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114. My 3 SECRETS To Getting More Referrals
38 Plays5 years ago
The main reason TOP Salesmen don't get referrals is really sad actually. These amazing sales reps are limited in their success simply because they either don't ask for referrals, the fastest way to scale the amount of installations you have each week, or they simply don't know how to ask for them. Look, if you want to get more people to trust you that what you have to offer them really will become an asset to their family then you need to borrow the trust of their friends and family.
One of my top secrets to doing that is automation liked I talked about in yesterday's episode with Virtual Assistants that help me buy back my time. But I also use softwares like www.SendOutCards.com so I can automate the way people remember me and not the countless other sales representatives that have knocked their doors in the past. Don't sacrifice your success and paycheck each week just because you think the following up to get referrals is "too complicated". It's not.
If you want more help in scaling the success you have each week in selling solar then go over to webclass.solarpreneurs.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why cells reps fell.
What is a Solopreneur?
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing 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
What's up, my solopreneurs?
00:00:42
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong back here, here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals, get more leads, and become a solar sales machine.
Election Day Reflections
00:00:52
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We're back with another episode, and at the time of this recording, we are the day before Election Day.
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By the time you listen to this, you probably already know the results, but it is crazy.
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I'll be honest, I'm spending way too much time on social media going and looking at political arguments, stuff like that.
00:01:11
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I don't know about you guys, but...
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I do find it extremely entertaining to read people's fights and just a lot of people acting like little kids.
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It is entertaining, I'll be honest.
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But hopefully your preferred candidate wins, whoever it may be.
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I guess I won't talk politics on this podcast, but it is entertaining nonetheless.
00:01:32
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Let's jump into the episode today, though, because regardless of who wins...
Staying Positive Amidst Uncertainty
00:01:36
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People need to realize you got to be willing to dominate.
00:01:39
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You got to be willing to stay positive, to not make excuses.
00:01:43
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Whoever wins.
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I see people posting the world's going to end.
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I'm going to be taxed up the wazoo, just all these things.
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But at the end of the day, get over it.
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Whoever wins, all you can do is cast your vote, right?
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The rest is out of your control.
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So go cast your vote and then whatever happens, go dominate.
00:02:03
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And that's what we're here to talk about is how are you going to dominate?
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How are you going to do in your solar selling moving forward?
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We're going to talk about a few things now.
The Role of Selling in Growth
00:02:14
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I talked a little bit about how one of my secrets that has helped me a lot is getting a virtual assistant.
00:02:20
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And again, I have a whole course on that.
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You can check out that.
00:02:23
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But there's nothing worse to people like us, people who strive to improve and smash through barriers than feeling complacent.
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That's why I make sure I'm constantly growing and improving my selling.
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The more I sell, the more I can do things I enjoy.
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The truth is, if I'm not selling, I don't have money to pay an assistant, right?
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even though it's fairly inexpensive, obviously, when you're getting someone out of the country.
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But if you are not generating sales, you don't have money to grow, you're not going to have money to pay other people to build your organization, you're not going to have money to go do things you enjoy.
00:02:54
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That means no trips, no vacations.
00:02:56
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If you think about it, how many different aspects are affected when you don't sell?
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We were literally creating entire economies as salespeople.
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We're paying engineers to make designs.
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We're paying people that...
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make all the cool softwares we use.
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And if we don't sell, then none of those people are getting paid.
00:03:14
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Pretty cool to think about.
00:03:15
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So that's what we're here to do is how can we focus on more on that thing that we hopefully all love and that's the sales aspect of it.
00:03:25
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Talked about it before, but...
00:03:27
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I'm making money through selling, just like you guys that are listening to this podcast.
00:03:31
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You're probably making more money than anything by selling your deals, closing deals, generating new prospects, generating new leads.
00:03:40
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Obviously, we make the money when the deal is closed, but you think of any of these top guys.
00:03:46
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I talked to the top here in San Diego.
00:03:51
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We got the top guys from Vivint Solar.
00:03:53
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They have...
00:03:54
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you know, over 100 reps on their team, guess where they're making the most money, the managers?
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It's not from leading the team.
00:04:01
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Yeah, they get overrides on their team.
00:04:04
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But they're making more money than anything when they go and close their deals.
00:04:08
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So even guys like that that are leading teams of 100 plus reps, their main source of income, the moneymaker is coming from closing the deals, right?
