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How To Recruit An Army For Your Solar Business - Brandon Hall
80 Plays3 years ago
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Solar Success Story
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.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the 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 solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Live at SolarCon: Introducing Brandon Hall
00:00:42
Speaker
Okay, what's going on?
00:00:43
Speaker
We're live here at SolorCon, and I'm stoked to be here because we have the one, the only Brandon Hall on the podcast about time.
00:00:52
Speaker
So, Brandon, thanks for coming on the show with us.
00:00:54
Speaker
Of course.
00:00:54
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:56
Speaker
It's going to be a good time.
00:00:57
Speaker
And Brandon, if you haven't heard of this guy, he's blown things up.
Brandon Hall's Journey with True Power Solar
00:01:01
Speaker
He started a company called True Power Solar Company.
00:01:05
Speaker
And he is right now really focused on his other company, Shut the Fluff Up.
00:01:10
Speaker
Great name.
00:01:12
Speaker
And so we're going to hear all about what he's doing.
00:01:14
Speaker
He's a recruiting expert.
00:01:15
Speaker
He's grown multiple companies.
00:01:18
Speaker
And you may recognize the last name because we had his wife, Alex Hall, on the podcast too.
00:01:23
Speaker
So the goal is we need to get more views, more listens than Alex's podcast.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:28
Speaker
Can't have everyone helping me.
00:01:29
Speaker
I know.
00:01:30
Speaker
Are you guys pretty competitive with each other?
00:01:33
Speaker
Hardly.
00:01:33
Speaker
We share a lot of the same victories, so it's tough, but she beats me at everything anyway, so I'd like to pretend that we're sharing the victories.
00:01:41
Speaker
You guys are a power couple, man.
00:01:44
Speaker
She's the real deal.
00:01:45
Speaker
She does all the work.
00:01:46
Speaker
I'm just there for the ride.
00:01:47
Speaker
That's good.
00:01:49
Speaker
That's how you know you found a good one.
00:01:50
Speaker
So if you haven't heard that podcast, go listen to it.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's Alex Hall.
00:01:53
Speaker
We're going to link to it in the show notes if you haven't heard
Recruitment Knowledge Gap in Solar Industry
00:01:56
Speaker
it.
00:01:56
Speaker
But Brandon, do you want to kind of tell us like, you know, how you got into solar, how you started True Power, just kind of your background with everything?
00:02:04
Speaker
Totally, yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker
Well, I got in the industry in 2006 with Apex before it was called Vivint.
00:02:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:10
Speaker
And yeah, and then just early on in my career, I thought it was insane how little knowledge there was on recruiting.
00:02:16
Speaker
You know, there's all these...
00:02:18
Speaker
all this training content for sales and everyone has 10 door pitches and everyone knows, you know, how many solar accounts is good, alarm accounts is good.
00:02:27
Speaker
You know, it's 150, it's 300 or 500 if it's passed, but nobody knows anything about recruiting.
00:02:32
Speaker
So anyway, so I just started leaning really heavily into that and,
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, and just wanted to fill that void so that somebody in the industry was leveling it up.
00:02:42
Speaker
But I was in alarms for the first, I think, 11 years of my career, and then I switched to solar.
00:02:48
Speaker
And yeah, I owned a dealer while I was in alarms for quite a bit, but yeah, since I've been in solar, I've always been in executive global positions, building out recruiting departments.
Merging Companies for Industry Success
00:02:56
Speaker
And yeah, and then I was started consulting businesses and sitting on boards and that's kind of how True Power came to be.
00:03:01
Speaker
There's a bunch of companies that I worked with that I have a big, big heart for because we're working a lot together and brought them together to do a merger similar to Lumio.
00:03:10
Speaker
And yeah, so I didn't actually own one of the companies prior to going in, but they asked me to come and work with them to make sure everything went well.
00:03:17
Speaker
And it's been really fun.
00:03:18
Speaker
So I've been in business for a year and learning a lot of lessons about mergers, you know, and, but yeah, and I think that's the direction that the industry is going.
00:03:25
Speaker
And yeah, so excited about that.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, you see it all the time now, all these companies merging.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's a crazy world out there in solar.
00:03:34
Speaker
So I know it's been a big part of what's going on.
00:03:37
Speaker
But I'm curious to know, being in alarms for so long, would you say it's, you know, with all the recruiting you did in alarms, would you say it's easier to recruit in alarms versus solar?
Recruiting: Solar vs. Alarms
00:03:47
Speaker
Or which one is easier, if you had to say?
00:03:48
Speaker
Well, it's a different kind of recruit.
00:03:50
Speaker
I think in solar, it's easier to recruit older guys because the lifestyle is a little bit different, especially with the year-round model.
00:03:58
Speaker
There's a lot of referrals that you can get in the business, and the earning potential is definitely more.
00:04:07
Speaker
And in alarms, it's a difficult sale, but with summer programs, sometimes when you're traveling, you don't see a ton of turnover when people move to live in housing in a different state.
00:04:18
Speaker
But I would say that they're both equally hard in the sense of how difficult it is to retain guys in the early stages when it's door to door and straight commission.
00:04:28
Speaker
But if you've got your systems in place
00:04:31
Speaker
your early stage retention programs or mentor programs or scavenger hunts or whatever the heck you do with your training period.
00:04:36
Speaker
If you got that dialed and everyone's got really good first impressions with the candidates, then life can be easier for both.
00:04:43
Speaker
You just have to have your shiz together.
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, okay.
00:04:46
Speaker
Makes sense.
00:04:47
Speaker
And yeah, I know, well, so we're going to talk kind of about your theories of recruiting and some of the things you do here in a minute.
00:04:53
Speaker
But would you say the way you recruit?
00:04:56
Speaker
Is it a lot different in alarms versus solar, like the way you recruit it?
00:05:00
Speaker
Because I don't know, like alarms, you're probably focused more on like the younger guys, the college kids and stuff like that, right?
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:06
Speaker
Would you say that's more like going to college campuses versus solar maybe more?
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, definitely for sure.
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, with alarms, we would do a lot of campus blitzes and a lot of personal referrals.
00:05:15
Speaker
You know, when you're traveling for the summer, it's fun to get your buddies to go out with you.
00:05:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:20
Speaker
And when you get older, you know, your personal network kind of, you know, slims up a little bit.
00:05:24
Speaker
You know, it's different when you're 33, when you're 23.
00:05:27
Speaker
So in solar, there's less personal referrals and it's a little bit more of, you know, like growing it, like with, you know, web applicants and, you know, targeted ads.
00:05:35
Speaker
And, you know, you do have some personal referrals and stuff that come in and that's, you know, the best route to go if you can do that.
00:05:40
Speaker
But sometimes if you're not afforded that luxury, then, you know, recruiting online is a little bit better.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:46
Speaker
Okay.
Shut the Fluff Up: Real Recruiting Insights
00:05:47
Speaker
Cool, and so yeah, now, I mean, I know you're trying to build Shut the Fluff Up a lot now too.
00:05:54
Speaker
How'd you guys come up with the name, by the way?
00:05:56
Speaker
Well, Shut the Fluff Up, you know, being in the space that I'm in, you know, and all the trainers that are out there and coaches and the serial social media entrepreneurs, you know, there's just like, it drives me nuts, just all the fluffy,
00:06:10
Speaker
bullshit content that's out there.
00:06:11
Speaker
You know, you've got so many people that are just giving you nothing.
00:06:14
Speaker
Just, you know, you've got to be the best you can be and you've got to want it and you've got to go after it and you've got to, you know, you've got to care about your people and you've got to wake up early, you know, and a lot of times they're just transferring emotions.
00:06:25
Speaker
But I think what a lot of people are craving are
00:06:27
Speaker
you know, the bullet points of what they need to be doing.
00:06:30
Speaker
You know, everyone knows they need to give it their all.
00:06:32
Speaker
Everyone knows they need to want it.
00:06:33
Speaker
You know, everyone needs to set goals and it's all good.
00:06:36
Speaker
But, you know, what we focus on, we're like the, you know, the calculus teachers of the industry.
