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91: Becoming a Master of Systems in Solar - Bennett Maxwell
41 Plays6 years ago
Tune in to hear how Bennett has grown his dealer including some unique follow ups that you've probably never heard of before!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
What's up guys, hope you're enjoying your quarantine if you're listening to this during the coronavirus pandemic or if not, I hope you're crushing it in yourselves.
00:00:12
Speaker
Either way, we're going to drop some serious value bombs today in an episode with my friend Bennett Maxwell.
Innovative Customer Engagement Methods
00:00:19
Speaker
He's been dominating and doing some interesting stuff, which is why I wanted to bring him on the show.
00:00:25
Speaker
He built a team up of virtual assistants.
00:00:29
Speaker
He's built a deal around it and doing some really cool stuff with follow-up, like sending packages, getting tons of referrals, taking drone videos, stuff like that.
00:00:42
Speaker
So hop on the show.
00:00:44
Speaker
Let us know what you think.
00:00:46
Speaker
And with that said, let's jump into the intro.
Mission of the Solopreneur Community
00:00:51
Speaker
What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
00:00:57
Speaker
We call ourselves solopreneurs.
00:00:59
Speaker
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.
00:01:09
Speaker
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.
00:01:21
Speaker
We are solopreneurs, and this is our story.
Business Ventures in Solar and Cookies
00:01:52
Speaker
What is going on, solopreneurs?
00:01:54
Speaker
I'm excited for another episode today.
00:01:57
Speaker
We have the one and the only Bennett Maxwell, and I was excited to get him here this morning because he's actually on his way to a cookie kitchen.
00:02:06
Speaker
He's got another side business going on, baking cookies.
00:02:09
Speaker
So you're starting, we're here in San Diego, and are you starting a cookie shop here in San Diego, Bennett?
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of those...
00:02:17
Speaker
It was warm cookie deliveries.
00:02:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yep.
00:02:19
Speaker
We have them going in Arizona and Phoenix area and starting another one out here as well as in Virginia.
00:02:26
Speaker
Expanding that on the side.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:29
Speaker
So for all your solar and cookie needs anywhere in those locations, hit Bennett up.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yep.
00:02:36
Speaker
Put his contact info in after this.
00:02:39
Speaker
But in all seriousness, Bennett, he's been here a short time actually in San Diego.
00:02:44
Speaker
And we connected a little bit on social media and he showed me some of his results and he's been crushing it for the, what, three, four months or something you've been here in San Diego?
00:02:54
Speaker
October, so three months.
00:02:55
Speaker
Okay, and then before that he was up in, was it?
00:02:59
Speaker
Sacramento.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, Sacramento area.
00:03:02
Speaker
Dominating up there, and he's got some awesome ideas that he's excited to share with us today.
00:03:08
Speaker
We're going to go through some of that stuff, but Bennett, let's hear how did you get in the solar
Career Transition: Pest Control to Solar
00:03:12
Speaker
industry?
00:03:12
Speaker
Another alarm guy here.
00:03:14
Speaker
So we'll hear about why he decided to switch from alarms, because I know he dominated in that too.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:19
Speaker
I actually started in pest control like you, Taylor.
00:03:22
Speaker
Started in pest control, did that for a little bit.
00:03:25
Speaker
It was great.
00:03:26
Speaker
Opened my eyes and then I did satellite for a little bit and then Vivint stole me over.
00:03:32
Speaker
From satellite, did Vivint.
00:03:34
Speaker
Super, super fun time.
00:03:37
Speaker
did that for a year and a half and then at the beginning of this summer I was ready to go out to the summer and then I found out about a buddy that said, hey I do a solar program and I've always been interested in solar but I'm like a Utah dude and I'm like I don't want to move out.
00:03:54
Speaker
Got my family here, got some kids, I don't want to do a year round thing, I want free babysitting with my family here in Utah with me.
00:04:02
Speaker
Anyway, so he said,
00:04:04
Speaker
Well, you can do solar industry in the summer, come give a shot, because now we're installing in a month.
00:04:09
Speaker
So I went and did that, and it turned out really well.
00:04:12
Speaker
So the plan was, if it goes well, then, yeah, we'll move.
00:04:16
Speaker
And my wife said, yep, we can move as long as it's to San Diego.
00:04:19
Speaker
San Diego, yeah.
00:04:20
Speaker
So the plan was, go test it out in Sacramento.
00:04:24
Speaker
And yeah, if it goes if it goes good, let's do it year round and let's get a place in San Diego.
00:04:29
Speaker
So here I am.
00:04:31
Speaker
Nice.
00:04:31
Speaker
So it wasn't necessarily that the cells are better.
00:04:34
Speaker
You just the wife is the one that brought you down to San Diego.
00:04:37
Speaker
Well, no, the cells are also better.
00:04:38
Speaker
OK, if you I ran all my my.
00:04:42
Speaker
But yeah, I would have been down here regardless because of the wife.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:47
Speaker
But it's really nice because if you sell the exact same deal, and if you're looking at sun hours, because I'm mainly selling retired people that aren't, I do online advertising to people that do not want to buy a system.
00:05:02
Speaker
Um, so it's kind of, you know, we're targeting that specific market.
00:05:06
Speaker
So most people, most of my deals aren't loans.
00:05:09
Speaker
However, I still do them, um, and some cash, but most, most of them are, are PPAs or prepaid PPAs.
Advantages of Selling Solar in San Diego
00:05:15
Speaker
And, um, it's all calculated off of sun hours.
00:05:18
Speaker
So if you sell the exact same job here and in Sacramento, this job is just going to pay out more, even though the customer is paying the exact same, because you, the, the, with the same amount of solar panels, you're going to get more energy.
00:05:30
Speaker
Right.
00:05:31
Speaker
And that's what's awesome about San Diego.
00:05:33
Speaker
Well, the rates, I think I'd have to go and look at the numbers again, but definitely top five in the country, I think.
00:05:39
Speaker
Super high rates.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
That means you can sell the systems at a higher price.
00:05:44
Speaker
Customers are still going to save a ton.
00:05:46
Speaker
I came from selling up north a little bit.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's a different utility.
00:05:50
Speaker
and we would when i sold loans we would break even basically with what the customer is paying for electricity down here we're selling at the same price and customers are saving 30 40 50 percent yeah most of the time so definitely awesome yeah i mean there's competition so anyone listening to this stay out of san diego these deals are ours but if you want more info then definitely listen to the podcast
00:06:16
Speaker
But yeah, PPAs are awesome too down here because we were talking about this before the show.
00:06:22
Speaker
It's nice that you can help people who are retired, maybe don't have the taxable income.
00:06:26
Speaker
They can still get all these awesome benefits of saving and they don't have to worry about getting the tax credit back.
00:06:33
Speaker
So yeah, I know there are a lot of benefits to owning it that are awesome, increase the value.