00:04:18
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I mean, overrides help too.
00:04:19
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But closing the deals, that's where it's at.
00:04:21
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So that's what we all need to focus on.
00:04:24
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So what we're talking about today is the secret selling tactic, and that is referrals.
Mastering Referrals for Success
00:04:32
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That's another thing that I've noticed that top closers, top people in the industry, they've mastered getting referrals.
00:04:39
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And most of the top guys I talk to, they're getting at least 50% of their business.
00:04:44
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from just referrals.
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And I say, how often are you knocking?
00:04:48
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A lot of these guys, they're not even knocking doors that often because they're getting so many referrals.
00:04:52
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They don't have enough time to knock.
00:04:54
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So how do they do it?
00:04:56
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And I'm not to the point yet, I'm definitely not to the point where I can say 50% of my business is coming from referrals.
00:05:04
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But that's the goal to get there.
00:05:06
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I've done a lot of interviews with guys that are getting tons of referrals.
00:05:10
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That is their main source of business.
00:05:12
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I picked their brain and I haven't tried all of it, but I'm going to go through several things that I have tried that are working for me.
00:05:19
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A few things that I'm just kind of getting into.
00:05:22
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We're going to talk about how you can get more referrals and spend more time with qualified prospects because we all know referrals, they're the most qualified people you can get.
00:05:32
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They already have the trust.
00:05:33
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They trust the person that referred you to the business and it's going to be that much easier to close.
00:05:38
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So number one, you got to make it easy.
00:05:41
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What do I mean by make it easy?
00:05:44
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I mean, you need to make sure these people have your contact info.
00:05:47
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And that's not just giving them a card.
00:05:49
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Because guess what?
00:05:50
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If you give them a card, that thing's going in the trash right when you leave, most likely.
00:05:54
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So what I mean by making it easy is you need to take their phone, just commit to this.
00:05:59
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Every time you get out of an appointment, every time you get done with a deal, take that client's phone and
00:06:06
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and put your name in it.
00:06:07
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But here's the key with this, don't just put your name, don't just put Taylor in my case, put something about solar.
00:06:14
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So for me, it's Taylor Solar Guy.
00:06:16
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Hey, that's what I'm putting every time, because that's the other thing.
00:06:19
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The second you step out of that house, they're probably forgetting your name too, let's be honest.
00:06:25
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So put something about solar in there, and then explain it to them.
00:06:28
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Say Mr. Prospect or Mr. Customer.
00:06:31
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I put my name in here as Taylor Solar Guys.
00:06:33
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That way when you forget my name, you can just type in solar and I'll pop right up.
00:06:37
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Usually gets a little chuckle out of them and then they appreciate it.
00:06:40
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And then what's going to happen when you do that next time they talk to their friend or their coworker is saying, Hey, we are thinking about getting solar.
00:06:48
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Now they actually have your contact info in there and they're going to say, Oh yeah, I have it on my phone where before someone would say that and they say, Oh yeah, we got solar.
00:06:58
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Oh, who'd you get it from?
00:07:01
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I can't remember the company.
00:07:04
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I don't have the guy's contact info.
00:07:06
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And then that's that.
00:07:08
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Guarantee that's what happens to so many people.
00:07:11
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But if you give them your info...
00:07:13
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They have it already stored on their phone.
00:07:15
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It's going to make it that much easier.
Standing Out with Personalized Gestures
00:07:17
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Step number two is be different.
00:07:19
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Be memorable.
00:07:20
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What can you do to stand out from the crowd?
00:07:23
Speaker
Everyone's closing deals, but what are you doing to be memorable?
00:07:28
Speaker
Some things that I've done is I have sent out cards to my customers, thank you cards.
00:07:34
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I have sent out brownies to my customers.
00:07:36
Speaker
There's a really cool software.
00:07:39
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It's
00:07:40
Speaker
Well, it's a card service.
00:07:41
Speaker
It's called Send Out Cards.
00:07:43
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You can go subscribe to that.
00:07:45
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There's a free version and also a paid version.
00:07:48
Speaker
I should definitely recommend the paid version.
00:07:50
Speaker
But you can actually send out a card brownie bundle and you can just type it out.
00:07:55
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You can have a stored template and then you can basically copy and paste, put in the customer's name and have this sent out.
