through to that next level, you know?
Speaker: And that's really it, man.
Speaker: I mean, again, it's, it's, it's seeking out people who are, um,
Speaker: where you want to be and it's paying them to help get you there.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So yeah, for solopreneurs, if you're scared of investing the money, then go and do that thing that scares you.
Speaker: Maybe it's that.
Speaker: Maybe it's skydiving.
Speaker: Who knows?
Speaker: But go do that thing that scares you.
Speaker: And I think that is going to be a game changer.
Speaker: I know it helps everyone out in their lives.
Speaker: So Bill, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: And we look forward to the big things you're doing and also continue to see your ads.
Speaker: I always look forward to the new ad that pop up.
Speaker: You get to see your bearded face there.
Speaker: So I appreciate everything you're doing.
Speaker: And thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: Hey, thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Appreciate you, brother.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll talk soon.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur Movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
Speaker: And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the Solarpreneur Group for more daily content on
Speaker: It's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
