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From Lebanon To Making $60k/month In Solar - Thierry Boutros
144 Plays16 hours ago
Thierry Boutros is the definition of a homegrown Solarpreneur. Learning his sales strategies from the podcast, he's mastered the art of "just doing it" on the doors: building his presentations on breaking the preoccupation and full transparency and disclosure.
CLICK HERE: https://apply.solarpreneurs.com/
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Transcript
Taylor's Solarpreneur Journey
00:00:03
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
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.
Innovations with Solar Scout
00:00:42
Speaker
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.
00:00:54
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. 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.
00:01:07
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
00:01:21
Speaker
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 to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:01:32
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.
00:01:45
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
Thierry Boutros: A Solar Success Story
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, everybody? We're filming a pretty unique podcast here. i got to say this first time I've done a podcast, we're literally sitting in a Cadillac right now in the backseat and And i just ready to rip a podcast. So we got someone that has a really unique story. um He's going to share with our audience and just overcome lot crazy obstacles.
00:02:10
Speaker
Super young guy, already having tons of success. So we're going to welcome Thierry Boutros. Saying that right, right? Yeah, there you go. So, ah yeah, man, thanks for coming on the show with us today. Thanks for having me. It's truly an honor. I've been listening to your podcast for forever now. It's been, I don't know, two to three years ever since I started solo. I've been listening to the podcast. So to be on it now is it's an honor, truly. Yeah, thank you. I'd love to hear that, brother. Yeah, question.
00:02:38
Speaker
And, i yeah, always cool. You know, you never know the people that will, like, you know, connect with the stories you share are listen to podcasts. So, and I know, yeah I think a lot of people are going to connect with you have what you have to share on the show with us today. Definitely. So, yeah, excited to get into it, man. But um we're here at SolarCon, and, yeah, we like I said, pretty unique ah setup we got here. Just ran to one of these booths. They got this car. We're doing podcasting. Yeah.
00:03:05
Speaker
So hopefully people were able to come to Solarcon, but what you think of it? guess it's just starting here, but yeah what are your first impressions of the event so far? It's my first time at Solarcon, so truly amazing. I did not think it would be that much, you know, that many companies, that many... There's everything over here, you know? I expected it to be just maybe a bunch of installers, maybe a couple of finance companies, but there's really...
00:03:29
Speaker
everything you can think of. I mean, all kinds of things. So it's interesting to see how I'm going to be able to benefit from this and you grow the business through that. You know, I've never really gone to a convention or a conference for solar yet. So this is going be exciting over the next three days, see what we're going to achieve from that and how we're going to improve. yeah Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:03:51
Speaker
So, yeah, I want to get into your story, man. And, yeah, i mean, we were just talking before we hit record here about some of the highlights. But you've got like crazy how you got into solar, I know, you know, burned by a few companies and just coming here from a different country.
00:04:09
Speaker
And I mean, this guy, he's only 22. He's already been through all this stuff. okay I'm like, dude, that's crazy. So yeah, we're going to be getting... I think your story is going to be really unique for our listeners. But then just how you've been able to start your own deal or your company is a BPI, right? BPI, yeah. Pure Power Innovations. Okay.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yep. So yeah, I'm out of California. So we'll get into all that. But yeah, do you want to give us... a I mean, yeah, let's start from the beginning. Like what your year your upbringing... your fo ma and yeah so I'm originally from the Middle East, I'm from Lebanon. I finished high school out there and then moved over here for college after there was a huge bombing that happened in Beirut. don't know if you heard about that if you look it up. August 2020, huge bombing. It was absurd i mean feels like it's straight out of a call of duty you know if you look up the videos i recommend you guys look it up it was crazy and so two three days after that i left uh came here for college um i went to ucla studying mechanical engineering
00:05:13
Speaker
you know It's always been kind of how I was set up by my parents. you know Study well, do good. I was class valedictorian, all of that good stuff. If you do well, it was always in my mind that, okay, study, do good, you'll get a good job.
Challenges and Breakthroughs in Solar Sales
00:05:27
Speaker
That's how you succeed. yeah and so I always had that mindset where I came to college.
00:05:32
Speaker
I was really grinding mechanical engineering. and At the time, I was working part-time. I was covering rent, part of my tuition, all of that good stuff. And as I was working part time, i was at AT&T doing sales. right yeah And so was part time and I was pulling more numbers than all the full timers at my store AT&T.
00:05:54
Speaker
and So I realized, OK, I've got something for sales. right There's something that I'm doing that's right at the time. mean, doesn't really teach you too much about sales. It's more like they you about the product. But for some reason I was succeeding. was doing great. And so...
00:06:09
Speaker
At the time, they wanted me to work more and i I couldn't. I was in school. I thought to myself, again, everything was about school for me, right? Like everything else was a side thing and then school was the main thing, right?
00:06:20
Speaker
So I quit AT&T. I was on Indeed looking for a job and I come across this fuller job. I was like, right here, like this looks pretty cool. You know, it says you can make hundreds of thousands and, you know, you're not going to have to work barely any time. Like all the heck of sudden, I was like, this sounds lit, you know what mean? Yeah.
00:06:38
Speaker
I knew was in my head, I was like too good to be true. Right. But i just also thought if I don't check it out, I mean, going to regret it because I'm always going to think there was something there. And I just, you know, I had to prove that it was wrong. That's the mindset I had. i was like, if I could prove that it's wrong.
00:06:54
Speaker
And you know, okay, then I'll be fine with I'll continue school, do do what I was always supposed to do, right? Went over to that. The office was like a dealer back in Los Angeles and they had a pretty cool office. And that's what sold me, to be honest. It was just the offices. Yeah, so cool. They had like a pool table, bing-bong table, like hoops, you know, foosball, like everything, right? I was like, okay, this this sounds pretty cool. Like the people were cool. it was like, okay, I kind of, I kind of like the situation. It talks about how there's no like a time commitment really, stuff like that, which I will say later down the road, I realized it's not the best way to do it because no proper expectations were set whatsoever for me. So I think we talked so much about setting proper expectations with homeowners, but with recruits, we never knew, right? I mean, or at least that's how I was recruited. None of the expectations were set properly. And it was so off and i was like, okay, this...
00:07:53
Speaker
It doesn't make sense. right theres like There's nothing that's working here. So I worked with that dealer for about three, four months. I was knocking, pulling appointments. At the time, they weren't that dealer wasn't even doing PPAs. So I would barely get any clothes. I got one clothes off of maybe 25 appointments or something.
00:08:12
Speaker
I was like, this doesn't make sense. like This isn't real. Right? And at the time, a bunch of people from that company decided to branch out, go to another company and start doing PPAs. okay I was like, okay, maybe that's the way to go. right And at the time, I was really like, you know, but as I was in school again. like Solar was just a side thing for me. I was knocking doors. was like, okay.
00:08:35
Speaker
perfect like just go twice a week lots of doors you know did they tell you you're gonna be knocking doors or they left that part out there no no they kind of brought it up as in like but they made it like a slight integration know like oh you might knock some doors to get some leads and i was like oh okay cool yeah right exactly which i didn't know the whole job is pretty much knocking doors when i first started right and so i said okay We moved on to the next company, started working there.
