Transcript
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Good morning, solarpreneurs.
Speaker: Today we are here with a very special guest.
Speaker: He recently cut his hair, so he has a little bit shorter hair than we're used to, and sold him to Locks of Love.
Speaker: Is that right, Thomas?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't look quite as biblical anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Used to have the hair down to pass my shoulders.
Speaker: But yeah, chopped it off, gave it to a good cause.
Speaker: Yeah, it's super weird.
Speaker: It used to be like super strong and buff.
Speaker: But then right when you cut your hair, it's like you lost a bunch of muscle too, huh?
Speaker: It vanished.
Speaker: Yeah, I was tricked.
Speaker: I didn't know that that would happen.
Speaker: But had I been reading up on my scriptures, I would have known.
Speaker: So that's lesson number one.
Speaker: Don't forget to read your Bible every day.
Speaker: You won't fall into traps like that.
Speaker: But besides that, we're very excited to have Thomas here today.
Speaker: He is the CEO of New Power, which is the company that I'm currently working for.
Speaker: And he's pretty much the OG of solar.
Speaker: I've learned everything I know from Thomas.
Speaker: He's definitely taught me everything I know, I think.
Speaker: So excited to have him.
Speaker: And a fun fact about Thomas is that you in high school started, what was it?
Speaker: A rock, paper, scissors tournament, a school-aid rock, paper, scissors tournament.
Speaker: Yeah, that is a fun fact.
Speaker: My senior year of high school, I decided to host a rock, paper, scissors tournament.
Speaker: I got 72 participants.
Speaker: I had the school gym.
Speaker: reserved for us for two days.
Speaker: It was a two-day tournament.
Speaker: I had an audience.
Speaker: I had security.
Speaker: I had the national anthem sung.
Speaker: It was sponsored by two local businesses.
Speaker: One of them donated chocolate milk and the other one donated money to buy trophies.
Speaker: And then I had a press stand and I had, I think, four newspapers show up.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: They wrote an article about the Rock Paper Scissors tournament that made it to the Associated Press and got to the New York Times and went
Speaker: went viral before going viral was a thing.
Speaker: If you Google my name and rock, paper, scissors, you'll see a lot of residual articles from 2003.
Speaker: The funniest part about that, didn't the guys from Grant Cardone use that as ammo to sell you a Grant Cardone University?
Speaker: They did their due diligence on who I was and stumbled upon that nugget of
Speaker: gold and then use it to exploit me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm just kidding.
Speaker: No, it's great content.
Speaker: We love Grant Cardone University.
Speaker: Yeah, it's good stuff.
Speaker: What do they say if we beat you in a rock, paper, scissor match, then you have to buy from us or something?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: That's how they sold you?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Well, the downside of that was that they had read the article in which I disclosed some of my techniques.
Speaker: They said that most novice players open with scissors and
Speaker: And so they just threw, and so I said that I throw rock, and so they threw paper.
Speaker: They knew, they knew.
Speaker: And yep, they beat paper.
Speaker: Paper covers rock.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Real life though, there's no way that stupid paper would beat a rock.
Speaker: I know, really childish game, super unrealistic.
Speaker: Well, that is really awesome.
Speaker: And Grant Cardone knows how to train his people, I guess, to do Google searches.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: One of my favorite stories for sure.
Speaker: It's so awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, so Thomas, like I said, is CEO of New Power.
Speaker: You started it.
Speaker: What was it back?
Speaker: What's the year you started New Power?
Speaker: Yeah, so New Power as an organization was started in 2009.
Speaker: But in 2009, we were under a different name.
Speaker: It was called T-cell Technologies.
Speaker: And we were initially it was started around the concept, a piece of equipment that I filed a patent for.
Speaker: And ultimately that piece of equipment became what's known as the firefighter right now, which was developed by Lance Dean more fully at 2GIG.
Speaker: But yeah, T-cell did home automation and then we brought solar into the portfolio of services in 2013.
Speaker: Okay, I see.
Speaker: So 2013, went Solar in 2013 and rebranded to New Power in 2014.
Speaker: Okay, got it, got it.
Speaker: And before New Power, I know you had your alarm company made millions in alarms and all that.
Speaker: So what made you want to switch from alarms?
Speaker: Because obviously you're crushing it in that.
Speaker: Why did you decide to switch to Solar from alarms?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, there were a lot of reasons that I switched from alarms and home automation to solar.
Speaker: I believe in alarms as a product.
Speaker: I think it's a good product or good service.
Speaker: I think it's something important.
Speaker: I have a monitor alarm system at my house and we utilize home automation even here at New Power.
Speaker: We use business automation.
Speaker: Um, however, um, I disagreed with the, uh, fundamental business model and the writing on the, on the wall kind of indicated to me that the business model of, uh, uh, dealer alarm company, and I know I'll get some hate, uh, from, you know, maybe some, uh, alarm dealers for this, but I think that the, uh, the dealer model of alarms is going to vanish over the next five years or so.
