Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How to Become a D2D Millionaire - Lenny Gray image

How to Become a D2D Millionaire - Lenny Gray

E158 ยท The Solarpreneur
Avatar
68 Plays4 years ago

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Ok What's going on Solarpreneurs. We're back with another show and we've got at legend in the door to door industry. He's written multiple books now, and I'm super excited to have him on the show. We've got the one, the only Lenny Gray. So thanks for coming on the show with us today, Lenny. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks Taylor. Yeah, I'm super excited. And we were talking just, um, before the recording here, how I just finished your new book that came out and, um, I had been posting just a little, like, you know, highlights of it on my Instagram every few days. And it's crazy. We've been getting just message after message. What is that book? I've never seen a book like that, but it's sent off probably 50 messages and, um, should have put it in the title. Cause I kinda got sick of sending out the same message. It's the next door to door or door to door a millionaire.

Speaker 2 (01:34):

But yeah, so people loved it. So congrats on the book. Plenty. It's huge accomplishment right in a book like that. So no, thank you. I appreciate it. So I, uh, it's kinda funny when I wrote the first one, it was really to kind of get out of the door to door sales industry. I was kind of doing some other things and I thought that was kind of my stamp on the industry and it threw me back in, uh, more violently than ever. So I, uh, I jumped back in and again, the first book I wrote was eight years ago. So this is uh, eight years in the making and the second book. And it's definitely, as it says in the title, it kind of takes things to the next level. So a lot more experienced, uh well-versed door to door reps seem to appreciate the second book a lot better even than the first one.

Speaker 2 (02:16):

Yeah. Yeah. That's how I felt for sure. So yeah, I mean, it's gotta be a ton of work right. In a book like that. I mean, I've thought about random book, but I'm like, man, it seems like so much work. So where you always well, at what point did you decide that you needed to write even a second book? So I, you know, I was an English minor in college, so I figured I'd put that to good use maybe. I don't know, but uh, didn't really have, uh, you know, a desire to write a book necessarily, but boy, I just had so much experience in so many things and it kind of another motivation for me was when I first got into the door to door sales, like late nineties, right. Forever ago, I'm a dinosaur. But when I got into these, uh, into this industry, I mean literally the company I worked for handed me a training manual that was, you know, 10, 15 pages long.

Speaker 2 (03:04):

And I was like, that's it? And, and I felt so unequipped to go out and knock any doors. And so I, I just felt with that as my background and then also what I heard and what we still hear in the industry unfortunately, is kind of the lie cheat and steal your way to the top. Like I just, I didn't love that at all. And I, and I I'm just so anti that, that I

Recommended
Transcript

Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast

00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to 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?
00:00:33
Speaker
A 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.
00:00:42
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
We are back with another show, and we've got a legend in the door-to-door industry.
00:00:49
Speaker
He's written multiple books now, and I'm super excited to have him on the show.
00:00:54
Speaker
We've got the one, the only, Lenny Gray.
00:00:56
Speaker
So thanks for coming on the show with us today, Lenny.
00:00:59
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:01:00
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it.
00:01:01
Speaker
Thanks, Taylor.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm super

Lenny Gray's Books and Motivation

00:01:03
Speaker
excited.
00:01:03
Speaker
And we were talking just before the recording here, how I just finished your new book that came out.
00:01:10
Speaker
And I've been posting just little like, you know, highlights of it on my Instagram every few days.
00:01:15
Speaker
And it's crazy.
00:01:16
Speaker
We've been getting just message after message.
00:01:18
Speaker
What is that book?
00:01:19
Speaker
I've never seen a book like that.
00:01:21
Speaker
What is that book?
00:01:21
Speaker
So sent off probably 50 messages and should have put it in the title because I kind of got sick of sending out the same message.
00:01:29
Speaker
It's the next door to door, more door to door millionaire.
00:01:34
Speaker
But yeah, so people loved it.
00:01:35
Speaker
So congrats on the book, Lenny.
00:01:37
Speaker
It's a huge accomplishment writing a book like that.
00:01:39
Speaker
No, thank you.
00:01:41
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:01:41
Speaker
So it's kind of funny.
00:01:43
Speaker
When I wrote the first one, it was really to kind of get out of the door-to-door sales industry.
00:01:47
Speaker
I was kind of doing some other things, and I thought that was kind of my stamp on the industry, and it threw me back in.
00:01:53
Speaker
more violently than ever.
00:01:55
Speaker
So I jumped back in and again, the first book I wrote was eight years ago.
00:01:59
Speaker
So this is eight years in the making and the second book and it definitely, as it says in the title, kind of takes things to the next level.
00:02:06
Speaker
So a lot more experienced, well-versed door-to-door reps seem to appreciate the second book a lot better even than the first one.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's how I felt for sure.
00:02:18
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it's got to be a ton of work writing a book like that.
00:02:22
Speaker
I mean, I've thought about writing a book, but I'm like, man, it seems like so much work.
00:02:26
Speaker
So were you always, at what point did you decide that you needed to write even a second book?
00:02:32
Speaker
So I, you know, I was an English minor in college, so I figured I'd put that to good use maybe, I don't know.
00:02:37
Speaker
But didn't really have, you know, a desire to write a book necessarily.
00:02:44
Speaker
But boy, I just had so much experience and so many things.
00:02:48
Speaker
And
00:02:48
Speaker
It kind of another motivation for me was when I first got into door to door sales, like late 90s, right, forever ago, I'm a dinosaur.
00:02:55
Speaker
But when I got into these into this industry, I mean, literally, the company I worked for handed me a training manual that was, you know, 1015 pages long.
00:03:04
Speaker
And I was like, that's it.
00:03:06
Speaker
And I felt so unequipped to go out and knock any doors.

Success in Pest Control and Consulting

00:03:10
Speaker
And so I just felt with that as my background and then also what I heard and what we still hear in the industry, unfortunately, is kind of the lie, cheat and steal your way to the top.
00:03:21
Speaker
Like, I just, I didn't love that at all.
00:03:24
Speaker
And I'm just so anti that that I thought,
00:03:26
Speaker
you know what, if I just put out what I did and just put it right there on paper and let people know that, hey, you can sleep really good at night knowing you've done door to door the right way, that was kind of my motivation for writing the books.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:39
Speaker
I love that.
00:03:40
Speaker
And for those that haven't checked out Lenny as much, I mean, we'll post his bio and everything in the show notes, but he's sold thousands and thousands of pest control accounts, been one of the top reps of all time.
00:03:54
Speaker
What's your record?
00:03:54
Speaker
Like 1,300 pest accounts or is it more than that?
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, about 1,200, something like that in the summer.
00:03:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:01
Speaker
Primarily past, but now I run a consulting D2D Millionaire, kind of our consulting arm.
00:04:07
Speaker
And I'll tell you, I've consulted for just about anything and everything you can imagine to knock on somebody's door and sell.
00:04:15
Speaker
So it's, yeah, there's a lot of similarities within industries.
00:04:19
Speaker
There's some nuances that are a little unique.
00:04:22
Speaker
Solar being one of them, you know, there's some uniqueness with solar.
00:04:26
Speaker
But yeah, I've obviously been around the block a couple of times.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, huge.
00:04:30
Speaker
And I came from pest control.
00:04:33
Speaker
I wish I had quit it on better in pest control because I was one of the guys that kind of

Universal Sales Concepts Across Industries

00:04:39
Speaker
sucked at pest control.
00:04:40
Speaker
I wish I would have had you training me.
00:04:42
Speaker
I only did like, I don't know, 150 accounts in pest control.
00:04:46
Speaker
So luckily it's gone a lot better in solar for me.
00:04:49
Speaker
But one of the things I love about pest is if you can come from pest, I feel like you can be successful in pretty much any door-to-door thing because solar, it's, I mean, we're just setting up appointments typically when we're out knocking doors.
00:05:01
Speaker
So I was used to getting full signed pest contracts out there.
00:05:05
Speaker
So I'm like, man, all I have to do is set up an appointment.
00:05:07
Speaker
This is easy.
00:05:08
Speaker
I don't have to have them sign anything today.
00:05:09
Speaker
I don't have to collect payment information.
00:05:11
Speaker
Sweet.
00:05:12
Speaker
So I just went out there and, you know,
00:05:14
Speaker
um booked a ton of appointments getting them to actually sit down and sign up sign up for solar that was kind of a different skill but uh for you lenny and all your consulting that you've done now with like solar what are um i don't know maybe some similarities some differences that you notice things that apply across the board what are some things you've noticed have you consulted different solar companies
00:05:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:35
Speaker
So, you know, I think the first thing is that the concepts that, you know, I teach in my books are, you know, for the most part universal,

