Transcript
Speaker: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: I am excited for another episode.
Speaker: We have got Cody Thiel on the line.
Speaker: Is that how you say your last name, Cody Thiel?
Speaker: Thiel.
Speaker: No, it depends.
Speaker: Some people say Thiel.
Speaker: If you're a Thiel in the Midwest, they say Thiel.
Speaker: If you're anywhere else, they say Thiel.
Speaker: So it just depends.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Should have practiced that before.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: It's a good icebreaker, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So glad I got that right.
Speaker: But Cody, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: I'm excited to have you on and recently discovered you and you've been putting out a ton of quality content.
Speaker: I know you do a lot of things to help train reps and managers and just change the solar industry.
Speaker: So thanks for doing that.
Speaker: And thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: So Cody, you run a
Speaker: A couple of different, you've been in solar for a while and now you're focusing more on kind of training reps and helping sell as teams and managers and consulting.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So do you want to walk us through kind of how you got into solar and then why you decided to transition more into just the training side versus?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So similar to you, Taylor, I started doing, I started in the industry of pest control, you know, and that's small potatoes to solar, but it's like,
Speaker: a good, actually I tell reps, I don't have the sales skills down, like go to pest control for a summer and then come back and sell solar.
Speaker: But anyway, yeah.
Speaker: So I was doing pest control and then I saw there was like, okay, I'm making like 200 bucks a sale.
Speaker: And then there's these other guys that are making like 2000 plus a sale.
Speaker: Dang, that's gotta be, you know, and again, like I had like rose colored glasses.
Speaker: I didn't understand what the difference was in terms of the longevity of the sales and everything.
Speaker: They, they paint a pretty,
Speaker: pretty picture.
Speaker: But got into it and was making a ton of money.
Speaker: And this is out in Arizona and working really hard.
Speaker: Oh, hot.
Speaker: And then like, love that, enjoyed it and thought, Hey, well, let's go try this out in another market.
Speaker: And so moved to South Carolina, really enjoyed South Carolina market.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then at like what I noticed happened.
Speaker: And again, this is like part of me being vulnerable.
Speaker: It was hard for me to admit this, but it was,
Speaker: I would knock doors, work super hard, and then burn out.
Speaker: Knock doors super hard and then burn out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I thought, okay, well, maybe I'm more of like a manager type, you know?
Speaker: And so that would like motivate me because I'm working with other people.
Speaker: So I work hard with other people and that helped a lot.
Speaker: But it's still like, I saw that like knock, burn out, knock, burn out.
Speaker: And then one of my buddies was doing social media and he was making way more money than any
Speaker: solar rep I knew, like, or manager or company owner, like a lot more.
Speaker: And I was like, dang, like, how's he, like, that's gotta be like, how's that work?
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: And so he kind of like introduced me to this world of social media and you still have to work your butt off.
Speaker: Like that's the one thing people understand on social media is it's just as much work as door knocking.
Speaker: Like you still have to, and it's just, instead of spending your time on the doors, you're spending your time like online and it's gotta be like value.
Speaker: It's not just scrolling through your Facebook feed thinking, Hey, this is how like, well, this looks funny or cool watching YouTube.
Speaker: It's like actually working.
Speaker: But yeah, he taught me like all these like crazy things.
Speaker: And we'd go, I'd go to like these social media conferences and, and get these like hire these mentors.
Speaker: And I had the opportunity to take that to a company Segura and we tried a lot of those things out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And turns out social media, not, I'm not talking just paid Facebook funnels.
Speaker: I'm talking like other like network marketing stuff works really, really, really well with solar.
Speaker: And so anyway,
Speaker: I was there for a year and I thought, you know, part of it's like, to ask like, why did, where my transition came from, from like working managing people to wanting to train people to be very like upfront or like vulnerable about that is you gotta know your strengths, you know?
Speaker: And my strength or like what I find joy in is a lot more like working with sales reps instead of homeowners.
Speaker: So as much as I love helping homeowners go solar,
Speaker: I struggle a little bit more like in the home versus like helping with the rep.
Speaker: And my wife like helped me notice this.
Speaker: She's like, when you go by yourself to close deals, your closing percentage is like 20, like 10%.
Speaker: I was like, yeah.
Speaker: She's like, when you're with a rep, it's like 60, 70%.
Speaker: Cause she like ran my numbers.
Speaker: And she's like, when you're with a rep, it's like 70%.
Speaker: Like that deal closes.
Speaker: Like you can talk, I can,
Speaker: I talk the whole time or the rep could hire, like it'd be a new rep and they just do a little bit.
Speaker: Closing percentage is like crazy high, but I'm by myself.
Speaker: It's like 10%.
Speaker: So like, okay, okay.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: You know, like, yeah.
Speaker: And that's, that's hard for me to admit.
Speaker: Cause I want to be like, I'm not hardcore closer.