00:06:38
Speaker
But I think PPAs are awesome because there's a huge margin on them.
00:06:41
Speaker
You can make great money.
00:06:42
Speaker
And then you're going to help a lot of people like Bennett said, people that are retired or people in different circumstances that couldn't probably benefit as much doing a loan.
00:06:52
Speaker
I mean, we're in San Diego, which is the number one solar market, the most competitive solar market.
00:06:57
Speaker
Everybody's been pitched on solar and they've been pitched on a loan.
00:07:01
Speaker
That's what they've been pitched on.
00:07:02
Speaker
And they decided against it for one reason or another.
00:07:07
Speaker
For people, brand new move ins that are gonna be in the home for seven plus years, you know, they're not retired, then yeah, a loan is gonna be a PPA every time.
00:07:18
Speaker
But for retired people that don't want to take out a loan or they can't do, I mean, a lot of these people don't have the tax credit, you know, PPAs,
00:07:27
Speaker
PPA is a good option.
00:07:28
Speaker
I bought solar in Utah before coming here.
00:07:30
Speaker
I did a cash purchase through Vivint because I was working through Vivint Alarms.
00:07:34
Speaker
So I got some good pricing out there.
00:07:35
Speaker
That was before I got on the solar game.
00:07:40
Speaker
So now I'm looking at my roof and I got more south facing roof that they didn't install it on.
00:07:44
Speaker
Every time I drive by my house, I'm like those, those poop heads.
00:07:50
Speaker
Why didn't they fill up my south side of the roof?
00:07:52
Speaker
I didn't know.
00:07:52
Speaker
They just threw them on there east facing a little bit on the south.
00:07:56
Speaker
Anyways, within a few months,
00:08:01
Speaker
I looked at my app to see my production and I had three months that I didn't produce anything.
00:08:08
Speaker
I'm like, crap.
00:08:09
Speaker
Call up Vivint.
00:08:10
Speaker
They did a great job.
00:08:10
Speaker
They came out and fixed it within a week or so.
00:08:13
Speaker
But those three months, I must have paid like 400 bucks to Rocky Mountain Power, my utility company.
00:08:18
Speaker
And I'm like, well, this is warrantied.
00:08:19
Speaker
I literally didn't understand how it worked.
00:08:21
Speaker
I was like, well, this is a 25-year warranty.
00:08:23
Speaker
Are you guys going to refund me?
00:08:24
Speaker
And the answer was no, you should have called us.
00:08:26
Speaker
You need to monitor your system.
00:08:27
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, I'm never, ever going to be checking my app every month.
00:08:31
Speaker
Like that's just not something I want to worry about.
00:08:35
Speaker
Anyway, so I have a cash deal.
00:08:36
Speaker
I don't pay anything at all for energy.
00:08:39
Speaker
But at the same time, I have to, now I'm like, oh, crap, I have to freaking,
00:08:43
Speaker
I have to monitor this sucker.
00:08:45
Speaker
Hopefully, I never have any problems.
00:08:46
Speaker
Solar systems are super, super low maintenance.
00:08:48
Speaker
But I had that unique scenario that happened to me personally within a year of getting solar.
00:08:52
Speaker
So it's kind of like if I went back and I was able to save a similar amount of money, but I don't have to monitor it, then yeah, I'll choose that.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:03
Speaker
We do have some Vivint people that listen to this podcast, I think.
00:09:06
Speaker
So I'm sure Bennett would have said some different choice words.
00:09:10
Speaker
But no, I know Vivint does a good job too.
00:09:14
Speaker
But that's awesome.
Customer Engagement Strategies with Virtual Assistants
00:09:15
Speaker
And what I think is really cool about Bennett, he's set up some awesome processes with his team down here already in San Diego.
00:09:23
Speaker
He already has a team going.
00:09:25
Speaker
He works with virtual assistants.
00:09:27
Speaker
So he's really taken what I think is like the solopreneur idea, becoming an entrepreneur in the solar industry,
00:09:35
Speaker
And it's been awesome to hear his ideas on that.
00:09:37
Speaker
So Bennett, you have some people working with you and I know you have some VAs.
00:09:41
Speaker
How many people do you have kind of on your team?
00:09:43
Speaker
So I started door knocking in Sacramento with a company up there in light.
00:09:48
Speaker
Super, super good guys.
00:09:50
Speaker
Great company.
00:09:52
Speaker
It's just door knocking though.
00:09:54
Speaker
And it was good.
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm good at door knocking.
00:09:56
Speaker
And within those first, I just knocked for two months and it was going really good.
00:10:00
Speaker
I had a few sales my first week.
00:10:03
Speaker
Within the first two months that I was actually knocking, resulted in 18 installs or 17, 17 or 18 installs.
00:10:10
Speaker
And it was like, this is going really well.
00:10:13
Speaker
Not that they all installed, but I contacted them all and sold most of them.
00:10:17
Speaker
I have a brother, an older brother that is a marketing genius and all online sells.
00:10:24
Speaker
And anyways, we chat all the time.
00:10:26
Speaker
And he's like, well, why are you still knocking doors?
00:10:30
Speaker
Like, you know, asking numbers and how long do I have to knock to get somebody and how enjoyable it is.
00:10:35
Speaker
And he's like, well, why don't we just do it online?
00:10:38
Speaker
So I talked to the company and they're like, oh, we tried that.
00:10:42
Speaker
You know, it doesn't typically you're getting scammed and it doesn't work.
00:10:46
Speaker
You're paying a lot of money.
00:10:47
Speaker
It's a wild goose chase.
00:10:48
Speaker
But my brother's like, well, let's try it.
00:10:50
Speaker
So he came in, changed my whole mindset on, well, let's do online leads rather than.
00:10:58
Speaker
door knocking and so we teamed up and started you know an online lead gen company that that was the focus now before that i learned some really good skills from in light so this is not solar obviously it's not pest control or alarms you talk to your customer one time you knock on their door you've never met him before and you never see him again when you're knocking
From Door Knocking to Online Lead Generation
00:11:21
Speaker
doors you set the lead you come back
00:11:24
Speaker
You close it and then you typically come back again in this company.
00:11:28
Speaker
They encourage you to go back again and review like the final design, the final CAD designs before moving forward.
00:11:36
Speaker
So it's more of a handhold teleinstall, and there's typically more fall-off.
00:11:41
Speaker
I think with Vivint, I did the last year that I did it with them, I did 250 accounts and had one go unfunded.
00:11:48
Speaker
That was late payments.
00:11:51
Speaker
People don't cancel.
00:11:51
Speaker
They get installed right then.
00:11:53
Speaker
You leave the home, and you're high-fiving the tech on the way out.
00:11:56
Speaker
You're like, sweet, let's go.
00:11:58
Speaker
Solar's not that way.
00:11:59
Speaker
You have to kind of handhold them.