00:06:40
Speaker
You know, we're like, these are the KPIs that you need to target and these are the conversion rates that you need to strive for and these are the websites you want to go to and this is what you need to spend and this is what your cost per applicant should be.
00:06:50
Speaker
This is how you build your competition platform and here's the vendors that you need to use and this is what you say and when to say it and how to say it and here's how you psychologically position yourself and here's how you build your early stage retention programs or whatever.
00:06:59
Speaker
Like just all the stuff that actually makes things work like we're really good with that and everyone that's a part of the company were some of the top executives in the industry and sometimes you know what happens with a lot of coaches is they come up from the sales division
00:07:14
Speaker
and all of us actually you know and shut the flow came from the sales division too but a lot of them go from being a sales leader to a coach and so a lot of their content is rah-rah you know go hustle but actually being executives in these departments with all the guys that we have at shut the fluff up we're the ones that actually built out all the departments and have the hundreds of thousands of data points you know that we used to make decisions and know how to make everything coordinate behind the scenes with all the different departments and
00:07:41
Speaker
what actually works and what doesn't.
00:07:42
Speaker
A lot of times when you get sales guys that are moving into, when they're building their own departments, they're very optimistic about how well everything's gonna go.
00:07:50
Speaker
You get what I call spreadsheet millionaires.
00:07:53
Speaker
They think everything on their spreadsheet is gonna go right and it doesn't.
00:07:59
Speaker
No, I like it because you know how to social media these days.
00:08:01
Speaker
You don't have to be like an author or anything.
00:08:03
Speaker
People will literally just go to Instagram Live, say whatever they want.
00:08:07
Speaker
And it's true.
00:08:08
Speaker
There's tons of fluff.
00:08:09
Speaker
And that's the one thing that sometimes drives me nuts about the solar industry is you get guys, oh, bro, I closed 50 deals last week.
00:08:16
Speaker
I closed 200 deals.
00:08:18
Speaker
How much did you spend on ads and how many of those went in?
00:08:21
Speaker
I know.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, give me the details.
00:08:24
Speaker
Maybe they only had 10 installs out of 100 deals they closed.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, and how many setters are you paying out?
00:08:28
Speaker
And it's like even, you know, as like hosting a podcast, sometimes I like see these big numbers, but like there's been a few people I brought on the show that I'm like, maybe I shouldn't actually have that guy on the show because he looked really cool on social media.
00:08:43
Speaker
But now like, you know,
00:08:44
Speaker
and sometimes they get exposed and things like that too.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, but some of those guys are legit.
00:08:48
Speaker
I mean, even though they're, you know, there's a little bit more, you know, beneath the iceberg, you know, like, you know, sometimes I still cheer those on because they're, you know, they're, everyone's doing a lot, you know, sometimes the numbers are looking silly big and that, you know, makes you, you know,
00:09:02
Speaker
question them a little bit and how they came to pass.
00:09:05
Speaker
But I still like everyone celebrating stuff.
00:09:08
Speaker
It's fun seeing everyone just laughing all the way to the bank and solar.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:09:15
Speaker
Love the name.
00:09:16
Speaker
But yeah, so tell us, and at the end we'll hear how guys can get in the program and stuff if they want to.
00:09:23
Speaker
But what are you guys trying to do at Shut the Fluff Up?
00:09:25
Speaker
So is it focused more on sales reps trying to build a team or leaders or what's like, I guess, the...
00:09:32
Speaker
No, it's different than most of the other platforms.
00:09:34
Speaker
A lot of platforms are sales rep focused, but we are focused on working with business owners and building departments with executives.
00:09:40
Speaker
So, you know, we will go in and, you know, someone needs to build a recruiting department or they need to just level up the recruiting in the company overall and like don't know how to run effective incentives or getting their sales team to do well and how to get everyone to
00:09:54
Speaker
you know, communicate the right way, or you know, competition platforms, or set or close or models, or whatever, like we'll go and build all the departments and essentially serve as like a business partner to companies.
00:10:05
Speaker
And so we're kind of like satellite executives to people.
00:10:08
Speaker
So if someone wants us to serve on their board and, you know, help them get acquired and help structure a lot of that stuff for them, then, you know, we'll jump on there and give them the up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, BA, select start cheat codes, you know, that we've used to help the bigger companies get big, so.
Effective Recruiting and Retention Strategies
00:10:22
Speaker
And we've gotten really good at it.
00:10:23
Speaker
We've consulted a lot of businesses.
00:10:25
Speaker
So we've had probably more at-bats than anybody has in the industry, because there's not a lot of people doing this in this space.
00:10:30
Speaker
You can count them on a single, on one hand, at least the people that are doing it well.
00:10:34
Speaker
And so us working with a lot of other kinds of industries even too, like roofing and pest and dish and all that kind of stuff, and seeing all these different builds and whatnot, we've gotten really good at becoming kind of like a pocket knife.
00:10:49
Speaker
Swiss Army Knife?
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, Swiss Army Knife.
00:10:51
Speaker
You've got to be really nimble in any situation.
00:10:54
Speaker
Nice.
00:10:55
Speaker
I love that because there's a lot of, I'm sure you've seen it, there's a lot of recruiting agencies where they're just getting people on Indeed, ZipRecruiter and all that.
00:11:02
Speaker
But these guys are just marketers, bringing people through the door, most of them.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah, it breaks my heart.
00:11:08
Speaker
There's some out there that are doing group interviews and stuff, and it makes me want to cry sometimes.
00:11:15
Speaker
But I run into that a lot.
00:11:16
Speaker
But it's fun, though, throwing my weight around because it's...
00:11:22
Speaker
distance between what people are doing and what they should be doing is so far that it's really easy to go in and just make insane changes to stuff really quick.
00:11:31
Speaker
Sometimes it's hard to do that with sales because sales guys are training nonstop and sometimes if you can make sales guys 5% better that's a huge win sometimes.
00:11:41
Speaker
But when you can make someone's recruiting efforts improve by 500% with
00:11:47
Speaker
Just by having a couple of trainings or spending a month working on things, that's huge.
00:11:53
Speaker
I think that obviously at a higher level, recruiting becomes more important than selling.
00:11:58
Speaker
Your ability to sell and how good your door pitch is.
00:12:01
Speaker
Can you pull teams and do you know how to navigate that stuff legally?
00:12:04
Speaker
Do you know how to deal with people asking for special deals and stuff and how to still have the upper hand and get them and all that stuff.
00:12:10
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:12
Speaker
I love that.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, because it's more like so many people can bring guys through the door group, anywhere, whatever, but...
00:12:17
Speaker
I like what you're saying, you guys have all built a company, you're not just talking how to bring in recruits through Instagram, Indeed, or whatever, but actually helping guys set up high level, not just put a bandaid on it.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a part of it too, like recruiting on social media and stuff.
00:12:34
Speaker
Obviously there's way more to it than just that.
00:12:37
Speaker
And what a lot of people don't realize too is all of the work that goes in after they sign.
00:12:40
Speaker
Because in my opinion, recruiting isn't done until they've been with the company for several months and they've sold quite a bit.
00:12:46
Speaker
And you know, because you can sign as many people as you want, you know, you can sign a thousand people and if they don't get sales, like you might as well just drop a nuclear bomb on your corporate office or just punch yourself in the face because that's how useful you are.
00:12:56
Speaker
You're not doing anything.
00:12:58
Speaker
So it's until they start selling and they stick, like, you know, your job isn't done yet.
00:13:03
Speaker
And it's tough because you have to navigate stuff with other people because now you're handing them off to a manager and someone who's training them and you got to make sure they know what's up and they're saying the same things that the recruiters are.
00:13:11
Speaker
And anyway, it's a big dance, you know, with multiple people.
00:13:14
Speaker
I agree.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, so I was talking with Austin Underwood.
00:13:18
Speaker
I think you guys work together, D2D Experts.
00:13:21
Speaker
And so shout out to Austin.
00:13:22
Speaker
He told me to ask you this question.
