Transcript
Speaker: Are you ready to take your solar sales to the next level?
Speaker: James Swiderski, co-founder of 7 Figure Solar, is your host of the podcast, created by solar sales and marketing pros.
Speaker: The 7 Figure Solar Podcast.
Speaker: Sales tips, online marketing, industry news, and much, much more.
Speaker: Here's your host of the 7 Figure Solar Podcast, James Swiderski.
Speaker: Welcome to the seven figure solar podcast.
Speaker: My name is James Sardorsky and as always, I'm going to be your host on today's episode.
Speaker: Now before we get into today's topic, which is going to be how to make $30,000 your first 90 days in the solar industry, I want to go over a couple of housekeeping rules.
Speaker: So rule number one, as always, this podcast is focused on bringing you the solar professional, the sales guy, maybe you're just looking to get into a new industry, whatever it is, we want to provide you with the most amount of value possible.
Speaker: And to do that, we don't do a lot of ads.
Speaker: We don't do a lot of sponsorships.
Speaker: You might hear a tool or two that I recommend that we actually use and it benefits people, but it's not going to happen very often unless it's the best.
Speaker: And because we're
Speaker: We do that.
Speaker: All we do is we ask that you, the viewer, the listener, you bring a friend, okay?
Speaker: Bring somebody that you know is struggling in the solar industry.
Speaker: Maybe they're trying to look for a new opportunity.
Speaker: Bring them to this podcast and give it a listen per episode, right?
Speaker: If you find value in an episode, share it with somebody.
Speaker: This helps us get this movement out there to more people so that they can benefit and profit from the advice and the expert tips that we're giving them.
Speaker: So if you find value, bring a friend.
Speaker: Number two is...
Speaker: Make sure you apply the teachings in this, right?
Speaker: I mean, it's one thing to listen to what we talk about, but it's another thing to go out there, apply it, and actually make a real impact and make some money off of it.
Speaker: We want this to be a transformational movement, transformational podcast.
Speaker: We don't want this to just be another thing in your listening queue.
Speaker: We want you to make real life changes and then let us know about it.
Speaker: Email us at contact at sevenfiguresolar.com, the stuff that you find value with.
Speaker: And we love to hear those stories.
Speaker: They inspire others.
Speaker: And we wish you guys the best success.
Speaker: So without further ado, let's dive into today's topic, okay?
Speaker: to make $30,000 in 90 days as a brand new solar sales rep.
Speaker: If you haven't listened to episode one of the podcast on the opportunity of solar and why you should consider jumping into the industry with both feet, then go check that out.
Speaker: This is a great follow episode to that.
Speaker: But the bottom line is the solar industry is an amazing opportunity for you to create wealth and create that financial freedom you're looking for.
Speaker: Maybe you're struggling to find elsewhere.
Speaker: So here's the deal though.
Speaker: When most sales reps, most people dive into the industry, they're full of enthusiasm and excitement and slowly something happens.
Speaker: They start to lose their momentum.
Speaker: Maybe they're not quite as motivated and ultimately they end up failing and quitting.
Speaker: And we talked about some of the biggest reasons in the last episode why so many sales reps quit.
Speaker: But today I want to talk about how do you not just survive?
Speaker: How do you thrive in the solar industry?
Speaker: How do you make 30K in three months?
Speaker: And to some of you, that may seem like a lofty goal.
Speaker: Some of you, it may not seem like much at all.
Speaker: But what I found with my students personally and the guys that we coach and the companies we work with, that $30,000, about $10,000 a month for your first three months is a great milestone if you haven't hit it before.
Speaker: Yes, if you're the type A kind of guy,
Speaker: you're used to banking, you know, 20, 30K a month, whatever it is, then shoot for hire, of course.
Speaker: But for most people, we find that that $10,000 a month is about the sweet spot for anybody could get there.
Speaker: I've seen multiple of my students do it, and we continue to coach and mentor people, and they do that using our programs.
Speaker: So today I want to give you seven actionable steps that you can use right now
Speaker: to dive headfirst in the industry and become the top producer at your company by making about $10,000 a month in commissions, of course.
Speaker: So let's get into it.
Speaker: So number one is going to be you need to define your why and your purpose.
Speaker: And I hate that it's overused a lot in the business world, the define your why, with that book Simon Sinek put out, which is a great book.
Speaker: I'm not bashing the book at all.
Speaker: Love Simon.
Speaker: He's got great stuff.
Speaker: But I think it's a little bit on the corny side, the define your why.
Speaker: But I think a better way to put it is what's your purpose in making this kind of money?
Speaker: Why are you in the industry, right?
Speaker: What are you trying to accomplish here?
Speaker: And I think if you really pull back the curtain and most sales guys –
Speaker: trying to find this, it tells a lot about if they're actually going to make it or not.
Speaker: When I'm interviewing, when I'm hiring somebody, I always ask them, what's your goals?
Speaker: What do you want to accomplish in the next 20 to 30 years?
Speaker: And I could tell instantly if the guy's serious or not, or if he thinks about success and he's going to be the kind of guy that makes it.
Speaker: Yes, there's exceptions.
Speaker: There's some people that don't think about this and it will and they'll ultimately make it.