00:09:00
Speaker
They needed some closer there. i was I was setting pretty well. i I had mastered setting, even though I wasn't getting too many closes because it wasn't me closing. I wasn't closing anything. right So I decided without, you I literally decided, okay, I'm going to teach myself how to close because none of the people in my company really had that experience in closing, I would say. yeah And so I said, I'm going to teach myself. And that's when I jumped on your podcast, actually. like Literally, it was your podcast that changed the game for right yeah no of course i mean you deserve the credit because started listening and i went back in time because obviously you already had a bunch of episodes i started listening to all these different podcasts and people would jump on and say i do this i say that i say this and i literally have on my notes app i have solopreneur fraud that's right and i have a bunch of notes there everything i've learned so i would highly recommend listeners to do that just open up your notes app right now start typing down whatever you think is interesting right
00:09:55
Speaker
Because it changed the game for me. I started learning, okay, if I say this, I can overcome this objection. If I say that, I can overcome this. And by myself, I found out, okay, I need a license for this. And I went, okay, H.I.S. license, applied for that. and so, started closing and I became crazy closer. My first...
00:10:14
Speaker
it's months I remember so what happened is didn't have any setters and I was at school didn't have too much time to knock because I was focused more on closing I had $1,500 in my bank account senator I had Bits, Facts, Wich and all that and I thought myself This is it. It's a make it or break it. $1,500 is going to make a day for me. Maybe that's a month's rank, right?
00:10:36
Speaker
I'm just going to take that and invest it into Weed or a call center or something like that, right? And I thought to myself, if I can make that happen, this will change the game. I think that was turning point for me.
00:10:48
Speaker
There's that, I feel like every person has that one turning point where it's like everything changes. And that was it for me. I was ah sitting in my engineering right? literally at school at UCLA and I'm sitting there, I'm doing my homework and I had been talking to bunch of call center, like stuff like that. And I said, okay, I'm going to pull the trigger on this, right? Wow. $1,500. You Yeah. yeah and You're in It was the last vacation. And I said, this is it. This is the moment to make it or break it, right? I put the money in. It was February.
00:11:19
Speaker
And that first month, I started closing. after the other. And I saw my commissions. And I'm like, wow. And it was all the pipeline. I hadn't made any of the money yet, right? But i was like, okay, this is crazy. I was by like the end of the month, like February 20th or something, was at about $60,000. And the time, the and at the time The owner of the other dealer, looked at and was like, you're doing great. Ride the momentum, hit 100. I was like, I don't know if i'm go to i don't know if I can. you know I don't know. But he hyped me up so much. He was good. That's one thing he was really good at. i do He was kind of like my mentor in this. Self-improvement. Believing in yourself. So he hit 100.
00:11:57
Speaker
And pushed so hard. And I ended hitting on the dog. so hard and i end up hitting hundred and one k on the And i was like, wow, truly life-changing. It was my first month. Obviously, at the end of the day, not all of them went to install. You've got some that, you know, permits didn't work out on-permit instructors, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, I ended up making maybe about $80,000 off that one month. and I was like, that's crazyy Wow, yeah. it was I was 19 at the time and I'm like, this is crazy. This can't be real. I started getting paid all of that. You know Solo you've got that little timeframe, two to three months where you're waiting for installs. And I was like, this is real. I literally look at my bank account and I'm this is real numbers, right?
00:12:42
Speaker
And that's when I decided, okay, I'm going to change the game completely. and put myself 100% into this. That's when I took the focus a little away from school, even though i so i was a senior or like junior, like end the junior year, I had my senior year. I'd already put in so
Setbacks and Perseverance in the Solar Industry
00:13:00
Speaker
much into school. I decided I'm still going to make it happen. I still got my degree. I got a mechanical engineering degree. Wow. I don't even do anything with it now. yeah know You can sell the engineers. Those are the toughest customers. Exactly. You can connect with both people. It is and it it helps a lot. and you know Some of them, they look at me and they're like, well, you're just a salesperson. I'm like, well, I'm going show you my UCLA card. and i I always have it on me and I pull it out. I'm like, here you go. like This is my UCLA Bruin card. like Look at it, right?
00:13:28
Speaker
They're like, oh, okay. and It changes everything for them because That's where the trust starts to build because you were talking about my age, right? My age has been such a huge obstacle. I would say at least for me, especially after founding like a dealer company, try to recruit people. Look at me that I discuss 22 like this is a joke, right?
00:13:48
Speaker
but So they really start listening to what I say. They see that I've learned and I've taken everything. and I think... I do think school helped with that yeah because I was so used to listening to lectures, taking notes and learning. Right. yes it's And so I did the same thing with solar. Right.
00:14:02
Speaker
Did my research, learned, wrote down notes, flashcards, everything. And I learned from everything. so And that's why think I improved so quickly. It's because I really put the time into it from an educational perspective rather than just like, OK, like experience and I'm going to do it and see how it goes. Right.
00:14:20
Speaker
I put in the actual education into it, which I feel like a lot of people in solar are so missing where they come into it and they treat it as strictly sales when there is an education level. right where you have to put in the time and say i want to sit down and read this stuff and learn what's going on in the industry what's happening let me google I mean chat GPT oh my god that's my best friend right I just go on there all the time and I look up what's happening with this what's gonna happen with that which panels are better which batteries are better because yeah most installers have a bunch of different panels and batteries but why do we choose the ones that we choose right some people want to know about that
00:14:57
Speaker
You've got your typical sale where there's people that are like, show me savings and that's it. And they'll sign up, right? Great. Those are easy sales. Yeah. But then you've got the real money makers are where you really show them that you know what you're talking about. You know the batteries, you know what they're supposed to, you know everything. I said, California, you know, obviously we need batteries. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker
it changes the game and you start getting so many referrals from that stuff like that but then ended up happening is i did great i was working for like six months and i got screwed over by my installer big time i had about you know 250 maybe 300 000 in the pipeline and all gone i'm talking those are installed deals oh my god yeah like not even just you know okay closed deals they never even went to install those are installed deals that just gone you know and i was like that was a big big hit for me that was that was a moment yeah yeah that was moment where i was like you know this this sucks i don't um don't know if i even want to keep on doing this at the time i was about to graduate in my head i was like okay the self-doubt started trickling you know how it is with self-doubt i mean self-doubt is i think to me is the biggest challenge in solar don't think it's the sales i don't think it's
00:16:13
Speaker
knocking, nothing like that. The mental tool, it's just self-doubt for me because was so raised to learn that, okay, you're going to finish school, go get a job, find the ladder. And that's how you're going to make your $150,000, $200,000 a year.
00:16:29
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, maybe I should stick to engineering. This is it. I should maybe switch up, go to school. i I was still in school, obviously i was about to get my degree. was like, go back to this, start applying for jobs and I did. I applied for some jobs and I got my offers and I was like,
00:16:48
Speaker
In my one year of working solar part-time as closer, right I made almost three times what my largest offer was for engineering. yeah and and I was like, and even though I got technically screwed over at the end of the day of out of some money, if I really count the money that I already made, still more than... What you make. Exactly. Still three times more. And I was like, I mean, at that point, there's there's just no debate here. And I said, stopped applying. I was like, I'm done. I'm just going to take this fully the next level.
00:17:21
Speaker
Take it super seriously. i jumped into solar fully. And that's when I said, yeahp i started looking at solars. That's where I decided I want to start my own dealer. Because...
00:17:32
Speaker
I got screwed over so many times. So I got screwed over the first time by the the door knocking company. And then after that, by the company, I switched over to all of my boys at that company. Believe it or not they ended up leaving solar because of what happened with me solar. Yeah. Like every single one of them. I'm still in touch with some of them. And I obviously talk to them still, but they all left. They ended up doing, you know, life insurance and pest control, stuff like that. Right.
00:17:57
Speaker
And they all left and I was the last man standing. And I was okay, I'm going to go. If every single person that went through this in solar decides I'm out, you know, then how are these people succeeding?