Speaker: I think that the writing is on the wall.
Speaker: I thought it would happen earlier than, than it, than it actually will now, but they've delayed it a little bit, but there are a lot of threats to that model such as the, the new Amazon alarm monitored cellular enabled home automation system where you have a contract free cellular enabled alarm for $10 a month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just don't think that the, there's that kind of a,
Speaker: tolerance in the market for a customer to pay 50 to $80 a month now for, uh, a system that they could install by themselves and have a contract free relationship with their service provider.
Speaker: So that was one reason that I got out is because I didn't see a long-term viability to the business model.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And, um, and, and I see a big shift to that DIY, um, model.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, um,
Speaker: Secondly, I wanted to be a part of something that I think is really game-changing, historic in terms of the impact.
Speaker: I think that this is a historic industry.
Speaker: I think it's something that I can tell my kids and grandkids I was a big part of, and I can feel really proud and excited about that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I remember...
Speaker: When I got into door to door, we would hear the stories of some of the old timers that went and sold like pots and pans.
Speaker: And, uh, I guess people still sell vacuums, but, you know, some of the, some of the older products that people would sell.
Speaker: And I remember running into this guy while knocking doors and he told us his pitch when he would sell these pots and pans.
Speaker: he would, he, these, they would knock on doors and they would find these housewives and they had these, these sewing needles and they'd say, hey, if you'll listen to me for like two minutes, I'll give you this pack of sewing needles.
Speaker: And I guess in the fifties or whenever this guy was knocking on doors,
Speaker: I guess I was like a high demand item that all these housewives always needed.
Speaker: And so they're like, okay, I'll listen to you.
Speaker: And then they end up giving, giving them enough value that the housewife would listen and switch.
Speaker: But anyway, where I'm going with this is that it's, it's cool to be able to say, yeah, I sold pots and pans or yeah, I sold vacuums or,
Speaker: I sold alarms or pest control or whatever and tell your kids that that's what you did growing up, you know, and that's, or to provide for them or whatever.
Speaker: But I think it's really, really respectable and admirable to engage in a service and a product that not only offers value to the customer, but offers value to the generations and to the
Speaker: the world and the environment.
Speaker: And that's what we're doing.
Speaker: So it's a mission as much as it is a service and a product.
Speaker: So that was another reason that I really felt that this shift to solar made sense for me.
Speaker: It made me feel like I was doing something with my life that I could tell people about later and would be admired and respected and make a difference.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's a good thing.
Speaker: I know we've had the conversation before, but we've talked about how like someday it'll probably be to the point where we're like old grandmas, grandpas, and the kids are asking us, wait, you guys use like coal for electricity back in the day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then people would like breathe that in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like just burn stuff.
Speaker: And like cars would just like crap out, disgusting toxins and,
Speaker: yeah yeah just like how the kids ask grandma they use record players back in the day and like oh my gosh you had these big discs that like spun to play music yeah we're gonna be like yeah back in the day we used to burn rocks for electricity and then right right you have solar yeah someday right i think the idea of a kind of off topic but i think the idea of a combustion engine will be fascinating to these kids they'll be like it's like like like
Speaker: You were putting very, very explosive stuff two feet away from you, and you were intentionally creating explosions to power this car.
Speaker: And then all the crap that was a byproduct of it was just shooting out behind you.
Speaker: And then anybody could just breathe it in.
Speaker: It was like, oh, man, you guys were crazy.
Speaker: You see those old...
Speaker: pictures of, I don't know if you've seen that one, of the guys building, like taking their lunch.
Speaker: They're sitting on this scaffold, like, oh yeah, where he's up on this skyscraper.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they had like no OSHA laws and no work safety compliance trainings.
Speaker: And yeah, like, you know, people would fall off and die all the time.
Speaker: And for them, it was just normal, right?
Speaker: Oh yeah, Freddie fell off and died.
Speaker: But
Speaker: You know, we think about that and it's just nuts because we have come such a long way.
Speaker: I think it'll be the same thing, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's true.
Speaker: And it's really cool to be part of something.
Speaker: What I liked about solar is, and I've told Thomas this, I came from pest control and it's like with pretty much anything else you sell, you're just adding a new bill onto them, right?
Speaker: But with solar, it's nice because we're just replacing the bill that they're already spending and we're letting them own their power.
Speaker: Yeah, we're essentially saying, hey, there's a better way to do what you're already doing.
Speaker: And there's a cheaper way to buy what you're already buying.
Speaker: And so let's educate you about that rather than persuade you to do it.
Speaker: And I feel like that's, and we go back to this, why this transition from home automation to solar.
Speaker: Well, it's because also it is persuasion.
Speaker: It is selling still, but it's also, and more so, educating.