00:13:24
Speaker
But yeah, he told me you're really good at getting these long-term recruits, guys that stick on years.
00:13:31
Speaker
And I know especially in solar, well, probably any door-to-door.
00:13:34
Speaker
Just so many people are in the door, out the door.
Culture and Leadership in Long-term Recruitment
00:13:37
Speaker
super short term.
00:13:39
Speaker
And so, I don't know, what's your opinion on that?
00:13:42
Speaker
Is it better to have long term recruits?
00:13:44
Speaker
Maybe they produce the same short term versus long term, but do you think it's way better to get these long term recruits?
00:13:51
Speaker
When you said Austin was going to ask a question, I thought it was going to be dirty or something like that.
00:13:54
Speaker
So that's it.
00:13:55
Speaker
Austin, you got to work on your sense of humor.
00:14:00
Speaker
But long term is obviously better.
00:14:01
Speaker
And I don't think that there's a trade off with either or.
00:14:04
Speaker
Am I answering the question right?
00:14:05
Speaker
You're asking if long term recruits are better than short term recruits?
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, well then I guess like how do you turn these short term guys into long term?
00:14:13
Speaker
Well, that all comes down to your culture.
00:14:15
Speaker
That's like your competition platform.
00:14:19
Speaker
Vivint does a really good job with their combine program.
00:14:22
Speaker
It's keeping everybody busy no matter what.
00:14:24
Speaker
Even if there's not a big competition going on, there's always stuff going on for them to do and grow and feel that upward mobility.
00:14:29
Speaker
It's not a plug for Vivint, but I just love those guys.
00:14:31
Speaker
They do a lot of good things over there, but that's an example of a way to keep guys really happy and showing them love too.
00:14:37
Speaker
You've got to show them that you appreciate them.
00:14:39
Speaker
You've got to build that culture, skydiving trips, paintball wars, barbecues, cruises, whatever.
00:14:43
Speaker
And you've got to show your people that you appreciate them and spend time with them.
00:14:48
Speaker
But yeah, it's all about culture and showing love at a certain point.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:14:53
Speaker
And leadership, how good your leaders are.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's huge.
00:14:56
Speaker
And that's the reason why you see some of these guys stick with a company even though they could make maybe sometimes a lot more with other companies.
00:15:03
Speaker
I see it all the time where you just convert them.
00:15:06
Speaker
And yeah, sometimes it's insane how much loyalty you guys will get.
00:15:11
Speaker
When I wasn't working with them a long time ago, it was sometimes hard recruiting against them because the culture was so tight.
00:15:17
Speaker
And some of the objections I would get, guys would be like, well, I can't leave.
00:15:22
Speaker
I'm on the basketball team.
00:15:24
Speaker
What am I going to do?
00:15:25
Speaker
And I'm like, I don't know what to say to that.
00:15:27
Speaker
I'm like, dude, your comp plan's tripled.
00:15:29
Speaker
He's like, yeah, but like,
00:15:30
Speaker
my friends, dude.
00:15:32
Speaker
I had a ton of respect for that.
00:15:34
Speaker
I'm saying something.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:15:38
Speaker
That's cool.
00:15:38
Speaker
And so with Shut the Fluff Up, do you guys also help just say it's an individual rep that's just coming to you guys, hey, I want to start getting some recruits.
00:15:45
Speaker
I can move into management.
00:15:48
Speaker
Do you also help those reps or you just also mostly focused on the higher level leaders and stuff?
00:15:54
Speaker
Well normally it only is with the higher level stuff except for recruiting.
00:15:57
Speaker
So yeah, we actually do help individuals.
00:16:00
Speaker
We just started, I'm super pumped about this, but the first recruiting community that exists and we're going to pour a ton of time and resources into it to make it badass.
00:16:09
Speaker
So we're trying to get, you know, three, four or five thousand people into it as quick as possible.
00:16:13
Speaker
But we're going to be doing live calls every single week, tips of the day, hacks, you know, resources, going into literally all the best surgical recruiting stuff that exists on the planet.
00:16:25
Speaker
and the stuff that we're gonna be trading on is so far in the lead to second place, like it'll, the value out of it is gonna be insane and you can sign up for as low as like, you know, this isn't a plug, but you know, it's like a gym membership.
00:16:36
Speaker
I'll just say that, you know, it's a double digit number, but so that, you know, because I just, I want to try to level up the industry as a whole.
00:16:44
Speaker
That's like my big passion.
00:16:45
Speaker
I'm not doing this for the paycheck anymore.
00:16:48
Speaker
You know, I can go work anywhere and do well, you know, in the industry, but you know, I just, I don't want to be on a,
00:16:53
Speaker
you know, a podcast like this or Joe Rogan podcast one day and, you know, they're asking me, you know, you know, what'd you do for the first, you know, 15 years of your career?
00:17:00
Speaker
And, you know, I don't want to just say I made a paycheck, you know, in an industry.
00:17:03
Speaker
I want to be able to say that I made a mark and leveled it up and I just, recruiting was just the, just the obvious, you know, thing that needed the most
Brandon Hall's Passion for Recruiting
00:17:11
Speaker
help.
00:17:11
Speaker
And so I want to before, you know, oh, I'll probably never leave the industry fully, but, you know, I want to make sure, you know, in due time,
00:17:18
Speaker
at least sorry very quickly that you know I can make an impact on more than just my own stuff and like individual companies that I'm working with like I want everybody start leveling up and that would be that's all I can ask for yeah that's huge and yeah I think at the end of the day well yeah you've made lots of money no doubt so I'm like
00:17:41
Speaker
I have an uncle too that's super successful, has a company out here, has his own private jet and all that, but he doesn't even care about money anymore.
00:17:49
Speaker
Now he's just trying to start these learning centers for entrepreneurs and stuff like that.
00:17:54
Speaker
So that's kind of what I see is successful people they want to move into.
00:17:59
Speaker
It's also funny too, but the more people that you can help, the more money you end up making in a lot of cases too.
00:18:05
Speaker
A lot of the best leaders are the ones that
00:18:07
Speaker
are the best at leveling up everybody that they're working with.
00:18:10
Speaker
And if you find yourself in a situation where all you're doing is helping others level up, that's probably one of the best feelings in the world.
00:18:17
Speaker
But I think you can get there sooner than you think.
00:18:19
Speaker
I think that's kind of the duties of most sales leaders too.
00:18:22
Speaker
You're a servant to your team.
00:18:24
Speaker
And you don't even, in my opinion, even when I was a sales leader, you don't sell for yourself sometimes.
00:18:29
Speaker
Sometimes I would sell just because I knew it was the right thing to do for my team.
00:18:32
Speaker
And I would sell when I didn't need to or have to or want to.
00:18:36
Speaker
But sometimes it's not about doing the things that you want at a certain point, especially when you have people counting on you.
00:18:40
Speaker
It's like eating broccoli.
00:18:43
Speaker
Like sometimes you just gotta, broccoli isn't bad, but you gotta do what you need to do sometimes.
00:18:48
Speaker
But it's also really fulfilling, like helping everybody level up.
00:18:53
Speaker
I can't think of anything that feels more fulfilling.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
Balancing Sales and Recruiting for Growth
00:18:56
Speaker
So I don't know if you've seen this in solar, Brandon, but commissions are so high in solar that I've seen some people, it's like, I don't even care about recruiting.
00:19:05
Speaker
I can go make 10 grand on a cell.
00:19:07
Speaker
Like why do I need a recruit?
00:19:09
Speaker
And so I know in other like pest control alarms, I don't know, I think there's like a ton of money to be made off the recruit, almost more money off recruiting than just going out and getting sales.
00:19:20
Speaker
But it's like you can be a solar sales guy with no recruits, make multiple six figures a lot of times in the industry.
00:19:27
Speaker
So I don't know if you've heard that objection or what would you say to those people like, oh Brandon, I don't feel like I need a recruiter.
00:19:35
Speaker
Well, that's definitely true, but I don't really run into that a lot because I don't try to talk to anybody in the recruiting.
00:19:41
Speaker
So usually people want to recruit, those are the ones that I'm talking to.
