Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How to Generate Solar Leads like a PRO - Rich Feola
104 Plays3 years ago
Thanks to our sponsor Pi Syndicate for this episode!
DOWNLOAD THE CHEAT SHEET HERE! TOP 10 MOST DOWNLOADED EPISODES OF ALL TIME
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Taylor Armstrong's Sales Journey
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Rich Viola on Solar Lead Generation
00:00:42
Speaker
We are here again at SolarCon shooting a podcast and this time we got the one the only Rich Viola on the show.
00:00:51
Speaker
Thanks for joining us today Rich.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah thanks Taylor.
00:00:52
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:00:53
Speaker
Love the podcast man.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah I appreciate it.
00:00:55
Speaker
And now I've been seeing yeah if you haven't seen this guy you've probably been living under a rock because I mean he's all over YouTube.
00:01:02
Speaker
He's a probably I think you guys would you say you're the number one solar lead provider.
00:01:07
Speaker
I mean, there's obviously a bunch of great options.
00:01:10
Speaker
Josiah from Prospect Bacon is here, Bill Murphy.
00:01:13
Speaker
We did a panel yesterday.
00:01:14
Speaker
Those are great guys.
00:01:16
Speaker
We're actually going to release a recording of that.
00:01:18
Speaker
Oh, cool.
00:01:19
Speaker
So people will be able to see us kind of bantering and talking about leads.
00:01:24
Speaker
That's what we do.
00:01:25
Speaker
But yeah, we spend about $2.5 million a month on solar ads.
00:01:29
Speaker
So technically, we are the biggest, yeah, on Google and YouTube.
00:01:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, these guys, hopefully they know what works after spending that much money.
00:01:39
Speaker
I think it's pretty safe to say you know what works and doesn't work at this point, right?
00:01:43
Speaker
And so yeah, we're going to pick his brain.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just here.
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm excited because you don't have to necessarily, like, maybe you're not doing solar leads right now.
00:01:52
Speaker
Maybe you're just knocking on doors.
Ad Strategies for Higher Conversion
00:01:54
Speaker
What's cool is we were just talking before this, and you know, I mean, just in ads you've run, you know a lot of the stuff that works just maybe on the doors, right?
00:02:01
Speaker
And even if you're not doing leads...
00:02:03
Speaker
So I pay my director of data analytics of 150 grand a year just to analyze every single word, phrase, and concept that we run in our ads.
00:02:12
Speaker
Since we've spent over $45 million over the last four and a half, five years, we kind of know what motivates people to want to go solo.
00:02:21
Speaker
Because if we're saying something in an ad and people aren't clicking as much,
00:02:25
Speaker
Like they're obviously not as interested in that phrase or that concept or that ad.
00:02:29
Speaker
But if we say something else and they're clicking like crazy, well, that means that's an emotional motivator for them.
00:02:34
Speaker
You know, we all know sales and marketing is all about making that emotional connection with people.
00:02:39
Speaker
What's going to drive them to want to buy solar from it.
00:02:42
Speaker
And so like just an example, you know, we've tested like the phrase zero money down.
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:47
Speaker
versus no cost upfront.
00:02:48
Speaker
And zero money down just doesn't convert even nearly as much as no cost upfront.
00:02:53
Speaker
Like no cost upfront, it's like 40% more clicks, more interest.
00:02:57
Speaker
So if you just say, stop saying zero money down and just say no cost upfront, whether you're out the door or whether you're running an ad or whether you're in your sales pitch, like in the home or virtually, if you're doing Zoom meetings, guarantee you'll sell more solar because that's going to connect with people more.
00:03:13
Speaker
I think it's because people connect with the car industry, like 0% APR, zero money down.
00:03:18
Speaker
And there's this persona of car salespeople that they're kind of like shysty.
00:03:23
Speaker
And we've got to protect our industry too because we don't want to start building that persona in solar.
00:03:29
Speaker
And it's starting to happen.
00:03:31
Speaker
But no cost up front, it's just more powerful.
00:03:33
Speaker
I think just people resonate with it more.
00:03:34
Speaker
It's just that phrase is just more powerful than zero money down.
00:03:37
Speaker
Another example is...
00:03:40
Speaker
You know, when we talk about the federal tax credit or, you know, state incentives, if it's a state like Massachusetts or Illinois or South Carolina or New Jersey, where there's like SRECs and great state incentives, state tax credits and stuff.
00:03:53
Speaker
When we talk about the fact that they're getting phased out.
00:03:56
Speaker
We don't like specifically say like, oh, it's like ending at the end of next year and then it gets reduced or like we don't get like into the complicated stuff to like confuse people.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:05
Speaker
But we just say, hey, it's going to be phased out.
00:04:08
Speaker
Like click below before it's too late.
00:04:10
Speaker
You don't want to miss out on this like government incentive program.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:14
Speaker
And people just click like crazy for that because it's like that fear of loss.
00:04:18
Speaker
They're afraid of missing out on these government incentives.
00:04:22
Speaker
And so, like, now pretty much every one of our ads, unless it's like a specifically different strategy that we're going after, we're going to mention that, that the incentives are going away soon.
00:04:31
Speaker
Hmm.
00:04:32
Speaker
We don't specifically give a timeline, but that is going to motivate people to move forward.
00:04:36
Speaker
So whether you're on the doors or whether you're in the home doing your pitch, definitely keep emphasizing now is the time to get into this because a year from now or even a few months from now, anything can change.
00:04:50
Speaker
We already are starting to see that metering going away in some places.
00:04:55
Speaker
It's not a lie to say that.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:04:57
Speaker
No, that's what's so cool about, you know, you marketing guys is, I mean, obviously you've tested things over and over and over and over.
00:05:04
Speaker
Like you've seen what works and sometimes just on the doors, like I can test different things, but I don't know, sometimes I don't know, maybe it was just, this was a neighborhood that wasn't hit as hard.
00:05:13
Speaker
So that worked, worked better for the day.
00:05:15
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:05:15
Speaker
So it's like, you guys have tested over and over and over.
00:05:18
Speaker
So I think it's nice to have that kind of marketing mindset, marketing background, and then combine it with
00:05:22
Speaker
a lot of the things we're doing on the doors.
00:05:24
Speaker
And like you said, we're, I mean, if it works online, it's probably going to work in person.
00:05:28
Speaker
And as you're saying on the doors, too, right?
00:05:30
Speaker
Exactly.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
And like, it's like knowing that balance of like, you know, build or not.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:34
Speaker
Maybe like adding online marketing into your business.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:38
Speaker
Um, like we have a guy who, um,
00:05:40
Speaker
He knocked doors and did appointments in the evening, six nights a week.
00:05:44
Speaker
And his wife was like, just totally bummed out that he was always like, she liked the money, you know, but she didn't like that he was always out every night to have a daughter.
00:05:52
Speaker
Like she wanted him to be home more often.
00:05:54
Speaker
So
Balancing Work and Family in Solar Sales
00:05:55
Speaker
we set up a campaign for him.
00:05:56
Speaker
We set up his calendar from 11 a.m.
00:05:57
Speaker
to 4 p.m.
00:06:00
Speaker
Monday through Thursday.
00:06:01
Speaker
And he got to spend the mornings with his wife and daughter and then spend the evenings with his wife and daughter.
00:06:06
Speaker
And he would sell like eight to 10 deals Monday to Thursday from our leads.
00:06:11
Speaker
And then he would just go out Saturday mornings when he had time and knock because he just enjoyed talking.
00:06:15
Speaker
And like, obviously, it's just an investment of a few hours of his day and he'd get a couple of deals from that too.
00:06:21
Speaker
So it was worth it for him to kind of balance both.
00:06:24
Speaker
And yeah,
00:06:26
Speaker
You know, it's not like you have to like totally give up door knocking because it's the lowest cost per acquisition, right?