00:18:10
Speaker
And I would listen to your podcast again and again and go on these YouTube videos and Michael O'Donnell and you've got the big, big players, right? And you're like, okay, I mean, they have to be doing something different. They're succeeding with this and they're making it happen, yeah right? And so i was like, okay, if I really put the focus into this, figure out how to market, it how to actually get these solidified my leads, get the proper appointments, confirm appointments. So before we used to never really confirm, right? Like we'd set appointments, say, all right, just going to show up.
00:18:41
Speaker
We get one every 10 appointments. That's it. This doesn't make sense. There's something wrong here i feel like i was ah the biggest obstacles with kind of starting my own thing is saying, okay, I'm going to change everything I learned, kind of forget it all and start from scratch. What would I do differently to make it work better?
00:19:02
Speaker
And so that's why I started saying, okay, branding is a big thing. I started wanting to brand my company rather than just say, okay, we're solar company, right? Because I feel like so many refs out there, they just,
00:19:13
Speaker
brand that they're in solar, but they never say what company they're with. Marketing is huge. You know, people don't treat solar as a business most the time. They treat it more as like a sales, right? Sales. And it's all about sales, sales, sales. But people don't realize there's a lot of aspects that make successful sales, right? Which is marketing, branding, having call centers, having door knockers, having all different types of lead gen so that you can actually succeed.
00:19:39
Speaker
And so... I started doing that. Obviously, had my obstacles with that because when I first found it, one of the installers I was working with had made promise amazing timelines and the timelines took like six seven months i guess so I had already gotten screwed over right before that out of a lot of money. and Then my installers were taking forever. so I was just running dry. I was just on credit cards, just going crazy, you know, just spending on my credit cards and hoping, hoping I'll come out successful the other end. Right. And believe it or not, I pushed through and I did.
00:20:13
Speaker
Right. And so, That's when the self-doubt started fading away, right? Because I was fighting with myself I was thinking, okay, should I go find a normal engineering job and forget solar? Because I'm not getting paid. I'm in credit card I'm struggling here and I'm like, okay, this is it. But like, am I really the person who failed? And then realized,
00:20:36
Speaker
failure is only when you give up. That's true. there's no different way of failing up until you give up, right? So if you don't give up, you can only come out successful the other end. There's no other way. It's either give up and fail or Keep on pushing and succeed.
00:20:53
Speaker
And that's how I see the world. And that's how I started believing in myself more priming my own brain to think that if somebody else did I can do it. And that's what I always tell myself now whenever the self-doubt starts trickling in because it still does. I mean, everybody I think in Seoul still has self-doubt at some point. What's going happen to the industry?
00:21:11
Speaker
What's going to change? What if everything ends? PPAs end. The utility companies drop their rates significantly and then we're like sitting there. Okay, what are we going to do now? Right? But you realize that if somebody else did it, i can do it and I can do it better.
00:21:27
Speaker
That's like to do. That's so good. Yeah. Well, dude, i want to I want to follow up on a couple things there because you have so many good things in that story. That's incredible. All the stuff you've been through. Thank you. But yeah, I mean, first of all, like growing up in Lebanon and everything. So this, ah you said it was a bomb that like went off.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, so in the capital of Beirut, um we don't know really what happened. and Apparently there was some ammonium nitrate stored in the wrong place and it caught on fire and it just blew up.
00:21:56
Speaker
And the blow up was insane. i mean, my grandparents' house got demolished. Thankfully they were okay. like We got there and my grandpa's literally under this. From Lebanon, the main entrance doors are huge. They're super heavy. So we got there and he was just under it.
00:22:11
Speaker
And he was struggling, like not knowing what to do. And it was the whole thing. I mean, really, if you look up the videos, you'll see it's you'll think it's totally kind you'll be like, wow, this is like new time, you know, or something like that. Yeah. yeah So is that like, is that what caused you to come over? Are we already finding to come study ever before? I was already planning on it, but then also with COVID.
00:22:32
Speaker
So at the time there was COVID. And so I was, I was thinking, okay, maybe I'll stick around in Lebanon for a little, kind maybe do online school or something. My dream was always to come out here. My dad always used tell us, I'm eventually going send you out to America. Like the goal is always go out to the USA, like land in the dream, like land in the free. You can do so much over there. Right. And yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think one thing that I've realized is people don't see it.
00:23:02
Speaker
you don't realize the amount so if you're given and that's available to you how easy it is to build something out of nothing right yeah compared to in different countries when you go to lebanon like a
Building a Strong Solar Team
00:23:15
Speaker
third world country there's really nothing we have zero support from the government there's nothing whatsoever the banks are collapsing like there's a financial crisis all the time you can't even pull your money out and there there's just so much going on that you realize over here when people kind of complain about the little stuff think to myself like This is nothing. yeah I mean, I've been through a hundred times wars, you know? Yeah. So yeah. Once you start being grateful for what you have, you start thinking okay i can succeed to this, this, that.
00:23:45
Speaker
So being grateful is one of the other biggest things for me, you know, looking up to God and saying, because of the grace of God, I am here. I have achieved what I am capable of achieving yeah now and hopefully a lot more into the future, you know? Yeah. Well, yeah, especially growing up in a country like that. I mean, I mean, so do you feel like that that's been almost something that's helped you growing up in that like third world country, to, I'm sure, go through?
00:24:10
Speaker
you know maybe don't know what your situation was like but i'm sure not a lot of money things like that you feel like that's helped you be more like resilient push through like some of obstacles you've been through now do you feel like just having that upbringing it's helped you just know how to push through things better oh yeah most definitely so you know being in a different country you start to realize because when you come out here yeah your whole goal at this point is to succeed Because you just left the country, you left everything behind. I mean, my parents are still there, I have two brothers that live there, all my friends are pretty much still there.
00:24:41
Speaker
So you start thinking in your head, okay, I just left everything behind. yeah And I think that was the main driver for success for me. It was that, now that I left everything behind, this is it. If I don't succeed, then I truly am a failure because I was sent.
00:24:55
Speaker
all the way out here. I mean, the flight Lebanon, so there's not even a direct flight, as a matter of fact. You have to literally stop in, like, one of the countries around there, like Turkey or UAE or something like that, Qatar or anything, and then that's where you kind of go from there to Lebanon. It's like a total flight time is about 22 hours, you know? Time difference is like 10 hours. And so it's like, you start thinking about that stuff, and every time I get out again, I start thinking again, left...
00:25:25
Speaker
Everything and here I am today and I've achieved all that stuff So there's nothing I need to be doubtful anymore once you achieve one little thing you start realizing if I can achieve that It's rinse and repeat, right?
00:25:36
Speaker
You make your first hundred K you move on to your million a million you move on to ten million obviously I mean I'm not there yet. Yeah, obviously I hope I will be one day, but Essentially, you kind of move from one step to the other and rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. You do it once, you maximize on what you did.
00:25:53
Speaker
Cool. When I made my money, didn't take that go spend it on dumb stuff. I literally reverted all of that back into the company, back into the dealer. And I said, boom, I'm going to reinvest.
00:26:03
Speaker
get more leads, get more call centers going, get people to call cold call. Now we're working on an in-house call center instead, you know, so we can diminish ah like customer acquisition costs, stuff like that. yeah, so yeah no, but going back to your question, it was definitely one of the biggest drivers is leaving everything.
00:26:22
Speaker
So I will say I've heard it a couple of times, obviously by a lot of people, they say burn the bridges, burn the bridges. and just go for it and i agree so much with that because I was forced to burn the bridges. I didn't even have the option.
