Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
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.
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.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
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.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Today, I'm going to be rolling out my top secret referral framework.
Speaker: The secret that has allowed me to get 10 plus referrals, not every time, but almost every time in my appointments.
Speaker: So I'm going to share that with you and much more coming up on today's podcast.
Speaker: Welcome to the show.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals by getting more leads and referrals and hopefully also have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Appreciate everyone that has taken the time to leave us a review or share the podcast.
Speaker: That is what helps us grow more than anything.
Speaker: And that's my biggest ask is that you can share the show and help us continue to reach more people.
Speaker: So today, before we jump in the podcast, I wanted to again invite you to
Speaker: to door-to-door con if you are coming shoot me a dm shoot me an email um we are organizing a little meetup little uh meet and greet with your boy and uh some other studs so hit me up would love to hang out if any of you are going to door-to-door con here coming up soon um i guess in a couple days so i guess disregard that if you listen to this after january guess what would that be after january 19th then you can disregard that but still hit me up i love to hear from the audience
Speaker: And so today, something I've been focusing on a lot this year and a Q4 of last year is referrals.
Speaker: So you've probably heard me talk referrals.
Speaker: We've had some guys that know a lot about how to get referrals and really build a referral based business.
Speaker: The most recent guy, which would definitely recommend this podcast was Matt Crowther.
Speaker: If you did not listen to his episode,
Speaker: We'll link it in the show notes.
Speaker: Go give that a listen because a lot of what I'm going to share on today's podcast is based around what he taught me in that episode and just other things that have been working for me.
Speaker: And I've mentioned a few of these things here and there, but today's episode, I'm going to put it in a step-by-step framework.
Speaker: And I'm actually going to share a live recording of an ask I did in a recent sale that I had where I was able to get 10 referrals after the close.
Speaker: So I'm going to share that and really just break down what I did and some mistakes that I also made in the referral ask.
Speaker: So hopefully it's helpful and hopefully it helps you build a referral based business because we all know when people are introduced to someone, it's a much warmer lead.
Speaker: It's easier than knocking doors a lot of times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Who doesn't like to get leads, warm leads handed to them, right?
Speaker: So let's jump into what the framework is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I broke this down and what I did is I identified six steps that if you follow are going to give you a very high likelihood of getting referrals in your appointments.
Speaker: Okay, and I'm going to play this recording as I go through these steps here.
Speaker: But step number one is this, and that's the referral ask should start at the beginning of the cell.
Speaker: It should start almost the second you get in the home.
Speaker: And what I mean by that is when you are inside the home, hopefully all of you are doing some type of pre-frame where you tell the homeowner what to expect, where you tell them what's going to happen at the end, where you walk them through the process.
Speaker: So that way when you get to the end of the close, they're not surprised by you asking for the business, right?
Speaker: And so what you need to add to this is the pre-frame for referrals.
Speaker: So you should get them thinking that not only after the end of your presentation that day, not only are they going to make a yes or no decision in order to get solar, but they're also going to give you referrals at the end of it.
Speaker: So that when you get to the end, it's not a surprise that you're asking for referrals either.
Speaker: And so here's how I do this.
Speaker: As you're going through the pre-frame, as you're going through the fact finding, saying, hey, Mr. Homeowner, if this all makes sense, if the numbers check out, if we answer your questions, then today we would start an application, submit the form, sound fair.
Speaker: Get your yes right there.
Speaker: And then what you're doing, you're creating the frame around referrals.
Speaker: So what I say is this, I say, Mr. Homeowner, the reason you haven't heard about our company is because we don't spend a bunch of money to put ourselves on TV or pay for billboards.
Speaker: I'm sure you've seen companies do that, right?
Speaker: So we don't do that.
Speaker: And the reason is we prefer to pass savings on to the customers to, or pardon, say customers, the families we serve, right?
Speaker: Make sure they're not just thinking they're going to be another customer, but they're going to be a family that you've served.
Speaker: And so the way we work, it's called word of mouth marketing.
Speaker: Are you guys familiar with that term?