00:08:02
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And then what's even better, if you have a team, if you have a virtual assistant, they can do this for you.
00:08:08
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So that's taken out, you know, the 10, 20 minutes that it probably would have taken you to send it.
00:08:13
Speaker
Have the template stored, they can send out a card on brownies.
00:08:16
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And I'll give a disclaimer, I got these tactics specifically from my friend Ben Claybrook.
00:08:22
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So Ben, if you're listening to this, thanks for sharing these tips with me.
00:08:26
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It's helped me a ton in my own referral game.
00:08:28
Speaker
But think of something to be memorable.
00:08:30
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Maybe these people were huge Green Bay Packers fans or...
00:08:37
Speaker
I don't know, Patriots fans.
00:08:39
Speaker
This is a NFL for all my out of country listeners, but maybe they're sports fans or maybe they love gardening.
00:08:46
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If you can build that relationship and know what they like, maybe you're getting them a new gardening tool.
00:08:50
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Maybe you're getting a Green Bay Packers flag being put out in front of their yard.
00:08:56
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Things like that.
00:08:57
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That's how they're going to remember you.
00:08:58
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That's going to be like, this guy is awesome.
00:09:01
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We need to get them.
00:09:02
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Some people need to pay them back.
00:09:04
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They'll want to return the favor.
00:09:05
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That's
Directly Asking for Referrals
00:09:06
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number two.
00:09:06
Speaker
And number three, just make sure you're asking them.
00:09:09
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I'm shocked at how many people do not ask for referrals.
00:09:12
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I've been on lots of deals with some of my newer reps and people that are starting out, even guys that have been in the industry a long time.
00:09:20
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I'll go to deals, sometimes shadow.
00:09:22
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People don't ask for referrals.
00:09:24
Speaker
It's the number one mistake.
00:09:26
Speaker
And if you follow Grant Cardone at all,
00:09:28
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He talks about this all the time.
00:09:30
Speaker
The number one people don't close and don't get referrals is because they don't ask for the sale.
00:09:36
Speaker
And number two, they don't ask for the furrow.
00:09:38
Speaker
So if you're not asking for these, don't expect to get any.
00:09:41
Speaker
But what goes along with asking is you need to make sure you're being specific.
00:09:46
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I've noticed a huge difference in my personal saying by just asking, hey, if you guys have anyone that could benefit from solar, let me know.
00:09:55
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That's not asking.
00:09:56
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You need to get specific.
00:09:58
Speaker
Mr. Homeowner, who do you know that could benefit from this?
00:10:02
Speaker
Do your neighbors have it next door?
00:10:04
Speaker
Let's go through your contacts.
00:10:06
Speaker
How about your aunts, uncles, you guys have family here or any coworkers?
00:10:12
Speaker
And when you get specific like this and you have even helps if you have a referral list, if you bring out a sheet of referrals that other customers have given you, you just need to act like that's the norm.
00:10:23
Speaker
Everyone's giving you referrals.
00:10:25
Speaker
It's another huge secret I've heard from top producers is they just expect it.
00:10:29
Speaker
They say, everyone we work with, we get three to five names.
00:10:33
Speaker
And then, you know, whatever cash you want to give them, you can give them money just for meeting with you.
00:10:39
Speaker
Or you can give them, you know, obviously, $500,000, whatever, when they sign up.
00:10:44
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But be specific.
00:10:45
Speaker
Figure out who they know.
00:10:46
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And then chase after those people.
00:10:49
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Who do you know that owns a home?
00:10:50
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Because if you just leave it open and let me know if you guys think of anyone.
00:10:55
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your chances are very, very low that you're gonna get any
Maintaining Customer Relationships
00:10:58
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more referrals.
00:10:58
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Okay, my last tip I have with this is follow up with them.
00:11:02
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Okay, and this is something that I'm honestly not very good at.
00:11:06
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I'm working to improve on this aspect of it.
00:11:09
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But follow up with your customers.
00:11:10
Speaker
Keep them, you know, have a list of your customers, have their emails, their phone numbers, and put them in a CRM to follow up.
00:11:17
Speaker
If you're anything like me, you're not gonna remember your closing.
00:11:21
Speaker
Hopefully so many deals, it's tough to remember who you went to from one day to the next.
00:11:25
Speaker
So you got to keep a customer list.
