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The Future of Virtual Solar Sales - Garrett Mendelsohn
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Journey to Success
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 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.
What is a Solopreneur?
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.
00:00:41
Speaker
Okay, we are here live in the studio.
00:00:45
Speaker
We got someone that is doing some pretty incredible
Innovations in the Solar Industry
00:00:47
Speaker
things.
00:00:47
Speaker
This is going to be an episode.
00:00:48
Speaker
Trust me, you've never heard anything like what this guy is doing.
00:00:52
Speaker
We're going to introduce him here.
00:00:54
Speaker
His name is Garrett Mendelsohn.
00:00:56
Speaker
Thanks for coming on the podcast with us today, Garrett.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:01:00
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm excited to be here.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be fun because we were just talking before the recording.
00:01:06
Speaker
We were doing some pretty groundbreaking revolutionary stuff in solar.
00:01:13
Speaker
Never heard some of the stuff this guy's doing.
00:01:16
Speaker
But I think our audience is going to enjoy it.
00:01:18
Speaker
So he is the founder, creator of solarbootcamp.ai.
00:01:23
Speaker
S.B.U.
00:01:25
Speaker
I'm new at all this.
00:01:26
Speaker
S.B.U.
00:01:26
Speaker
dot live.
00:01:28
Speaker
So we're going to he's going to explain it a lot better than I am.
00:01:31
Speaker
But basically, it's a live streaming platform, kind of like a Twitch type thing for solar reps and doing some interesting thing you're talking about rolling out maybe.
00:01:42
Speaker
sports betting for solar, all this cool stuff.
00:01:45
Speaker
So yeah, I'm excited to hear about it.
00:01:47
Speaker
But yeah, do you want to introduce just your background?
From Door-to-Door to Virtual Sales
00:01:50
Speaker
And for our listeners that haven't heard about you, Garrett, do you want to give us the Reader's Digest version of how you got into solar and why you decided to start doing all this stuff?
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
00:02:01
Speaker
So what's up everyone?
00:02:02
Speaker
So I've been in solar since like the first week of 2018.
00:02:05
Speaker
So like how many years is this?
00:02:07
Speaker
Like five, six, something like that, right?
00:02:10
Speaker
So I got into my last year of college at Weber State in Utah, Ogden, Utah.
00:02:14
Speaker
So I
00:02:15
Speaker
applied to be a door-to-door setter.
00:02:18
Speaker
So I was a setter for like literally three years.
00:02:20
Speaker
Cause I thought that was the most money you could make like straight up like 3% commission, 15 an hour.
00:02:25
Speaker
Like I thought I was like making bank.
00:02:27
Speaker
I mean, I was making six figures.
00:02:28
Speaker
Right.
00:02:28
Speaker
But I thought, I thought it was like really, really, really good, but I was door knocking for, you know, three years or five years technically, but I was a setter for the first three, a long story short in, in, in summary,
00:02:41
Speaker
I got into closing in 2021, did 100 plus deals a year.
00:02:43
Speaker
In 2022, I did 130.
00:02:44
Speaker
And then at the end of 2022, I guess it's last year, I got into online lead gen, which led me into virtual solar sales.
00:02:59
Speaker
And I started 100% Zoom for the first, I think it was like two, three months.
00:03:04
Speaker
By the end of the year, I realized like, hey, people don't have their camera on half the time.
00:03:08
Speaker
And then I got into this one program and then I got into phone sales.
00:03:12
Speaker
And then I closed the deal over the phone.
00:03:14
Speaker
I was like, geez.
The Growth of Solarbootcamp.ai
00:03:15
Speaker
Why do I even need to be on camera?
00:03:17
Speaker
Why do I even need to do any of this?
00:03:18
Speaker
So I've been 100% over the phone since then.
00:03:21
Speaker
And then long story short, I sold 102 the first quarter plus two weeks of the year.
00:03:26
Speaker
So three and a half months, I did 102.
00:03:28
Speaker
I think I could have done more, but there was like a two week period that had a lot going on.
00:03:32
Speaker
So I didn't sell as much, but I was selling about one to three a day, which is pretty cool.
00:03:36
Speaker
I was like, holy crap, just over the phone.
00:03:38
Speaker
I was like, what's the point of anything else anymore?
00:03:41
Speaker
So, yeah, so long story short, people kept asking me like, how are you doing this?
00:03:45
Speaker
How'd you go from door to door to phones?
00:03:47
Speaker
And I was like, I don't know.
00:03:48
Speaker
I'm just kidding.
00:03:49
Speaker
I do.
00:03:50
Speaker
And I just built a, I built a solar bootcamp.ai pre-launched that February, launched it March.
00:03:56
Speaker
And, you know, since then it's, it's grown exponentially, you know, it's growing every single week by a ton.
00:04:02
Speaker
You know, I just, you know, I'm just teaching how I went from door to door, everything I've learned from online lead gen to the market research, to live trainings, to call recordings, to scripts,
00:04:11
Speaker
to every single thing you need for virtual in a box.
00:04:14
Speaker
So it's like a knowledge base essentially.
00:04:16
Speaker
So it's like, cause when you think about going virtual for a door to door guy, it's kind of overwhelming.
00:04:21
Speaker
You just don't know where to go.
00:04:22
Speaker
It's like, what do you do, right?
00:04:25
Speaker
Like who do you talk to?
00:04:26
Speaker
How do you get leads?
00:04:27
Speaker
How do you get appointments?
00:04:29
Speaker
What do you say?
00:04:30
Speaker
How do you close a deal?
00:04:31
Speaker
Like there's a million things and there's not really a lot out there.
00:04:33
Speaker
And I kind of figured it out, like just pretty much on my own slash, you know, talking with some people and some research, but it was pretty much put together.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then from there, you know, we've just been building course after course, you know, content after content, making this better and better.
00:04:49
Speaker
We're in the process, like in a release, an advanced version of it.
Gamifying Solar Sales with SBU.live
00:04:53
Speaker
in the next 30 days.
00:04:55
Speaker
So it's gonna be a very advanced.
00:04:56
Speaker
So we're just constantly making this better.
00:04:58
Speaker
Long story short, after Solarcon, I had this idea to livestream, because I was already livestreaming in the course, in the program, like my appointments, like my appointment setting, me closing deals with customers.
00:05:12
Speaker
So we're already livestreaming that.
00:05:13
Speaker
And then from there, we had this idea to do a livestream platform.
00:05:18
Speaker
And yeah, and then we've been building for the last four or five months, SBU.live, which is our esports live streaming platform.
00:05:27
Speaker
We integrated a sales network into it so we can sell in 30 plus states, but it's a fully integrated sales platform that you can team build, make overrides, you can sell in 30 plus states.
00:05:36
Speaker
You don't have a boss, you don't have a manager.
00:05:38
Speaker
We're building lead gen in house.
00:05:41
Speaker
We have all the networks for you guys to look for leads or to get appointments.
00:05:45
Speaker
And then on top of that, we're gamifying solar so you can actually sell solar like on Twitch.
00:05:52
Speaker
It's our servers.
00:05:52
Speaker
We built everything from like literally scratch.
00:05:55
Speaker
It's
00:05:55
Speaker
built like literally from scratch.
00:05:57
Speaker
So you can actually live stream yourself selling solar.
00:06:01
Speaker
Other reps can watch, they can comment, they can subscribe.
00:06:04
Speaker
We're gonna have super chats eventually.
00:06:06
Speaker
We're gonna have a dual arena so people can place bets on the individual people.
00:06:09
Speaker
So like if you have a rep that's like, you know, I'm, you know, challenge you or whatever,
00:06:14
Speaker
You can stake money and people can stake money on top of that.
00:06:17
Speaker
We're going to have tournaments so people can win big, big prizes.
00:06:21
Speaker
We eventually want to have like six figures.
00:06:23
Speaker
I mean, it'd be cool to do a seven figure prize pool for like a once a year Olympics.
00:06:29
Speaker
Like, you know, we have like 10 teams, a two month thing, and then the winner splits a million bucks or something.
00:06:35
Speaker
Right.
00:06:36
Speaker
That's what we want to do once we get big enough.
00:06:38
Speaker
And it's essentially gamifying solar on an e-sports platform that, you know, people level up, you know, as they stream, they level up depending if they're setting or closing.
00:06:48
Speaker
There's a metaverse as well, which is kind of cool.
00:06:50
Speaker
We're going to have our own metaverse actually even built on top of what we have already.
00:06:55
Speaker
So people can walk around, they can network with people.
