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How To Outsource Your Project Management Like A Pro
285 Plays15 days ago
Outsourcing is essential, especially for things that take too much of the time you could use on the doors. With the help of my wife, outsourcing accounts management to her has improved not only our free time, but increased overall rapport with our customers.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. 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 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? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become
Meet Natalie Armstrong: New Account Manager
00:00:41
Speaker
one. Okay, what's going on? We've got a special episode of the Solopreneur podcast today.
00:00:47
Speaker
guest that is very near and dear to the show. She is my new account manager. And it happens to also be my wife. So ah thanks for coming on, babe. We got Natalie Armstrong on the show.
00:01:01
Speaker
Thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Are you nervous? A little bit. Yeah. It's a big deal. no What an honor. People pay thousands of dollars to be on this show. oh You get do it for free.
00:01:15
Speaker
I'm just joking. But we only bring the best of the best on the show. And um yeah, this lady, she's she is crushing it with the accounts. So i'm excited. I wanted to bring her on a little special edition podcast.
00:01:30
Speaker
Because ah she's just, I say I have ADD. I can't focus on just sometimes the menial tasks such as account management. And she's been stepping up and helping out a lot with that. So I thought she'd come share some secrets and add tips and tricks.
00:01:48
Speaker
And how long have you been managing the accounts now for me? Do you know? Like six months, maybe. Okay. Yeah, maybe like six months. Yeah, it sounds smart.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah. And so we'll get into that. But I mean, I guess the backstory was I have some virtual assistants there in the Philippines and they're great. They actually do almost all the editing for the podcast ah videos and everything. And they were also helping with some account management.
00:02:17
Speaker
But just got a little bit tricky because they're in a different time zone. and you know, just some of the way things work around here got a little bit complicated with them trying to manage it and ah communicate with different people and call into different offices. Yeah, i mean, there's so many different parts, right? Things happen so quick. and And sometimes there's like a lack of updates between two. And she she'd sometimes send out updates that weren't current.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah. And um they'll probably listen to this. So they're great. They really are. They're super helpful. Yeah. Just hard when they're on the other side of the world. Yeah. And a lot of times I would need things like quick, you know, like I'll be out on the doors, customer called, we need this update or we need this thing fixed, um change or whatever. And, um you know, if overseas they're eight hours ahead or whatever, it made it complicated. So anyways, that's where I'm like, you know what, I think
The Power of Outsourcing
00:03:08
Speaker
it'd be better. We need someone that's like same time zone, can figure these so things out quicker.
00:03:13
Speaker
And I started thinking about who we could use. But the problem was at the time, you know, we got three kids and it's a ton, ton to manage. Just ah I mean, you can tell that this place is like it was like a madhouse. Yeah, mean, Taylor works so much, right? If you're working in solar, you know, like how how much time that you put in the doors and not just like knocking, but yeah, account management, all of the back end things that happen. And so he was working a lot and I had just had our third son. If you know children, they work a lot faster than we do. So I could clean something up and then and it will be undone like minutes later and then multiply that by three because we have three three little boys. yeah.
00:03:53
Speaker
So yeah, it was kind of hard. Taylor, anytime he was home, he was trying to be helpful. He'd be like doing the dishes or doing laundry. So on Sundays, Sundays are the only days he doesn't work. And he would spend like six plus hours like doing the laundry. And I was like, thank you for helping. But also, this is the only day I get you. And so I don't want you spending all of that time doing laundry. Like we need you here as dad, not as like I mean, so yeah, so that's kind of where things kind of shifted. And we were like, okay, we could we could use some help with this, we could outsource this.
00:04:24
Speaker
And by alleviating some of his time and my time, then I could help him with some of the things that he needed help with. Yeah, basically, I was like, you know, what I could pay someone to manage my accounts.
00:04:36
Speaker
But instead of that, because we're always thinking I'd finish reading this book. I've talked about it a few times in the podcast, but Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. Great book. He talks about this whole outsourcing thing. I've heard other people do it where they like get someone to come clean your house.