00:26:36
Speaker
And if it was up to me, can say I would have probably never burned the bridges. yeah If you were to just, I think the mental capacity you need to say, I'm going to go ahead and burn the bridges and just go from there.
00:26:48
Speaker
It takes so ah takes a huge soul on you right? So problems. Everybody who actually pulls holds that up and says, okay, I'm going to burn the bridges, take a look at everything and say, boom, cut it off.
00:26:59
Speaker
I'm going to go forward from here and go into solar and do what I need to do. yeah And those are the people that usually succeed the most. Definitely. That's why it's like, I don't know if you guys do like local recruiting, but for us, it's so hard sometimes to get local guys to like...
00:27:14
Speaker
go and grind and everything because they've got kind of their safety net they're in their hometown they got family there they got other job opportunities where like you know i came from out of state to sell in california you came from different kind of 22 hour plane right away which is like you know 10x what i did for right now um so yeah it's like you know i definitely see that people that come for the opportunity there's you you're there to figure it out and if you don't it's like it's kind of your only option Exactly. On the recruiting topic, actually, I feel like um one thing I've seen, at least from the company I was with, it was more like when we recruit in solar, it's more like, okay, let's recruit as many people as possible, you know, and from there kind of recruit 100, one will stick around, you know? I like to do things differently. I recruit very slowly. I really focus on who I'm recruiting, who I'm bringing in.
00:28:08
Speaker
I like to bring in the... kind of the top performers, the people i know aren't capable of putting something into this. Just like you said, people who aren't really, you know, obviously I'm not discriminating by saying, oh, they still live at home, so I'm not going to hire them kind of thing, right? But it's more like I see the drive, I try and find the drive.
00:28:27
Speaker
Even if some people don't promise you the world. I mean, I'm sure you've seen the recruiting process. He's done all that. And you see that some people are probably, I'm the best guy. I'll be out there every day. And then, you know, a week later, they're pretty much gone. Yeah. So I try and find a set of talent in door to door. I don't care if they have door to door experience or not. I kind of focus on talent when it comes to the mindset where they want to push them.
00:28:51
Speaker
They want to say, I'm going to be better and I'm going to do better. and that's the kind of people I have on my team right now. And I'm so happy about it. It makes me want to even push myself and be better. And that's something I learned from, again, Michael O'Donnell is he used to say he never knocks by himself. He always has somebody with him. Right.
00:29:08
Speaker
And that was a game changer for me because I got to a point where sometimes I was like, I don't want to knock. You know what mean? I had all these lead gen waves. had call centers, stuff like that. i'm like, why even knock? Right. I mean, there's no point.
00:29:18
Speaker
But then when I started recruiting people, trained them, had to bring them out, say, let's go out, let's knock together and stuff like that. And I realized, okay, you know, if if I can knock with people, it'll it'll change stuff for me because it pushes you to want to knock and do better. And as a matter of fact, I enjoy it now again because I feel like not only am I knocking and getting appointments, I'm also, all that time that I'm putting into knocking is also benefiting somebody else.
00:29:43
Speaker
So it's not benefiting myself too. I'm benefiting somebody who's right there next to me, training and learning and trying to become better. yeah And that's all I like to see. I want to see somebody who's willing so become better. That's the kind of people we love at the company, at VPI, that's the kind of people that usually stick around. you know Those are the only people that stick around. It's the people who know i want to push and be better.
00:30:04
Speaker
People who wake up early and hit the gym. if They say, I'm going do this. I'm going to that. I saw you just hit 75 hard, which is amazing. Congrats on that. i made I've done it a while ago. I haven't in a while. Actually, I should i should maybe go back to it and kind of do it again. But yeah, that's the kind of mindset we look for. Yeah, definitely. got it Definitely some common traits that you see in people that succeed with this, you know like competitive people.
00:30:29
Speaker
People work with teams. We got a lot of like military guys, you know, ex-navy stuff like that that do really well with us. But yeah, common traits. But another thing I want to ask about, Terry, like you come from a different country. was i mean, it sounds like you're coming for school, but were you pretty nervous coming to different country? Like, I mean...
00:30:50
Speaker
I can imagine hopping on a plane for 22 hours by yourself coming out here. i I mean, I lived in Colombia for a couple of years. That's not even like crazy far and I was nervous just going to Colombia. Yeah. but thanks coming So what was like coming here from a different time? I was 17 at the time. I wasn't even 18 yet. Technically not even an adult yet, right?
00:31:12
Speaker
So I 17. Again, it was COVID too. So COVID really even made it hundred times harder. right yeah Yeah. So I think the most amount of anxiety I ever felt was kind of going on the plane to come here. you know, I have two suitcases with me. It's all I got. I've been by yourself. no yeah Nobody else. I was by myself.
00:31:32
Speaker
remember my dad was driving me to the airport. And at the time, because the bombing had just happened, Everybody was talking like, do not fly out. there' There's a risk. Maybe there's going to be a bomb at the airport, stuff like that. So, you know, we get a lot of that all the time. But I mean, you get used to it with time, right? Like for us, its it's not even that serious anymore. Obviously it is, don't get me wrong. But, you know, you kind of get used to it. It's more like you adapt to it, right?
00:31:56
Speaker
And I think that's one of the things that helped me a lot is I was able to adapt so much there that when I came here, i was able to adapt quickly. And so I have an uncle that lives out here and he told me when I first moved here, he said, you know, one of your best traits is that you're almost so smart you're always optimistic.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's how I like to be. i and just want to be optimistic about anything. um I'm really the the glass half folk. ah you know So like I see something happen, I'm like, well, okay, that happened, but this came out. you know And it could be anything. Even when I got screwed over by installers, in my head, i was like, well, okay, that means I know for fact I'm never going to work with those installers again. So later down the road, when I have even more in the pipeline,
00:32:38
Speaker
I'm not going get screwed over because I know which installers to work with. So that's kind of the mindset I have where I'm just always optimistic about everything I'm looking at. But yeah, I mean, 17, getting on that plane, it's 22.
00:32:50
Speaker
twenty students so I had four hours to Qatar and then another 16 over here. And the whole time i'm just like, I have a face shield on, the mask, you know, it was COVID at the time. I'm like super scared of catching COVID. And I'm like sitting there and I'm like, you know, it was just...
00:33:07
Speaker
anxious, like anxiety. I felt like I wanted throw up all the time, you know? And I got here. have a brother that lives here. So he had moved here before me. He's three years older. So that helped definitely a lot because yeah there was somebody I knew at least. But yeah, we we ended up getting an apartment together, stuff like that. So that was really, that helped a lot because he kind of knew the game. He knew how to handle things, stuff like that. But um anxiety A water of stress, but on the other end, came out so positive because it taught me so much, you know?
Customer Strategies and Expansion Goals
00:33:41
Speaker
I think it was somehow of a, I wouldn't say traumatic experience, but little bit of trauma here and there where it's like you're stressed out all the time. And so... I think that trauma builds personality and pressure makes silence.
00:33:56
Speaker
And so I think combining all of that together, you start realizing that anytime you go through something, if you can look at it in a positive way and say, going to come out better the other end, you you do come out better. You know, if you just manifest that and think about it and keep on pushing yourself to say, I'm going to come out better, yeah it ends up happening. Yeah. and way Did you you learn English in Lebanon?
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, so when I first moved here, I definitely had a heavy accent, you know, yeah but I did i took English my entire life in Lebanon, so they kind of teach you French English and Arabic. Your whole, yeah, your whole kind of not just high school. It's like elementary school, middle school and high school.
