Transcript
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs, and this is our story.
Speaker: Boom, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: I am currently in Utah, so before I start this episode, I want to preface it by saying I have some allergies out here.
Speaker: Utah is lots of dust and stuff getting kicked up in the air, so if you hear some sneezes, that's what's going on.
Speaker: It is the lockdown, so that's why I'm here.
Speaker: I'm doing some virtual selling.
Speaker: Well,
Speaker: hanging out with some family.
Speaker: So it's been a good time.
Speaker: I hope you guys are enjoying the lockdown.
Speaker: Hope you're able to use the extra time to spend it with family, but still be crushing it in your cells, closing virtually.
Speaker: If you haven't already, go and check out my episode on virtual closing, virtual selling.
Speaker: And hopefully we can get rolling on door knocking and
Speaker: Meeting in person, not being locked down.
Speaker: I'm in San Diego, so California is still kind of in lockdown a little bit, but looking forward to getting back at it.
Speaker: Starting to get some people who are willing to do in-person appointments.
Speaker: Anyways, before we jump into the episode, I wanted to just also read a couple of reviews we have gotten from the podcast.
Speaker: And we do all this content for free.
Speaker: We're coming up on almost 100 episodes.
Speaker: Can you believe that?
Speaker: Stay tuned.
Speaker: We're going to do some cool stuff for that century mark too, the 100th episode.
Speaker: But I wanted to read a couple of the reviews we've had.
Speaker: We got a Eric Solar King product.
Speaker: He says, major value add, great resource for anybody in the solar sales industry.
Speaker: Five stars.
Speaker: We got Chuck Gonzalez Jr. I really enjoy listening to this podcast and appreciate the value I receive by being a newly avid listener.
Speaker: Very informative.
Speaker: And then PD Longhouse.
Speaker: This podcast has been very helpful for me with understanding the mindset and different concepts for moving into the industry.
Speaker: Four stars, couple five stars.
Speaker: Appreciate the reviews, guys.
Speaker: And again, reach out to us if you have suggestions, if you have people you want to hear on the show.
Speaker: And we definitely are very grateful for the reviews we've gotten.
Speaker: And if you haven't given us a review, get on there.
Speaker: Come on, it's the least you can do, especially if you've been listening for more than a couple episodes.
Speaker: Have we charged you yet?
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: So go on and leave us a review, por favor, or please in English.
Speaker: So to jump into the episode, today I'm going to do an episode that probably has never been done on a sales podcast before.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: If you've heard of a podcast like this, send me a DM, shoot me a message.
Speaker: But this episode is going to be about Lightning McQueen.
Speaker: And if you're thinking, is it Lightning McQueen from that Disney movie?
Speaker: Yes, you're right.
Speaker: It's Lightning McQueen from Cars.
Speaker: I think I've talked about it, but we just had a kid.
Speaker: He is seven months old.
Speaker: He's starting to like Cars, stuff like that.
Speaker: And here in Utah, he's hanging out with his cousin.
Speaker: It's about a year and a half.
Speaker: So they probably watch Cars about 20 times.
Speaker: And I watched it a couple times with them.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: There is some content, some content of gold in this show that can be applied to cells.
Speaker: So go back and watch Cars if you haven't seen it.
Speaker: But I'm going to go through the biggest takeaways I had.
Speaker: I know it sounds crazy, but I'm going to tell you how this applies to your cells and what Lightning McQueen taught us in the movie Cars about cells.
Speaker: Who knew Lightning McQueen was in cells?
Speaker: I didn't think about it until I watched it again.
Speaker: The first time I saw cars, I was, I think in like fifth, maybe middle school, fifth grade, something like that.
Speaker: I think it came out in 2003.
Speaker: So I would have been like 11 years old, whatever grade that is.
Speaker: And we grew up in small town Utah, Kanab, Utah down in southern Utah.
Speaker: We had to drive like an hour to go see this movie when it came out.
Speaker: There was only one movie theater in my town.
Speaker: It didn't get movies usually until like a month after they'd been in other movie theaters.
Speaker: So I remember my grandma and grandpa were in town.
Speaker: We really wanted to go see this movie.
Speaker: So we literally drove an hour.
Speaker: to Hurricane, Utah, about an hour away to go see this movie, on a school night even.
Speaker: Pretty crazy.
Speaker: We went and saw the movie.
Speaker: I remember it was one of my favorite shows.
