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The Hour A Week Hack To Close An Extra 10KW A Month
55 Plays6 years ago
What’s up Solarpreneurs?
We have a simple hack that can get you an extra 10-20-30 grand in just 1 hour a week.
The first step is to track, track, track! The best way to improve is to make sure your keeping track of your appointments and any details pertaining to it.
Next, is follow-up. Seems simple, but it can make that $30,000 difference. Reach out to the customers that didn’t close. Send them an email, an article on solar that you think will interest them, and a text message to stay on their radar. This can seem daunting, but you only need to spend 1 hour a week!
In this episode, we will dig into why this is so important and how easy it can be.
Let’s close in on those lost deals!
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Transcript
Introducing Solopreneurs and their mission
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What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
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We call ourselves solopreneurs.
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And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
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Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
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We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Commitment to podcasting and personal achievements
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Yo, yo, what's going on, solopreneurs?
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I'm excited to be here.
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Well, I will say I didn't really want to do an episode.
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It is 11.05 at night.
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I got home from a couple deals today, and I had set a goal that I was going to do an episode for sure today and didn't want to fail on my goal, so I decided I got to do one.
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So I'm on my nightly walk here and we're doing an episode.
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So let's do this.
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And you know what?
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If you're not hitting your goals, you got to start thinking like that.
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Like what things, what goals did you set today that you didn't accomplish?
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It's 11 o'clock at night.
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There's still an hour in the day.
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So if you haven't hit your goals, if you haven't hit your numbers, what do you got to do?
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Are you planning nightly?
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Are you doing what you got to do?
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The podcast was one of my big three tasks today, so I knew I had to get it done.
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And it doesn't always happen.
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I fell a lot of times, but I think that's what you got to do.
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So, anyways, just wanted to give a little update on my personal sales.
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But before I do that, I wanted to give some shout-outs to the people who have left reviews.
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They're much appreciated today.
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We're at 31 reviews right now on iTunes and you guys are awesome.
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We're continuing to put out the quality content.
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It's not easy every week.
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James is doing a lot of episodes.
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We're still working on getting killer guests on for everyone.
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So I wanted to read one review from Constanza from New York.
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I think that's how you say your name.
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But she says, you provide very valuable information.
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I'm implementing your tips on status and would appreciate learning more about using status to grow my construction business.
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Thank you.
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Constanza, well you rock.
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Thanks for the review.
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And we'll definitely be talking more about status because, yeah, that's something that's been helping me a lot.
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And that's really cool that you're using it in construction.
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So much appreciated reviews.
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We'll continue giving you guys the shout-outs.
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And if you haven't left a review, please just leave one and share it with one person.
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That's how we're going to grow the podcast.
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It's by you sharing it with other people that can be helped by this content.
Learning from sales challenges
00:03:44
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So in my personal sales, our company just figured just had a...
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competition hopefully you guys are doing competitions in your solar businesses if you're managing teams if you run a company i think that's something super important that can be hit or miss if you run good competitions if you run good incentives it's really going to motivate your guys you're going to see a huge uptick on production if you know how to run some good incentives so we just finished up our last ironman competition
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and I guess they're announcing the results, but it looks like I got second, and I got beat by my old cat, my old mentor, Dallin Pancari.
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He's been on the podcast, so.
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Unfortunately, the dirty dog beat me this time.
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We go back and forth, but he prevailed this time.
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I think...
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I think we had both close four deals last week, but I had to cancel.
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So, cancels, they kill people, and that's what broke me this time.
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So, just wanted to talk about that.
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If you guys are having cancels, I know we've talked about it in episodes in the past.
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But it's something that can kill people, and especially if you're not locking down very many deals.
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Cancels can just be excruciating.
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So what happened to me last week?
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I closed, I think this was my third deal.
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And these people were stoked to do it down here in San Diego, saving a lot of money.
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But what I didn't do is I didn't put down the anchor.
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I've talked about this in the past, but our company, we do the Nest thermostats.
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We install one right after we close the deal.
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We put them in right away and try to get people just thinking about the cool thermostat they got.
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Because the downside with solar, it's not like alarms, it's not like pest control.
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They can't come do it right away.
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So what can you get them excited about right now?
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I mean, our installs are taking about a month.
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what happened was these were older folks they weren't sure they were kind of like skeptical of technology so they don't want a thermostat so I let them talk me out of putting the thermostat in and that's usually our anchor that's usually what solidifies the cell so I didn't put a thermostat in for these guys and guess what they end up canceling
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and I lose the competition didn't win the trip to Hawaii all because I've been I didn't do something simple so it might not be a thermostat that you do but if you don't do thermostats think of things you can do to anchor in your customers I could have sent them a basket of fruit they got these edible arrangements you can order those I know people that do cookies
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Those things help.
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So just figuring out something to anchor them in.