00:06:58
Speaker
You can use a VR headset, you can use your phone or a computer.
00:07:00
Speaker
So there's going to be shops, so like kind of like SolarCon, but virtual in the metaverse.
00:07:07
Speaker
And then you can also watch the live streaming tournaments inside there as well when we have the tournaments and they are launched.
00:07:13
Speaker
So we have a huge roadmap, a lot of things coming, but we want to disrupt and gamify the industry and make it fun, especially like everyone knows with door to door.
00:07:23
Speaker
It's competitive, you know, the camaraderie, like everyone wants that, needs that.
00:07:27
Speaker
It's how you keep going.
00:07:28
Speaker
But that's what we want with this is you log into the platform, you go to the streaming tab and then you see like dozens of people, you know, streaming and then you can watch and see people out there having success, learn from them and then you stream and, you
Transitioning to Virtual Sales
00:07:41
Speaker
know, all that fun stuff.
00:07:42
Speaker
I mean, yeah, it's super awesome.
00:07:43
Speaker
We just launched last week.
00:07:44
Speaker
So we are literally just coming out with this and it's only going to go.
00:07:48
Speaker
It's only uphill from from here.
00:07:50
Speaker
And so, yeah, yeah.
00:07:52
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:07:54
Speaker
That's a lot to unpack, man.
00:07:56
Speaker
But yeah, we'll dive deeper into this stuff.
00:08:00
Speaker
But no, that's really cool.
00:08:01
Speaker
And I've said it a lot of times, me starting out in a smaller company, what's really cool about what you're doing is I think you're making it possible for these people.
00:08:10
Speaker
Maybe they're with smaller dealers or maybe they're just doing like virtual sales, kind of lone wolfing it.
00:08:17
Speaker
But by doing something like this, people can really see what's possible, see what it's about.
00:08:22
Speaker
Because I think a lot of times that's a resource that bigger companies have.
00:08:26
Speaker
They do these big competitions and there's guys throwing down deals.
00:08:30
Speaker
But if you're just out on an island or if you're in Puerto Rico like yourself, I'm sure it's sometimes tough to see what's possible.
00:08:38
Speaker
Literally an island.
00:08:39
Speaker
Literally.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
So no, that's incredible.
00:08:44
Speaker
But I got to ask before we unpack all that, a lot of stuff to get into there.
00:08:50
Speaker
What made you decide to switch from a door-to-door to virtual?
00:08:54
Speaker
Because I think a lot of door-to-door guys listen to this.
00:08:57
Speaker
They're like, oh, people that do virtual is just because they're too lazy to go knock doors.
00:09:03
Speaker
These reps, they're never going to make it.
00:09:05
Speaker
And then like, obviously you're having tons of success, making a lot of money.
00:09:09
Speaker
proving those people wrong but at the same time there are people that try to do virtual that's you know don't do as well and maybe just fizzle out so yeah i guess what would what would you say to that why did you switch to virtual and um yeah what's your take on all that yeah no it's a super good question right so i thought i was gonna door knock until i couldn't walk i don't know i just never thought there was another option right but i was watching a video
00:09:35
Speaker
from solar exclusive, which my, uh, my, uh, Travis, he ended up being my account manager and rich, uh, Fiola.
00:09:40
Speaker
He's the owner of it.
00:09:41
Speaker
Uh, I believe they're the number one sponsor of solar con.
00:09:44
Speaker
So they're like the, the biggest lead gen company in the country.
00:09:47
Speaker
Uh, they're super awesome, but long story short,
00:09:50
Speaker
I watched an ad from them that was like, the Google searches are doubling every single year, whoa.
00:09:56
Speaker
And it was like in the millions and I was like, okay, I'm sold.
00:09:59
Speaker
Obviously people are looking into this themselves organically.
00:10:02
Speaker
I was like, okay, if people are looking into this organically and the searches are going up, it's just only gonna go up every single year.
00:10:10
Speaker
So maybe door knocking is not the way anymore.
00:10:14
Speaker
So from there I booked an appointment.
00:10:16
Speaker
I'm the type of person.
00:10:17
Speaker
I just, just do it.
00:10:18
Speaker
I take action.
00:10:19
Speaker
Um, I take the risk and funny enough, this was like September, like mid September.
00:10:23
Speaker
And obviously, you know, that's when the season's pretty much coming to an end.
00:10:27
Speaker
You got, you know, October, November, December, like I would say November, December is traditionally like what the, the worst month, uh, like, you know, the worst months for solar, right?
00:10:35
Speaker
Cause holidays like come back after the holidays, whatever.
00:10:38
Speaker
But I was like, I don't want to wait.
00:10:40
Speaker
So I started an ad campaign.
00:10:42
Speaker
I actually, uh,
00:10:43
Speaker
did quite a bit in the beginning, but I started an ad campaign for October, November, December, and those three months, I think it was like averaging like 15, I think at most maybe 20, but it was in the beginning 15 sales a month for October, November, December.
00:11:00
Speaker
And what really for me was the biggest thing, the change was, because I started off like doing this in the house.
00:11:05
Speaker
Like I was like, okay, online lead gen, I guess I don't have to knock, I will just drive there instead, you know, whatever, right?
00:11:11
Speaker
And then from there, I did, I think the first one was in house, but yeah, it was in house.
00:11:17
Speaker
And then I remember there was a second one I did on Zoom and I was like, did I just close this over Zoom?
00:11:23
Speaker
I was like, what is this?
00:11:27
Speaker
So I was just like, I was like, how is this even possible?
00:11:30
Speaker
So pretty much from there, I did a few more in-house and then I just went entirely virtual.
00:11:36
Speaker
I was like, if I can just keep doing this virtually over Zoom, then I don't need to do it in-house.
00:11:43
Speaker
But then long story short, by the December time, I got into this other program.
00:11:47
Speaker
It was an entirely phone sales program.
00:11:50
Speaker
This was actually Bill Murphy, the Rainmaker program for Solar Cheat Code.
00:11:55
Speaker
And long story short, I was like, okay,
00:11:59
Speaker
if I do this over the phone, do I need zoom?
00:12:01
Speaker
And I did, I sold my first one.
00:12:03
Speaker
I think it was like a end of December, January, the first week, whatever time that was.
00:12:07
Speaker
And I was like, I don't even need zoom anymore.
00:12:09
Speaker
Like zoom is pointless.
00:12:11
Speaker
So I went a hundred percent, a hundred percent phones from there.
00:12:14
Speaker
And I never looked back.
00:12:16
Speaker
Wow.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool.
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
So did it start out of was it more just curiosity?
00:12:20
Speaker
Because sounds like you're pretty content just knocking doors.
00:12:23
Speaker
I'm sure you're making good money.
00:12:25
Speaker
So it wasn't necessarily because you hated knocking
Balancing Door-to-Door and Virtual Sales
00:12:27
Speaker
doors is more just like a curiosity thing.
00:12:29
Speaker
Like, hey, does this work?
00:12:31
Speaker
Is that right?
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker
I mean, it was for me.
00:12:33
Speaker
It was like if there's a better way.
00:12:35
Speaker
I need to get on this now than being one of the last people to do it, especially if the market changes.
00:12:40
Speaker
And then as I did research, Australia, they're pretty much all virtual now.
00:12:46
Speaker
UK is primarily virtual.
00:12:48
Speaker
It seems like all the markets that are ahead of us are all virtual.
00:12:51
Speaker
And I was talking to someone with the transition of the Australia market.
00:12:57
Speaker
And they were making big commissions like years, years ago, I think like eight years ago, five years ago, four years ago, but it was all door to door.
00:13:05
Speaker
And then it was door to door and call centers.
00:13:07
Speaker
And then it became a hundred percent virtual.
00:13:09
Speaker
And I think we're in the middle phase, like in the beginning of the middle phase where it's like,
00:13:13
Speaker
Call center plus door to doors for some people and then people are transitioning over.
00:13:19
Speaker
US market is different, there's a lot more houses so it's probably a long ways to go.
00:13:24
Speaker
But I really feel like that it's only gonna get easier and the one thing you get with online leads, if you do it right, is the people that put their information are actually interested, versus you're making them interested.
00:13:39
Speaker
So it's like you've got a completely different dynamic of homeowner that you don't, as long as they understand and trust you and you know, they, you, you know, your stuff, you know, sales are so, I feel like they're just super easy.
00:13:53
Speaker
Like personally.
00:13:55
Speaker
Right, right.