00:04:52
Speaker
But I was always like, man, that's so expensive. And like... We can figure it out. But as I was reading these things, I'm like, well, hey, I need someone. I need more help managing my accounts. We're both like nonstop cleaning the house. What if we got someone to come clean? And then I could have Nat that the time that that freed up because, I mean, you were cleaning.
00:05:12
Speaker
You were probably cleaning at least couple of several hours every day to trying to keep up. And yeah, it was it was causing i would come home kind of unhappy because I had to be working. And then even though she was cleaning, still felt like I just had to come home and clean more because it's just like impossible to keep up with these kids.
00:05:30
Speaker
So it yeah, it got to be a lot. But I think that's what can't do, right? Like, You can do these things, but it's like what's worth your time and what's worth your effort, what you want to do too, right? Like you don't want to be spending six hours on Sunday doing laundry. You'd rather work a little bit harder during the week and pay someone else to do it or hire someone else to work on your account so that you can just like get things running more smoothly and through the pipeline and get installed faster. Yeah. And that's just more worth your time.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, it really comes down to what's your hourly worth. yeah And if we if you think about it as people in solar, like you can get someone to clean for much more inexpensive than what we can make hourly in solar,
Account Management Strategies
00:06:10
Speaker
right? Yeah. And then also... thing with account management.
00:06:13
Speaker
and Yeah. Yeah, she can manage accounts. And that's that's a higher value task than her cleaning too. So that's where we had the conversation. We're like, hey... rather than you cleaning. Like it's sort of more value to you to help push these accounts through because that's all that's a lot more money that we're talking than spending your time cleaning.
00:06:31
Speaker
And I think you like it more than cleaning. I'd rather do account management than laundry. Yeah, so I don't have to convince her. It's a pretty easy conversation have. yeah So yeah, um that's the backstory of this. And whoever's listening, even if you're not married, whatever your situation is, I think it's a valuable principle. Just think, what are you spending your time on? Can someone do this task for cheaper than what you're doing? it Like, are you doing a 20 $20 per hour task when you could be focusing on selling, which is a lot higher value task.
00:07:04
Speaker
So it's something to think about. Even if you're not married, even if you don't have kids, ah you can probably optimize your time a little bit more. Yeah. Get someone to make your meals, do your laundry, all the things that take time.
00:07:16
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, I still have her making meals. So I am still the chef. Yeah. but She's still doing some of that stuff. Yes. I'm not completely worthless. Yeah. She's still a mom sometimes.
00:07:27
Speaker
but All the time. Yeah. But yeah, so we'll talk a little bit about account management and just some things she has, she's been doing and helping in our business. think we're a team. it should be a family business. Like um we're getting these accounts to roof together and it's cool to kind of like be a team on that too. And it's as important to me as it is to you because you make money.
00:07:50
Speaker
That's how we make money. Like we survive together by what you make. So it's worth it to me too. Yeah, that's our money making activities. So, yeah, I'm going to have Nat talk a little bit about some of the tasks that she does.
00:08:03
Speaker
And at the end, she does actually have some openings for a few people. She's ah getting some um a potential clients. So we'll talk about that at the end. But, yeah, I'm going to have her just walk through some things she's been doing and some things that we feel we've been able to optimize And have her help within the business.
00:08:24
Speaker
So right now you're, um it's kind of, think Tuesdays and Fridays are the days you're focusing on the accounts, right? Yeah, I think about twice a week is pretty important because, I mean, you can call in like on Monday and and it will be completely different on Friday. So I think just once a week isn't enough to to check in on your accounts.
00:08:44
Speaker
So yeah, I usually, i i call in, I go through his, we use, shout out to Brent Attaway, we use the CRMX that he but he has. So in there, I have all of his customers and they're all in different categories. So we have like intake, site survey pending, waiting on final design, if they need HOA approval, if there's additional work, kickbacks, scheduled operations. All of that. So we can see kind of the phase of all of these deals.