Speaker: But the people who have a clear, defined purpose, what they want to accomplish, what they want to get done.
Speaker: Those are the guys that ultimately end up being the top producers.
Speaker: Okay, so what do I mean by a purpose, right?
Speaker: Do you want to provide for your family?
Speaker: Are you trying to take care of your mom?
Speaker: Maybe you didn't come from wealth, right?
Speaker: And you want to change something.
Speaker: You want to improve something and you want a different way of life and this is an opportunity for you.
Speaker: What would it mean, right?
Speaker: to make 10,000 bucks a month?
Speaker: What would it mean to cross six figures, seven figures?
Speaker: These are the questions you need to ask yourself and define before you even get into the actionable steps.
Speaker: Because what I find is new sales reps, yeah, they have that drive and that purpose the first couple of weeks because most people do in a job,
Speaker: Maybe they're trying to just impress the boss.
Speaker: Maybe they're going for a promotion.
Speaker: But ultimately, that does not last.
Speaker: It's not a lasting drive, a driver in somebody's life.
Speaker: You got to have something bigger.
Speaker: So it's pretty common in the industry right now that you get a younger guy like me.
Speaker: He's in his 20s.
Speaker: He's coming in just for the summer and he wants to make a few bucks, right?
Speaker: And that can last, but it doesn't last beyond the three, four months, the term of the summer.
Speaker: If you want something that lasts long, right?
Speaker: It's a long-lasting, long-term solution for yourself.
Speaker: You need to have a bigger purpose.
Speaker: So to give you an example, my favorite kind of hire, right, is...
Speaker: going to be typically the family guy right somebody who's got a family somebody that you know relies on him and he has to support them financially that guy has a lot bigger incentive to be successful than the guy who is just in college and he's just trying to make some money in the summer
Speaker: So I always look for somebody who's got a bigger purpose than himself.
Speaker: Maybe he wants to take care of his mom who's been struggling, wants to help her quit that job.
Speaker: I know that's a big one for me, right?
Speaker: Is I wanna help my parents go on vacations that they never got to when I was growing up.
Speaker: I wanna help them get there.
Speaker: I wanna help them buy that new car, whatever it is.
Speaker: Those are big incentives for me.
Speaker: I wanna be able to provide for the people that I care about in my family.
Speaker: Another one for me is,
Speaker: You know, I want to be able to serve and impact people.
Speaker: You know, this company alone, Seven Figure Solar, I mean, a huge part of this and what drives us day to day is we want to impact the solar industry because more people can go solar if you know how to sell better.
Speaker: We want you guys to sell better because that's going to impact more people, impact the planet in a better way and create more opportunity for people, jobs, whatever it is.
Speaker: That's my purpose for our company.
Speaker: So for you, thank you.
Speaker: figure out what your purpose is.
Speaker: What do you want to do?
Speaker: Why are you getting into solar?
Speaker: Why do you want to get good at sales?
Speaker: And make sure that it's a solid, true reason.
Speaker: One that you believe in, one that's going to motivate you when times get tough.
Speaker: Because here's the deal, guys.
Speaker: It's going to get hard.
Speaker: It's going to get really hard.
Speaker: You're going to pull 60, 80-hour work weeks plus, and you're going to see no results from it.
Speaker: But if you stick to it,
Speaker: It's the guy that sticks through the hard times when you're not making money.
Speaker: That's the guy who comes out on top.
Speaker: It's a matter of the tortoise versus the hare, right?
Speaker: The tortoise is going to win the race.
Speaker: Take your time, put in the consistent work to get towards your driving force, your end result.
Speaker: That's what's going to carry you through the rest of your career.
Speaker: So guys, number two is you gotta develop high amounts of discipline, all right?
Speaker: This is absolutely key.
Speaker: If you do not have discipline in this industry, if you don't have discipline in sales, then nothing else matters, okay?
Speaker: Because when it comes down to it,
Speaker: This is not just a today sport.
Speaker: This isn't a I do something today and I see my results today.
Speaker: It's a matter of I do something today.
Speaker: I go and fill my pipeline up today.
Speaker: I go and I talk to this prospect.
Speaker: I put together a webinar today.
Speaker: And I'm going to see the results from that anywhere from 2, 3, 6, 12 months down the road.
Speaker: It could be years down the road.
Speaker: But it's the little actions that you do every single day behind closed doors that people don't see.
Speaker: that's where your results come in.
Speaker: So it's not the, I'm doing something on Instagram or Facebook, so I look cool and I could show off something.
Speaker: That's for today results, right?
Speaker: Going out there and seeing that you knock 12 hours in the summer heat, that's today results ultimately.
Speaker: But
Speaker: When you're knocking every day, when you're consistent, when you're cold calling people, when you're doing these day-to-day actions and you don't have to prove it to somebody, that's when the results speak for themselves.
Speaker: So people will often ask, and I get students ask me, well, how did you get to the level you're at?
Speaker: Or how did this guy get there in two months?
Speaker: I'm like, okay, well, what do you think he does every day, day in and day out?
Speaker: What do you think his day-to-day process looks like?
Speaker: Do you think he's coming home at five o'clock and just calling it quits for the day?