Consulting Success and Industry Experience

00:05:43
Speaker
right?
00:05:43
Speaker
Like there's nothing about body language or metaverbal, nonverbals.
00:05:48
Speaker
There's nothing that is out there that isn't applicable, not even just in door to door, but just in regular life experience, right?
00:05:55
Speaker
Like there's just things that you can do and the ways you can frame your questioning and your
00:06:02
Speaker
your not just your questioning, but your value building and how you build up the service that you're selling.
00:06:08
Speaker
It's really universal in any kind of communication setting.
00:06:11
Speaker
And I think with my, my solar, uh, my solar consulting that I've done for reps and for companies, it's, it's, it's a lot of, it's kind of more of the same, honestly, that, you know, I don't try to stray too far from the principles that I teach in any industry.
00:06:25
Speaker
In fact, I consulted for a company years ago, um,
00:06:29
Speaker
that actually is valued right now at over a billion dollars.
00:06:34
Speaker
It's a no credit check finance company.
00:06:37
Speaker
And I consulted for them and wrote all their training materials and manuals and kind of got on board early.
00:06:42
Speaker
I think I was one of the first six people in the room at that company.
00:06:46
Speaker
And yeah, they started from just an idea back in 2000.
00:06:51
Speaker
It was just right after I wrote my books, my first book.
00:06:54
Speaker
So it must've been like 2012, 2013.
00:06:55
Speaker
I kind of jumped on board.
00:06:58
Speaker
And for about a year and a half, I kind of put all their processes together.
00:07:02
Speaker
And it was very similar, even though it was B2B.
00:07:04
Speaker
It wasn't even door to door.
00:07:05
Speaker
It was business to business.
00:07:08
Speaker
And again, this company is an absolute rocket ship.
00:07:10
Speaker
And now they're valued at over a billion dollars.
00:07:13
Speaker
They sold like a third of their company for 330 some odd million back in 2019.
00:07:19
Speaker
And it's just fun to see, to help companies to get to that point, regardless if they're solar, they're pests, they're
00:07:25
Speaker
finance it it's a lot of the concepts and principles are very similar yeah definitely and yeah I know you've uh you know done it all you've sold pests you've started your own companies um do you still have your your pest company or are you just doing primarily the consulting now
00:07:43
Speaker
No, I've got my own pest company still, Rove Pest Control.
00:07:46
Speaker
We've built that in some areas.
00:07:49
Speaker
We've sold it.
00:07:50
Speaker
We've started again.
00:07:52
Speaker
We've built, we've sold.
00:07:53
Speaker
We're kind of back in growth mode right now.
00:07:55
Speaker
We're in five states, have about six offices in those states.
00:08:00
Speaker
And so we're, yeah, we're back, you know, running, which I think it gives me a unique perspective.
00:08:06
Speaker
As far as my consulting goes, there's some uniqueness with that because when I consult for people, I'm running a business day-to-day.

Technology and Sales Efficiency

00:08:13
Speaker
I'm not just saying, hey, this worked 10 years ago or this worked whenever.
00:08:18
Speaker
I'm literally running a business day-to-day right now, knocking doors with sales reps, going out in the field.
00:08:25
Speaker
Nothing's too big for me, I guess.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I love, yeah, I think it's so much more powerful being trained from that perspective, being like, no guys, I was literally out last weekend and this thing works for me.
00:08:38
Speaker
I'm not just saying this, it's 10 years ago.
00:08:41
Speaker
So I think it's super powerful on something I try to do in my podcast is share what's currently working as I go out on the doors myself and close deals.
00:08:49
Speaker
But that being said, I mean, you've been in this forever since 1998, right?
00:08:52
Speaker
That's when you first started.
00:08:55
Speaker
So I didn't even know door-to-door existed.
00:08:57
Speaker
Then I was like five years old at that point.
00:09:00
Speaker
There weren't cell phones either, crazy enough.
00:09:02
Speaker
Like the technology nowadays is probably what's the most different of anything in the industry to me.
00:09:09
Speaker
Like talking to people is kind of talking to people.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
You kind of have your skill set for communicating with people.
00:09:15
Speaker
That hasn't changed as much as just the technology.
00:09:17
Speaker
I mean, it's just awesome.
00:09:19
Speaker
I literally remember logging my area on the back of a flyer.
00:09:23
Speaker
I'd write the addresses of the homes and check it if I sold them or exit out if I didn't sell them, they told me no.
00:09:29
Speaker
Or if I had a call back, I'd put their number and I literally was handwriting everything.
00:09:33
Speaker
It wasn't until...
00:09:35
Speaker
I think my third year selling door-to-door that I even had a cell phone.
00:09:38
Speaker
And it wasn't a smartphone, obviously.
00:09:40
Speaker
It was just a regular dial-up cell phone.
00:09:42
Speaker
So yeah, I think technology has made the door-to-door industry even a little bit, it facilitates even more

Time Management and Customer Feedback

00:09:51
Speaker
sales.
00:09:51
Speaker
I mean, that's why you see these guys nowadays just killing it.
00:09:54
Speaker
And I think a lot of it has to do with, well, there's more material out there to be trained on.
00:09:58
Speaker
But then secondly is, I think technology is just a huge piece in helping people to maximize their daily schedule.
00:10:06
Speaker
yeah no doubt i mean it's crazy all the different tools and softwares we have like you know the rep cards the cells rabbit all these different types of things the scooter you probably didn't have the segues and all that back when you first started right no i just had sneakers that was it yeah that was my a to b so i'm graffitis yeah yeah
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, I started in 2012.
00:10:28
Speaker
And even then, they were just starting to come out with a few things.
00:10:32
Speaker
But they handed us, you know, our chunk of chalk, and we're out there just chalking the neighborhood.
00:10:37
Speaker
John X's on big X's in front of the house that said no.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:42
Speaker
So yeah, that's changed a ton and definitely made it easier, I think.
00:10:48
Speaker
But yeah, so Lenny, I want to jump into kind of maybe a few specific things.
00:10:51
Speaker
I'm sure a lot of guys will go read your book, but I want to share, maybe jump into a few things that I thought were super cool in your book that I learned.
00:10:59
Speaker
And then maybe you can like elaborate on a few of them and tell your experiences and kind of how you even thought of these things.
00:11:07
Speaker
So I'm just going through a few of, you know, the sections of your book.
00:11:10
Speaker
And one of the things in the first part, you talked about like earning time and just being more time efficient, basically on the doors.
00:11:20
Speaker
And something that I had never really thought of was this whole three door rule where you're, you know, only if you don't talk to someone in three doors, you go, you know, you look for someone that's for sure going to be there the next time.
00:11:35
Speaker
So that was really cool and something I've been like, you know, talking about training about because I had never really specifically thought of that.
00:11:42
Speaker
How did you come up with that for your guys?
00:11:43
Speaker
Was that just like based on your experience?
00:11:45
Speaker
You thought, oh, I'm gonna for sure get someone on the fourth door.
00:11:49
Speaker
How did you come up with these time efficiency things?
00:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, so I think that door-to-door sales to me is insanely boring if I don't have somebody standing in front of me and you don't make any money, right?
00:12:01
Speaker
Like the only way you make money in door-to-door sales is you're actually talking to a homeowner.
00:12:05
Speaker
And so when I was out knocking doors early in my career and I'd just knock on door after door and nobody was home or I was just not getting a good response, like to me, it's like...
00:12:15
Speaker
I just, it was, like I said, just insanely boring for me.
00:12:19
Speaker
And I just, I've always got to be doing something.
00:12:22
Speaker
I'm just kind of one of those guys that's always got to be busy.
00:12:24
Speaker
And I just, I just hated that.
00:12:26
Speaker
So I just kind of decided, okay, if I knock three doors and nobody answers, then I don't care if I have to walk a block or two blocks, I'm going to see kids playing out in the yard or a garage door open or somebody out doing yard work.
00:12:38
Speaker
I just, I got to just talk to a human being because- Right.
00:12:41
Speaker
I can only have conversations in my head for so long to where I just bore myself.
00:12:46
Speaker
So that's kind of what it grew from.
00:12:48
Speaker
My three-door rule is just, you know what, just go out and talk to people.
00:12:51
Speaker
Because again, really, you're only being effective.
00:12:53
Speaker
You're only making money.
00:12:55
Speaker
You're only having fun with this job if you're actually talking to another human being.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's huge.
00:13:02
Speaker
And yeah, how many people waste so much time just going door after door.
00:13:06
Speaker
And I think even with new reps, you've probably seen this too, Lenny, but you get these new reps that are still like scared to go knock a door.
00:13:14
Speaker
And some of these guys, I can't believe it, they're like crossing their fingers sometimes that people don't answer the door.
00:13:19
Speaker
It's like they feel like they're out working, but they're like, oh, yeah, I'm just not having