Speaker: Thought it was awesome.
Speaker: Lightning McQueen, I'm a big fanboy.
Speaker: But I wasn't really thinking sales back then.
Speaker: Now that I go and see this again,
Speaker: and especially doing the podcast, I'm like, huh, there is a lot of takeaways we can take from the movie.
Speaker: So I'm gonna go through them and I'm gonna play a few clips of what Lightning McQueen does, some do's and don'ts.
Speaker: There's some takeaways of stuff that he does awesome and there's some stuff that we can learn from.
Speaker: I'm gonna go through them and I'm gonna share three sales tips from what Lightning McQueen teaches us.
Speaker: So number one,
Speaker: You might remember the very beginning of the movie starts out with him basically daydreaming about his racing.
Speaker: And he's doing some talking to himself a little bit.
Speaker: So we're going to listen to what Lightning McQueen is saying to himself before he starts on the biggest race of his career.
Speaker: So if this clip will play.
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: Focus.
Speaker: Speed.
Speaker: I am speed.
Speaker: 42 losers.
Speaker: I eat losers for breakfast.
Speaker: Breakfast?
Speaker: Maybe I should have had breakfast.
Speaker: Oh, brekkie could be good for me.
Speaker: No, no, no, stay focused.
Speaker: Speed.
Speaker: Faster than fast, quicker than quick.
Speaker: I am lightning.
Speaker: Hey, lightning!
Speaker: You ready?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: There he goes.
Speaker: Get you stoked to check out the show, huh?
Speaker: So go back and watch it.
Speaker: But here's the takeaway from this.
Speaker: You notice what Lightning McQueen does before the race.
Speaker: He's not just daydreaming.
Speaker: Yeah, he gets a little distracted thinking about breakfast, which happens to me all the time, especially in morning appointments, the solar deals.
Speaker: But what he does, these are affirmations.
Speaker: So that's takeaway number one, is just like Lightning McQueen does before a race, we as salespeople in the solar industry, we need to be doing affirmations all the time to take our sales skills to the next level.
Speaker: If you haven't heard of affirmations, I'm going to read a quick definition from psychology today.
Speaker: tells us what an affirmation is.
Speaker: Affirmations are simply statements that are designed to create self-change in the individual using them.
Speaker: They can serve as inspiration as well as simple reminders.
Speaker: They also can serve to focus attention on goals
Speaker: throughout the day which in and of itself has the potential to promote positive and sustained self-change so if any of you are self-improvement junkies you should have heard of affirmations talks about them in think and grow rich by the great Napoleon Hill talks about them basically any self-improvement guru that you hear of Tony Robbins he's all about this they all talk about affirmations
Speaker: And the reason for it, they can literally change our state.
Speaker: They can change our being.
Speaker: They can change our mindset.
Speaker: They can change our emotion.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: If we want to change our lives, we need to change these states.
Speaker: We need to change emotions.
Speaker: Because thoughts lead to emotions.
Speaker: Emotions lead to change.
Speaker: Affirmations are a big part of this.
Speaker: So just like Lightning McQueen does, we need to have these affirmations written out.
Speaker: We need to be doing them every day.
Speaker: I've gotten a little lazy with it, but I used to do affirmations, just clockwork every morning, every night.
Speaker: I think it should be done that often.
Speaker: But if you're just starting out with this stuff, do some type of affirmation just like Lightning McQueen before your big race, which for us is before that big deal.
Speaker: If you've got a big system coming up, get some affirmations on paper.
Speaker: Make these a habit.
Speaker: Do it every time before you go into a big deal.
Speaker: So for me, it's I am the greatest salesman in the world.
Speaker: I can achieve greatness.
Speaker: I am relentless.
Speaker: I am confident.
Speaker: I am brave.
Speaker: I am strong.
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: Something in present tense, something that even if maybe you're not right now, you're saying this in present tense, and as you say these things, that's what you're going to become.
Speaker: I use these actually when I won for the first time, this was about two years ago, I was pretty new in the industry.
Speaker: But our company has a competition every six months called the Ironman competition.
Speaker: And it's basically a tournament, the winner gets the big trip.
Speaker: I think I've talked a little bit about it.
Speaker: But I think my biggest secret for winning that competition
Speaker: was affirmations.
Speaker: I was just pounding these affirmations.
Speaker: I was knocking six to eight hours a day usually, just trying to get leads like crazy.