00:12:01
Speaker
So the...
00:12:03
Speaker
The owner of InLight was telling me, Sanjeev, he was saying, well, you know, when you go back to review the final design, bring them pizza.
00:12:09
Speaker
You know, take their order when you close them and say, hey, it's on the company.
00:12:14
Speaker
Let's review all the results over dinner.
00:12:17
Speaker
So I'm like, sweet.
00:12:18
Speaker
So start doing that.
00:12:19
Speaker
And then one of the other owners of InLight, Josh Bowling, he said, well, what he does is he brings cookies.
00:12:26
Speaker
There's a cookie place up there.
00:12:28
Speaker
And he just brings him over some cookies like I did a day or two after he closes them.
00:12:33
Speaker
So I'm like, well, I want to do both.
00:12:35
Speaker
You know, I want to bring him cookies.
00:12:36
Speaker
So what I would do is bring him cookies to the actual sell.
00:12:41
Speaker
So I'll set the lead, bring cookies when I show up to sell them.
00:12:44
Speaker
And then...
00:12:46
Speaker
assuming that it was a closed deal, I'd come back and bring him dinner.
00:12:48
Speaker
So I was already starting this and my brother's like, well, let's expand this.
00:12:51
Speaker
And do you have to be there for the dinner?
00:12:52
Speaker
You know, that takes time.
00:12:54
Speaker
Do you have to be there for the cookies?
00:12:55
Speaker
You know, that takes time.
00:12:56
Speaker
So I hired a local girl and she was the one that would drop off the cookies.
00:13:01
Speaker
And then we switched to cupcakes.
00:13:03
Speaker
And then we started just ordering the dinner to the house.
00:13:07
Speaker
And then we started giving a few other things.
00:13:09
Speaker
So what we did is we looked at the solar cells process.
00:13:12
Speaker
and we identified all the fallout periods.
00:13:16
Speaker
So you set the lead, whether it's online or knocking, to the actual appointment, there's a waiting period, and they can fall off, so we're gonna send them a gift right then, before we have ever met with them.
00:13:27
Speaker
So I'll close another one.
00:13:28
Speaker
I think I'm already at five closes this week, and all of them, it's Wednesday, or it's Thursday,
00:13:34
Speaker
All of them, I show up and I say, hey, did you get our gift?
00:13:36
Speaker
That's where we're starting our conversation.
00:13:38
Speaker
They're like, oh yeah, thanks.
00:13:40
Speaker
It's light bulbs.
00:13:40
Speaker
It's nothing big.
00:13:41
Speaker
It cost me 10 bucks.
00:13:44
Speaker
Amazon Prime, so it's here in San Diego.
00:13:46
Speaker
It usually gets there the next day.
00:13:48
Speaker
So as soon as they set the appointment, we text them, hey, a gift's coming.
00:13:51
Speaker
It's going to save you over $1,000 over the lifetime in energy savings, and it does.
00:13:58
Speaker
because electricity and it has like a little card and it shows the math on there on how it's going to save them so much money.
00:14:05
Speaker
So we kind of say, hey, something's coming.
00:14:07
Speaker
You know, it has them, it commits them a little bit more.
00:14:09
Speaker
We have actually honestly very few fallout or few falloff between setting the appointment and actually
00:14:16
Speaker
showing up to the appointment because we're literally sending them something, they know it's coming.
00:14:21
Speaker
And then you close them and then they have to wait a day or two for the site survey.
00:14:24
Speaker
Because that's when the next thing goes out, we send them a giant thank you card through send out cards and then some cookies or some brownies or something.
00:14:33
Speaker
And so that's the next thing.
00:14:35
Speaker
And then after that, let's see, and then you have the site survey
00:14:39
Speaker
Then they have to wait for that CAD design or that final design that takes a few more days a week.
00:14:44
Speaker
So we send them another package.
00:14:46
Speaker
Again, this is all
Creative Customer Engagement Tactics
00:14:47
Speaker
my brother.
00:14:47
Speaker
He designed one of those plastic sleeve envelope things you'd get from Amazon, like the bubble wrap type deal.
00:14:55
Speaker
And it says you're not only saving money, you're saving the world.
00:14:57
Speaker
It has silhouettes.
00:14:58
Speaker
It's yellow.
00:14:59
Speaker
It looks cool.
00:15:00
Speaker
It has silhouettes of all the invidgers.
00:15:03
Speaker
And then we literally include an Avengers action figure inside of the package.
00:15:09
Speaker
And people love it, especially if they have kids.
00:15:12
Speaker
And then we include a magnet in there that says, four by four, a little magnet, ready to share solar.
00:15:18
Speaker
And it says different prizes from TVs to $1,000 vacation, depending on the referrals, Apple Watches, AirPods.
00:15:26
Speaker
And it's just a nice little reminder that they can stick on their fridge.
00:15:31
Speaker
So...
00:15:32
Speaker
Now, after the final design, then they have to wait for permits.
00:15:35
Speaker
And that's usually another week or so.
00:15:37
Speaker
So we order them dinner to their home.
00:15:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:40
Speaker
And we have, you know, you mentioned the VAs.
00:15:42
Speaker
We have some people out of the Philippines.
00:15:45
Speaker
We have four full-time employees.
00:15:48
Speaker
And they, I mean, it's less than a thousand bucks a month per employee.
00:15:54
Speaker
And they do a great job.
00:15:56
Speaker
It's all a matter of training them and just making sure your processes that as long as everything's written out exactly what they do, when to do it, and all the software's in place and automation, because most of this is automated.
00:16:08
Speaker
Again, that's what my brother does.
00:16:12
Speaker
You can really hire anybody to do it.
00:16:14
Speaker
Instead of starting a business, it's, well, I don't need to start a business or anything.
00:16:19
Speaker
I just need to follow instructions.
00:16:20
Speaker
As long as instructions are clear.
00:16:23
Speaker
So they get the dinner, the next thing they get is once the install is scheduled, then it's usually a week out to actually get the install here and we send them something else, it's a bonsai tree.
00:16:32
Speaker
It's actually called a bonsai money tree.
00:16:35
Speaker
So we send them that off of Amazon and all of these things again, we're not only sending them to them, but we send a text message to, hey, your next thing's coming.
00:16:43
Speaker
And then a text message when it arrives to make sure it arrives.
00:16:46
Speaker
So there's a conversation going.
00:16:49
Speaker
So instead of going back to the house several times, you can have the same benefit of the interaction with the salesman, even though it's not even me, it's my team texting them.
00:16:57
Speaker
They think it's me because we're texting
Automated Customer Interaction Systems
00:16:59
Speaker
from the same number.
00:16:59
Speaker
They're like, oh, thank you so much.
00:17:01
Speaker
Or they'll take a picture of their kid with the Hulk action figure or send us pictures of whatever, you know.
00:17:08
Speaker
People have a really fun time with that.