00:34:35
Speaker
Every year you have to take all three languages. It's mandatory. So you kind of get learn that, but obviously you learn it. you know, with an accent, because all the teachers are from Lebanon, so they're teaching me English with like that heavy accent, so I came out here. that was definitely one of the obstacles, but I didn't think it was too hard to learn it, because I used to come here every now and then. i mean, our parents would bring us out here for vacation, so yeah, I used to come out here. i kind of learned to fix it, picked it up with time, and pretty much about it a year in was when I kind of had it fully down, and was just, you that is good. Speaking better than I do. I know. I appreciate Thank you, too. speak Arabic like the main language out there? That's my first language. I mean, I talk to my parents almost every day. I speak to them in Arabic. My brother's here. I talk to them in Arabic. And it's helped me, actually, because I tapped into the Arab community.
00:35:28
Speaker
That's probably huge. Sell the Arabic. Exactly. So the Arabs are very, very hard to sell, I will say, for one reason, because they just want to rest the world. They want to good deal, like you're giving them a good deal. And so kind of brings me into if we want to talk a little more about like actual selling, right? yeah I feel like there's three types of customers, at least for me. And that's how I teach my closers. There's three types. There's what I like to call the generic type. That's 99% of people where you walk in there, you do your full presentation, right? You show them pre-utility rate, post-utility rates, like how much we're going to save with the PPA, and the no money balance, stuff like that. And so you get that sale from there. you've got your price troppers, which that's when I use the line.
00:36:15
Speaker
Actually, I heard it on your podcast after, but I had already been using it. It's so funny. It's the Expedia line. Right. When I say, yeah, I go like, have you heard of Expedia? Like I'm your Expedia for someone. And it was so funny when I heard on your podcast. I was dude, no way. Like I literally say that, you know? Yeah. So, um, I, I use that line a lot. That's,
00:36:35
Speaker
Your price chopper, I like to think, at least for me, what I've seen the most successful with is forget the presentation. just walk in there. You can tell. I mean, from the very start, you kind of when you do it enough, you start to realize, okay, this is this type of customer, this is this type of customer, right? And so you just have your price chopper where I just walk in there, like, listen, I know you've talked to 100 people already.
00:36:58
Speaker
And you've seen so many different things. What's your best offer Woon's mouth with the best material? What are you looking for? let's Tell me and I'll see if I can match it or make it better. I keep it it so simple. I'm in there for 30 minutes.
00:37:10
Speaker
And trust me, people love it so much because you build that instant trust where they know you're not in there to sell them really. if You're in there to take care of them. And what I've seen from that is, yeah, maybe I won't make too much commission off of that. You won't, right? When you're price shopping, you're just sliding somebody else off. commission, right? And you get to the point where maybe you'll make $500, $1,000 on a 10 kilowatt system.
00:37:32
Speaker
yeah But to me, I still think those are so worth it because the referrals. Yeah, being get referrals. they Exactly. he changes the game. So that's what I base it off. I tell them, let's I can get you this deal on one condition.
00:37:46
Speaker
Write me down some referrals. And they love that. They like it. And it's a win-win for everybody. Yeah, you'll make $500 on this one. But guess what? The next people they refer to you, they're not even in the price drop anymore because they trust you yeah to give them the best deal. Right? And so that's where you're just like, perfect. I'm just going to lock in, show them what it is.
00:38:06
Speaker
Oh, and from there, you're just getting deals on end. And that's like your your your whale customer, right? Which is like what they call them, right? if So started getting so many referrals and that $500 turns into $30,000, $40,000 because I sold six different deals. you know And so, yeah i feel like that's another thing that I didn't do at the start where I was like, oh, I'm only making $500. I was kind of bail on the deal, kind of forget about it. nice think I sold $500, whatever, right? yeah But I realized once I started focusing on every single sale, like it's the biggest sale of my life,
00:38:40
Speaker
I started making a lot more money even though it was smaller commissions. sometimes right Because I started getting so many referrals. I sure i have this one guy dude, if I am not even kidding, I think he's already referred me at least 20 people. And he keeps on referring. Because I tapped into this, it was like a Vietnamese guy. And he knows this entire Vietnamese community.
00:39:00
Speaker
He went to, he was looking at a bunch of prices and stuff like that. i ended up making $200 on his deal. i remember like 200 bucks on a 15 kilowatt system. Killer deal. Killer deal for him. yeah For me, I was like, damn, like I really missed out. But then he got me. I think, I mean, I haven't counted them up until now. It's been, you know, a year since he's been referring people. But I've gotten like 20 deals from this guy. And I'm like,
00:39:27
Speaker
You know, this changed the game for me, right? started realizing the power of referrals. In my head, I always used to focus on new lead, new lead, new lead. Referrals were really everything. And then you have your third type of customer, which is, like to think of them as like the rich customer, the engineer, stuff like that, where they want to know the spec sheets. They want to have everything. Like they want to see exactly what kind of battery, what the battery's made of, the panels.
00:39:51
Speaker
They want to know what it is you're doing, the cost of the battery compared to the cost of the system compared to the cost of installs, stuff like that. That's where being an expert comes in, right? That's where have the spec sheets ready.
00:40:03
Speaker
It's so easy to go on Google and look up, you know, whatever panels you use and look up the spec sheet. Have it on your files saved up. And I just, as soon as I'm done, I send them all the spec sheets. They love that. That's when you build the trust and they're like ready to sign up with you. Even though those are the customers where build value rather than sheets.
00:40:23
Speaker
I don't want sell cheap to these people. I want to build value. I want to tell them that we are the best the best because we know what we're talking about. We're not in there to pitch you something. I'm not there to show you a presentation, show you the savings, and that's it. That's 99% of people, but then you've got your 1%.
00:40:39
Speaker
Well, if you miss out on your 1% every single time, it adds up. That's what people in SolarEyes sometimes don't realize is that your 1% does add up a lot, you know, because you're making a lot of money off of every single deal.
00:40:52
Speaker
Not a lot of industries have that. yeah And so when you kind of realize that if I can even get those 1%, that's what I'm really going to maximize what I'm doing in solar so good yeah yeah and I love yeah to your point about just being an expert knowing the stuff like I know we talked about chat you've seen earlier but AI there's really no excuse for not to have an answer with pretty much everything yeah remember when I first started in solar it's like we'd have to text you know a manager and if we didn't know something we text the manager they were busy then we're just like sorry I can't get an answer to this and and there wasn't I don't really think there were spec sheets and stuff like that and that were easily found either back in 2016 when I started. But now, was like I was in a deal the other day and the customer had like a specific question about line in the contract. I'm like, i have no idea what this means.
00:41:43
Speaker
So I just took a picture of it in chat GPT, said, hey, explain this to my customer and give us like examples and explain like exactly um what they're talking with some line where like it was it i think it was ah everbright a customer and it's some line where they didn't enforce something in contract one time and That doesn't mean that they can't enforce it in the future. like For example, if there's a late fee or something that they didn't charge a customer one time, they could they could charge it to them in the future. it wasn't like exempting them from late fees in the future.
00:42:17
Speaker
but explain it in like a super confusing way. Okay. um But yeah, it's just like stuff like that. It's so easy now. Just take a picture and say, explain this as if you're talking about five-year-olds for sure.
00:42:29
Speaker
Exactly. Because I'm not like a super, you know, analytical person. i think you have the huge advantage being like an engineer degree, you know, and not speak to those people. yeah But i think so many times we get in the hub of selling people that's like, oh, this our customer right now. I can sell this person.