00:09:12
Speaker
So yeah, so I just go through and I basically just call and get a new update like at the beginning of the week. And then i make sure that I write down, i have, there's a note section. And so I make sure that we take notes on every single customer because oftentimes you'll call in and then they'll be like, okay, we'll call back tomorrow about this. and then you call back. And I'm sure many of us have experienced this where you call and you talk to one person, they give you one answer. And then you talk to another person, they give you another answer. So it's super important to keep that log to like make sure that you you have like written down what they've said and that you can refer to that and she be like, well, yesterday they said this and they're like, oh, okay, let me do some more research. And then they go and they look in like an email thread that was somewhere and they're like oh yeah, I see this. it's like, okay, well, we would have missed that. And then it would have been like a whole nother a week before we addressed this or they were waiting on something. So I make sure to make like detailed notes and
00:10:03
Speaker
And then i also am in contact with Taylor all the time. Like well I'll text him and be like, so-and-so needs this or did you take care of this? And um yeah, so then I kind of make him like a to-do list. yeah So then he can like, we can have a shared shared note of things he needs to do.
00:10:21
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:10:32
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called SolarScout.
Tools and Platforms for Success
00:10:40
Speaker
But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:10:46
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
00:11:00
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show. you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:11:10
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:11:23
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Yeah. And didn't you have one where like, just to give an example where they were ready to schedule for install, but one person thought that we were still waiting on like a permit revision or something. Yeah. And you had to call like yeah three times, but it could have been like an extra month yeah before it got installed. Yeah. But just because you had Because sometimes when you call, they tell you something and you're like, okay. And then you just kind of like take it for what it is. But like, because I had like those detailed notes, I was like, well, actually, no, that's that's not right. Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker
And like then, yeah, so sometimes they don't update their system quite right. And then you have things that are like sitting in the pipeline for a long time. Yeah, but it's really helpful to have some type of CRM. Like she said, we use CRMX, go in and stay organized, yeah keep track of all of them. And I already had i already was implementing that.
00:12:12
Speaker
But my biggest challenge was I could just, I would go through these things, but I would like, you know, get busy some weeks. Some weeks I'd be in tons of appointments, tons of deals. And so I just didn't have time to go through them at all.
00:12:24
Speaker
Things fall through the cracks. Yeah. And then by the time I got back to it, say a week, week and a half later or whatever, when checked, um i I wasn't taking as detailed notes as I should have. And i would kind of forget what happened. And then I was finding this stuff, loose ends that could have been wrapped up a week or two ago.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I was just like, honestly, like spacing it because I would try to make my own little to do list. But I think that's probably been the biggest, the most helpful thing for us is she just like I'm still doing things on these accounts.
00:12:52
Speaker
But she's just like, as she checks in multiple times a week, she's like, hey, where are we at with this? And I'm like, oh, yeah, shoot, I forgot. Made myself a no, but yeah, we need this document done. We need this change order completed. And then she can either text the customer. That's what's cool is she can on CRMX, you have a number that you can text from. Yeah. So she can, you know, bug her customers for these things. She can give them updates and a lot of things she can do, but the things she can't do, then she's putting on my to-do list and Tagging me in it and keeping me on track. Yeah, I mean, I can't do everything, obviously. But um the things that I can do, I do to take off of his plate. So like the HOA approvals, like I can fill out those applications. I can email them into the HOA.
00:13:36
Speaker
I can call, you know, and send change orders and then like text the customer and be like, hey, they sent this to your email. Can you please sign it? or like, hey, here's a quick update. I called your installer today. We're just waiting on your final design. We should get it back next week.
00:13:50
Speaker
I'll keep you posted. Like just quick updates so that they're like in the know. They're not like, okay, it's been like a month. I haven't heard from my solar rep. Am I actually getting solar? And obviously the less you talk to them, higher the cancellation is. So I think having like constant communication with them and having like frequent current updates is important.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. What is it like Fridays or just like once a week or like text them or something? Yeah. I'll check on the account twice a week, but I'll usually text them like once a week. Yeah. And, you know, we've mainly been using one installer out here, but yeah, can differ between installers. I know sometimes installers give you like a CRM where you can go in and see updates.
