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Doing This Will Kill Your Deals...
94 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction and Taylor's Journey
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.
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
Hey, what's up, solopreneurs?
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, we're going to be talking about one thing that will kill your deal almost every single time.
00:00:49
Speaker
And I've made this mistake many times before.
00:00:53
Speaker
I got some live footage of a deal that I actually just switched over.
00:00:59
Speaker
And they told me exactly why they did not go with the first company they met with.
00:01:03
Speaker
So we're going to be diving in some live footage and hopefully you can take some lessons from it.
00:01:07
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast.
00:01:09
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Maximizing Summer Sales
00:01:10
Speaker
We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:01:17
Speaker
Hope you're doing awesome and closing lots of deals whenever you're listening to this.
00:01:21
Speaker
Currently, we are in the summer grinds
00:01:24
Speaker
And I hope all of you are taking advantage of these long summer days.
00:01:28
Speaker
Have your guys just grinding, closing lots of deals because this is when it's money making season for solar.
00:01:35
Speaker
So make sure you push hard these last months if you are selling in the summer and leave everything on the table because you don't want to get to the winter and wish you would have pushed harder in the summer.
00:01:47
Speaker
Take it from me.
00:01:49
Speaker
Okay, so we're going to jump straight into the content.
Analyzing a Failed Deal
00:01:53
Speaker
Nothing too much else to talk about besides the meat and potatoes today.
00:01:58
Speaker
And so just a little background on what happened on this account that I recently installed.
00:02:04
Speaker
So I went there.
00:02:05
Speaker
It was a person that had moved in.
00:02:08
Speaker
Fairly recent in the house, I think four or five months back.
00:02:13
Speaker
So I personally am a big fan of hitting newer move ins.
00:02:17
Speaker
A lot of times they have not been, you know, hit up as much about solar.
00:02:22
Speaker
So it's a strategy for us out here and can work well.
00:02:25
Speaker
And so what happened, I go to this deal.
00:02:29
Speaker
I start signing them.
00:02:30
Speaker
They're resistant.
00:02:31
Speaker
They don't want to do it.
00:02:33
Speaker
I finally get out why they don't want to do it.
00:02:35
Speaker
And it's because they signed up pretty quick with the last company.
00:02:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just going to play some live footage, probably best explain it from their perspective.
00:02:43
Speaker
So I'm going to pull up the footage here I got on this account and let's hear what happened.
00:02:48
Speaker
Let's hear what this rep did wrong and some lessons we can take from it.
00:02:53
Speaker
For sure.
00:02:54
Speaker
So, yeah, I guess.
00:02:55
Speaker
So, yes, I don't realize you guys have been through that far with this.
00:02:58
Speaker
I'm wondering what stopped you guys from just like following through and going with what they were doing.
00:03:03
Speaker
So, I mean, the first time you approached me out in the garage, I didn't even know what they were doing.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, it hadn't gone through.
00:03:08
Speaker
And then he came by one day while I was in the garage.
00:03:12
Speaker
Hey, Jeremy, I just dropped behind nowhere and
00:03:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:37
Speaker
So you just got exhausted.
00:03:38
Speaker
Wow.
00:03:39
Speaker
You got exhausted.
00:03:40
Speaker
You just, you know, testing us and testing us.
00:03:43
Speaker
I know.
00:03:43
Speaker
You kept texting us.
00:03:44
Speaker
I go, listen.
00:03:45
Speaker
I go, we're not here right now.
00:03:47
Speaker
We'll let you know.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:48
Speaker
He's like, stop.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, he did.
00:03:50
Speaker
But yeah.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yeah, we don't like that.
00:03:51
Speaker
That's not something that I want.
00:04:03
Speaker
Yeah.
Learning from Sales Mistakes
00:04:34
Speaker
Okay, so you can pretty much hear what happened here.
00:04:39
Speaker
Wasn't going to say, but yes, the company was Sunrun.
00:04:43
Speaker
And I feel bad for this rep.
00:04:44
Speaker
I do.
00:04:45
Speaker
I swiped the deal from him.
00:04:47
Speaker
But obviously this rep, Sunrun rep had gone there.
00:04:51
Speaker
Probably thought he got a lay down account.
00:04:54
Speaker
They were excited about it, but several things apparently go wrong and it was too much in the end to recover from.
00:05:02
Speaker
And I feel bad because I empathize with this rep.
00:05:04
Speaker
I've been there before, especially when I was newer to closing.
00:05:09
Speaker
There were times where I had to come back, re-sign deals, and maybe re-signed it under someone that wasn't on the title.
00:05:18
Speaker
That's happened before.
00:05:20
Speaker
So there's so many things that happen.
