Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's up solarpreneurs, Taylor Armstrong back with another episode here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals and leads and help you dominate in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hope you're doing well.
Speaker: If you didn't listen to the last episode, you are missing out.
Speaker: We had the one, the only, Coach Michael Burt on the show, and definitely a high-profile guest.
Speaker: If you haven't heard of him, go check him out.
Speaker: He spoke at 10XCon Grant Cardone's events.
Speaker: He's one of the top coaches, top sales trainers in the world, I would say.
Speaker: So go listen to the episode and share that.
Speaker: Give him a like and let him know you appreciated him coming on if you haven't already.
Speaker: Besides that, what else do we have going on?
Speaker: If you haven't heard the big announcement yet, we have our new learning platform that is opening up to an exclusive group.
Speaker: That's happening next week.
Speaker: It might already be out depending on when you're listening to this.
Speaker: By the time of this recording here at the end of March, we are releasing to the first group of students the new learning platform.
Speaker: That's soulciety.co.
Speaker: If you haven't gone and checked it out, I want to suggest that you hop on this.
Speaker: It's going to change the game.
Speaker: And we're not going to dump all the details here yet.
Speaker: That's going to be pretty soon.
Speaker: but just to give you a little teaser it's gonna be something similar to if you've heard of the master class
Speaker: you maybe have seen ads for that but masterclass what they do they go and find the best of each industry they go and get Steph Curry to teach basketball they get you know any different any of like skill you want to learn they go and get the best person from there to teach it so what we're doing with SoulCity it's going to be something similar to that and a ton ton of other things I can't go into quite yet
Speaker: But we're going to get the best of the industry, bring them all together into one platform, and create a community around it.
Speaker: So you're not going to want to miss out.
Speaker: And it is so cheap right now.
Speaker: I can't even believe we're releasing it for so cheap.
Speaker: So go get on.
Speaker: It's definitely going to go up in price.
Speaker: So hop on while you can.
Speaker: That's soulciety.co.
Speaker: If you want to go check it out and go get on the wait list, we're going to open it up next week.
Speaker: Okay, but so let's jump into the episode today.
Speaker: Hope you're closing lots of deals.
Speaker: It's springtime here in San Diego.
Speaker: It's getting nice and warm outside, nice and toasty.
Speaker: Plenty of doors to knock now.
Speaker: People are in a better mood with that warm outside.
Speaker: So I want to tell a story about something that happened to me last week, some mistakes I made, and something that actually went really well.
Speaker: And then it's going to be something that you maybe haven't tried.
Speaker: So basically what I did is I was able to turn a customer that asked me to drop the price
Speaker: I turned this customer into about 8 referrals now.
Speaker: Ok, so crazy amount of referrals, but the bad news is, well not bad, but I did drop the price.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you what I did, I'm going to tell you the mistakes I made first with this customer, and then I'm going to tell you how I got these 8 referrals.
Speaker: It's not going to happen with everyone, but there's some key things that helped me get these referrals.
Speaker: that basically pre-committed the customer so and if you're not doing this you gotta try it so here's what happened i went to a deal i'm working in a community in san diego that is predominantly asians filipinos
Speaker: and Indians, okay, a lot of different kind of Eastern cultures.
Speaker: And if you know anything about these cultures, if you've been in sales for a while, you know by now that a lot of these cultures, especially Indians in particular, they are used to bartering.
Speaker: That's their whole culture.
Speaker: they like to barter for everything and I mean I'm sure they're burning bird in for groceries anything they're buying back in India the price is always negotiable it's not like here you know you know you have a set price you gotta pay it so what happens is these Indians they think that anything that they're presented here the price is negotiable
Speaker: And it's kind of funny, my dad, he's actually a dentist in Utah, and he told me that he has an Indian patient that will haggle him for prices on his dental services.
Speaker: He's pulling a tooth and he's saying, what's the lowest price you can give me on this?
Speaker: And I don't know too many people that are negotiating with their dentist.
Speaker: But these people, they'll do it.
Speaker: They want the best deals.
Speaker: They want to feel like they're getting the top thing that no one knows about.
Speaker: They want the price that has never been given before.
Speaker: It's super annoying, super frustrating, but you got to deal with it.
Speaker: And you got to know how to sell to all these types of people.
Speaker: And I've talked about it before.
Speaker: Find your target customer.
Speaker: But then figure out how you need to sell to each different group of customers.
Speaker: You're going to sell to a grandma different than you're going to sell to a 30-year-old businessman, right?
Speaker: And then with each culture, you're going to sell to them differently.
Speaker: So that's what you've got to figure out.
Speaker: If you're selling to an Indian, you've got to be prepared for them to ask for the best deal.
Speaker: You've got to be prepared for them to say they want to shop around, get a better price, and that's just what you've got to do.
Speaker: So what happened was I sold, I knocked into this Indian, and it was funny, this first Indian that I got the sell with, he was actually super easy.