00:42:45
Speaker
But then if it's another type that's a harder sell or engineer or whatever, like, oh, it's never going to buy. And then we try less. Yeah. I've noticed myself, I do that sometimes. Like, oh, this person's going to be hard sell shopper. I'll forget about it. Just go on to the next one.
00:43:00
Speaker
So, yeah, so powerful. Just know your customer types, know how they want to be sold. And then, like you said, even if you're making less money, then just doing the give and take, getting some referrals from it.
00:43:11
Speaker
Because I've noticed, especially people of different cultures, you know, like Indians are another example. Oh, yeah. Same thing, they love to barter, they love to know they're getting the best deal.
00:43:22
Speaker
And if you can sell one of them, there's almost everyone, they're connected to like, you know, tons of different so Indian families. yeah Funny enough, and that's that's how I learned the give or take thing, where the referrals thing. So when I first moved to the Bay, I was in Southern California selling first. And then once I built the team there, I moved up to Northern California to start building a team there, right?
00:43:43
Speaker
And I realized in the Bay Area, Northern California, everybody who's up there, they know that. just There's a lot, there's a huge and community, huge, right? Because it's the tech area. Everybody's working in tech, so I could never crack them. And I was like, what am I doing wrong?
00:43:59
Speaker
And I realized what I'm doing wrong is presenting. That was the wrong thing. I would walk in and present and do a whole thing, right? I realized if I literally just walk in there, which tell it how it is, I say, listen, what's your best offer? Because I know they've already shopped around at this point, right? What if you have that's the best thing?
00:44:17
Speaker
And give that to me show it to me. I do say one very important thing is... make sure they show you an official proposal. yeah Because I have had a lot of them at the start or I didn't realize it. They would tell me something and I would kind of trust them on it and they would lie. And that's where I really got screwed over in my commissions where I was making fairly 500 when I could have realistically made maybe 5,000, you know? But yeah, so I do ask for official proposals and I say, show me what you got I'll get you something better.
00:44:43
Speaker
Right? And that... It leads into just a, it's a nominal thing where you just one opinions after and same thing with all different cultures. Once you get one person, you just tap into the entire rest of the Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Secret for sure.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, dude, it's been awesome to see how much you've grown. So your team, have you just got one team in Southern California now. he goes Northern California too. So yeah, one team in Southern and then in Northern, we are, so I've been in Northern for about six or more like eight months now. So I'm growing the team over there. So what I'm planning on doing, what I like to do is kind of grow a team in an area, have some leaders that can just lead the team, do the best.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah. I teach them everything I have. I just lay everything onto them yeah and I say, again, rinse and repeat, replicate what I did to you, replicate it with other people. And I move on from this area and I move into this.
00:45:41
Speaker
So that's my plan. I want to eventually become nationwide.
Continuous Learning and Training Methods
00:45:45
Speaker
that's That's a real ultimate goal. You know, feel like I'm young, i feel like I have that ability, the energy to be like, I'm just going to do this, do that, run around, jump, you know, I don't really have that many responsibilities yet whatsoever. Obviously, you know, i'm I'm still at the start. So I think that's a huge advantage for me, at least, where I can just jump around, go everywhere, do what I need to do so that the time I'm like, you know, 30, 35, I can just...
00:46:11
Speaker
ah relax, kind of have whole business running and go from there, you know? yeah So, yeah, now we're working on the NorCal team. I've got about eight people up there now. So I'm training um and yeah, we're going from there, seeing how it goes.
00:46:27
Speaker
I will say the Bay is an amazing market compared to Southern California. At least to me, it felt like it was way less saturated. Even though it's still California, and for some reason, it felt like it was less saturated. Now it might be because I even... kind of I had the experience, I kind of got better at it and I felt like it was less saturated. But i mean, even my new recruits feel like it's an easier way of of selling, I will say. So yeah if you want to come up to the Bay, I would definitely recommend that. But yeah, essentially build a team, move on to the next area, build a team there. And again, again, rinse and repeat.
00:47:00
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. That's funny. We've got people, I'm in San Diego, but yeah, we've got people that go up to the Bay, like... you know, every month, I think. yeah this sounds fair so and I've actually never sold up there, but I'm like, man, maybe I need to go up there. Yeah, i mean, even the rates there, they're in the highest rates out of all. Even SEG&E is lower than the P-E-N-E, which is crazy.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, watched we release this podcast, and all of sudden, everyone just took up the day. so know, then it's way more saturated, and I regret even saying anything. Now I have 10 times the competition for no reason. Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean.
00:47:36
Speaker
But no, I think it's true that if you can sell Southern California, it's like you should be able to sell anywhere. Places that are saturated. um so yeah, that's why, you know, I think once you learn the skills, you can get sales anywhere. But it's like being able to pivot to different areas, different cultures, knowing your thing.
00:47:56
Speaker
For me, it's old I got family and that's what's so cool. You're young. don't have kids or anything. i got three kids now. and so it's a little bit tougher to like, you know, be as mobile, move around, go to different areas.
00:48:08
Speaker
That's one thing I wish I would have done more when I didn't have kids and you know we got a house and everything now. um But yeah, so if you're listening and if you're a young guy like Terry here, then make sure you're putting in the reps, grinding, because it's just so much easier when you have less responsibilities and just pack up and go anywhere. I bet. So that's awesome. you You've been able to build like that.
00:48:30
Speaker
But yeah, man, just last couple of questions before we start wrapping up here, Terry. So you mentioned you had that 80K month. Which, was that the first month you started closing? my scoop Yeah, literally. First month closing and it's all because I took the time to educate myself. Right? And I would, like for every, after every appointment, I would sit there and i I would record my appointments, my sit-downs.
00:48:54
Speaker
I'd go back to that like every single time. I would religiously do that, you know? And I'd sit down and say, okay, what did I say here that made them say this so that didn't end up closing the deal?
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah. You take the moment really learn. You take one solid month to say, I'm going to learn as much as possible. Every single appointment I set. I think anybody could be a piece social work. Anybody.
00:49:17
Speaker
That's so good. But yeah, that that attention to detail, it's like, I don't really know anyone. That level of analysis, recording every appointment, that um So yeah, no wonder you had so much success.
00:49:30
Speaker
um And you mentioned that you were studying like crazy, you were making flashcards. It sounds like you're pretty much treating like a college course that you needed to like, yeah you had a big test coming up that was like make or break. Exactly. I got to get it down. Yeah, yeah that's how it was. yeah yeah That's a cool mentality, man. It's no wonder he had success like i came from ah you Before I did Solr, I was a music major.
00:49:54
Speaker
it's like We are practicing were expected to practice our instruments like minimum two or three hours a day, plus rehearsals. And so that's another thing I feel like I took from being in college is just like, like okay, I had to practice an instrument. I've come to this, why am i not why are so many people not practicing their craft of like selling?
00:50:13
Speaker
And a lot of people are just showing up, going to appointments, learning from experience, like you mentioned. But and the ones that I think truly take off and have the success, they're doing things like you're saying, they're studying like crazy, they're taking notes, they're learning from their appointments.
00:50:27
Speaker
And it's cool to hear that because especially as you get experience, sometimes you forget about those things too. like'm Like, man, I need to go back and do that too. I think I'm i'm leaving money on the table. And I do that so much.
00:50:38
Speaker
I do that so much. I do. Like, I go back to my... Sometimes I... You know, with time, you start to forget stuff you used to say, you know? So I go back to my notes and I'm like, what's up? Like, I used to say that. It worked amazing, you know? So, yeah. agree with that. Yeah, yeah.