00:06:34
Speaker
It's just a cost of your time.
00:06:37
Speaker
But if you could balance both, you know, sometimes there's a place for that.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, I like that, man.
00:06:41
Speaker
I better not show my wife this podcast.
00:06:43
Speaker
Otherwise, she's going to be like, just give all your money to Rich.
00:06:46
Speaker
Stop knocking.
00:06:49
Speaker
That's just because my wife says the same thing at the time, but I'm like, no, I got to go out and knock.
00:06:54
Speaker
You got to do it, man.
00:06:56
Speaker
But no, I think that, yeah, it's nice to have that balance for sure.
00:06:59
Speaker
And, you know, depending on the stage of your life, I mean, that is a great option.
00:07:03
Speaker
Sounds like it's working great.
00:07:04
Speaker
For sure.
00:07:05
Speaker
But, yeah, so we're going to kind of dive into, you know, strategies and things like that.
00:07:09
Speaker
But before that, Rich, you kind of want to give us your background, how you started up your agency and focus on solar specifically and all that.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, so I started knocking doors like 12, 13 years ago.
00:07:20
Speaker
And I was out in the cold and the heat in New Jersey.
00:07:25
Speaker
And then I did that for a few years.
00:07:28
Speaker
Made good money.
00:07:30
Speaker
Did some sales and like roofing and windows and siding.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then I decided to become a financial advisor.
00:07:35
Speaker
So I became a financial advisor.
00:07:37
Speaker
And like I was investing in like these old school marketing tactics.
00:07:42
Speaker
Like we would send out a big direct mail or it costs like 10 grand for like this direct mail to go out.
00:07:47
Speaker
and we would bring like 20 to 30 people and just buy them dinner.
00:07:51
Speaker
And I would try to get them to invest with us.
00:07:54
Speaker
So I just, it worked, but like I didn't really like that old school marketing technique.
00:07:58
Speaker
So I started figuring out how can I get leads online?
00:08:01
Speaker
So I started looking into like how do I run Facebook ads, how do I run Google ads?
00:08:05
Speaker
You know, invested in time and education on how to learn that.
00:08:09
Speaker
And so I started getting leads on Facebook and Google for my financial advisory practice.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
And I got a bunch of business owner clients.
00:08:17
Speaker
And one of the business owner clients that was investing with me was a solar company owner in New Jersey.
00:08:24
Speaker
And so he was like, hey, can you run some ads for me?
00:08:29
Speaker
And I was like, sure.
00:08:30
Speaker
So we ran some ads and he tripled his business in one year.
00:08:36
Speaker
That was back in 2016, almost 2017.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:39
Speaker
And he showed me his whole financial, because that was his financial investment.
00:08:43
Speaker
So I saw how much money he was making per deal.
00:08:46
Speaker
I was like, this is sick.
00:08:47
Speaker
This is an amazing industry.
00:08:49
Speaker
I did some more research, the financial nerd that I am, to see the trajectory of this industry is going to be amazing.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's not going anywhere anytime soon.
00:08:58
Speaker
And 2016, 2017 was still a big deal.
00:09:03
Speaker
It wasn't as big as it is now.
00:09:05
Speaker
But I still kind of came late to the game.
00:09:08
Speaker
A lot of those guys at SolarCity and Tesla, they've already started their sales orgs.
00:09:12
Speaker
It was kind of like perfect timing that I started Solar Exclusive because so many people were looking for leads at the time.
00:09:17
Speaker
But yeah, I just threw up an ad for Solar Exclusive.
00:09:22
Speaker
And we got 20 clients in like a month.
00:09:25
Speaker
Nice.
00:09:26
Speaker
And there was just such a hunger for solar companies to grow their business.
00:09:31
Speaker
And we had to learn over time.
00:09:33
Speaker
We didn't have all the data that we have now.
00:09:37
Speaker
We made some mistakes in the beginning.
00:09:39
Speaker
But I had to decide, well, now I'm going to sell off my financial practice to some junior partners at the firm and just focus on solar needs.
00:09:48
Speaker
Because I just saw that I can really build something there.
00:09:52
Speaker
And that's what happened.
00:09:53
Speaker
So that's how kind of how I got started in it.
00:09:54
Speaker
And then in 2019, we kind of shifted everything off of Facebook and went to YouTube and Google.
00:10:00
Speaker
And that's when like it really took off because like when we switched from Facebook to YouTube, our clients like we went from like a 40% retention rate to like a 90% retention
Transition from Facebook to Google/YouTube
00:10:12
Speaker
rate.
00:10:12
Speaker
90% of the people who are with Solar Exclusive now were new each month.
00:10:16
Speaker
And the only time like...
00:10:18
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, when people cancel, usually it's because it's just like a temporary pause because they're waiting on M2s.
00:10:24
Speaker
They're waiting on more cash flow to be able to put back into the marketing campaign.
00:10:29
Speaker
If all the installers installed on time, we wouldn't have that problem, but it's a reality in the industry.
00:10:37
Speaker
But yeah, I think...
00:10:39
Speaker
When we made that shift, that's really when we kind of exploded into like the number one spot, I think, because it was right before COVID.
00:10:47
Speaker
It was like six months before COVID.
00:10:49
Speaker
And when COVID happened, like everyone was forced to sell virtually, at least for a time.
00:10:54
Speaker
You know, sometimes you could still get in the home.
00:10:56
Speaker
People didn't care so much, but it was a struggle like in those first like three months from March to June 2020.
00:11:05
Speaker
And that's when we just kind of exploded in growth.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah, we haven't really looked back since and we just continue to grow.
00:11:13
Speaker
We're on pace now to do, we did like $25 million in solar ads last year.
00:11:19
Speaker
This year we're on pace to do like $40 million in solar ads this year.
00:11:22
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it's just the momentum is building.
00:11:27
Speaker
And it's really cool too because Google is just such a better company than Facebook.
00:11:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:33
Speaker
Like, it's hard to get anyone on Facebook on the phone, like a customer service person.
00:11:37
Speaker
But with Google, we have like an executive team with like these super smart, like geniuses in San Francisco.
00:11:44
Speaker
Like, they're doing the Zoom meeting in like the San Francisco Google office and like they have like their breakfast and like they have every, like working at Google is like a dream.
00:11:52
Speaker
These guys are like genius guys.
00:11:54
Speaker
They understand all the ads and algorithms and everything.
00:11:57
Speaker
We like strategize with them every
00:11:58
Speaker
week and they give us strategies that are unreleased to the public.
00:12:02
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:12:03
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:12:04
Speaker
So yeah, we have this new strategy where we can run a YouTube ad, a Google search ad, like someone actually searching for solar.
00:12:10
Speaker
We can run ads on articles like the Huffington Post or USA Today or wherever and then also apps simultaneously.
00:12:18
Speaker
And Google's algorithm will actually just find the best quality you can do based on their income qualification.
00:12:25
Speaker
and also the best cost per lead.
00:12:27
Speaker
And we just let their algorithm and those nerds in San Francisco just like figure it out.
00:12:31
Speaker
And as long as our messaging is good, because our messaging is good, we're good at capturing that interest.
00:12:36
Speaker
It generates a much higher quality lead.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:39
Speaker
Well, that's cool because, I mean, they want you to succeed, right?
00:12:42
Speaker
Because they're making money off it too.
00:12:44
Speaker
So that makes sense why they would give you strategies and all that.
00:12:47
Speaker
Because it's like
Direct Mail Effectiveness in Solar Leads
00:12:48
Speaker
the more you guys succeed, the more money you're going to give them.
00:12:50
Speaker
Exactly, yeah.
00:12:51
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:12:53
Speaker
But it's funny you say like the old school strategy.