Speaker: Because the enlightened customer, the educated customer, the customer where the idea is clear to them, will do it.
Speaker: Whereas a customer that's truthfully looking at an alarm and looks at the statistics of break-ins and the likelihood, sorry, hang on, the likelihood that that
Speaker: will be utilized, may not do it in a logical sense.
Speaker: But the customer that logically looks at this and the sides looks at the data will do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's definitely true.
Speaker: So yeah, I wanted to ask you, Thomas, I know you were in Texas, you started everything there and then New Power came out to California.
Speaker: You started with Corey.
Speaker: I've heard all the stories.
Speaker: I wasn't there at the time, but how you guys met on Corey's couch with two or three people or whatever in the beginning.
Speaker: You've had some pretty huge growth over the years.
Speaker: I've been here two and a half years or so now and seen it grow quite a bit.
Speaker: Um, yeah, multiple offices now and our schedule is more backed up than it ever was, which hopefully we're, we're hiring on some more people.
Speaker: So we're not, we are, we brought on two new crews.
Speaker: Oh, heck yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're plowing through it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's good news then.
Speaker: We're still, we're still only two months, which in an industry that sometimes does four to six month installs is pretty good.
Speaker: But yes, not many companies can say their schedule is more full in January than it.
Speaker: had been in the summertime.
Speaker: So our growth trajectory is creating a unique problems that we're solving.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: Cause even from last, I think last time this year, we're like two, three week installs.
Speaker: Cause right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But now it's good to see that we're filling the schedules.
Speaker: Definitely a great thing to see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let me ask you, why did you decide to start in California?
Speaker: Was it just cause you saw that's where the greatest savings were for people or the net metering or,
Speaker: Yeah, it's mostly about opportunity.
Speaker: So with solar, there are a few states that are really friendly to solar.
Speaker: California is one of them.
Speaker: They actually, there's just a solar report card released where they rank states.
Speaker: The states are the most friendly, New York, Massachusetts.
Speaker: But California is right up there alongside of those states in terms of how friendly they are to solar and how stable the solar opportunity will be long term.
Speaker: The other reason is I just hate the cold.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Good reason.
Speaker: No, it's a wonderful place to be here in California.
Speaker: The utility cost is really high.
Speaker: Everybody knows that the cost of the utilities is super high in California.
Speaker: Um, there's a lot of solar access.
Speaker: And so you can put a panel on a roof here and you can have it produce, uh, the kilowatt hours per kilowatt are a lot higher here than in other places in the U S not quite on the level of Arizona, but, uh, pretty close.
Speaker: So the value to the customer with the high utility costs and the efficiency of the system, um, with the, uh, the solar access that we have makes it, um,
Speaker: you know, makes it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker: So you've got that stability.
Speaker: SB 100 just passed.
Speaker: So Senate Bill 100, where the state of California has 100% renewable energy goal by the year 2045.
Speaker: That was just passed, which is really cool, which means we're actually not only helping customers, but helping the state meet their goals.
Speaker: Yeah, all these factors combined to make California a great place to run a solar business.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So we want to kind of segue into what we have a lot of reps on the podcast, Thomas.
Speaker: And with the podcast, we're all about teaching us how to utilize more technology to close more deals, create more leads, and just help reps basically close more deals.
Speaker: And I know we've seen some pretty explosive growth at New Power.
Speaker: And you recently developed this app.
Speaker: We were using cells rabbit, but now new power has its own app called the grid app that we've been using.
Speaker: So what's made you want to kind of get in this technology?
Speaker: Why did you decide to develop like your own app to do this instead of just using, continuing to use cells rabbit or.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker: And, and, uh,
Speaker: I'll preface this part of the conversation with this because I think that there are three technologies that we've developed here at New Power that are unique in our industry that I'm really proud of.
Speaker: Many solar companies start up with the idea that they're just going to be like the other contractors.
Speaker: And so they're going to install solar and they're going to get permits and they're going to
Speaker: you know, run a business like your contracting business.
Speaker: And that's the way they do it.
Speaker: But we've set ourselves up as a contractor, but also a technology company.
Speaker: And so the three technologies that I'm proud of is one that what you mentioned is the NP grid, which is a native iOS app that helps us canvas that customer intelligence prior to talking to the customer.
Speaker: and then integrate into a CRM where we can track the customer progress and save the data for later and help push them through the pipeline.
Speaker: So that would be NP grid.
Speaker: Secondly would be the field app, which is our operation management software, our project management software.
Speaker: And then the third technology is just starting up.
Speaker: It's our solar data loggers.
Speaker: So I can talk about,
Speaker: I can talk about each of those three, but I'll start off first with the question you asked about MP Grid.
Speaker: So the reason we transitioned from SalesRabbit, which is a great company, I would recommend that an entrepreneur starting out a small solar company utilize SalesRabbit.