Adapting Sales Strategies for Demographics

00:13:23
Speaker
sex.
00:13:23
Speaker
I didn't talk to anyone, but I was still working.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
Flyer guy, right?
00:13:27
Speaker
Like, if I can throw a bunch of flyers, then I'll feel like I'm, I'm being productive.
00:13:32
Speaker
So probably the wrong, probably the wrong industry.
00:13:38
Speaker
Like, come on guys.
00:13:39
Speaker
But yeah, so that's something that's been helping.
00:13:42
Speaker
I just kind of like more specific for our guys.
00:13:45
Speaker
Cause I always thought of that, but we never had like a set rule in place for our teams.
00:13:49
Speaker
Like, come on guys, go talk to someone for sure.
00:13:51
Speaker
After three doors.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:53
Speaker
And I know you have some other sections, but anything else, I guess, as far as like managing time on the doors, anything else that have helped your teams and your guys out a lot for people you've consulted?
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, for me, a lot of it too is a big thing I preach on is what are you thinking about in between the doors, right?
00:14:11
Speaker
Like where does your mind go?
00:14:12
Speaker
I think the best reps that I've been around are the reps that in between the doors, they're looking for ways to improve.
00:14:19
Speaker
They're actually having those conversations with themselves about,
00:14:22
Speaker
What happened on that last door?
00:14:23
Speaker
What could I have done better?
00:14:24
Speaker
You know, could, could I have, maybe if I asked this question or man, I totally blew it when I asked that question, I asked that yes, no question.
00:14:30
Speaker
That was horrible.
00:14:31
Speaker
I gotta, you know, I gotta eliminate that.
00:14:33
Speaker
And so I think what's going on in your headspace in between doors is such a crucial skill because,
00:14:39
Speaker
Nowadays with our cell phones, right, which I didn't have to bother me, that ding and beep and buzz and do all these things.
00:14:46
Speaker
And you can have so many notifications from whatever social media platform you use or emails, text messages.
00:14:52
Speaker
You can just get bothered so much out knocking doors.
00:14:55
Speaker
It's how do you stay focused going door to door?
00:14:58
Speaker
How do you keep your head in the game?
00:15:00
Speaker
Because all of us know that have done this before.
00:15:03
Speaker
like door-to-door sales is 90% mental, right?
00:15:06
Speaker
Like 10%, yeah, you're out, you know, knocking doors or you're out in the heat.
00:15:10
Speaker
I get that.
00:15:11
Speaker
That can be hard.
00:15:11
Speaker
That can be difficult.
00:15:13
Speaker
But the reality of it is the hardest thing is, is just having in your head space, you know, making sure your head's in the game, head's right.
00:15:22
Speaker
I got a guy mowing the lawn out here.
00:15:24
Speaker
Apologize.
00:15:26
Speaker
I think he's going the other way though.
00:15:28
Speaker
Maybe.
00:15:29
Speaker
I don't know.
00:15:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:31
Speaker
He might be coming towards us.
00:15:32
Speaker
might have to run from the lawnmower.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
This is real life.
00:15:36
Speaker
No, he's going to, he's going to roll right behind me and I think he's going to be out of here.
00:15:39
Speaker
So maybe we just give him a sec.
00:15:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:42
Speaker
All the solarpreneurs can say hi to the lawnmower man.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:46
Speaker
It's not bad.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
Lenny's Lenny's out in the hood as we speak.
00:15:49
Speaker
So he might just go hit some doors after this.
00:15:52
Speaker
Why not?
00:15:53
Speaker
Why not?
00:15:54
Speaker
So actually he's going to keep mowing.
00:15:55
Speaker
So, um,
00:15:59
Speaker
It's not too loud.
00:16:00
Speaker
I can't hear it too much.
00:16:02
Speaker
It's probably fine.
00:16:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:05
Speaker
But yeah, and then another thing I was... Sorry, we finished.
00:16:10
Speaker
I was just going to say just one other thing that I talk about in the book is the importance of, in my sense of lawn mowing, cutting lawns.
00:16:17
Speaker
That was another section of my book.
00:16:20
Speaker
And I've got a little bit of flack for that, honestly, on like the D2D Millionaire YouTube channel and that kind of stuff.
00:16:26
Speaker
Like people are like, how can you cut across lawns?
00:16:28
Speaker
And I kind of share an experience that I had, you know, my only really bad experience cutting lawns.
00:16:33
Speaker
But that's another thing is just efficiencies in between doors.
00:16:36
Speaker
That's how I save a lot of time.
00:16:38
Speaker
And I actually have a little equation I put in the book there of,
00:16:42
Speaker
If you're walking across somebody's driveway and down the sidewalk and up on the porch and going that routine versus just cutting across the lawn, how much time you could save in a three or four month period, it's mind boggling just how those seconds add up day to day.
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:16:58
Speaker
And that's something that I know a lot of pest companies train in that.
00:17:02
Speaker
But when I got in solar, I told people, oh, you guys, like none of the guys I worked with cut lawns.
00:17:08
Speaker
And I was like, wait a second, you guys don't like cut across the lawns?
00:17:11
Speaker
Like, no, you're going to make people mad.
00:17:13
Speaker
I'm like, come on, guys.
00:17:15
Speaker
It's going to save tons of time.
00:17:17
Speaker
So especially for solar, I don't know what it is about solar, but most solar guys aren't trained on that, I guess.
00:17:23
Speaker
Probably just because we knock less doors than pest control and alarms we're used to being.
00:17:28
Speaker
We're probably the lazier sales reps and just knocking fewer doors.
00:17:33
Speaker
So I think that is a good thing that our solar guys need to hear.
00:17:36
Speaker
It's got to cross lawns.
00:17:38
Speaker
You know what I do if I was selling solar and I was cutting across lawns, I'd make sure when I'm cutting across lawns that what I'm doing is I'm actually looking at the rooftop.
00:17:49
Speaker
Like I'm kind of doing a little bit of an inspection, right?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:53
Speaker
And I'm seeing, you know, maybe where the sun's hitting the roof.
00:17:58
Speaker
So I think, and then if you approach that home and somebody calls you out on it, like, oh, you were cutting across my lawn.
00:18:06
Speaker
It's really easy to say, you know what?
00:18:07
Speaker
I was just doing a quick inspection of your roof, you know, just kind of looking, you know, at the sun angle or the roof angles and seeing if a,
00:18:17
Speaker
solar panels would be really good for your roof or something along those lines to where, again, I mean, with the pest, right, you're looking at the lawn and the grass and the ground and you're trying to observe bugs.
00:18:27
Speaker
Well, I think the same concept could apply in solar and it might help your pitch to somebody if you actually have some data on, yeah, as I was kind of coming across your yard, I kind of noticed up here this, that, or the other.
00:18:40
Speaker
I think it could be used to your advantage during kind of that initial conversation.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, something we do is look at their electric panels.
00:18:48
Speaker
So that's almost the same concept because electric panels, you can tell if someone has a red sticker on their panel, that means they have solar.
00:18:56
Speaker
And a lot of times, you know, you're not necessarily trying to knock most of the homes that do have solar.
00:19:04
Speaker
So yeah, same concept, but I think anytime you can save some time and then...
00:19:09
Speaker
point out that we have a tool we use too that I've been talking about in the podcast.
00:19:13
Speaker
It's a app.
00:19:14
Speaker
So it's a sun seeker app.
00:19:15
Speaker
So you can show them basically the angles where the sun is hitting their roof.
00:19:19
Speaker
So yeah, I like that strategy.
00:19:21
Speaker
You're cutting across the lawn.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:22
Speaker
If you do have someone approach you, it's pull up the sun seeker app and say, Hey, no, I was just looking at your roof.
00:19:28
Speaker
Here's actually how the angles are hitting it.
00:19:30
Speaker
Have you heard what's going on in the neighborhood?
00:19:32
Speaker
Did Kathy cross the street tell you, um,
00:19:35
Speaker
So yeah, I love that part of your book and saving time.
00:19:39
Speaker
And then another thing that I thought was really good that you mentioned, I think in a later chapter, just like on training your reps is you have them send you like recordings.
00:19:48
Speaker
I know you're talking a little bit about that, just kind of analyzing door after door.
00:19:52
Speaker
Then you talk about having your reps send recordings of their interactions and that's been one of the number one ways you mentioned to help your reps.
00:20:02
Speaker
So do you have like with companies you're consulting, do you have
00:20:06
Speaker
Is that something you like have them do,