00:12:56
Speaker
Have you ever tried that like old school getting people in restaurants with solar?
00:13:00
Speaker
You know, I've heard of a few groups that do it successfully.
00:13:04
Speaker
I think it would definitely work.
00:13:07
Speaker
Like we've never really got into direct mail.
00:13:09
Speaker
I know there's a company here at SolarCons that does direct mail.
00:13:12
Speaker
I wonder if they do that strategy, but it's probably a smart idea.
00:13:15
Speaker
It's probably a smart idea.
00:13:16
Speaker
I think...
00:13:17
Speaker
As long as people are willing to do it, it really can work for anything.
00:13:20
Speaker
It's just the direct mail is super expensive.
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:23
Speaker
And you've got to hope that people show up.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
But it depends probably on the regions and the metro area that you're doing it in.
00:13:30
Speaker
But I get those mailers now for like Bitcoin seminars.
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:33
Speaker
I'm a millionaire in Bitcoin.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
But I'm sure it works.
00:13:38
Speaker
I'm sure the guy's selling a bunch of Bitcoin.
00:13:41
Speaker
I know.
00:13:42
Speaker
If there's free food, it'd work on me.
00:13:44
Speaker
If I go anywhere, there's free food.
00:13:47
Speaker
But that's cool.
00:13:48
Speaker
And so I think the question that a lot of guys have, and I know you've probably seen this over and over, is just like reps, companies getting screwed over by these five-by-the-night agencies and stuff that come out.
00:13:59
Speaker
You know, it's all the time you see these, like, big claims of $1 leads and just all this junk like that.
00:14:05
Speaker
Right.
00:14:06
Speaker
So how would you say, for people listening, how do you, like, recognize the guys that are legit versus, I know there's, like, results.
00:14:14
Speaker
You guys always have tons of results, but I don't know anything besides that to recognize, like, someone that's legit versus that's just going to steal your money.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:14:22
Speaker
So, you know, definitely ask around and find people that have actually used them.
00:14:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:29
Speaker
But also, you know, see like where they're based.
00:14:32
Speaker
Like I know there's a lot of people from like India and Pakistan like running Facebook leads and stuff.
00:14:40
Speaker
And if they just message you on Facebook and you don't know like where they're based or you can't look up their like EIN number or like their company like established in the United States, then probably definitely don't do that.
00:14:51
Speaker
But I think also...
00:14:55
Speaker
you know, when it comes to like scams and stuff is even like a further step than that.
Ensuring Compliance and Reducing Legal Risks
00:15:02
Speaker
And even some of like the established lead companies don't do this.
00:15:05
Speaker
It's like you want to use a company that can protect your business.
00:15:07
Speaker
Like we work with a lot of like big sales orders and a lot of big installers and, um,
00:15:12
Speaker
A lot of smaller sales works too that are doing like five, 10 deals a month, one get to 20, 30 too.
00:15:17
Speaker
But like, you know, when you're working online leads, there's like a huge risk, like this TCPA compliance stuff.
00:15:24
Speaker
You know, like calling leads and like, what if they are on a do not call list?
00:15:29
Speaker
Like, you know, some of the big installers have had class action lawsuits because of, you know, people who just make it their jobs, like going to solar companies because they know solar companies have money.
00:15:41
Speaker
And...
00:15:42
Speaker
So what we do is we get a recording of every single opt-in.
00:15:46
Speaker
So every time someone fills out a lead form, we have a recording of it from an independent third party that can verify that that person filled out that form.
00:15:53
Speaker
They agreed to be contacted, even if they're on it, do not call us.
00:15:57
Speaker
And they agreed to our terms and conditions.
00:15:59
Speaker
And that protected a lot of our clients who got complaints from people because they're working these leads hard.
00:16:05
Speaker
They want to make sales.
00:16:06
Speaker
That's the only way you're going to succeed with it.
00:16:08
Speaker
But you've got to be able to protect yourself.
00:16:10
Speaker
And you want to ask them, hey, do you have a process in place for TCPA compliance?
00:16:16
Speaker
What happens if a lead complains and threatens to sue me?
00:16:19
Speaker
Are you going to be able to protect me with that?
00:16:20
Speaker
So I mean, no...
00:16:25
Speaker
If, like, a company's not established with that process, it's probably not worth investing in them with that.
00:16:31
Speaker
Because if they're anything serious, like, they should have a process for that in place.
00:16:36
Speaker
So, I mean, that's a really good, like, differentiator.
00:16:39
Speaker
You know, we do that, and we have that provided for our clients.
00:16:44
Speaker
But another thing is, you know, obviously there's always going to be a risk in marketing.
00:16:51
Speaker
Like, you can't go to the stock market and, like, 5x your money.
00:16:55
Speaker
Unless you're trading penny stocks where you have insider information.
00:17:00
Speaker
But I think,
00:17:03
Speaker
whenever there's some type of marketing span, like you're spending 3 grand, 5 grand, 10 grand a month or something, there's always going to be some risk.
00:17:11
Speaker
Because if you could put in 5 grand a month with a marketing company and make 50 grand a month, you can't do that in stock market, you can't do it anywhere.
00:17:20
Speaker
That's a crazy good return on investment.
00:17:23
Speaker
But when it comes to marketing, that's like...
00:17:27
Speaker
Like there's risk, it's high reward, it's also high risk.
00:17:30
Speaker
Like what if you don't have a good follow-up process in place?
00:17:32
Speaker
What if you like just get bad luck on the clicks or something?
00:17:36
Speaker
You know, there's all these different like factors that go into it.
00:17:39
Speaker
So you can never like 100% know if you're not going to lose money.
00:17:42
Speaker
Because like I would be lying and saying if like I said every single client who's used Solar Exclusive has been successful.
00:17:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:49
Speaker
Like most, like 95% have made sales.
00:17:53
Speaker
Sometimes like the cost per acquisition just comes in a little too high, they're like, hey, we're just gonna focus on door knocking, like, you know, we don't really wanna manage our cash flow this way.
00:18:02
Speaker
But I mean, for the most part, most of our clients are saying like, yeah, ROI's great, my cost per acquisition's great.
00:18:07
Speaker
Most of their cost per acquisitions are between like $400 and $1,200.
00:18:10
Speaker
Nice.
00:18:11
Speaker
Which is sweet, like if you're making four to 15 grand a deal, like it makes sense.
00:18:16
Speaker
Right.
00:18:17
Speaker
But, you know, obviously there's always going to be some risk in marketing.
00:18:21
Speaker
So don't be afraid to like invest with a solar lead company just because you're afraid of like losing that money.
00:18:27
Speaker
Like you kind of have to set it aside and say like this money for like these next few months, like I'm totally okay losing it if necessary.
00:18:36
Speaker
But as long as you work with a company that's established, you know, one of the top ones, the likelihood of that happening is low.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:46
Speaker
It can still happen.
00:18:48
Speaker
So it's not like... You kind of have to go into it knowing like, hey, I might... We had a guy like spent like five grand and he made like 200 grand in commissions.
00:18:58
Speaker
It's like not normal.
00:19:00
Speaker
It's like not normal.
00:19:01
Speaker
Like he was just like a beast and had like a 90% close ratio.
00:19:08
Speaker
And like...
00:19:10
Speaker
I can't do a testimonial with that guy and put that out there.
00:19:15
Speaker
People are going to be like, what the hell?
00:19:16
Speaker
Why don't I make $200,000 and $500,000?
00:19:17
Speaker
That's very rare.
Importance of Follow-Up in Solar Sales
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
But yeah, I think as long as you know there's a spectrum, I like this.
00:19:30
Speaker
you're going to fall somewhere on that special.
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:33
Speaker
But like most of the time you're going to make money.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:36
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:19:37
Speaker
And I think a lot of people, um, a lot of guys I see like bashing on these marketing agencies and companies too.