00:19:45
Speaker
But that's totally true and I think everyone's different.
00:19:48
Speaker
I don't think there's anything wrong with
00:19:51
Speaker
trying to make seven figures by selling 20 accounts a month or whatever.
00:19:56
Speaker
But if you ever want to level up in life and run divisions or work on your leadership skills, your ability to influence and grow teams and keep people in retention, that is probably, I can't think of a more important skill set in a company.
00:20:14
Speaker
or an organization.
00:20:15
Speaker
And when you look at all the CEOs out there, they don't usually come from IT, or like accounting.
00:20:22
Speaker
They usually were sales leaders in their companies.
00:20:25
Speaker
And they were the sales leaders that grew.
00:20:27
Speaker
And there's not a lot of sales leaders out there that just fly through the ranks that don't build and don't recruit and don't retain and don't mentor.
00:20:34
Speaker
The ones that just keep their blinders on that are really good sales reps.
00:20:38
Speaker
They don't really do too well because if they don't wanna care about other people and they just wanna focus on themselves, people aren't gonna want to choose to follow them.
00:20:45
Speaker
And people have to want to follow you.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, no doubt.
00:20:49
Speaker
So yeah, no, I think it, and I don't know, for me, like, I actually just did a podcast earlier today and we were talking about this, but for me, the more people I am training and recruiting, like, I notice I sell way more when I have guys that they're, like, looking up to me or I'm taking a guy out to train.
00:21:07
Speaker
Like, I always get way more sales.
00:21:09
Speaker
So, you know.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:21:11
Speaker
People like that, like.
00:21:12
Speaker
You don't want to look like an idiot to your friends.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:14
Speaker
It's like you're talking about how much money you make.
00:21:16
Speaker
You better go out and make that money if you have friends or recruits you brought on.
00:21:20
Speaker
I always say that.
00:21:21
Speaker
If everyone in the office just brought one friend there, their production would double because their friend was there, and their friends are going to sell too.
00:21:27
Speaker
So it does miracles for an office.
00:21:30
Speaker
So maybe if you're not producing, go out and get a recruiter too because you're probably going to push harder, especially if they're outshadowing you.
00:21:37
Speaker
It's funny how much harder people work if someone's standing behind them watching them.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's for sure.
00:21:42
Speaker
I'll really hold you accountable.
00:21:43
Speaker
I know.
00:21:44
Speaker
So, yeah, I think that's a good reason to recruit if you don't have one.
00:21:47
Speaker
But no, so I want to get into maybe just some, like, I don't know, some recruiting strategies, maybe a rep that doesn't have any recruits yet.
00:21:55
Speaker
And I know for those that want to dive super deep on this, they can go join, shut the fluff up, and we'll talk about that at the end.
00:22:02
Speaker
But yeah, do you have maybe, I don't know, let's say a rep that doesn't have any recruits, doesn't really have like a social media following.
00:22:09
Speaker
but they have some success, maybe they've been doing solar for six months, and they're like, okay, I wanna start getting some recruits, but they have no idea what to do or how to start getting people
Starting Recruitment: Engage Friends First
00:22:19
Speaker
through the door.
00:22:19
Speaker
So what would you say, what's some, I don't know, the first things you would tell that guy to do to start getting some recruits through the door?
00:22:26
Speaker
Well, first off, don't try to recruit people.
00:22:29
Speaker
What I mean by that is don't just hit up all your friends and ask them if they're interested in an opportunity, and go straight for the jugular.
00:22:37
Speaker
do volumes just by getting people in your orbit and being likeable and having a lot of conversations with your friends.
00:22:44
Speaker
And sometimes I'll see people write down all the friends that they want to recruit and then they'll send them all a paragraph that says, hey, what's up dude, I miss you and I was just thinking, are companies hiring highly motivated individuals just like yourself to join our elite sales force?
00:22:59
Speaker
Would you be interested in listening to another opportunity?
00:23:01
Speaker
And there's just nothing to be interested in because they don't know anything.
00:23:03
Speaker
And most people, it's going to make the opportunity look less valuable because good jobs aren't mass messaging people and trying to hire them.
00:23:16
Speaker
So don't go straight for the jugular.
00:23:20
Speaker
Recruiting is not selling.
00:23:21
Speaker
And a lot of times guys approach recruiting like selling.
00:23:23
Speaker
They think that they're going to call their friends and sell them and get them signed.
00:23:28
Speaker
But only in sales do you try to sign it right then and there.
00:23:30
Speaker
Only in sales do you try to sell them.
00:23:33
Speaker
And think about it, when you're selling something, by definition, you are not in control of the situation.
00:23:40
Speaker
The definition of selling means you're trying to influence the decision maker to make the decision that you want.
00:23:45
Speaker
And in recruiting, you always want to be on the other side of the fence psychologically.
00:23:50
Speaker
So yeah, if you're hitting up your network, posting your victories on social media, engaging with your friends,
00:23:58
Speaker
Like, just have one conversation with each one of these people first without asking for anything.
00:24:03
Speaker
And of course, work is going to come up anyway.
00:24:05
Speaker
We live in America and people are going to say, so what are you up to these days?
00:24:09
Speaker
And of course, when you talk about what you're doing, it's going to sound freaking awesome.
00:24:14
Speaker
And you can usually tell how recruitable they are by asking them what they're doing for work and how they like it.
00:24:19
Speaker
And you can tell if they're a manager or are they an astronaut or are they liking where they're at or how much money they're making.
00:24:23
Speaker
And you can kind of gauge how you need to handle the rest of the conversation.
00:24:27
Speaker
And everybody's different, you know, it's not like, you know, it's just like sales, you know, you don't just say the exact same thing to every single person, you know, you got to be present and in the moment and make it clear that you understand them.
00:24:38
Speaker
So I think it's important to be really empathetic, don't try to recruit them, get them in your orbit.
00:24:42
Speaker
And then, you know, you can go for the clothes later.
00:24:46
Speaker
But I think it's really good to learn from other people too that are around you if you have a manager that you're working with.
00:24:51
Speaker
Get your friends on the hook and then make your manager look good and say, I know the guy that does all the interviews.
00:24:55
Speaker
I can get your resume to the top of the pile.
00:24:56
Speaker
I can say good things about you, whatever.
00:24:59
Speaker
You don't have to try to make yourself sound like the man of you don't have a team underneath you.
00:25:04
Speaker
Use everyone else around you.
00:25:06
Speaker
So, but yeah, just get people in your orbit, put yourself in their shoes, be empathetic, don't get sales breath, you know, and just work on building that orbit and having positive conversations.
Professional Social Media for Recruitment
00:25:15
Speaker
Because recruiting, if you're doing it right, you shouldn't be getting any objections.
00:25:18
Speaker
It should just be awesome.
00:25:19
Speaker
Recruiting should feel like you're handing out $100 bills.
00:25:22
Speaker
The difficulty of recruiting should feel as difficult as it is to hand out $100 bills to people.
00:25:26
Speaker
Okay, I love that.
00:25:27
Speaker
If you're doing it the right way.
00:25:29
Speaker
And so, so new rep, that's what you tell them.
00:25:31
Speaker
That's like the first strategy is, hey, just hit up all your, don't try to recruit them, but just go have a conversation with, you know, old friends.
00:25:38
Speaker
And that's kind of the first.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, if you're going to hit up old friends, you know, like you can find ways to engage in a conversation with them, like find out what industry they're in.
00:25:45
Speaker
And if they're in real estate, you know, find a question that you have about real estate and be like, hey, dude, like, is it cool if I pick your brain?
00:25:51
Speaker
It looks like you're doing some stuff in real estate.
00:25:53
Speaker
You know, I have some questions and then they're going to,
00:25:55
Speaker
look forward to doing that because everyone wants to help somebody.
00:25:57
Speaker
And then when you get on the phone with them, just be like, hey, dude, the market looks crazy right now.
00:26:00
Speaker
Like, I want to start getting into flipping houses.
00:26:01
Speaker
Like, should I wait?