Speaker: I can close any deal.
Speaker: You know, like we all want to be like that person.
Speaker: I'm not, you know, I like, I have to have someone there with me and then like, I'm good.
Speaker: And that's just that I didn't realize that until like my wife pointed out when she was running my numbers.
Speaker: I was like, Oh,
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: So that's like, for me, it's like, okay, I'm going to play on that strength more.
Speaker: If I do this full time, it's one going to make me happier.
Speaker: And two, I'm going to be able to have a greater impact.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I love that you admit that because it's true.
Speaker: Most people would not admit that, especially anyone that's on social media.
Speaker: Everyone's like, Oh, I'm closing 20 deals a week and everything.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So it's cool to hear guys being vulnerable and, you know, coming out with that.
Speaker: But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: I mean, social media is big and there's not too many reps doing that.
Speaker: So when you talk about social media, you're saying that you first heard of this guy just using social media to close more solar deals or what exactly?
Speaker: He was selling like weight loss products.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's like, come sell these weight loss products.
Speaker: And I was like, dude, I'll try the weight loss product.
Speaker: And it actually worked really well, which is good.
Speaker: Actually, I didn't lose any weight.
Speaker: I lost like five inches.
Speaker: I want to see.
Speaker: I lost, yeah, five inches with it.
Speaker: I didn't lose hardly any weight, but I lost five inches.
Speaker: It actually worked, you know?
Speaker: But that's not my jive.
Speaker: But I took that same stuff they were using in this health and fitness world and just translated that into social media or into solar.
Speaker: Into solar, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so I've heard guys like, you know, using social media, posting, doing content.
Speaker: So, and I know you have a whole course kind of on this too, but just to give a demo, like what is it specifically doing on social media that's different from what other guys are talking about?
Speaker: Well, it's, it's, you know, I, when I tell people, it's just like door knocking, right?
Speaker: Like some dude can go out and knock doors all day.
Speaker: And they're like, this is the worst thing ever.
Speaker: Everybody hates me.
Speaker: Nobody said it.
Speaker: I was just coaching rep on this.
Speaker: Actually.
Speaker: He's like, I need a brochure.
Speaker: I need a brochure to be able to hand somebody something.
Speaker: And we all laugh.
Speaker: Like all the experienced door knocks, like dude, brochures do not help.
Speaker: You know, it's like, it's all on the pitch.
Speaker: And that's the same with social media.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: i you can i'm sure you can go on like i'm sure reps listening this right now they go online and you can see everybody trying social media yeah right but then it's same as door knocking like you can go and knock a thousand doors but if your door pitch sucks it doesn't it's just you're just burning you're actually making it worse you're making it worse for everybody else in the industry that's the same with social media it's like there's an art to it there's a science to it and if you do it right you can make bank if you do it wrong
Speaker: you're just burning your wheels and you're making it actually worse for everybody else.
Speaker: And that's probably 99% of the social media I see out there.
Speaker: And I'm glad people are experimenting.
Speaker: I'm glad they're getting out there and trying it out.
Speaker: Like it's a good thing to see that like an efforts, but like 99% of the people that see that content, I guarantee what they're doing is they're just clicking the unfollow button.
Speaker: That's all they're doing.
Speaker: It's like, Oh, this is, this is too much.
Speaker: Like after like the 50th post of someone like holding up a sign of their company and saying, Hey, this person went solar.
Speaker: Like, they're just like, I don't want to see that anymore.
Speaker: Like, this is boring.
Speaker: They just unfollow you.
Speaker: And that, that, that hurts you.
Speaker: Like, cause you have to have follows.
Speaker: If you don't have follows on social media, you're toast.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And are you using like all forms of social media then you're not just keeping it on Facebook, but you're everywhere.
Speaker: Facebook's the cash cow right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you know, like it's Facebook's where I, again, like we got to go where the buyers are.
Speaker: And it's like Instagram kind of crosses that over that a little bit.
Speaker: Um, but there's just like, if I went on Snapchat, you know, most of my audience is 26 and under, you know, it's like, I'm sure like,
Speaker: there's a code to crack there.
Speaker: I'm sure there's a code to crack there.
Speaker: So I don't want to discount it, but it's just the money.
Speaker: So, and I think it was probably going to bite us in the butt.
Speaker: I'll tell that it's like, if we're not on Tik TOK and Snapchat, it's probably going to bite us in the butt.
Speaker: And the first solar guy that figures that out, it's probably going to make a ton of money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Very true.
Speaker: But for now it's easy.
Speaker: So Facebook's just so easy.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Now how much of what you do is like, are you talking like paid ads or do you a lot of, you do a lot of organic stuff?
Speaker: How much is paid versus organic that you, um, it always starts with paid, right?
Speaker: It's like cold traffic.
Speaker: It's always cold traffic.
Speaker: It's where it starts.
