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How to Run a D2D Team and Call Center for Your Solar Sales - Cody Booth
84 Plays3 years ago
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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.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Taylor's Journey to Sales Success
00:00:10
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.
Learning from Mistakes & Industry Pros
00:00:19
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.
Defining a Solopreneur
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Introducing Cody Booth: Sales Expertise
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, everybody?
00:00:43
Speaker
We are here with the one and the only Cody Booth today.
00:00:48
Speaker
We got an awesome podcast planned.
00:00:50
Speaker
We're going to jam on a lot of call center stuff, a lot of sales, a lot of solar.
Industry Connections & Anecdotes
00:00:56
Speaker
So, Cody, thanks for coming on the podcast with us here today.
00:00:58
Speaker
Thanks for having me, Tyler.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be a good time.
00:01:03
Speaker
And Bennett Maxwell, he made us the introduction.
00:01:07
Speaker
I worked with him for about a year down here in San Diego.
00:01:10
Speaker
And you actually helped us get set up with, I think it was what, LA Solar?
00:01:14
Speaker
Were you kind of our connection in with them?
00:01:17
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, that was a fun experiment.
00:01:20
Speaker
And I got a lot of good relationships from that.
00:01:24
Speaker
That's what I'll say.
00:01:25
Speaker
That's what I'll say about that experience.
00:01:28
Speaker
It didn't go smooth, but, you know.
00:01:33
Speaker
Not everything does.
00:01:35
Speaker
But I got to meet Bennett from it, who I consider a really good friend now.
00:01:40
Speaker
Even though, I don't know if you know this about Bennett, if you've ever gone out to dinner with him, but he never pays for dinner and forgets his credit card every single time.
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:50
Speaker
So I had to put that out there.
00:01:52
Speaker
And if by chance Bennett listens to this, I have to let him know.
00:01:57
Speaker
All right, Bennett, if you're listening, you owe Cody some dinner.
00:02:02
Speaker
He has paid for my dinner a couple of times.
00:02:03
Speaker
I guess he remembered his credit card that time.
00:02:06
Speaker
I guess he just likes you more.
00:02:08
Speaker
I guess so.
00:02:09
Speaker
Weird to show that I was working for him, but I don't know.
00:02:12
Speaker
We just shared a hotel room in Dallas because we were out at a mastermind and we've already had this running joke that he doesn't pay for dinner.
00:02:19
Speaker
And he said, hey, the room's all paid for.
00:02:22
Speaker
Don't worry about it.
00:02:23
Speaker
You know, I got it this time.
00:02:24
Speaker
And so I show up to the room and I get there before him and I check in and the guy goes, oh, how did you want to pay for this, sir?
00:02:30
Speaker
Typical Bennett.
00:02:33
Speaker
Nice.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, there you go.
00:02:36
Speaker
But hey, you can make good cookies.
00:02:38
Speaker
Maybe I'll give you some free cookies out of it.
00:02:42
Speaker
But enough about Bennett, though.
00:02:44
Speaker
Hopefully you listen to his podcast.
00:02:45
Speaker
But today we're talking about
Cody's Entry into Solar Industry
00:02:47
Speaker
Cody.
00:02:47
Speaker
So, Cody, do you want to tell us kind of how you got in the solar industry?
00:02:51
Speaker
I know you're crushing it with call centers.
00:02:53
Speaker
You got teams multiple places in the country now building it like crazy.
00:02:58
Speaker
So you don't want to give us kind of the reader's digest how you got into solar and how you
Growth and New Sales Organization
00:03:03
Speaker
got going with your company and everything.
00:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I first got into solar in the summer of 2014.
00:03:11
Speaker
I didn't really have any, I didn't have much sales experience.
00:03:16
Speaker
I grew up in upstate New York.
00:03:17
Speaker
We just, the sales culture in the door-to-door industry is not real big there probably because it snows for like eight months out of the year.
00:03:25
Speaker
But I was in California and I had some buddies doing some door to door.
00:03:28
Speaker
And I started with, I started just as an appointment center for a company out of Yucaipa, California called Progressive Energy Solutions.
00:03:36
Speaker
And, you know, it's, I know this has never happened to anybody else in sales world, but I got a few months in and I didn't see any commission checks.
00:03:50
Speaker
Nice.
00:03:50
Speaker
Unheard of.
Innovative Lead Generation Strategies
00:03:52
Speaker
Unheard of.
00:03:52
Speaker
I know it's impossible.
00:03:54
Speaker
And I was, I was taking a break one day.
00:03:56
Speaker
I was on the doors and some guys came along and, you know, they asked what I was selling and,
00:04:03
Speaker
I told them, you know, solar with progressive energy solutions and I like progressive energy like that.
00:04:07
Speaker
That's a solar company.
00:04:09
Speaker
And long story short, they ended up, they were, they were a dealer with Solcius.
00:04:14
Speaker
This was in, in, in the Palm Springs area, the California desert.
00:04:18
Speaker
And I started working with them and you know, that was a great experience.
00:04:22
Speaker
It kind of opened my eyes to, you know, you know, Hey, you can make a lot of money doing this.
00:04:27
Speaker
You know, the first company, they didn't, they paid me an hourly.
Shift to Call Center Sales
00:04:30
Speaker
you know, and I never saw any of the commissions and, you know, I, I'm at the time I was, I was young, I was in my early twenties, mid twenties, and just the perfect time to do a commission only sales job.