Training and Supporting Sales Reps

00:20:08
Speaker
have all the new reps do is send recordings or is it like guys are struggling and you say, okay, you've got a donut, you bagel this day, you need to send a recording or what's your philosophy with that?
00:20:19
Speaker
So I think this is one of the most key points of how you, you know, as a manager or as an owner of a company who can influence the most amount of reps in the, you know, the most efficient way possible, right?
00:20:33
Speaker
When we talk about saving time, it can even be off the doors.
00:20:36
Speaker
And so for me, when I started requiring that of my sales reps to where you have to send me so much audio per day, per week, whatever.
00:20:45
Speaker
I mean, I'll give you an example.
00:20:46
Speaker
So I was in Boston last week with my office, got, I don't know, a dozen or so reps there.
00:20:53
Speaker
And in the matter of probably six, seven hours while they were on the doors, I reviewed over 40 audio recordings from that group of reps,
00:21:03
Speaker
And I've had reps that since I've kind of tweaked a few things that they were doing that you can only hear on the doors.
00:21:09
Speaker
You cannot hear in a role play, right?
00:21:10
Speaker
You could only hear some things on the doors.
00:21:12
Speaker
Once I heard them, we've had these reps that were struggling to sell daily.
00:21:16
Speaker
They have sold every day since I was out there last week.
00:21:19
Speaker
And not that I credit it all to myself,
00:21:21
Speaker
But realistically, you can do your reps a lot of favors by going on the doors with them.
00:21:26
Speaker
That's a good thing.
00:21:28
Speaker
But I think even a more efficient, depending on how many reps you have too, the better approach would be how many of these reps can I influence today?
00:21:36
Speaker
And that could be done in higher volumes by actually requiring them to send you audio or video of them actually interacting with real people on the doors.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's money.
00:21:48
Speaker
So when you're training new reps, is it like a set schedule where you say, okay, you're new, you have to send X amount of recordings or just kind of like based on the week or do you have anything specific set up in your company where it's, um, they have to send a certain number or how does that work?
00:22:03
Speaker
So, yeah, when they're new out, you know, they have to send their manager at least weekly.
00:22:09
Speaker
And we try to get the manager that's there with them day to day to knock with them.
00:22:13
Speaker
Then kind of more of the upper level training would be, you know, you've gone a couple weeks, your manager's kind of critiqued you that he's kind of given you everything that he could give you as far as advice and ways to improve.
00:22:24
Speaker
Well, then if we need some higher guns to step in or just a different point of view, then we'll ask the manager to go ahead and send either me or some of my sales department heads, just some more experienced reps.
00:22:38
Speaker
Then they'll be required to send audio to them just to make sure, again, to me, how one person's sales can be...
00:22:46
Speaker
very different than how another person sells.
00:22:48
Speaker
So how a manager, what that manager hears versus what I may hear could be different.
00:22:53
Speaker
And I might connect or my manager might connect differently than another rep.
00:22:57
Speaker
So I think, you know, it's kind of that concept of, you know, you just surround people with goodness and greatness, and then it's going to rub off on them eventually in one regard or another.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:11
Speaker
Okay, I like that.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, something that our, I mean, companies I've been with struggle to kind of figure out is just like the schedule of how much should you have a new rep's shadow?
00:23:21
Speaker
Like if they're struggling, what do you do with them?
00:23:24
Speaker
Do you just say, try something else?
00:23:26
Speaker
So for you, as you've had your pest company, what does it look like for a new rep that's coming on first year?
00:23:31
Speaker
They don't have much experience.
00:23:32
Speaker
Do you have them shadow X amount of times?
00:23:35
Speaker
Or how do you onboard these new reps to have success?
00:23:38
Speaker
And then I guess, what have you seen other successful solar companies that maybe you've consulted do that's been working?
00:23:45
Speaker
So what we do is we actually have, I've developed an online training program.
00:23:50
Speaker
And my online training program is probably 40 plus hours of training.
00:23:55
Speaker
Plus I have three pre-season events that we do training as well that are probably another 12 hours.
00:24:01
Speaker
And so before anybody's knocked a door, they've gotten,
00:24:05
Speaker
at least they have the opportunity to a lot of it is up to them, right?
00:24:07
Speaker
The in-person stuff is, is pretty much a given.
00:24:10
Speaker
Everybody attends that.
00:24:12
Speaker
Um, the online stuff is kind of at their pacing.
00:24:14
Speaker
Um, but yeah, you could have up to 50 hours of just, you know, training before you knock a door.
00:24:20
Speaker
And I I've written a training manual for my own company.
00:24:23
Speaker
That's, you know, another 170 pages long or something crazy.
00:24:26
Speaker
It's like book three.
00:24:28
Speaker
Um,
00:24:29
Speaker
So again, I wanted my experience with my reps to be very different than what I had as a rep when I first started, you know, back in the day in the late 90s.
00:24:37
Speaker
Like, I just want it to be totally different.
00:24:39
Speaker
So we have 50 plus hours, you know, that a rep could get in preseason training.
00:24:44
Speaker
Then when they get out there, really, I'm kind of more of the mindset that, yeah, shadowing is good.
00:24:49
Speaker
And, you know, a manager should get out with his reps that first couple days, first three days, at least one time.
00:24:56
Speaker
And probably weekly their first month on the doors.
00:25:00
Speaker
Second month, probably at least every other week, unless a rep's struggling, then you go back to weekly.
00:25:06
Speaker
But, I mean...
00:25:08
Speaker
Again, for me, we just, we got to put the time into each rep because every rep learns differently and trains differently.
00:25:14
Speaker
So they might do a little bit of shadowing, but for the most part, all the preseason training has like videos and audio.
00:25:21
Speaker
And it's basically like they've been on the doors even without knocking a door.
00:25:26
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:25:26
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:25:27
Speaker
And then say they're coming to shadow, they're still struggling.
00:25:30
Speaker
What do you have?
00:25:31
Speaker
Do you have a system in place where it's like, okay, this isn't working for you.
00:25:36
Speaker
Like come shadow, you shadowed, you know, X amount of times it's not working.
00:25:39
Speaker
What do you do with reps that are struggling and just, you know, aren't getting it?
00:25:44
Speaker
So I think of one experience I had a few years ago with a rep who in all honesty probably most companies wouldn't have hired him.
00:25:53
Speaker
We hired him because he had a friend of a friend, right?
00:25:55
Speaker
He's kind of one of those guys.
00:25:57
Speaker
And I actually personally wrote a script out for him that he could just memorize because he just wasn't getting the concepts of the initial approach and how to qualify people, those things I write about.
00:26:09
Speaker
He just, he wasn't understanding it.
00:26:11
Speaker
So I literally just wrote him a script to fit his personality and who he was and what his strengths and weaknesses are.
00:26:18
Speaker
And that script worked, you know, he stuck it out the whole summer.
00:26:20
Speaker
He didn't kill it by any means, but he made money more than he would have made, you know, working fast food, you know, during the summer.
00:26:26
Speaker
So sometimes it just takes that customization too.
00:26:30
Speaker
And not that it's easy and especially for, you know,
00:26:33
Speaker
Companies that hire hundreds and thousands of reps, it's probably an impossibility.
00:26:36
Speaker
But if your company's on the relatively smaller size, like my company, we don't hire more than, I mean, we'll be in the range of probably 40 to 80 hires a summer.
00:26:46
Speaker
Like that's all like door to door is an important part of our company, but it's certainly not the only way we grow.
00:26:51
Speaker
So the reason we've kept it at that number, one of the reasons is it's just it's easier to manage and make sure every rep has a good experience.
00:26:58
Speaker
So I know a lot of solar companies are in that ballpark probably.
00:27:01
Speaker
They're not hiring hundreds of reps.
00:27:03
Speaker
It's tens of reps like I am.
00:27:05
Speaker
And so I think you have a chance to connect and train specifically to each rep.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah, I ask you these questions just because, I mean, this benefits me.
00:27:19
Speaker
This is a lot of stuff we're going through currently.
00:27:21
Speaker
So that's one of my favorite parts of doing the podcast.
00:27:24
Speaker
So I'm like, man, what are we struggling with with our reps right now?
00:27:27
Speaker
I'm going to ask an expert about it.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:30
Speaker
Well, I love it.
00:27:31
Speaker
And that's, you know, that's the thing.
00:27:32
Speaker
That's what I love about this industry right now is for the most part, not like 100%, but for the most part, most companies and most people are pretty open and want to help each other.
00:27:41
Speaker
Like, we want to preserve the industry and give it a good name.
00:27:44
Speaker
And now there's people that are just proud that they knock doors, right?
00:27:47
Speaker
When before when I started, it was kind of like this.
00:27:49
Speaker
I knock