00:17:10
Speaker
And then after it's all said and done and it's all installed, we hire a drone guy, does a drone video.
00:17:18
Speaker
We upload it to our Facebook page.
00:17:20
Speaker
It's switched to solar.
00:17:22
Speaker
And then we just share the link with them and say, hey, if you share this, we'll shoot you over Amazon gift card today.
00:17:29
Speaker
So that's kind of that.
00:17:30
Speaker
And all they have to do is they don't have to upload anything.
00:17:33
Speaker
They just click on the link and then hit on the top right, share, and that's it.
00:17:37
Speaker
So those are kind of the different things that we're giving them.
00:17:42
Speaker
And so now it's online leads.
00:17:43
Speaker
I show up 80%, 90% of them are closed in the first time, and I never have to see them again.
00:17:52
Speaker
And they think that there's a lot of interaction with me, but it doesn't take my time because I've hired that out.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:17:58
Speaker
And so Bennett's pretty much living the dream life.
00:18:00
Speaker
I think that's what most guys dream of is just having a team that does all this stuff you don't want to do and then you show up and close.
00:18:06
Speaker
There's so much money in solar, but it's such a process.
00:18:10
Speaker
It's like I went from being just a salesman to like, okay, now I'm a salesman and I'm an install manager.
00:18:17
Speaker
You know, I have to manage the install team to make sure permits are submitted on time and I'm a customer.
00:18:22
Speaker
You know, I have to follow up with the customer and
00:18:24
Speaker
and then make sure they're satisfied and then ask them for referrals and all this.
00:18:26
Speaker
I'm like, I frankly am not good at that.
00:18:30
Speaker
I'm just not.
00:18:32
Speaker
I'm good at sales and I'm good at closing.
00:18:33
Speaker
So if I could just spend my time on that and hire out the rest, especially if it's costing next to nothing, then why not?
00:18:41
Speaker
Let closers close.
00:18:43
Speaker
Let setters set.
00:18:45
Speaker
Let people who follow up, follow up.
00:18:47
Speaker
And fortunately, you can hire that out at a great cost.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:18:52
Speaker
And what's really cool is doing all this, I think you're telling me some of your results up in Sacramento.
00:18:57
Speaker
You were getting mountains of referrals too, weren't you?
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, and same down here.
00:19:02
Speaker
I mean, we've still installing here and there up in... In fact, on my way here, we just got another... The drone guy that we have up there, he's like, hey, your drone video is done from an install that we had last week.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker
So yeah, it's, I mean, you think of solar, it's a big decision, you know, whether they're purchasing it or doing a power purchase agreement, cash, loan, whatever.
00:19:25
Speaker
It's a big decision.
00:19:26
Speaker
It's not quite as big as a house or, you know, and sometimes cars cost more, but I can guarantee they've never gone through this experience with buying anything else.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:36
Speaker
So it's like a red carpet treatment.
00:19:38
Speaker
So I actually use it in my cell.
00:19:41
Speaker
I have kind of a pitch deck or slide deck that I'm kind of going through.
00:19:44
Speaker
Here's our agenda.
00:19:45
Speaker
This is what we're after.
00:19:47
Speaker
And one of them, it says, talks about our customer concierge service.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:52
Speaker
Hey, did you get the light bulbs?
00:19:53
Speaker
If I haven't brought it up, I bring it up there.
00:19:55
Speaker
And then I'm talking about the process of going solar.
00:19:58
Speaker
So, hey, we're going to get our final design.
00:20:01
Speaker
95% of the time, nothing changes other than maybe a panel, you know, goes two feet over to the left instead of the right.
00:20:08
Speaker
But we do, we'll jump on the phone and we'll order you dinner, you know?
00:20:10
Speaker
And they're like, oh, really?
00:20:11
Speaker
And you're like, what would you order?
00:20:13
Speaker
Pizza or wings, unless you want something else, you know?
00:20:15
Speaker
We'll do DoorDash, you know?
00:20:18
Speaker
Some person's like, sometimes...
00:20:23
Speaker
Like one of the customers, he's like, I just had pizza.
00:20:25
Speaker
And I was like, okay, well, what do you want?
00:20:26
Speaker
He's like, how about hamburger?
00:20:27
Speaker
So again, this is all done.
00:20:28
Speaker
I don't have to deal with this.
00:20:30
Speaker
One of her VA is Jamil.
00:20:32
Speaker
She's awesome.
00:20:33
Speaker
She just texted him.
00:20:33
Speaker
She's like, well, anyway, she sent him a menu of Red Robin.
00:20:37
Speaker
She said, what do you want?
00:20:39
Speaker
He's like, well, it's me and my daughter.
00:20:40
Speaker
So they just took their order and we door dashed.
00:20:43
Speaker
It costs like 30, 40 bucks.
00:20:45
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I'm spending 150 bucks per customer.
00:20:47
Speaker
And yes, I'm sending light bulbs out, you know, spending $10 to people that don't close or that, that don't show up.
00:20:57
Speaker
I don't know.
00:20:57
Speaker
But,
00:20:59
Speaker
You know, invest in your customers.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's not a big deal at all.
00:21:03
Speaker
I think it's around 150, maybe even 200 bucks by the time we pay for the Jerome video editing.
00:21:11
Speaker
But still not that.
00:21:12
Speaker
I mean, the commissions are down here crazy.
00:21:15
Speaker
Invest in your customers and it pays off.
00:21:18
Speaker
And honestly, since I've been down here, I think because we were just going over the numbers a few times, I got another one yesterday.
Achieving Zero Cancellation Rate
00:21:24
Speaker
So I think I'm at 22 sales or closes and one of them is on hold for another roof and another one filled credit.
00:21:32
Speaker
I'm still trying to find a low credit finance option for them.
00:21:37
Speaker
I've had no cancels, though.
00:21:38
Speaker
I mean, the guy who needs a re-roof, he's on hold.
00:21:41
Speaker
He wants to do it himself.
00:21:42
Speaker
He wants to do the work.
00:21:43
Speaker
I'm like, dude, we'll just pay for this for you.
00:21:45
Speaker
So there's a chance he cancels.
00:21:47
Speaker
But I mean, why cancel when you're getting treated like this?
00:21:50
Speaker
I know.
00:21:51
Speaker
So not only are they getting all of these gifts and at least two text messages or emails, updates each time that something's sent out and received, but we also work really well with the installers to make sure that
00:22:07
Speaker
any new stage, like, hey, your permits are being submitted, congratulations.
00:22:10
Speaker
Hey, your permits are approved.
00:22:11
Speaker
It's just like a one or two liner.
00:22:15
Speaker
Hey, your install is scheduled, remember this.
00:22:16
Speaker
Hey, your site survey was complete.
00:22:17
Speaker
Do you have any questions?
00:22:18
Speaker
Here are your next steps.
