Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
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.
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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
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.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on?
Speaker: I'm excited for today's podcast.
Speaker: We have someone that is doing things a little bit differently.
Speaker: I don't think we've ever had anyone come on the show talking about this specifically, so I'm excited to welcome Adam Kramer on the show.
Speaker: Adam, thanks for joining us today on the podcast.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I appreciate you having me.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be fun.
Speaker: And we're talking just before we hit record, just you're doing some stuff with community solar, which I didn't really know that much.
Speaker: And then you're crushing it with really just systems, automations, things like that.
Speaker: A lot of us door knocking guys aren't as familiar with.
Speaker: So I'm excited to bring on, you know, an expert like yourself and talk about some of that stuff.
Speaker: So yeah, do you want to just fill us in kind of on your background, how you got in solar and I guess how you got to where you're at now?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So I used to be an electrician.
Speaker: I was actually building these solar fields.
Speaker: So we'd be putting together the solar fields, just putting thousands and thousands of panels out there.
Speaker: I had no idea what they were there for.
Speaker: One day I was just kind of poking around on jobs because I was always shopping indeed as in the trades, it was kind of just whatever's going to pay highest.
Speaker: So I was shopping around, finally saw something that was
Speaker: for solar install, but they also had sales positions available.
Speaker: So I kind of went through the interview process with it, realized that I was kind of a huge fan of sales and actually going in and trying it out.
Speaker: So I was like, whatever, I might as well shop around and eat a little bit more and found a company that actually sold the energy from the solar fields.
Speaker: So I was like, well, that can't be a better fit.
Speaker: I already was building them.
Speaker: I already had an
Speaker: knowledge with them, might as well start selling.
Speaker: And then it turns out it was knocking doors.
Speaker: So I was like, well, we'll try it out.
Speaker: I've never knocked doors before.
Speaker: Can't knock it until you try it.
Speaker: Literally, I guess.
Speaker: So I went out and it was just a fly-by-night company.
Speaker: So one to two days of door training.
Speaker: And after that, it was throw you to the wolves and hopefully you don't sink.
Speaker: So from there, it was kind of figuring out my own pitch, my own voice and my own systems while I went out there and kind of just struggle bust through it, which ended up being a blessing for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so you're doing community solar.
Speaker: And I think a lot I didn't really know myself.
Speaker: And I'm guessing a lot of listeners of the podcast maybe don't know really what that is.
Speaker: And a lot of people are probably like, wait, you're just selling the energy from it.
Speaker: I thought people just go sell solar panels.
Speaker: So can you explain for maybe the listeners that have never really heard about this model?
Speaker: Like, what is it?
Speaker: And what's kind of the difference, I guess, just between your traditional solar guy that's out selling solar panels?
Speaker: Yeah, a lot, a lot confusing with like the deregulated energy.
Speaker: We're not, we're not deregulated.
Speaker: All that we do, if, if your audience is mainly solar, they're familiar with net metering.
Speaker: Well, community solar is it's technically just virtual net metering.
Speaker: So the solar field would produce energy for the home.
Speaker: And in turn, anything the solar field produces is just knocked off the utility bill.
Speaker: So if we produce $100 worth of electricity, you no longer have to pay your utility 100 and you pay the solar field directly at a discounted cost, anywhere between like 5% and 20% discount.
Speaker: So it's a guaranteed savings for your customers.
Speaker: They're not actually investing in the solar field.
Speaker: It's as simple as them just opting in.
Speaker: So if they opt in, receive the energy on their electric bill each month and then get a guaranteed savings with
Speaker: optional cancellation at any point.
Speaker: So it's a pretty basic, pretty much just a baby step to help people go with renewable energy.
Speaker: Even if you're a renter, person with too much tree cover, bad rough pitch, whatever the case is, you still have an option to actually support renewable in the state.
Speaker: Yeah, no, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: than the main one that the city had and so he's like yeah it's easy we just go sell people on new trash and and i'm the trash guy so it's like pretty that's awesome i'm like yeah that's cool just a walk-in coupon is all you are yeah yeah i know so yeah it seems like it'd be a no-brainer but yeah do you do you typically get like a lot of objections what are like objections you get from people if you're outdoor knocking like it seems like it's no-brainer but
Speaker: Yeah, the number one thing is, is that it sounds too good to be true.
Speaker: So when you're somebody coming to the doors, they've never met you, they've never heard of the product, they've never heard of the company.
Speaker: So it's really, I've never heard of this, I don't know what it is.
Speaker: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Speaker: So that's going to be the number one thing.
Speaker: But as soon as you can get past that, there generally isn't a huge objection, unless you're out in like farm country, where they're a huge fan of the land out there.
Speaker: And they kind of get a little worried of sometimes the solar field coming in and taking the land that they have.
Speaker: But
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Overall, the main one is just get past too good to be true or talk to the wife.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sounds cool.
Speaker: And yeah, well, like what about commissions?
