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 how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Is this the end of solar as we know it in California?
Speaker: Should we freak out?
Speaker: Should we lose our minds?
Speaker: If you haven't heard net metering 3.0 passed in California, we're going to be talking about what that means.
Speaker: And even if you're not selling in California, still some good things to know.
Speaker: and some applications for y'all selling in other states.
Speaker: So let's get into it.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I'm here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: If you are new, it would be much appreciated if you would share the podcast.
Speaker: Of course, after you've received some value, if you would share the podcast, leave us a review.
Speaker: It would be greatly appreciated.
Speaker: We're coming up on the Christmas season.
Speaker: At the time of this recording, we're like five days away from Christmas.
Speaker: And of course, the state of California gifts us all, California solar cells people, with the stunning announcement that net metering is going away, that it's moving to 3.0.
Speaker: And if you have not heard the news, just, I guess, a little recap of what that means.
Speaker: A lot of people have heard it.
Speaker: It's been going around social media like crazy.
Speaker: So you've probably heard of it.
Speaker: But in case you are under a rock or something like that.
Speaker: What it means for us out here in California is that they are changing the buyback of the rates.
Speaker: They're reducing it by 75%.
Speaker: They previously would buy back the rate at about 30 cents was the value of it.
Speaker: They're lowering that to about 8 cents, which is devastating.
Speaker: It sucks.
Speaker: Not going to lie.
Speaker: But what do we do about it?
Speaker: Do we freak out?
Speaker: Do we lose our minds?
Speaker: Do we all give up?
Speaker: I thought about all those things, but I'm going to tell you what my game plan is.
Speaker: Even if you're not selling in California, I think there's some useful stuff here that you could apply to your specific market.
Speaker: And so here's what I'm going to do.
Speaker: That's what we're going to jam on in today's podcast.
Speaker: So here's the thing.
Speaker: In California, specifically San Diego where I sell, there are a lot of smaller systems.
Speaker: And what this Net Metering 3.0 is forcing us to do, since they decreased the buyback rate by so much, they are forcing us to sell more batteries in California.
Speaker: Previously, batteries were something that I didn't really push.
Speaker: I didn't know as much as I should about it.
Speaker: But now that all changes.
Speaker: I got to know how to sell them and should be a wake up call for everyone in the solar industry.
Speaker: Learn more about batteries.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: If this type of thing can happen in California, where it's one of the most green states, probably can happen in any other state.
Speaker: So that is should be a wake up call for everybody.
Speaker: Learn what's going on, learn how to adapt, learn how to change as some of these regulations change.
Speaker: And that's going to separate, as one of my friends, Nick Finger said, that pretenders are from the contenders.
Speaker: So if you want to be a contender, you have to learn how to adapt and deal with some of these things.
Speaker: But batteries.
Speaker: So really in California,
Speaker: Batteries are super useful.
Speaker: You can sell a lot of savings with batteries if people have higher bills out here.
Speaker: And for example, I just sold a system out here.
Speaker: Battery still cut their bill by a hundred bucks even with a battery.
Speaker: And so those people, it's not a huge deal.
Speaker: I'm still going to save people $100 plus if they have a larger bill.
Speaker: But the ones that are affected more than anyone out here are the people with lower bills in California.
Speaker: So my game plan is this, and this is something that anyone selling in California should think about.
Speaker: focus on the ones that don't have the high bill.
Speaker: Okay, and I should preface this, if you didn't know, we have until April 15th to get people signed up, installed, and approved, and they're grandfathered into the old net metering, which is still the full buyback of the rate.
Speaker: Okay,
Speaker: So really, it's putting a gun to our heads.
Speaker: It's putting a gun to the homeowner's heads.
Speaker: If they want solar, now is the best time to do it.
Speaker: And anyone listening to this podcast, if you want to take advantage of this giant bazooka that's all pointed at us right now in California, hit me up.
Speaker: Let's do some blitzes.
Speaker: Come out here.
Speaker: Shoot me an email, taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: We can hook you up with a blitz opportunity so you can take advantage of some of these deadlines coming up.
Speaker: But what a great time to come out in Blitz, California.
Speaker: Let's blow this place up with solar.
Speaker: Let's hit these people so hard that they are begging us for mercy to stop knocking on their doors if they're not already.
Speaker: That's what we're going to do.
Speaker: Hit me up if you want to come do a Blitz out here and get as many cells as we can to help homeowners take advantage of the good net metering before all this stuff goes down April 15th.
Speaker: But anyway, my plan is this.
Speaker: I'm going to focus on the homes with the smaller bills because they are going to lose out on the benefits.
Speaker: Previously in San Diego, I have sold just lots of smaller systems, 3 kilowatt, 4 kilowatt, tiny systems, and they still save money.
Speaker: But that all changes once this goes through.
Speaker: Unfortunately, the people with small bills are going to be affected the most by net metering 3.0.
Speaker: So I'm starting with the smaller bills.
Speaker: I'm starting beginning in January with the people who take the longest to get approved.
Speaker: So I'm going to focus on maybe it's people that need extra roof work.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not going to like seek him out necessarily, but I'm going to look for people.
Speaker: That maybe would take longer because they have HOAs or other circumstances that's going to take longer because remember, they have to get approved and installed before April 15th.
Speaker: So the homes that I'm working with that are, I don't know, condos, townhomes, HOAs, strict HOAs, they all take a lot longer.
Speaker: So those are going to be my focus in the beginning.
Speaker: And as we get close to this deadline, I'm moving to cities where they have quicker permit times.
Speaker: And this is something to think about for anyone selling in other markets.
Speaker: Do you know how long the permits take in the specific cities you're selling in?