00:14:30
Speaker
This particular one we're using, you know, have some complaints about, but You have to call them for updates. They don't have like a central place where you can go to get updates, which is a little bit annoying. But yeah, that's another thing. I found myself like spending probably hours a week just like calling in and having a conversation with one person. And then sometimes they knew what they were saying. Sometimes it'd be like
Challenges in Solar Industry Operations
00:14:50
Speaker
something completely different than someone else.
00:14:52
Speaker
So now it's like, awesome. I can just like, you know, have Nat do everything. Just have her call. And she's way more patient talking with these people than I am. Yeah. I'm like, she'll actually like joke around with them, laugh and stuff.
00:15:04
Speaker
And I'm like, tell me this. Well, they're more willing to help if you're nicer to them. Yeah. Yeah. I just, ah I get frustrated doing this so for so long. I'm like, yeah, get get this done now type thing. So she's way better at having patience with those people. You know, I guess I get frustrated because I know a lot of times they're just like college kids or whatever getting paid hourly that don't really care about my accounts.
00:15:27
Speaker
You know, no one cares as much as I do. But yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that's been helping us. Installs have been going in quicker. It's just like a way more bandwidth I have to focus on getting in deals, focus on door knocking. i feel like before my attention was like split, even when I was knocking in deals, I would have sometimes in the back of my head, oh, I forgot to do this for this customer. yeah And it was just kind of like a constant distraction type thing hanging over my head. Well, then you get stuck sometimes with tasks and you're like spending time, like hours you're like, okay, shoot, I just wasted so much time where I could have been knocking. Then you get out late or you're like, okay, well, keep working on this and then you don't knock at all, you know? So yeah.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yep. And then we work with a lot of HOAs out here. So I think that's another big thing. Yeah. Just her being able to bug the HOA in California. What's interesting is they have 45 days to give us a response that's written in like the the law or whatever. But they have 45 days to be give us a response if it's approved, denied, whatever.
00:16:27
Speaker
So another thing that's been helping us is she's been like keeping track. Like day 39. Yeah. Yeah, we have the day. We know the day we sent in the HOA application. And a lot of these HOAs are just kind of a joke out here. Don't even respond. So she she keeps track of the exact day. Yep. And then day 45 hits. we don't hear We don't hear from them.
00:16:47
Speaker
I mean, that thing's getting scheduled. yeah Yeah. When that's something that you probably before were like, okay, I need to check up on that. And then it's like past time. You're like, oh, shoot, it's been more than 45 days. We could have had this scheduled. Yeah, I would have to go back in the email and like look, but yeah, yeah sometimes it'd be like 60, 70 days and I'd like, man, yeah, we could have this scheduled weeks ago. Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
Didn't check on it. So yeah, things like that, but I don't know anything else that you feel like you've been able to help me or or optimize or and don't know, any any ah disorganization that you see you see from other reps or other people you've noticed?
00:17:23
Speaker
Mostly just like the, you know, you have so much on your plate already. So if there's something that you can do that will that will help get through it faster, then that's the way to do it. I mean, you have one of your assistants. This isn't something that I do, but every time I add in a new customer into the CRMX, then she goes in and sends a gift to the customer.
00:17:43
Speaker
yeah So that's another thing that kind of gets offloaded, but that's not something that I do. Yeah. But yeah, i make sure to get everything in there. I get like their phone number, their email, their address so that we have everything. And then we also have like their text thread. So I'm able to see like communication. I have access to his email so I can see all of the updates. Like if you talk to the customer, if he messaged someone else and then I can kind of be in the loop as well, which is super helpful.
00:18:06
Speaker
yeah So I think constant communication is honestly just the key. It's like you get an update, I get an update and just being like, okay, where are we with this? Where are we with this? And then just like the most important things you can actually deal with as well as all the other things that you have to do. Yeah, and you're sending me um like a report to which I like go through all of them and just kind of an update on what happened for me too. So I know that it's being worked on.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yes, that's that's good. Just like a list of all the customers and the update. So yeah, been a big help. And talked to all the closers on our team. i would definitely recommend once your past, I would say even four or five deals a month, I would just get someone like Nat to go and help manage your accounts.