Speaker: So you guys, I mean, I know you're not selling $30,000 systems like a lot of us in solar.
Speaker: So what does a guy typically make doing this?
Speaker: And I don't know, compared to like just the regular solar energy, do you think this is like higher potential, lower potential or similar?
Speaker: What would you say?
Speaker: Yeah, so it really depends.
Speaker: I mean, with Community Solar, the nice thing compared to Rooftop is you're not waiting for that one to four month install time to get paid.
Speaker: So it's happening within two weeks.
Speaker: The average commission for reps is going to be right around that $200 to $300 per sale.
Speaker: So with it, we're knocking a lot of times we do like condos, apartments, that sort of stuff.
Speaker: So we can knock four or five times the doors than most people that are in the neighborhoods.
Speaker: Cause you're not walking door to door to door, you take two steps and you're knocking another door.
Speaker: So that helps quite a bit.
Speaker: It really depends on the rep on how much they're getting out there and how well that they're selling it.
Speaker: But overall it's very comparable to rooftop on the potential for it.
Speaker: But of course you're not going to run into those sales that you're getting $15,000 commissions for.
Speaker: Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker: What about well, can you actually sell say someone has solar on their house already?
Speaker: Can you go sell someone with solar and because they're still paying the utility typically for like, you know, connection and all that and probably not producing all their energy.
Speaker: So can you knock someone that has solar and put them on this plan to
Speaker: Yeah, so the crazy thing in Colorado, I haven't seen it in other states, but in Colorado, we don't have like the meter fee, everything that can get discounted with community solar.
Speaker: And on top of that, we've signed up people that have a rooftop installation.
Speaker: And the net metering or the virtual net metering that happens from community solar is actually knocking off their gas bill as well.
Speaker: It's kind of beyond me on why.
Speaker: I'm Xcel Energy is fine with it, but their gas is getting discounted.
Speaker: And on top of that, their solar installation is covering their electric.
Speaker: So we've actually had kind of a double whammy with it where the solar companies, they sell them community solar and then also rooftop solar as well.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: That's fire.
Speaker: So really, yeah, I like that.
Speaker: Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker: You can knock like basically anywhere.
Speaker: Where with solar, it's like we have to be, I don't know, running around, especially in California.
Speaker: You know, there's so many homes with solar.
Speaker: So sometimes you go to a neighborhood and you're only knocking two houses on that street because everyone else has solar.
Speaker: Unless, you know, you're doing Adam's systems.
Speaker: So I like that.
Speaker: That is unique for sure.
Speaker: You can just walk up to condos, apartments and
Speaker: really sell everybody.
Speaker: But how do you know if someone is on this plan?
Speaker: Do you guys have like a customer map or something that shows, okay, this person's already on the plan.
Speaker: So I'm not going to hit this house or how do you keep track of that?
Speaker: Yeah, so we do use we use a pin drop.
Speaker: So you can see all the sales within the area.
Speaker: You can also see anybody that
Speaker: has come in with a lead.
Speaker: So we have a good mapping system on making sure that we're not knocking customers twice.
Speaker: But oftentimes we do try and knock our customers again, because if they've been on the program, number one thing is it's too good to be true.
Speaker: So as soon as you go there, kind of get past that again and let them know, hey, you saw this isn't too good to be true.
Speaker: Let's get some referrals going or at least send me over to the neighbors.
Speaker: So we do mark the sold pins, but we try to hit those again after we come back through.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, I'm sure you get a lot of people on this, like in neighborhoods.
Speaker: Do you guys do any, it's just any territories that you have to be pretty strategic with which territories you go to?
Speaker: Or you just I know you said you're kind of doing blitzes and all that.
Speaker: How do you decide which territories you're going to and things like that?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So there's, I mean, we really don't have to be too picky.
Speaker: It's whatever demographic the rep is a fan of.
Speaker: I mean, we can hit the entire service territory of XL Energy, which is massive.
Speaker: And in pretty much every state, we have a grand majority of the state.
Speaker: So if you like talking to the richer neighborhoods, the more upbeat side of things, that's where you're going to have success.
Speaker: We kind of send people there.
Speaker: If you're a fan of the more of the hood style, you're more than welcome to go there.
Speaker: It's kind of up to the rep on what they choose for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When you said they can cancel at any time.
Speaker: So I'm curious, how do you guys prevent people from, or I'm sure that's not like a huge deal if they're getting it less, because I don't see why someone would cancel after, but do you run into that a lot of times where people cancel?
Speaker: And like, if, I don't know, say someone sells an account and they cancel in like two months, do you still get paid the commission or how does that work if they end up canceling?
Speaker: So we do.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: Super good question.
Speaker: So we actually have, there's a two month chargeback period.
Speaker: So
Speaker: If the customer cancels within two months, generally it's because the rep didn't do his job.
Speaker: But the only real reasons we have people cancel, because I mean, either way you're buying electricity, if now it's discounted, there's truly no reason to cancel.