00:13:56
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:13:56
Speaker
And another knock that people have on virtual sales and well, I've seen a little bit of myself as I've done some of these online leads is just when you're getting someone that's interested, sometimes these people online leads, they're clicking on like five different ads and it's like you go to them, they're like, okay, well, I clicked on another ad.
00:14:14
Speaker
I'm meeting with this company first.
00:14:15
Speaker
Right.
00:14:16
Speaker
So I don't know if you see that maybe and I've done online just basically all in California.
00:14:22
Speaker
So maybe it is more specific to California too.
00:14:25
Speaker
But for you, do you see that?
00:14:27
Speaker
Do you find that from when you're knocking when you're taking someone that maybe didn't know too much to interest in solar?
00:14:33
Speaker
Is it something where you felt you could price them higher, make a bigger commission and it was worth it?
00:14:39
Speaker
Or what do you what do you see now doing door to door and virtual?
00:14:42
Speaker
Can you still sell these things pretty high and make a good commission or do you have to be like super competitive on pricing?
00:14:48
Speaker
What have you seen?
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah, so it really depends on the lead gen source.
00:14:52
Speaker
That's like the biggest thing, because there are those sources that I have or I've had that is just like all shoppers, like they're like all shoppers.
00:15:02
Speaker
And for me, like.
00:15:04
Speaker
If I got to sell a customer and like my closes for virtual for anyone that out there that's listening is wondering, I'm off the phone in 45 minutes.
00:15:12
Speaker
The docs are all done.
00:15:13
Speaker
Everything's done 45 minutes.
00:15:15
Speaker
So like, I don't mind making like two, three, four, five grand on the lower end for just like a 45 minute phone call for just personally, you know?
00:15:25
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:15:26
Speaker
So that's the thing is like you do get those shoppers, but then if you have like exclusive appointments, like, you know, the solar exclusive ones that there are a lot stronger I've, I've, I've found where like, you know, yeah, I mean, some of them might shop, but like, you know, like, you know, if they trust you and they understand, you know, that you're there to help and you have a good company behind it, like, you know, a lot of them stick and,
00:15:48
Speaker
Maybe like door to door specifically, like the huge commissions people can make, like you don't always get that every time.
00:15:55
Speaker
But like the nice thing you do get is you get your time back, you can meet more people and you can reach just a lot greater audience.
00:16:02
Speaker
So like I can run if I wanted to 10 appointments in a day back hour, you know, I could have more volume essentially than I could with door to door.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
Well, and so when you started doing virtual, was it during COVID or was it before or after COVID that you started doing virtual?
00:16:21
Speaker
Well, it's the end of last year.
00:16:23
Speaker
So, I mean, if you consider COVID still, you know, happening strong, I mean, it's been... For me, I feel like it's been after COVID, you know, like in terms of like the whole thing.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:35
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, if COVID comes back, you know, I'm good.
00:16:40
Speaker
I'm prepared, you know.
00:16:42
Speaker
It's an insurance policy, right?
00:16:44
Speaker
Like in today's world, you just don't know what could happen next.
00:16:47
Speaker
And if you can sell virtual, you're free.
00:16:48
Speaker
And that's, I mean, I moved to Puerto Rico in less than a year after getting into this and never looking back.
00:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, well, because the only time I sold fully virtuals during COVID, you know, just the three months during COVID, we got basically kicked out of California.
00:17:05
Speaker
So we're all doing virtual.
00:17:07
Speaker
But other than that, the only thing I've done is like a hybrid where I've done knocking and kind of supplemented it with virtual virtual.
00:17:14
Speaker
But one of the issues I ran into was because out here in San Diego, we run like a setter closer model.
00:17:20
Speaker
So we have all our guys knocking one area.
00:17:23
Speaker
And then I just I just found that sometimes it would get really tough to where our guys were booking appointments all in one area.
00:17:29
Speaker
Then it's like, oh, I got a virtual appointments.
00:17:32
Speaker
And also I was driving to him.
00:17:33
Speaker
I wasn't just doing them on the phone.
00:17:36
Speaker
Um, so did you start out, like you said, you started out driving to them, but, um, were you, were you using it first just as a way to supplement kind of your door knocking, go to these appointments or was it like you jumped all in and you're like, you know what, I'm just going to try fully virtual.
00:17:51
Speaker
So, I mean, I jumped in fully for the lead gen where I was like, I'm just going to stop talking and see what happens.
00:17:57
Speaker
But I started like driving to the different houses in the beginning, at least the ones that were like within an hour, there was this one time I will say I sold them zoom, but they wanted me to come to the house.
00:18:10
Speaker
And it was like a straight up.
00:18:12
Speaker
take a six, seven hour drive each way, but I was selling him a second system.
00:18:17
Speaker
So I drove six, seven hours that day to go sell him his second system and they both got installed.
00:18:23
Speaker
And then I drove back in one day.
00:18:24
Speaker
So like I spent an entire Sunday, I did on a Sunday, because I leased some out of stuff on that day.
00:18:31
Speaker
I drove there, I mean, I got a second deal, one virtual, one in house, but you know, it was super easy.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
That's not bad.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
Well, if you're doing it that way, if you know it's a guaranteed sell, but like I said, I was just sometimes driving clear up to an hour away.
00:18:49
Speaker
The appointment would ghost me.
00:18:51
Speaker
So I got a little discouraged doing the, the online leads.
00:18:54
Speaker
I'm like, sometimes it's not worth it.
00:18:56
Speaker
Sometimes it's super worth it.
00:18:57
Speaker
But other days I'm driving an hour, having an appointment, no show me.
00:19:01
Speaker
And then, uh, you know, driving back down to another appointment, uh,
00:19:05
Speaker
So have you seen people that do it successfully where it's like a hybrid thing where they're supplementing, where they're still knocking a lot, but just using online to kind of supplement that?
00:19:14
Speaker
Or in your experience, is it like you should go all virtual or all door knocking?
00:19:19
Speaker
I don't know if you can have like a medium.
00:19:21
Speaker
What do you think about that?
00:19:22
Speaker
I mean, you're probably better off just going one way because time management, because if you like do knock, then you're going to take time away driving somewhere and then you're going to lose like, you know, half a day.
00:19:33
Speaker
I've just found the most people I get discouraged, like in your situation are the people that drive like two, three hours for one appointment.
00:19:41
Speaker
Versus just like, hey, you know, if it's a phone call and they're not there, then so what?
00:19:45
Speaker
So like, for example, like in the beginning of the year, when I got super crazy and heavy in this, so I did 102 sales for the first three and a half months of the year.
00:19:55
Speaker
And I was like stacking everything.
00:19:57
Speaker
I was double booking some of them.
00:19:59
Speaker
Cause if the ones that don't sit, I was getting like three to five sets a day and selling one to three sales a day.
00:20:05
Speaker
But like, I like to double book because it's like, Hey, if they know show, you don't have to drive to another house.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's just like, you know, just call the other person, you know, it's like super fast.
00:20:13
Speaker
So I think if you're going to do this,
00:20:16
Speaker
Maybe start driving so you can get your money's worth because you're comfortable.
00:20:21
Speaker
Because the last thing I always tell people is if you invest in lead gen, you do not want to feel desperate.
00:20:26
Speaker
And I've ran into a lot of people because you front money instead of fronting your time.
Investment Strategies for Lead Generation
00:20:31
Speaker
And then maybe three weeks go by, you haven't gotten a sale.
00:20:33
Speaker
Maybe five weeks go by and you're like, crap, I need to get a sale because I keep getting charged every week.
00:20:38
Speaker
But here's the thing, like if you, number one, are okay losing the money and you don't feel that desperation, you're not gonna have the commission breath, you're gonna do much better.
00:20:49
Speaker
Number two, if you have to go sell a few in the beginning just to get that out of the way, get your break even, go do that just to get started.
00:20:56
Speaker
But I've seen it where some people get so nervous, they cancel after three weeks because they're like, I just can't do this.
00:21:03
Speaker
Other people, like my friend Daniel, he went two months without a sale.
00:21:07
Speaker
He just got in his head.
00:21:08
Speaker
Just like door to door, people get in their head, they're like, I can't set an appointment, I can't close.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then the first appointment he gave me, I sold.
00:21:14
Speaker
And then I sold a bunch for him and in the end, he just did it for three months.
00:21:19
Speaker
He just broke even because he just didn't have the right mindset just to really do this.