Speaker: Um, the goal is to transition to probably 80, 90% organic.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I know you talk a ton about that in your course, so I'm sure people check that out and find out more, but it's always good to hear kind of what people are doing on social media, and that's what we're about teaching our solopreneurs to combine all these aspects and not just do door knocking, but learn the social media, learn the paid ads.
Speaker: That's what we're all about.
Speaker: And so, Cody, I know you've managed teams, you've helped lots of reps, and we talked kind of off camera about what you think is a big problem in the industry.
Speaker: And it sounds like you struggle with it quite a bit yourself.
Speaker: And that's just helping people stay motivated.
Speaker: You mentioned that you would burn out all the time.
Speaker: And I know that's a huge problem.
Speaker: I mean, I've gone through it.
Speaker: You went through it.
Speaker: And, um, I'm sure every rep does.
Speaker: So what do you do?
Speaker: What do you teach your reps, um, on that?
Speaker: And why do you think that happens in the first place?
Speaker: Why do you think people burn out and get demotivated?
Speaker: Like, well,
Speaker: The burnout, well, I mean, going back to like our pest control days, right?
Speaker: Like there's a reason 90% of door-to-door companies are not year-round programs.
Speaker: They're summer programs.
Speaker: And it took me a long time to realize this because, again, I was like lying to myself, which is like those are the worst lies.
Speaker: because they bite you is like oh i can do this all year round i could do this like i'm i'm a beast i can do this right and then but then you look at your behavior your behavior is different like ah something here but like there are again there are some people out there that are just total animals they can just knock all year round and i think they're amazing people yeah but there's also this guy called tom brady and he's over 40 and he's throwing a football
Speaker: There's only one Tom Brady.
Speaker: There's only one of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and okay.
Speaker: There's like a couple others, you know, like Peyton Manning.
Speaker: There's only one every like five or 10 years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that those, those people that can outlast everybody else are MVPs.
Speaker: They'll go down the history books.
Speaker: They're legends.
Speaker: I think they're amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, but that's not 99% of the population.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He takes breaks.
Speaker: Even Tom Brady, as long as, as much as strong as, and as talented as he is, he probably, he only works professional football in terms of full time for the season.
Speaker: After that, like they take breaks, they chill out, you know?
Speaker: And so what I realized, like, Oh, we're all, we're this thing called human.
Speaker: We're not machines.
Speaker: As much as a company doesn't want you to teach, companies don't look at like that.
Speaker: Companies look like it, look at as a machine, like production should be the same every month.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: The NFL doesn't look like it like that.
Speaker: The major league baseball association didn't look like that.
Speaker: No one looks at it like that outside of like the store to door world.
Speaker: And so there's a season when people are their best and a season when they need a break.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You know, and, and everybody else besides solar door knocking companies understand that.
Speaker: So we're not solar door on companies for some reason are just like, Oh, why can't you do this all year round?
Speaker: It's like, cause you're human, you know, again, like you have your John Sanders.
Speaker: I don't know if you know, John is, but John's like this, like legend, you know, and he can do it all year round and he's just amazing.
Speaker: But, but he's like the Tom Brady, right.
Speaker: Or Scott Jakes.
Speaker: He's another guy.
Speaker: He's just like the Tom Brady.
Speaker: You know, they're, they're great, but they're, but everybody else is human.
Speaker: So that, that, the first thing of like, is just readjusting your expectations and saying, Hey, this person is going to work hard for this season, this season, they're going to take it slow and that's okay.
Speaker: Every other organization works like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and what's interesting is a lot of times these guys you're talking about are the managers, you know, these guys that can work that are just work, workhorses.
Speaker: And so they're trying to teach the other reps, like, just go out, just do it.
Speaker: It's not that hard.
Speaker: Where for them, yeah, it's like no big deal.
Speaker: They're workhorses and work nonstop.
Speaker: But then actually like being able to relate to people that's
Speaker: like you said, maybe need a break or aren't built that way, that's, that's tougher for those guys.
Speaker: Cause I've definitely had some managers like that where they're just insane workhorses and just nonstop.
Speaker: And then it's like, dude, how do you do that?
Speaker: And I think it's tough for them to relate to people.
Speaker: That's why I like hearing from guys that are vulnerable and have, you know, do experience those feelings because you can actually relate to the rest of us that have gone through that.
Speaker: But when you say taking breaks, Cody, like solar, I mean, we're knocking most a lot of companies are knocking four or five hours a day.
Speaker: It's definitely not like the pest control grind where you're knocking 10 hours a day on the doors.
Speaker: Um, so when you talk about breaks, do you mean like actually stepping away and like trying other stuff, like using social media as for prospecting instead of knocking full time?
Speaker: Or what do you mean by taking breaks?
Speaker: So, well, specifically like for, for the full time door knockers, just like literally taking a break from work and like checking out.