00:50:53
Speaker
So just to wrap up here, if someone wants to um I know you're training other closers now. So what are some things you found success to like replicate? Because not everyone comes in like as hungry as you. I know you can't like force people to go out and do all these things outside of it I mean, create a culture. But what are some things that helped you like replicate the success you had? And I don't know, what would you tell someone that wants to have like an 80K month?
00:51:18
Speaker
Yeah, I want a first month ADK. It's incredible. yeah So what are some things you do with your team? Great question. so what I would say is number one, believe it or not, we don't even have an office I do all my trainings virtually.
00:51:30
Speaker
The reason for that is because every single training is recorded. Right. And I realized really that, yeah, an office can somewhat create culture, but you can still create that same culture almost all virtually.
00:51:43
Speaker
You don't want the pool table and the ping pong. That's what we're recruiting you. Right? Exactly. It did. It did. Believe it or not. That's what I was saying that it it kind of and backfired later where I i was given the wrong expectations. Yeah, exactly. And so I felt like doing it virtually, it helped so much more. And first of all, being able to really scale. So it's a much easier way to scale than being in person.
00:52:07
Speaker
Number one. Number two, you don't waste time, you know, driving to an office and then driving out to the field. And one thing I noticed when we were back at the office is that all the time what would happen is people would hang around the office for way too long. you know And yes, that's fun every now and then, but instead of doing that, what we do is we do team bonding experiences. We go out, we we have dinner, we you know go to Topgolf, all of that good stuff. So we still do all of that. We do all the team bonding and culture building just without having an office space because the office space, I felt like was wasting a lot of time.
00:52:41
Speaker
where people are hanging around, driving there, traffic. I mean, LA has crazy traffic. The bay Area, same thing, crazy traffic. So it really eats up a lot of the time. Instead, people can be out there experiencing the doors, right?
00:52:54
Speaker
But what I would say is, number one, obviously focus a lot on and going back to what you said. Forward everything. Analyze, go on there. i mean, the reason why i did that is because of school, because I was listed to lectures and kind of write down my notes. And that's how I learned, right? So I kind of had that the same mentality with solar. they Treat it as a course, even though it is sales and it's fun and it's exciting. And I love it. Don't get me wrong. I still treat it as sales.
00:53:20
Speaker
But there is that small aspect where if you think about it, when you go and start a normal job, right, you always have to your first month of training, really, where all you're doing is sitting down at a computer. It's super boring.
00:53:31
Speaker
You do it though to learn what you need to do at that job. okay People in solo, I feel like, never do that. And yes, experience is huge. And I do agree, you have to be out at the doors. And I tell all my setters and closers, be out there, perform like get the experience at the doors. But more importantly, in the morning, when you wake up after our sales call, sit down and kind of learn.
00:53:53
Speaker
And what we talked about at the sales call, I recorded all the meetings so that after that, I can have them there for my reps, ready so that they can watch it again and again and again and role play with each other. I set up a lot of role plays.
00:54:06
Speaker
That's one thing. Another thing we do is pair people up. So we always send people out in pairs rather than solo because what that does is both people are just going to push each other to do better, especially you're first starting. You're kind of at the start, you're like, you know, you get tired, and you know, your first three hours, you're sweating, you're dying, you know, it's hot out there and you're just knocking doors and you're getting a bunch of no's.
00:54:30
Speaker
And so you kind of had that mindset shift and you're like, this is not real, kind of the momentum dies, stuff like that. When you have a buddy knocking on the other side of the street, instantly pushes you to do better and want to be better because you're like, i don't want to be the one that's not really good, right?
00:54:46
Speaker
I don't want to be the one that's competing with somebody else and losing. I have a huge like competitive winner of mindset. you know I want to be the best of the best. I do think that's, it was ingrained in me back when I was trying to be class valedictorian all the time. you know and I'd be like, going to push myself to be better. I want to be number one no matter what.
00:55:02
Speaker
I think that's one of the biggest mindset you need to have if you want to have 80k months. That's where you want to say, you know, okay, if I make 50, I'm pushing for 100. Even though I have one week left out of the month. So I was at 60 by the first three weeks. I had one week left.
00:55:17
Speaker
And I said, going to push for 100. And I technically got it in the pipeline that ended up getting paid out on all of that. But yeah. that's where you want to create competitions. I create lot of competitions, a lot of incentives.
00:55:29
Speaker
That's the one way to do it virtually, I guess, is because you don't have like the office structure, the people that there present all the time. Instead, I create a lot of incentives, weekly incentives, monthly incentives, yearly incentives even. So when I was talking with my team, a lot of them are into soccer and the World Cup is coming up and it's going to be in the US.
00:55:48
Speaker
So we have an incentive coming up where we're going to For the yearly goal, it's going to be whoever you know gets the most amount of closes is going to get a World Cup ticket. Which is huge, you know but it drives people. It makes them want to do better and be better. you know um i think incentives is definitely one of the biggest things. And competition. Just build competition. Let them I want them to be hungry. I feed of the hunger.
00:56:15
Speaker
I tell people at the doors with us when I'm knocking the door, I always say, you know, when you've got your parents that come and they're super upset, they're like, I don't got my door, you didn't see the nose listening time, stuff like that. And I love those are the people I perform the best with. Because right after, I always end getting them. I have my ways of, you know, kind of sweet talking them into listening to me. But then after that,
00:56:38
Speaker
I kind of look at my, whoever's training with me, like set or clothes or whatever it is, and I tell them, you see what just happened there? Most of them, when they first start, they look at me and they say, yeah, mean, dude, like, why, how would you do that? How did you do that? Like, like I'd be so scared. I say, dude, I feed off of that hunger.
00:56:53
Speaker
I feed off of the fact that they're mad. I take that energy and I just... Literally let it drive me to them just want to make it happen. I want that appointment just because they're mad. In my head, I'm like, if they're being really nice, that's an easy appointment. There's no challenge. so One of my favorite quotes is, when faced without a challenge, make me. I live by that truth. I like to create something.
00:57:17
Speaker
Just because that's what drives me. For me, feed off the challenge. I feed off the hunger, the fear, you know, the nose, the people saying, oh, what are you doing here? Get all sign off my property, stuff like that. Those are the people that are the best.
00:57:32
Speaker
I have story, you know, i know we're wrapping up, but it's about that. So I had a guy come out once, right? And I knocked on his door. He has two huge dogs. i don't I don't even know what they were, like Dobermans or something. And they're like wrapped up in chains, literally two of them. And he's like holding on chains.
00:57:47
Speaker
He comes out, he's like, what do you what are you here for? I'm like, I mean, yeah you got full dogs. He's like, Are you to sell solar? I was like, I mean, dude, yeah, no, like I'm here to notice. He's like, you're about solar, right? You want me to release these dogs on you? Dude, I'm not even kidding. I'm getting this though. And I looked at him, I said, if he gets you to do solar, release them.
00:58:11
Speaker
And he loved that line. I'm not even kidding. He loved it so much. ended up getting an appointment out of it. He loved me. Did you tell him? I did, actually. or No, sorry. He ended up... credit-filled or something. Actually, yeah. That was a while ago. No, no. He credit-filled, for sure. He credit-filled, yeah. But essentially, after I said that, he loved it so much. yeah He liked me because I cracked a joke out of it. He was like, you're the first guy who's ever said something funny. Like, let's talk. What did you offer me? And I talked to him. He was like...
00:58:39
Speaker
Damn, bro, I guess I should have been listening to you guys, like, you solar guys, but because it seems like this is going to help me out. I was like, yeah, bro, like, you just got to qualify for it. If you qualify, great. If not, I mean, no harm, no foul, you know, if you can't get it done.