Speaker: I don't know if you've heard of that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, it's just if you're happy with a product or service that you spread the word and you tell other people about it.
Speaker: So Mr. Homeowner, I'm curious if you like in the past when you are when you're happy with your products or services, are you the type of person that generally opens your mouth about it and tells others?
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Okay, awesome.
Speaker: So obviously, as long as we help you out with this and do a good job and, you know, serve your needs, is that something that you are open to doing with this program as well?
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So at the end of this, we'll look for other people.
Speaker: And because that is part of our requirements is that we do work by those, by word of mouth marketing.
Speaker: We'll brainstorm at the end and look for some introductions we can make.
Speaker: So you've told them what's going to happen.
Speaker: Another line I like to throw in there, I think I got this from Taylor McCarthy is, you don't have to tap people on the shoulder at Walmart or anything, but it's just, you know, people, you know, you know, if your neighbor Bob comes to the mailbox, asks you about your soul or that you're just going to tell them about it, stuff like that.
Speaker: So you made an introduction.
Speaker: They know at the end that they are giving you referrals.
Speaker: So that's step number one.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then step number two is you bring up the vacation.
Speaker: And so me personally, and I got this from Matt Crowther, if you go and listen to his episode, he gives vacation incentives to his referrals, or I should say refers, right?
Speaker: And so the requirements, what I do personally is there's two ways to get this vacation incentive.
Speaker: Number one, you can make 10 introductions with people.
Speaker: And that just means that they send a group text to you and then the person they're referring.
Speaker: And then it doesn't matter what the person says.
Speaker: They can say yes, no, or screw you, whatever.
Speaker: They can say whatever.
Speaker: And that counts as an introduction.
Speaker: So they make 10 of those introductions.
Speaker: They're going to get put in a raffle that you decide when you're going to do for a $3,000 vacation.
Speaker: Or the second way to get it for sure is they have 10 people that they refer that end up going somewhere.
Speaker: And that's a guaranteed trip.
Speaker: So you're helping them get to those 10 people.
Speaker: So before you ask for referrals, you need to paint the picture.
Speaker: What is their dream vacation?
Speaker: So you get through the clothes, you went through the numbers, they signed up, they're happy.
Speaker: So you go into your referral ask.
Speaker: But before that, you say, hey, Mr. Homeowner, so we're doing some cool stuff.
Speaker: Like I mentioned, we're working through word of mouth.
Speaker: So we have some pretty awesome incentives right now.
Speaker: I'm trying to hit big numbers and I have a personal goal to get to XYZ.
Speaker: I'm just spreading the word about solar.
Speaker: Get some emotion involved in there.
Speaker: Something I'm trying to improve and making it personal about you, a personal goal you have because everyone wants to help others out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then you ask them, so I'm curious, we're doing some vacations, actually, actually a cool way can win a trip.
Speaker: But I'm curious, Mr. Homeowner, if you guys got a dream vacation, where would it be?
Speaker: Where would you go?
Speaker: Venice, Italy.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And so you get them thinking about what is that dream place that they would go to.
Speaker: And then as you ask, you're getting the emotion involved.
Speaker: They're picturing themselves on the white beaches of Venice.
Speaker: I hope Venice has beaches.
Speaker: I've never been there.
Speaker: So if you're Italian, don't shoot the messenger.
Speaker: But they're thinking about that and then it's going to make it way easier to ask because people make decisions based on emotions and they justify it with logic.
Speaker: It's the same thing as you're getting referrals.
Speaker: So get that emotion involved.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so once you've done that, then you go into your explaining what the actual incentive is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So for me, that's just saying, again, there's two ways to get it.
Speaker: Here's how you do it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so I'm going to play a clip of a live ask that I made and go through it.
Speaker: So let's check it out.
Speaker: We did this with the bushweeds.
Speaker: It's like a raffle thing they do.
Speaker: So it's just... Yeah, well, I know.
Speaker: Some people go through, you guys know, like, Europe, stuff like that.
Speaker: We're going this year.
Speaker: We're planning on going this year.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So... Yeah, we're planning on going this year to Europe.