Speaker: Or do you think he's just rambling around trying to find something specific to fill his 9 in the morning to 6 at night for his appointment?
Speaker: Or do you think he has a purpose?
Speaker: He has a specific goal he's trying to get done, and he has a tremendous amount of discipline.
Speaker: There's a great quote from Jocko Willink.
Speaker: If you haven't checked him out, he's a Navy SEAL commander.
Speaker: He's on a lot of different podcasts and things.
Speaker: He's one of my favorite guys.
Speaker: And he talks about how discipline equals freedom.
Speaker: We're all after freedom, whether it's financial freedom, the freedom to support those loved ones we have, make an impact.
Speaker: But in order to get that freedom, we have to exercise discipline.
Speaker: So discipline, right?
Speaker: Let's break that down.
Speaker: What does discipline look like with a top producer?
Speaker: What kind of discipline does the 30K in his first 90 days, what kind of discipline does that salesperson need?
Speaker: Number one, I'd say is it all starts in the morning, right?
Speaker: When you wake up in the morning shows and sets the proper tone of discipline for the rest of your day.
Speaker: So what I noticed is really common.
Speaker: Top achievers, they wake up early, okay?
Speaker: They're not the guy who's sleeping until 10, 11 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker: They're the guy that's up at 5, 6, 4 in the morning, right?
Speaker: Personally, I wake up at 4.30 in the morning every single day.
Speaker: I've been doing that for years, and it showed.
Speaker: And I often get a lot of flack on that.
Speaker: We'll say, well, dude, I'm up late with appointments and I have no reason to get up early.
Speaker: There's nothing to do in the morning.
Speaker: which is just a lack of tools.
Speaker: There's plenty of activities you need to be doing in the morning, every hour of the day as a sales rep.
Speaker: Continue to follow our channel and our podcast.
Speaker: We're going to give you those.
Speaker: But here's the deal.
Speaker: If you wake up early in the morning, you show that you have the discipline, the drive and the tenacity to do something that 90% of people and sales reps are not willing to do.
Speaker: It subconsciously programs your mind for success.
Speaker: Meaning if I get up and I promise myself I'm going to get up 430 and I actually do it, I fulfill that promise to myself, it's a domino effect for the rest of the day.
Speaker: So maybe it's the next activity.
Speaker: I say I'm going to get on the gym, go to the gym in the morning.
Speaker: I'm going to get my body and my mind.
Speaker: revved up and ready to make some sales today, right?
Speaker: Then I fulfill that promise and it just keeps going.
Speaker: And then I'm able to push myself.
Speaker: And if I say I'm going to make 200 calls from 10 to noon, then I'm going to do it, right?
Speaker: So it's all about the promises that you keep and make to yourself.
Speaker: Bedros Coulian talks about this all the time.
Speaker: He says that
Speaker: That moment when the alarm goes off in the morning could literally make or break your entire day.
Speaker: It sounds ridiculous for something so small, but really, as we talk about a lot, how you do everything, how you do anything is how you do everything, right?
Speaker: Meaning if you hit the snooze button,
Speaker: If you hit the snooze button in the morning, you're telling your mind that you value that little bit of sleep more than getting up, conquering your sales day and getting the tone off right, going to the gym, sending off those emails.
Speaker: You value that little sleep that much more.
Speaker: And that little bit in your mind is going to carry to everything to where you value going home earlier than finishing the calls you said you were going to do.
Speaker: Or you value, you know, not coming off a little bit of pushy, right?
Speaker: You value not pushing for the close a little bit more with your prospect more than being comfortable.
Speaker: So when it comes down to it, guys, you got to develop discipline in every area of your life.
Speaker: There's no exceptions.
Speaker: How you do anything is how you do everything.
Speaker: This is what the top producers do.
Speaker: This is what you got to do from what I've seen in my experience to make that 30K jump.
Speaker: Okay, so let's get to number three.
Speaker: That's going to be to immerse yourself in the language of sales.
Speaker: So it's just like learning a language.
Speaker: If any of you have learned a foreign language before, you know that there's a couple ways you could do it.
Speaker: You could learn it in theory where you're in the classroom, you're studying textbooks, and you're reading about it, you're using audio tapes, you're using all these things, or you could actually go to that country where they speak the language and you could live there for three to six months.
Speaker: Which way do you think is gonna be more effective to learn those skills, right?
Speaker: It's going to be the guy who immerses himself fully.
Speaker: That's forced to.
Speaker: His back is against the wall.
Speaker: If he wants to speak to anybody, he's got to learn to learn that language, right?
Speaker: It's the same way.
Speaker: I always tell the story of –
Speaker: You know, when I grew up in high school, when I was in high school just a handful of years ago, really, you know, I played trumpet.
Speaker: I was in a jazz band, right?
Speaker: And that was ultimately kind of my purpose.
Speaker: I thought I wanted to be a professional trumpet player.
Speaker: And I still play here and there, but ultimately I knew that this was something I wanted to do.
Speaker: It was my daily driver, right?
Speaker: And to develop that discipline, to learn the jazz language, to learn music,
Speaker: You have to realize that it's just like any other language.
Speaker: Music is a language.