00:26:02
Speaker
You know, or everything's like booming right now.
00:26:05
Speaker
Should I wait for pullback?
00:26:06
Speaker
And then now you're talking about work and he's going to give you a bunch of advice and then you can just catch up and just have a conversation.
00:26:10
Speaker
And then he might start asking you questions about what you do for work.
00:26:13
Speaker
But if he doesn't, that's OK.
00:26:14
Speaker
You can let a conversation end, you know.
00:26:16
Speaker
And then when you call him back the next time to talk about work and saying, you know, maybe you just you started you thought of him and, you know, you have positions open on your sales team and you thought he'd be a good fit.
00:26:25
Speaker
If you bring it up on the second phone conversation, then it doesn't look like that was your entire motive on the first call.
00:26:30
Speaker
So just be patient.
00:26:31
Speaker
Recruiting is a marathon.
00:26:32
Speaker
It's not a sprint.
00:26:33
Speaker
Recruiting is always going to take more than one conversation.
00:26:35
Speaker
You are never going to get somebody to sign on the first conversation and sign their paperwork.
00:26:38
Speaker
It is always going to be two, three, four, five, or six conversations.
00:26:41
Speaker
So do not try to race to the finish line on the first conversation.
00:26:45
Speaker
And then second thing I would say is outside of reaching out to your friends, like clean up your social media, start posting your victories.
00:26:52
Speaker
You know, like your social media is a billboard for yourself.
00:26:55
Speaker
So think about what you're posting on there.
00:26:57
Speaker
Just ask yourself, you know, if I'm going to post something, you know, like what would Brandon do?
00:27:01
Speaker
Or like what would, you know, the owner of my company do?
00:27:03
Speaker
You remember those WWJD bracelets?
00:27:05
Speaker
What would Jesus do?
00:27:06
Speaker
You know, and if you're going to post something and it's like empty shot glasses on a bar counter or like you just got into a fight with some bouncers and you want to take a picture of your buddies all bloodied up and you think that that's cool.
00:27:15
Speaker
You know, if the owner of your company wouldn't do that, don't do it.
00:27:19
Speaker
Well, depends on the owner of your people's company, but for the most part, you know, just, you know, see what the people that are posting that you look up to, you know, and they're usually posting things about their families or victories or vacations or things that they're doing with their company.
00:27:31
Speaker
You know, they're not posting.
00:27:32
Speaker
selfies of their six pack in their bathroom mirror.
00:27:35
Speaker
So just be cognizant of that.
00:27:37
Speaker
And then also online too, last thing, just engage with people first.
00:27:42
Speaker
Become somebody that they know and you have to exist to them.
00:27:46
Speaker
So instead of DMing them and saying, hey, are you interested in other opportunities?
00:27:51
Speaker
Just comment on pictures they're posting.
00:27:52
Speaker
If someone's posting a picture of them in a gym flexing or something like that.
00:27:57
Speaker
Be like, bro, do you want a sandwich or something or a protein shake?
00:28:00
Speaker
Those are the smallest chicken arms I've ever seen.
00:28:01
Speaker
They're going to laugh and realize that they like it.
00:28:06
Speaker
Or if they're posting and they're knocking, you could ask them a question about how difficult licensing is in their area or whatever.
00:28:11
Speaker
But they're going to be happy to answer those questions and respond to you because it doesn't look like you're asking for anything.
00:28:16
Speaker
And if you do that a couple times, then when you do talk to them, now you're a person that they feel like they know.
00:28:20
Speaker
I don't know if you have people that comment on your stuff that comment on a regular basis and maybe you haven't met them before but it feels like you know them because they're always on your stuff.
00:28:30
Speaker
So it's become relevant.
00:28:31
Speaker
And then it's cool coming to events like this, like Soul Work On, because you see all those people a lot of times they've been commenting.
00:28:38
Speaker
And yeah, what's cool is a lot of those, like you said, it's more of a long-term thing, but maybe they're committed to their company, but maybe a year from now,
00:28:45
Speaker
they have some sort of issue and then who are they going to go to?
00:28:47
Speaker
The people that they trust and that they're seeing?
00:28:50
Speaker
Especially with experience reps.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yeah, you are never going to get an experience rep that's good.
00:28:53
Speaker
At least that's good.
00:28:54
Speaker
That's the asterisk.
00:28:56
Speaker
in the first conversation or a week, especially in an industry like solar.
00:28:59
Speaker
Everyone has pipelines, everyone has relationships and stuff, and all the guys that are good are usually doing something someplace.
00:29:04
Speaker
So, you know, most of the people that I recruit that are experienced, you know, like I know it's probably gonna take a couple months.
00:29:10
Speaker
Sometimes I'm talking to them and I know that I wanna get them around Christmas.
00:29:12
Speaker
You know, I'm gonna like let them finish their summer out because, you know, especially if like they're in,
00:29:16
Speaker
company housing and they're traveling and stuff like, you know, they're committed and you know, if you try to push too hard and try to talk them into leaving company housing in the middle of the summer, you don't do it tastefully, they're just gonna be frustrated because, you know, they feel like you're just, you know, have a selfish motive and you're just gonna, you know, rattle their life and you're not being cognizant of like what their, you know, situation's like and you're not thinking of them.
00:29:33
Speaker
So, but if you put yourself in their shoes and it's obvious that you,
00:29:36
Speaker
care about them and you're thinking about what their wife thinks and you know that they have difficult conversations ahead of them and you know that their team has to be bought in and all that stuff and then they're gonna enjoy talking to you because they can tell that you are respectful of their situation and you know what their situation is like but if you just sit there and tell them how shitty their company is and you're just, dude, your pay's gonna be so much better over here and blah blah blah, they're just like, dude, you have no idea.
00:29:59
Speaker
You're not even speaking my language, dude.
00:30:02
Speaker
Have a nice day, is what they're gonna say.
00:30:05
Speaker
I know, and that's why I love, like, the social media recruiting.
00:30:08
Speaker
I'm sure you guys talk about this a ton, but it's like if you're doing that adding value, then you don't have to be, like, I don't know.
00:30:14
Speaker
Because when I first started in 2016, it was all about, oh, just go to the malls, go to the grocery stores, talk to everyone, the whole line.
00:30:22
Speaker
Like, oh, I don't know if I can get you a job, but if I can get you an interview, would you at least come?
00:30:27
Speaker
And I think that's good.
00:30:28
Speaker
And, yeah, I know guys are getting recruits that way.
00:30:31
Speaker
But with social media, if you're doing it, like people are seeing you close deals, people are seeing you have success.
00:30:36
Speaker
And I get guys all the time, not like recruits necessarily right off the bat, but guys all the time like, oh, it looks like you're crushing it.
00:30:43
Speaker
Or, oh, let's do a phone call.
00:30:44
Speaker
I want to like hear what you're doing.
00:30:46
Speaker
And yeah, like, I don't know, for me, it seems, it just seems way less stressful to recruit that way, like organically, just like posting.
00:30:54
Speaker
So yeah.
00:30:55
Speaker
And it's all momentum, you know, you're planting the seeds and you're,
00:30:58
Speaker
You know, like engaging with people and stuff, it's all going to start stacking up over time.
00:31:03
Speaker
And, you know, one of the things that gives me a huge advantage is I've been in the industry for 17 years and everybody knows me.
00:31:08
Speaker
And, you know, I've kept my nose clean and I make friends with everybody and I don't go straight for the jugular.
00:31:14
Speaker
You know, it's funny, a lot of people say they get nervous when they're talking to me because they think I'm going to pull like some ninja moves on them or something like that or like put them in like some like
00:31:21
Speaker
mental Jedi mind tricks or something like that, but really, I'm just like respectful and I know
Staying Relevant on Social Media
00:31:28
Speaker
it's a long game.
00:31:28
Speaker
But your social media, it's huge too.
00:31:31
Speaker
When you're leaning into that,
00:31:38
Speaker
remembering that, you know, people are seeing what you're doing and if you want to exist sometimes, like, you have to be active on social media.