Speaker: I was going to as many appointments as possible, but I don't think that was the difference.
Speaker: The difference was, as I was saying these affirmations, I was telling myself I was going to win, even though I knew I wasn't at the time.
Speaker: I definitely wasn't the most consistent salesperson on our team.
Speaker: There are people that are outselling me left and right outside of the competition.
Speaker: But by taking these affirmations, by just drilling that into my head that I can win, that I am the greatest, I'm the top rep in the company, that's what made the difference.
Speaker: I know it sounds a little bit like voodoo magic, but these things do change your life.
Speaker: They will change your state.
Speaker: So that's tip number one.
Speaker: That's the first thing that Lightning McQueen teaches us is always do affirmations.
Speaker: Okay, and the second thing he teaches us, let me see if I can go to the clip of it here.
Speaker: Getting close.
Speaker: The second thing is, if you remember the movie, and again, go back and watch this good stuff, even if you don't have kids, I know it's a little kid movie.
Speaker: He is, after the race, he's in talking to his sponsors, and his sponsors at the time, they're these sponsors,
Speaker: funny old cars they're all rusty they're called a rust ease it's basically this rust ointment that the old cars drum on themselves and you can tell he hates being with these guys he hates every part of men sponsoring him but obviously they're paying the big bucks they're sponsoring his races he's got the logo on his hood so he kinda has to put up with them here's what happens
Speaker: in the aftermath of the race, he goes to the tent and he has to speak to basically his crowd.
Speaker: His sponsors have him up on the stage and he has to speak to the people just endorsing the Rusty's ointment.
Speaker: So here's what happens.
Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, Lightning McQueen!
Speaker: You know, the Rusty's medicated bumper ointment team ran a great race today.
Speaker: And remember, with a little Rusty's and an insane amount of luck, you two can look like me.
Speaker: Ka-Cow!
Speaker: Oh, we love you, and we're looking forward to another great year, just like this year!
Speaker: There's clip number two.
Speaker: What does this have to do with sales?
Speaker: Here's the thing, if you couldn't tell, Lightning McQueen hates these guys being a sponsor.
Speaker: He has a terrible attitude and, well, if you listen to the audio, you're probably wondering why these people cheering for him, because he was pretty much a dick to all these people that are part of the Rusty's team.
Speaker: He has a terrible attitude, he doesn't smile the whole time, and he's pretty much a jerk.
Speaker: I don't even know why these people put up with him, but somehow they're all cheering still.
Speaker: So what does that have to do with cells?
Speaker: If you are not having a good attitude, if you're not smiling in your cells, you're literally shooting yourself in the foot.
Speaker: That's one of the biggest things I learned early on.
Speaker: I sold pest control with Aptiv.
Speaker: It was actually Altera at the time, but one of the biggest residential pest control companies.
Speaker: They had reps that did, you know, a thousand accounts.
Speaker: I think they're definitely the top selling pest control company.
Speaker: And one of the biggest things I learned in my time in doing pest control is just have that positive attitude and smile.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: How many people are not smiling in their cells?
Speaker: How many people are not smiling in their objections?
Speaker: Grant Cardone, if you've read his Closer Survival Guide, if you've listened to his stuff, he talks about it all the time too.
Speaker: Just having a good attitude.
Speaker: No matter what objection is thrown at you, no matter if the customer is screaming at you, no matter if you're knocking doors, getting rejected like crazy, smile, smile, smile, smile.
Speaker: That's been another huge key.
Speaker: and anytime I have had success, anytime I've gotten cells that I didn't think I would, is just having that good attitude, just smiling no matter what.
Speaker: And it's something that, for me, I actually got made fun of as a kid because people said I smiled too much.
Speaker: I don't know what it is.
Speaker: I think I was pretty insecure growing up as a teenager.
Speaker: I was definitely overweight, super chubby kid.
Speaker: And I would just try and smile 24-7.
Speaker: So kids would come at me.
Speaker: I was a band geek too.
Speaker: This band was pretty much my life back then.
Speaker: And people would be like, dude, why are you smiling all the time?
Speaker: What are you so happy about?
Speaker: get that smile off your face.
Speaker: I would get made fun of all the time just for smiling too much.
Speaker: And it was kind of embarrassing.
Speaker: I would actually like, I remember just going in my mirror in high school, and I would try to just talk without smiling just because I was so embarrassed that people said I smiled so much.