Speaker: And the ultimate way that I learned to become a better soloist and a trumpet player, and I ultimately became one of the best, the top five in the nation of trumpet players through age 35.
Speaker: And it was a pretty big accomplishment in high school.
Speaker: I've lost a little bit of it since then.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: I credit that success to immersing myself in jazz, right?
Speaker: I was listening to jazz music every day, every moment I got.
Speaker: I didn't listen to anything except for jazz music.
Speaker: And then I would try to immerse and copy the language.
Speaker: I would learn how to solo and improvise by listening to these artists, studying them every moment of every day.
Speaker: I would listen to probably six to eight hours of music
Speaker: Anytime I'm going to the store, got music in, right?
Speaker: Going to school, I got this.
Speaker: In class, I would do that, right?
Speaker: And then I would practice and implement those things that I was learning.
Speaker: And I credit that to how I became so good at sales as well at a young age is I learned to immerse myself in the sales language.
Speaker: So what is the sales language, right?
Speaker: It's the different skills, the patterns, learning how to recognize and listen to prospects, learning how to talk to specific prospects in the way they want to be talked to and treated, right?
Speaker: These are all little bits and pieces of the skills you need to master the language of sales and business.
Speaker: So ultimately what I prescribe to everybody, and this is a prescription.
Speaker: If you want to get this done, you have to, um, you have to do this and it's,
Speaker: To start studying greats, right?
Speaker: Study the people who you want to be like.
Speaker: Don't take advice from somebody who hasn't accomplished what you want.
Speaker: If you wanted to become a professional baseball player, right?
Speaker: You wouldn't talk to your parents or somebody and ask them for advice on how to become a pro baseball player.
Speaker: It's no different in sales and business.
Speaker: You don't take advice from somebody who isn't where you want to be on how to sell or do business, right?
Speaker: That's why every one of our coaches at Seven Figure Solar, our solar guys, solar pros, they've all done exactly what they teach.
Speaker: They all make six and seven figures selling solar, and we don't let them in if they're not doing that because in order to have that drive and be able to push you as a sales rep,
Speaker: past the point of exhaustion, you got to have somebody who's done it.
Speaker: They've walked the walk.
Speaker: They're not just talking smack on it, right?
Speaker: That's a big difference between the successful guys.
Speaker: So take the time to start listening and start learning from those who have done
Speaker: What they say they do right and they ultimately have that same drive and passion So if you want to make a million dollars a year selling solar go find somebody who's made a million dollars and listen to them and Copy them right learn from them mimic them Take what they what you like from them and then better it put your own twist on it You need to start learning from the best if you want to be the best Okay, so
Speaker: Number four is going to be master your time management.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: So here's the bottom line.
Speaker: If you don't know how to control your time, this is another, it goes right off of discipline.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: But it deserves its own point because time is the most valuable resource that we have on this planet.
Speaker: And everybody's got the same amount, right?
Speaker: We always hear that.
Speaker: Warren Buffett's got the same amount of time as Steve Jobs did, as I do.
Speaker: And what we do in those waking hours, that time of the day, that's what determines our success.
Speaker: And the ultimate difference between the top producers, the guys that are going to make 30K in 90 days, is they know how to manage their time.
Speaker: They don't waste it.
Speaker: They don't spend their time watching Netflix and movies.
Speaker: They don't spend their time...
Speaker: you know, driving around wondrously and not knowing where to go during an appointment.
Speaker: They don't spend their time hanging out with prospects for the sake of hanging out.
Speaker: They spend their time doing activities that are going to reach them towards their goals because they know the importance of their vision and their goal is more important than what the temporary pleasure would be, right?
Speaker: So, I mean, it's cool, right, to take a break, to go chat with your sales colleagues at the water cooler, take a coffee break, go to lunch with people for a couple hours.
Speaker: But while you do that, you got to realize there's somebody else down the road, right?
Speaker: There's another sales guy across the world who is grinding it out.
Speaker: He's working during his lunch break and he's ultimately going to beat you.
Speaker: He's going to have the advantage because he valued his time more.
Speaker: I always did this in high school too, back to the trumpet playing, right?
Speaker: I always valued my time to where, hey, I need to be practicing.
Speaker: Because if I'm not practicing right now, I mean, there's going to be a guy over in China, right?
Speaker: There's going to be another guy who's kicking my butt because he's practicing day in and day out.
Speaker: And music was very competitive, just like sales and business, especially trumpet.
Speaker: I mean, there's a guy everywhere, China, Asia, Europe.
Speaker: Those guys are killer, and they have more of a drive and discipline
Speaker: than people in the United States ever do.
Speaker: And I always look up to that.
Speaker: And it's really kind of where I've gotten my force and the ability to wake up early and drive towards my goals.
Speaker: So you got to develop that high amount of discipline, but it's got to be over time management.
Speaker: Start keeping a daily schedule.
Speaker: Check out the other podcast episode we have on time management.
Speaker: But the biggest thing is have a daily schedule.
Speaker: Know exactly what you're going to do at every point of the day and then actually keep those promises to yourself so you can develop
Speaker: that high amount of discipline we talked about.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So let's go to number five.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This is a huge one.
Speaker: This is to take control of your environment, right?
Speaker: And master your mindset.