00:21:24
Speaker
It does take a little bit of a higher risk tolerance for certain people, especially if you're not used to high risk investments, because for anyone in the audience that's wondering, it's like, it doesn't have to be this way.
00:21:36
Speaker
But, you know, a lot of the times, depending on the company, like, so, you know, just really just depends.
00:21:42
Speaker
You could be looking at 5,000 a month, 3,000 a month, 2,000 a month.
00:21:46
Speaker
Sometimes like I, in the beginning, I went 15,000 a month.
00:21:52
Speaker
And there was 10,000 ad spend and then there was like the management costs and then there's the tools and stuff.
00:21:57
Speaker
But I, in the end, I think it was like a five or six X my money, which is cool, you know?
00:22:02
Speaker
And that was when I was just learning how to do it.
00:22:04
Speaker
Now it's like, now my cost of acquisitions, way less than a thousand bucks in the beginning in those months when I was doing like 15 a month, not everything went to install of course, but the ones that did, I, you know, I significantly made my money back.
00:22:18
Speaker
And it's like, if you think about it, if you could make a four or five X return or even a three to four X return, like why wouldn't you do it?
00:22:25
Speaker
You know, it's like stocks or crypto or whatever.
00:22:27
Speaker
People are like always going for those, like those, those returns.
00:22:30
Speaker
But like, this is like, it's on you, but if you can do it, you can make those huge returns.
00:22:34
Speaker
So I know for me, like if I invest like 3k a month in ad spend, I can easily 10 X that or five X that or six X like super easy.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
Well, that's good.
00:22:45
Speaker
And you, yeah, you've acquired the skills, you know what it takes, you put in the work and now it's just like a money printing machine, you know, you're putting money in, you're getting money out.
00:22:54
Speaker
Exactly.
00:22:54
Speaker
So that's cool to have that confidence.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:57
Speaker
But here's, here's a, here's a question I thought of.
00:22:59
Speaker
So you starting out in door to door, say you're a brand new rep.
00:23:04
Speaker
Would you recommend that people start in like a brand new rep?
00:23:09
Speaker
Would you tell them to start door to door first and then start doing the online lead gen?
00:23:13
Speaker
Or if you have a brand new rep coming to you, like looking back now, the stuff you went through being in door to door, would you change anything?
00:23:22
Speaker
Or what would you tell a new rep that's like, Garrett, I'm just wanting to get into solar, but I have people saying, dude, door to door, you're killing it virtual.
00:23:30
Speaker
What should I do?
00:23:31
Speaker
What would you tell that new rep?
00:23:33
Speaker
So it just depends on their financial situation.
00:23:36
Speaker
So like if you have a new rep, that's like, I got to make money.
00:23:39
Speaker
Like right now I have zero money.
00:23:42
Speaker
Like I need to make money.
00:23:43
Speaker
Then I would probably say, just go knock.
00:23:44
Speaker
Like I was talking to a guy like a few days ago.
00:23:46
Speaker
He's like, I've invested.
00:23:48
Speaker
I just can't do this.
00:23:49
Speaker
I'm like, just go knock, then go make some money first.
00:23:51
Speaker
But if you're somebody like, even if you're new and you have a little bit of money,
00:23:54
Speaker
to invest in yourself then yeah 100 uh virtual and i would say like you could start as a setter like cold call setter so like we have a system where with our program we can plug you into it unlimited data and you can cold call and then make 40 of the commission just cold calling off the data you know you might go five hours and set two three appointments but hey you know you do that every day just like door knocking in the comfort of your own home like you know that's pretty sweet and then get like one or two sales i mean you're you're good
00:24:24
Speaker
So there, yeah, I would say it just really depends on who you are.
00:24:28
Speaker
But if you're like you, somebody that has like, you know, the ability to like, you know, wait, you know, 30 or 60 days, like I would say just go virtually.
00:24:36
Speaker
But if you need to make money like fast, fast, sometimes door to door is a little quicker because you can just go cherry pick or find a house that, you know, just getting installed and you can just go knock it right then.
00:24:46
Speaker
Just, you know what I mean?
00:24:47
Speaker
It really just depends on each person's situation.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:52
Speaker
One.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:24:53
Speaker
Like if you, if you only have 500 bucks in your bank account, then maybe it's not a good idea to start going, invest some money into.
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:01
Speaker
Not yet.
00:25:02
Speaker
Not yet until like leads are like a dollar, but yeah, not, not, not yet.
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:25:08
Speaker
But yeah, speaking of that, like how much would you say, I know there's a risk factor and maybe some guys are super aggressive where they don't have a ton saved up and they're just dumping it all into Legion.
00:25:19
Speaker
But for a guy to like invest in leads, still be comfortable, like be able to pay their bills, wait for commissions to come in.
00:25:26
Speaker
What would you say?
00:25:27
Speaker
How much would you have saved up to be able to like invest in Legion, be comfortable, wait for commissions to start rolling in?
00:25:35
Speaker
I don't know if there's a number.
00:25:36
Speaker
I know it depends on the market and all that too, but what do you think about that?
00:25:40
Speaker
Yeah, so depending on your lead, we can recommend, but depending on your lead gen source and your marketing, like if you do 100 bucks a day, 3,000 a month, I mean, you can get leads as low as eight bucks a lead to 20 bucks a lead to 30 bucks a lead, depending on the quality, depending on how you do it and the company you use.
00:25:57
Speaker
So if let's say you do 3,000 a month, $100 a day, and you get leads for 20 bucks each, that's five leads a day, that's 35 a week.
00:26:04
Speaker
Out of 35, let's say you convert
00:26:08
Speaker
30%, you know, to appointments, you know, it's like what, like nine ish, maybe 10 appointments a week.
00:26:14
Speaker
And out of the 10 appointments a week, let's say nine, you know, let's do 10 is easy math, right?
00:26:19
Speaker
So out of that, let's say you get 40% of them to sit, you know, that's four sits a week.
00:26:24
Speaker
And if you meet with four people, I mean,
00:26:28
Speaker
you should be able to close one.
00:26:29
Speaker
Some people can't, but it depends on the market.
00:26:31
Speaker
But if you can do four sits a week and you sell one a week, or maybe let's say you just sell two a month, you just out of the four, or out of the month, just so you have 12 sits in that month, let's say you just sell one.
00:26:44
Speaker
You know, that's, you know, you're going to double your money depending on number one, the install company you're using and where you're selling.
00:26:51
Speaker
Like we like to focus right now into Northeast because the utility rates are 30 cents or higher.
00:26:58
Speaker
Some areas, 45, 50, 60 cents, especially with PPAs.
00:27:02
Speaker
Some of the Northeast states, you can make like 12, 1500 a kilowatt pretty regular.
00:27:05
Speaker
Wow.
00:27:09
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:10
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:27:10
Speaker
And what I love about that, like notice how Garrett just started throwing out numbers like that.
00:27:16
Speaker
Like most people, I don't think know their numbers that well.
00:27:19
Speaker
And that's what I've noticed guys that are experts in this, you know, exactly.
00:27:22
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:23
Speaker
Invest 3000 should get this many, should get this many.
00:27:26
Speaker
And that's how you feel comfortable with it.
00:27:27
Speaker
Like it's not just throwing money out and hoping for results, but I'm sure that's what you talk about a lot is like, you know, exactly what the numbers are.
00:27:36
Speaker
And I'm sure that's what you're teaching guys in your course and helping guys understand is what the number should be, what you should expect.
00:27:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:43
Speaker
If you're not getting this many appointments out of it, maybe something's broken with the scripts.
00:27:48
Speaker
But yeah, is that how important is knowing these numbers?
00:27:50
Speaker
Is that something you know, like on all the markets or do you like test out yourself first and figure out these numbers?
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
Or yeah, what's like the importance of numbers that you just threw out there, Garrett?
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for me, I will talk to companies.
00:28:03
Speaker
I can't just try every single state.
00:28:06
Speaker
So for me, I'm like, I ask like different lead gen companies, different marketers, like, hey, what's your average cost per lead?
00:28:13
Speaker
Here, what's this?
00:28:15
Speaker
I'm actually, after this call, this podcast, I'm actually going to meet with a marketer that I know about these two states.
00:28:22
Speaker
And I think he was saying it's like, I think, 15 or 20 bucks for those states specifically.
00:28:28
Speaker
you know and that's super good because i know like out of like you know that what i just said that budget i can convert this many and then on top of that here's the cool thing about online leads you have a lot of automations you have a lot of software that can follow up for you now with ai and stuff there's ai setters and there's actually i'm looking into right now an ai caller that can call leads and have a conversation but it's a complete ai and it sounds real it's crazy
00:28:54
Speaker
So like that's where it's probably going is to have your own AI setter like and then you don't have to have an online setter.