00:04:43
Speaker
And what the hell would I got to lose?
00:04:46
Speaker
Right.
00:04:47
Speaker
And it just kind of evolved from there.
00:04:48
Speaker
And as, you know, as I kept progressing and building teams, you know, I got to that point that a lot of us get to, and I was like, you know what?
00:04:55
Speaker
I think I can,
00:04:57
Speaker
I think I can start my own sales org.
00:05:01
Speaker
Nice.
00:05:02
Speaker
And we got to that point, got good at it.
00:05:06
Speaker
We kind of came up with our own model because I know a lot of guys, there's no shame in this.
00:05:12
Speaker
It's just preference.
00:05:14
Speaker
A lot of guys want to knock forever.
00:05:17
Speaker
That's cool.
00:05:19
Speaker
My thing is I want to have a
Success with International Call Centers
00:05:20
Speaker
family.
00:05:20
Speaker
I want to live life.
00:05:21
Speaker
I want to do other ventures and things like that.
00:05:24
Speaker
And I didn't, I don't, I'm not one of those guys that loves knocking doors.
00:05:27
Speaker
You know, I knocked doors because I was good at it and made a lot of money, but I didn't love it.
00:05:32
Speaker
So we came up with a, when we started SolCal Energy Solutions, which is our door-to-door company, we came up with a, with a model, you know, where we, where you, you have a, you have an opener who can have very little solar experience rather than just setting an appointment at that point where you would set an appointment, you actually drop a pin in an app and,
00:05:52
Speaker
And somebody comes in, you know, and takes that takes that transfer rate, they're hot in the doors.
00:05:58
Speaker
And that that was that allowed us to, you know, initially it was, hey, how do I get off?
00:06:04
Speaker
How do I create leads that are good,
Importance of Partnerships
00:06:07
Speaker
right?
00:06:07
Speaker
Because appointment centers, usually a little rough, right?
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, you're chasing a lot of wood, you know.
00:06:15
Speaker
So I was like, okay, so how do we get off the doors, but not chase wood all day?
00:06:20
Speaker
Right.
00:06:21
Speaker
And so that's where this, you know, kind of solar assembly line idea that, you know, came and then it was, okay, then how do we train guys to close deals so that we can just kind of facilitate growth?
00:06:34
Speaker
And that's how I'm able to be in South Carolina living.
00:06:40
Speaker
But I've got my teams in California, all throughout California and in Texas.
Building Effective Sales Teams
00:06:44
Speaker
And when COVID hit, it evolved and we essentially do a similar model, but on the phones now.
00:06:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:52
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:06:53
Speaker
And no, I know you've been building up a ton, um, but that's cool.
00:06:56
Speaker
You, uh, so how long were you working in solar before you decided to start your own sales org before you went off and jumped in the deep end?
00:07:04
Speaker
So I think, I think it's been about, about three years.
00:07:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:10
Speaker
About three years.
00:07:12
Speaker
And you know, if,
00:07:14
Speaker
that was probably for me, it was probably the right amount of time.
00:07:17
Speaker
And I remember talking to, to, to a guy that I kind of, you know, look up to business wise.
00:07:22
Speaker
And he was like, he was like, just, just so you know, you know, your first year, maybe he's like, just be prepared to make less money.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:30
Speaker
And I'm like,
00:07:32
Speaker
And, you know, in my mind, I'm like, yeah, right.
00:07:34
Speaker
I've got, you know, I've got to figure it out.
00:07:35
Speaker
We've got this model that we're going to do, like it's going to crush and I'm going to make all this money.
00:07:41
Speaker
And it was not, that was not the case.
00:07:45
Speaker
There was, there was a lot of times where it's like, you know, cause
00:07:49
Speaker
It's a different model.
00:07:50
Speaker
We're running payroll for guys.
00:07:51
Speaker
We're paying salaries for guys.
00:07:54
Speaker
I didn't go to business school.
00:07:55
Speaker
I was in college dropout a couple times.
Challenges in Leadership & Scalability
00:08:00
Speaker
I was good at that.
00:08:03
Speaker
It was a whole different world.
00:08:06
Speaker
There were times where it was scary.
00:08:11
Speaker
When people are like, what's advice for people that are starting
00:08:16
Speaker
you know, business or how did you do it?
00:08:17
Speaker
And it's like, you gotta be, you gotta be just stupid enough to think that you can pull it off.
00:08:23
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of guys that are, there's a lot of guys, in my opinion, that are too smart to, you know, to be entrepreneurs.
00:08:31
Speaker
It takes a special level of, you know, it takes a special amount of, you know, stupidity.
00:08:38
Speaker
You gotta be, you gotta be a little, you know, a little dumb, you know, at the time my wife was pregnant with,
00:08:45
Speaker
with a third kid and she was working a job and you know, if we were going to do this, she was going to, she was going to quit her job.
00:08:53
Speaker
And, you know, I was like, all right, let's go from no guaranteed money with the third kid about to be born in a month and send it.
00:09:02
Speaker
Wow.
00:09:03
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:09:04
Speaker
Well, I like hearing that just cause like I've,
00:09:06
Speaker
I've thought about it myself too.