00:19:44
Speaker
Um,
00:19:46
Speaker
like I know you mentioned this but a lot of them don't have good follow-up processes in place and like maybe they're just calling the lead one time and they didn't answer and so it's like that's that's it yeah so we have that we provide our clients we just started this offering okay and the CRM like has like some of our tested and proven tech sequences for follow-up and stuff which is like helping a lot of our clients nice but um
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, we record every single call that they make to the lead.
00:20:11
Speaker
So I'm listening to some of these calls, and they're calling 45 minutes after the lead comes in.
00:20:16
Speaker
They're calling while they're driving.
00:20:18
Speaker
They sound super unpolished on the phone.
00:20:22
Speaker
Like one guy, like,
00:20:24
Speaker
He had a Nigerian accent.
00:20:28
Speaker
Nothing against that.
00:20:28
Speaker
He's a super nice guy, great closer.
00:20:31
Speaker
I just kind of recommend it to him.
00:20:32
Speaker
I'm like, hey, hire someone to make your calls for you.
00:20:37
Speaker
There's just this persona around Nigerian scams.
00:20:40
Speaker
They're not going to set as many appointments with you.
00:20:43
Speaker
I'm like, why aren't they setting appointments with me?
00:20:45
Speaker
Well, no offense, dude, but just hire someone else's
00:20:49
Speaker
your appointments, we use our call center or something.
00:20:51
Speaker
You know, so like there's all these different things that can affect the results.
00:20:55
Speaker
That's true.
00:20:56
Speaker
Because all we can do is like generate the interest and you know, on our lead gen panel yesterday, Jason Gallagher, the
00:21:05
Speaker
COO of Fusion Power.
00:21:07
Speaker
He uses us and a couple of the other guys on the panel.
00:21:11
Speaker
And he was saying like, you know, every lead sucks.
00:21:15
Speaker
It's what you make.
00:21:16
Speaker
It's how you make the lead.
00:21:18
Speaker
It's how you connect with them on that first call that can turn a good lead into a great lead or turn a good lead into nothing, into a dead lead.
00:21:28
Speaker
So, I mean, there's so much that goes into it on the back end.
00:21:31
Speaker
Like once we hand it off, it's kind of like, all right, it's up to you now.
00:21:35
Speaker
And so as long as you have a good follow-up process in place, like you can crush it.
00:21:38
Speaker
Like these guys, Devin and Jerem from Primitive Power, they've started something called the Solar Mastermind.
00:21:44
Speaker
And they've closed over 1,500 deals with us in the last two years.
00:21:48
Speaker
100% virtually.
00:21:50
Speaker
Just from our leads.
00:21:51
Speaker
And they have like a $400 to $500 cost per acquisition.
00:21:54
Speaker
Wow, that's awesome.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's just dialed in.
00:21:58
Speaker
Like their follow-up process is just like...
00:22:01
Speaker
down pat, but they know what to do when the lead comes in and know how to follow up with it.
00:22:06
Speaker
They know how to close it and a hundred percent virtually.
00:22:09
Speaker
So like definitely learn from them if you want to learn about virtual sales.
00:22:14
Speaker
But, you know, also I think, you know, it's just a matter of like testing things, just like we test things on the marketing side, like you're going to have to test things on like your followup systems.
00:22:25
Speaker
You know, like if something's not working,
00:22:27
Speaker
Maybe change up what you're saying on the phone or change up your strategy.
00:22:30
Speaker
Get a dialer so that you're calling from a local area code rather than, like, you know, an area code out of state if, like, you're doing virtual sales or something.
00:22:37
Speaker
There were so many things.
00:22:39
Speaker
And, like, we have, like, a six-hour client portal that goes over all, like, best practices.
00:22:42
Speaker
We even book a call, like a 45 minute call with our call center manager.
00:22:48
Speaker
She talks to every single client when they first come on board and like tells them like, this is like best practices.
00:22:53
Speaker
That's what you want to do.
00:22:55
Speaker
And so, yeah, we're not responsible.
00:22:56
Speaker
Like if people don't take our advice, a lot of people don't even watch those six hours of practice, you know, they're busy, but I mean, it's important.
00:23:03
Speaker
Like if you're going to invest money and you want to make sure you maximize the potential.
00:23:08
Speaker
That's good.
00:23:08
Speaker
Well, that's cool.
00:23:09
Speaker
I haven't really heard of many agencies doing that, like training their clients.
00:23:12
Speaker
But I think it's super important just because just like Google, the more success Google's clients have, the more money they're going to make.
00:23:21
Speaker
So it's the same thing, right?
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:23:23
Speaker
Like you want to teach your clients to do these little things and follow up because then they're going to have success and then you guys are going to make money too.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:23:31
Speaker
So that's huge.
00:23:33
Speaker
And, um, well, another thing you mentioned, you guys have a call center, so I know I'm sure some people use it.
00:23:39
Speaker
Some people don't, but when do you like recommend that people use your call center versus just, is it just if they have a good system set in place or?
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker
So it really depends on like a number of things.
00:23:49
Speaker
So like if they're super busy and they don't have time or they don't have someone who can call the leads, like as like their full-time gig, um,
00:23:57
Speaker
generally we recommend it.
00:23:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:59
Speaker
For a lot of these like solo sales orgs or like two partners, like they both do sales, but like they don't have like someone that can set appointments for them.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:06
Speaker
And we generally recommend it.
00:24:08
Speaker
But I think it depends on also part where, dang, I just lost my train of thought.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:16
Speaker
So I think,
00:24:18
Speaker
If they have someone that can call the lead and if they're not getting the leads set at a decent percent.
00:24:24
Speaker
So like our leads, like let's say you get 100 leads from Solar Exclusive, on average 25 to 35% of them will preset an appointment.
00:24:33
Speaker
So it's like right in the system, like we build so much value in our apps that our conversion rate is 25 to 35%.
00:24:39
Speaker
Like they're so interested, they're willing to book on your calendar right now.
00:24:44
Speaker
And then out of that other like 65% to 75% of leads, we'll set about 15% to 20% of those to appointments, the ones that didn't pre-set.
00:24:53
Speaker
So that brings our set percentage up to like 35% to like 43%.
00:24:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:56
Speaker
So like if they're not setting like at least 30% to 35% of the leads to appointments, we recommend like, hey, let's bring it over to our call center.
00:25:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:06
Speaker
So, you know, a lot of guys like...
00:25:08
Speaker
we have one client who's setting like 65% of those leads to appointments.
00:25:11
Speaker
I was like, dude, I've never heard of that.
00:25:14
Speaker
You're doing phenomenal.
00:25:14
Speaker
I don't know what you're doing to these leads, but you're a smooth talker, man.
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah, come lead our call center.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, come lead for our call center.
00:25:22
Speaker
But yeah, it's kind of, you know, depends on like how much time they have.
00:25:28
Speaker
They have the staff available to like do the calling and all that stuff.
00:25:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:34
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:36
Speaker
Yeah, and so, like I've used online leads off and on.
00:25:40
Speaker
As you know, sometimes they're crushing it, sometimes they're like not doing as great and everything.
00:25:45
Speaker
But one of the issues I had with my leads, I am in San Diego, and then sometimes I get a lead clear up north, sometimes it'd be clear down south.
00:25:52
Speaker
Like I tried to set them in the area code, but they're still like, you know, sometimes 45 to an hour minutes of driving between leads at times.
00:26:01
Speaker
And then, of course, I'm like knocking my own doors.
00:26:04
Speaker
So that was my other issues.
00:26:05
Speaker
I'm knocking this door in an area, but then sometimes I'd have to drive 30 minutes to this lead.