00:31:47
Speaker
Like, the people that aren't on social media, like your kids, your friends when you're growing up in, like, elementary school that aren't on social media, they're, like,
00:31:53
Speaker
I don't know about you, but they're dead to me.
00:31:54
Speaker
I don't even know, if I haven't seen them, my friends from first grade ever, I forget their names, I don't know who they are, they might as well be dead.
00:32:01
Speaker
But friends of mine from first grade that are on social media, it feels like I still know them and I'm really close with them because I can see their families and I see them having fun and I see what they're doing and it's like I was just at school with them in first grade yesterday.
00:32:14
Speaker
They're like the same old buddies and stuff that I had back then.
00:32:17
Speaker
So if you want to be relevant and even exist to people, you have to be on social media.
00:32:22
Speaker
I agree 100%.
00:32:24
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's a huge tip for anyone that wants to start going.
00:32:29
Speaker
Get your social media in gear.
00:32:30
Speaker
It just makes it way easier.
00:32:32
Speaker
Another tip I heard from a super high level, you probably talk about this too, Brandon, but really high level pest recruiter that came to our office the other week.
00:32:43
Speaker
He says when he goes to stores and stuff, instead of just grabbing people's numbers,
00:32:49
Speaker
He just gets their Instagram every time and then channels them to his Instagram because instead of just like texting them blindly, they're going to see his pictures, they're going to see his lifestyle, they're going to see what he's about.
00:32:59
Speaker
So I'm like, oh, that's actually a really good idea.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, a thousand percent.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really, really good tactic.
00:33:05
Speaker
Whenever I meet with people, if you exchange Instagrams, it's not as weird, especially if the engagement was short.
00:33:11
Speaker
You know, sometimes asking for somebody's phone number when, you know, it wasn't like a massive home run encounter or it was quick or something might seem a little bit weird and, you know,
00:33:19
Speaker
But if you're exchanging Instagrams, especially with the younger crowd, it's a little bit less forward, but also they get to see what your lifestyle is like and vice versa.
00:33:30
Speaker
And I remember people better that way.
00:33:32
Speaker
I prefer their Instagram because then I know who they are.
00:33:34
Speaker
If I see phone numbers, man, it's so hard for me to remember names these days.
00:33:38
Speaker
Well, I just gave you my, I gave Brandon my number like an hour ago and first thing he texts me after is, hey, what's your Instagram, dude?
00:33:46
Speaker
That's probably how you remember.
00:33:47
Speaker
That's good.
00:33:49
Speaker
So yeah, I want to kind of shift gears just as we kind of start wrapping up here, Brandon.
Setting Up a Company Recruiting Program
00:33:53
Speaker
So that's for the rep, but what about like, say you're talking with company owners, maybe they want to set up like more of this high level stuff, departments, and just like get a whole kind of recruiting program in place.
00:34:06
Speaker
So what do you do?
00:34:07
Speaker
What's kind of your first steps for a company that doesn't really have like a recruiting plan in place?
00:34:11
Speaker
They don't have like anyone over recruiting.
00:34:14
Speaker
What's like kind of the first steps you would take a company through as you're consulting them?
00:34:18
Speaker
Say, do this first, do this next, kind of set up a whole recruiting?
00:34:22
Speaker
Well, assuming this company has at least one decent sized office with sales reps in it, and it's not just like a one man show starting from the total bottom, I would get an admin to be 100% focused on recruiting.
00:34:34
Speaker
Because recruiting is same thing as sales.
00:34:37
Speaker
Like it generates volume for the company, and if you have a dedicated recruiter to that,
00:34:43
Speaker
They're going to be able to do more than anybody else would if they're dedicating 100% of their time to it.
00:34:48
Speaker
And if that person can get one more recruit because of their existence than anyone else would have otherwise, then they're free.
00:34:55
Speaker
If you think about how much margin there is on a recruit that lasts for a year.
00:34:59
Speaker
So, and they make the lives of everyone else really easy, of course, too, and all that stuff.
00:35:03
Speaker
But, you know, if you're going to be signing 20, 30, 40, 50 people a month, like, you need a dedicated person to that.
00:35:09
Speaker
You need somebody to post their resumes, screen the candidates, to communicate with the managers, to do the fulfillment, order their badges and order their shirts and do job offers and schedule interviews with the managers.
00:35:19
Speaker
And then you also just need to make sure that the managers and the screener, the admin, know how to interview the right way.
00:35:27
Speaker
Because I honestly don't think it's even worth trying recruiting on the internet sometimes if you are not approaching it the right way because it is different than recruiting personal referrals.
00:35:38
Speaker
Personal referrals, you can talk to them as many times as you want.
00:35:42
Speaker
You can show them copies of your paycheck subs and it might not mess things up.
00:35:45
Speaker
But people that don't know who you are, if you sit there and try to sell them on the job and you're telling them like in the first 10 minutes of the conversation that it's straight commission and door to door and you're asking them if they're okay with that and you're just fumbling it and
00:35:56
Speaker
You know, it's a holocaust.
00:35:58
Speaker
You're going to lose so many people, you know, unless you're in Utah and Idaho.
00:36:02
Speaker
If you're from Utah or Idaho and you served a mission, you know, sometimes saying a straight commission door to door, you know, might not rattle somebody.
00:36:09
Speaker
It might get them really excited.
00:36:11
Speaker
But you say that in California or Texas or Arizona or Utah or not Utah, Florida or something like that.
00:36:16
Speaker
And you say a straight commission door to door, you know, a lot of times people would be like, what?
00:36:20
Speaker
Like, not really.
00:36:21
Speaker
You know, it's not like their first choice.
00:36:23
Speaker
You know, so it's very important the way that you talk about straight commission door to door and the way that you psychologically position yourself in the interview and the way that you conduct it, you know, lives up to all of their expectations for professionalism that they'd expect out of the big company.
00:36:35
Speaker
And, you know, usually guys mess that up when they don't get trained or do it the right way because most guys that are interviewing or recruiting come from the sales division and they approach it like sales.
00:36:44
Speaker
And, you know, they use the skills that they use in sales to recruit.
00:36:47
Speaker
So they're trying to build rapport with the candidate and they're
00:36:49
Speaker
Trying to, you know, what they'll think is like, okay, you know, I want to hire this guy.
00:36:53
Speaker
How do I get this guy to want to work here?
00:36:55
Speaker
Oh, I just got to tell him how much money I make.
00:36:57
Speaker
You know, I got to tell him why I like working here.
00:36:58
Speaker
So if he knows how much money I make and how much free time I have, you know, and then he's going to want to work here.
00:37:05
Speaker
But that's not how it works because that sales guy is going to go into sales mode and try to sell the candidate.
00:37:10
Speaker
But what candidates are looking for is a job that's hard to get.
00:37:13
Speaker
You know, in a company that's legit, it's gonna sound like a big company.
00:37:16
Speaker
And a big company is gonna be picky about where they hire.
00:37:18
Speaker
They're gonna have difficult questions that they ask.
00:37:21
Speaker
And everybody wants a job that's hard to get.
00:37:26
Speaker
And I always say, it's always like that, it's like an age or old value proposition.
00:37:32
Speaker
If there's something that a lot of people want, but few people can have, then it's a quantifiable amount of value there.
00:37:38
Speaker
But if there's something that everybody can have, but few people want,
00:37:43
Speaker
like somebody's mix tape or something like that, then nobody's gonna want it.
00:37:47
Speaker
Think about what would be cool, like a million dollars would be cool, right?
00:37:52
Speaker
Like a million dollars in a suitcase.
00:37:54
Speaker
But if you were walking through a mall and somebody was like, hey bro, nice shoes, how would you like to have a million dollars today?
00:38:01
Speaker
You know, obviously you would think a million dollars is cool, but what do you do?
00:38:05
Speaker
You tell the guy to go kill himself and you break eye contact with him and you walk right past him because it was too easy to get and you don't even believe it and it just seems like gimmicky.
00:38:12
Speaker
You know, when you feel like he's just gonna trap you in logic prison with a bunch of rhetorical questions.