Personal Development and Momentum in Sales

00:27:50
Speaker
doors.
00:27:50
Speaker
I know it's kind of greasy and grimy.
00:27:52
Speaker
And I just I'm kind of a loser because I just knock doors.
00:27:55
Speaker
But
00:27:56
Speaker
Now it's like there's this pride like that I've seen in the last two decades take over now it's like yeah I knocked doors like I'm proud of that and and I think if the more that sharing that's done and the more integrity in the industry I think just the better I mean for me if whether it's my kids or grandkids or whatever like I'd love for them to be able to knock doors I think
00:28:15
Speaker
door knocking is like a microcosm of life.
00:28:17
Speaker
And there's so many lessons to be learned that help reps beyond when they're knocking doors.
00:28:22
Speaker
I'm more about building the individual than just making sure they have a successful summer where they made money, but they had a light sheet and still to do it.
00:28:30
Speaker
I'd much rather just develop somebody to make them a better human being so that they can go off in life when they're done knocking doors.
00:28:36
Speaker
Heaven forbid they knock doors as long as I have.
00:28:38
Speaker
Like,
00:28:39
Speaker
I don't wish that on anybody, but, but you know, if they go on and they become an attorney or they become a business owner themselves, or they become, you know, you know, they work in a business in the, in the sales department, whatever it is, like, I just want them to be awesome.
00:28:53
Speaker
I'm going to give you one quick experience too, before the next question, if that's okay.
00:28:56
Speaker
So,
00:28:57
Speaker
A couple Sundays ago, I was just at my church and somebody who had knocked doors for me happened to be visiting his family who was there.
00:29:05
Speaker
And he comes up to me and, you know, give a hug.
00:29:08
Speaker
Like he worked for me for a couple summers.
00:29:09
Speaker
I love the kid.
00:29:10
Speaker
And he's like, listen, he's working at a software company right now.
00:29:14
Speaker
And he's in the sales department at the software company.
00:29:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:17
Speaker
And he's like, listen, I just got to tell you.
00:29:19
Speaker
He's like, man, I'm going to make six figures this year in software sales.
00:29:24
Speaker
And he's like, I owe it all to you.
00:29:26
Speaker
Like, I credit you for teaching me the right way to do it because I'm doing everything you taught me in software sales.
00:29:32
Speaker
And I'm absolutely killing it.
00:29:33
Speaker
And I tell you, I mean, it's like I got to hold back the tears a little bit.
00:29:37
Speaker
I'm like, I'm just so proud.
00:29:38
Speaker
He's like, it's like another son of mine.
00:29:40
Speaker
I'm just so proud of him.
00:29:41
Speaker
And that to me is what it's all about.
00:29:44
Speaker
Like, I couldn't care less if somebody works for me.
00:29:46
Speaker
And it's one one and done.
00:29:47
Speaker
Right.
00:29:48
Speaker
Like to me, I'm going to put as much effort and energy into that one person that's one year as I am somebody that's been with me for eight years.
00:29:54
Speaker
You know, I just I want to develop individuals and people because beyond the doors, there's just so much more that you can learn and take from the door to door experience just into your life for personal growth and just betterment of you as a human being.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's so cool.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah, you got to feel good about that.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's happened too.
00:30:13
Speaker
It's one of the only reasons I've kept this podcast going is just from guys saying, hey, this, this helped me a lot.
00:30:19
Speaker
I love your podcasts, because I've, you know, it's hard work to keep content like that going.
00:30:24
Speaker
I'm sure with your books too, with like, if you, if you hadn't had so many people buy your first book, do you think you would have written a second?
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:33
Speaker
Um, well, that's, that's a, nobody's ever asked me that question, Taylor.
00:30:36
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:30:38
Speaker
I don't, I don't know if my motivation, let me think about that person.
00:30:42
Speaker
I don't know if my motivation to write my second book book was based on the success of my first book.
00:30:46
Speaker
I, I think I felt like I left a lot out and I, you know, I'd get a lot of feedback from people that have said, man, you should have, I want you to write more inspirational stuff.
00:30:55
Speaker
Like I didn't, I get all the tactical things.
00:30:57
Speaker
I didn't feel inspired or, you
00:30:59
Speaker
you know how do you deal with competition since door-to-door is so popular now it's like I have a whole chapter devoted to competition how do you get better or how do you make yourself better than the competition how do you beat your competitors so to speak so I just felt like there was a lot left to be written and honestly what did it for me was was COVID like I was kind of homebound and I was stuck and I'm like oh I need to fill my time with something I'm going insane
00:31:24
Speaker
So that's really when I started writing that book.
00:31:26
Speaker
The second book was just kind of when I was kind of quarantined, I guess, at home with my family.
00:31:31
Speaker
Nice.
00:31:33
Speaker
Well, we're glad for COVID that, you know, sped up the process, hopefully.
00:31:37
Speaker
It did.
00:31:39
Speaker
I had the outline written for a while, but I, yeah, I didn't have any goal as far as when to actually put it out there.
00:31:45
Speaker
And I was just like, dude, I can, I can crank this now because I got a lot more time at home than I used to.
00:31:50
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:31:52
Speaker
But no, I love what you're saying just about, you know, how all the people that are sharing way more abundantly, because I mean, as you probably know, when at first door to door, even, you know, five, 10 years ago, there was nowhere near this amount of like information.
00:32:06
Speaker
you only learn from your managers.
00:32:08
Speaker
Now you got, you know, podcasts, you got books like yours, you got, you know, Sam Taggart doing a lot of stuff, all these guys sharing their content.
00:32:15
Speaker
So it makes it so much easier to just learn and, you know, have kind of more pride in the industry.
00:32:21
Speaker
I mean, I was buying shoes just, I think it was two weeks ago and, um,
00:32:25
Speaker
I was with my wife and she was like saying, she's like telling the shoe salesman, hey, he just needs some good shoes for knocking doors, for going out indoors.
00:32:34
Speaker
And when she said that, I'm like, come on, Dave.
00:32:38
Speaker
He's not going to know what that is.
00:32:39
Speaker
Don't embarrass me.
00:32:42
Speaker
But then he was like, oh, that's cool.
00:32:44
Speaker
Knocking doors.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, I got some perfect shoes for that.
00:32:47
Speaker
I'm like, I'm like, all right, I don't need to be embarrassed about knocking doors and take more pride in it.
00:32:51
Speaker
So it's true, all this content, you know, helping us give ourselves a good name, I think.
00:32:58
Speaker
definitely more positivity.
00:33:01
Speaker
So Lenny, the last kind of section, the last thing you just mentioned is just the competition and for our solarpreneurs, our solar guys that listen to this, I think that is a huge thing in the solar industry because as you've probably seen, there's been tons and tons of alarm guys, pest control guys, a lot of them are switching to solar.