AI Tools and Sales Skills in Solar
00:29:00
Speaker
But like the AI texting bot with ChatGPT API, that's becoming bigger and bigger things like my friend Brent Attaway, who he's a CMO of Solarcon.
00:29:11
Speaker
He is CRMX.
00:29:13
Speaker
He's releasing an AI version of his software.
00:29:17
Speaker
that's a setter texting platform, a bot.
00:29:20
Speaker
So it can set for you.
00:29:21
Speaker
So like, let's say you have leads that are coming in.
00:29:23
Speaker
You're probably going to want to call it immediately.
00:29:25
Speaker
So if you have a call, a call center that do it, or if you hire somebody or do it yourself, and then if they don't answer, you have the AI setter that's just going to keep, you know,
00:29:34
Speaker
texting and you know reaching out like it's a human but even without the ai setter there's automations that will collect power bill there's automations to remind them automations to follow up there's so many automations out there to keep a lead going because yeah maybe you convert 40 of the leads but like with the right system you can convert more and what's crazy is with the right system and the right uh right like just literally with the right system you can have sit rates like
00:30:00
Speaker
80%.
00:30:01
Speaker
Like I've had certain Legion programs were like a straight up.
00:30:04
Speaker
The Siri was like 60, 70, 80% of the time, which is crazy if you think about it.
00:30:09
Speaker
Cause that's not how it is for door to door.
00:30:11
Speaker
Right.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
And most door to door reps are terrible at follow up.
00:30:16
Speaker
Like you knock a door one time, they know show the appointment and then that's the end of that.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:21
Speaker
Then you go, go back in that neighborhood a month later and they got solar on from somebody else.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:28
Speaker
She'll follow it up.
00:30:29
Speaker
But yeah, like at the end of the day, I don't think door-to-door reps have time to follow up.
00:30:33
Speaker
Most of us don't have the time.
00:30:34
Speaker
So that's what I love.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:37
Speaker
Brent's a good friend of mine.
00:30:38
Speaker
I love using these.
00:30:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:41
Speaker
Funny, our mutual friends, Eddie, that actually connect us for the podcast.
00:30:46
Speaker
We actually worked with Brent here in San Diego.
00:30:49
Speaker
Oh, sick.
00:30:51
Speaker
Moved to Florida, started doing all the marketing stuff.
00:30:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:55
Speaker
Heck yeah.
00:30:55
Speaker
I love Brent.
00:30:56
Speaker
He's a good guy.
00:30:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:58
Speaker
But yeah, no, it's powerful stuff though, having that.
00:31:01
Speaker
And yeah, you got to have it set up.
00:31:03
Speaker
Like it's not going to work magic, but you set up the automations, you figure it out.
00:31:08
Speaker
And yeah, I can't even imagine that AI stuff.
00:31:11
Speaker
That's going to change the game if that can just do.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:15
Speaker
Automatic texting conversations.
00:31:17
Speaker
Crazy, yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
Not very, very helpful, a lot of those things.
00:31:22
Speaker
I want to shift gears a little bit here, Garrett.
00:31:25
Speaker
We've talked a lot about just the online stuff, Legion, setting up the systems.
00:31:31
Speaker
But I actually heard you on Jeremy Lee Miner's podcast, which he's the... What's this program called?
00:31:40
Speaker
NEPQ.
00:31:42
Speaker
Any PQ guy, he's the any PQ guy does a ton on just, you know, tonality, a lot of different things using cells.
00:31:53
Speaker
So I want to talk a little bit about like some of the cell skills you use, maybe in like door to door versus virtual, if it's the same, if you do anything different.
00:32:03
Speaker
And I know you've invested a lot in yourself and your systems, Garrett and in learning these cell skills.
00:32:10
Speaker
So what would you say versus door to door?
00:32:15
Speaker
Do you do anything that's drastically different on the phone?
00:32:18
Speaker
Or would you say like selling in the home versus over the phone is essentially the same?
00:32:24
Speaker
Or what are you changing?
00:32:25
Speaker
What are you doing different in person versus virtual?
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah, so.
00:32:31
Speaker
His system, NEPQ, neuroemotional persuasion questions, I really studied it.
00:32:35
Speaker
So I got into it.
00:32:37
Speaker
It kind of helped me break a ceiling.
00:32:38
Speaker
It's like a framework essentially.
00:32:40
Speaker
But long story short, I just took what I learned from door to door.
00:32:44
Speaker
applied it virtually and tweak some of it and really just focus on the tonality and just kind of how I present myself.
00:32:50
Speaker
Like the biggest difference is like I don't do proposals really anymore.
00:32:54
Speaker
I just like have a conversation with somebody and then throughout the process, you know, I will, you know, some at times send a picture of the roof, send them a picture at certain details.
00:33:03
Speaker
I don't like to send the proposal because if you're on the phone and you send them the proposal, they could just scroll to the, to the, to the end and
00:33:10
Speaker
be checked out just in a minute because they're like you know what i mean so like i like to be in control good and keep them in like a system without them like you know you know trying to control it essentially so i focus more like on the tonality side
00:33:25
Speaker
And just like the relaxed, like casual, like, you know, non high pressure, like zero pressure, like negative pressure.
00:33:32
Speaker
But it's really like the tonality and how I speak for the phones.
00:33:37
Speaker
That's really it.
00:33:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:39
Speaker
And how do you practice that?
00:33:40
Speaker
Because I know Jeremy, he talks a lot about these things, but sometimes I think a lot of us, maybe we're not, we don't have the right tonality.
00:33:47
Speaker
I remember when I first started in cells, something that I really struggled with, I would have these uptones after everything.
00:33:54
Speaker
Big say, do you want to look into this?
00:33:56
Speaker
Do you do you like like everything I would phrase is a question and I didn't even know I was doing it.
00:34:01
Speaker
But then as I started listening, I, you know, recording myself.
00:34:04
Speaker
So do you do a lot of recording yourself?
00:34:06
Speaker
Or how did you master this tonality in yourselves?
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's just practice, repetition, just like anything.
00:34:13
Speaker
It's really just practice, and then I would record myself.
00:34:17
Speaker
I mean, there's some, I would listen back to it at times.
00:34:21
Speaker
It's pretty much just practice and repetition is pretty much it.
00:34:27
Speaker
So just practicing, you get the lines, you record yourself, just practice the lines.
00:34:33
Speaker
Do you guys do a lot of role plays in virtual?
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:37
Speaker
We do call reviews.
00:34:40
Speaker
I've just found call reviews.
00:34:41
Speaker
I mean, we do role plays sometimes, but I just found listening to someone's actual real recording is more helpful than just role playing because it's always funny when people role play.
00:34:52
Speaker
I mean, it helps, but I like the...
00:34:54
Speaker
the real time.
00:34:55
Speaker
And then also with SBU Live, you know, with that coming out, like, you know, watching people sell in real time, the chat box, like you can give real time
Training and Communication Tips
00:35:03
Speaker
feedback.
00:35:03
Speaker
It's like, hey, you messed up, go back and say this instead, you know, stuff like that, you know, we could, you know, implement as well, just with that, with those features.
00:35:12
Speaker
So the reps you train on that, would you say tonality is that the biggest thing that people mess up or don't get right?
00:35:18
Speaker
Or what would you say is like the bigger mistake that you see when you're doing these call reviews?
00:35:24
Speaker
Just you're going over it.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's tonality and then it's like not confident in what you say.
00:35:30
Speaker
You've got to have the confidence.
00:35:32
Speaker
You've got to know what you're saying and you've got to really, really know what you're saying because if you don't know what you're saying, like here's an example.
00:35:38
Speaker
We just got PPAs for Everbright.
00:35:41
Speaker
I didn't know.
00:35:41
Speaker
I don't know Everbright.
00:35:43
Speaker
I don't.
00:35:43
Speaker
I need to study it.
00:35:44
Speaker
And I did a deal.
00:35:46
Speaker
And I just didn't know a question, like, does it put a lien on the property?
00:35:49
Speaker
I just didn't know it at the time.
00:35:51
Speaker
And because of that, I didn't get the deal because I didn't have a good answer.
00:35:54
Speaker
And if I had that answer, I would have gotten the deal.