00:38:16
Speaker
You know, so, and think about how many people would pass up a million dollars that day.
00:38:20
Speaker
Thousands of people would turn down a million dollars because of the way the guy approached it.
00:38:23
Speaker
Because he just tried to give it away to him.
00:38:25
Speaker
And when you're telling people how much money they're gonna make, you're gonna start to sound like an MLM.
00:38:29
Speaker
You can make a million dollars in six months and I drive a Ferrari and the owner of my company has two mansions.
00:38:34
Speaker
But I'm really picky about who I work with.
00:38:36
Speaker
I'm really picky about who I work with.
00:38:38
Speaker
And even if you say that, it's not about what people say sometimes.
00:38:40
Speaker
It's about how they make you feel.
00:38:42
Speaker
That's what people usually remember.
00:38:43
Speaker
It's how you make them feel.
00:38:44
Speaker
So yeah, it's really important that you interview the right way.
00:38:49
Speaker
Get an admin.
00:38:50
Speaker
Dedicate them to recruiting.
00:38:51
Speaker
Make sure that they're interviewing the right way.
00:38:53
Speaker
And that's probably the best place to start without turning this into a training session and going down a rabbit hole.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, I like that.
00:38:59
Speaker
No, but it's true.
00:38:59
Speaker
I mean, I don't know.
00:39:00
Speaker
I just think about that girl you always tried to get in high school or whatever.
00:39:05
Speaker
Like everyone wanted the girl that was hard to get, right?
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah, girls want guys that are hard to get too.
00:39:11
Speaker
You got a girl in
00:39:12
Speaker
You get some schmuck who's gonna get friend zoned.
00:39:14
Speaker
He's gonna be like, oh cool, you like ska music?
00:39:17
Speaker
I do too, oh my gosh, that's so amazing.
00:39:19
Speaker
You're so clever and quirky and unique.
00:39:21
Speaker
And they're gonna be like, oh cool, thanks.
00:39:24
Speaker
And you like that song?
00:39:25
Speaker
I love that song too.
00:39:26
Speaker
Let me send you my favorite song.
00:39:28
Speaker
But if you get a guy that's like,
00:39:30
Speaker
You know, teasing a girl for the music she likes.
00:39:32
Speaker
And he's like, why do you listen to that song?
00:39:33
Speaker
It's so stupid.
00:39:34
Speaker
That's the dumbest song I've ever heard.
00:39:36
Speaker
She'd be like, oh my god, no, stop.
00:39:37
Speaker
Like, it's not stupid.
00:39:38
Speaker
Why do you say that?
00:39:39
Speaker
It's like, that's the, why do you talk like that?
00:39:40
Speaker
You sound like a chipmunk.
00:39:41
Speaker
I'm not talking like a chipmunk.
00:39:42
Speaker
Oh my god, stop it.
00:39:43
Speaker
You know, and that guy's not going to get friend zoned, you know.
00:39:48
Speaker
So it applies to everything in life.
00:39:49
Speaker
That's so funny.
00:39:52
Speaker
No, that's huge.
00:39:53
Speaker
Yeah, so I think, but yeah, I've noticed that too in companies I've worked with.
00:39:56
Speaker
It's so much easier for me to recruit if we have someone that's dedicated
00:40:00
Speaker
like recruiting and especially onboarding all that too because you know how it is if you don't have someone kind of supporting the recruits as they come on too just like filling up a leaky bucket you're bringing in recruits but they're just all even doing i know we talked a little bit about that and uh the podcast we did with alex too so go listen to that if you haven't already
00:40:19
Speaker
But just kind of like start
From Skepticism to Top Recruiter: Brandon's Story
00:40:22
Speaker
wrapping up here, Brandon.
00:40:22
Speaker
Do you have any like stories of, I don't know, maybe a recruit that was insanely tough to get that you ended up getting or any, I don't know, cool like recruiting stories maybe where you brought on a ton of people or anything cool you did?
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, I think I was probably one of the toughest recruits in the industry.
00:40:38
Speaker
And I think that's what makes me good at what I do because I feel like I understand, you know, the mind of somebody who doesn't want to do door-to-door straight commission because I was,
00:40:48
Speaker
I'm from Arizona, I didn't serve a mission, I was just plain vanilla Christian growing up, wasn't LDS.
00:40:55
Speaker
And my friends were trying to recruit me, they showed me this recruiting video from Firstline back in the day, it was this alarm company that had a lot of cool videos, whatever.
00:41:03
Speaker
And all the testimonials on there were guys saying, I made $300,000 this summer and it changed my life.
00:41:11
Speaker
I made $14,000 this summer and the numbers were all over the place.
00:41:14
Speaker
And I was like, what?
00:41:15
Speaker
Where the hell are they even coming up with these numbers?
00:41:17
Speaker
Get this thing away from me.
00:41:18
Speaker
Turn this shit off.
00:41:20
Speaker
I was so frustrated with them.
00:41:21
Speaker
I got pissed and I was like, turn this video.
00:41:23
Speaker
I couldn't even make it through the whole video.
00:41:24
Speaker
I was so annoyed at how just cheesy it was.
00:41:26
Speaker
And I was like, all I want to know is what you say and how much you make for it.
00:41:31
Speaker
That's all I would just, because they're just filling me full of this crap and they weren't getting to the point.
00:41:35
Speaker
I was just annoyed.
00:41:36
Speaker
And they were like, oh, cool.
00:41:37
Speaker
You just have to say that you're giving out free security systems and then you make
00:41:41
Speaker
600 bucks, and I'm like, what do you charge?
00:41:44
Speaker
And they're like 39 bucks a month.
00:41:46
Speaker
And I was like, why would somebody give you $600 for selling $39 a month membership or something like that?
00:41:54
Speaker
And they're just like, I don't know, but trust me, it works.
00:41:56
Speaker
Like this company, this company's legit.
00:41:58
Speaker
They actually pay you.
00:41:59
Speaker
They won't screw you, trust me.
00:42:00
Speaker
They're showing me copies of the paycheck subs.
00:42:02
Speaker
And I was like, why the hell would you have to say that?
00:42:04
Speaker
What do you mean this company won't screw you, they'll actually pay you?
00:42:08
Speaker
It was weird, and I was like super turned off.
00:42:10
Speaker
You know, I was coming from real estate at the time.
00:42:13
Speaker
You know, I was in real estate back in the heyday when I was on money in like 06 and 07.
00:42:16
Speaker
And, you know, and I was asking them like, you know, what do you wear to work?
00:42:19
Speaker
Like, what's it like?
00:42:20
Speaker
And, you know, they were like, oh, you know, I just, you know, we wear like a polo and like a name badge and stuff.
00:42:25
Speaker
And I was like, you don't wear, like you work at Best Buy?
00:42:27
Speaker
Like, you don't wear a suit?
00:42:28
Speaker
Like, no, you don't want to wear a suit, dude.
00:42:30
Speaker
Like, trust us.
00:42:30
Speaker
Like, you're going to, you know, turn people off.
00:42:32
Speaker
You're going to look too slick.
00:42:32
Speaker
You know, you got to.
00:42:33
Speaker
And I was like, okay, okay.
00:42:34
Speaker
You know, and I was just like, you know, and I was like really, I was kind of sketched out and stuff, but it wasn't until,
00:42:40
Speaker
I actually met some of the higher ups of the company and saw an office where it totally changed my perspective and I was like, holy shiz dude, these guys are legit.
00:42:50
Speaker
I went and visited Apex's corporate office and I was like, dude, these guys have massive houses and hot wives and nice cars.
00:42:56
Speaker
These guys are higher caliber guys than my real estate office that I was in.
00:43:00
Speaker
These guys are legit.
00:43:01
Speaker
I was like, okay, okay.
00:43:02
Speaker
Okay, it's legit, must be legit.
00:43:04
Speaker
You know, when I went out to my first office and like there's all these guys just freaking crushing it and I was really lucky to be a part of a good office.
00:43:09
Speaker
You know, I was working with Mark Franson out in Long Island and man, and the guys are just putting up crazy numbers and I was like, and it just became real to me.