00:22:20
Speaker
So just really quick, but they're getting,
00:22:24
Speaker
they're staying up to date you know it's not like hey you're sold today we'll get you installed in 21 days you know it's we'll let you know just with a quick text or email exactly what's going on every single second so if they do have a concern hopefully they're going to bring it up during as soon as they have it because they're getting a text every other day rather than letting it stew for a week and then calling up and canceling you know trying to cancel so luckily i haven't experienced that yet um
00:22:51
Speaker
And I think it's a little bit because of sending them stuff and also just really good follow up and making sure the communication is there.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:23:00
Speaker
I think that's the number one reason people cancel is just because they're not communicated within the process.
00:23:06
Speaker
I know some guys that sold for Vivint in the early stages when they weren't putting installs through and people were getting put on hold.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
I just heard horror stories of everyone canceling and it's just because they weren't followed up but they didn't know the process they didn't know why things were taking a long time.
00:23:21
Speaker
So even if things are taking longer I think if they are being told why and being communicated with then obviously a way lower chance that they're going to cancel.
00:23:29
Speaker
I really think that's the truth.
00:23:32
Speaker
Nobody really cares that something takes longer than expected.
00:23:35
Speaker
People care about is they don't know what's going on.
00:23:38
Speaker
Like sometimes permits take three, four weeks.
00:23:41
Speaker
Just got a permit back yesterday, scheduled an install, and it was just over a month that it was in permits.
00:23:47
Speaker
But as long as we're keeping up at least with the team, is at least they get one message a week just to give them an update, then we're typically good.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:59
Speaker
in any industry whether it's pest control satellite alarms or solar there's going to be hiccups and there's going to be mistakes as far as the the operation side technician side and it's all fine you know if a tech shows up late nobody really cares that a technician shows up late if they get a text message saying hey we're running an hour late nobody nobody really cares but it's just like if they don't know that's when that's when they don't have good feelings towards you yeah
00:24:26
Speaker
Exactly.
00:24:27
Speaker
And so for our solar pruners listening, if you don't have a process like this, you're probably not going to get it quite as dialed as Bennett has it here right off the bat.
Gift Strategy for Securing Appointments
00:24:35
Speaker
But you can start to do the little things like he sends them light bulbs.
00:24:38
Speaker
So you book an appointment, then they get light bulbs sent the day after, right?
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, so we booked the appointment here in California.
00:24:44
Speaker
We have the California Consumer Protection Guide.
00:24:47
Speaker
We send them that to the email.
00:24:48
Speaker
We send them a link to it.
00:24:50
Speaker
We send them that beforehand.
00:24:51
Speaker
We say review this because we want you to be educated by the time we get there.
00:24:55
Speaker
because we are asking them to make a decision.
00:24:58
Speaker
So we want to make sure that they have everything they have time to review.
00:25:01
Speaker
And then we also just let them know, hey, we're going to send you a gift.
00:25:05
Speaker
We don't tell them what it is.
00:25:06
Speaker
We just say it can save you $1,000 over the next 10 years.
00:25:10
Speaker
So 100 bucks a year, just a free gift.
00:25:13
Speaker
okay keep them on the edge and yeah here in california for our out-of-state listeners we have to sign the homeowners have a guide the california california protection for the consumer consumer protection guide yes i'm like that yeah um but it basically asks them if they've looked into solar before it has all these like warning signs they should look for because i guess there's been a lot of scans i mean it's a really good document it
00:25:37
Speaker
um, gives you the pros and cons of cash versus a loan versus a lease versus a power purchase agreement versus a pace loan.
00:25:44
Speaker
You know, it outlines it all.
00:25:45
Speaker
It says the difference between a solar installer, um, the sales, the salesman, um, the finance company, the lenders, you know, it's, it's 23 pages.
00:25:55
Speaker
It's kind of lengthy, but I've read through it all and it's, it's great.
00:25:57
Speaker
It tells them exactly how they're going to be built by San Diego gas and electric and exactly how they're going to be built by us.
00:26:03
Speaker
Um,
00:26:04
Speaker
It's really information.
00:26:05
Speaker
If you use that to sell, it builds a lot of credibility.
00:26:09
Speaker
And especially when we're giving them that beforehand, it's nothing to hide.
00:26:13
Speaker
It's like, hey, this protects you.
00:26:15
Speaker
Let's use it to protect you.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:26:18
Speaker
It can be a pro or a con if you don't know how to use it.
00:26:22
Speaker
And then after, so you go to the appointments, you hopefully close the deal.
00:26:26
Speaker
And then the day, the couple days after that, that's when the dinner and the pizza and all that come.
00:26:31
Speaker
So the day that they close, they get something sent out.
00:26:34
Speaker
So in our software, we usually just are just giving a check mark, notifies the team to order the cookies.
00:26:44
Speaker
And then once the site survey is complete, we get updated that in the software with the installer.
00:26:49
Speaker
and that triggers the next thing to get sent out, which is like the impact report.
00:26:54
Speaker
So it's a report of what their carbon offset's gonna be.
00:26:58
Speaker
And that's why we say they're heroes.
00:27:00
Speaker
Here's a superhero and here's a magnet.
00:27:02
Speaker
The other idea of giving them these gifts is, hey, if there's a superhero sitting on the counter, the kid's playing with it, there's a plant outside that they have to water every now and then, there's a magnet on the refrigerator,
00:27:15
Speaker
You know, there's daily reminders that they went solar and who they went with solar with and they should give referrals.
00:27:21
Speaker
So it's something inside their home that they can see to remind them.
00:27:25
Speaker
And again, it's not
00:27:26
Speaker
It's not me.
00:27:27
Speaker
This is all coming from Brent, my older brother.
00:27:30
Speaker
He's the one.
00:27:31
Speaker
Before that, I was just a salesman.
00:27:35
Speaker
And people are always like, oh, you know, you do pretty good at sales.
00:27:38
Speaker
You're decent.
00:27:39
Speaker
Why don't you start a company?
00:27:40
Speaker
I'm like, no, I don't want to deal with the headache.
00:27:42
Speaker
But he's really good at processes and software and automation.
00:27:46
Speaker
So a lot of this is all automated.
00:27:48
Speaker
As soon as something gets sent out, they automatically get the text message and the email and the next steps.
Automation in Communication
00:27:54
Speaker
And it's, yeah, it works pretty good.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's genius.
00:27:57
Speaker
And what do you guys use to text?
00:27:59
Speaker
What is your team using that?
00:28:00
Speaker
Right now we're using an app called Haymarket.
00:28:03
Speaker
I mean, there's a handful of apps, but you can do all the templates in there and you can do a lot of automations.
00:28:08
Speaker
So if a lead comes in, if they don't respond, they get pre-recorded voicemails, text messages and emails for 90 days.
00:28:19
Speaker
It's all, it's just, and we don't have to touch anything.