Speaker: It's if they end up like moving out of the service territory.
Speaker: So like if they move out of state, they can't bring it with them.
Speaker: But other than that, that's really the only real reason people would cancel.
Speaker: Or if someone else knocks on their door and maybe has a higher savings, which generally isn't the case.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, that's another good point.
Speaker: Is there competing community solar companies that will come in and say, oh, we can give you like 10 bucks less than this other company gave her?
Speaker: Is that a thing?
Speaker: Or do you guys count the monopoly on this?
Speaker: It is a thing.
Speaker: But overall, what we do is we actually are a brokerage.
Speaker: So we're like an energy brokerage.
Speaker: for these companies.
Speaker: So we go out, we get multiple contracts within the state.
Speaker: We have all but two.
Speaker: The two we don't have don't actually provide savings.
Speaker: So we pretty much just weigh out the options, see which ones are going to save the customer the most and then help them get it connected to that.
Speaker: So we're usually the ones that get people off and put them on a higher savings compared to compared to vice versa.
Speaker: But yes, it does happen for sure.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Because like in solar, for example, in San Diego, where I'm at, there's a lot of people that are like the energy brokers.
Speaker: But you know how it is, everyone's, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna sell the thing that also pays out a good amount to you know, like people sell a lot of these power purchase agreements in California, not because they're usually the best thing for the customer, they're usually not, but the commissions are usually really good on them.
Speaker: So is there is there anything that compares that?
Speaker: Is there like,
Speaker: one thing that people will say, oh, I'm going to make a ton off of this, but maybe it's not saving the customer quite as much.
Speaker: Is that a thing?
Speaker: Or is it pretty much where you're going to give the customer the best deal and you get paid the same regardless?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Overall, we have... I mean, it's a fairly similar commission structure for every program.
Speaker: So we try to keep the customers... At least they keep their benefit as...
Speaker: It's our best interest.
Speaker: So that's generally the route that we go.
Speaker: But I mean, there is some that just have like a speedier, speedier enrollment.
Speaker: We do a lot of events.
Speaker: So when we go to like a home show or something where we're sitting at a booth and it's just insane traffic to get people through, we'll go to what one's going to enroll people the fastest.
Speaker: Just at least we can kind of get through everyone.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: You mentioned home shows.
Speaker: How much of your Legion is door knocking versus maybe these home shows or other methods?
Speaker: What do you guys do as far as Legion?
Speaker: Is it mostly door knocking or what else do you guys do besides that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we, I would say door knocking is the grand majority, but that's because we do that year round for like the home shows and that sort of stuff.
Speaker: There's kind of a season with it once we're just getting into that season now.
Speaker: So it's like the beginning of the year, the spring home shows as people are kind of, let's get some stuff done to our house.
Speaker: So once we get into that time, I would say it's maybe 50% of the leads are actually coming from these shows, but that's Colorado's huge on those.
Speaker: So, I mean, they have, they have quite a bit, quite a bit activity when it comes to the shows on the weekends.
Speaker: But yeah, once we get into the actual summer months, it's just hunker down, let's go knock some doors.
Speaker: So then it pretty much turns into solely no rocking.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, gotcha.
Speaker: And something you mentioned before, Adam, before we started the podcast, you said that I think you guys have partnered with some a few solar companies to actually get them solar if they're interested in doing solar themselves.
Speaker: So how does that work?
Speaker: Do you guys have like a second cell where as they're signing up, you're kind of saying, Hey, well, if you're also interested in panels, here's this or tell me about that.
Speaker: What do you guys do to like introduce them to some of the partnerships you have with actual solar companies?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the partnerships that we have, we actually have gone to people that are doing rooftop solar and they sell our programs as well.
Speaker: So they'll go to the doors just because the sheer number of utility bills and the amount of sales that you can get with community solar is significantly higher.
Speaker: So they'll go to the doors and actually pitch community solar.
Speaker: And once they get into the door and kind of frame themselves as the expert, they start going through the electric bill and making sure that rooftop solar, of course, will be a good fit.
Speaker: And I mean, I'm sure you know, since you've been in the solar industry, you kind of look at the bill and
Speaker: somewhat calculate what the savings would be or what the system size would be.
Speaker: So just by looking at it, just at least pop in the question, I know that, of course, you can see how much savings is going to be with a free program.
Speaker: Would you be open-minded at least kind of going through the numbers on what it'd be like if you made the investment?
Speaker: Because of course, if we can do this for free, just imagine what you're able to get if you're putting the money forward.
Speaker: So they kind of just roll into it and then set up that second touch for that meeting, but at least sign them up for community solar in the meantime.
Speaker: So you have that guaranteed commission and then you come back and they're doing that second meeting to actually go through the numbers on what rooftop would look like, which here we pair the two together.
Speaker: They're selling community solar and then also putting it on the rooftop installation.