00:26:10
Speaker
Most of the time I would confirm on all that.
00:26:12
Speaker
So most of the time they'd be good and show up.
00:26:14
Speaker
But occasionally, even confirmed, occasionally it would still be like a waste of time.
00:26:19
Speaker
Uh-huh.
00:26:20
Speaker
stuff I couldn't control so do you have any advice for I don't know that situation maybe it's someone who's knocking their doors and just how to like manage it between like knocking your own doors versus going to these online leads and just kind of managing all that so part of the reason is because a lot of the ad platforms they target people based on where their device is okay so if they're on their phone
00:26:43
Speaker
and they're in La Jolla and they fill out the lead form and you're targeting La Jolla, but maybe they live at the northern part of San Diego County, but their phone is in La Jolla, so they see the ad and they opt in.
00:26:59
Speaker
Now you have a lead like 45 minutes north because they don't live in La Jolla.
00:27:04
Speaker
They just happen to be there when they see the ad.
00:27:05
Speaker
Or at the beach or something.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:27:08
Speaker
So that's going to happen sometimes.
00:27:11
Speaker
But I think when it comes down to it, I mean, you can only be so many places as one individual, right?
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
Maybe the answer is like hiring a couple other door knockers, hiring a couple other reps, and then being able to duplicate yourself, train some other people so that you can do both.
00:27:29
Speaker
There's no real answer for that.
00:27:31
Speaker
If you have a lead here, you want to knock there, you had a couple of people that you talked to that you want to go back to and close, then you have a lead like 45 minutes more, you're probably going to be like, oh, forget it, I'm not going to go to that lead.
00:27:43
Speaker
But if you had another rep, you'd be like, hey, head over there.
00:27:49
Speaker
I mean, there's only so much we can do as far as targeting is concerned.
00:27:53
Speaker
The bigger of an area we can target, the better cost per lead you're going to get.
00:27:58
Speaker
So we have some clients who say, oh, I want to target a two-mile radius around here.
00:28:01
Speaker
I want to target just this block.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:04
Speaker
Only so many people.
00:28:06
Speaker
That's really tough.
00:28:07
Speaker
There's only so many people on YouTube on that block.
00:28:09
Speaker
We're not going to be able to get that much to look for you there.
00:28:13
Speaker
But if we could target a bigger area, like 50-mile radius, like minimum.
00:28:18
Speaker
Like minimum.
00:28:20
Speaker
That's what we need.
00:28:21
Speaker
Every once in a while, someone will be like, oh, I need a 20-mile radius from Orlando.
00:28:24
Speaker
and they just murder it.
00:28:25
Speaker
They're just great closers.
00:28:26
Speaker
And even though their cost per lead is a little higher, they don't care because they're like, oh, this is great.
00:28:31
Speaker
I'm just driving 20 minutes back and forth and I'll close the deal.
00:28:36
Speaker
But we try to give the best opportunity for success.
00:28:39
Speaker
And usually a bigger area is going to be better.
00:28:42
Speaker
yeah get some more boots on the ground in those areas for you okay that's yeah I should have done that it's good to know and would you say you have a lot of clients that are still knocking doors a lot of them yeah heard a lot of them just switch to virtual or what have you seen so yeah when it comes to like balancing leads and knocking doors
00:29:04
Speaker
A lot of our clients have a door knocking crew that'll go to different areas and they'll hit a certain region and then maybe they'll sell virtually throughout the rest of the state.
00:29:14
Speaker
So they have a virtual team and then they have a door team.
00:29:17
Speaker
And they'll do both simultaneously.
00:29:19
Speaker
Because there's no reason to stop door knocking if it's working.
00:29:25
Speaker
It's just like hiring more people to maximize that channel.
00:29:29
Speaker
You know, we've been talking about at SolarCon all week, like you want to maximize your channels.
00:29:33
Speaker
Like, why not do every channel?
00:29:34
Speaker
Like, if you can, use all the top lead companies.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah, for real.
00:29:38
Speaker
Like, why not pick only one?
00:29:39
Speaker
I know.
00:29:40
Speaker
Split test all of them and scale with the one that works the best.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:44
Speaker
So...
00:29:46
Speaker
I think maximizing those channels is important.
00:29:49
Speaker
But for the people who are maybe like a solo sales or two partners that they focus on sales, they have their install EPC partner and they want to still knock and do leads at the same time,
00:30:01
Speaker
Like, yeah, you're, you're going to be limited because like, you're going to be busy with the doors and be busy with the leads.
00:30:07
Speaker
And, you know, sometimes it's just, the answer is just hire more people, you know, to kind of balance it.
00:30:12
Speaker
And that, I mean, there's so much opportunity in the solar industry right now.
00:30:16
Speaker
Like a lot of these groups, like these big sales orgs and stuff, like, like they started out as like solopreneurs, solopreneurs, solopreneurs.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
You know?
00:30:27
Speaker
Um, but, uh,
00:30:30
Speaker
And then they just built this massive organization.
00:30:33
Speaker
Like this is the time to do it.
00:30:34
Speaker
Like solar is like in its infant stage right now.
00:30:37
Speaker
Like you can also do the same thing.
00:30:39
Speaker
And it's going to be difficult to do it without online leads in today's day and age.
00:30:44
Speaker
Like we have a client who, um,
00:30:47
Speaker
he was about to shut down his sales work.
00:30:50
Speaker
He had his last $2,000 in his business bank account.
00:30:55
Speaker
His team wasn't closing deals, he wasn't closing deals in the doors in Florida.
00:30:59
Speaker
And he was like, you know what, I'm just gonna throw his last $2,000 to Solvers, because I hope and pray it works, otherwise, dude, if it doesn't work, I'm shutting down my sales work.
00:31:07
Speaker
He was like, he's gone with Solvers.
00:31:08
Speaker
That's a lot of pressure on you guys.
00:31:09
Speaker
You're like, well, we better get the sky results.
00:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, so he closed a couple deals in the first round, a few deals, like three or four.
00:31:16
Speaker
With his M1s, he paid for the next month.
00:31:18
Speaker
He was like, wow, we got some traction.
00:31:19
Speaker
All right, cool.
00:31:20
Speaker
He was getting excited again.
00:31:22
Speaker
Sold a bunch more deals the next month.
00:31:23
Speaker
Gradually over time, this was two years ago.
00:31:26
Speaker
Gradually over time, he just built it and built it and scaled and scaled.
00:31:29
Speaker
Took our advice on how to scale.
00:31:31
Speaker
Now he's in 18 different markets selling virtually.
00:31:35
Speaker
He spends about a quarter million dollars a month with us.
00:31:38
Speaker
The guy's a solar millionaire now.
00:31:39
Speaker
He was just like a solo entrepreneur originally and like literally about to give up.
00:31:45
Speaker
And like the guy's like, dude, like you changed my life.
00:31:47
Speaker
Like you changed my business.
00:31:48
Speaker
Like if it wasn't for you, like we would have never been able to get to this point.
00:31:54
Speaker
So like it's really cool to see like that stuff happen.
00:31:58
Speaker
Like it's really possible to do it with online leads.
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:03
Speaker
I mean, you can only knock so many doors in a day.
00:32:06
Speaker
It's always going to be the best face-to-face interaction.
00:32:09
Speaker
You're always going to have the highest close ratio.
00:32:12
Speaker
It's always going to be easy money that you can always get.
00:32:16
Speaker
But now we've got to start thinking about how do we get to that next level?
00:32:20
Speaker
How do we grow our business?
00:32:23
Speaker
you know, really scale.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:26
Speaker
And you can do it all door knocking.
00:32:27
Speaker
Like, if you're, if you're a door knocking master, like, there's some door knock, like, knock stars here.
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:32
Speaker
You know, those guys, like, that's some really cool stuff.