Speaker: A great piece of knowledge to know because it's going to make you look like an expert if you can tell the homeowner how long it usually takes for a permit.
Speaker: And then maybe you're in a competition.
Speaker: Maybe you're trying to hit a goal of installs.
Speaker: Maybe you're trying to get paid quicker.
Speaker: It's a good thing to know, okay, this city has quick permit times.
Speaker: This city has over-the-counter permits because every city is different, at least out here in California.
Speaker: I assume it's the same in other markets.
Speaker: So as this deadline starts coming up, I'm going to move.
Speaker: I'm going to go from cities with a longer permit time
Speaker: As we get closer to the April 15 deadline, I'm going to slowly move up to the cities to have the quickest permit time and take advantage of that.
Speaker: Okay, so that's number one.
Speaker: Number two, in order to help people know about some of these deadlines,
Speaker: We should be showing them proof of all these things.
Speaker: I talk about in the show a lot, showing people proof of what's going on.
Speaker: Anything you claim, you need proof to back it up.
Speaker: So one of the best ways to do this is print off slicks, laminate sheets you can use.
Speaker: And this, again, applies in any market you're in.
Speaker: Maybe there's stuff going on in energy rates going up.
Speaker: Maybe there's things going on with shutting down, I don't know, coal...
Speaker: electric plants or
Speaker: whatever, power plants where they're burning coal.
Speaker: Sorry, I fumbled my words here or anything that's related to energy.
Speaker: Think of printing that off, using it as a slick, very powerful.
Speaker: And I'm going to do the same thing with some of these things going on in California with net metering 3.0.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And if you have not read my friend, Michael Donald's new book, I would highly recommend it.
Speaker: His book, No Matter What.
Speaker: Great book.
Speaker: But Michael O'Donnell, if you have not read it, he talks about, I'm going to spoil this for you.
Speaker: He talks about how he used the deadlines in Arizona with solar in every single close.
Speaker: And that was how he closed.
Speaker: I think he hit like a megawatt in four months that year or something.
Speaker: So he just blasted the crap out of these deadlines, used it in every single close, put the metaphorical gun to the homeowner's heads he was helping, and just closed a ton of deals.
Speaker: So if you are selling in California, you better be taking advantage of this.
Speaker: Sell as many deals as you can.
Speaker: Go all out blitz for the next three, four months because...
Speaker: Two things are going to happen.
Speaker: We're going to have to sell batteries and commissions are probably going to go down a lot just because we got to adjust.
Speaker: And you're probably not going to be able to sell the systems as high as you are now, not only with interest rates going up and, you know, the buyback program changing net meeting 3.0.
Speaker: So take advantage.
Speaker: And again, come do a blitz.
Speaker: Hit me up if you want to take advantage of this.
Speaker: Okay, and the last thing you got to consider here, for all the people trying to recruit us out of California, I would say this, even in California, when this stuff goes down and we have to sell batteries, we're still going to be saving people probably the same, if not more, than what's going on in other states.
Speaker: So don't come at me with California is going to be the worst market for solar now.
Speaker: It's not going to be the worst market.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not going to say it's going to be the best market.
Speaker: Hey, I know there's some solar managers out here in California saying, oh, California is still going to be the greatest of all time.
Speaker: We're still going to sell way more solar than anybody.
Speaker: We're going to sell a lot of solar.
Speaker: Maybe it's not going to be the world's greatest market anymore, but even with batteries, people's rates out here are through the roof.
Speaker: San Diego, we're talking they're paying 35 cents plus per kilowatt of energy.
Speaker: So even with a battery, people are still going to save money out here.
Speaker: Again, the ones with lower bills are going to be affected more, but the ones with higher bills, not as much.
Speaker: So to me, it just becomes similar to other markets now.
Speaker: So our systems with a battery is going to be equal as just a solar, a regular solar system and all the, a lot of these other markets.
Speaker: So for all you people in Texas, Florida, take that, suck it.
Speaker: California is still going to be a great market.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens.
Speaker: Maybe I'll go sell in other places.
Speaker: I'll probably go do blitzes in other markets because I get it.
Speaker: We're going to have to adapt.
Speaker: Things are going to change.
Speaker: It's probably going to be tougher to sell, but it's not the end of the world.
Speaker: So those are my thoughts on net metering at 3.0.
Speaker: Would love to hear what everyone thinks of this.
Speaker: If you are in another market, let me know what you think of this.
Speaker: And again,
Speaker: Use this as an example.
Speaker: What's happening here is probably going to happen in every market eventually.
Speaker: So learn to adapt.
Speaker: Learn to use these deadlines to your advantage like Michael O'Donnell teaches us.
Speaker: And hope you're having a great holiday season and selling lots of solar.
Speaker: So it is 1141 here.
Speaker: Just got done with a late night close.
Speaker: So hopefully some of that made sense.
Speaker: But we're going to be coming with some heat on the next podcast.
Speaker: We've got some guys that are talking about net metering 3.0.
Speaker: talking about batteries, talking about how we can adapt.
Speaker: So I'm not going to spoil the surprises, but tune in.
Speaker: We've got some incredible interviews coming up on the podcast.
Speaker: So like, share, subscribe.
Speaker: Appreciate you guys.
Speaker: Happy holidays and go sell some solar.
Speaker: We'll see you on the next podcast.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I, and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free cells diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your cells process.
Speaker: Figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve So act now we have six bucks for this month.
Speaker: So book a call now don't miss out What you're gonna do is send an email to Taylor at solarpreneurs.com That's Taylor at solarpreneurs with an s.com I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best So shoot that email and let's increase your sales