Speaker: Like, that's what I mean by that.
Speaker: Like, like if you put in your eight hours, like, again, I, you can ask my wife, it drives her nuts because I work all the time.
Speaker: But that doesn't mean like, that doesn't mean I have moments where I'm like, Hey, we'll take a week vacation and we'll just check out.
Speaker: Cause if you don't do that,
Speaker: Then like, again, I'm not going to name any names here, but I guarantee you, we all know managers or regionals or whatever that have gone through divorce or some really serious addictions because they didn't laugh.
Speaker: They didn't like more honest with themselves.
Speaker: And so it's like the addiction or the divorce was like gave him a wake up call.
Speaker: And I'd rather not have that be my wake up call.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so it's kind of like looking into the future.
Speaker: It's like, oh, those guys are super successful.
Speaker: They're making a million dollars a year, but he's got, they're divorced and their family life sucks and they're on drugs.
Speaker: Like, I don't want that.
Speaker: You know, like, yeah, the money's good, but not at that cost.
Speaker: And so it's like, how do I leverage?
Speaker: So that's why social media like gave me a huge eye opener.
Speaker: It was like, I can still be just as effective, actually more effective, but I'm just leveraging my time better.
Speaker: You know, I can reach out to a thousand people with one post and it's effective.
Speaker: With a door knock, like, you know, what took me five minutes to do one social media post takes me like three weeks to do door knocking.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: Yeah, so I think that's huge.
Speaker: And on the flip side, you know how it is.
Speaker: There's some reps that take a little few too many breaks.
Speaker: And I think that's also an issue too is because you know how it is.
Speaker: When you leave, when you take a break, sometimes it takes a day or two to get back into it.
Speaker: Your closing ratio probably has to go back up because you kind of forgot how to
Speaker: your form you have to close and everything so what do you say to those reps that take too many breaks and how do you help them like recognize that and
Speaker: Well, again, I think it's hard because everybody is different.
Speaker: It's not one blanket statement.
Speaker: But what I always tell new reps is for new reps, you got to earn your stripes.
Speaker: If you're not working 70 hours, I think they should work 70.
Speaker: I say 50 because I don't want to kill someone.
Speaker: For your first three months of solar, if you're not working 50, 60 hours a week,
Speaker: I picked up solar pretty quick.
Speaker: I had some really good mentors.
Speaker: It still took me two and a half, three months.
Speaker: I was selling a lease.
Speaker: People were saving like $60 a month.
Speaker: It still took us a while.
Speaker: We had a huge drop-off rate.
Speaker: We had a huge churn rate.
Speaker: That was like an easy product to sell.
Speaker: These harder products are a lot harder.
Speaker: The drop-off rate for these companies is huge.
Speaker: A lot of people don't like to admit that.
Speaker: But I don't, I'm not afraid of that ugly truth because that's like where reality is, you know?
Speaker: So, but for, for most reps that are probably listening to this are probably not new reps.
Speaker: Like what, what my goal is through my courses, my coaching, whatever is,
Speaker: is no one got into sales because that's what they were born to do.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like, no, like I, if I went to any elementary school nowadays or 20 years ago and said, Hey dude, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker: I guarantee you, guarantee you there'd be like 0.001% of kids.
Speaker: It was a salespeople.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And if they did, it's probably because they were your son or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: You know, like nobody said, and even salespeople's kids don't say that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: No, none of us like raise kids.
Speaker: Like I want my kid to be a salesperson, you know, cause it's hard.
Speaker: We don't like, do you say that?
Speaker: Yeah, no.
Speaker: I mean, I'd gain space.
Speaker: But sales has transformed your life, right?
Speaker: So do you say that?
Speaker: You don't, right?
Speaker: Even salespeople don't say that.
Speaker: So we fall into it, right?
Speaker: And so because we want some freedom and we want our other desire.
Speaker: We all see these desires, you know?
Speaker: And so like what I do with every single one of my reps is I do a Y exercise.
Speaker: I just did it with three people this last week.
Speaker: Every single one of them broke down in tears.
Speaker: Well, I did four.
Speaker: Three of them got to tears.
Speaker: These are like grown men.
Speaker: These are grown men.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like, and then you're like, they realize like, Oh, that's why I got, that's actually why I got this job.
Speaker: I didn't know it, but I, that's why I do this job.
Speaker: And that's actually why I do this job.
Speaker: You know, they try to like, they figure out what their why is.
Speaker: And then, then the burnout thing doesn't happen as much as it's like, okay, I'm going to do sales for four years because that's how long it's going to take for me to get to this other goal I have, you know, or I'm going to do it for 10 years.
Speaker: I'm going to do it for two years, whatever it is, you know, or I'm going to do it for 30, but like,
Speaker: It's being like hyper real and super honest with people.
Speaker: And that's super scary.
Speaker: It's really hard to do.