Speaker: So either way, they're going to put them on community.
Speaker: And then that second touch is where they just go to close it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's super interesting.
Speaker: And then as far as like your teams and all, is it pretty traditional door to door?
Speaker: You guys just have a big team of people going out?
Speaker: And how do you do like daily meetings?
Speaker: What does your team structure look like in your company?
Speaker: Yeah, super good question.
Speaker: So we generally do two meetings a week, just doing it over Zoom.
Speaker: And then we have a group that we knock with every single day, but it's not required that you come to it.
Speaker: So if you want to go knock on your own, kind of be a lone wolf, go for it.
Speaker: If that's kind of how you get motivated.
Speaker: If you like to be in a group, you're more than welcome to come out and we can just kind of take over an entire neighborhood with people.
Speaker: It's really open.
Speaker: We like to keep it open because when I first started, I liked being the lone wolf.
Speaker: But I understand that people like that company culture.
Speaker: They like actually being connected and consistently having a group that they see every day.
Speaker: So whatever helps you get the most sales, whatever helps you be comfortable with the job, I'm good with.
Speaker: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: Well, yeah, as you as you can tell, I've never really heard anything about this.
Speaker: So I'm super curious to know how it works, how traditional was compared to, you know, regular door knocking all that.
Speaker: But yeah, tell me about do you guys get a lot of competition from like, do you get your reps poached by like solar companies?
Speaker: Or do you get guys from solar companies that maybe sucked at selling solar that come?
Speaker: So with you guys, or is that what's like your I don't know, correlation with regular solar?
Speaker: And what do you think of just like traditional solar guys?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, so far we haven't had anybody that's been taken over to the rooftop side of things.
Speaker: It has been vice versa though.
Speaker: There has been guys that were selling rooftop and they kind of transitioned over into this just because I don't know if they were just a fan of it being an easier sell or what the huge deal was, but they've been crushing it compared to people that just kind of started brand new.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: um it's kind of it's kind of a mix but mainly mainly we've been taking people from from rooftop companies for sure okay well yeah i can imagine especially maybe someone that's because that's the one i new recruits ask me sometimes like hey was there any downside to this like because i'm telling them all this money you can make and so when they ask me to tell them i usually just say well hey the one downside is it can take a little while to get paid out you got to
Speaker: it takes them in to get things rolling and there is a steeper learning curve with solar i'd say than other door-to-door you know industries other things you'd sell especially if you're just coming in trying to close i think it's gotten easier now where people can just come up and set up leads and get paid that way but um yeah there's so many guys unfortunately and that's um hopefully you don't see as much but just the turnover in solar if guys are trying to transition from setting to closing it can be brutal and uh
Speaker: It's one of the headaches of solar just seeing so many guys start and stop just because they're not seeing the success that they want, unfortunately.
Speaker: But yeah, how is that for you guys?
Speaker: Do you see much turnover in this?
Speaker: Or do you find that it's easier sell guys are getting paid quicker.
Speaker: So it's typically easier to kind of retain guys and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, I think, I mean, the door-to-door industry as a whole has a high turnover rate for sure.
Speaker: I mean, I think on average, just door-to-door is, just as an industry, has a 15% retention rate.
Speaker: Because people come in, I mean, they have high hopes.
Speaker: And of course, a lot of the recruiters are selling the
Speaker: selling everything really hard for them just to get them on board with it.
Speaker: And then they get on and it's rejection's tough for a lot of people.
Speaker: So getting rejected that many times in a day, just it's really tough.
Speaker: So it ends up having low retention rates, but ours isn't terrible.
Speaker: And with it, I think ours is just over 15.
Speaker: I think we were at like 17% retention.
Speaker: So not too bad, but yeah, we still have that high turnover.
Speaker: But a lot of it is just they can't really handle the rejection within the first two weeks.
Speaker: I mean, if they last after the first two weeks, we're pretty good.
Speaker: But being brand new to door-to-door, which most people are when we recruit, it's pretty tough to take people that way.
Speaker: But the rooftop companies we plugged into, they've seen an increase in retention just because the reps are able to get paid a lot sooner now.
Speaker: They're not waiting for that big payout at the end.
Speaker: They aren't doing the setter closer models though.
Speaker: So I know what the setter models do at least need to pay just as a setter.
Speaker: But this helps significantly on that side of things too.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, cool, man.
Speaker: Well, I want to transition before we're out of time.
Speaker: I want to segue into just some of the stuff you're doing with, you know, systems you organize, CRMs and automation, stuff like that, because I know you're really well known and have helped a lot of guys in that area.
Speaker: So tell me about how did you get into this whole like, you know, automations?
Speaker: How do you get in that whole side of thing and into the stuff you're doing with that?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So, I mean, when I first started, I mean, it was with the fly-by-night company, two days of door knocking.
Speaker: So, I mean, it was literally the first day I'm out there with like a notebook writing down names so I can send out email information, all this sort of stuff.