00:58:51
Speaker
So I i really try and sell the problem rather than the solution. I sell the problem. That's what I teach my setters to, my closers. Sell the problem. Forget the solution. Yes, solar is the solution, but sell the problem. That's what my whole presentation is mostly about. It's mostly about how the utility is screwing them over, how much money they're wasting, all of that.
00:59:13
Speaker
And by the end, I'm really priming them the whole time. We got to get you qualified. We got to get you qualified. So that by the end, I assume the sale. I never even ask.
00:59:24
Speaker
That's what really drove my success and what taught me that it's going be the best. That's your 99% that I was talking about where you want to just assume the sale down the sea. The whole time, every like 10, 15 minutes, bring up the fact that none of this is real up until qualify.
00:59:41
Speaker
And so by the end, you're at the part where, boom, let's get you qualified. You know, ah show them the options. I say, look at that. You've got two options. You've got your utility. You've got solar. Which ones do you like best?
00:59:52
Speaker
Like, obviously, which one makes more sense? You want almost make them feel dumb if they say VGD or utility, like whatever utility you're with. I'm a VGD right now. But essentially, show them both and I say, okay, which one looks better, obviously. They're like, yeah, that's all good. And I'm like, well, let's see if we can get to qualify. And that was a big game changer. That was the one line that really changed the game for me where I never had that pushback anymore where they're like, no, you know I want to think about this number one.
01:00:19
Speaker
Number two is the contract stuff, right? Never call it a contract, ever. That's a super scary word, yeah obviously. So another thing too is I think a lot of reps out there, they like to kind of push through the contract as fast as possible. and trying of make them like through ri how do you do that I kind of sit there with them.
01:00:38
Speaker
I want them to read the whole thing because if they don't, they're going cancel the next day. That's why our cancellation rates are so low. It's because we sit there and we go through it. Now you've got your people who will click through it because you've built so much trust. I mean, I'm at the point where 90% typically just click through it without me even asking that because they trust me, right? But um yeah, those are kind of the little things. So assume the sales.
01:01:01
Speaker
and Read through the application. I call it application all the time read through the application with them Let them know that you're there ready to answer questions because if you just sit there and you're kind of pushing them to do it So next day they're probably gonna go through it. They're gonna cancel it because they tell something that's good and All of the work you did would have made for nothing.
01:01:18
Speaker
Yeah. What happens, if you go through with them and they feel like they understand it, then 90% of the time they're never going to pull up that document again. if I go, Jerry went through with me, I understand what's going on. i don't need to do anything else.
01:01:30
Speaker
But if they're feeling and rushed or like they don't understand or... you went through quick, then they're probably going to pull it up the next day. They're going to see something they don't understand. And then either it's going to cause you to probably have to go back or they're just going to cancel it because confused mind always says no, right? confused about stuff Exactly. so So good and so many things. But yeah, I think the overall point that, yeah, I just love how you have that drive, competitive mindsets. So those are definitely traits of people that have success with this. Yeah.
01:02:01
Speaker
If you're listening and you feel like you're not a competitive person, just buy in. Whatever incentive of your companies... are I see people and that are like, oh, companies are in their competition whatever, they don't buy in. Those people, I think they're shooting themselves in the foot. Even if it's something like little, just do it for like... It makes the job much...
01:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, much more fun, I think. Just buying into competition, whatever incentives are going on. Yep. So, definitely. So many secrets. Yep. Well, dude, it's been awesome having you on. and um And if people want to connect more with you, Thierry, or ask more questions, what's the best way to get in touch with him? Yeah, I'd say Instagram. I mean, I've got my handle and the company's handle. its Mine is just my first name underscore last name. Thierry underscore Boutros.
01:02:42
Speaker
Or the company handle is Pure Power Innovation. just the name of the company. Pure Power Innovations with an S at the end. Yeah. So yeah, we've got the balloon badge on there. You'll know it. You'll know it's us pretty much.
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah. So definitely connect with us. Coming up to the Bay. would highly recommend it. We do all of our trainings virtually. It's easy. It's simple.
Resilience and Adaptation in Solar
01:03:00
Speaker
And yeah, from there, hopefully you'll grow. I'll teach you everything I have. don't like to keep any secrets at all. I literally give out everything. Thank you. I say go out there and do the best you can. You know? Yeah. Thank you, brother. And then my question, if people say someone's having a hard time, maybe they, hopefully they may lose 200 grand, like you didn't get paid out on.
01:03:20
Speaker
um But yeah, what's something that helps you just push through those hard times? Because so many people, they have a challenge come up or they don't get paid at whatever company screws them. Most people just quit, especially for that much money. Most people quit, move on to, don't know, a different industry whatever. yeah So I know you brought up a few things, but maybe it's one what's one thing that helped you push past most challenges and still have the drive and to stay in solar where other people will just quit?
01:03:47
Speaker
Great question. um I would say really the biggest thing for me was essentially saying, again, not giving up the half glass, a glass half full thing. But the real thing is more really finding a screw drive. So when I got screwed over, what I did is I went, I found another solar.
01:04:06
Speaker
I went back to all of my customers, at least every single one that wasn't installed yet or stuff like that. I'd find stuff that I could still make switches to. I would just go back there and re-sign them. Right.
01:04:17
Speaker
And yes, I didn't recoup everything. Maybe I recoup, you know, maybe 30% of it or something. But at the end of the day, I got something back. So, What I'll say always is never, ever give up. Try and find a solution.
01:04:31
Speaker
If you just look a little further in, dig a little deeper, you're always going to find solution. There's always some sort of a solution. I like to believe that. Mine is a lawyer, so he always, you know, he's seeking that. there's always holding There's always something you can go through to make it work, to figure out an answer. Right? And so, yeah, that's what I would say.
01:04:52
Speaker
Just... Do the research to figure out what your solution is going to be to whatever your specific problem is. It's getting screwed over, simple. go find and There's hundreds of installers. I mean, back then maybe it was hard to find one, but now, I mean, yeah there's literally hundreds. We're at Solarcon right now, and if I look around, I can already see maybe like 20 installers. It's so simple to find another installer.
01:05:15
Speaker
Transition all your deals over to them. you know Forget about what happened before. Take whatever you already have. You already have the advantage of they're sold. They're ready to go. They want it. so All you have to do switch them over.
01:05:26
Speaker
To switch them over, come up with with something or reason why. Let them know, hey, listen, that installer has better reviews actually. So I'm going to switch you over and I'm going to keep you at the same level. same price or even give them a little discount give them them little incentive to switch them over so that you don't lose that trust right where you're saying oh you know i'm going to switch you over because this happened with the other installer obviously you don't tell them that you want to tell them like hey i actually found better option for you um i'm going to get you a thousand dollar visa gift card and i'm going to switch you over to a better installment nice boom from there they like you even more and now they're going to want it they're going want to give you even more referrals because even though you already have trust
01:06:02
Speaker
you build even more trust. So yeah, that's what I would do. Awesome. Fire, brother, fire. So guys, be solution oriented. Think of, have that glass half full mindsets. Those are the people that are having the most success.
01:06:15
Speaker
So thank you for dropping some bombs for us on the podcast today. and Literally living through a bomb in your home country. Yeah. So it's been awesome. And yeah, and excited to see what you guys got next. Swap Davion in the future. Welcome back. I will. I will. Thank you, Taylor. It's an honor to be here and I appreciate you having me. that Thanks, brother. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Introducing Solcitee: A New Learning Community
01:06:39
Speaker
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Speaker
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