Speaker: So that's... I was going to say that, but we're already planning on going.
Speaker: So... Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: Well, then, this...
Speaker: It's like a raffle thing they do.
Speaker: So it's just 10 introductions you make with just like friends, family, coworkers, just saying, hey, th is is the program.
Speaker: And then it doesn't matter what they say.
Speaker: They can say yes, no, or get out of here, or not interested, or we already have solar, but just 10 introductions.
Speaker: And then the second way to get it, like for sure, is if you have 10 people, they end up not able to actually get it.
Speaker: And you get it like guaranteed.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: I'm going to two ways.
Speaker: Keeping track of that.
Speaker: Okay, so notice what I'm doing here.
Speaker: In the beginning, I started the recording a little late, but you can hear him asking him what their dream vacation is.
Speaker: I just explained to him how they can win it themselves.
Speaker: And another key thing in this is I'm bringing, this was a referral that I closed, right?
Speaker: And so I'm bringing in, hey, just like Joe and Maurice, you're going to do the same thing, just like they referred.
Speaker: So I'm trickling in names.
Speaker: I'm name dropping.
Speaker: You're selling them right now on why they should give you referrals.
Speaker: You're creating the bandwagon effect.
Speaker: Hey, just like they introduced you.
Speaker: That's the same thing that we do.
Speaker: That's how this program works.
Speaker: It's based on introductions.
Speaker: So they think it's normal now, right?
Speaker: I just put in some names.
Speaker: They think, oh, this is what everyone is doing.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, if they did it, then I better do it as well.
Speaker: So that's the key if you can name drop.
Speaker: Same thing you do when you're selling the system, right?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, what we do, we just get like...
Speaker: in the contact list.
Speaker: Okay, and then you notice he's bringing up his contact list.
Speaker: And the mistake I made there is I was almost nervous that he wouldn't give me 10.
Speaker: So I minimized it.
Speaker: I said, oh, we'll just start with three, maybe three.
Speaker: Okay, but even better, what I should have done
Speaker: is I should have been more confident in what I'm doing.
Speaker: I should have said, yeah, so we just get 10 names.
Speaker: So yeah, we can help you think of it.
Speaker: It can be friends, family, coworkers.
Speaker: And then the key to this is you have your referral sheet.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And this is going to help you build even more credibility in what you're doing.
Speaker: So your referral sheet is 10 names printed on a list.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And maybe you will hit me up if you want an example, but it's
Speaker: You can even just do this on your pad of paper on a sheet, just number one through 10.
Speaker: And then as you're passing them this list, they see everyone else that's referred you families and business, right?
Speaker: So then it becomes like, oh, wow, okay, he's doing this with everybody.
Speaker: I see like 50 names on here already.
Speaker: So everyone's giving them 10 names.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Let's see what we got to do.
Speaker: And then they open up their contact list, their contacts, and they start looking.
Speaker: And it's not always going to work that way.
Speaker: So I've had plenty of deals where they can't think of 10 people or I really have to help them brainstorm.
Speaker: So you don't need to get pushy with this.
Speaker: Obviously, not everyone is going to have 10 people right off the bat.
Speaker: But as you're asking, you want to tackle their objections beforehand, right?
Speaker: What are people afraid of giving referrals?
Speaker: They're afraid of you contacting them without their permission, right?
Speaker: So how can you tackle that objection?
Speaker: How can you eight mile it?
Speaker: Like Sam Taggart says in his book, ABC's A Closing.
Speaker: How can you eight mile this objection before it comes up?
Speaker: We can say, hey, Mr. Homeowner, I get it.
Speaker: Like no one wants to be solicited without permission or anything.
Speaker: So obviously, before I talk to these people, the best thing is that you can talk to them beforehand, give them a heads up that I'm reaching out.
Speaker: And then, you know, we can go from there.
Speaker: So if you include that in your ask, then they can't be like, oh, well, let me talk to them first.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So include that.
Speaker: And then any objection you get, because you're going to get objections, just like you get objections in the close, write them down and know how you can include that objection in your referral ask.
Speaker: So maybe it's they want to talk to the people first.