Differentiating in a Competitive Market

00:33:20
Speaker
We have huge commissions, so it's a great industry.
00:33:24
Speaker
But that especially I'm in San Diego, which is probably the most competitive solar markets.
00:33:30
Speaker
Definitely one of the most.
00:33:32
Speaker
So it's something we struggle with here a ton is just like, oh, you're the fifth guy to the point where it's like if we mentioned solar at a doorstep, we're getting the door shut instantly.
00:33:41
Speaker
So we've had to kind of, you know, change the way we approach things.
00:33:45
Speaker
So for you, like, as you've consulted solar companies, and I know applies in pest control, as well, what are some strategies?
00:33:52
Speaker
What are some things you do when you are getting more competitive areas when you're getting no, you're the fifth guy at my door?
00:33:58
Speaker
Can you talk about some little strategies you've helped your guys with?
00:34:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
00:34:03
Speaker
So I think the first thing is you just, you call it what it is, right?
00:34:07
Speaker
Like, don't wait for the person to say you're the fifth company to come on my door today or this week or this month or whatever.
00:34:12
Speaker
Like, just call it what it is.
00:34:14
Speaker
Like somebody answers the door and it's, you know, it's, Hey, they're just the solar guy.
00:34:17
Speaker
I know you've been hit up by 20 other companies in the last few weeks or whatever.
00:34:22
Speaker
Like don't, don't wait.
00:34:24
Speaker
And this, this is a principle that I teach in a technique that I think is important is you don't wait for a concern that
00:34:31
Speaker
for the customer to actually say the concern.
00:34:33
Speaker
You bring it up first, right?
00:34:34
Speaker
If you can address the concern first, it just adds to your credibility.
00:34:38
Speaker
And I think the respect factor goes up for you as a door-to-door sales rep, if you can already bring that to their attention.
00:34:45
Speaker
So we talk about name dropping, right?
00:34:46
Speaker
If we know my name dropping principle from the first book.
00:34:50
Speaker
So if you name drop and if you can actually address their concern for them before they bring it up, like that's huge.
00:34:56
Speaker
Because you know, if I'm the person answering my door and I open my door and I see solar, then I'm already looking for the reason why I'm going to turn that person down.
00:35:06
Speaker
And if it's somebody just had already come out or I already have solar panels, which obviously you can see unlike pest control, which I love about the solar industry is you can see if somebody's already a customer.
00:35:15
Speaker
You don't have to find that out by having them tell you that.
00:35:18
Speaker
So if it's, you know, you're the 20th guy to come knocking on my door, just call that like you see it, like right out the gate and don't wait for that to come up.
00:35:25
Speaker
And then depending on your company and how your company different differentiates from the others, that's how you start to, you know, to build your case for your company versus the companies that have come by and that have
00:35:39
Speaker
already approached them and have knocked on their door and talked to them about solar before.
00:35:42
Speaker
What is different about you and your company versus the other 20 people?
00:35:49
Speaker
And consider this, like I just think an overarching principle for door-to-door sales is if I go to a door
00:35:55
Speaker
And it's in a 20-year-old neighborhood.
00:35:57
Speaker
And I know for 20 years, sales reps have been knocking on that door five to 10 a year.
00:36:02
Speaker
So we're talking hundreds of sales reps.
00:36:03
Speaker
And I kind of envision like the carcasses of the dead door-to-door sales reps that have been just shunned off the doorstep, just laying there beside the door.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I'm like, how can I be different?
00:36:15
Speaker
How can I bring a different energy, a different approach that these other 100 to 200 have been turned away for?
00:36:22
Speaker
How can I connect with this person and actually make a better opportunity for them for what I'm selling versus what everybody else has in the past?
00:36:30
Speaker
And I will tell you this, strangely enough, and some people are surprised to hear this, when I knock doors,
00:36:35
Speaker
My goal isn't to sell everybody I talk to.
00:36:38
Speaker
My goal is to get people further along in the sale than I think anybody else has that has knocked on that door.
00:36:44
Speaker
So I don't care if I end up with a sale.
00:36:46
Speaker
What I like is even when I hear the, oh, you almost got me on this.
00:36:50
Speaker
I was so close.
00:36:51
Speaker
Like I've said no to everybody, but I almost said yes to you.
00:36:54
Speaker
Like that to me is a win.
00:36:55
Speaker
I'm like, cause I know nobody else would have got you that far.
00:36:58
Speaker
that means that I actually succeeded on that door.
00:37:00
Speaker
So sometimes you take those little victories when you know you connected with somebody on a different level than the other hundreds of reps that, that, uh, that have not like, that's when, you know, you're actually improving and getting better at doing this.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:12
Speaker
I love that.
00:37:13
Speaker
It reminds me of the guy in the Bible.
00:37:15
Speaker
Was it King Agrippa or something?
00:37:16
Speaker
He's like, you almost converted me to Christianity.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:20
Speaker
You almost converted me to solar.
00:37:22
Speaker
Not quite.
00:37:23
Speaker
We'll get there.
00:37:24
Speaker
But you almost got me.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:27
Speaker
No, and that's huge.
00:37:28
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, you talk about some of the strategies in your book and also just like what I love too is you talk about, you know, the demographics, just some different strategies you can utilize to, you know, talk to different types of people.
00:37:43
Speaker
That's something that's helped us out in solar with our teams a lot.
00:37:46
Speaker
It's just identifying the demographics you're good with.
00:37:49
Speaker
And then, like, for example, we have quite a few Mexican guys on our team.
00:37:53
Speaker
They'll go hit up the Mexican neighborhoods and it's like, they're celebrities out there.
00:37:57
Speaker
They're speaking the language.
00:37:58
Speaker
They're having success with that.
00:38:01
Speaker
And then you talk about just like the ways you would sell the different demographics of people, depending on who they are, you're going to treat them different.
00:38:09
Speaker
White collar versus, yeah, what was it?
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, so things like that.
00:38:16
Speaker
And how do you, and I mean, pest control, how do you, can you talk about that a little bit with your strategies, demographics?
00:38:23
Speaker
Another thing we recognize in solar is like new move-ins, older homes that we're going to target differently and use that data to our advantage.
00:38:30
Speaker
So how are you having your guys kind of utilize that different customer data and how have you seen it in maybe solar companies you've consulted too?
00:38:39
Speaker
So yeah, in the book, I break down three demographics that I think would encompass any person you're going to talk to, not saying they're the only demographics.
00:38:49
Speaker
We can kind of make those a little bit more granular if you really want to dial it down for specific industry.
00:38:54
Speaker
But we talk about in the second book, I talk about blue collar, white collar, like you said, somebody who goes into the office every day, wears a white collar, is kind of more of a business person versus maybe the person that is...
00:39:06
Speaker
you know, works blue collar, maybe they clean houses like my mom did when I was growing up.
00:39:10
Speaker
My dad's a policeman.
00:39:13
Speaker
You know, he was more blue collar.
00:39:14
Speaker
Maybe that's what it is.
00:39:16
Speaker
There's different ways to approach those type of people based on the economics and, you know, how they live and those types of things.
00:39:23
Speaker
We talk about older people versus younger people.
00:39:25
Speaker
And I kind of break down the different generations, you know, and now we have millennials that are owning homes or buying more homes than
00:39:32
Speaker
Then, you know, boomers and, you know, Generation X and my generation and those types of things.
00:39:38
Speaker
So I kind of break that down a little bit about how to approach those type of people, because somebody who is a first time homeowner or homebuyer, you're going to treat them very differently than somebody who's been in their house for years.
00:39:51
Speaker
20, 30 years or who has owned multiple homes, right?
00:39:54
Speaker
And then we talk about males versus females, which I think is a fun one too, because there's just different ways to approach men than there are women.
00:40:02
Speaker
And I think it's, you know, even just in the questioning, the things that you ask, the assumptions that you make, you can take people a lot farther, male and female, just based on doing it, you know, doing the questions or asking the questions just a little bit differently.
00:40:18
Speaker
And so that's kind of a fun one for me too, that chapter that kind of goes into those demographic breakdowns.
00:40:24
Speaker
And I think for solar, like I said, for me, sometimes you could go more, I would think that the blue collar, white collar one would probably be the most applicable that at least I've taught in consulting with solar companies of how to approach those people when you're talking about a large ticket item like a solar system.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's great stuff.
00:40:46
Speaker
And then with, you know, the older folks, something we utilize in or that I've learned from a lot of successful guys is just going on with the time management.
00:40:54
Speaker
If you notice people are, you know, older, guess, guess what?
00:40:58
Speaker
They're probably going to be home in the afternoon.
00:41:00
Speaker
So you're seeing the handicap stickers, stuff like that.
00:41:03
Speaker
Go to those homes in the afternoon.
00:41:05
Speaker
Because John and Julie that are in their 30s working class, they're probably not going to be home in the afternoons.
00:41:11
Speaker
So that's something we've been teaching our teams and our listeners to is just utilizing all the different information.
00:41:18
Speaker
It's super nice.
00:41:19
Speaker
Now I'm going along with the technology.
00:41:21
Speaker
I mean, go on these Zillow apps, you can see the new homes.
00:41:25
Speaker
You have like the cells, the knocking apps.
00:41:27
Speaker
They're showing you most of these demographics, what their estimated income level is.
00:41:33
Speaker
how many people are probably in the household, things like that.
00:41:36
Speaker
So I think that's another huge advantage we have compared to probably when both of us started is makes it so much more easier.
00:41:43
Speaker
If you can approach a house, be like, Oh, you guys have what?
00:41:45
Speaker
Seven people in the house.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:48
Speaker
And you know, all this data and it just creates so much more trust.
00:41:52
Speaker
A lot of times you have a name, you have their income, you have all this different information you can utilize.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
And I think, you know, I think in ways that COVID has kind of changed the world a little bit too, is it, you know, the different strategy of knocking afternoons versus