00:28:21
Speaker
They just comes in if they don't respond and once they respond, then, you know, a person comes in.
00:28:27
Speaker
But if they don't respond, it just keeps going.
00:28:30
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:28:31
Speaker
And what's cool is like you were saying, you don't have to touch any of this.
00:28:34
Speaker
You have your team, your VA is doing.
00:28:37
Speaker
like basically all of this.
00:28:39
Speaker
And for people listening, I think that's important too, because you don't want to be the one spending all the time, like solar cells guys, we should focus on just the closing and making money.
00:28:50
Speaker
And so for those that are interested in getting like VAs, where do you guys find your VAs?
00:28:55
Speaker
And I went, I went through a company called magic.
00:28:58
Speaker
It was get magic.
00:28:59
Speaker
Um, we ended up going, we're actually just went straight with the people.
00:29:02
Speaker
They do take a big chunk, um,
00:29:05
Speaker
Like 30 or 40%.
00:29:06
Speaker
But even then, you can hire somebody for $1,000 a month.
00:29:09
Speaker
If you go outside of that, there's other.
00:29:11
Speaker
Upwork, I think, is one of them.
00:29:13
Speaker
I mean, you can get a full-time employee for $500 to $1,000.
00:29:18
Speaker
And if you want more of a quality person, maybe $1,000 to $1,200 a month.
00:29:20
Speaker
And I mean, you can like full-time and...
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, full time.
00:29:29
Speaker
They do everything.
00:29:30
Speaker
They're awesome.
00:29:31
Speaker
They really are awesome.
00:29:32
Speaker
They work the hours that they're working in the middle of the night.
00:29:36
Speaker
We have weekly meetings at 1 o'clock and I hear roosters in the background all the time.
00:29:41
Speaker
You know, it's like 4 a.m.
00:29:42
Speaker
there.
00:29:43
Speaker
But yeah, they do a really good job on everything.
00:29:47
Speaker
And that's like five bucks an hour or something.
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
These are people that are, I mean, probably most of them have degrees.
00:29:56
Speaker
These are like high class people.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:58
Speaker
Like I just hired another one just personally for me, nothing to do with the solar business, but just because I'm in a few different endeavors.
00:30:04
Speaker
And I mean, she's a she's a law student.
00:30:07
Speaker
Super, super bright girl.
00:30:11
Speaker
Really good at just random tasks like, hey, pay this medical bill.
00:30:14
Speaker
Hey, pay this.
00:30:15
Speaker
Hey, book this flight.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:16
Speaker
A lot of things that you just get too busy to do.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:20
Speaker
That needed that needed it done.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yeah, they're super helpful and really cheap too.
00:30:26
Speaker
Philippines, that's good money for them.
00:30:28
Speaker
I mean, you don't pay someone here five bucks an hour.
00:30:30
Speaker
Probably that's kind of a slap in the face out there.
00:30:32
Speaker
That's a pretty good paying job for them.
00:30:35
Speaker
I use, for my VA, I found one, virtualstafffinder.com is the service I used.
00:30:42
Speaker
and they do all the vetting for you.
00:30:44
Speaker
So I'll post a link to that too here in the show notes for anyone that's interested.
00:30:49
Speaker
But yeah, if you can start to get someone to help you, that's when you become, I think, more of an entrepreneur in this because then you can start to implement these processes.
00:30:56
Speaker
And like Bennett's doing, you can take yourself out of so much follow-up, out of all these things that people can do for a lot cheaper because your time is worth a lot more.
00:31:07
Speaker
If you're making, if you're closing a deal, you should be making
00:31:11
Speaker
you know, 500, 1,000 an hour probably.
00:31:14
Speaker
At least, yeah.
00:31:15
Speaker
A lot of times, yeah, about that or a lot of times more.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
Depending on what your close ratio is and what your install ratio is.
00:31:21
Speaker
Right.
00:31:23
Speaker
So working that way, if you can make that much, you shouldn't be doing these things that you can pay someone $5 an hour to do.
00:31:30
Speaker
And for me, I enjoy closing more than follow-up.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:33
Speaker
I don't want to put out fires.
00:31:35
Speaker
We do a lot of re-roofs.
00:31:36
Speaker
I mean, I'm the mentality of,
00:31:38
Speaker
You know, whatever it takes to get this sell type of till, you know, like trying to pay for your first five months of monitoring.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:46
Speaker
So it's like need a roof.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, let's do that.
00:31:49
Speaker
Do I want to coordinate a roof with the customer and get the quote?
00:31:52
Speaker
No, I don't want to do that.
00:31:53
Speaker
So we have.
00:31:56
Speaker
So Jamil is the one who runs the customer follow-up program, the GIFs.
00:32:00
Speaker
And then we have Kent.
00:32:02
Speaker
He runs just the communication with contractors and
Team Structure and Roles
00:32:06
Speaker
the installer.
00:32:06
Speaker
So he does all my communication.
00:32:08
Speaker
Installer, we've worked with a lot of great installers.
00:32:11
Speaker
But there's always times that...
00:32:13
Speaker
Installers are busy and a job gets stuck in permits forever or it doesn't even get submitted to permits or the permits are received and this job wasn't scheduled.
00:32:21
Speaker
So his job is just basically here.
00:32:23
Speaker
Here are your timelines.
00:32:24
Speaker
If this many days have passed and we don't and XYZ hasn't been met, call the installer and do that communication for the sales rep.
00:32:31
Speaker
So he's full time just just doing that and doing work with contractors, setting up re-roofs and tree trimming,
00:32:39
Speaker
A guy needs to move a shed.
00:32:41
Speaker
I just saw that in one of the text messages just because I'm going through our text messages to be able to have a main panel upgrade.
00:32:48
Speaker
It's like I don't have to text the customer and let them know.
00:32:51
Speaker
Kent's going to do all that for me.
00:32:52
Speaker
And then we have two full-time that they do leads and proposals.
00:32:56
Speaker
I'm setting all the appointments.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:58
Speaker
Making sure we got the bills and everything.
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
And I think especially if you're running like a dealer type thing like you are, you got to be in communication with the, you know, installer and all that.
00:33:06
Speaker
So that's where it gets really important being in communication and then bugging them if things aren't.
00:33:11
Speaker
If it's not moving forward.
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:13
Speaker
Moving forward.
00:33:14
Speaker
So genius stuff.
00:33:15
Speaker
And yeah, man, we might have to get your brother on the show too to go with this good stuff.
00:33:20
Speaker
He'll give you a lot more info on it.
00:33:22
Speaker
on how everything works.
00:33:24
Speaker
To me, it's magic.
00:33:27
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:33:27
Speaker
When I heard all this, I'm like, holy cow, I've never heard a process.
00:33:31
Speaker
I'm sure there's other people out there, but you guys got a pretty dial.
00:33:34
Speaker
It's a lot of software, and that's not my thing.