Speaker: So when it comes down to it, mindset and environment are connected in many more ways than you think.
Speaker: And this was a huge one for me because growing up in a family that was about middle class.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Honestly, I think that's probably the one of the more difficult areas to live.
Speaker: It's not super uncomfortable, but you're not learning a lot.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you're just OK with the average.
Speaker: And growing up in that mindset, being taught with my parents, which, you know, love them to death and everything.
Speaker: But.
Speaker: it kind of conditions you for average to be just okay with all right results okay with just making 75 000 a year whatever it is and as you're around those types of people um you're going to become that right we all hear you're going to become the average of the five people that you hang out the most with but you're going to have the average wallet of those five people too so if you hang out with people who are only making 60 to 80 grand a year
Speaker: That's more than often likely about 90% of the time, that's going to be where your income lies, right?
Speaker: So the question I get from our students is how do you change that?
Speaker: Like James, I didn't grow up around millionaires.
Speaker: How do I change my mindset and start surrounding myself with these people?
Speaker: The beauty of it is in today's day and age, we have access to mentors virtually everywhere.
Speaker: Whip out your phone real quick and get on YouTube.
Speaker: You have access to dozens and dozens of high level mentors and people that have done what you want to do.
Speaker: They've accomplished what you want to accomplish.
Speaker: We didn't have that, you know, 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker: You'd have to go, yeah, you can read a book.
Speaker: I mean, books are sources of mentors, but you'd often have to have a physical mentor.
Speaker: Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker: I recommend that you actually do see a mentor in person.
Speaker: But while you're starting out right now and you don't have access to somebody like that, the next best thing is to start immersing yourself in audiobooks, right?
Speaker: Audiobooks, podcasts like this one.
Speaker: reading books, attending seminars, webinars, just finding people who have done what you want to accomplish and learning from them.
Speaker: You can have a virtual mentor.
Speaker: I mean, some of the greatest mentors in my life are people that maybe I've met once at a conference, but it's often people I don't meet, right?
Speaker: Like Gary Vaynerchuk's a great mentor of mine.
Speaker: Yeah, I met him one time, but it's not enough to actually get real value from him.
Speaker: I get value from his podcast and his YouTube videos.
Speaker: Zig Ziglar, right, was a great mentor.
Speaker: He's not alive at this point, but I still consistently learn from him like a lot of other sales professionals have.
Speaker: Grant Cardone, I've only met him one time, but I always learned to him.
Speaker: He's one of the biggest mentors in my life.
Speaker: So find these people.
Speaker: Find people you could really learn from.
Speaker: Start immersing yourself in with them and find those mentors.
Speaker: So second is with the environment, okay?
Speaker: Control the environment you're around, the environment of things you do and people you hang around with.
Speaker: So here's the deal.
Speaker: And this is the most difficult part.
Speaker: And it's going to tell if you're serious about making this happen.
Speaker: Take a good look at your friends.
Speaker: Who are you hanging out with?
Speaker: If you're hanging out with friends that are not having the goals you want, if they're telling you things like, hey, you know what, maybe this sales thing's not for you.
Speaker: Why don't you just go back to school?
Speaker: Why don't you just do this?
Speaker: Just get a regular job.
Speaker: Why can't you just be like us, right?
Speaker: Those are all low-level things that
Speaker: are gonna affect your result ultimately, okay?
Speaker: And for me, that was a huge part.
Speaker: When I started, I had a lot of friends that were not where I wanted to.
Speaker: They were telling me things like, hey, give up on this.
Speaker: Even family members were doing that.
Speaker: I recall my dad specifically when I was living at home at that point, said, when are you gonna give up this whole solar thing?
Speaker: When are you gonna give up the sales thing?
Speaker: We're not a family of salespeople.
Speaker: What makes you think you could be a good sales guy?
Speaker: What makes you think you can make a million dollars a year, right?
Speaker: Those things get in your brain, right?
Speaker: You have to control that environment.
Speaker: So what I did, I literally cut out those friends, right?
Speaker: As harsh as it sounds, I told them, hey, you know what?
Speaker: This is what I got to do for the next five, 10 years.
Speaker: I got to put my head down.
Speaker: I got to focus.
Speaker: And I think we should just keep this at an acquaintance level, really.
Speaker: And, you know, it was rough.
Speaker: They were offended by it.
Speaker: And ultimately, it was the biggest difference.
Speaker: As soon as I did that, boom, I had something to prove.
Speaker: I had...
Speaker: know i had that extra that that good solid environment i replaced those people with mentors like zig ziglar and grant cardone and all these virtual mentors and i went and i actually sought out new people that were out of my comfort zone out of my comfort bubble so that's the next step right you find those uh those virtual mentors but second is finding somebody physically that you can look up to and listen to there's nothing like actually having a real person teach you something you
Speaker: Yes, you can learn a lot over your phone, on YouTube, podcast, but actually having somebody there to guide you makes a huge difference.
Speaker: And ultimately, I found a guy at the first company I worked with who was over in New York City, right?
Speaker: And his name was Rich.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I'll keep his last name confidential.
Speaker: His name is Rich.
Speaker: And he ultimately, he made multiple seven figures in commissions in solar.