00:09:07
Speaker
And I know lots of people who are like kind of toy with the idea, but then some jump in, some fell or some are just too scared and maybe they should have.
00:09:16
Speaker
Um, so I don't know.
00:09:17
Speaker
How
Partnerships & Relationship Management
00:09:18
Speaker
do you know, was there a point for you where you're like, Oh, I'm ready for this.
00:09:21
Speaker
Or you just kind of got sick of working for people or I don't, I don't know if there's a sign from above or something that made you want to start your own.
00:09:27
Speaker
Cause you're probably making decent money and stuff for the other companies.
00:09:30
Speaker
Right.
00:09:31
Speaker
Yeah, I was making decent money.
00:09:32
Speaker
What was really the kind of the jumping off point for me was I was working for basically at this point another guy.
00:09:39
Speaker
He had a dealership and he was a hell of a salesman, not a great leader.
00:09:45
Speaker
So I was going out and building these little teams, right?
00:09:48
Speaker
And the commission split was he basically took 50%.
00:09:54
Speaker
you know and you know all any costs i incurred to get openers and stuff like that other guys hotels and everything was coming out of my pocket and um you know i talked
Recruitment & Training Strategies
00:10:06
Speaker
to him about you know changing the pay structure and he wasn't having it and i in my in my opinion i felt like at that point
00:10:14
Speaker
Yes, I had some support and stuff like that, but at that point, I really didn't have a choice.
00:10:20
Speaker
I was going to go figure it out.
00:10:21
Speaker
It was just getting to that point where dealer models were starting to blow up.
00:10:28
Speaker
There was a few companies that were doing it, but I didn't have any connections, so that was another...
00:10:33
Speaker
Like I kind of kept to myself, you know, in solar, I didn't come from, you know, I didn't come from Utah.
00:10:39
Speaker
You know, I didn't grow up with, you know, a bunch of guys that I knew doing solar.
00:10:44
Speaker
It was, you know, I kind of just stuck to my bubble.
00:10:47
Speaker
You know, I didn't, I wasn't going to, you know, SPI or networking.
Learning from Other Industries
00:10:52
Speaker
I was just kind of in my own world.
00:10:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:55
Speaker
Well, cause I see a lot of guys that, um, I don't know, some, some companies you see guys that aren't even producing that much that want to go start their own sales org.
00:11:04
Speaker
And it's like, dude, you're barely even selling.
00:11:06
Speaker
Like, I don't know if that's the best idea to go start your own thing when you're not even selling that much yourself.
00:11:14
Speaker
But then I know there's guys that are selling a decent amount.
00:11:16
Speaker
Maybe they're not the top guys.
00:11:17
Speaker
So were you like, would you say one of the top guys at your company?
00:11:21
Speaker
And do you think it's like necessary to be super good at sales to go start your own organization?
00:11:26
Speaker
Or what's your take on that?
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I wasn't.
00:11:30
Speaker
I wasn't like the top guy.
00:11:31
Speaker
It's one of those things, you know, it's, it's hard saying who's going to be, who's going to be good.
00:11:36
Speaker
Cause it's a different skillset.
00:11:38
Speaker
Right.
00:11:38
Speaker
Like even, even right now, like I've had guys who are like top
Consulting & Training Services
00:11:42
Speaker
reps and I've, I've just learned that I'm just, you know, I'm still learning this.
00:11:45
Speaker
Right.
00:11:46
Speaker
And just because a guy's a top rep doesn't mean he's going to be a top manager.
00:11:49
Speaker
You know, I've taken some top reps before and put them in, you know, managerial positions and they suck.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:56
Speaker
You know, they just don't have that, you know, they just don't have that that leadership.
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:02
Speaker
No.
00:12:03
Speaker
And so, you know, it's no different than when we hire up, you know, there's times where I hire a rep like dude's gonna crush it.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:10
Speaker
And then they just bomb.
00:12:11
Speaker
And then there's other guys from like, I don't know.
00:12:14
Speaker
And then they crush it.
00:12:16
Speaker
So it's, I would say it takes a level of maturity.
00:12:19
Speaker
I don't think you need to be a top rep to be to run your own
00:12:25
Speaker
to run your own, I look more at like, you know, you know, are you, what are you going to do to differentiate yourself?
00:12:32
Speaker
You know, there's a few different ways.
00:12:33
Speaker
Like, are you going to get creative in your systems?
00:12:35
Speaker
You know, do you have, do you have a, you know, you could be, you could have great, you know, great understanding of psychology
Systems & Culture in Sales Organizations
00:12:41
Speaker
and how to get people to work because once you get to a certain point, you know,
00:12:45
Speaker
more of a psychologist to these people than you are anything else.
00:12:50
Speaker
And how do you manage people, you know, so I try and look at, you know, how do you manage people?
00:12:53
Speaker
How do you manage your relationships?
00:12:55
Speaker
You know, if you're if you're running around, you know, cheating on your spouse, you know, you're probably not going to be a great leader, because if you're willing to do that to your significant other, you know, then you know, what are you going to do?
00:13:07
Speaker
to the guys that work with you, you know, it sounds, it sounds crazy, but you know, we've all, we've all seen people like that.
00:13:13
Speaker
And you're like, wow, you're at, we're out here working and you're, you're wild, you know, and they might put up the most accounts, you know?
00:13:22
Speaker
So it's really, I view it as more of like, you know, how do you, how do you understand people?