00:33:38
Speaker
Since I've been in college a few years ago, I didn't have a computer.
00:33:42
Speaker
I just had my phone.
00:33:43
Speaker
I just got a computer this summer.
00:33:45
Speaker
Don't be joking.
00:33:46
Speaker
I just got a laptop.
00:33:49
Speaker
Figuring out the software.
00:33:50
Speaker
I like it.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, and so yeah, thanks for sharing kind of your process with us, Bennett.
00:33:56
Speaker
I know we got to wrap up pretty quick here.
00:33:59
Speaker
I was going to ask you, you guys do, working with multiple installers and everything.
00:34:05
Speaker
You were telling me something cool before we started recording here.
00:34:08
Speaker
When you're closing the deals, you guys do kind of like a price match thing.
00:34:12
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Competitiveness in San Diego's Solar Market
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah, so what...
00:34:15
Speaker
I mean, there's literally 100 solar companies in San Diego, right?
00:34:19
Speaker
It's the most competitive market, and they can go get exactly what I'm offering somewhere else.
00:34:24
Speaker
So I want to make it unique, but I also want to let them know, hey, so again, I try to keep my pitch the same every single time, so I have that slide deck.
00:34:33
Speaker
One of them shows here's, you know, I talked to them about they're going to be getting these gifts.
00:34:37
Speaker
So I use that to help them close and say it's a fun process for you.
00:34:40
Speaker
We're going to send you dinner.
00:34:42
Speaker
We're going to send you an action figure.
00:34:44
Speaker
I'm not going to give the rest away, you know, kind of keep them on the edge, but it's fun there.
00:34:48
Speaker
Then I also say we have 100% satisfaction guarantee, meaning up until install, if you want to
00:34:55
Speaker
move products around.
00:34:57
Speaker
If you want to go from a cash deal to a prepaid PPA, if you want to go from a PPA to a loan, we will match or beat anything.
00:35:05
Speaker
So let's say we're on a loan and you go find that somebody else is giving a better deal on the panels.
00:35:10
Speaker
With the same panel, or you want a different inverter,
00:35:13
Speaker
There's no need, we'll match or beat anything out there.
00:35:16
Speaker
If Costco's given a Visa gift card, we're gonna give a Visa gift card if everything's the same.
00:35:20
Speaker
So I let customers know that and I relate it to Expedia.
00:35:23
Speaker
I would just say, if you have to book a flight, are you getting on American Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, Delta, and checking all the flights, or do you use a flight booking service like Expedia or Google Flights?
00:35:34
Speaker
The only difference with our service is
00:35:37
Speaker
Not only can I get you kind of whatever you want to get, if you want the cheapest cash price possible, we can get you that.
00:35:47
Speaker
If you want a premium panel with the best equipment, we can get you that.
00:35:51
Speaker
If you want a zero, a lease that never, the pricing never changed or PPA, we can get you that.
00:36:00
Speaker
It's like...
00:36:01
Speaker
Whatever you need, we can get you.
00:36:03
Speaker
So at any time before install, we can transition them without basically them having to sit down with another five companies and deciding.
00:36:11
Speaker
But just keep your eye out.
00:36:12
Speaker
If you notice anything, let me know and
00:36:17
Speaker
I mean, we'll transition for you.
00:36:18
Speaker
We're not locking you into anything.
00:36:20
Speaker
If we have to switch from Sunrun over to Sunnova or to Vivint, if you want Vivint because your neighbor has Vivint, let's do it.
00:36:29
Speaker
So it kind of just puts them at ease.
00:36:30
Speaker
And then what happens is when I was selling in Sacramento, the councils that I did get, it was usually because we were selling.
00:36:38
Speaker
I mean, all we were trained to sell is power purchase agreements.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:42
Speaker
And they're like, oh, I want a loan.
00:36:43
Speaker
And it's like, oh, wait, we can kind of offer loans.
00:36:45
Speaker
I don't know how to sell them at the time, but we can kind of offer it.
00:36:49
Speaker
And then I'm kind of backpedaling of like, oh, we can do it.
00:36:51
Speaker
Well, if I tell them up front, hey, if you want to do a loan, let's do a loan.
00:36:55
Speaker
If you want to go down the line and transition to loan, do it with me.
00:37:00
Speaker
Go get pricing, but we already have a good relationship.
00:37:03
Speaker
You like me.
00:37:04
Speaker
I like you.
00:37:05
Speaker
I just bought you dinner.
00:37:07
Speaker
Just let me match.
00:37:08
Speaker
Let me throw my hat in the ring again and match or beat the price.
00:37:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:13
Speaker
It's worked.
00:37:14
Speaker
I haven't had anybody cancel at all, but especially not to go with another company because that was the frustrating thing.
00:37:20
Speaker
When you knock a door, when I was knocking doors in Sacramento, and somebody just is, it was like a hard sell and like even a hard appointment.
00:37:28
Speaker
It's like, no, I've looked in a seller.
00:37:29
Speaker
No, no, I hate this.
00:37:30
Speaker
No, I don't want to buy anything.
00:37:32
Speaker
And you get the appointment.
00:37:34
Speaker
You completely change their mind.
00:37:36
Speaker
And then you even sell them and close them.
00:37:39
Speaker
You're investing in them.
00:37:40
Speaker
And then all of a sudden they're like,
00:37:42
Speaker
Oh, I want to do a loan.
00:37:43
Speaker
And you're like, oh, I don't really know how to sell a loan.
00:37:46
Speaker
So I can't really help you anymore.
00:37:48
Speaker
But there's no way in heck that you would have ever, ever gotten solar if I had a knock on your door.
00:37:53
Speaker
At least not for the next year or two.
00:37:55
Speaker
So it's like, I don't want to lose those.
00:37:57
Speaker
You know, those are, I stem that.
00:37:58
Speaker
So I want to be able to offer them.
00:38:00
Speaker
truly exactly what they need and whatever price that they want, I don't care what they buy.
00:38:06
Speaker
No matter what, it's going to be a win-win.
00:38:08
Speaker
Solar is such a good deal here.
00:38:10
Speaker
And we're talking, for people on the podcast that don't know, the rates down here, this is going to get everybody to read here.
00:38:16
Speaker
Tier 1 in the winter starts at $0.26 and Tier 1 in the summer starts at $0.29.
00:38:21
Speaker
And then I carry around a Utah bill of Rocky Mountain Power.
00:38:25
Speaker
Oh, smart.
00:38:26
Speaker
I just say, here's my rates on my home in Utah.
00:38:29
Speaker
We start at $0.08, then moves up to $0.11.50, then it caps out at $0.14.
00:38:35
Speaker
Here, you guys are starting, you know, a grandma in a condo, a widow is starting out in the summer at $0.29, tier one.
00:38:42
Speaker
Double what the mansions in Park City are ever paying for electricity.