Speaker: And at the time, I had no idea that was possible.
Speaker: I was just barely clearing a couple thousand dollars a month and mainly just getting that from base commissions and stuff like that, a base salary.
Speaker: But I saw this guy, he's making over a million dollars in commissions.
Speaker: And I'm like, how is this possible?
Speaker: So I ultimately tried to learn from him, right?
Speaker: And he agreed.
Speaker: You know, he was a great guy.
Speaker: He agreed to be my mentor.
Speaker: But it didn't come easy at first.
Speaker: He would have me consistently prove myself.
Speaker: He'd said, okay, well, go do this.
Speaker: Come back to me after you make $8,000 in a month selling commissions.
Speaker: This is what you should do.
Speaker: Come back to me after that.
Speaker: And then I'd come back to him and give me some more advice.
Speaker: Come back to me after you make $20,000 in a month.
Speaker: I'm like, all right, cool, cool.
Speaker: And it'd take five, six months.
Speaker: And that's how he'd mentor me, right?
Speaker: It wasn't a comfortable thing at all.
Speaker: He would constantly push me.
Speaker: He would say, hey, well, maybe you should take a look at what you're doing at this time of the day.
Speaker: What are you doing?
Speaker: Are you driving to appointments all the time?
Speaker: Can you maybe replace that with a phone call?
Speaker: Save yourself that 30 to 60 minutes and then go make another appointment.
Speaker: Like he would consistently push me, right?
Speaker: And it was a way that was different and specific to me than what I would get over on a YouTube video.
Speaker: because you're not gonna receive tailored advice unless it's somebody in person.
Speaker: And yes, you should be smart enough to apply that in a certain circumstance, but if you want that tailored advice to be specifically for you, an in-person mentor who's actually done what you're going to do, that's gonna help more than anything.
Speaker: So go find somebody in the industry that you look up to and admire,
Speaker: that can help you in person.
Speaker: That's what our program is designed to do.
Speaker: Just a shameless plug.
Speaker: We actually assign every sales rep in our program, our mentorship and sales training program, a specific solar mentor that's going to guide them through this, right?
Speaker: That's done what they want to accomplish and can help them out.
Speaker: So whether it's myself or our other team members, we tirelessly vet out the only the best of the best to help you guys grow.
Speaker: Because we value mentorship more than really anything than just going through a course.
Speaker: You need to have somebody there that you can be accountable to.
Speaker: That's going to help you make that 30K in your first 90 days.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So next is raise your standard of ethics.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So here's the deal.
Speaker: And I'm just switching that out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Ethics is a huge difference between the top producers and the non K and there's a huge problem in the solar industry right now and that's why our company got started K
Speaker: That problem is ethics.
Speaker: Too often, salespeople are just trying to make a quick buck.
Speaker: They're in it for today's commission, and they say they're just going to go ahead and get somebody else.
Speaker: They're going to knock and walk.
Speaker: They're going to knock on the door.
Speaker: They're going to talk to the guy.
Speaker: If he doesn't close, they're just going to say, screw it.
Speaker: I'm going to go get somebody else.
Speaker: The problem with this is
Speaker: It's just like in life, business, and sales.
Speaker: It's all about the long-term game, okay?
Speaker: What you do today, it doesn't just impact today.
Speaker: It impacts three months, six months, 12 months, five years, 10 years down the road.
Speaker: It continuously is a compounding effect.
Speaker: So you need to take actions that are ethical and build the brand, the personal brand that you want 20, 30 years down the road like you defined in your vision, your why, right?
Speaker: So let me ask you this.
Speaker: There's two paths.
Speaker: And I find most salespeople just fall into these two categories.
Speaker: There's the guy who only cares about maybe he stretches the truth a little bit on the contract.
Speaker: Maybe he's trying to hide something.
Speaker: Maybe he's saying, oh, yeah, I kind of believe in this product right to himself.
Speaker: He thinks his company's kind of good.
Speaker: It's about 80, 90 percent of there.
Speaker: But he doesn't fully believe it.
Speaker: He wouldn't put solar on his own house.
Speaker: But he's not going to tell the prospect that.
Speaker: So he stretches the truth a little bit.
Speaker: And what happens, right?
Speaker: That prospect later finds out what that salesperson is trying to hide.
Speaker: They feel ripped off.
Speaker: They don't trust the prospect.
Speaker: They don't trust the company.
Speaker: And ultimately, everything is damaged because of that.
Speaker: And long term, you're not going to get referrals.
Speaker: You're going to get bad business.
Speaker: You're going to get negative reviews.
Speaker: These are all things that are an impact of you just trying to stretch something so you can make a quick buck today.
Speaker: Now, the other guy, this is the true professional.
Speaker: Maybe he says something that's not in his best interest.
Speaker: Maybe he says, you know what?
Speaker: I don't think solar is going to make sense for you guys today.
Speaker: I don't think this is the best investment for your family.
Speaker: I wouldn't do it if I were you in this case.
Speaker: Guess what happens now?
Speaker: Yeah, that prospect might not do business.
Speaker: You might not make a commission today.
Speaker: But guess what you just got from this prospect that is more valuable than any commission or anything else in business?
Speaker: It's the amount of trust and credibility.