Speaker: I had no idea what was going on with it.
Speaker: And it's just slowly developed into, oh, there's such a thing as a CRM.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: And then it's like, oh, you can actually automate this instead of me sending the exact same email, click, click, click, click.
Speaker: So from there, it kind of snowballed into hopping onto a system.
Speaker: We actually just have our Go High level.
Speaker: We white labeled one and setting up the automations and just streamlining literally every single process.
Speaker: Because they say don't make the same money twice, but I'm also a firm believer on don't do the same work twice.
Speaker: If you have to do it twice, more than likely you're able to automate it.
Speaker: So why not?
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And yeah, like I said in the beginning, a lot of door knocking guys aren't taking advantage of this.
Speaker: And I know for my first three, four years in solar, I didn't like care if I got a lead, if I didn't close them, they were just written on a pad of paper somewhere and thrown in the trash after like a month or two.
Speaker: And that was it.
Speaker: And so I lost so many leads, just by not keeping track of them where if I would have put them in a CRM like this, organize them,
Speaker: I mean, I'm sure you can talk to this, but there's so many opportunities for, you know, repeat customers in solar.
Speaker: You got add on systems you can do.
Speaker: You got referrals you can get from your past customers.
Speaker: Like, and I don't even really know my first two years in solar.
Speaker: I don't even remember who my customers were because I didn't even like.
Speaker: My company kept track of them, but then I switched companies and then I didn't even bother to like get those customers.
Speaker: So now knowing what I know and hearing from guys like yourself, it's like, yeah, I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't keep track of all that.
Speaker: But yeah, so what do you tell me?
Speaker: What do you guys use high level for?
Speaker: And yeah, what are some, I don't know, what would you say are just some advantages of keeping track of stuff like that?
Speaker: And how has it helped you guys in your business?
Speaker: I mean, to touch on your point of following up with people, I mean, we're doing the same, pretty much the same pitch every time you're going to the door.
Speaker: So if you're going to keep the pitch the same, I mean, the big reason is just to dial it in.
Speaker: So if you're going to keep the pitch the same, you might as well keep the follow-up the same.
Speaker: So with it, it's helped us significantly because right now I think we follow up with 800 customers weekly.
Speaker: So we're touching base with them without even having to lift a finger.
Speaker: By doing that, nobody's falling through the cracks.
Speaker: Even if they said, maybe if they said, potentially send us some information, I mean, for the next 180 days, we have proof of opt-in.
Speaker: So we're going to consistently be touching base with them.
Speaker: And it's been right about 25% of our sales have been coming from our automation.
Speaker: So all that the knockers have to do is worry about closing deals.
Speaker: I mean, that's what they're paid to do and that's where they get paid.
Speaker: So instead of having them to worry about follow-up, they come in,
Speaker: do their thing, get the leads.
Speaker: And then after that, it's pretty much the system's going to take care of it up until we actually spark that conversation.
Speaker: They can get on a call, have that scheduled, or just hop on a call with them real quick and get that closed up.
Speaker: So for us, I mean, to add, I mean, if we weren't doing automation, to actually add 25%,
Speaker: 25% more sales, at least that's, that's incredible.
Speaker: It's insane.
Speaker: So it's been, it's been a huge help for us and not having to have our guys be sitting there doing their own thing if they even do.
Speaker: Cause I'm sure, you know, in door to door, just sales in general, people are not, they're not generally doing follow-up.
Speaker: So that at least make sure that it gets done and done the same way.
Speaker: That's, it's been a huge help.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Well, and how important, because like you said, a lot of door-to-door guys aren't doing any of this.
Speaker: And it sounds like you're kind of just the guy at your company running it.
Speaker: So would you say it's important for just like your typical sales rep to get into this stuff or to know the basics around it?
Speaker: Or do you think, speaking to maybe like solar company owners or guys that run their...
Speaker: that manage teams or whatever.
Speaker: Have you found it better to just like get a guy like yourself that kind of puts the system in the place, runs it and stuff, and then like guys just go out and sell?
Speaker: Or what's your opinion on that?
Speaker: Yeah, I would say it's definitely a lot better to have the owner, the actual entire company hop onto it.
Speaker: The reason for that is you're able to look at the numbers at scale.
Speaker: So, I mean, as your messages are going out, you can read the metrics on what's getting you replies.
Speaker: You can see what's not getting replies, what's getting people to schedule, and you can kind of dial it in.
Speaker: So a lot of it's just like marketing.
Speaker: I mean, you have to split test.
Speaker: You constantly have to be changing up the messages just to be seeing what's actually working.
Speaker: But the more messages you get sent out, of course, the better the metrics are going to be.
Speaker: It's going to be a lot easier for you to dial it in.
Speaker: So if you do it as an entire company, it becomes a lot easier to figure out what's going to be hitting your customers, especially if everybody's using the same pitch or similar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then say it's someone you're following up with.