00:13:27
Speaker
How do you, how do you motivate people?
00:13:30
Speaker
Because, you know, the guy that can sell the most, isn't always going to be,
00:13:35
Speaker
the guy that, you know, we've, I'm sure you've seen it before.
00:13:38
Speaker
You know, there's some times where you've got an office where there's a guy that just kills it, but he gets along with no one.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:13:44
Speaker
You know, and how can that guy lead, you know?
00:13:48
Speaker
Well, a lot of times those guys go start their own company and you know, it's essentially they have a dealer contract, but they're the dealership.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:58
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:13:59
Speaker
I mean, some of
Managing Turnover & Growth
00:14:00
Speaker
these guys just,
00:14:00
Speaker
try to start their own deal or then it's just like they're a one man show now.
00:14:04
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:14:05
Speaker
I think that's, I would, I would say that's important to see how people react to you leading.
00:14:10
Speaker
And I don't know, see if you can actually like recruit guys to you.
00:14:13
Speaker
Cause I don't think most people want to just go start a deal or I don't know, maybe some people do, but I don't know if people want to start their dealers, just be a one man show.
00:14:21
Speaker
So we've had a lot of guys leave and you know, I always encourage guys, you know,
00:14:27
Speaker
Like my goal is not to keep guys forever, you know, go, go do your own thing.
00:14:32
Speaker
Blossom, you know, a lot of times they come back, you know, after some have come back after like two months, you know, and some have, some have gone on and done great.
00:14:43
Speaker
And that's cool too, you know, is if, if, if you're, if you truly are like, if your company's dope and you, you sell a ton, you know, a rep or a couple of reps leaving shouldn't, you know,
00:14:56
Speaker
If you're tripping out because, oh, they left to go start it, you know, it's like, well, were they the value or were you?
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:04
Speaker
No, I think it's like some people have that scarcity mindset where it's like, oh, we just lost a rep.
Finding the Right Business Partners
00:15:10
Speaker
Company's going to fall apart.
00:15:12
Speaker
And then I don't know, like the first company I was with was kind of like that, actually.
00:15:17
Speaker
Like they were trying so hard, did not get me to leave.
00:15:20
Speaker
when I knew I was going to, and it made me want to leave more.
00:15:22
Speaker
Cause I'm just like, man, if you guys are so desperate, like get me to stay, like you should have confidence in your systems and be able to have more guys.
00:15:31
Speaker
Don't hit it on me staying or leaving.
00:15:33
Speaker
And so I think that's a good point for a lot of people.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:37
Speaker
If you've got, if you've got good systems and you've got good culture, like you should like to me when somebody is like, I think I'm going to go start my own thing.
00:15:45
Speaker
You know, most of the time, like, Hey man, that's awesome.
00:15:49
Speaker
You know,
00:15:50
Speaker
there you know now i'm not gonna lie there's been times where i've been where i've been blindsided by it you know you're in the middle of a project and it's like right you get you get angry for a second you're like we're right in the middle of doing this you know but then that subsides and you know you know and then you know cooler heads prevail and you're like dude good luck you know let me know let me know about your wins yeah
00:16:14
Speaker
That's good.
00:16:14
Speaker
And then, yeah, I mean, rather than burning that bridge and ruin our relationship,
Managing Expectations & Growth
00:16:18
Speaker
like you said, all of these guys, maybe they come back and work for you and ends up going way better.
00:16:23
Speaker
You never know, man.
00:16:24
Speaker
I've got, you know, partners that I work with now or guys that I work with now that, you know, it's happening, you know, throughout this, you know, because sales fluid, you know, it's happened throughout my time in sales where I've met guys or,
00:16:36
Speaker
been introduced to guys, I'm like, Oh my God, I can never work with that guy.
00:16:40
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:16:41
Speaker
And then we ended up doing a cool project together.
00:16:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:44
Speaker
And you ended up becoming friends.
00:16:45
Speaker
So, you know, as humans, we always judge, you know, diverse interactions.
00:16:52
Speaker
And, you know, there's been a lot of times where
00:16:55
Speaker
happy to admit that my first impression has not always been, you know, spot on.
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
Speaking of partners, um, I know you said you have a couple of partners now in your business, or I guess you can have multiple businesses, but yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:12
Speaker
So when you first started it, did you, um, did you come on with partners instantly or how do you, how'd you go about like getting people to partner up with you and, um, launching that side of things?
Scaling Sales Organizations
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, so I've worked with the same partners on and off.
00:17:27
Speaker
We've kind of floated in and out since I've started going out on my own.
00:17:33
Speaker
And my two main partners that I've had are completely kind of different people, which is awesome.
00:17:43
Speaker
One of them is more the creative side.
00:17:46
Speaker
One of them is more organized and, you know,
00:17:49
Speaker
very good at getting scripts together and that and my other main partner is he's a guy that just he's got a new idea every day.
00:18:01
Speaker
And just so there's no shortage of irons in the fire.
00:18:05
Speaker
And it's fun for me because I'm kind of in the middle of both of that.