Speaker: But once you do it, there's a lot of tears.
Speaker: There's a lot of FUs.
Speaker: There's a lot of your big a-hole, Cody.
Speaker: And then they come give you a big hug and say, this is the best thing I've ever gone through.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: So this Y exercise, walk us through that.
Speaker: What is that?
Speaker: You're just asking why did you get into cells and just digging deep on the whole Y or what is that?
Speaker: How are you breaking these guys down?
Speaker: It's like, let's go back to your roots when you were a little kid and what you really wanted out of life.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: It's some serious therapy stuff.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you're just digging down to the core of everything and digging out why.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So if a manager, we got managers listening to this.
Speaker: So what, um, if they want to do this, why exercise too?
Speaker: How would you coach them to do that?
Speaker: I try.
Speaker: This is, this, this is why, th is is one reason why I'm not that I'm worried about stepping people still in my content.
Speaker: Um, because no one does, no one can do this.
Speaker: There's very few people that can't know that.
Speaker: No, because I learned it from people, right?
Speaker: There's people I learned it from.
Speaker: But there's very, I try to teach it to my other people.
Speaker: I really try to like, Hey, this is how you do this.
Speaker: I show them like the formula.
Speaker: I do it for them.
Speaker: I report it.
Speaker: They see it all.
Speaker: They see it like multiple times and then they try to do it and they just can't.
Speaker: It's just like, that's my gift.
Speaker: That, that, that, that's my gift.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like I'm not great at some other things, but like unlocking people's like motivation and getting them like, just really like fire up for like years to go.
Speaker: I can do that.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So like I can sit here and talk about asking right questions, what questions to ask, you know, what emotions to bring up, how to like get someone to dig into their past and their why, NLP, all that stuff.
Speaker: We can dig into all that stuff.
Speaker: But like it's really, really, really, mostly it's just really scary for people to do because it's like,
Speaker: it's you're there's so many social norms you're breaking that it's like people feel very like they feel very like they're they feel like they're offending people and so because of that alone they don't do it because there's like this is awkward i don't shouldn't be asking these type of questions these people it's too personal and they just don't do that that alone many people don't do it but like for some reason like my brain i'm not afraid to like
Speaker: break those barriers.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That is a gift.
Speaker: So when you're doing that, it's like a one-on-one thing, right?
Speaker: You're not doing this and like, Oh, we always do it for a group of people.
Speaker: No, we, it's a sales meeting.
Speaker: It's always in front of people.
Speaker: Not all the time.
Speaker: I've, I've had some people that have had some really real stuff happen in their life.
Speaker: And like, we don't bring that up.
Speaker: Like if it's, if it's real, like there's like crimes and other.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For, for most people, um,
Speaker: it's in front of others and we do like everybody and it's a little, we all cry, we all hug.
Speaker: Oh really?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it, well, and part of it's like, I hate you.
Speaker: I can't believe you're asking these questions.
Speaker: Cause again, I'm breaking social norms.
Speaker: They feel like really, they feel like really intruded on.
Speaker: But after a while they're like, Oh, this is actually what I needed.
Speaker: And then it's like, I hate you, but I really love, you know,
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, that's even more impressive if it's in a group setting, because I imagine it takes a lot for guys in a sales meeting to break down in tours.
Speaker: That's impressive.
Speaker: But even if we're not Cody, I think it is powerful teaching reps.
Speaker: Just I know anytime you set a goal trying to get them to do the why, because I've done that too, as I've managed.
Speaker: And I think it is definitely helps with burnout is just even having them write their goals and then write all the reasons why.
Speaker: So I think on a smaller level, that's the least that we can do for the reps is just helping them figure out at least the why for their goals and why they want to be in sales and everything.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And then talked a little bit about helping managers recognize motivation issues and correcting them.
Speaker: Do you have any other questions?
Speaker: tips you use for helping managers besides that why exercise um don't don't hire unmotivated people that's like the number one thing like we just we all want to give people a chance and we all want to help but some like you can bring a horse to water you can't make him drink
Speaker: So my rule as a manager, this is the rule I tell all my managers to, I say, the people that are hungry for success will reach out to you because that's what you did.
Speaker: Anybody that's listening to this, if you were successful, you were like, I bugged my manager night and day until I figured this out.
Speaker: But the thing is, like, we become managers, and all of a sudden we think, like, oh, I have to make sure I train my reps to be able to do what their job is, you know.
Speaker: But it's like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: Like, you're there as a resource.
Speaker: You're there to help them, but you're not there to help the unmotivated people because there's people that you care – sometimes you care more about this job than they care about it.
Speaker: And, you know, you're like, hey, I'm at the meeting early.
Speaker: I'm here to help you, and then no one shows up.
Speaker: It's like –
Speaker: you're telling me a manager, let's say I pick a manager, a manager is making $250,000 a year and they know how to do that.
Speaker: And you are coming to work.