Speaker: A rep has a lead that they got, I don't know, three months ago.
Speaker: And now you convert this lead into a customer.
Speaker: How does that?
Speaker: Do you guys just pay out like a percentage to the rep that got their lead in the first place?
Speaker: Or do you give it to them when they say they're interested?
Speaker: Or how does that work?
Speaker: If it's their lead?
Speaker: Yeah, so how, yeah, good question.
Speaker: So our, our system and how it's set up is it's following up as so you go to the door and when you actually put them in as a lead and the automation is running, it's consistently saying that, hey, this is Taylor, this is Taylor just checking in with you guys, of course, not actually just checking in, but just kind of building the value, it's putting your name behind it.
Speaker: And it's consistently seeming as if it's, if it's you texting them, or you that's actually sending out the emails.
Speaker: And when the replies come in or when they look to schedule, it's always going to be your calendar link or it's always going to be your phone that those messages are going to.
Speaker: So when a customer says, hey, yeah, give me a call tomorrow at 11, your only responsibility is put them on your calendar tomorrow at 11.
Speaker: So the messages get sent out as you.
Speaker: And then, of course, the replies are coming as you as well.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: And then did they get like the full, if it's from your system, would you give them like the full commission after that, even though you're following up or how does that work?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: We don't, we don't cut down commission for, for the automations.
Speaker: That's, I mean, they're in place so that they don't have to do the followup.
Speaker: If we, my mentality with it is if we start taking more of a commission for our system, closing them, they're going to take it into their own hands.
Speaker: And I don't feel as though it'd be as effective considering we've dialed it in as much as we have.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And we'll just speak in from my experience and a lot of guys that I know have tried and failed to set up these systems and go, cause yeah, I had a high level account too.
Speaker: I've got it better now, but the first year I had my high level account, I just got a login.
Speaker: I didn't really know what I was doing.
Speaker: And I just saw all these, you know, shiny buttons and all that.
Speaker: And I didn't know how to set up automations.
Speaker: So like guys that are trying to set it up, how did you like learn all this?
Speaker: And was it just like tests after tests to figure out what worked?
Speaker: Because a lot of guys are going to get this.
Speaker: They're like, oh, cool, high level.
Speaker: Let's go try it out.
Speaker: They'll go get a log and then they'll have no idea what to do with it.
Speaker: And they're going to be like, oh, this sucks.
Speaker: It doesn't work.
Speaker: And then that's the end of it.
Speaker: So like, what would you say to those guys?
Speaker: How did you actually like figure out all these systems and know what to do to set all this up correctly?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I actually have my YouTube degree and getting YouTube degrees.
Speaker: So nice.
Speaker: So that's helped significantly.
Speaker: I have hours and hours into learning the systems and kind of just diving into it.
Speaker: There's insane amount of forums online for this sort of stuff.
Speaker: And if like with hours, if you get someone that's actually white labeled, if you don't plan on taking the system, building it, flipping it and doing like software as a service, which ends up being quite a bit, if that's not your main goal with it, I generally recommend just going with somebody who already has that software that can...
Speaker: already give you the systems that are in place.
Speaker: Because there's quite a few of them out there, including ours, that you come in and they already give you the automations, they give you the pipeline management.
Speaker: And on top of that, we do a full video course that goes through step-by-step every single section that's on high level.
Speaker: Because I'm sure you know once you open it up, there's so many options on what you can do.
Speaker: I mean, there's, it's endless.
Speaker: You could be in there for weeks and not get through everything.
Speaker: So we do just full video course to make sure that you kind of understand what every single tab is.
Speaker: So if you get a white label, just try and get one that actually has a course that goes along with it so that you can kind of understand what's going on with it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I would recommend 100% because for me, I didn't know what I was doing until I got a white-labeled one and had the support there.
Speaker: I'd say that's important too.
Speaker: If you're going to get a white-labeled one, make sure there's some decent support around it because I had one that I tried, didn't have much support, and then now I'm currently using CRMX, which...
Speaker: I know a lot of solar guys have heard Brent Attaway.
Speaker: He set up his probably something similar to yours.
Speaker: But yeah, do you offer yours as a white label then for guys who are interested or maybe want more help with this?
Speaker: Do you have yours as a white label if people want to get in on it?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: We have it set up for the rooftop systems.
Speaker: And then also once we actually have the community solar depending on the state, we open that as an option as well for people to kind of have that plug in play, which also comes with automations too.
Speaker: So yeah, we do have both.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Well, we'll post a link and at the end, we'll tell guys how they can learn more about that if they're interested.
Speaker: But just speaking on more of a basic level, because I know maybe some people listening to this are like, okay, whatever, I don't care.
Speaker: We have a marketing guy to go set this up.
Speaker: So if we're speaking on just more like a basic level, maybe it's a rep who's at a company who doesn't have this, but they just want to start like some basic follow up and
Speaker: maybe start on a small scale.