Speaker: Maybe it's they want to experience your product first.
Speaker: Okay, and if you can't overcome them, then no big deal.
Speaker: You can always ask for referrals later.
Speaker: But to give yourself the best shot at getting these referrals, you need to put these in your referral script and put them in your referral ask and make sure you overcome those objections before they can get them out there.
Speaker: Okay, and so that's step number four.
Speaker: Have your referral sheet, pass it to them, be assumptive with it.
Speaker: Just like you're passing over the contract and the PIN, you're doing the same thing with your referral sheet.
Speaker: So hey, here's the sheet where we help people out.
Speaker: So yeah, just go ahead and put the 10 people that come to mind.
Speaker: Click the PIN, pass it to them, they start filling it out, okay?
Speaker: And then at the end, the last two steps are this.
Speaker: Number five, you're going to send them an intro text.
Speaker: So I'm going to skip to the point where I ask for this permission here.
Speaker: So yeah, did I send you that text already?
Speaker: I'm going to send it right now.
Speaker: So you want to give us this weekend to text them?
Speaker: Yeah, if you want to text them.
Speaker: Okay, we can send them next weekend.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll just do that.
Speaker: That works.
Speaker: So I'll do this text and then yeah, easy to wait if you want to just like include me in it.
Speaker: So yeah, I'll just email blast.
Speaker: Let me take a picture of that because I probably won't remember.
Speaker: Okay, so you hear what I did.
Speaker: We're sending them a text right now because these people, they don't know how to introduce solar for people, right?
Speaker: So you need to teach them.
Speaker: You need to send them the exact text they're going to send to introduce you.
Speaker: And so my mistake here was I sent the text to them so they know what they're going to for their referrals.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But I didn't help them send it.
Speaker: So you notice she's like, okay, do you want to just give us next week to talk to them and send these?
Speaker: I was like, yeah, that works.
Speaker: But guess what happened?
Speaker: They didn't send it out next week.
Speaker: And I had to follow up, follow up.
Speaker: And eventually they did.
Speaker: But to avoid going through that, because 90% of the time people will forget, stuff will come up, you're going to have to bug them to send out this introduction.
Speaker: What you want to happen is that they text you and their referral in a separate group text and make the introduction.
Speaker: And then that's how you call these people after.
Speaker: That's how you take a cold lead to a warm lead is when they've actually made an injection.
Speaker: Because you can get names, you can get numbers.
Speaker: But at that point, they could be like renters.
Speaker: You don't know.
Speaker: It's just much better if you can get the homeowner to send out these group texts.
Speaker: So what I should have done there is I should have been like, OK, you know what, Alvin, I just sent out this text to you.
Speaker: So go ahead.
Speaker: I know life gets busy.
Speaker: And again, overcome their objection right then.
Speaker: Because most people are like, oh, you know what?
Speaker: We've been here a while.
Speaker: I'll do this later.
Speaker: So what I should have done, eight-mile that, be like, you know what, Alvin?
Speaker: I know life gets super busy, and I'm sure stuff will come up.
Speaker: So I'll just help you here and send this right now.
Speaker: That way you don't have to think about it later in the week.
Speaker: And we can just introduce these people real quick.
Speaker: And then have them pull out their phone, send those texts, which pretty quick if you help them.
Speaker: I've done it in home.
Speaker: Most people will just be like, okay, here, you can just do it.
Speaker: And they'll pass you their phone.
Speaker: I've done that countless times now.
Speaker: And you copy and paste the referral text.
Speaker: You obviously put in the number.
Speaker: And for those wondering, my referral text is pretty straightforward.
Speaker: You can hit me up for this stuff.
Speaker: If you want to reach out on Instagram, Facebook, email, you know the drill.
Speaker: But my referral text that I send is, I'm trying to find it here.
Speaker: I just send out, and you can get creative with this.
Speaker: Maybe you guys think of something better, but I just send out, hey, Beth, we're getting some solar on the house and thought you might be able to benefit from the same program.
Speaker: Didn't cost us anything up front, and it's given us some great savings.
Speaker: So it's a pretty awesome program.