00:05:21
Speaker
And even still to this day where I've been doing it for years and years and years, there's still times where I do have to go back.
00:05:27
Speaker
So let's just talk about a few things that maybe could have prevented, maybe could have done different, some lessons that we all should learn from this.
00:05:36
Speaker
Lesson number one, you hear them just complain that he had to come back.
00:05:42
Speaker
He was here for two hours.
00:05:46
Speaker
Just be conscious of time and pay attention to body language.
00:05:51
Speaker
If people are getting bored, if they're not present in it, you got to keep them engaged.
00:05:57
Speaker
So I get the feeling that this rep, he was just dragging it out, going through every single step, which is good.
00:06:03
Speaker
But you got to know, hey, I'm losing the audience here.
00:06:05
Speaker
And this guy, the husband specifically, was definitely a much quicker presentation to the point.
00:06:12
Speaker
And my mistake was I didn't even know they had met with Sunrun until I was actually going to close him.
00:06:18
Speaker
I almost did close him, but then she started opening up why she didn't.
00:06:22
Speaker
sign why she didn't want to do it right then, which that was my mistake because really I should have found this out at the very beginning of the appointment, right?
00:06:30
Speaker
And tailored my presentation to that, but I did not.
00:06:33
Speaker
So that's a mistake I made.
00:06:34
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
SolarScout App Introduction
00:06:39
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:06:46
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:06:50
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called SolarScout.
00:06:53
Speaker
But it's not a door knocking app.
00:06:55
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:06:59
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:07:09
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:07:13
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
00:07:18
Speaker
But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show.
00:07:21
Speaker
You need to give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
00:07:24
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
00:07:33
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:07:37
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
Adapting to Customer Needs
00:07:39
Speaker
Um, but this rep, um, I get the feeling that he was not reading the room.
00:07:44
Speaker
He was just going on and on and on, um, wanted to cover all the bases, all the steps, which is great.
00:07:49
Speaker
But Hey, if you're losing your audience, you gotta like do something, right?
00:07:55
Speaker
You gotta pick it up.
00:07:56
Speaker
Um,
00:07:58
Speaker
You got to, yeah, just read the room, be a human being.
00:08:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:02
Speaker
Because if you get them exhausted, then it's tough to recover from that.
00:08:06
Speaker
So I know it's a balance because you need to cover all the steps too, but you know, maybe condense some things, ask questions, make sure they have understanding, then move on to the next one.
00:08:15
Speaker
Because you don't want to just frustrate them that you're taking forever and ever and ever.
00:08:18
Speaker
And they're probably just not going to do it.
00:08:20
Speaker
So I'm actually surprised that this Sunrung rep got as far as he did.
00:08:23
Speaker
Because from how the husband was talking, I'm shocked that they even signed with his attitude about it.
00:08:30
Speaker
Okay.
Streamlining Paperwork and Follow-ups
00:08:31
Speaker
But then the lesson here is get your docs right the first time.
00:08:36
Speaker
So that's a big lesson to be learned.
00:08:38
Speaker
You heard that the Sunrun rep had to go back.
00:08:40
Speaker
He was there another two hours figuring out a credit issue.
00:08:43
Speaker
So if you are new to closing or however long you've been doing this, just do not leave the house without clearing all holds on accounts.
00:08:51
Speaker
Hey, it gets, trust me, it just makes your life harder, makes it more complicated.
00:08:54
Speaker
If you have to go back, if you have to pester him for things, people, it's just going to delay everything.
00:08:59
Speaker
Right.
00:09:00
Speaker
So I see this with rookie sales reps with people that are newer to closing all the time where they just leave threads undone, right?
00:09:07
Speaker
They leave things undone.
00:09:08
Speaker
Maybe they signed the, the agreement, but they're missing the utility agreements.
00:09:14
Speaker
Um, here we have the net meter agreement that needs to be signed most of the time.
00:09:18
Speaker
Um,
00:09:19
Speaker
Maybe they're missing the full utility bill, which is another thing, another common thing that I see reps just don't get at the point of sale.
00:09:26
Speaker
So do not leave until you can get everything gathered.
00:09:29
Speaker
No stipulations.
00:09:30
Speaker
OK, and then so that's lesson number one.
00:09:33
Speaker
Number two, don't pester your deals.
00:09:37
Speaker
Right.
00:09:37
Speaker
It's like this guy, he did some good.
00:09:40
Speaker
I like that he brought him crumble cookies.
00:09:42
Speaker
That is nice.
00:09:44
Speaker
But you don't want to pester your deals.
00:09:46
Speaker
You don't want to feel like you're coming at them over and over and over.
00:09:50
Speaker
And that's segue into lesson three is be the needed, not the needy.