00:18:10
Speaker
I would say my role is kind of more, I'm pretty heavy on like relationships and things like that and kind of keeping everything
00:18:19
Speaker
moving forward and keeping people together is where i fit into that you know i
Innovations in Lead Generation
00:18:24
Speaker
i'm lucky enough to have i have a pretty good understanding of psychology and sales and you know and things like that um but i also you know i view myself more as somebody who keeps things smooth keeps everybody you know working together you know i try and be the one that you know you
00:18:44
Speaker
There's money involved.
00:18:44
Speaker
It's business.
00:18:46
Speaker
There's feelings.
00:18:46
Speaker
People have emotions.
00:18:48
Speaker
My job is to keep everybody loving each other.
00:18:55
Speaker
Keep them having good.
Approach to Consulting & Systems
00:18:58
Speaker
Everyone needs those people.
00:18:59
Speaker
Well, and I've talked to some guys too, where it's like they say their theory is it's almost better sometimes to have partners like outside of solar.
00:19:07
Speaker
Because sometimes in solar, I think we are, a lot of us think the same way as a lot of us are sales focused.
00:19:13
Speaker
And maybe we're not thinking outside of the box, like someone outside of the industry would.
00:19:17
Speaker
So your partners right now, did they come from solar?
00:19:20
Speaker
And I don't know, what do you think about that?
00:19:21
Speaker
You think it's important to have guys that maybe they're not like specifically from solar?
00:19:26
Speaker
Maybe they think more outside the box or...
00:19:28
Speaker
I don't know what your experience was finding your partners, but what do you think about that?
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:19:33
Speaker
My partners both had solar experience, but they had, they had different backgrounds.
00:19:38
Speaker
You know, one of them was been in, you know, started in insurance and moved to alarms and the other one, him and I started doing, doing solar at around the same exact time.
00:19:48
Speaker
And, and it's been, it's been good.
00:19:51
Speaker
But
Outsourcing & International Teams
00:19:52
Speaker
like you said, you're, you're kind of limited in your,
00:19:55
Speaker
you know, for a lot of, you know, we try and do some stuff different, right?
00:19:59
Speaker
But for a lot of companies, it's kind of like, all right, summer, summer sales program, you know, how do we recruit, we go out and we find guys to self gen clothes, right?
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, teaching, right.
00:20:11
Speaker
But it's, it's almost like people are numbers.
00:20:16
Speaker
And so we've gotten, we've gotten pretty far with, you know,
00:20:21
Speaker
because we don't come from I don't come from that school of alarm, you know, alarm sales or summer sales.
00:20:27
Speaker
So we've gotten pretty far with our own creativity.
00:20:29
Speaker
So just recently, I've started doing some some different masterminds and stuff like that.
00:20:33
Speaker
And I just I was just in in Texas with Bennett got back Friday, Apex mastermind with him.
00:20:41
Speaker
And what I like about that mastermind is that
00:20:45
Speaker
It's, you know, there's a few solar guys there, but you're getting feedback and you're getting, you know,
Passion & Joy in Business
00:20:53
Speaker
I've got a, I've got a coach involved with that too.
00:20:55
Speaker
And she's got no, she knows nothing about solar.
00:20:59
Speaker
Right.
00:21:00
Speaker
So when it, you know, and I've just been working with her for a few months now, and it's already helped tremendously because she doesn't, she doesn't know how things are supposed to go in solar.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:11
Speaker
You know, does she care, nor does she care to know.
00:21:13
Speaker
So it's been really cool to meet, you know, guys that own roofing companies and guys that have real estate companies and guys that flip houses, you know, things like that and get their perspective on things.
00:21:23
Speaker
And sometimes you want to just sit there and be like, you don't know what you're talking about.
00:21:25
Speaker
You know, my industry is different.
00:21:26
Speaker
It's like, we're all the same.
00:21:29
Speaker
You know, we're, a homeowner has a problem.
00:21:32
Speaker
Our job is to show them that we're the solution.
00:21:35
Speaker
Right.
00:21:36
Speaker
And build that relationship gap so that they trust us to be their solution.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:42
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:21:42
Speaker
And I think it's, yeah, I think that's probably how we're innovating stuff in solar.
00:21:45
Speaker
Cause if we just all talk together as solar people, we're probably all going to think of the
Final Advice & Personal Satisfaction
00:21:50
Speaker
same ideas.
00:21:50
Speaker
We're going to keep doing the exact same stuff, but I think that's how guys that have kind of innovated solar and probably like yourself too, have thought of different ideas, things outside of the box.
00:21:59
Speaker
That's probably.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:00
Speaker
I would say partly from networking with these other people outside of the industry and, you know, going to these masterminds, having those connections.
00:22:08
Speaker
Because for me, when I go to stuff like that, like I go to marketing conferences, it always gives me like new ideas that I'm not hearing like within the solar industry.
00:22:18
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's huge kind of networking with those people outside of it.
00:22:21
Speaker
Would you agree?
00:22:23
Speaker
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00:22:28
Speaker
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00:22:35
Speaker
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00:22:39
Speaker
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00:22:41
Speaker
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00:22:42
Speaker
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Contact & Engagement Information
00:22:53
Speaker
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00:23:01
Speaker
Oh, absolutely.
00:23:02
Speaker
And, and even more so than just that, like, we talked about it before we hopped on, like, we don't really hire guys, usually with solar experience.
00:23:09
Speaker
That's right.
00:23:10
Speaker
You know, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, if you're
00:23:17
Speaker
how do I say this without making hurt people's feelings?