00:32:35
Speaker
Like, they're, they're really talented door guys.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:37
Speaker
And if you just train, like, 100 door knockers, like, you could probably build a great organization.
00:32:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:43
Speaker
All over the country.
00:32:44
Speaker
But, like,
00:32:45
Speaker
It doesn't mean you have to only do door knocking.
00:32:47
Speaker
You can do online leads too.
00:32:48
Speaker
A lot of people, they don't do door knocking at all.
00:32:50
Speaker
They do only online leads.
00:32:52
Speaker
We have a client who they sell virtually and they spend like 400 grand a month with us.
00:32:57
Speaker
They don't do any door knocking.
00:32:58
Speaker
I was like, why don't you do door knocking?
00:33:00
Speaker
He's like, I just don't need to.
00:33:02
Speaker
We have enough leads from you.
00:33:05
Speaker
Everyone likes working virtually and no one wants to go out in the heat.
00:33:08
Speaker
It's just kind of easier that way.
00:33:10
Speaker
It depends.
00:33:11
Speaker
Every organization is different.
00:33:12
Speaker
It's always good to have multiple channels.
00:33:16
Speaker
I mean, yeah, if you're just knocking doors or you have a small knocking team or something,
00:33:23
Speaker
make on the doors.
00:33:24
Speaker
So sometimes it's good to diversify.
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:33:28
Speaker
And yeah, no, that's what I've always kind of preached on the podcast is just like, why not do both?
00:33:32
Speaker
I mean, like you were saying, get leads from all types of channels.
00:33:36
Speaker
And I think if you door knock, you're probably going to be better on the phones to overcome objections and all that.
00:33:42
Speaker
And of course, like it's only going to help everything else.
00:33:44
Speaker
If you know how to door knock, if you know how to close, I think it's going to make everything that much more powerful.
00:33:49
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, I've tried to run online stuff on my own too.
00:33:53
Speaker
And I don't know if you run into that, like a lot of guys, like Rich is doing it.
00:33:58
Speaker
Rich doesn't look that smart.
00:33:59
Speaker
I'm gonna go just run this myself.
00:34:03
Speaker
But it's like, I don't know, a lot of times it doesn't work out and I was running it myself, but just for me, it was like I was having some degree of success.
00:34:10
Speaker
Obviously, I hadn't mastered it or anything, so my cost was a lot higher than just buying it from you guys and other agencies.
00:34:17
Speaker
But I was having some success, but for me, it just got tough to like door knock and then close and then manage that and no, this ad copy isn't working, I've got to go adjust it and
00:34:26
Speaker
and have hours to analyze it and run all the tests and stuff.
00:34:30
Speaker
So I'm just like, all right, for me, I'm just going to have someone else run this and not have to deal with it.
00:34:36
Speaker
But do you see a lot of guys that try to do it in your house?
00:34:38
Speaker
And I don't know if you get asked that, it's like, Rich, why don't you just take these leads, go close them on your own?
00:34:43
Speaker
If you're making so much money, why don't you go close them on your own?
00:34:46
Speaker
But what would you say to that?
00:34:47
Speaker
Or why do you think it is that guys just don't start this on their own?
00:34:51
Speaker
And what's the benefit of trying to do it on your own versus hiring an agency like you guys?
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:34:57
Speaker
So I think what it comes down to is like, you don't know what you don't know.
Keeping Up with Advertising Changes
00:35:00
Speaker
And it's also like a time commitment.
00:35:02
Speaker
Like you have to learn how to do it, number one.
00:35:05
Speaker
Number two, like everything's changing all the time.
00:35:08
Speaker
Like every three to six months, like the platforms have changed, like the algorithms have changed.
00:35:14
Speaker
Like for instance, like last year in 2021, YouTube like changed their whole ad platform.
00:35:19
Speaker
Like they used to only show an ad at the beginning of the video.
00:35:23
Speaker
So in March 2021, they started showing ads in the middle of videos.
00:35:27
Speaker
So, cause they didn't have enough ads.
00:35:28
Speaker
Everyone was trying to run YouTube ads and there wasn't enough space.
00:35:32
Speaker
So the costs were going up.
00:35:33
Speaker
So they started adding ads in the middle of the videos.
00:35:35
Speaker
It was a disaster at first because people were like watching their video.
00:35:39
Speaker
It's like a five minute long video.
00:35:41
Speaker
They skipped the ad and they're watching the video for like another minute and a half and another ad comes on and they're like, what the hell?
00:35:47
Speaker
Like no one wants to like see another ad after they've already gotten their video.
00:35:51
Speaker
So, it's actually, the algorithm was kind of thrown off a little bit.
00:35:54
Speaker
And our cost per lead went up a little bit in 2021 because of that.
00:35:57
Speaker
We had to figure out how are we going to fix this.
00:36:03
Speaker
And when those type of things happen, it kind of throws everything off.
00:36:07
Speaker
upside down and you have to go and figure it out.
00:36:10
Speaker
So do you have time to be researching all that stuff and figuring out what to do?
00:36:15
Speaker
And we have a really quick way to figure out a solution because we're spending millions per month.
00:36:20
Speaker
So we know exactly, all right, this isn't working, this isn't working, this isn't working, this is working, let's test that more.
00:36:26
Speaker
Let's refine that.
00:36:27
Speaker
So we can quickly find a solution that'll solve the problem.
00:36:31
Speaker
Whereas if you're spending just for yourself, you're not even close to that level of spend.
00:36:36
Speaker
You're just going to waste money losing out on where the changes are.
00:36:41
Speaker
It's all the platforms.
00:36:42
Speaker
Facebook changes, YouTube, Google, all of them change so drastically.
00:36:45
Speaker
So what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.
00:36:48
Speaker
And if you want like a...
00:36:51
Speaker
a successful go at this, you really should just focus on what you're best at, which is just closing deals.
00:36:58
Speaker
And same thing for me, I just need to focus on what I'm best at, which is marketing.
00:37:03
Speaker
Could I sell solar?
00:37:05
Speaker
Sure.
00:37:06
Speaker
I think I can learn closing techniques and I understand a lot about the industry already just doing this for five years.
00:37:13
Speaker
But like, is that really where my expertise is?
00:37:16
Speaker
You know, not really.
00:37:17
Speaker
Like I've tried, like we've hired some reps and I did like an inside sales thing with Zola exclusive for a little while.
00:37:23
Speaker
And we're just running our own leads and like sending them to them.
00:37:25
Speaker
And what I found was just a huge headache, like a huge headache training reps.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:32
Speaker
Because like we're getting like these newbies and stuff.
00:37:34
Speaker
And it was just like, I had to hire someone just like train them.
00:37:37
Speaker
And then he was always busy with his own sales org.
00:37:39
Speaker
And it's just like, oh man, it was just, yeah.
00:37:42
Speaker
It's not for lack of trying.
00:37:44
Speaker
It's just that I just need to stay in my lane and just do what's best, what I do best.
00:37:50
Speaker
And I think that's really where it's key.
00:37:53
Speaker
And we've tried different dealer program models.
00:37:55
Speaker
We've worked with some installers in the past that
00:37:58
Speaker
Ended up going under and like they said all these great swelling things that they were gonna you know build an inside sales division They were gonna you know build a dealer model through solar exclusive and like we worked I worked on some of these strategic partnerships for a while and they end up going under and You know, I'm just like man.
00:38:15
Speaker
I like I'm trying to get into solar sales as much as I can but at the same time like you know Marketing is my yeah, so much focus on that, you know yeah, yeah
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, well, no, I mean, you think of the solopreneur, entrepreneur, right?
00:38:29
Speaker
I mean, they're focused on what they're good at.
00:38:31
Speaker
And then, like any successful business owner, entrepreneur, I think that's what they're doing is focus on the couple of things that they're really good at.