Speaker: So back then, it was, I thought it was an embarrassing thing.
Speaker: But I'll tell you what, now in cells, if you're not smiling constantly, you're
Speaker: My goal in every appointment I go to is to have my face just a little bit sore from smiling so much.
Speaker: So I just want to project positivity.
Speaker: People are going to buy from sales reps that they like.
Speaker: that they respect, that they make them feel good.
Speaker: So always go into every deal, have a smile on your face, and then no matter what, be positive.
Speaker: And you're going to get, trust me, so many deals that you wouldn't have.
Speaker: You just keep that positivity.
Speaker: So that's tip number two.
Speaker: Don't be like Lightning McQueen.
Speaker: I mean, he's got guys that are sponsoring him, so that was definitely a dick move.
Speaker: But especially in your deals, you've got to get the sell.
Speaker: You've got to bring that positivity.
Speaker: So that's tip number two from Lightning McQueen.
Speaker: Don't be like him.
Speaker: Always smile.
Speaker: Always have your good attitude.
Speaker: Okay, and the third takeaway
Speaker: from Lightning McQueen.
Speaker: This actually isn't Lightning McQueen himself, but what happens in the movie, if you don't remember, he is getting towed to California to do his next big race.
Speaker: They tied, so they have to redo their race, basically.
Speaker: He's trying to get there as quick as possible, but the semi-truck that's towing him
Speaker: Falls asleep.
Speaker: He falls out of the truck, basically, and ends up in a town called Radiator Springs, which kind of reminds me of the town I grew up in.
Speaker: Super tiny.
Speaker: Not much going on there.
Speaker: And in this town, he does some damage.
Speaker: So long story short, he has to stay.
Speaker: He has to repair stuff.
Speaker: He has to repair the road that he damaged before they'll let him leave.
Speaker: So he's pretty much locked up there.
Speaker: And what happens is while he's in the town repairing the road, of course he still has a terrible attitude at this point.
Speaker: But there are two cars that come through.
Speaker: In this town it never gets visitors.
Speaker: It's off the main freeway so people never come visit the town.
Speaker: I don't even know how there's businesses there still but all the town folk have their own businesses.
Speaker: Not sure how they're getting customers when no one's going through the town.
Speaker: But these two cars come through and they just get attacked for attention.
Speaker: So if this will play, I'm going to show you what happens with these cars.
Speaker: What you really need is a sweet taste of my homemade organic fuel.
Speaker: No, it doesn't agree with my tank.
Speaker: We're just trying to find the interstate.
Speaker: Good to see you, soldier.
Speaker: Come on, let's charge a surplus hat for all your government surplus needs.
Speaker: Oh, honey, surplus.
Speaker: How do we have too much surplus?
Speaker: I do have a map over at the Cozy Cone Motel.
Speaker: And if you do stay, we offer a free Lincoln Continental breakfast.
Speaker: Honey, she's got a map.
Speaker: I don't need a map.
Speaker: I have the GPS.
Speaker: Never need a map again.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: How about something to drink?
Speaker: Stop it.
Speaker: Flo's V.A.
Speaker: Cafe.
Speaker: Furnace fuel on Route 66.
Speaker: No, we just topped off.
Speaker: And if you need tires, stop by Luigi's Casa de la Tires, home of the Leaning Tower of Tires.
Speaker: We're just trying to find the interstate.
Speaker: But you do need a paint job, ma'am.
Speaker: Ramon will paint you up right now.
Speaker: Hey, anything you want.
Speaker: You know, like the flame job.
Speaker: Oh, thanks, baby.
Speaker: Ghost flames.
Speaker: You like old school pin-slipping?
Speaker: Von Dutch style, huh?
Speaker: Honey, look.
Speaker: Von Dutch.
Speaker: Okay, now.
Speaker: We're gonna be going now, okay?
Speaker: A little something to remember us by.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Come back soon, okay?
Speaker: I mean, you know where we are.
Speaker: Tell your friends.
Speaker: Okay, yes, you bet.
Speaker: Thanks again, folks.
Speaker: Bye-bye now.
Speaker: Psst.
Speaker: Psst.
Speaker: Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Speaker: I know how to get to the interstate.
Speaker: Oh, do ya?
Speaker: Maybe, no.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: No, not really.
Speaker: But listen, I'm Lightning McQueen, the famous race car.
Speaker: I'm being held here against my will.