Speaker: What would you say?
Speaker: What are like some important, I don't know, touch points or follow up secrets that you would say that have worked to get someone who was just like, oh, we're interested, but we don't want to like actually sit down and set an appointment.
Speaker: What do you guys do from there?
Speaker: And what are some effective things that you would tell to like a guy that's new with this stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, I would say someone who's new with it is if you at least have some automation behind a calendar is going to be the biggest thing.
Speaker: If you're just a rep and you're not actually going out to buy a full system.
Speaker: Because I mean, just as a rep, it's going to be fairly expensive if you're just running it yourself.
Speaker: But at least having a calendar that's going to have some automation and put them into a full database.
Speaker: for you.
Speaker: So you're always keeping track of any leads that you have.
Speaker: And then also you're having the calendar automation.
Speaker: So at least it's going to follow up with them and give them those text reminders.
Speaker: So you can at least up your appointment show rate, which is going to be huge for you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What about because some people...
Speaker: are hardcore against like you know texting guys and stuff it's been in solar because especially in saturated areas sometimes you text people and they're like uh you know what no forget about it and so like um do you guys always text your appointments or i don't even know do you guys set appointments or just pretty much just get to the door and close them for uh for the community solar stuff
Speaker: Yeah, we do.
Speaker: We do set appointments.
Speaker: Our model is it's either we close them at the door or if you want information, you have to set the appointment.
Speaker: So that no matter what, I mean, we kind of just fill our calendars with the times that we're not knocking and then we just keep the door knocking open.
Speaker: For the text reminders, we leave those as optional.
Speaker: So we do ask the customer, hey, do you want text reminders on this?
Speaker: If they say yes, well, of course, then they're going to be interested.
Speaker: They're going to want those sent out.
Speaker: If they say no, they don't even want the text.
Speaker: So it just, it's helped significantly going that route because then you leave it to the customer.
Speaker: If they get a text, they're not going to tell you no because they asked for it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then if someone just like no shows their appointment, they're like, Hey, we're busy.
Speaker: Come back.
Speaker: We're interested, but come back.
Speaker: And then they're not there, which happens all the time in, um, you know, residential solar.
Speaker: Um, then I've forgotten about a ton of those leads myself.
Speaker: Then I'll go back in that same neighborhood.
Speaker: Three months later, they'll have solar on their house, which drives me nuts.
Speaker: I'm like, man,
Speaker: Should have followed up.
Speaker: But yeah, what do you guys do with those cases where it's like they no showed you or they just kind of ghosted you for a minute?
Speaker: What type of like, I don't know, follow up or sequence do you do with those people if it's something like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean, we have a full nurture that we've had set up.
Speaker: So it's going to continuously touch base with them every single week.
Speaker: Just I mean, it's just kind of an evergreen thing that regardless of messages, whether it's today or a year from now, messages are still going to
Speaker: still going to be true.
Speaker: Um, so we have that just consistently touch base.
Speaker: We've pulled people from, I actually just last week had somebody that we, we talked to in July, um, that it just kind of revived that conversation.
Speaker: Uh, we got those ones, those ones closed up.
Speaker: So we, we just have something set up so that no matter what, every single week they're going to be getting a text message.
Speaker: It could be as simple as, Hey, how's your schedule looking this week?
Speaker: Or what will pique your interest?
Speaker: Was it the renewable side, the taking, uh,
Speaker: taking away from the monopolies or we're saving money and just kind of having that that text nurture in place to consistently remind them that hey i'm still here still happy to talk with you and then kind of bring bring a little value to the table at the same time so that's been that's been a huge help on those ones that are are no shows but i mean if you're in the neighborhood and you knock on the door you're saying where you knock then okay come back at six is that what one's
Speaker: Yeah, well, just like you set up an appointment and then they're, yeah, they no show you.
Speaker: And then just like, I don't know, I struggle with just knowing what to do after that.
Speaker: Like if I should text them to follow up, I text them twice and they didn't respond.
Speaker: So I don't know if you guys text them personally or just like every evergreen sequence you put them in.
Speaker: It's stuff like that where they no show you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Generally, generally it's a, we do upfront, it's going to be a little, a little more aggressive follow-up.
Speaker: So, I mean, it's going to be like once every two days and once every three days after that appointment, we do that for roughly 20 days.
Speaker: And then after that, then they go on to the evergreen nurture.
Speaker: So we just make sure that we're right.
Speaker: When they're interested, we're hammering them with that follow-up.
Speaker: If they didn't show just to,
Speaker: kind of get that appointment sparked back up again.
Speaker: Always providing value first is going to be huge within it.
Speaker: So making sure that you're not, hey, I'm just checking in or just wanted to bump this email up for you.
Speaker: It's always giving them more information, giving them another video to watch, giving them something else that's actually going to build that value to get them sparked into, hey, yeah, let's get this appointment rolling again.
Speaker: And then after that, yeah, it's still no...