00:38:40
Speaker
And then they're getting other people to do the rest.
00:38:42
Speaker
So, yeah, I think that's important in solar, too.
00:38:45
Speaker
It's like, I don't know, I haven't really seen a guy that's successful, like running his own ads, knocking doors, closing.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
Like maybe they're running a company and you have people doing those different things.
00:38:56
Speaker
But yeah, I think it's important to kind of realize that.
00:38:58
Speaker
And otherwise you always still want, because there's a lot of times where I could have been out like selling more myself.
00:39:03
Speaker
I was like, oh, you know what?
00:39:04
Speaker
Instead of going out and knocking on clothes and today I'm going to like spend three hours on a Facebook trying to figure out how to start a Facebook ad.
00:39:12
Speaker
It's like you got to look at what's the, you know, cost of like learning that.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, you can spend time to close two deals.
00:39:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
So I think sometimes people forget that.
00:39:22
Speaker
But no, Rich, it's been great having you on.
00:39:24
Speaker
And just to kind of start as we wrap up here, would you say with the companies you're working with, the successful ones that you see, do they have guys that are actually over marketing
Utilizing Marketing Specialists in Solar
00:39:34
Speaker
too?
00:39:34
Speaker
Or are they just kind of outsourcing everything to you and running it?
00:39:38
Speaker
Or do you think it's important to have guys in solar companies or dealers that are like...
00:39:42
Speaker
I don't know, running marketing here, kind of helping out with that stuff or what do you think?
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, so we've kind of seen it all over the spectrum.
00:39:48
Speaker
I mean, we have some clients who like have a marketing guy who kind of, they're just a liaison between their lead partners.
00:39:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:55
Speaker
So they just analyze the numbers and they see, okay, this is our cost proposition from Solar Exclusive, this is our cost proposition from Solar Cheek Coat, CrossFit Bacon, et cetera.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
And they just kind of manage the relationships and move the budgets around to all the different lead partners.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:09
Speaker
I mean, there's other companies that have an in-house marketing team, and they outsource to us, and then they learn, like, wow, we don't really need our in-house marketing team.
00:40:17
Speaker
It's cheaper to pay for exclusive to the bank to pay four or five salaries to these digital marketers when they're not even getting close to the same results.
00:40:26
Speaker
So that's happened before.
00:40:28
Speaker
And then we have other people who do both successfully.
00:40:30
Speaker
Maybe they have one or two guys that are doing the Facebook stuff and they're crushing it.
00:40:35
Speaker
But they need Google and YouTube.
00:40:37
Speaker
And that's where our expertise comes in.
00:40:39
Speaker
That's what we primarily do.
00:40:41
Speaker
Because it is a more complex platform.
00:40:43
Speaker
As far as...
00:40:44
Speaker
like simplicity.
00:40:46
Speaker
Facebook is like a three out of 10.
00:40:49
Speaker
Like three is being easy.
00:40:51
Speaker
One being easy, 10 being super difficult.
00:40:53
Speaker
Whereas YouTube and Google are like an eight, nine or 10.
00:40:57
Speaker
So a lot more challenging platform to like run ads on.
00:41:00
Speaker
So a lot of our clients, you know, they might have some internal Facebook people and they're crushing it there.
00:41:05
Speaker
But they also do Google and YouTube with us because they know that
00:41:08
Speaker
They've tried it or they don't know where you're going to start.
00:41:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:12
Speaker
And it's just better to just use a proven system that's already dialed in.
00:41:17
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:41:18
Speaker
Is Google – so Google and YouTube are like separate.
00:41:21
Speaker
I know Google owns YouTube, but they're like separate platforms.
00:41:23
Speaker
They are, yeah.
00:41:25
Speaker
So like for instance, like if someone goes on YouTube and is like searching like how do I fix my leaking faucet or like how do I change my light bulbs to LEDs or, you know,
00:41:36
Speaker
What does solar energy cost or something on YouTube?
00:41:38
Speaker
Because YouTube is basically a search engine.
00:41:40
Speaker
Google's turned it into a search engine.
00:41:41
Speaker
And then we can pop up an ad for those people, those homeowners that are looking into those videos.
00:41:46
Speaker
But then when someone goes to google.com and searches how much the solar costs or solar companies near me, we want to be right at the top of that page with an ad explaining the program, take them to a video, educate them.
00:42:00
Speaker
get their information, get the recording of them filling out the form, and then build a bunch of value and say, like, hey, we're going to do all the shopping for you so that we can find you the best exclusive partner.
00:42:11
Speaker
And then, obviously, it's always going to be that client, that exclusive lead.
00:42:15
Speaker
It's going to be exclusive to them.
00:42:16
Speaker
So we kind of do the shopping for them, 99%.
00:42:19
Speaker
of our leads, our clients tell us, are never shoppers.
00:42:22
Speaker
Which is great.
00:42:23
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah, because people are used to using CEE or using solar reviews and they're getting five, six quotes and you have to drop the price per watt as low as you can just to get the deal.
00:42:36
Speaker
Whereas, you could sell less.
00:42:39
Speaker
with our leads and sell them at a higher net price per watt.
00:42:42
Speaker
And that's why our clients are so happy.
00:42:46
Speaker
And it's not like it's worse for the customer either.
00:42:48
Speaker
It's only going to increase their payment by a minimal amount.
00:42:52
Speaker
But it matters a lot to you, because that's going to be
00:42:55
Speaker
Depend on how much money you can take home.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, because I know that's another, I'm sure you hear that too.
00:42:59
Speaker
That's another objection people have with online needs.
00:43:02
Speaker
Like, oh, I don't want to deal with the shoppers.
00:43:04
Speaker
Right.
00:43:04
Speaker
Because that's one of the benefits of knocking.
00:43:06
Speaker
You know, you can go, you can generate the interest.
00:43:08
Speaker
And usually they're not much less likely to be shoppers if you're knocking on their door and kind of creating that interest.
00:43:14
Speaker
Exactly, yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:43:17
Speaker
Yeah, we can kind of duplicate that process on Google and YouTube.
00:43:20
Speaker
But Facebook, I think, tends to have a lot more shoppers.
00:43:23
Speaker
Because they click on one ad and then immediately, a couple of scrolls later, they see another ad.
00:43:27
Speaker
They check that one out.
00:43:28
Speaker
And then now you've got multiple companies calling them.
00:43:31
Speaker
A lot of the companies, like CEE or Modernize, they use Facebook.
00:43:36
Speaker
So if someone fills out a Facebook ad, they're going to share it with five or six companies.
00:43:40
Speaker
So immediately, you're already...
00:43:43
Speaker
And like even if you're running your own face with guys and they fill out your lead for them, but what if they go and fill out CEE's next?
00:43:50
Speaker
Now you're competing with six other people.
00:43:52
Speaker
You know, so...
00:43:55
Speaker
that's kind of the luck of the draw there sometimes yeah that's true no i like that and so rich for people that want to um you know potentially get started with you guys or you know find out more about solar exclusive what's the best way to get in touch and yeah best way to get in touch is hey if you ever see one of our ads just go go click on that go to the bottom of the page and fill out a form and we'll talk to you or you can go to our website solarexclusive.com okay um
00:44:19
Speaker
You can learn
Connecting with Solar Exclusive
00:44:20
Speaker
more about us.
00:44:20
Speaker
We've got a bunch of blogs on there to kind of explain our process.
00:44:24
Speaker
You can watch a short six-minute video where we just kind of explain everything.
00:44:28
Speaker
Also, I'd be willing to give my presentation that I gave here at SolarCon to all your listeners.
00:44:33
Speaker
That'd be awesome.
00:44:34
Speaker
So I could give you a link to put with the recording.