Speaker: This prospect now trusts that you are looking out for more than just yourself.
Speaker: You're looking out for other people.
Speaker: And that is so valuable because now you're going to have that prospect go and maybe it didn't work for him, but he's going to go recommend you to a friend.
Speaker: And instantly that friend is going to trust you more than any other competitor.
Speaker: I can't tell you how many deals I've actually won because I looked out for my prospect first.
Speaker: I went in there.
Speaker: I didn't go through my sales pitch for 30 minutes.
Speaker: I can even recall this quick story here.
Speaker: I went to a prospect's house, right?
Speaker: And she was a middle-aged woman and she was single.
Speaker: And basically I could tell that she was not interested in solar right from the beginning.
Speaker: And it was my bad for even going over to her house for the appointment because I believe it was an incentive we had around Christmas break.
Speaker: And they were talking about, we were giving out like a popcorn bucket at a movie theater as an incentive.
Speaker: And I could tell she just wanted this popcorn bucket.
Speaker: It was one of those refillable buckets and she wasn't really interested.
Speaker: But, you know, I still went over average level self.
Speaker: I went over and I tried to sell her and it took maybe five, 10 minutes.
Speaker: I could just realize she was not in it.
Speaker: She just wanted it.
Speaker: I said, all right, I'm just going to stop right here.
Speaker: You're not interested in this, are you?
Speaker: And she's like, well, it threw her off.
Speaker: She's like, no.
Speaker: She's like, the truth is we're moving in six months and it doesn't make sense for us to go solar right now.
Speaker: I said, you know what?
Speaker: Okay, here's a popcorn bucket.
Speaker: You've heard the spiel.
Speaker: I mean, you could call it if you want to listen to more.
Speaker: I mean, I can help you if this is something you want to do in the future.
Speaker: I can help you out.
Speaker: But if it's not, let's just call it a night.
Speaker: And I'm sorry for wasting your time.
Speaker: Guess what happened at this point?
Speaker: She said, you know what?
Speaker: You're the only sales guy that has ever done something remotely close to this.
Speaker: I always just have to listen to people and they just spiel on and on and I'm not interested.
Speaker: She's like, the amount of respect I have for you and your company now is through the roof.
Speaker: I'm going to recommend some people right now.
Speaker: She whips out her phone.
Speaker: She sends me three contacts and she later on sent me six customers, six customers over a three month period.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's a huge deal, right?
Speaker: All because I had the confidence to call it out, right?
Speaker: And not continue spilling.
Speaker: And I lowered down, you know, my guard on it.
Speaker: I wasn't selfish and wanted to just get through my pitch and push for today's sale.
Speaker: I held back.
Speaker: I looked out for the customer and I got six customers in return.
Speaker: Now, you might not always get it like that, right?
Speaker: It doesn't always happen like that, but the long term, this is how you want to be playing in the sales world.
Speaker: You want to be looking out for your people and you want to maintain a high level of ethics.
Speaker: Don't stretch the truth.
Speaker: Tell it like it is.
Speaker: It's going to serve you so much better than what 90% of salespeople are doing.
Speaker: And here's the deal, guys.
Speaker: The truth hurts with this, all right?
Speaker: A lot of salespeople are lying to their customers and prospects.
Speaker: I found this out in one of the first companies I worked with, a startup solar company.
Speaker: I found out how dishonest salespeople were being because I noticed in the disconnect between when salespeople say something to the customer and when customer service is having that onboarding call with the new customer, the new client.
Speaker: There was so much discrepancy, right?
Speaker: It changed.
Speaker: It was like a game of telephone to where the customer service person's like, what the heck?
Speaker: Like, we didn't say anything.
Speaker: We didn't say we were going to do that.
Speaker: I mean, there was some outlandish lies going on.
Speaker: And it made me really question, like, why do so many salespeople do that?
Speaker: It's because they feel desperate that they don't have the tools and knowledge to really practice business in an ethical, long-term way.
Speaker: That's how we got started.
Speaker: We're like, let's give the reps these tools they need so they don't have to go and lie and talk about crap to their customer.
Speaker: They can actually look out for them and provide long-term value and trust.
Speaker: And that's the key difference between the top producers.
Speaker: Okay, so let's get to the last one.
Speaker: Okay, and that's to develop the closers mindset.
Speaker: So we hear a lot about the closer in the sales world, right?
Speaker: ABC, always be closing, right?
Speaker: The closers are the guys who get the job done, right?
Speaker: They get the money in there.
Speaker: But here's the deal.
Speaker: You have to act like a closer before you become one, all right?
Speaker: You have to, in your mind, make the shift from I am just a sales guy to I'm a closer.
Speaker: And the way you do that is you start keeping the promises that
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You need to actually trust yourself more than you trust other people.
Speaker: You need to trust that you're going to come through and you're going to follow through with what you say.
Speaker: And that's how a closer behaves.
Speaker: A closer recognizes that nobody's going to benefit from a sale unless the deal is done, unless the contract is signed.
Speaker: And if he fails to do that, he knows that he's not only failed himself and his family and that they're not going to benefit from the commission, but he's also realized that now this prospect is going to be forced to go somewhere else that's less superior, somewhere else that doesn't have their best interest in mind, all because he was selfish and he didn't want to finish what he started.