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What's even more frustrating is I got beat out by a local mom-pop company.
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It was a one-man show.
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A guy that came from their church or something like that.
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That literally did everything for his local company.
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Did the install.
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Did the permitting.
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Did...
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basically everything.
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I mean, it was his company.
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So I asked this customer, like, why they decided to go with them.
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And she said, well, well, first of all, they did have a cheaper price, but we're not trying to compete on price here.
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Our company offered way more value and way more benefits.
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So that's part of it.
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I obviously didn't do a good enough job at explaining our benefits and the extra value we can add.
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But besides that, she's like,
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Well, the guy we, the local guy we're getting it from, he just seems to know a lot more about the installation and the whole process of permitting.
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New Zealand will explain that.
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So I was devastated.
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I mean, I get beat out by a one-man company that maybe will be going out of business next year.
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So yeah, super devastating.
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But at the end of the day, it comes back on me.
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I need to know my product better.
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I need to make people feel more comfortable about moving forward.
Effective customer engagement strategies
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Obviously, it hurts because, yeah, I mean, this guy's a one-man show.
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Of course, he's going to know more about the construction and the permitting, but know your product, put on those anchors, and don't get beat out.
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So that's the state of my sales right now.
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Closed four, closed three deals this week.
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So it's going well but continuing to improve, continuing to get better and that's what this show is all about.
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Not here to say I'm the greatest salesman in the world but this is to document my journey at becoming better every day and that's all we can do.
00:09:03
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So today I just wanted to share a little tip that I actually heard from, I think it was a training we did in our company.
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And this tip is, in the name of the episode, is the simple hour-a-week hack that clothes one rep an extra 29.7 kilowatts in three months.
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So I know we're talking three months here.
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That's basically an extra 10 kilowatts a month.
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in solar deals but for you to think about how much could that be worth if you close 29.7 kilowatts in over three months might not sound like a lot spread out over three months but if you're with a solid company hopefully they're paying you what you're worth so how much could that be worth an extra five grand an extra 10 grand an extra 20 grand
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okay so what I learned and what I'm gonna share here today is a hack like I mentioned it requires an hour a week this simple thing can lottery make you an extra 10 20 30 grand maybe more in three months so little things guys so here's what it is number one
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you need to be keeping track of every appointment you attend if you're not using some sort of CRM something to plug in these deals keeping detailed notes start using one so I use pipe drive I've mentioned it in the past but for me it's just simple plug in all your deals very simple CRM you can integrate it with a bunch of different things and the technology
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If you don't want to use pipe drive, heck just use Google Sheets.
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You can start a spreadsheet and you can start taking notes of just every interaction you have with each deal you go to.
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So that's step number one.
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Start keeping track.
00:11:16
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Sorry we got some cars going by here.
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The nightly walk.
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Start keeping track of every appointment you go to though.
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Keep notes.
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Figure out what's happening.
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And the reason you're going to do that is step number two.
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Well, you need to basically put down people's hot buttons.
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If you're not closing these people, which we all know we're not going to close every deal we go to, this is going to allow you to follow up with the people.
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Maybe they have a golden retriever.
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Maybe...
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they love Donald Trump, maybe they're Patriots fans, whatever it is, keep those notes in there because you're going to be able to use this in future follow-ups with these people.
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Okay, so here's the big thing with this hack.
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Every week, you're going to go and you're going to send emails and text these people that didn't close.
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So as you're taking notes,
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you're going to be able to know what sort of follow-up sequences, what sort of emails, what sort of texts you should be sending them.
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And it's simple as this, guys.
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Beginning of the week, you take an hour and just go into your spreadsheet, go into your CRM, and you're going to focus on the people that didn't close the last week.
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You're going to send them an email and
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Then right after you send them an email, you're going to text them and say, hey, John, just sent you an email.
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Sorry, another car driving by.
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So in the email, here's what you're going to send.
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You're going to have links saved.
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Everyone should be doing this.
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If you don't already have a bookmark tab on whatever you're using.
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Safari, I use Safari, Google Chrome.
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Super easy.
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You're going to go in there and you're just going to bookmark like crazy any interesting solar article.
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Especially things that can apply to homeowners.
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And you can hit me up about this.
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I can send you a lot of different articles that I send to homeowners currently.
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But you're going to keep track of all these articles.
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You're going to keep a folder of them.
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And then you're always going to have cool content to send them.
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If you've listened to past episodes, you already know this.
00:13:57
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But James Smiley, I guess we had on, what was it, maybe a month ago.
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He had an awesome idea.
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And that's to go into Google.