00:35:56
Speaker
I just, you know, it's one of those things where you need to know like everything or as much as you possibly can, because if you don't, especially over the phone, why will a customer sign up for something for 25 years when you can't even answer certain questions?
00:36:10
Speaker
They'll just go to somebody else that can.
00:36:12
Speaker
So it's like you need to know what you're talking about.
00:36:14
Speaker
You really need to understand.
00:36:16
Speaker
And if you don't, like you got to practice that.
00:36:18
Speaker
And then once you're comfortable and you're and you know what you're saying, it's really working on like your tonality, how you say it, how you ask questions, how you phrase things and so forth.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:36:31
Speaker
That's so important.
00:36:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, matter of fact, happened to me, I think it was last week or the week before, but similar situation.
00:36:38
Speaker
I was having like a login issue.
00:36:41
Speaker
And then I got asked a couple of questions on the contract that I wasn't super confident in.
00:36:48
Speaker
And this was a referral I thought is going to be a lay down close.
00:36:51
Speaker
And then the lady's like, you know what, we're gonna take this, we're gonna think about it.
00:36:55
Speaker
And I guarantee it's just cause, you know, I was having some login issues.
00:37:00
Speaker
You're like, oh, one second, I got a glitch here and then another glitch and then you can't answer that.
00:37:04
Speaker
And then it's like, just, you know, just like we're done.
00:37:06
Speaker
Right.
00:37:07
Speaker
Cause that, you know, the second person that comes in into it, they're gonna just like wrap that up and be like, oh, thanks for knowing everything, answering everything.
00:37:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
It's the same thing.
00:37:15
Speaker
Like, it's just really just the knowledge.
00:37:17
Speaker
It's just a hundred percent the knowledge.
00:37:20
Speaker
So important.
00:37:21
Speaker
So yeah, anyone listening to this, I definitely recommend like, you know, you're not going to, if someone asks you a question, you don't make it up and just sound confident, right?
00:37:29
Speaker
It's okay to say, Hey, that's a good question.
00:37:30
Speaker
I'm not sure.
00:37:31
Speaker
Let me find that out.
00:37:32
Speaker
Cause people respect that too.
00:37:34
Speaker
So definitely don't like make stuff up, but yeah.
00:37:38
Speaker
You know, I think it's important though, like whatever, maybe it's ever bright, read your contracts, know what's in them.
00:37:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:44
Speaker
Know if there's liens, know about the mechanic liens, all those types of things.
00:37:48
Speaker
And it's going to help respect and probably even more.
00:37:51
Speaker
Would you say it's more important over the phone?
00:37:54
Speaker
Cause like you're not able to read body language.
00:37:56
Speaker
So it's a hundred percent just off voice, soft tonality, right?
00:37:59
Speaker
So it's like, yeah, they sense the hesitation or non-confident sense.
00:38:04
Speaker
It's yeah, it's super important because it's like if you just don't know it, like in that case, I was like, yeah, I can get that answer for you.
00:38:10
Speaker
But it's like, you know, like I, you know, at the end of the day, like he wants to answer now and then just you lose trust, especially if they can't see you.
00:38:18
Speaker
So, yeah, it's like 100 percent, like 100 percent.
00:38:21
Speaker
The knowledge is one of the most important things for sure.
00:38:24
Speaker
And then Garrett, what about sometimes I struggle when I'm talking to customers on the phone, just because I naturally have kind of a monotone voice.
00:38:33
Speaker
Sometimes it's hard to have the inflection tonality.
00:38:37
Speaker
I've experimented with like, you know, standing up, walking around, just trying to get myself.
00:38:42
Speaker
you know, amped up before sales.
00:38:44
Speaker
So do you do anything with that?
00:38:46
Speaker
Do you recommend the reps?
00:38:47
Speaker
They're doing a virtual.
00:38:48
Speaker
So I don't know if you're sitting down, standing up, if you have any like pre-call rituals you go through.
00:38:55
Speaker
What would you say to someone who's like a monotone guy?
00:38:57
Speaker
Like, how do you, I don't know if you should show excitement or maybe it's a different style.
00:39:02
Speaker
Maybe you just sound like, you know, like you don't care either way if they're going to do it.
00:39:06
Speaker
But what do you think?
00:39:06
Speaker
I mean, it's not a bad thing.
00:39:08
Speaker
Like, yeah, I would say like for me,
00:39:10
Speaker
I don't sit down.
00:39:11
Speaker
I stand pretty much the entire day.
00:39:14
Speaker
I stand.
00:39:15
Speaker
Sometimes I sit down, my feet hurt for maybe like 20, 30 minutes, but then I'm like, and I, then I stand up because then my back hurts sometimes like sitting down too long.
00:39:24
Speaker
So like, I like to stand when I'm on a call.
00:39:26
Speaker
I like sometimes walk around pace around.
00:39:29
Speaker
Uh, I, I, uh, also like, uh, I think that, I don't know if it makes too much of a difference, but like,
00:39:34
Speaker
the shocks headphones s h o k z it doesn't have to be this brand they sit in the side of your head not in your ears i've just found with those i feel like i can talk normal verse with like my ears plugged with like headphones because then i just i don't know just like it's a different thing i feel like i can just hear them like easier it just seems more natural for me like having the headphones like on the side of my head like go i don't know how it works but like you know it just goes inside your head um but uh yeah i know right
00:40:04
Speaker
But yeah, I kind of like that helps.
00:40:07
Speaker
And then also like, I mean, I don't do any rituals, but like, I mean, if you're somebody that needs to be hyped up, I don't know, listen to some like good music or listen to audio book or like, like a motivational, like thing, like Grant Cardone or, you know, Andy Elliott or,
00:40:23
Speaker
You know, anyone out there, Bradley, I don't know.
00:40:25
Speaker
There's a lot of people out there you can listen to.
00:40:27
Speaker
But like for me, like for me.
00:40:28
Speaker
Celebrate podcast.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:40:31
Speaker
But here's the thing, guys.
00:40:33
Speaker
Like for anyone that's listening, I actually was afraid of phone calls like my whole life.
00:40:38
Speaker
I just don't like phone calls.
00:40:39
Speaker
Like I was always like just like anxious and just always like.
00:40:43
Speaker
I didn't like to be on the phone.
00:40:44
Speaker
I didn't like to talk
Overcoming Challenges in Virtual Sales
00:40:45
Speaker
on the phone.
00:40:45
Speaker
I remember the beginning of last year, well before I got into this, I was trying to cold call companies to set them up with solar, like as like an option for them.
00:40:54
Speaker
And every time I was so nervous and I would sit there for 10, 15 minutes before I could even do it.
00:41:00
Speaker
And I just couldn't do it.
00:41:01
Speaker
I remember I even said to myself, like, I don't think this is for me, but I think it's just a limiting belief.
00:41:07
Speaker
And then I just, you know,
00:41:09
Speaker
practice and i got over it and i just you know said i can do it and you know you just have to just just do it and just just get those like that that it's a mindset if you're gonna like i told myself for a long time i think it was called agoraphobia or no something like phone phobia i remember i saw a sign do you are you afraid of phone calls and i was like yeah it's freaking me like i get nervous
00:41:30
Speaker
But like, you know, here I am selling over the phone teaching how to do it.
00:41:33
Speaker
So like, if I can get over it, anyone can get over it.
00:41:36
Speaker
And it's just like one of those things, you just got to do it.
00:41:39
Speaker
You know, I was talking to, you know, Chad, my team yesterday.
00:41:42
Speaker
And he's like, I'm just so nervous.
00:41:44
Speaker
Like, I don't know how to get over like this, like this call thing.
00:41:46
Speaker
Like, I'm just like, you just got to do it, man.
00:41:48
Speaker
Like,
00:41:49
Speaker
like it's just you might be nervous for the first 50 100 but like just repetition and also it's a phone call like they'll never see you they don't know what you look like you have an online phone number from from like whatever platform you're using it's not even connected to you like like they have zero way of like knowing who you are so who cares you know so yeah that's a great point yeah
00:42:12
Speaker
And yeah, it's funny, just like anything new, you're going to be nervous, you know, knocking on doors.
00:42:18
Speaker
I'm scared.
00:42:19
Speaker
I'm scared of calls too, but it's because I've knocked on a lot more doors than I've made phone calls.
00:42:24
Speaker
Exactly.
00:42:25
Speaker
Exact same way.
00:42:26
Speaker
But yeah, I think 100%, that's a good principle to live by with anything.
00:42:30
Speaker
You're probably going to suck for a while.