Impact of COVID-19 on Sales Practices

00:42:09
Speaker
evenings.
00:42:09
Speaker
I talk a little bit about that in the book.
00:42:10
Speaker
That's, that's changed, right?
00:42:12
Speaker
I mean, COVID actually changed that for us to where,
00:42:15
Speaker
More and more people are working from home and they can live wherever they want and work however they want to work.
00:42:20
Speaker
And so I don't think, you know, back in the day, and I share this experience in the book about the company that I work for that just let experienced reps just work prime time after five months here.
00:42:30
Speaker
And it just, it was a complete disaster.
00:42:33
Speaker
And nowadays, I mean, we're seeing sales numbers,
00:42:38
Speaker
before five o'clock being better than they've ever been.
00:42:42
Speaker
And a lot of that is just due to, I think reps are getting smarter and that they follow the three door rule, like we talked about and those types of things.
00:42:48
Speaker
But I just think there's more opportunities in the day now because people are working from home and have a little bit more flexibility in their schedule.
00:42:54
Speaker
So it's not just the older folks that you necessarily need to target, even though that's a great demographic to target during the day because they're home most of the day.
00:43:04
Speaker
But I even think just that
00:43:06
Speaker
you're going to run into more just nine to five type people who now work from home and have a different schedule than they used to have.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:43:14
Speaker
That's a good point.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
Speaking of COVID, I mean, with your company, how did you guys change your strategy?
00:43:20
Speaker
What was it like knocking pest control with COVID last year?
00:43:23
Speaker
Did it affect your guys a ton or?
00:43:25
Speaker
Oh yeah, it was a challenge.
00:43:26
Speaker
I mean, here's the interesting thing.
00:43:27
Speaker
So we got a late start because we wanted to make sure we sent a few guys out to different markets and some markets, honestly, we didn't knock any doors.
00:43:36
Speaker
because their governors or whatever, it was kind of put in the state's hands on what to do.
00:43:41
Speaker
And so some of our markets that the governors were just a little bit more leery to have people out and about, maybe more blue states.
00:43:52
Speaker
We won't get into the politics.
00:43:54
Speaker
So we couldn't knock in those offices.
00:43:57
Speaker
So we had to put people where we could knock.
00:44:00
Speaker
And then when we did knock again, we started probably a month later than we were used to.
00:44:04
Speaker
But our numbers, like our averages were off, just off the charts crazy last year.
00:44:10
Speaker
We lost a lot of reps though, because a lot of reps, you know, it's a pandemic.
00:44:14
Speaker
My parents don't want me knocking, you know, this, that and the other.
00:44:16
Speaker
So we did lose a lot of reps.
00:44:18
Speaker
We didn't have a ton of reps like we would have liked, but the reps that stuck around and actually did it, we got them in the right state to knock.
00:44:24
Speaker
It was an awesome summer.
00:44:26
Speaker
It was just shortened.
00:44:28
Speaker
And like I said, it was just, it was different.
00:44:30
Speaker
But we made it through it, you know, just like everybody else that's still out knocking this year.
00:44:35
Speaker
Like we did it and that's an accomplishment, but it was definitely different.
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:40
Speaker
No doubt.
00:44:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:41
Speaker
Luckily things are getting a lot better, but that's what I noticed.
00:44:43
Speaker
I mean, with solar, some guys let them affect it more than others, but even in California, which obviously is one of the most strict States for COVID and everything, even here, it's like most areas after a couple months, people really just kind of like sick of being stuck inside.
00:44:59
Speaker
So, you know, I noticed that guys actually came to the door.
00:45:03
Speaker
It's like, they're like, Oh, cool.
00:45:04
Speaker
There's actually people that exist.
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:06
Speaker
I'll talk to you.
00:45:06
Speaker
So it's like, almost like they're nicer.
00:45:09
Speaker
And, you know, some people freaked out, but I was surprised with even in a state like California, it was, you know, after a few months, most people just got kind of over it and sick of it.
00:45:21
Speaker
Yep.
00:45:21
Speaker
I agree.
00:45:22
Speaker
Big thing.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:24
Speaker
Well, Lenny, last thing I wanted to ask you just before we wrap up here is you've, you know, been in this forever.

Overcoming Sales Failures and Maintaining Resilience

00:45:30
Speaker
I'm sure experienced some huge highs and some lows.
00:45:34
Speaker
So what's been like your big, I don't know, toughest thing you've had to go through and maybe your biggest failure or something like what have you learned from that to kind of keep you going and all this?
00:45:43
Speaker
I don't, I think you're probably,
00:45:45
Speaker
Out of all the guys I've had on the show, you've probably been in this, you know, door to door for the longest out of anyone I had.
00:45:52
Speaker
So you've gone through a lot.
00:45:53
Speaker
So can you tell our listeners what's, I don't know, that biggest low that you experienced and how you got through it, what you learned from it?
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, I love that question.
00:46:02
Speaker
So for me, it was probably my third year knocking.
00:46:05
Speaker
I was knocking in Jacksonville, Florida.
00:46:08
Speaker
And I had, I mean, that was my best summer, you know, at the time.
00:46:12
Speaker
It was, I think I sold about 700 accounts that summer in Jacksonville.
00:46:16
Speaker
I actually got kicked out of the Jacksonville office, had to go up to Macon, Georgia for a month because we sold too many accounts.
00:46:21
Speaker
Me and the other guy that were selling in Jacksonville was kind of funny.
00:46:24
Speaker
Anyway, so we were selling there and I had that summer, I had four zeros.
00:46:31
Speaker
So, and here's, you know, for somebody that's averaging seven plus a day to get a zero, you know, that's hard to do actually.
00:46:39
Speaker
But I had four of them.
00:46:41
Speaker
And at that point, when I started getting these zeros, I kind of told myself, and I think I write about this maybe in my first book a little bit, but I kind of told myself that, you know what?
00:46:50
Speaker
When I wake up every morning, I have the same number of sales as everybody else, and that's zero.
00:46:55
Speaker
And so I can let that negative momentum of yesterday carry over with me today, or I can just start fresh and
00:47:05
Speaker
And I can pretend that every day, or I mean, that's the reality, I don't need to pretend, but every day I start out with the same number of sales as everybody else.
00:47:12
Speaker
And I'm in control of my own destiny every single day.
00:47:18
Speaker
And so for me, it was just that perspective of going, okay,
00:47:21
Speaker
Can I have bad days?
00:47:23
Speaker
Could I have bad doors?
00:47:23
Speaker
Could I have bad hours or two hours?
00:47:25
Speaker
You know, can I have a bad week?
00:47:26
Speaker
Sure.
00:47:27
Speaker
You know, but at the end of the day, I have a new opportunity at every door and every day to start fresh, to start over again.
00:47:34
Speaker
And I don't have to carry any negative baggage with me.
00:47:37
Speaker
I think, in fact, in the second book, I hit on that a little bit too, is just the difference between carrying negative momentum and positive momentum.
00:47:44
Speaker
Because the funny thing to me is I'd have reps literally,
00:47:48
Speaker
I'd have reps that they're doing.
00:47:52
Speaker
I'd have reps that were doing great.
00:47:54
Speaker
Like they'd have three or four sales, pest sales, you know, before five o'clock.
00:47:57
Speaker
And then they'd say, I'm good.
00:48:00
Speaker
Like I kind of hit my goal for the day.
00:48:01
Speaker
So I'm done.
00:48:02
Speaker
And I'm like, oh my gosh, what are you doing?
00:48:04
Speaker
Like you've got this positive momentum going, like keep it going.
00:48:07
Speaker
Cause I will tell you this, the fourth and fifth sale of a day, they're a lot easier than the first sale of every day.
00:48:15
Speaker
And, and that's the hardest sale to me.
00:48:16
Speaker
So if you're, you know, negative momentum can carry over if you let it, but the other side of that coin is the positive momentum.
00:48:22
Speaker
Like if you're selling, if you're in a groove and it's kind of like, you know, can you imagine a basketball player in a, in a game, if they're just on fire and they're just lighting it up, you know, three quarters into the game, they've got 35 points and they're hitting threes and they're finishing and they're, you know, hitting their free throws.
00:48:37
Speaker
And then they're like, all right, coach, I'm good.
00:48:38
Speaker
Like I'll just play the next game.
00:48:40
Speaker
Like I don't need to play the fourth quarter.
00:48:41
Speaker
I'm good like that.
00:48:42
Speaker
That's ridiculous.
00:48:43
Speaker
Right.
00:48:43
Speaker
Nobody would ever do that.
00:48:45
Speaker
So I think door to door sales reps take themselves out of the game when they've actually got some good positive momentum.
00:48:51
Speaker
And so that's, that's like the worst thing you can do.
00:48:53
Speaker
If you're knocking doors, even if you're getting people far, you're setting a lot of appointments and you just got things going.
00:48:58
Speaker
Like we all kind of get in that zone sometimes knocking doors, like never give up.
00:49:02
Speaker
I mean, I tell the story about my 4th of July, you know, back in,
00:49:06
Speaker
2000, I sold 23 pest accounts in one day.
00:49:08
Speaker
That was my personal record.
00:49:10
Speaker
And I had plans.
00:49:12
Speaker
My wife, I was going to take her out to dinner on the beach and we were going to do all this.
00:49:15
Speaker
We had reservations and all that went out the window because I had sold 15 by five o'clock and I was just like, honey, I'm so sorry, but I got to keep going.
00:49:24
Speaker
And I just went till after dark to hit this record.
00:49:27
Speaker
And guess what?
00:49:28
Speaker
We went to dinner the next night.
00:49:30
Speaker
No big deal.
00:49:30
Speaker
Like it was still there.
00:49:31
Speaker
The restaurant didn't go away or, you know, sail out to the ocean, whatever.
00:49:37
Speaker
So anyway, I just think making those little sacrifices when things are going good is so important because you never know.
00:49:43
Speaker
You can have 23 one day in that same year.
00:49:46
Speaker
I had zeros four times.
00:49:47
Speaker
And again, it was just, that's the nature of sales, right?
00:49:52
Speaker
It's mercurial.
00:49:52
Speaker
It moves around all the time.
00:49:53
Speaker
You never know what you're going to get.
00:49:55
Speaker
The weather's going to be bad one day.
00:49:56
Speaker
It's going to be a little tougher, whatever it is.
00:49:58
Speaker
You just make the most of when it's going good.
00:50:01
Speaker
And when it's going bad, just don't carry that negativity over with you day to day or even door to door.
00:50:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's so powerful.
00:50:07
Speaker
And that chapter in the book was super cool.
00:50:10
Speaker
You talked about, you know, the basketball players.
00:50:14
Speaker
And I think that applies more than pest control probably to solar is because people can go out and sell a single solar deal.