00:38:46
Speaker
So it's just
Benefits of Solar in High Energy Rate Areas
00:38:47
Speaker
crazy.
00:38:47
Speaker
You can always save people money, and you can always make a good money.
00:38:53
Speaker
you know, good commission check for the salesman as well.
00:38:56
Speaker
It's just a good, good industry.
00:38:59
Speaker
It's an excellent thing to sell and solar's awesome.
00:39:03
Speaker
Solar is 100% the best thing ever.
00:39:05
Speaker
We deserve to get paid a lot.
00:39:07
Speaker
It is super expensive in San Diego too, so I'll take as high as commission as I can get out here.
00:39:12
Speaker
Got to pay high rent and everything.
00:39:15
Speaker
But yeah, I think that's genius too, especially people that are working kind of more the dealer thing where you do have that ability to be more competitive on prices
00:39:23
Speaker
Obviously, you don't want to sell for dirt cheap, but just if the customer can know that, that they have this ability to... I'm sure 99% of people don't go out and like... Oh, no.
00:39:34
Speaker
When you say that.
00:39:36
Speaker
I've had one that I'm thinking of right now that he did, and he's like, I want to go do this with this other company.
00:39:43
Speaker
And I'm just... He's like, this is my option.
00:39:45
Speaker
And again, it wasn't... I never lost the sale.
00:39:47
Speaker
But even if you're... You don't want to drive...
00:39:51
Speaker
45 minutes to appointment and then not close them or close them and then they go to somewhere.
00:39:55
Speaker
Even if you're only gonna make a few hundred bucks a kilowatt, if I don't have to go back there, why not just drop the price, match it, and I don't have to go back.
00:40:03
Speaker
It's not another visit.
00:40:04
Speaker
It literally takes me just sending out a DocuSign and then signing it.
00:40:07
Speaker
Relationships are already there, they already trust me.
00:40:10
Speaker
So it takes me an extra 30 minutes.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not, you know, you're making, a lot of times you're making a lot less if you have to get really competitive.
00:40:17
Speaker
Even if you're making a hundred bucks per kilowatt,
00:40:21
Speaker
On a five kilowatt system, if all I have to do is send a docusign, I mean, why wouldn't you do that?
00:40:28
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:40:29
Speaker
I mean, that's all it comes to.
00:40:31
Speaker
As long as you've established that prior and you're not trying, you know, it's like, okay, here's your price.
00:40:35
Speaker
Let's do that.
00:40:36
Speaker
And by the way, I've never had to do that.
00:40:37
Speaker
I don't think I've ever sold for less than like about a grand here.
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
kilowatt even even when even with that that guy he's like okay well i do want a ppa because he's planning on moving um zero escalator at like 15 cents so well that's still it was still like 900 a thousand bucks a kilowatt here which is great sun hours great roof um so yeah that's yeah that's about as bad as it gets thousand a kilowatt yeah poor poor guy
00:41:07
Speaker
Cool.
00:41:07
Speaker
Well, I know we got to wrap up here, Bennett, but thanks for sharing some of your secrets.
Connecting with Bennett and Community Engagement
00:41:11
Speaker
And so if people want to connect with you a little bit, now that you have a computer, you can find me at Word of Computer and all that.
00:41:17
Speaker
You on Facebook and all that.
00:41:19
Speaker
I know you're pretty active on the solar groups, right?
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, those groups, that's where I've learned everything.
00:41:25
Speaker
Those are awesome.
00:41:26
Speaker
Yeah, just Bennett Maxwell.
00:41:28
Speaker
Cool.
00:41:29
Speaker
So yeah, definitely connect with Bennett.
00:41:30
Speaker
Tell him, give him a shout out.
00:41:32
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated his words of wisdom on the podcast here.
00:41:35
Speaker
Go and join the Solrepreneur group if you haven't already.
00:41:38
Speaker
That's the number one Facebook group for solar professionals.
00:41:41
Speaker
There's a couple other good ones, but that's the best.
00:41:45
Speaker
So go join that.
00:41:46
Speaker
Let us know what you thought of the podcast.
00:41:48
Speaker
And Bennett, any other final words of wisdom before we say goodbye here?
00:41:52
Speaker
No, I appreciate getting this over with, I should say.
00:41:56
Speaker
Every time I talk to Taylor.
00:41:58
Speaker
Anyways, we're hanging out out here in San Diego since I've been out here.
00:42:02
Speaker
And every time...
00:42:03
Speaker
He's always sucking me into the podcast, and I'm always saying, no, give me more time.
00:42:08
Speaker
I want more data.
00:42:08
Speaker
I'm a numbers guy.
00:42:10
Speaker
I want to see, you know, after, I guess, I mean, I have over 20 closed deals.
00:42:15
Speaker
So now it's like, okay, I guess I got some numbers.
00:42:17
Speaker
But thanks for trapping me in this morning.
00:42:20
Speaker
We were going to talk about something completely different this morning.
00:42:24
Speaker
He was like, nope, we're going to do the podcast.
00:42:25
Speaker
We've got 30 minutes.
00:42:26
Speaker
Let's go.
00:42:26
Speaker
Trapped him into it.
00:42:28
Speaker
Thanks for being willing.
00:42:29
Speaker
It's a good bait and switch, man.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's how we do it.
00:42:33
Speaker
I tried to say I got to go, and I'm like, oh, I have an appointment this morning too.
00:42:36
Speaker
And put the tables on them.
00:42:40
Speaker
Great salesman, Taylor.
00:42:40
Speaker
You got me.
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
No, we appreciate you coming on the show, though.
00:42:45
Speaker
Well, thanks again here, Bennett.
00:42:46
Speaker
And I'm sure we'll have you again on the future, possibly, when you've made a couple million by then.
00:42:52
Speaker
And people connect with you.
00:42:53
Speaker
But thanks for coming on the show today, Bennett.
00:42:55
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yo, hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:43:04
Speaker
Go add Bennett on Facebook or wherever you're at on social media.
00:43:07
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated his knowledge and wisdom and go out and build your team.
00:43:13
Speaker
Follow up like he's doing for next week's episode.
00:43:17
Speaker
We're going to do actually something that I've been talking a little bit about a little bit about in the sort of news group.
00:43:24
Speaker
If you're a member of that group, go join it.
00:43:28
Speaker
If not,
00:43:29
Speaker
But I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on virtual selling and why I think you shouldn't use Zoom in solar cells.
00:43:38
Speaker
I know, I said it.
00:43:40
Speaker
So tune in next week for that episode.
00:43:43
Speaker
Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
00:43:47
Speaker
Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spent 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.
00:43:57
Speaker
And we do it all for free.
00:43:59
Speaker
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.
00:44:12
Speaker
And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
00:44:21
Speaker
Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
00:44:25
Speaker
So take care of that now and we'll see you on
00:44:27
Speaker
the next episode.