Speaker: So as a closer, the mindset you need to have is that everything is closing, okay?
Speaker: From the time in the morning with the alarm clock, as we talked about, that's closing, okay?
Speaker: To convincing somebody to go somewhere for dinner, right?
Speaker: That's closing.
Speaker: To convincing somebody that you should be in sales, that you have the potential to be in sales, that's closing.
Speaker: Everything is closing.
Speaker: Finishing something that you started.
Speaker: If you say you're going to read a book, finish the book, okay?
Speaker: Okay, that's closing because if you don't finish that book, you've told your subconscious mind that you're not a finisher.
Speaker: You're not a closer and that's going to carry through to everything.
Speaker: Your sales pipeline, your finances, your family, your fitness, everything.
Speaker: You need to finish what you start at all costs.
Speaker: I'm so passionate about this guys.
Speaker: If you can't tell as the tone's kind of changed in this podcast,
Speaker: Closing is a lifestyle.
Speaker: It's not just a part of sales.
Speaker: It's not a checkbox.
Speaker: Sales is life.
Speaker: And the top producers that make that shift, that key fundamental shift, that's the biggest reason they become successful and who they are.
Speaker: Learn to close and you'll never be without money again.
Speaker: So here's the deal, guys.
Speaker: We went over these seven strategies.
Speaker: What you're going to notice is these seven strategies are almost all having to do with mindset.
Speaker: Because here's the deal.
Speaker: In business, in sales, in life, 80%
Speaker: of what you do is mindset.
Speaker: 20% is the mechanics and the actions.
Speaker: Most sales guys get caught up on the cool lines, right?
Speaker: The patterns, the strategies, the reverse psychology, all of these things, but they forget about the mindset, right?
Speaker: There's a million guys that have graduated from Harvard, MBAs, they've got all these fancy degrees and whatnot, and they know the technical know-how, they know the mechanics, but they still are struggling paycheck to paycheck, right?
Speaker: They're still struggling to make deals,
Speaker: I can't tell you how many guys we've had enter into my teams and on companies I've worked with.
Speaker: They're really smart guys on paper.
Speaker: They know their stuff, but they ultimately end up struggling.
Speaker: And the reason is their mindset is not there.
Speaker: Their belief around money, right?
Speaker: Their environment they're hanging out with, the people around them, okay?
Speaker: Their value, their purpose of what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker: how they value their time.
Speaker: These are all key mindsets that are going to keep you back from reaching that $10,000 a month for your first three months.
Speaker: So focus in on the mindset more than anything.
Speaker: This podcast, today's episode, is all about teaching you the mindset fundamentals.
Speaker: If you take these strategies right now, you can make any other sales strategy work for you.
Speaker: I don't care if you've got the most piece of crap sales line in the world.
Speaker: If your intention is in the right place and you actually want to help somebody, they don't even care.
Speaker: They're still going to buy from you because that's not what salespeople do.
Speaker: What salespeople do...
Speaker: is they look out for themselves and their paycheck today closers on the other hand the people who the the one percent the top performing guys they know how to build long-term trust they are in for the long game and they're the guys who make it and are successful and build lasting careers they are the guys who are going to pioneer the solar movement that's going on right now and it is a movement it's so early in the game right now that if you get in right now
Speaker: full on, both feet in the water, right?
Speaker: And you actually look forward to the long-term and you do what it takes to develop long-term success, you're going to make millions and billions of dollars in this industry.
Speaker: That's all you got to do, guys.
Speaker: That's the seven steps.
Speaker: So as always, thanks for listening to the episode, guys.
Speaker: If you found any value, go ahead, bring a friend, tell them about this podcast, check out our YouTube channel.
Speaker: And then lastly, guys, just an announcement here.
Speaker: We are starting out on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
Speaker: Mountain Standard Time.
Speaker: we're gonna start a new Solar Sales Academy show, okay?
Speaker: It's 11 a.m., not Mountain Standard, Central Standard Time, as I said, 11 a.m., and we're gonna go over all the training, right?
Speaker: We're gonna teach you for an hour every day.
Speaker: Me and my partner, Will, some of our other guys on the team, we're gonna teach you real, tangible strategies, just like we teach our sales team.
Speaker: Our personal sales team will be on these calls.
Speaker: We're not holding anything back, okay?
Speaker: You don't need to buy our course or program.
Speaker: You can learn everything in these episodes.
Speaker: So go.
Speaker: Check it out.
Speaker: It's free.
Speaker: We're putting it out because we want to impact you guys.
Speaker: We want to help you grow.
Speaker: We want to help you create the career and the lifestyle that we know is possible, that we've done ourselves in the industry.
Speaker: You just got to put in the work, okay?
Speaker: We'll give you the strategies.
Speaker: We'll give you the mechanics.
Speaker: We'll tell you the mindset.
Speaker: You just got to apply it, just like today's episode.
Speaker: So guys, again, thanks for joining on the episode.
Speaker: As always, Tuesdays, Fridays, we're going to give you these valuable pieces of content you can use to grow your pipeline.
Speaker: And until next time, guys, go crush it, and we'll see you real soon.