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And you can actually set alerts for Google to notify you whenever something new and interesting, noteworthy,
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comes out about solar so maybe this is something you can do and this is going to help you come up with ideas to follow up with with people that haven't closed or with homeowners okay and it's just part of putting out organic content if you can always be on the edge of what's coming out if you know the industry if you can find the latest articles
00:14:43
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That would apply to homeowners about solar you're always gonna have something to run out or something to send to them you're never gonna run out of content to send these people Okay, but I digress so you're gonna send an email weekly email email out to these people that were on the edge You're gonna text them each time then you're gonna do that every week one hour every week and
00:15:12
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I've already started to implement this.
00:15:15
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Okay, and I'm seeing results.
00:15:17
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But reps that have done this, and I'm using, I'm using my man Dellen Pancari as an example, because he's the one that gave me this idea.
00:15:29
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He's done this, and he's closed 29.7 extra kilowatts that he wouldn't have in the past three months.
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And guess when he does it?
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He does it when he's watching Netflix.
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Monday I think he watches Netflix for an hour or something like that on Monday and He does this while he's watching Netflix So he's probably made five ten twenty grand basically while he's sitting around watching Netflix Okay So guys super simple things you're not already following up with customers Start doing something like this just pick pick an hour and
00:16:14
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Have the notes, have your CRM, have your spreadsheet.
00:16:17
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Pick an hour and then follow up with these people.
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It's as simple as sending them an email with a link in it.
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And again, you guys can reach out.
00:16:27
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Happy to send you examples of what we're doing with this.
00:16:31
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Just find an article and say, Hey John, it was nice meeting with you last week.
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Here's something that I thought you'd find super interesting.
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Copy, paste an article in there.
00:16:42
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P.S.
00:16:42
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Our company is giving away free Nest thermostats this week if we can get your application in.
00:16:48
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Is there a time that would work to meet up again with you and your wife?
00:16:54
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Send them a text.
00:16:55
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Hey John just sent you an email.
00:16:57
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There's follow up idea number one.
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Boom.
00:16:59
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Okay.
00:17:02
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So start thinking of different ways you can follow up.
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Got to be creative with this.
00:17:08
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But that's how you can close extra deals, fortunes, and the follow-up.
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So if you haven't done much follow-up in the past, just start an hour a week.
00:17:18
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Because trust me, I didn't follow-up at all.
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I went two years without probably doing a single follow-up.
00:17:25
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Because I thought solar cells is the same as pest control.
00:17:28
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I thought it's just you knock on their door, and if you don't close them then, then you're not really going to talk to them ever again.
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It's a new generation, boys and girls.
00:17:39
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You've got to be following up.
00:17:40
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You've got to be making that extra money.
00:17:45
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So start with that.
00:17:47
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Make it an hour a week.
00:17:50
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It's going to be a low percentage of deals that respond.
00:17:53
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Obviously, it's a numbers game.
00:17:55
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But if you're doing this, then you're going to get maybe not the first week, maybe not the second week, maybe the third week to get an extra closed deal from it.
00:18:08
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So start doing that follow up and another bonus tip for you.
00:18:15
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Keep a folder in Google Drive that has all these emails that you're sending.
00:18:21
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you want to make this process as easy as possible because trust me your mind will come up with every excuse to probably do other things besides follow up so make it easy go into google drive create a folder that says solar follow ups or email solar email sequences just whatever you're sending to homeowners because you're probably going to be sending similar things so here's all you do create the folder
00:18:52
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type out one email put the one article in it copy and paste that same email and put it in your google drive folder now guess what you have an email store there that you can copy and paste
00:19:07
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for every follow up you want to do change the first name so there's the tip of the day start doing your follow up pick an hour a week start taking detailed notes of every customer interaction you have and then you're also adding in notes about these interactions you've had if you talk to Mr. Jones and Mr. Jones loves
00:19:35
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the Patriots, then you're going to go in there and say, hey, by the way, saw the Patriots won last night.
00:19:41
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Congrats.
00:19:43
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That's going to keep it human while you're at it.
00:19:46
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Alright guys, so there you have it.
00:19:48
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Let me know what you think of this episode.
00:19:51
Speaker
Sorry about the cars we had going by, but just had to get the podcast done.
00:19:58
Speaker
Didn't need to make myself any more excuses, so did it outside this time.
00:20:03
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Alright, let me know what you think.
00:20:06
Speaker
Again, we appreciate the reviews.
00:20:09
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If you wouldn't mind, please go share it with one person in the industry or one person that even would consider coming to sell solar.
00:20:19
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And it will be much appreciated.
00:20:21
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Keep crushing.
00:20:22
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Close those solar deals.
00:20:24
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And get after it this week.
Engaging listeners and offering special packages
00:20:27
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Talk soon.
00:20:28
Speaker
Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
00:20:32
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Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
00:20:43
Speaker
And we do it all for free.
00:20:44
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And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
00:20:57
Speaker
And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
00:21:06
Speaker
Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
00:21:10
Speaker
So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.