00:18:52
Speaker
yeah Because even if you feel like it's not a ton of work, it goes back to the print to that principle. If you did have someone doing that, if you did have someone manage the pipeline, maybe that's the thing that could get you to 7, 8, 9, 10 deals a month.
00:19:06
Speaker
And it's not even just like necessarily knocking more and getting more deals. It's like the more attention we have on the customers that you already have, the higher percentage actually get to install. Yeah. So it's like, what's worth your time, but also like what you already have is actually getting to install and getting PTO. Yeah.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, so we should go and track it. But yeah, I bet but some money that I have. The percentage has gone up by, don't know, at least 20, 30% probably um that are going to install versus before she she was managing them. Because yeah, I was having stuff fall through the cracks left and right. And yeah, I got kind of rough there for a minute. So it's helped me a lot.
00:19:47
Speaker
So if you're like me and you can't focus... You don't like the account management. You'd rather be in deals, especially. you need someone to manage the accounts. Speaking of that, just to wrap up, um I know you're accepting potentially a few ah applications.
00:20:02
Speaker
um I know you're busy mom of three and everything. but But now I have a housekeeper. Yeah, you got a housekeeper. yeah So I was freed up some time. So um yeah, we're just talking about that. um I know that's something you're open to doing is helping more people with ah their accounts. So in case people want to reach out and maybe, I don't know, hop on a phone call or something, if they're interested, what's the best way to get you want share your social media or something or a best way to connect with you.
00:20:29
Speaker
hope the best way is Probably just through you, don't you think? through me. Just send you a message. right, we can do that. That might be the best. she She's a private person. I'm sure we'll tag her in this. Yeah. I just can't remember what my handle is on Instagram. All right. So send us a message.
00:20:48
Speaker
um You can hop on a call. She has a few openings. If you are interested in getting someone to help manage your accounts. I think mean it would be worth worth trying, right? She can explore.
00:20:59
Speaker
i know you just did a little, you know, kind of discovery call with someone on our team. And I think that alone was helpful just to see like where stuff is falling through the cracks. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker
Like you don't know if you don't track. Right. And so sometimes you're going through things youre like, oh, shoot, I didn't realize that this and this and this and this is happening. So I think even, yeah, like a discovery call, I could go through it with you and just see where we are, what you're already doing, what's working, what's not working and see how we can like we can optimize that.
00:21:27
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, hit us up if you do want to
SolarCon and Additional Resources
00:21:30
Speaker
check that out. And ah guys, remember, we got SolarCon coming up here um in less than a month. Yeah, I think it's yeah less than a month now. It's going to be in Vegas. If you have not got your tickets, we have some awesome bonuses for anyone that decides to get the upgraded ticket. There are free tickets now, but if you want an upgraded ticket or the other way you can get... Our bonuses, which we will include in the show notes. Got some awesome bonuses. Did a podcast on it.
00:21:57
Speaker
I think last week. But you can get the hotel block through our link, through our discount link there in the show notes. So click that. Either upgrade your ticket or get purchase your hotel through that link, and we'll hook you up with some sweet bonuses. You don't want to miss out.
00:22:15
Speaker
You excited for Solarcon? I'm so excited. Yep, she's excited because she gets kicked me out in. And I don't know. hey Those are the times when I put the kids to bed early and eat cookie dough in bed. yeah So she's she's excited for it.
00:22:29
Speaker
I'm just kidding. I'd rather have you any day the week. OK, well, ah guys. So, yeah, hit us up if you want help with your accounts and stay tuned. We got some exciting guests coming up for the show.
00:22:40
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on with us. Not any ah last words for solar professionals you want to say today? Nope. Okay, well, good job on your second podcast.
00:22:51
Speaker
Okay, get out there. Get someone to do your accounts. Let's do it. Okay, thanks for your advice. See you on the next one. Thanks for having me. What's up, solopreneurs? Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:23:02
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. One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:23:20
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast? You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes. 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.
00:23:40
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet. So go download it right now. It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com. Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com. Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs. We will have that in the show notes. Go download it right now.
00:24:06
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them. That's going to show you how. So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.