Speaker: They're great, and they were great for us.
Speaker: and they're continually improving and adapting and implementing changes.
Speaker: And they were really receptive to the ideas that I pitched them on, and they implemented some of those changes while we were with them.
Speaker: But for me, it made a lot more sense to develop our own software so that we could specifically integrate
Speaker: the technology that we knew would make the biggest impact for us in a timeframe that was much less encumbered by the demands of the other companies.
Speaker: And so where we could call the shots in the development of our technology, we could accelerate our growth by leveraging that technology.
Speaker: And so one example was the HK trackers that we built into our software.
Speaker: which I still don't think anyone quite has that.
Speaker: It's like a time clock in a sense that they clock in and can clock out.
Speaker: The reps can clock in and can clock out.
Speaker: But it's a smart time clock because it monitors their activity throughout the time that they're working.
Speaker: And it gives us indications of whether or not the hours that the rep is putting on the doors are actually legitimate.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: it will look at things such as how many pins per hour they're dropping, how close to the house the rep is when they're dropping that pin, how long between the pins has that rep been delayed, how many ABs are they getting relative to how many pins they're dropping, how many pieces of information has that rep grabbed about the customers relative to how many pins they're changing,
Speaker: what time of day they're changing the pins.
Speaker: So all of this data kind of comes together and you could call it machine learning or AI, but it helps make the system itself smarter in learning what constitutes a working rep and what constitutes a rep that's just dropping pins or just slacking off in the area.
Speaker: And we,
Speaker: We don't wanna be big brother, as you see these surveillance cameras behind me.
Speaker: We don't wanna be big brother or anything.
Speaker: You have those all in our areas too, to make sure we're not getting cameras everywhere.
Speaker: That's right, every rep is hooked up to a body cam.
Speaker: No, we don't wanna be big brother.
Speaker: And I think there's a way that you can use technology like this improperly, and there's a way that you can use technology like this
Speaker: inappropriately, but the best of the best will use the technology of monitoring their reps and seeing if they're actually working to motivate, inspire, and help hold those reps accountable, not punish, demotivate, come down on, micromanage.
Speaker: They'll use the technology to help their reps be accountable and honest and to help push those reps.
Speaker: not to come down on them and say, Hey, I know you're not working.
Speaker: You know, why aren't you working?
Speaker: Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: It would be more of, Hey, how can I, as your leader, help you achieve your potential by putting in a little bit more effort on the doors?
Speaker: What can I do to inspire you so that, um, that you can push yourself during that time that you're out there?
Speaker: Uh, what techniques can I provide for you to help you, uh, limit those breaks that you're taking or, um,
Speaker: What do you think you could do personally so that you could reduce the amount of time that you take to get out to your area or any number of things that you could implement?
Speaker: But the technology, the information, the more information we have as managers, leaders, company owners, even reps, the more information we have, the better the decisions we can make.
Speaker: Because an informed decision is the best decision.
Speaker: You can go with your gut or with your instinct or whatever, but if you've vetted an idea, you've researched it, you've gathered information, and then you've correlated that information to make a strong decision, then you can have confidence that that decision is the right one.
Speaker: And so a good software will be one that not only automates a process, but gathers information and intelligence to help them form decisions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's something for sure that I've seen in Thomas is he definitely knows how to gather his data.
Speaker: And basically every decision, I think at new powers based off of all the data you collect first, right?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Thomas is basically like the mad scientist of a new power.
Speaker: Everyone thinks he's like a robot and he like punched them.
Speaker: Then there'd be like metal underneath his skin.
Speaker: No oil though, because I don't run on renewables.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Got solar panels on your back charging up your brain and everything.
Speaker: But yeah, I think it's true.
Speaker: And I think that's part of why new power has grown the way it has is just because you base everything off the data and what's happening around.
Speaker: So let me ask you, since we've been using this grid, have you noticed that it has been helping the reps a lot?
Speaker: Have you been able to help a lot of reps just by kind of noticing the trends and then kind of bringing that up with them?
Speaker: How do you use the data once you get it?
Speaker: Yeah, and I'll give you an interesting insight.
Speaker: So we know that on average, we will get one AB every two hours that a rep is on the door.
Speaker: So one AB for every two HK.
Speaker: Appointment booked.
Speaker: That are put in.
Speaker: And then we know our conversion percentage of ABs.
Speaker: An AB is an appointment booked, sorry.
Speaker: HK is an hour knocked.
Speaker: So one AB appointment booked for every two hours knocked that we see in grid.
Speaker: And then we know how many appointments booked it takes for us to get an appointment kept.
Speaker: So we know our conversion rates on appointments booked to appointments kept.
Speaker: We also know our appointment kept to closed deal percentages and we know our closed deal to install percentages.