00:42:31
Speaker
It's going to be scary, but you do it over and over and over.
00:42:34
Speaker
You're going to start to suck less.
00:42:36
Speaker
It's going to start to be less scary.
00:42:37
Speaker
And that's where the success comes.
00:42:39
Speaker
Exactly.
00:42:40
Speaker
So I definitely appreciate that.
00:42:42
Speaker
But yeah, so last question or two I had on this.
00:42:44
Speaker
And then I want to talk about some of the...
00:42:48
Speaker
your gaming platform stuff to wrap up here.
00:42:52
Speaker
But something that I talk a lot about in the podcast, just that a podcast on actually is just like pre-framing the cell.
00:42:59
Speaker
Like, as you know, when you get in a home, you're laying out the agenda, you're telling them, hey, we're going to submit your application after this.
00:43:08
Speaker
So over the phone, do you do the same type of thing where it's like you're laying out what's going to happen?
00:43:14
Speaker
And then because my concern with someone over the phone, like sometimes as you know, you get to the end, they're like, okay, let's just wait on this.
00:43:22
Speaker
And in person, sometimes it's a lot easier to overcome those things.
00:43:26
Speaker
But over the phone, I don't know if you have any tricks to help with that.
00:43:29
Speaker
But yeah, so I guess you do the same similar thing, like you pre-frame them, tell them what you're going to do in the call.
00:43:36
Speaker
And then...
00:43:37
Speaker
Like if you get objections at the end, I don't know if maybe you don't really get objections, but how do you handle it over the phone versus in person where you can't really like, you know, strong arm them into it or read their body language?
00:43:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:53
Speaker
I mean, you technically can strong arm somebody into this, but yeah, normally it always falls through.
00:44:00
Speaker
But I will say this one time, I wouldn't say I strong armed, I did sell a deal, did get installed.
00:44:06
Speaker
She was getting her hair done at the hairdresser and I kind of pushed through it.
00:44:10
Speaker
And she was literally on the phone getting her hair done at the hairdresser.
00:44:14
Speaker
And the hairdresser actually had solar in Nevada and she was telling her to get other quotes, having her to text me questions after.
00:44:22
Speaker
But I ended up getting the deal in the end.
00:44:23
Speaker
So, so, you know, it still worked out, but long story short,
00:44:29
Speaker
With NAPQ, the framework that you have, it sets it up in a way that you don't really have those objections in the end because you get through that ahead of time.
00:44:41
Speaker
You get rid of all the objections.
00:44:43
Speaker
You ask the right questions.
00:44:44
Speaker
And usually, by the end of it, if you do it right, they ask you,
00:44:49
Speaker
what's the next step?
00:44:50
Speaker
That's usually what happens.
00:44:52
Speaker
And then it's just really straightforward.
00:44:54
Speaker
And a lot of the time, keep in mind, with the right online leads and the right source, they're already interested to begin with.
00:45:00
Speaker
That's why they put their info on the web.
00:45:02
Speaker
They're ready to go solar.
00:45:03
Speaker
It's like anyone out there that sees an ad on Instagram or sees an ad on Facebook or sees an ad in X, Y, and Z, and they really want more information.
00:45:12
Speaker
It's literally just like that.
00:45:13
Speaker
You saw something, you put your info in, and then you were called.
00:45:18
Speaker
or you booked it yourself.
00:45:20
Speaker
If you do it right with the right online leads, it's the same thing.
00:45:22
Speaker
Like they have an interest level already.
00:45:24
Speaker
They want to go solar or they're at least thinking about it to some extent.
00:45:28
Speaker
They're really interested.
00:45:29
Speaker
And you know, you just have to ask the right questions and set them up properly.
00:45:33
Speaker
And then by the end, they're just going to be like, what's the next step?
00:45:36
Speaker
And I mean, if they don't, then, you know, you did something maybe incorrectly or, you know, maybe you just didn't just wasn't the right time in that case.
00:45:43
Speaker
But like, you know, a lot of the times, if you set it up properly, they're going to say,
00:45:48
Speaker
What's the next step?
00:45:49
Speaker
That's literally what happens a lot.
00:45:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
And then with going through the documents, once you get through, run their application, doing the doc, you saying all that in the past, I've sometimes struggled with that on a few virtual calls I've done.
00:46:05
Speaker
We're like, OK, I got this looks good.
00:46:08
Speaker
But now that I got this, I'm just going to read through everything.
00:46:10
Speaker
So we'll end the call, then I'll read through it and go to it later.
00:46:14
Speaker
Because it's like in person, you can just kind of take the control of it, be like, okay, yeah, so let me show you this, hand me your phone, kind of walk me through those documents.
00:46:22
Speaker
But I don't know if you get held up on that or how do you, I don't know if what's the NEPQ solution for that, just going through the documents.
00:46:29
Speaker
Because some people see this, you know, 30, 40 page doc you sign in.
00:46:34
Speaker
Could be a lot.
00:46:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:37
Speaker
So easy to walk them through in person.
00:46:38
Speaker
What do you do over the phone going through documents?
00:46:41
Speaker
So one thing is if you feel like it's going to be a lot, you're going to project it's going to be a lot, whether it's your tonality or what you say, and then they're going to think it's a lot.
00:46:50
Speaker
For me, like the way I do it,
00:46:52
Speaker
I'm just like, you know, let's say, you know, it's like, what's the next step?
00:46:55
Speaker
I'm like, okay, yeah, next step is this, we'll apply, blah, blah, blah.
00:46:58
Speaker
You know, it's like, hey, you got approved really quick.
00:47:00
Speaker
I'm gonna send you a really quick email if you can check your email super quick.
00:47:03
Speaker
And then they're like, okay.
00:47:05
Speaker
They pulled their email up.
00:47:06
Speaker
I'm like, okay, perfect.
00:47:07
Speaker
You see that really quick right there.
00:47:09
Speaker
And I'm like, click that.
00:47:10
Speaker
And then I'm like, okay, you open that.
00:47:11
Speaker
And then you say, it should say like start at the top.
00:47:13
Speaker
I'm like, click that.
00:47:14
Speaker
And then from there, you just, you know, every yellow box, you just click that.
00:47:17
Speaker
And then they just go through it really quickly.
00:47:19
Speaker
Just like, I mean, kind of assume in a sense.
00:47:21
Speaker
And it's like similar to like in the house, like in home, it's like very similar.
00:47:25
Speaker
You just own version of it.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:31
Speaker
Well, that's so, that's so true though.
00:47:33
Speaker
Um, I like what you said, the objection you have yourself, it's going to be projected probably even more so over the phone.
00:47:39
Speaker
So that's true.
00:47:40
Speaker
Like if you're concerned about it, it's probably going to come up with the customer.
00:47:44
Speaker
So, um, yeah, it's a good, good reminder for everybody.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:48
Speaker
Um,
00:47:49
Speaker
That's good stuff.
00:47:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:50
Speaker
Well, Garrett, before we end here, I just have to ask you a little bit more about your competition platform and all that you got going on.
00:47:59
Speaker
So I know you gave us a little bit of details on that at the beginning of the podcast, but the biggest thing for you, where did you, yeah, like why did you decide to start that?
00:48:08
Speaker
Was it just the disconnect you saw of not enough competition or like, how'd you even come up with this idea?
00:48:15
Speaker
And why did you want to do a platform like that?
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:19
Speaker
So in a nutshell, essentially I was already live streaming my sales to like course members and then like a live streaming, like appointment setting to course members.
The Inspiration Behind SBU.live
00:48:29
Speaker
But then, uh, at solar con we did this, like, uh, cause I told this, uh, one, one guy, I told him, I was like, Hey, you know, this is what I do.
00:48:37
Speaker
And then he hosted an event, like a real time virtual, not virtual, but real time on the camera.
00:48:44
Speaker
put us on an auto dialer appointment setting, live streaming it.
00:48:48
Speaker
After I told him I do this, he set that up and we did that.
00:48:52
Speaker
And then after I was like, that was a lot of fun.
00:48:54
Speaker
Why don't we just do this all the time?
00:48:56
Speaker
I already do this.
00:48:57
Speaker
So then I was like, we need to make an e-sports live streaming platform.
00:49:00
Speaker
And then from there, you know, I got a developer, we've been coding it from literally from scratch.
00:49:06
Speaker
And yeah, I thought like, Hey, you know, let's take the,
00:49:10
Speaker
Gamification, the camaraderie, the competitiveness of door to door.
00:49:16
Speaker
Let's put it on the screen and let's
00:49:19
Speaker
do it like Twitch because everyone watches games.