00:11:27
Speaker
And then in whatever CRM you're using, put a note in there, put a reminder, keep track of when you actually need to follow up with these people.
00:11:35
Speaker
And the best thing I have found with that is do a bill review.
00:11:40
Speaker
So depending on the market you're in, San Diego here in California, people get a yearly true up bill and that's crucial.
00:11:48
Speaker
You need to follow up with them 100% on the anniversary of their solar being installed, 12 months.
00:11:55
Speaker
And the thing that's brilliant about that is number one, it gives you a chance to just make sure your customer is being taken care of, make sure they understand how much
00:12:04
Speaker
energy their system was producing.
00:12:07
Speaker
And then it also gives you an opportunity to add more panels.
00:12:11
Speaker
They use more energy than they thought.
00:12:13
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You can do an add-on system, add some more panels up there.
00:12:16
Speaker
So there's a cell, just a second cell for the same customer.
00:12:20
Speaker
Then after all that, that's when you have another chance to ask for referrals again.
00:12:26
Speaker
Who do you know?
00:12:26
Speaker
Again, being specific, any of your coworkers, any of your friends.
00:12:31
Speaker
So I would suggest doing it at least once a quarter.
00:12:35
Speaker
Okay, I should say minimum six months, but I'm hearing people doing it once a quarter, getting great results just by, number one, it's taking care of your customers.
00:12:47
Speaker
And then it's keeping it top of mind.
00:12:49
Speaker
They remember that you are their sales rep and they remember that you're the one that they need to get their referrals to.
00:12:55
Speaker
The worst feeling is knowing that they don't know the company or the sales rep, the sole and the sole.
00:13:03
Speaker
You don't want that to happen.
00:13:05
Speaker
I'm going to neighborhoods all the time.
00:13:07
Speaker
I knock on quite a few people that have solar installed.
00:13:09
Speaker
And it's shocking to me how many people don't know who sold them solar or what company they got solar from.
00:13:18
Speaker
All the time happens on a weekly basis where I meet people that don't remember any of that.
00:13:24
Speaker
So don't be that rep.
00:13:25
Speaker
These are just a few tips.
00:13:26
Speaker
Okay, we're going to go more in depth future episodes of other things you can do to get referrals.
00:13:32
Speaker
But shoot me a message.
00:13:34
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Let me know what's working for you to get more referrals.
00:13:37
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And if you know someone that's dominating the industry that's getting mountains of referrals, let me know too.
00:13:42
Speaker
Let's get them on the show.
00:13:44
Speaker
These are a few things that have been helping me.
00:13:46
Speaker
Hope to hear from you guys.
00:13:47
Speaker
What's
Sharing Success and Industry Networking
00:13:48
Speaker
working for you?
00:13:48
Speaker
How are you getting your referrals?
00:13:51
Speaker
Remember to always ask.
00:13:53
Speaker
That's crucial.
00:13:54
Speaker
So that's the episode today, guys.
00:13:56
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed it.
00:13:56
Speaker
Shoot me a comment.
00:13:57
Speaker
Shoot me a like if you enjoyed it.
00:13:59
Speaker
And we will see you on the next one.
00:14:02
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning into today's episode.
00:14:05
Speaker
I know when I got into the industry, I had almost no resources like this, so I hope this show is helping you get the success you deserve.
00:14:13
Speaker
If you found value from anything in this episode today, think about someone who can benefit so you and I can help people fulfill their potential.
00:14:21
Speaker
Zig Ziglar said, if you help enough people get what they want...
00:14:25
Speaker
you will get what you want.
00:14:26
Speaker
So I promise by sharing this, it will help you grow and improve.
00:14:30
Speaker
The value bombs on today's show will take you one step closer to success, but it's always to the degree that you apply and execute the principles.
Free Training on Closing Deals
00:14:38
Speaker
I've spent the last few years interviewing the top solar experts and helping other reps and businesses discover their potential.
00:14:45
Speaker
If you want more help achieving your goals, then I put together an exclusive video training on three hacks that helped me close multiple deals a week while knocking less than 10 hours.
00:14:55
Speaker
And who doesn't want that?
00:14:56
Speaker
So go check it out at webclass.solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:00
Speaker
Once again, that's webclass.solarpreneurs.com to get exclusive access to the training and take your skills to the next level.