Speaker: You're coming, offering your services basically free.
Speaker: You still got an override, but basically free.
Speaker: And you're not showing up early to get help from someone that's making $250,000 a year.
Speaker: Yeah, dude, that's, that's emotive.
Speaker: That's like, that's, you're dealing with idiot.
Speaker: Like I had a guy the other day that's like, I showed up to do a guy shows up.
Speaker: first day comes doesn't come the second day like okay so apparently you just don't want to make $20,000 a month so I didn't I didn't waste a thought a second thought on him I could have we could have called him we could have said hey what's up man we could have worked him through those problems but it's like if you can't if he's got courtesy to show up to learn how to make $20,000 a month I don't care yeah seriously
Speaker: And yeah, I know we were just talking about like the power of courses and stuff before too, but I think that's why you do need to charge for like your coaching and courses because people got to have skin in the game, you know?
Speaker: And if they don't have skin in the game, they haven't paid money and they're that less likely to take it seriously and take action, which is why I think sometimes
Speaker: reps fell too is because if they're being managed they're not like i mean i guess they're the managers are getting overrides but these reps aren't directly like paying the managers to manage them so sometimes i think would be good if if they had to like almost pay these managers for coaching or something i will really show it on their pay stub like this is your override you paid to a manager yeah i
Speaker: Then they'd be mass exodus to dealerships.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That'd be bad.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: But no, I think that's huge.
Speaker: And how do you recognize, because I know a lot of people bring on people that bring on reps that at the time, maybe they didn't know that they were going to be.
Speaker: worthless maybe it seemed they're all talk you know said they're gonna go out and work a ton but then they don't so how do you recognize do you have any ways to recognize these people before you bring them on or is it just kind of like give people a shot and then uh i mean there's obvious stuff you know like there's two questions that i ask that are crazy key um and uh it's like one of my
Speaker: recruiting secrets.
Speaker: Maybe I shouldn't share this.
Speaker: No, I'll share.
Speaker: So two questions I've noticed that if people don't answer these correctly, they've never worked out.
Speaker: I've never had anybody work out.
Speaker: So one is they have to have like a strong income goal.
Speaker: So I'll be like, Hey, what?
Speaker: So obviously you're doing sales for a reason.
Speaker: What, what kind of income are you hoping to generate through this?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Cause it's not a, it's not a salary job.
Speaker: So you must have a target.
Speaker: You guys have income.
Speaker: And if they say, I don't know, six figures or, or I'm looking to, or I'm, I'm hoping I can make 70,000.
Speaker: Like if there's those like filler words, if
Speaker: they don't have a strong why like they don't know what they want and so they're not going to work if they don't know what they want they're not going to work towards it right
Speaker: And so like, but people come in like, I want to make $85,000 a year.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Well, that's because I want this, this, and this.
Speaker: They're like, Oh, okay.
Speaker: Strong.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Clear vision.
Speaker: We're good.
Speaker: And then the second one is I always ask, especially for solar, some sales jobs, this might not apply to, but for solar, especially Legion.
Speaker: And if you're doing your own needs, this definitely applies.
Speaker: I say, you know, what, what's something, what's a task or like something that was hard in your life that you accomplished when overcome.
Speaker: And like,
Speaker: you, I, every time there's someone that says like, I was a college athlete or I biked the, I climbed the Appalachian trail.
Speaker: I, you know, biked the, the whole, the, the Continental divide.
Speaker: Um, I did my own startup and it failed, but I learned a ton.
Speaker: Those kinds of people are like, Oh, okay, cool.
Speaker: Like they've done hard things.
Speaker: They can get through it.
Speaker: So they can do this well for people that are like,
Speaker: uh i don't know i didn't you know i i went through like okay i'm not gonna make fun of for people for this but oh i shouldn't say this like i went through a divorce you know it's like that's a hard thing i'm not discounting that's a hard thing but it's not something you chose to do because it was hard it's something you had to do because it was hard so it's different so like like i went through i had a really you know i really hard childhood it's like dude everybody had a hard childhood so
Speaker: but what did you choose to do that was hard that you had to push yourself through?
Speaker: Not that you just had to get through to survive as you're going to be.
Speaker: Those people always successful.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then it is sometimes tough to spot.
Speaker: Maybe sometimes people will answer those things and then still come on and you know, just it's a train wreck.
Speaker: So how long do you give these guys if they're not doing well and they're not like meeting expectations?
Speaker: Your answer is as good as mine, dude.
Speaker: I don't have an answer to that one.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I wish I had a magic bullet for that one, but I don't know.
Speaker: Everybody's different.
Speaker: It's hard to tell, you know, but usually their bank account weeds themselves out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's what I think most people find is if they're not doing good, then they're just going to quit anyways.
Speaker: I mean, if they're not making money, then...
Speaker: probably didn't have money to begin with.