Speaker: And because we know all of that and we know how much a rep makes per closed deal and how much a solar pro or a setter makes per closed deal, we can tell our solar pros that
Speaker: All you really need to focus on is the effort that you put in because the numbers will come based off of the effort that you put in as long as you're implementing the training that we do.
Speaker: And so we can actually attach a dollar amount to an HK.
Speaker: We can attach a dollar amount even to a no because we know based off of the number of not interested pins that they're getting, how many not interested per AB, and we can translate
Speaker: a no into a fixed dollar amount that we can give to our reps.
Speaker: And we can do that on an individual basis.
Speaker: We can do it on an average or we can do it on an individual basis.
Speaker: So in the one-on-ones, we could deliver to that rep their numbers and say, hey, based on your information, this is the average number of no's you need to go through in order to get a yes or an AB.
Speaker: And this is how much each of those no's is worth.
Speaker: And so the data, when translated into meaningful insights to the rep,
Speaker: can help motivate them to instead of thinking, oh, I just got rejected.
Speaker: Oh, I actually just made $4.
Speaker: And once they make those connections, once the data delivers that message, then a lot of times the motivation will follow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's just kind of one example.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker: And I know we talk every week and that's basically what it is.
Speaker: We're just looking at my data, my stats for the week.
Speaker: And something that really helped me is just keeping track of those numbers, like how many, how much I actually knocked, how many people I talked to.
Speaker: the conversions because the truth is if reps and especially for me if I start thinking just all right I gotta put in x amount of hours and if I'm really thinking about that then it causes a lot more demotivation I'm not thinking about really like okay if I can talk to six people I can book one of those for an appointment and then I can sit down with three people
Speaker: three or four people, and then I should for sure close one.
Speaker: And if I can get my mind thinking about those numbers, it makes me a lot more motivated rather than just out there getting slammed, doors slammed on me and rejection all day.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: And it also allows you to dismiss irrational ideas.
Speaker: And the irrational ideas that a rep might have are, oh, I'll never get a sale.
Speaker: Oh, I'll never get paid.
Speaker: Oh, I'll never make money.
Speaker: Oh, I'll never be able to be successful.
Speaker: those are irrational because they're based on just a reps, gut instincts or feelings based off of the mood that they're in.
Speaker: But when you look at the data and you look at the numbers, then you can bring your irrationality and hone it in to make informed factual decisions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So for those watching, what I would recommend, because they, you know, they may be wondering, well, how does this impact me?
Speaker: Cause I don't have,
Speaker: access to all this data.
Speaker: Well, you can create your own data.
Speaker: And like you said, Taylor, if you track your numbers and you do this over the course of a few weeks, if you do it one day, the sample size isn't big enough to give you meaningful insights.
Speaker: But if you can figure out what numbers you can measure and then you measure those numbers over a period of time, then you can start to establish a
Speaker: trends and averages, and then you can extract meaningful insights from that data to provide you with the ability to make informed decisions and make rational decisions and eliminate that irrationality and that volatility that comes from making the emotional decisions.
Speaker: So you can start to track this for yourself and you can create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets and you can measure it and monitor it.
Speaker: And as you measure and monitor, then you can start to improve and you can see
Speaker: what's causing those improvements, and then you can improve those causes and then exponentially improve over time.
Speaker: Yeah, it's huge.
Speaker: A wise man once said, what gets measured and reported improves, something like that.
Speaker: Something we learned in the mission, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you got to major it, got to report it.
Speaker: That's what we're all about here at New Power is measuring it.
Speaker: I think there's a lot of things maybe companies do, but I think on a rep level, I think this is one of the biggest differences that I see between successful and not successful reps is I think most of the successful ones are measuring it also on their own.
Speaker: They're not just relying on their company to like, you know, ask them and think, but every time you ask me every week,
Speaker: I kind of have to jog my memory of like what I even did during that week.
Speaker: So I think my best weeks was when I kept track super well of what happened with this person of every deal I sat down with.
Speaker: I'm taking notes on what happened because you're also measuring, um, you're getting data on what you can improve possibly in the clothes, right?
Speaker: They said, I need to think about it.
Speaker: They said, I need to talk to my wife.
Speaker: You're measuring that.
Speaker: You're also collecting data on what objections you're getting.
Speaker: And then, you know,
Speaker: what needs to be improved by that too, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: There was this kid growing up, his name was Rashid Nixon.
Speaker: We went to church together.
Speaker: He was an awesome guy.
Speaker: He still is.
Speaker: He's the first person to wish me happy birthday every year, like 12 or 1 a.m.
Speaker: Eastern time.
Speaker: But the thing about Rashid that everybody knew is he loved sports.
Speaker: And he didn't just love watching sports.
Speaker: He loved everything about sports.
Speaker: He could tell you all of the data, all of the stats, all the figures about this guy or that guy or what this person's rushing yards were in 1997.