Speaker: He was like, oh, I've never checked into solar, this sounds great.
Speaker: Didn't question the price at all.
Speaker: It was like, where do I sign?
Speaker: But alas, it didn't turn out quite that easy.
Speaker: Definitely ran into some hiccups along the way.
Speaker: Okay, and that's what you'll find too.
Speaker: Any deal that you think is super easy, that there's a lay down, there's usually going to be something that comes up.
Speaker: that makes it not a lay down.
Speaker: At least in my experience out here in San Diego especially, there's very few deals that go through smoothly.
Speaker: You have to work for these installs out here.
Speaker: So what happened is I asked for referrals at the end, like we all should be doing.
Speaker: And I didn't just ask, I say, that's what we do.
Speaker: We work by referrals.
Speaker: And I handed them the sheet of paper.
Speaker: I was assumptive and I got three referrals out of them.
Speaker: and as I was contacting your these referrals I booked an appointment with a few of them but when I went to the actual appointments I figured out pretty quickly this customer I had told all his friends exact price he was getting the exact deal and guess what a few of his friends had already been shopping around for solar
Speaker: They had already gotten multiple quotes.
Speaker: They looked into Tesla Solar, which Tesla, as we know, they are cutting out everything.
Speaker: They're giving the rock bottom prices, which I can't stand.
Speaker: And so what happened is these friends of his went and told my customer, hey man, have you checked out Tesla?
Speaker: They have the best deal on solar.
Speaker: They're making it so cheap.
Speaker: And Tesla, you can go and get this dirt cheap price.
Speaker: It'll show you on the website.
Speaker: So he went and looked this up and of course he calls me.
Speaker: He says, Taylor, you're charging me way more than what I get from like Tesla.
Speaker: I need to cancel.
Speaker: And that's where I'm like, come on, man.
Speaker: Of course I get the referrals and his friends, they tell him instantly.
Speaker: that he needs to cancel it.
Speaker: So at that point, I'm almost second guessing myself.
Speaker: I'm like, man, should I just not ask for referrals until they get installed?
Speaker: Because, I mean, I don't want him talking to people and then his friends talking him out of the deal.
Speaker: So long story short, I go back, I have to build more value.
Speaker: I probably should have done a better job about building more value in the beginning.
Speaker: But I build more value in what we're offering and what's different between us and Tesla.
Speaker: Build up our warranties, our service, customer service.
Speaker: That's kind of what you got to do when you're competing with Tesla.
Speaker: Really hit on the customer service, reviews, things like that.
Speaker: And then I did have to drop my price.
Speaker: Okay, I mean, Tesla is like cheaper than cheap.
Speaker: So I dropped it, still going to be higher than them, but built the value and then dropped it, threw in some aces and then luckily kept them on board.
Speaker: And then I thought, okay, sweet.
Speaker: Now I can go to his friends.
Speaker: I can sign them up, do the same thing, build more value and I'm good to go, right?
Speaker: Well, wrong.
Speaker: What he did from there is he told all his referrals now.
Speaker: At this point, I only met with one of them.
Speaker: He's the one that kind of screwed me on the deal.
Speaker: He goes and tells all his referrals now that I gave him.
Speaker: This price is this much monthly.
Speaker: Super good deal.
Speaker: which for him is only after we got done with everything, he was only paying like $39 a month for solar, 25-year Sunnova loan.
Speaker: So he's getting a really good deal.
Speaker: He goes and tells all his friends the price he gets and what he's paying monthly.
Speaker: And that's the second mistake I made.
Speaker: So when you're asking referrals, when you're getting these people,
Speaker: make sure you bring up the customer to not tell them the price they got because number one that's going to make him feel special that he got a great deal and number two you don't want especially if you're like you know dropping prices you want to be as profitable as possible on these other deals okay and you don't necessarily want to give the same price to everyone you're meeting with
Speaker: And what it did along with that is he was, this was an eight panel system.
Speaker: He's used next to no energy, which is another thing that's typical of these Eastern cultures.
Speaker: These Indians are really used to using not much energy.
Speaker: I guess it's really hot in India, so they're used to the heat.
Speaker: You don't need to use too much AC.
Speaker: He tells all his friends the price he's getting on eight panels.
Speaker: and what do they do they think that they should get the exact same deal even though they're using way more energy so just makes things complicated now I explained to him well shum shaman he was using way less energy so that's why he got this price and just turn in a whole headache come explain and break down the price way more than I want to because you know you like to keep it simple in the clothes
Speaker: So that's what happened.
Speaker: He went and compared, he went and told his friends the price and just created a headache.
Speaker: And then I thought the first sell I got, I gave him a great price.
Speaker: And then, you know, usually referrals, you have the rapport built.
Speaker: The trust is already there since their referral.
Speaker: But I close the next referral he sends me.
Speaker: And then what do they do?
Speaker: Even after signing the documents, getting them ready to go, they all go out and get, I think, two more quotes still.