00:23:19
Speaker
If you're in solar and you're constantly looking for a job, you know, what's going on?
00:23:26
Speaker
You need to, you know, you need to take a look at yourself.
00:23:29
Speaker
And I say that as somebody who used to always look for the lowest red line and things like that.
Podcast Conclusion & Call to Action
00:23:35
Speaker
You know, I went through that phase.
00:23:37
Speaker
Luckily, I didn't stay in that phase very long.
00:23:40
Speaker
But, you know,
00:23:42
Speaker
I learned very quickly that, you know, all red lines are not created equal.
00:23:46
Speaker
You know, when starting a company, you can get very creative with adders.
00:23:51
Speaker
But yeah, just getting that perspective from people outside of the industry has helped me grow.
00:23:57
Speaker
And then getting people that work outside of the industry to come and join your team.
00:24:03
Speaker
and watch them grow, you know, they don't, they don't come in with bad habits, right?
00:24:07
Speaker
They're very moldable, right?
00:24:10
Speaker
And, you know, it's especially delicate in what we do because we provide leads, right?
00:24:14
Speaker
It's our cost per acquisition, you know, we're not just providing leads.
00:24:18
Speaker
We're providing our guys with, you know, credit qualified bill in hand closes, you know, they're not working a lead.
00:24:27
Speaker
They're waking up in the morning and looking at the calendar and say, cool, I've got four closes on my schedule.
00:24:32
Speaker
Oh, the credits passed.
00:24:33
Speaker
Oh, we've got the U-bill.
00:24:35
Speaker
Oh, the proposals made for me already.
00:24:37
Speaker
Awesome.
00:24:38
Speaker
You know, so that's, that's how we set it up.
00:24:41
Speaker
So that's very, you know, when you're, when you're bringing guys in to go close those, you know, it's not cheap to acquire that, you know, it's not cheap to get it to that point.
00:24:50
Speaker
And, you know, unfortunately, you know, there's, there's been times where we've brought guys in with experience and, you
00:24:57
Speaker
they, they take advantage of that.
00:25:00
Speaker
And then, you know, they send the lead.
00:25:03
Speaker
They send that, that, that deal through through another EPC, which is short sighted.
00:25:08
Speaker
Obviously, it's like you're making all this money.
00:25:10
Speaker
And you don't have to knock doors, you don't have any liability, you're not, you're not doing all this ad spend.
00:25:17
Speaker
And they, you know, guys just feel the need to, you know, breeds a terrible thing.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think it happens.
00:25:27
Speaker
That's the risk with guys in the industry.
00:25:29
Speaker
A lot of greedy guys that have been in solar and red line shopping and all that.
00:25:33
Speaker
So I can definitely see why you would look outside of solar.
00:25:37
Speaker
You don't get a lot of this drama, I think, that sometimes us solar people have.
00:25:42
Speaker
Yeah, because we get inflated egos, right?
00:25:44
Speaker
Like, think about it.
00:25:46
Speaker
If you or I go close three deals in a day that were all set for us, we're like, at the end of the day, we're like, hell yeah, I'm the man, right?
00:25:52
Speaker
We start to forget that, you know, hey, there's this beautiful system in place that allows me to, you know, to be the man, right?
00:25:58
Speaker
Because, yeah, it's not that you're not the man, like you, but let's, you know, let's not forget that it's a symbiotic relationship, right?
00:26:07
Speaker
You know, one doesn't happen without the other.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:11
Speaker
And so it's hard to, you know, you get some guys in solar that, you know, they're like, I told you, you know, I was the man and I look at all I did.
00:26:17
Speaker
And it's like, you know, and when you really break it down, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, what did you do?
00:26:23
Speaker
You went to, you went to appointments, you're working in, in San Diego.
00:26:30
Speaker
You showed somebody how you're going to cut their bill in half and, you know, their interest in the solar and their credit was passed for you, you know?
00:26:40
Speaker
Well, especially with leads too, because that's what I've seen.
00:26:44
Speaker
Some of these guys, they want to be off the doors.
00:26:46
Speaker
So I'm curious to know how you like avoided so much drama between like spreading out these appointments, because I'm sure you had guys being like, oh, Tony got more leads than me today.
00:26:57
Speaker
Oh, his leads were better.
00:26:58
Speaker
And like, I don't know, did you deal with that?
00:27:00
Speaker
And like, what did you do to make it fair with your guys and everything?
00:27:04
Speaker
Oh, yeah, we hear it all the time.
00:27:06
Speaker
And
00:27:07
Speaker
We just had a guy, we got a guy recently.
00:27:10
Speaker
I don't think he's gonna listen to this.
00:27:11
Speaker
He'd probably know what I was talking about.
00:27:12
Speaker
I'm not obviously not gonna say his name, but, um, you know, he kept getting turned away at the door.
00:27:19
Speaker
He's like, dude, he's like, dude, I keep getting turned away at the door.
00:27:21
Speaker
And finally I just had to say like, man, maybe you're just ugly.
00:27:24
Speaker
I don't know.
00:27:25
Speaker
Like it's not happening to other people.
00:27:28
Speaker
Like you're showing up like, and they're just not sitting and they're just turning away at the door.
00:27:32
Speaker
I mean, maybe it's just, maybe it's just the way you look, you know?