Speaker: I've included Taylor, the guy that helped us out in this text.
Speaker: Is it okay if you reached out, get you guys the detail?
Speaker: Or if you're in Texas, get you all the details.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So something like that.
Speaker: And then people, a lot of people just respond thumbs up or sounds good.
Speaker: Some people aren't going to respond at all.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then the last step with all this, tying it all together and the mistake I have made so many times now, this is the most important thing.
Speaker: You ready for it?
Speaker: And that is you actually have to follow up and organize them and call them.
Speaker: You can't just get referrals and not call them.
Speaker: And I know it sounds stupid, but I have gotten referrals so many times I've forgotten about that I've left on sheets of paper that I have not called.
Speaker: Stuff gets busy, especially if you're running volume, if you're helping run a team or if you're going to lots of set appointments, it's easy to forget about this.
Speaker: So the most important step is to actually call them to follow up and put them in your CRM.
Speaker: Hey, what I do that's worked for me is I have my virtual assistants.
Speaker: I send her a screenshot of all these referrals.
Speaker: She puts them in my CRM.
Speaker: She tags them as referrals.
Speaker: I see them on the pipeline and I'm reminded, okay, I need to call these people.
Speaker: And then each person is tagged with the homeowner who gave me that referral, which is another mistake I made is having a referral and forgetting completely who gave me that referral.
Speaker: Then I got a call and be like, okay, I don't know how I got your number, but someone referred you for solar, which trust me is not an effective way of getting those leads to convert.
Speaker: So those are the six steps.
Speaker: I hope that's helpful.
Speaker: Would love to hear your thoughts or anything else you are doing to get referrals.
Speaker: This is what's working for me.
Speaker: And this is how I've been able to get typically an appointment a week, at least out of these referrals and then gets usually average, I would say five referrals.
Speaker: Not everyone's going to give you a ton.
Speaker: A lot will, but I'd say average about five referrals per close just by implementing these things.
Speaker: So once again, step number one is pre-frame the referral ask from the beginning.
Speaker: Number two is paint the picture of their dream vacation.
Speaker: Ask them where they're going to go, get the emotion involved.
Speaker: Number three is ask.
Speaker: And for me, that's telling them the two ways they can earn it is either making 10 introductions or 10 people that do go solar.
Speaker: And if you listen to Matt Crowder's podcast, he sends his customers a spreadsheet so they can physically keep track of the people they refer to.
Speaker: And then step four is have your referral sheet print out a physical referral sheet or use a notebook, whatever is easiest.
Speaker: And then have the list and pass it to them in the ask.
Speaker: And then step number five, get them to send the introduction text with you included in it.
Speaker: Step number six, actually call them, actually follow up with them and get organized, put them in your CRM or figure out a way you can organize this.
Speaker: Okay, and so those are the steps.
Speaker: And if you would like help with all this, I know it's a lot to handle.
Speaker: This is precisely what we're helping people in our program, in our Soul Society program.
Speaker: So if you would like additional help and would like stuff done for you and would like all the scripts, the frameworks just delivered to you right away and handheld, then let me know.
Speaker: We are opening up a few spots in our coaching group.
Speaker: So we'd love to work with anyone who is needing more help on these things.
Speaker: But hope that helps.
Speaker: Hope you can get a ton of referrals so you don't have to be grinding on the doors when it's snowing or hailing.
Speaker: Mad respect to you guys that do.
Speaker: Been raining a lot here in San Diego where I'm at.
Speaker: But always much easier, much better if you can build a referral-based business.
Speaker: And then of course, have knocking be the main thing.
Speaker: Don't let this distract you from grinding out on the doors and hitting the pavement hard, but always nice to have some referrals.
Speaker: So see you guys on the other side.
Speaker: Hope to see you at Door2DoorCon.
Speaker: And if not, we'll see you in the next episode.
Speaker: Hey Solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
Speaker: Well so was I and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for Eliminate Time we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: so at now we have six bucks for this month so book a call now don't miss out what you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com that's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s.com i'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best so shoot that email and let's increase your sales