Speaker: They're going to be done pretty quick.
Speaker: So I think that's the good way to do it.
Speaker: Oh, cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's been some money tips you have Cody for, uh, for motivation and kind of teaching people and any other final thoughts on like helping reps overcome the motivation or anything else that you've noticed that will help people.
Speaker: No, it's all on them.
Speaker: Like it's all on them.
Speaker: Like there's,
Speaker: a few things we can do to like unlock potential but they still gotta open the door yeah very true oh well yeah it's been some awesome content we've gone through and then um what other things do you coach i know you coach people on using the social media is there anything else that you're coaching reps on that you kind of see a struggle in in general in the solar industry right now uh dishonesty oh yeah yeah
Speaker: again i don't again i don't has anybody ever brought that up on this podcast how like dishonest some people are i don't think they have actually no they don't do they because we want to pretend it's all like because everybody's this recruiter right i'm the best we got the best company everything's roses like like working through dishonesty is a huge issue in this in this indoor industry period um but that's the thing that everybody wants to avoid
Speaker: And it's like, no, dishonesty is a huge problem.
Speaker: And it results in a bunch of crappy customer experiences.
Speaker: And it's what's killing the industry.
Speaker: You know, like the only time we ever talk about is if someone loses a deal to someone else and blasts them on social media.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's only time.
Speaker: But guess what?
Speaker: There's so many dishonest reps.
Speaker: And I get it because you're under a lot of pressure to provide for yourself and for your family.
Speaker: So it's easier to tell a white lie.
Speaker: The white lie I was always told was when I sold the lease, it's a 2.9% escalator.
Speaker: That doesn't mean it's going to go up.
Speaker: That's the cap.
Speaker: So the rates actually, this company actually never raises the rate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Have you heard that one before?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's the classic one.
Speaker: It's the cap.
Speaker: That's the classic one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a 2.9% cap, not an escalator, right?
Speaker: And they tell it all the time, but it's like, no, that hurts the industry.
Speaker: So a lot of it's like coaching.
Speaker: Like the reps that I work specifically have problems because they're like the honest salesperson, and so they struggle.
Speaker: It's like they're working against dishonest competition or dishonest salespeople in their office, heaven forbid.
Speaker: And so it's like, okay, how do we still like be really, really upfront with our customers and have a high closing ratio without having to tell these little white lies and sometimes they're big white lies, but, but usually it's just little things like the escalator, honestly, like it's, there could be people could, you know, so it's just those like working with, with dishonest reps and trying to make an honest rep out of them.
Speaker: And working with people that are like a little burnt out with the dishonesty they see, whether that's on the doors, whether that's in the home, wherever.
Speaker: And just being like, there's still a way to sell solar very honestly, but it does take work.
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: It takes work.
Speaker: And the reason people don't sell honesty is because it's easy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah, and it's unfortunate that there's been that because then it makes it harder for the rest of the industry.
Speaker: And I don't know if you heard, but in California, we have to sign a 28 – the homeowners have to sign a 28-page document for crying out loud.
Speaker: And it's because of reps being dishonest.
Speaker: I mean, if reps weren't dishonest, then there's no way they'd make us sign that form.
Speaker: But –
Speaker: It takes, for me, it's taken an extra probably 15, 20 minutes just in the deal to explain all these documents and go through it.
Speaker: And luckily, I mean, it hasn't really turned into a big deal, but just like now I got to go through 20 minutes of explaining this 28 page document and how reps have lied in the past and there's been shady companies.
Speaker: And that's the reason we have to sign this document.
Speaker: So yeah, it's, I mean, it's affecting the whole industry and it's unfortunate, but yeah,
Speaker: Yeah, I think that is something that people need to realize and teach their reps because it happens all the time and it's only making all of us sell less deals.
Speaker: And I think there's way more people that would have solar if they didn't hear some type of horror story from their neighbor that a rep would light, you know.
Speaker: So definitely important.
Speaker: Well, Cody, we appreciate you coming on the podcast today.
Speaker: And I know you're sharing a lot on social media too.
Speaker: And we already brought it up, but you have your own course, you have your own podcast.
Speaker: So tell us a little bit about that and then how people can find you and reach out to you and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, and I will to give a shout out because I know you solopreneur has a course as well like and we talked about this offline, but a lot of people see they could be hearing this and be like, hey, are there there's two different courses?
Speaker: What should I do?
Speaker: Like just just like very transparent.
Speaker: My view on this is that guys, you rely on one manager and one company.
Speaker: And if you're if you're unless you're a dealer,
Speaker: or you own your own company, they're making a ton of money off of you.
Speaker: And that's fine.
Speaker: That's a good thing because they're investing a lot in you, which is totally normal and good and honest and right.
Speaker: I think that's totally good.
Speaker: But what value are they providing you?
Speaker: You should go out and buy all the courses.