00:44:37
Speaker
Oh, sweet.
00:44:37
Speaker
And it's 45 minutes.
00:44:38
Speaker
It just goes over our entire process and what we've learned over the last five years.
00:44:43
Speaker
Spending over 46 million dollars on solar ads nice.
00:44:45
Speaker
So yeah, we'd love to work with with more people and help them, you know You know get their business to the next level.
00:44:52
Speaker
Thanks so much for having me.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah, no appreciate you So yeah guys go hit up rich let him know you appreciated his advice on the show today and then we will put in the show notes the link to his presentation and
00:45:03
Speaker
So go check that out.
00:45:04
Speaker
It adds a ton of value.
00:45:05
Speaker
And then before we wrap up here, any, I don't know, final like hacks or tips or anything that's been super helpful for like your clients that we didn't cover?
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would say...
00:45:18
Speaker
When it comes to when you're talking about solar, get really specific with how much people can save in your first initial.
00:45:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:29
Speaker
Nice.
00:45:30
Speaker
Because we've tested ads where we just keep things general.
00:45:33
Speaker
When we get specific, you're going to save between $100, $200, $300 a month.
00:45:36
Speaker
You're going to save between $25,000 and $50,000 over the lifetime of your system.
00:45:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:42
Speaker
Like those type of like keywords, like if you're at the door knocking, like that's going to pique someone's interest.
00:45:46
Speaker
Like, okay, tell me more about that.
00:45:48
Speaker
Oh, I like that.
00:45:49
Speaker
Saying like no cost up front instead of zero money down or zero out of pocket.
00:45:53
Speaker
Start saying no cost up front and say to you, no cost up front to you.
00:45:57
Speaker
You know, like there's a sales book, um, how I raised myself from failure to success and selling.
00:46:02
Speaker
And he says like,
00:46:04
Speaker
A person's name is the best word in the English language.
00:46:07
Speaker
When they hear their own name, that's the most important word in their life.
00:46:15
Speaker
If you could say you, get their name, say, John, there's no cost up front.
00:46:21
Speaker
You're going to save between $100 and $300 a month on your energy bills, John.
00:46:24
Speaker
Let me show you exactly how this works.
00:46:27
Speaker
Use their name.
00:46:28
Speaker
Say to you.
00:46:29
Speaker
We call out people on our ads, always saying, hey, you can go solar.
00:46:34
Speaker
for no cost up front and save his money.
00:46:37
Speaker
And we always call them out and say, you, you, you, as much as we can.
00:46:41
Speaker
Because that grabs their attention and helps them focus more, helps them listen to what you're saying.
00:46:46
Speaker
It helps pre-sell them.
00:46:49
Speaker
before he actually gets the pitch.
00:46:50
Speaker
That's huge.
00:46:51
Speaker
And so would you say that's better than just saying, oh, you could say between 20% and 40% off your bill?
00:46:56
Speaker
You think it's better to get a specific number?
00:46:58
Speaker
Yeah, because as long as you're up to $100, $200, $300, it could be, they might only say $60 a month, but as long as you're saying up to, it'd be like, yeah, well, this is your situation.
00:47:09
Speaker
There's so much energy you use, there's so many panels we can fit on your roof.
00:47:12
Speaker
But still, I mean, I would try to get specific.
00:47:15
Speaker
You could say, like, we had, like, with my solar in my house, I saved, like, $500 a month.
00:47:20
Speaker
So, you know, I say up to $500 a month.
00:47:23
Speaker
Nice.
00:47:24
Speaker
Because, like, yeah, like, maybe I could save $500.
00:47:27
Speaker
Like, maybe not, but it's up to $500.
00:47:29
Speaker
It's up to.
00:47:30
Speaker
Nice.
00:47:30
Speaker
Those are, like, key advertising words, right?
00:47:33
Speaker
You could save as much as $500.
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:36
Speaker
But, you know, obviously, in most cases, it's not going to be that.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:40
Speaker
Well, I like that too because like you're still giving them like a number to grab onto but it's something that drives me nuts is we have, you know, lead setters at our company and sometimes we'll be like, oh, we're going to cut your, like your bill is only going to be 50 bucks when their bill was like 250 before.
00:47:55
Speaker
It's like, guys, don't tell them that.
00:47:58
Speaker
It's not realistic at all.
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:48:00
Speaker
But I like that you're still giving them a number but you're not like necessarily saying, oh, it's going to be this.
00:48:05
Speaker
Yeah, you can say like $50, $100, $150 a month.
00:48:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
whatever your market is, obviously it's gonna be different.
00:48:11
Speaker
Because a lot of markets, they do bill swaps.
00:48:13
Speaker
Like in Florida or Texas or some of these markets where they're gonna pay the exact same amount.
00:48:18
Speaker
They're not gonna save anything the first year.
00:48:21
Speaker
But what you could say is, oh, every year,
00:48:25
Speaker
Your electric bills are going to go up with this whole Ukraine war going on right now.
00:48:29
Speaker
Energy prices are forecasted to skyrocket.
00:48:32
Speaker
They're going to go up 20% next year.
00:48:34
Speaker
You're going to be locked in at this rate.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah, you're going to save $100 a month.
00:48:39
Speaker
It's going to take a few years to build up to that.
00:48:41
Speaker
But imagine you're never going to have to pay that ever-increasing electric bill ever again.
00:48:46
Speaker
So even if it's a bill swap, like you can get away with saying like you're going to save 20,000 over the lifetime of your system.
00:48:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's true.
00:48:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:48:56
Speaker
So yeah, guys, take notes on that.
00:48:59
Speaker
Go use it.
00:49:00
Speaker
And Rich, thanks again for coming on.
00:49:02
Speaker
So let them know you appreciated him, you know, coming on the podcast.
00:49:05
Speaker
And then are you on like Instagram, Facebook and all that too?
00:49:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm on Facebook.
00:49:10
Speaker
I don't really check Facebook as much.
00:49:11
Speaker
I kind of like stay off social media.
00:49:13
Speaker
Even though I do like... That's your business.
00:49:16
Speaker
You get sick of it.
00:49:18
Speaker
But yeah, hit us up at Solar Exclusive.
00:49:21
Speaker
We actually have this new Facebook group.
00:49:23
Speaker
It's called Solar Exclusive Giveaway Group.
00:49:25
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:49:25
Speaker
So everyone go and just search Solar Exclusive Giveaways.
00:49:28
Speaker
We're just giving away free campaigns every month.
00:49:31
Speaker
Oh, all right.
00:49:32
Speaker
That's dope.
00:49:32
Speaker
Just random contests.
00:49:34
Speaker
We'll just choose a random winner and we'll run your campaign for free for a month.
00:49:38
Speaker
And yeah, you can decide after that if you want to continue it or not.
00:49:41
Speaker
Dang.
00:49:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:42
Speaker
I'm going to get in on that.
00:49:44
Speaker
So yeah, go join his group.
00:49:46
Speaker
And then, yeah, thanks again, Rich.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Taylor.
00:49:48
Speaker
And if you haven't run online leads before, go try it out.
00:49:51
Speaker
Rich is a great resource, great place to start with that.
00:49:54
Speaker
And like we're talking about, I think it's good to use all your avenues, all the ways of getting leads we have possible.
00:49:59
Speaker
So thanks again, Rich.
00:50:01
Speaker
We'll talk soon.
00:50:01
Speaker
Thanks, man.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, cool.
00:50:04
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:50:05
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:50:06
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:50:17
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:50:24
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:50:27
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:50:32
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solrepreneur.
00:50:45
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
00:50:47
Speaker
So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:50:54
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:50:55
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:50:59
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:51:04
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:51:07
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:51:09
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:51:11
Speaker
And
00:51:11
Speaker
especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:51:16
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:51:17
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.