Speaker: And I need you to call my team so they can come rescue me and get me to California in time for me to win the Piston Cup.
Speaker: Do you understand?
Speaker: No, no, no, no,
Speaker: If you heard from the audio, obviously you're going to get this better if you go back and watch the show.
Speaker: So do that.
Speaker: But like I said, these two cars come in.
Speaker: The people have no business.
Speaker: There's nothing going on.
Speaker: So what do they do?
Speaker: They just attack these two cars.
Speaker: Every person in the town comes out from it and says, buy this, fuel up, buy my tires, get my kombucha, whatever it is.
Speaker: So they're just getting attacked, attacked, attacked, begged, begged, begged, begged.
Speaker: So what does this have to do?
Speaker: How many times are we begging our customers for the sell?
Speaker: How many times are we coming across desperate?
Speaker: This is tip number three.
Speaker: Don't beg your customers for the sell.
Speaker: You need to flip the script on them.
Speaker: You need to get them begging you for the sell.
Speaker: I've talked about this before, if you haven't heard the episode, go back and listen to my review of the book, Pitch Anything, it's by Oren Klaff.
Speaker: But this is basically the main concept of that book, is you need to flip the script on your customers, you need to frame the cell in your way, and you need to make it so they're asking you for the cell, not the other way around.
Speaker: So this is the other do not.
Speaker: Do not beg your customers for the sale.
Speaker: Turn the tables on them.
Speaker: So again, go back and listen to this episode.
Speaker: But a couple quick tips with it are if you have customers saying, hey, I only have 20 minutes, say, OK, I actually only have 10 minutes.
Speaker: That works out perfect.
Speaker: If you have customers trying to make excuses to you, just think of different ways you can build urgency.
Speaker: So do some brainstorming.
Speaker: But you never want to come across as pushy, you never want to come across as salesy.
Speaker: If you're doing it the right way, this isn't going to happen.
Speaker: But how many times when you were in high school or trying to get the girl, if you were the one begging her to be, you know, be your new girlfriend, how many times did that work?
Speaker: Usually you need to be the one that's hard to get.
Speaker: You need to play hard to get.
Speaker: I just had a conversation with my buddy in college.
Speaker: His girlfriend, well, is now wife.
Speaker: When we were in college, my buddy was just a complete jerk to this girl.
Speaker: He was not nice to her at all.
Speaker: Just, yeah, wasn't a nice guy.
Speaker: Just called her names, didn't have a good attitude around her.
Speaker: And this girl kept, for whatever reason, she kept coming after him.
Speaker: She, like, wanted him so bad.
Speaker: She wanted to get with him.
Speaker: And I'm not saying this works for every girl, but I kept asking her.
Speaker: Her name was Mikkel.
Speaker: I said, Kel, why do you keep going after Carter?
Speaker: I mean, he's like a jerk to you.
Speaker: It's not even nice.
Speaker: She said, I don't know.
Speaker: I just like that bad boy attitude that he has, and I liked it.
Speaker: I have to kind of like go after him.
Speaker: So I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know why girls are like that.
Speaker: I never understood it.
Speaker: But more often than not, girls want guys that play hard to get.
Speaker: It's the same thing with your customers.
Speaker: Your customers don't want to buy from people that are begging them.
Speaker: They want to have to ask to buy from you.
Speaker: So make it exclusive, build urgency, whatever you can do, make it seem like you only have so many people you can do on that street.
Speaker: Obviously you don't lie to the customer, but think of legit reasons why they should buy.
Speaker: The tax credit for solar is expiring.
Speaker: We're doing this bonus while we're here.
Speaker: We're doing some attic insulation for our customers that are getting their documents in and getting their site surveys scheduled.
Speaker: We have this bonus we're doing.
Speaker: We have this promotion.
Speaker: We're giving this cash rebate.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Just think of things you can do to make them want you, make them want to buy.
Speaker: So there you have it, guys.
Speaker: Those are my three takeaways from Lightning McQueen from Cars.
Speaker: So let me know if there's ever been a sales podcast or anything sales-related done on Cars.
Speaker: Because as far as I know, th is is the first one.
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker: Go and watch Cars.
Speaker: You probably have time if you're still in a lockdown like me.
Speaker: But again, leave us a review.
Speaker: Let us know what you think of the episode and keep crushing it.
Speaker: Go out and close those deals.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next generation.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for Solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.