Speaker: And he knew all of his data and all of his stats.
Speaker: And his love of the games or of the game was fueled by knowing the data behind it.
Speaker: and then seeing the players perform in a way that kind of coincides with the data that he had known.
Speaker: And I think that sports in general are starting to adopt this scientific approach to making their decisions.
Speaker: They have now real-time analytics that show the success probability of running the ball versus passing the ball against this team in this formation.
Speaker: And so they're looking at all of this data to make these really strong, compelling decisions based off of what's statistically likely to happen.
Speaker: And so if you can, for yourself, that's the difference between, like you said, between someone who works for someone, someone who's an employee and someone who works for themself, whether or not they report to a boss, whether or not they work for a company or have their own, the difference is the mindset of owning
Speaker: your performance, owning your production, knowing your stats, knowing your data, and getting excited enough about your performance and your work that you want to track and know your stats.
Speaker: If you get excited enough about it that you're like, last week I improved by 15% week over week, that's awesome, that's incredible.
Speaker: excited about that as you would, you know, by seeing the rushing yards of this person or the passing yards of this person or whatever.
Speaker: If you would get excited enough about the data and the stats to know your own data and your own stats or your team's data and your team's stats and see those incremental performance improvements as you would about sports, if you could get as
Speaker: excited as Rashid Nixon about those things, then you can get yourself in the mindset of loving what you do, loving your job, being passionate about it, and also being empowered enough to change what matters and to improve.
Speaker: Yeah, and also another thing I've seen as I'm keeping track of these people, if I'm writing down who I'm visiting, it's making me a lot more conscious of, well, what I could do to better close them.
Speaker: But also I'm remembering, oh, they were like pretty close to closing.
Speaker: Maybe I should actually like follow up with them or go back where if I'm not like recording anything, if I'm not keeping that data, then these people, I just forget about them instantly.
Speaker: And I'm sure I've lost probably thousands of, well, yeah, tens of thousands of dollars, I'm sure on people that I could have followed up with if I would have had the data and kept track of this is what happened with that person.
Speaker: So yeah, for reps or for companies, if you're a manager, if you're owner of a company, I think that's definitely something that needs to be focused on is the data of your reps and then encouraging your reps to log that personal data for themselves.
Speaker: And the other question I had, Thomas, I know for me and I think for a lot of other reps too, is they get discouraged just with like, it's like, oh, I got to record this.
Speaker: I got to go in and like keep track of everything that happened.
Speaker: And I don't know if you've ever felt that way, like in the company, like it's a hassle to record all these things or maybe lacking motivation just to do it.
Speaker: But are you just using basically spreadsheets to record most of your data or how would you encourage reps or suggest that they keep track of this data and don't like fall down on it?
Speaker: As the easiest way to keep track of and record this data.
Speaker: I think that that's probably the easiest way.
Speaker: You say Google Sheets?
Speaker: Sorry, cut out a second.
Speaker: Yeah, let me full screen this again.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: Yeah, I think Google Sheets is definitely the easiest way to do it because you can store it in one place and then you can measure and look at the trends and break down the data.
Speaker: And that makes it the easiest to do it.
Speaker: But if
Speaker: anyway is better than no way at all.
Speaker: So if even if it's a matter of putting it down on pen and paper at first until you transition to getting it in the Google Sheets or into a highly functional CRM, then you know, that's fine.
Speaker: When I used to work out, which I should be doing.
Speaker: Before you cut your hair.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: I would
Speaker: I would use just like a log to track what exercise I was doing and how many reps and what weight and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: That way I could actually, one, remember what I had done and two, improve what I had done.
Speaker: And if I hadn't done that and one week I was bench pressing 200,
Speaker: and doing it, you know, 10 reps or whatever.
Speaker: And then the next week I go into the gym and because I hadn't kept a log of anything, I put 185 on and I do it eight times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I might feel like I'm getting stronger because the work is easier, but in reality, I'm not improving myself and it's because I'm not tracking what I did.
Speaker: And so in order to really make an improvement, you have to know where you stand right now and you have to do better than that the next time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and like you said, I think really it should just be something is better than nothing.
Speaker: We had Ashton on the podcast a couple weeks ago, one of the head guys at Legacy, and he was just using just straight notebook.
Speaker: He didn't use any Google Sheets or any of this technology.
Speaker: He was just straight old school.
Speaker: Use a notebook and he's closing 21 deals in a day, apparently.
Speaker: So I think rather than getting caught up by the technology, just important to use something, whether it's Google Sheets or a notebook, something to just track your data.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So I know we got to wrap up here pretty soon, Thomas, but, um, you mentioned some tools that our company's using and real quick, what about these data loggers?
Speaker: What's the story with the data loggers and what's the idea with that?
Speaker: Just kind of wrap it up here.
Speaker: Yeah, sorry.