00:27:35
Speaker
Um,
00:27:36
Speaker
But we try and do round robin and make it fair.
00:27:40
Speaker
But at the same time, if somebody's on fire, then they're going to get assigned more closes.
00:27:46
Speaker
It's just that simple.
00:27:48
Speaker
If you're on fire, it's like you're playing in the NBA finals in the 90s and Michael Jordan's on fire.
00:27:56
Speaker
You're not going to be like, oh, let me make sure Tony Kukowicz gets this shot.
00:27:59
Speaker
Exactly.
00:28:01
Speaker
You know, so you, you gotta, it's, it's a delicate balance, you know?
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:28:07
Speaker
And, you know, here's the thing too.
00:28:09
Speaker
And after a while, these guys have a lot of leads, right?
00:28:10
Speaker
They have a lot of appointments.
00:28:11
Speaker
So, you know, when guys are struggling too, I tell them the best way to get back in the flow is, Hey, work some of these old leads.
00:28:18
Speaker
And, you know, I'm not a big person.
00:28:19
Speaker
I'm not a big text campaign guy.
00:28:21
Speaker
Um, it's like, I'm not a huge email campaign guy.
00:28:24
Speaker
I just, I just have never seen it have massive success.
00:28:27
Speaker
When I was on the doors and I wanted to try and get a hold of somebody, I would go knock their door.
00:28:32
Speaker
Now that we're a little bit more on the phones and leads are spread out, I'd say, hey, just grab 20 of your old appointments from within the last year or 50 of them or 100 of them and just start making some phone calls on some that fell off or some that you never sat with or anything.
00:28:49
Speaker
I know you got a list of guys that said, give them a week and then you never call them next week because your calendar got filled up with more leads and you stopped caring.
00:28:58
Speaker
So when guys get into slumps, it's like, hey, go back and work some of your old leads, get two on and we'll stack you up.
00:29:07
Speaker
And that usually works.
00:29:09
Speaker
It helps people get out of a slump too because they're going to talk to some more homeowners and they're not going to burn leads.
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:29:20
Speaker
That's huge.
00:29:20
Speaker
And so I want to hear, you said you guys just pretty much instantly went into setting up phones, like phone leads and everything, right?
00:29:29
Speaker
So you didn't even really do door to door once you started your own sales org, you just went straight to the phones.
00:29:33
Speaker
Is that right?
00:29:35
Speaker
No, we went, we did door to door for a couple of years.
00:29:37
Speaker
And then once COVID hit, we, we did what a lot of people did and we went, oh shit.
00:29:43
Speaker
You know, it was like, what do we do now?
00:29:46
Speaker
And, you know, people, we didn't really slow the doors down too much, but you know, what we realized is our model, um, you know, on the, on, on the doors was great, but it limits growth.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
You know, because it takes a lot of fire to start that.
00:30:04
Speaker
You know, you've got to go out and hire openers, right?
00:30:06
Speaker
You've got to get them trained up.
00:30:07
Speaker
And then you've got to get people to take the opens, the transfers live, and they go there.
00:30:12
Speaker
And then you've got to get... So it's... To grow one market takes a long time.
00:30:17
Speaker
And we were trying to grow a couple markets.
00:30:18
Speaker
So we grew a couple, but it took a long time.
00:30:22
Speaker
And when COVID hit, it was actually super blessing for us because it was like, there's this whole...
00:30:28
Speaker
national and international market for for for workers for salespeople that I was just oblivious to.
00:30:39
Speaker
you know, and one of the guys that I work with is like, dude, look at all this talent in, you know, in Mexico, you know, look at all this talent in the Philippines.
00:30:48
Speaker
And at first it wasn't my idea.
00:30:50
Speaker
So, you know, I don't like it.
00:30:52
Speaker
Right.
00:30:52
Speaker
Cause I'm a sales guy.
00:30:54
Speaker
And, and then, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know, people in America, they don't like accents.
00:30:59
Speaker
They don't like this, whatever.
00:31:00
Speaker
And he, you know, started playing.
00:31:01
Speaker
He's like, listen to this, look at this video interview.
00:31:04
Speaker
These people talk like you and I, I'm like,
00:31:06
Speaker
I had to get over my own simple-minded biases, right?
00:31:12
Speaker
And it really kind of opened up my mind to
00:31:16
Speaker
like, wow, this could be something big.
00:31:19
Speaker
And so that's how, you know, a buddy of mine who's one of my partners has been, he's been on this kick for years and it kind of finally, you know, just came together in the last two years and it's really, you know, it's really taken off and it's been, it allows for massive growth.
00:31:39
Speaker
I mean, if you can tap into the world, you know, then you're,
00:31:47
Speaker
you know, your ability to grow becomes, you know, almost infinite.
00:31:51
Speaker
You know, that's been that's been huge for us.
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:58
Speaker
Yeah, now I'm with you on that.
00:31:59
Speaker
I mean, I talk about it all the time in the podcast, but I have my virtual assistant from the Philippines that edits all these shows.
00:32:07
Speaker
Her English is probably better than mine sometimes.
00:32:11
Speaker
She speaks really good, and she has degrees and all that.
00:32:14
Speaker
I don't get any of that.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:19
Speaker
Paying her six, seven bucks an hour.
00:32:20
Speaker
So yeah, I think if you can tap into that, you know, it's like a lot of potential in that for sure.