Speaker: I'm like, come on, guys.
Speaker: Are you kidding me?
Speaker: What anyone knows, anytime they go out and get quotes, it's like, hey, can you beat this price?
Speaker: First thing they're telling to the next company.
Speaker: meet with so I get a call from his friend now saying hey I still got a better price and at this point I'm like you gotta be kidding me man I already gave you the same price as your friend which was super low now you're telling me how to beat another price and so at this point I'm like alright I'm gonna make not next to nothing on the deal which next to nothing out here I mean still like you know maybe a thousand bucks but
Speaker: not as much as I like to be profitable and everything and have the good margins.
Speaker: So I'm thinking, all right, what do I do?
Speaker: Do I just let this one go?
Speaker: Because he's haggling me, he's being a pain.
Speaker: He wants to meet again and says, all right, if you can't give me this, then we're done.
Speaker: Okay, so here's what I did.
Speaker: And here's what helped me get the extra like five referrals from this other Indian customer.
Speaker: I went back and I said, all right, first of all, I did the manager close, which I need to talk to my manager, see if we can get you this.
Speaker: This is like, you know, best price we've given everyone.
Speaker: Don't tell your other friends.
Speaker: This time I made it clear to not tell anyone else the price he's getting.
Speaker: So I go and call my manager, which my manager is my wife.
Speaker: I just call my wife and, you know, ask her for permission to drop the price.
Speaker: And I come back and I say, all right, man, we can do this on two conditions.
Speaker: Number one, we need you willing to have a sign go out in front of your yard so you can, you know, spread the word more in your community about what we're doing to help people out here.
Speaker: And number two, we need at least four referrals to
Speaker: There's four people that would be willing to meet about this.
Speaker: They don't have to sign up, but we need at least four people.
Speaker: And he's like, oof.
Speaker: He didn't want to give me them.
Speaker: And I'm like, we need them.
Speaker: We need them like today, though.
Speaker: That's the only way I can do it.
Speaker: Otherwise they're not letting us do it.
Speaker: So what I did, I pre-committed this customer and I had already tried to get a few referrals from this customer originally when I signed him, but he was one of those people that was a little more hesitant.
Speaker: He was like, I'll give you, even being assumptive, he's a little more hesitant to give me the referrals.
Speaker: So I committed him, I made him commit to giving me referrals.
Speaker: And at this point, it gave me leverage to actually get, you know, names from him.
Speaker: So I walk out of there with four names, okay?
Speaker: And then he's actually posted in his community Nextdoor app.
Speaker: So that's another good golden tip right there.
Speaker: Get people to post about you in the Nextdoor app, or better yet, do it for them, which we'll have another episode on that.
Speaker: Yes, that's the lesson of this story.
Speaker: If you ever have customers that are haggling on price or that you need to drop it for or that you're doing that manager call, you need to talk to the manager, make it conditional.
Speaker: Hey man, we can get you this, but only if you let us put a sign in front of your home.
Speaker: You give me four names right now, okay?
Speaker: Don't make him stressed about it.
Speaker: Say, don't worry, we're not going to contact him until after you talk to him first.
Speaker: And then see if, you know, best case scenario, see if you can contact them together right in that moment.
Speaker: And then what I failed to do, but what should be another condition that you add on to this,
Speaker: and be creative.
Speaker: Have them do a video testimonial.
Speaker: Get them right there, get a selfie video, and do a little testimonial.
Speaker: So that's something that helped me get an awesome amount of referrals.
Speaker: Okay, you're not going to get, so far I've gotten, like I said, I think six referrals from that one, and then three from the other one.
Speaker: So some people are obviously more hesitant than others to give referrals.
Speaker: But that's the tip.
Speaker: Make it conditional.
Speaker: If you need to drop price, build more value first of all.
Speaker: You shouldn't have to drop price.
Speaker: But if people are haggling you, make it conditional.
Speaker: Make them give you something in order to drop the price.
Speaker: And then what I did, I said, look, the only way we're able to do this...
Speaker: is we're hoping that one of these people sign up.
Speaker: So the money that we would usually give you as a referral, that's going to go towards the good deal you're getting.
Speaker: Okay, because in this case, I was giving an insanely good deal cut into my...
Speaker: into my profits big time, and it was already a smaller system.
Speaker: So that's what I did in that case as well.
Speaker: So just a few things.
Speaker: Okay, try it.
Speaker: Let me know what you think.
Speaker: Let me know if you have any other tips that have helped you in dropping price or ways to just not drop price.
Speaker: Okay, but something to help me last week.
Speaker: Hope it helps you go out and try it, share it with your team, and keep crushing out there.
Speaker: See you on the next show.
Speaker: Hey Solar printers, quick question.
Speaker: What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals.
Speaker: and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
Speaker: And it's called Sol Society.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it?
Speaker: Less than $3.45 a day.
Speaker: Currently Sol Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only, but solopreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
Speaker: Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker: We'll catch you again in the next episode.