Speaker: no contact after 20 days or 21 days, then yeah, we'll bump them right into that nurture and just continuously have that on repeat for them.
Speaker: So that even when that next guy knocks on the door, that probably got them solar, you saw three months later, when he knocks on the door, they still remember, Hey, I have this other option, we should probably double check and make sure we get another quote.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, and there's a lot of stuff to this.
Speaker: So if if people are listening right now being like, wow, this is overwhelming, this is way too much.
Speaker: Number one, just start small.
Speaker: I always recommend guys that are new to all like follow up stuff.
Speaker: And you know, CRM, I think the best way to start is rep card.
Speaker: I don't know if you use that, Adam, but I think it's good for just door to door guys looking for simple
Speaker: kind of you know mass text they can send out and helps you organize stuff and then step two if you want to get more into this stuff like adam's talking about yeah get like a white labeled um you know high level account and you can start setting this up because really it's just overwhelming if you try to keep track of all this on pen and paper and think okay i'm gonna set a reminder on my phone to follow up with uh steve jason and uh and adam like three months down the road like you just forget and it's really you shouldn't be spending time doing it like it's
Speaker: I would be way too overwhelming to send out all these yourself.
Speaker: So I think it's important to have a system in place and get some of this going.
Speaker: Would you agree with that, Adam?
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, cool, man.
Speaker: Then last question or two, I wanted to ask you before we wrap up here.
Speaker: What's your, I don't know how important referrals are for you guys, but do you have any systems around referrals or what do you guys do to get more referrals and increase business that way?
Speaker: Yeah, on the doors, we have a great method that I kind of snagged from Cutco.
Speaker: We actually bring a sheet of paper with us.
Speaker: It has about 20 to 30 names that's on it.
Speaker: When we go to the doors after we sign them up, it's like, awesome, you've seen the value in this.
Speaker: I'm sure you know other people that are interested in saving or other people that are interested in the renewable aspect of things.
Speaker: Would you be open to at least sharing some friends and family?
Speaker: And if they say, yeah, we just pull out that sheet.
Speaker: Cause if you have 20 to 30 names on a sheet, no one's going to put down one.
Speaker: Cause I mean, of course you have, you have a massive list that's there.
Speaker: So we put that in front of them, say, Hey, we have this sheet.
Speaker: If you just want to put down some, some friends and family on it, the most that I've ever had is 18.
Speaker: And then you at least kind of spark, you spark that competition within them that, Hey, can you beat 18?
Speaker: Is that, is that something that you can do?
Speaker: And then we also do a referral bonus on each one.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: letting them know that this is not only beneficial for the people that that uh you put down but also for you because you're going to get the bonus on top of it so nice we run we run it that way and then after our customers start saving the the solar fields actually produce electricity they're saving money um we do run some automated referral campaigns just at least to kind of spark up a conversation to get some more yeah that's awesome yeah i love that cutco method those cutco guys are good at that but at almost all the time
Speaker: Just that sheet of paper.
Speaker: It's just like when they see all those names, like, oh, wow, okay.
Speaker: This isn't a big deal.
Speaker: Everyone's doing it.
Speaker: And it's almost like the bandwagon effect for referrals.
Speaker: So I love it.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You see, you see a ton on there.
Speaker: It's, it just blows people's mind.
Speaker: They're like, well, yeah, I guess I have to put down at least six.
Speaker: Like, yeah.
Speaker: Well, awesome, Adam.
Speaker: Well, yeah, it's been awesome having you on today and share about some of these things that we haven't really talked about on the show.
Speaker: So appreciate you coming on.
Speaker: And before we wrap up here, if guys do want to get in your, you know, get access to your high level stuff or just, you know, learn more, connect with you, what's the best way to do that and reach out to you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Facebook or Instagram are phenomenal ways.
Speaker: I have quite a bit of information on both of those as well.
Speaker: Pretty active on there.
Speaker: So Facebook is just Adam Kramer and then it's K-R-E-M-E-R.
Speaker: And then same with Instagram, it's just Adam underscore Kramer.
Speaker: So more than welcome to connect there.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, thanks again for coming on.
Speaker: And then any last words of advice or anything you wish you knew starting out in this industry that you would pass on to other reps before we say goodbye here, Adam?
Speaker: I mean, overall, coming into the actual business side of things where I actually started running it, it was more so learn to manage your systems rather than your salesman.
Speaker: So if you can kind of transition into that and manage a system rather than the salesman, it's been a lot more beneficial for us.
Speaker: So that's my main takeaway.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: So yeah, always much easier and I think much more effective to manage systems than just running around with your head cut off trying to manage all these things.
Speaker: So master the systems.
Speaker: It'll make business much easier.
Speaker: And Adam, thanks again for coming on the show and hopefully we'll have you on in the future someday and hear even more.
Speaker: But I appreciate you coming on, brother.
Speaker: Heck yeah.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: We'll talk soon.
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