00:49:22
Speaker
Why not watch solar reps make a lot of money and learn at the same time?
00:49:26
Speaker
And then I just thought like, hey, this is something that, you know, is going to be, I thought it was a lot of fun.
00:49:30
Speaker
You know, I'm sure other people will think it's a lot of fun.
00:49:31
Speaker
And then, you know, why don't we just gamify it, incentivize it and make it so like, hey, if you're going to do it, you could win, you can win money, you can win appointments, you can win prizes, vacations, like, you know, just like any anything else you could level up kind of like a video game, but like you can level up and actually earn stuff.
00:49:47
Speaker
And then I was like,
00:49:48
Speaker
there's no one doing this in the world.
00:49:49
Speaker
So this is like a world's first.
00:49:51
Speaker
So you can actually find like articles.
00:49:53
Speaker
Uh, if you search my name and SBU live, you can find a bunch of like tech articles and like, uh, tech times and stuff like.com.
00:49:59
Speaker
And, uh, I think, uh, other websites just talking about it.
00:50:03
Speaker
But yeah, I just thought, uh,
00:50:06
Speaker
it's like a really great idea that like why don't we just have sales that everything's becoming gamified anyway in this world you know like literally everything so i was like okay let's let's you know let's do that and then also with the virtual side it's like you're on an island like if you sell virtually you could just see people's stats you don't really see people sell so why not see people sell instead of seeing you know seeing their stats and then you can at least feel like you're not by yourself and then it's like cool you can click streams you can see other people out there and then
00:50:35
Speaker
you know as it grows there's going to people that are live streaming all day or just like an hour maybe just 30 minutes multiple hours but it's just going to keep growing and we want to incentivize people you know to sell to stream you know it is it you know it's just it's a really great way to learn uh from people watching uh to to get feedback in real time to just
00:50:56
Speaker
feel like you got to sell a deal even harder because people are watching you and judging you.
00:51:01
Speaker
So it kind of puts you in the spot.
00:51:02
Speaker
So it makes you even a better salesperson.
00:51:04
Speaker
And I, and yeah, I just thought it was a really, really sweet idea that I think it's, you know, needed for the world and for the industry.
00:51:10
Speaker
And then, uh, yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's going to go beyond this of course, but you know, it's a really, it's a really, really, I think, uh, it's going to change the, you know, the virtual side of the industry for sure.
00:51:20
Speaker
And we want it, uh,
00:51:22
Speaker
This is just the beginning, you know, we're ground level, ground floor with this.
00:51:25
Speaker
And yeah, we're looking to really just expand and just make this, you know, bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:51:29
Speaker
And then we're going to have, like I said earlier, you know, dual arena, you know, we're going to eventually as reps level up and we see their stats, fantasy league, you know, that those type of things, we're going to have everything on the platform on SBU.live.
00:51:46
Speaker
It's going to be super cool.
00:51:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:51:50
Speaker
Well, I can't wait to check it out more.
00:51:51
Speaker
I mean, I'm just getting like Hunger Games vibes for Solar.
00:51:55
Speaker
Ready Player One, Metaverse.
00:51:59
Speaker
Exactly.
00:51:59
Speaker
Pretty cool stuff.
00:52:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:02
Speaker
So, I can't wait, man.
00:52:03
Speaker
And is that for door-to-door?
00:52:05
Speaker
Is it going to be for door-to-door?
00:52:06
Speaker
Or would you like separate it door-to-door versus virtual?
00:52:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:10
Speaker
I mean, if we got door to door guys using it, that would be awesome.
00:52:13
Speaker
I mean, there's these glasses you can get that can live stream yourself anyway.
00:52:16
Speaker
So like if someone invests and it's like, I think one or 2000, maybe $3,000 in glasses, and then they can like wear them while they sell and then they can stream themselves to the platform.
00:52:26
Speaker
I mean, we, and everyone's welcomed, you know, door to door in home, virtual zoom.
00:52:32
Speaker
It doesn't matter what it is.
00:52:33
Speaker
We just want to put the gamification, the live streaming of solar sails on the platform.
00:52:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:52:41
Speaker
I'll be big.
00:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, because I think I know for me, some of my most popular like podcast episodes is actual footage from sales.
00:52:51
Speaker
And you look at these YouTubers that are crushing it.
00:52:54
Speaker
It's actual sales footage because people love seeing it.
00:52:57
Speaker
And it's not just like this theory that we talk about.
00:53:00
Speaker
It's like, hey, what's working in real life?
00:53:02
Speaker
And I think guys love that.
00:53:04
Speaker
So probably even more so on a live stream.
00:53:07
Speaker
Exactly.
00:53:08
Speaker
Yep.
00:53:09
Speaker
Exactly.
00:53:09
Speaker
Awesome.
Encouragement for Sales Reps
00:53:12
Speaker
Well, Garrett, it's been a sweet having you on today and I know we could go on and on, but I can't wait to see what the future holds for your platform.
00:53:19
Speaker
Once you start getting a lot of people on there, but yeah, if guys want to connect more, um, hear more about your, your, uh, your course and platform and all that, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah, so there's a few ways.
00:53:33
Speaker
You can find us at solarbootcamp.ai.
00:53:37
Speaker
You can find us on Instagram at the same thing, solarbootcamp.ai.
00:53:41
Speaker
And then also for the gamification sales platform, it's sbu.live.
00:53:47
Speaker
So like Solar Bootcamp University.
00:53:49
Speaker
So sbu.live, you can register.
00:53:51
Speaker
And even on the platform, for anyone that's wondering, you can build teams, you can make overrides.
00:53:57
Speaker
We have it set up so it's actually like seven levels down so you can make a big passive income on there.
00:54:02
Speaker
You can do a solo account.
00:54:04
Speaker
we got some huge things, especially for the metaverse.
00:54:07
Speaker
Like we're going to do NFT prizes.
00:54:09
Speaker
We're going to have like special areas, like shops, you know, like it's going to be like fricking soup.
00:54:13
Speaker
It's going to be like a video game.
00:54:14
Speaker
Essentially.
00:54:15
Speaker
As you level up, you unlock like different avatars, different stuff, different things, you know, it's going to be fricking sweet, but yeah, you can find us on any of those tags, like solar bootcamp.ai, Instagram, Facebook, uh, the domains, uh, solar bootcamp.ai, and then also SBU.live.
00:54:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:36
Speaker
Love it.
00:54:37
Speaker
So guys go check out what he's got going on.
00:54:39
Speaker
I think some of this stuff is going to be revolutionized and we might all be selling virtual at some point.
00:54:45
Speaker
Definitely a good thing to learn and have in your toolkit, your toolbox.
00:54:50
Speaker
So last question, Garrett, just to wrap up here, do you have any advice for maybe a struggling rep or something you wish you would have done sooner?
00:54:57
Speaker
Any last words that you want to leave with our solopreneurs before we say goodbye?
00:55:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:02
Speaker
I mean, for anyone that's struggling, my only advice is don't quit because I struggled many times for many years and I almost quit many times, but I didn't.
00:55:11
Speaker
And if I did, we would not be here right now.
00:55:13
Speaker
So for anyone that is struggling, just don't quit.
00:55:16
Speaker
Just be persistent.
00:55:16
Speaker
You know, it's a solar coaster for a reason.
00:55:18
Speaker
You know, you might be in a dip and the next week or next month you might be back up.
00:55:22
Speaker
We all go through struggles like I've gone through many.
00:55:25
Speaker
So like for anyone that that's out there,
00:55:27
Speaker
Just don't give up.
00:55:29
Speaker
You're so close to the prize.
00:55:31
Speaker
Like just keep going.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:34
Speaker
So important.
00:55:35
Speaker
That is a nugger right there.
00:55:36
Speaker
So guys keep moving.
00:55:38
Speaker
There is no losing, only learning.
00:55:40
Speaker
Make sure you keep putting the next step forward, next foot forward.
00:55:44
Speaker
And Garrett, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:55:46
Speaker
We'll have to have you on a follow-up episode for sure.
00:55:48
Speaker
Once this thing gets cranking, can't wait to see what happens, but I appreciate you coming on today, brother.
00:55:53
Speaker
Yep.
00:55:53
Speaker
Thanks guys.
00:55:56
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:55:58
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?
00:56:07
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:56:19
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:56:30
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
00:56:32
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, less than $3.45 a day.
00:56:51
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:56:57
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:57:05
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:57:12
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.