00:09:55
Speaker
If people feel like you're needy, if they sense that commission breath, then it's just going to make your job way harder.
00:10:03
Speaker
It's going to turn them off.
00:10:05
Speaker
And probably you're going to get the same result that happened to this Sunrun rep, unfortunately.
00:10:10
Speaker
They're going to be like, you know what, let's just pause the whole thing.
00:10:14
Speaker
We're not ready to do this.
00:10:15
Speaker
We want to think about it longer.
00:10:16
Speaker
And they won't do it.
00:10:18
Speaker
So if you want to learn more about that specific, you know, be the needed, not the needy.
Building Client Relationships
00:10:24
Speaker
One of the top books I recommend to all my newer closers and anyone that is in our coaching group is Pitch Anything by Warren Klaff.
00:10:35
Speaker
He also has another book came out more recently called Flip the Script.
00:10:40
Speaker
I think pitch anything is better.
00:10:41
Speaker
But it's all about controlling the frame, right?
00:10:45
Speaker
And that same concept being the needed, not the needy.
00:10:47
Speaker
Because again, when they can sense that commission breath, when they can sense that you're just doing everything, you're showing up at their house unannounced, you're texting them at all hours, long paragraphs.
00:10:58
Speaker
Who wants that, right?
00:11:00
Speaker
So make sure you learn that lesson.
00:11:01
Speaker
So those are the main lessons, main takeaways that I got from listening to this.
00:11:07
Speaker
It just, you know, kind of hurt me and made me empathize with the Sunrun rep because, again, I have been there before.
00:11:14
Speaker
But hopefully you can avoid some of those mistakes and
00:11:17
Speaker
not have to be needy like that.
00:11:20
Speaker
And really, the way I got this deal is I just tried to be the opposite of what the Sunrun rep did.
00:11:27
Speaker
I didn't push them.
00:11:30
Speaker
I should have asked their experience beforehand.
00:11:33
Speaker
I would have definitely presented to them a little bit differently.
00:11:36
Speaker
Once I heard this, I'm like, okay,
00:11:38
Speaker
well, if I'm going to get this deal, I can't be like that guy.
00:11:41
Speaker
I can't shove this down their throats.
00:11:43
Speaker
And I did come back the next day and they signed.
00:11:46
Speaker
I will admit this rarely happens.
00:11:48
Speaker
Usually if you come back the next day, they're not signing.
00:11:51
Speaker
But in this case, I knew, hey, this is probably my best shot.
00:11:54
Speaker
I got to be different from this guy.
00:11:55
Speaker
They're wanting to crunch their own numbers.
00:11:58
Speaker
So let them do that and I'll come back.
00:12:01
Speaker
came back sure enough they signed up and less than two weeks later that thing is glass on the roof installed and they're super happy didn't have to come back because a smooth process gave them one update got their install scheduled and it is installed so if you want to have an experience like that come to sunny southern california
00:12:22
Speaker
have in many cases, two to three week installs that we're having right now, hit me up.
Join the Sales Team and Resources
00:12:27
Speaker
We have some openings on our team.
00:12:28
Speaker
You can shoot me a DM on Instagram or shoot me an email at taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:12:35
Speaker
I'll send you the application if you're looking to join a
00:12:38
Speaker
team that's on fire right now.
00:12:40
Speaker
But either way, I hope you took something from this episode and especially send this to if you're running a team, send this to your newer closers, send this if you're the rep that signed this with Sunrun.
00:12:51
Speaker
I am sorry, but a lesson learned.
00:12:54
Speaker
So let's all be better.
00:12:56
Speaker
Let's all be professionals in this industry.
00:12:59
Speaker
And let's get all our docs.
00:13:01
Speaker
Let's get all our stipulations in the first time.
00:13:04
Speaker
So we don't have to be like this guy.
00:13:05
Speaker
Okay, so tune into the next episode.
00:13:07
Speaker
We got some exciting, exciting guests coming up soon.
00:13:10
Speaker
And hopefully you were able to listen to Jordan Stupar on the last podcast.
00:13:14
Speaker
I thought that was absolute fire just on following up better and how to be a top 1% sales rep.
00:13:22
Speaker
So make sure you listen to that if you did not already.
00:13:24
Speaker
And other than that, we'll see you on the next one.
00:13:26
Speaker
Crush some deals this week.
00:13:27
Speaker
See you next time.
00:13:29
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:13:30
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:13:32
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:13:43
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:13:50
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:13:53
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:13:57
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
00:14:10
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
00:14:13
Speaker
So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:14:19
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:14:21
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:14:25
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:14:30
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:14:33
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:14:34
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:14:36
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:14:42
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:14:43
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.