Speaker: I'm just, uh,
Speaker: I got the ball and chain going like crazy.
Speaker: You're good?
Speaker: Yeah, so the data loggers, the idea with the data logger, and I think this is something that makes us unique, is that we're always implementing and adapting technology to help us improve.
Speaker: But I feel like the industry as a whole has plenty of room to grow, and I don't think that that necessarily comes at the expense of anybody.
Speaker: I don't think that...
Speaker: that sharing our technology or telling people what we're doing will come as a hindrance to us.
Speaker: So what we've developed is a data logger.
Speaker: It's a solar data logger.
Speaker: And what it does is it stays on the customer's house between the time that the appointment has been booked and the presenter goes back to that house to show the person the data.
Speaker: And it's kind of an anchor to keep us at that home and to gather relevant data that'll help us when we go back to present
Speaker: so that our conversion from appointment book to appointment kept is higher and that the data that we gather and show to the customer is more relevant, meaningful, specific to their house and how much power we can produce there.
Speaker: So it's a mini solar panel along with a temperature and light reader and has a Bluetooth chip in it and a data logger that measures and monitors, stores all that data.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: But it stays on their house.
Speaker: When the Solar Pro goes and books the appointment, it starts gathering data.
Speaker: We can set it to as frequent as every second or as spaced out as once per year, but we set it to five minutes.
Speaker: And then every five minutes, we're gathering a data point at that customer's house and
Speaker: doing that between the time that that appointment is booked and the appointment is kept as a way to keep the appointments a lot stickier and more likely to happen.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Genius.
Speaker: And did NewPower develop this data logger?
Speaker: Did we like have some manufacture for it?
Speaker: No, the individual components, the individual components assembled all those components together.
Speaker: In fact, we have
Speaker: people assembling them right now here in the office.
Speaker: We have a few hundred being made right now.
Speaker: So we put the components together in the final product.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a new power product, new power has developed.
Speaker: It's our intellectual property.
Speaker: So pretty cool.
Speaker: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker: We've been piloting it here in the Riverside office, but we're going to be rolling it out to all of our offices here pretty soon.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: But yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker: I'll be curious.
Speaker: I'll be interested to hear the data on it once we start getting some data.
Speaker: Have you had it?
Speaker: Has it been tested there in Riverside yet?
Speaker: Has anybody used it?
Speaker: Yeah, we've been using it now for a few weeks.
Speaker: And it's been it's worked really well to increase the number of appointments that keep.
Speaker: And then also for the appointments that
Speaker: One reschedule, it's been really good because our reschedule to kept ratio has increased significantly.
Speaker: That's probably where we've seen it help the most is with a customer that had an appointment scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m.
Speaker: and is like, you know what, I can't meet tonight.
Speaker: And they text that to our presenter.
Speaker: Well, the presenter says, okay, that's fine.
Speaker: I'll keep the data logger there at your house and I'll come back on Monday to get the data and to show it to you.
Speaker: That's where it's really shined well.
Speaker: It's increased that.
Speaker: a specific category a lot.
Speaker: It's helped a lot with those reschedules.
Speaker: And then also with one legger situations, it's helped a lot.
Speaker: So when the presenter goes to an appointment where there's a one legger and the spouse doesn't want or can't make a decision without their partner or spouse there at the house,
Speaker: they will say something to the effect of, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna leave the data logger here on the house getting some data, and then I'll come back.
Speaker: When's a good time for both you and your spouse to be home and talk about this together?
Speaker: And it's helped a lot with those type of situations as well.
Speaker: So there are a number of applications that we're finding are working, and I'm sure there'll be a lot more as we roll it out to all the offices that we find.
Speaker: Yeah, go, you're holding back.
Speaker: We gotta get some down in San Diego, man.
Speaker: Shoot us some data loggers down here.
Speaker: Pretty soon, it's coming pretty soon.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, yeah, one of the biggest things I've learned from Thomas is just figuring out some sort of way to keep these people committed.
Speaker: We've got the data loggers now, but for those that don't have data loggers,
Speaker: For something, just think of ways to commit these people, right?
Speaker: I mean, Thomas has taught me dropping off gift baskets, just basically figuring, making people feel that social pressure, right?
Speaker: And giving you a reason to get back in the home or the reason for them not to cancel the appointments or cancel a deal.
Speaker: We also install the nests at the home.
Speaker: I think that's one of the biggest things we do that decreases cancellations.
Speaker: If we can have something installed some sort of way that makes them feel that they got skin in the game that...
Speaker: it's that much tougher for them to back out.
Speaker: So I think that's basically the main, main idea behind the data loggers, right?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: That's the concept.
Speaker: And I believe new power was probably the first solar company, at least here in California to be doing those nest installs.
Speaker: We started doing those pretty much right away in 2013, doing the nest installs for all of our closed deal customers.