00:43:16
Speaker
And honestly, if it wasn't because of, if it wasn't for that experience, there's no way I'd be in door to door or sales or anything.
00:43:25
Speaker
You know, if I went to work for like Cutco knives or Kirby vacuum cleaners and I was like in a bad office or something like that, you know, then
00:43:32
Speaker
Nothing against those industries, but I didn't meet with these high caliber regionals and Jared Young and Casey Bond and guys like that, then I don't think I'd be in the industry.
00:43:44
Speaker
And there are a lot of guys like me out there, I feel like, that would do door to door.
00:43:49
Speaker
I'd be totally down for it.
00:43:50
Speaker
even if they haven't served a mission, if they just felt like it was legit.
00:43:54
Speaker
And so that's why I've gotten so focused on their first impressions and making sure that we're living up to their expectations for professionalism.
00:44:00
Speaker
And that's why I've gotten so good at flipping people, because I get guys all the time that are like 32 years old, they've never knocked doors before, maybe are software engineers, and you think that they're probably not gonna wanna do it, and usually they don't, but by the time they get done talking to me for 30, 45 minutes,
00:44:18
Speaker
They're not too cool for anything anymore.
00:44:19
Speaker
They're like, holy shit, dude, there's a bunch of guys like this that work here?
00:44:22
Speaker
Like, I could learn a lot from this guy.
00:44:23
Speaker
You know, like, damn, dude, there's a bunch of guys like this.
00:44:25
Speaker
Like, you know, they feel like they're amongst giants.
00:44:28
Speaker
And if you, you know, talk about door-to-door the right way and straight commission the right way and stuff, like, you know, people don't have to be scared of that if they feel like it's tied to a good company.
00:44:36
Speaker
Just like I, you know, I was super skeptical.
00:44:39
Speaker
But so, yeah, anyway, so I think that that's just, that was a big lesson for me and it helped me, you know,
00:44:44
Speaker
You know, really be empathetic to the people that I was recruiting and knowing what it is that they're wanting out of the company because I would have wanted the same things.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:44:52
Speaker
That's a nugget.
00:44:53
Speaker
Oh, and yeah, just bringing guys, I don't know, I think it's super powerful just bringing someone to like, you know, see the culture and meet like other higher level people because
00:45:02
Speaker
Like I know I don't have to be that great of a recruiter.
00:45:04
Speaker
I can just bring it to, you know, bring them to see it, like come and see what's going on with it.
00:45:10
Speaker
So I think, I don't know, for me, that's always worked way better than just trying to convince them.
00:45:14
Speaker
It's like you got to get them through the door, you know.
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah, learn from those guys.
00:45:18
Speaker
See what's going on for sure.
00:45:20
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:45:20
Speaker
So yeah, I know we could go for, you know, days and days with all this stuff, Brandon.
00:45:24
Speaker
And yeah, I'm excited to check out what you're doing with your,
00:45:28
Speaker
shut the fluff up and all that recruiting.
00:45:30
Speaker
So before we wrap up here, working guys, do you want to give a plug for your program and kind of what guys can expect if they want to hop in that and where they can find out more about that?
00:45:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm super pumped for this.
00:45:41
Speaker
We're going to create that community that I was talking about.
00:45:43
Speaker
It's a recruiting community.
00:45:46
Speaker
We want to get as many people in there as possible, but it's going to be the first one that's ever existed.
00:45:50
Speaker
Or if it isn't, the other ones aren't good because I've never heard of them, but I'm pretty sure it's the only one that exists.
00:45:54
Speaker
And it's going to be, obviously, the best one and only one that's going to be relevant that exists.
00:45:58
Speaker
We're going to be doing live calls every single week, training all the stuff that I'm talking about.
00:46:02
Speaker
Literally all the best nuggets that you'll ever be able to learn.
00:46:05
Speaker
It's like a PhD stretched out over the course of however long it takes for you to absorb all that stuff.
00:46:11
Speaker
There's a lot that goes into it.
00:46:12
Speaker
So we're going to be doing daily tips and hacks.
00:46:16
Speaker
building out documents and stuff and anybody can join and we've set it up to be, it's like 89 bucks a month.
00:46:23
Speaker
So, invest in your recruiting education for 89 bucks.
00:46:27
Speaker
I know people keep asking me if there's like, what's the catch?
00:46:31
Speaker
What's wrong with it?
00:46:32
Speaker
Why is it 89 bucks?
00:46:33
Speaker
But because I'm confident that we'll have several thousand people in it, that's why.
00:46:39
Speaker
If it were like another trading service or something like that, and we were limited, and sales service or something like that, and we weren't going to have a wide audience, then
00:46:46
Speaker
We'd have to charge differently, but I want to take that Netflix approach where I don't care if it's seven bucks a month, if I sign half the country.
00:46:54
Speaker
So I just want everybody to join without having to think about it.
00:46:57
Speaker
Just don't be sharing your account password like Netflix.
00:47:00
Speaker
It's not for the whole family.
00:47:01
Speaker
We have two different kinds of memberships.
00:47:03
Speaker
One's for people that want to get better at recruiting themselves, and then others that are in leadership positions that are going to need to do massive numbers and do campus places or fraternity programs or departments or leveraging their sales teams.
00:47:14
Speaker
And then there's another level where it's just how to be the best Mozart level recruiter yourself personally.
00:47:20
Speaker
So we've got something for everybody.
00:47:22
Speaker
Love it.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, and it is The No Fluff Zone on Instagram.
00:47:26
Speaker
So we're going to have a link to join the Discord and sign up at The No Fluff Zone.
00:47:31
Speaker
Okay, let's go.
00:47:32
Speaker
So guys, if you can benefit from recruiting, you're not going to want to miss out on some Shut the Fluff Up.
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah, I can't wait to check it out.
00:47:39
Speaker
So go hop in.
00:47:40
Speaker
It's build, get your recruiting going.
00:47:42
Speaker
And where can guys find, follow you and all that on Instagram, Brandon?
00:47:46
Speaker
They can find me at, I'm Tall Hall.
00:47:48
Speaker
Tall Hall, okay.
00:47:49
Speaker
Because my last name is Hall and I'm tall.
00:47:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:51
Speaker
Get it?
00:47:52
Speaker
All right.
00:47:53
Speaker
In football, I was, I, there was four Halls on the football team when I was in high school.
00:47:57
Speaker
So, but I, and I was the tallest one.
00:47:59
Speaker
So I got Tall Hall.
00:48:00
Speaker
So I've been Tall Hall since football.
00:48:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:48:02
Speaker
Okay, won't forget that one.
00:48:04
Speaker
So yeah, guys, go shoot Brandon a follow.
00:48:06
Speaker
Let him know.
00:48:07
Speaker
We appreciate him coming on the show today.
00:48:09
Speaker
And yeah, thanks for all the nuggets you dropped for us, Brandon.
00:48:12
Speaker
And yeah, I guess before we get to go, any, I don't know, final tips or any final words of wisdom that you would give on recruiting or I guess just solar in general before we say goodbye here?
00:48:21
Speaker
Just do epic shit.
00:48:22
Speaker
Don't be normal.
00:48:23
Speaker
Do epic shit.
00:48:24
Speaker
Don't do anything average.
00:48:26
Speaker
Okay, let's go guys.
00:48:27
Speaker
Take it to the moon.
00:48:28
Speaker
So thanks again, Brandon.
00:48:29
Speaker
Go shoot them a fall.
00:48:31
Speaker
Shoot them, DM.
00:48:31
Speaker
Let you know you appreciated them.
00:48:33
Speaker
And yeah, can't wait to see what's next for you, Brandon.
00:48:35
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on the show.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, man.
00:48:37
Speaker
Much love.
00:48:38
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:48:40
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:48:41
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.
00:48:52
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:48:59
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:49:02
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:49:07
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 Solarpreneur.
00:49:20
Speaker
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00:49:29
Speaker
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00:49:30
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:49:34
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:49:39
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:49:42
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:49:43
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:49:46
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:49:51
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:49:52
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.