Resources and Future Projects

00:50:21
Speaker
They make 10 grand in a single solar deal.
00:50:23
Speaker
So we got, you know, so many reps that go out, they sell one for the month.
00:50:27
Speaker
They're like, oh, I'm good.
00:50:28
Speaker
I just made, you know, 10 grand in a month.
00:50:30
Speaker
I don't need to do anything.
00:50:32
Speaker
It's like, imagine how much.
00:50:37
Speaker
Don't do it.
00:50:37
Speaker
So yeah, it's a trap that so many guys fall into, especially in the solar industry.
00:50:42
Speaker
So I think that's something super powerful you talk about in the book for our listeners.
00:50:46
Speaker
If you can get in that momentum, don't be satisfied with one, especially if you're out there getting appointments, closing deals, never be satisfied and make it a competition, which I know is another thing you talk about in your books.
00:50:59
Speaker
So Lenny, we appreciate all you're doing for the industry.
00:51:02
Speaker
Your books changed a lot of lives.
00:51:04
Speaker
And yeah, there's going to be more and more people hitting us up, asking what book is that?
00:51:08
Speaker
So we'll spread the word as much as we can.
00:51:12
Speaker
So for guys that want to go buy it, I've got it here.
00:51:14
Speaker
People are watching the video.
00:51:16
Speaker
Can you tell people where to find out more about you and buy the book and maybe connect with you more?
00:51:22
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:51:23
Speaker
So yeah, my books, I've got any kind of version you'd want.
00:51:26
Speaker
I actually narrated the audio versions of both books.
00:51:29
Speaker
Those seem to do better than even the paperback now forever.
00:51:32
Speaker
It was, you know, the paperback outsold everything.
00:51:33
Speaker
But right now it's odd.
00:51:34
Speaker
Everybody's likes audio and I get it.
00:51:36
Speaker
If you're driving from area to area, you can just
00:51:38
Speaker
you know, pop me on in your car and you'll hear my voice.
00:51:41
Speaker
I recorded them.
00:51:43
Speaker
In some vein, I think the audio book, just recording it was, you know, for eight hours or 10 hours, whatever they were, was harder than writing it.
00:51:50
Speaker
In some respects, it was kind of brutal, but I just felt like my voice and the way I hit certain things and talk about certain things, I just thought it was more powerful.
00:52:01
Speaker
So anyway, I got the audio, Kindle,
00:52:05
Speaker
You can get the paperback, got a hardcover.
00:52:07
Speaker
All of it can be found on Amazon.
00:52:08
Speaker
That's really my main place where all the books are sold.
00:52:13
Speaker
My website is another place to connect with me, lennygray.com.
00:52:18
Speaker
I've got a blog that I keep up very regularly, probably, I don't know,
00:52:23
Speaker
10 plus years of blog content that some of which is not found in my book.
00:52:27
Speaker
So if you want to hit that, I think that's just Lenny gray.com slash blog.
00:52:31
Speaker
Um, I've got some additional training for purchase for, for people probably more in the management ownership of the business that want to, you know, uh,
00:52:38
Speaker
teach their reps what to learn in the preseason before they actually start knocking doors.
00:52:44
Speaker
I've got some videos of my reps and me doing critiques of them on the doors.
00:52:49
Speaker
That kind of stuff's on my website as well.
00:52:52
Speaker
I mean, I'm on Twitter.
00:52:56
Speaker
At Lenny Gray, I think Lenny B. Gray, maybe somebody got me first, I guess there's another Lenny Gray out there.
00:53:01
Speaker
And then LinkedIn is another one, probably I'm most active as far as social media goes on LinkedIn.
00:53:08
Speaker
So those are some of the ways to connect with me.
00:53:11
Speaker
Awesome.
00:53:11
Speaker
Well, guys go by the book.
00:53:13
Speaker
It's helped me a lot.
00:53:14
Speaker
It helps helps helped our teams.
00:53:16
Speaker
And yeah, hit Lenny up, let them know you appreciated him come on on the show.
00:53:20
Speaker
We definitely appreciate it.
00:53:22
Speaker
And we look forward to seeing what you can do any any you got book three in the in the plans, Lenny, or any future plans you got more books or anything like that?
00:53:30
Speaker
I think so.
00:53:31
Speaker
I think so.
00:53:32
Speaker
Actually, somebody asked me that not too long ago and I've got some ideas with book three and actually what it'll be just, I'll just kind of throw it out a T and this is a big tease.
00:53:40
Speaker
Cause like I said, it was eight years between first and second book.
00:53:42
Speaker
Second book just came out this year.
00:53:44
Speaker
So, but it's going to be with these companies that I'm consulting for when I'm literally,
00:53:50
Speaker
working with billionaires and how to make a billion dollar company.
00:53:55
Speaker
And so it's not just going to be based on door to door.
00:53:57
Speaker
I don't think you make billion dollar companies just on door to door.
00:53:59
Speaker
There's a lot of other facets of growing a business.
00:54:03
Speaker
And I want to include some of these entrepreneurs and business owners that I'm working with that, that are running billion dollar companies that, that to me would probably be the next book that yeah, it might be door to door billionaire is, is where we might need to go for book three.
00:54:15
Speaker
But anyway, that's kind of my,
00:54:18
Speaker
my thesis for it or kind of my, uh, my thoughts on it, at least initially.
00:54:21
Speaker
All right.
00:54:22
Speaker
You heard it here first.
00:54:23
Speaker
So guys go follow Lenny.
00:54:25
Speaker
He's doing awesome stuff for all of us knocking doors and changing the world.
00:54:29
Speaker
So thanks again for coming on the show, Lenny.
00:54:31
Speaker
And we'll hopefully have lots of guys connecting with you and we'll talk to you soon.
00:54:35
Speaker
Awesome.
00:54:35
Speaker
Thanks Taylor.
00:54:36
Speaker
See you guys.
00:54:38
Speaker
Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
00:54:40
Speaker
What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:54:49
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals.
00:54:55
Speaker
and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:55:01
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
00:55:12
Speaker
And it's called Sol Society.
00:55:14
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it?
00:55:29
Speaker
Less than $3.45 a day.
00:55:33
Speaker
Currently Sol Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only, but solopreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
00:55:46
Speaker
Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
00:55:59
Speaker
Thanks again for listening.
00:56:00
Speaker
We'll catch you again in the next episode.