Speaker: But that I just call it an anchor.
Speaker: Maybe there's another name for it, but yeah,
Speaker: The emotion of making the commitment to either book an appointment with us to learn about solar, to get solar when they sign docs and close the deal, the emotion of making that decision is at its height, is at its peak, right when it happens and when our representative is in the house with the customer.
Speaker: From there, it will only go downhill.
Speaker: It will only decrease and it will only be
Speaker: the customer will only be less likely to keep that commitment.
Speaker: And so in order for us to have the strongest chance of making that happen, we want something with the customer.
Speaker: We want some kind of tangible item with the customer to kind of anchor us to that commitment or anchor the customer to their own commitment.
Speaker: And so with regards to a closed deal, that can be something like an S-Thermostat or an Ecov4 with Alexa,
Speaker: or a Google home or anything, any tangible item you can install at the time of sale to, uh, to anchor that customer, that commitment to keep that emotion kind of high and to keep us in the home.
Speaker: Um, in terms of, uh, making the commitment to book an appointment to learn more about solar, you could anchor yourself with any number of things.
Speaker: It could be a gift card or a gift basket.
Speaker: It could be a data logger to get some data for the customer.
Speaker: It could be any number of things to keep that commitment from the time the appointment is booked to the time the appointment is kept.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I would encourage that for sure for anybody watching us to figure out what your anchors could be at different stages of the process, how you could implement those anchors, and what would be most effective, you know, what kind of an anchor would be most effective.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Well, Thomas, you dropped some huge value bombs, a lot of knowledge on us today.
Speaker: So thanks for being on the show here.
Speaker: And yeah, I think the main takeaway is just getting that data, using the data to your advantage, to your team's advantage, to your reps, your individual advantage.
Speaker: And then, yeah, using those anchors and using the technology.
Speaker: That's something that Thomas is definitely a genius at.
Speaker: So Thomas, if you could drop one more word of wisdom for any solar rep that's struggling or the solar industry, what would you say?
Speaker: Yeah, my number one tip I believe would be to enlist yourself in a cause rather than a job.
Speaker: And the reason that that is so important is because you can keep yourself motivated and
Speaker: momentarily by money.
Speaker: You can keep yourself motivated momentarily by a job or by a task, by duty, by obligation.
Speaker: But long term, the only thing that's really going to keep you engaged and motivated is knowing that you're making a difference in something that's bigger than yourself.
Speaker: And so you need to find this as a cause, as a mission,
Speaker: as a purpose.
Speaker: You need to find yourself more on the battlefield than in the job or in the office or out canvassing.
Speaker: You need to find yourself engaged against a common enemy and with a common ally.
Speaker: And our common allies in this industry are all of those of us who are out there working to create a better future for our planet, to create a better
Speaker: experience for our customers to create people that need that money.
Speaker: That is what we're engaging together in our common, I guess, foe would be the, those that, that believe that we can continue to produce dirty energy and to dig up things out of the ground and to pollute the air and to, to,
Speaker: Yeah, to do things that we've done for thousands of years with really no downside or consequence.
Speaker: And so find yourself engaged in a cause and a mission in a purpose that's bigger than yourself.
Speaker: And when you do that, you'll be able to fuel your motivation and work hard when you find it tough.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yep, so create that in your own environment.
Speaker: And if possible, I mean, you want to be with a company that has those values as well.
Speaker: I think that's definitely what we've done on New Power, trying to enlist people in a cause.
Speaker: I know that's kind of one of our core values too.
Speaker: So Thomas, appreciate you being on the podcast.
Speaker: If people want to find more about New Power or check out more of what we're doing, where can they find out more about that?
Speaker: Definitely, they can email newpower at newpower.net.
Speaker: They can find us on Twitter, Facebook.
Speaker: Um, I don't know if we're on Instagram.
Speaker: We should be, cause that's what all the cool kids are using.
Speaker: Um, but, or reach out to you, uh, via this podcast, come to you directly, Taylor, and, um, talk about the opportunity.
Speaker: So there's a lot of ways to find us and check us out.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, we'd love to answer any questions or if nothing else, just help fellow allies and the cause to, um,
Speaker: put more solar on rooftops.
Speaker: Heck yeah, let's do it.
Speaker: And Thomas is also on the social medias and all that too.
Speaker: So I'm sure you can find him there on Facebook and all the different social medias, right, Thomas?
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, thanks for being on the podcast again and give this a comment, give this a share.
Speaker: Do you know reps that are struggling or other solar companies that could use this and implement some of that data, some of those anchors?
Speaker: Thanks for dropping that knowledge, Thomas.
Speaker: And with that, we'll say goodbye.
Speaker: Thanks again.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Thanks Taylor.
Speaker: Thanks Thomas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
Speaker: And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the Solarpreneur group for more daily content
Speaker: that's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