Speaker: Buy Solar Printer or the Spartan course.
Speaker: Buy my course.
Speaker: Buy Bill Murphy's course.
Speaker: Buy all of them and get all the best of them.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: You're going to spend less money on those courses,
Speaker: then you're going to spend on, as you're going to give away an overrides to a manager, you know?
Speaker: So like I, every time, every time I've done a course, my ROI is like been 10, 12 times what I got out of it.
Speaker: So like, whether you buy my course or who else's, I don't care.
Speaker: Like there's some people that are not a fit for my course.
Speaker: They can be a fit for another course.
Speaker: Like my job's not to like just sell everybody, everything.
Speaker: My job's like to get results and help people.
Speaker: That's why I'm doing this.
Speaker: If I wanted to go make a ton of money, make my life really easy, I just go sell solar as a dealer and make $4,000, $5,000 to sell.
Speaker: Instead of sell a course for $2,000, deal with a rep that's got all these emotional issues and not make as much money.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So, so that, I just wanted to make sure I clarify that.
Speaker: It's like, I don't look at it as a, as competition.
Speaker: There's more than enough content.
Speaker: And there's some people that are better than some things than I am.
Speaker: You should take both courses, get the best out of it.
Speaker: You're going to get an ROI, but Facebook, just Cody Teal or solar me.
Speaker: One of those two, mostly Cody Teal.
Speaker: If you just look at any of the groups or just Google Cody Teal, there's a couple of weird ones out there, but I'm the only one that has like solar related.
Speaker: So not a ton of Cody Teal.
Speaker: It's not like John Smith or something.
Speaker: There's like a calendar.
Speaker: million of us there's like 10 of us or something there's like not many another five or six but yeah you just facebook cody teal and follow me on facebook that's like the best way my instagram sucks right now okay yeah same and i know you teach about that in your course how to get your social media dialed so hopefully people will go and check that out and then you also have a podcast are you uh
Speaker: you started publishing quite a bit on your podcast or how's that going?
Speaker: Every day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the podcast honestly is not necessary.
Speaker: Right now there's a lot of solar people on it.
Speaker: My goal is not solar people.
Speaker: So eventually I will transition out of solar.
Speaker: Eventually I will transition to solar.
Speaker: Like my goal is to like within the next two years,
Speaker: help people get out of poverty.
Speaker: Cause there's, there's a ton of courses and content out there for people like you and me that make like six figures, but want to make like, or we started making 80,000, 70,000 a year, but we want to make six figures.
Speaker: And then six figures, we want to go to mid six years.
Speaker: There's a ton of courses.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I can't find any to teach someone how to make from this, making $30,000 to make 60,000, $70,000 without going into sales.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's why it's not like, it's not like a solar theme.
Speaker: Like you look on there, there's no like solar thing on the title.
Speaker: It's all finding freedom.
Speaker: So it's like, okay, here's these people that found freedom through work.
Speaker: So I interviewed other people outside solar, just, just to generally help people.
Speaker: Like there's other people out there that work hard, that find freedom in their lives.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: through balancing work and play ownership and employment.
Speaker: But yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Definitely can apply to solar too.
Speaker: So yeah, everyone go check out his podcast.
Speaker: It's finding freedom.
Speaker: We'll post a link to that in the show notes too.
Speaker: So Cody, thanks for sharing everything.
Speaker: And yeah, it's true.
Speaker: Like you're saying, don't be afraid to go out and spend money on yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's multiple courses, but who cares?
Speaker: Every, every person is going to have a different take.
Speaker: And then,
Speaker: if you do the work guaranteed, any course, there's going to be at least one thing that gets you an extra cell.
Speaker: And I don't think anyone is selling their course for more than what you could make off of like one cell and solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Call, I can think college tuition.
Speaker: You go to college and you pay all these different professors and people are paying tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How much ROI is the giving that we're, we're charging the cost of one course and we're going to guarantee, we're pretty much guaranteeing that guaranteeing, but we can't guarantee, but we're,
Speaker: pretty dang close to like, to guaranteeing that you're going to make more money from it because we, because people do it.
Speaker: So it's like, you can like, if people are paying all this money for college, you can pay a little bit less for an online course.
Speaker: We're actually going to coach you and help you and make money.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Don't be stupid.
Speaker: So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker: So people definitely shouldn't have an issue with that.
Speaker: But yeah, so check out his course too.
Speaker: And we're all about helping spread more value and helping each other out.
Speaker: And Cody, any other final words of wisdom or advice you have for a solar sales rep, a solarpreneur?
Speaker: No, I said too much.
Speaker: I haven't talked.
Speaker: I like to listen more than I like to talk.
Speaker: I'd rather be listening.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: And we'll definitely spread the word about what you're doing.
Speaker: Thanks for spreading the value.
Speaker: And with that, we'll talk soon, Cody.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Peace.