00:32:26
Speaker
And so when you when you talk about like Mexico, Philippines, you got these people on the phones like calling for you or what what exactly did you have these these people do hiring them out like that?
00:32:36
Speaker
Yes, we've got them on the phones.
00:32:40
Speaker
And then we've got them doing project management stuff.
00:32:44
Speaker
We've got a proposal team.
00:32:47
Speaker
It's been cool.
00:32:48
Speaker
The first people we hired were in the Philippines for proposals.
00:32:53
Speaker
They're still with us.
00:32:55
Speaker
They're awesome.
00:32:56
Speaker
They're so reliable.
00:32:57
Speaker
It's been...
00:33:01
Speaker
I mean, they're a lifesaver.
00:33:02
Speaker
And then, you know, a lot of the people that we work with in Mexico are, you know, people that lived in America, you know, some are just regular Americans that were born here and they just moved to Mexico, you know.
00:33:12
Speaker
So you get a lot of the workforce in, you know, really in the world is like, you know, we're all watching and doing the same stuff.
00:33:22
Speaker
You know, the whole world's on Facebook.
00:33:24
Speaker
Social media is, you know, worldwide.
00:33:26
Speaker
You know, we kind of...
00:33:29
Speaker
I would say now more than ever are, you know, it's, it's probably every day is probably, you know, the most similar the world has ever been.
00:33:37
Speaker
Right.
00:33:38
Speaker
Makes sense.
00:33:38
Speaker
You know, like you're seeing, you know, the same TikTok video that somebody in, you know, in Japan is, you know, so it's, you know, we're not all the same, but like, you know, we're, we're, we're closer now to all being, you know, kind of in tune than I think we've ever been as, as a,
00:33:59
Speaker
yeah human race yeah definitely yeah no it's cool um and what's cool i like you did this without um you know because i i have a lot of friends in the industry that are from like um costa rica from mexico you probably know eric sanchez i think he's in apex with you or something yeah yeah i know i know who he is he wasn't he wasn't there this week
00:34:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:21
Speaker
All right.
00:34:22
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:34:22
Speaker
So I know he, he has a lot of that call center stuff.
00:34:24
Speaker
They start them in like Columbia and all that.
00:34:27
Speaker
And so I noticed that the people that aren't from here, they've, they do that way more often than like us.
00:34:33
Speaker
Cause they probably think, okay, I can just hire people from the country where I grew up in and everything.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:38
Speaker
Um,
00:34:39
Speaker
So that's cool to see that, you know, you're doing it and you're from New York.
00:34:43
Speaker
So you don't have to be from Mexico or anything to set these things up.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, you can set them up.
00:34:49
Speaker
And so you find people that like, I guess for someone that let's say I'm someone I started my own deal.
00:34:55
Speaker
I want to start up a call center, get this thing is rolling.
00:34:58
Speaker
What were some of the first things you guys did?
00:35:00
Speaker
And how do you like find these people?
00:35:01
Speaker
And if you were starting from scratch, what do you what do you like do step by step to get these things set up?
00:35:07
Speaker
If I if I was starting from scratch, I'd call me have me build it out.
00:35:14
Speaker
It was, you know, I got I got lucky my partner did a lot of like the research and the dialers and stuff like that.
00:35:23
Speaker
And some advice that I would give is like,
00:35:28
Speaker
As it went on, it was like, don't trip on the accents.
00:35:30
Speaker
Okay, you know, people got some kind of rough English and things like that.
00:35:34
Speaker
And you're like, Oh, man, this, you know, because, you know, we've all dealt with, you know, being on hold and stuff when you're trying to call, you know, it's AT&T, and then you get somebody and you can't really understand them.
00:35:44
Speaker
And so I just assumed, you know, incorrectly that, you know, oh, they've got a, they've got a thick accent, you know, they're not going to translate well, well in America.
00:35:53
Speaker
Right.
00:35:54
Speaker
And so I would say that that's the, that was the, the most eyeopening thing that I learned.
00:36:01
Speaker
And, um, I would say that, um,
00:36:05
Speaker
you know, it's, it's one of those things where don't, don't settle for mediocrity.
00:36:09
Speaker
There's tons of talent out there.
00:36:11
Speaker
And so really, really listen to your, really listen to your people and, you know,
00:36:17
Speaker
make sure that make sure they're getting getting their script on their flow down because there's hundreds of millions of people that are that are talented enough to do that this this job you know and so finding the right people and and not saying because you know when you use people from other countries you know they're not as expensive so our our mindset tends to go to well they're profitable yeah
00:36:43
Speaker
right look at how profitable they are but profitable doesn't mean you know perfect it doesn't mean right you know just because no they're profitable you know six bucks an hour you know like they should be profitable yeah yeah but um you know what we found is if you can find the people that are that are really good and you keep building on that just like with anything in sales like don't keep people just because they're profitable now we're to the point where we pay them
00:37:09
Speaker
they don't make much less than what they like.
00:37:12
Speaker
And somebody in an American call center make some of them make more, you know, some of them make six figures, you know?
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:20
Speaker
But they will work their butt off and – and listen, the call center culture is huge in Central America.
00:37:30
Speaker
You treat people right.
00:37:32
Speaker
You take care of them.
00:37:34
Speaker
Next thing you know, you've got a bunch of killers.
00:37:36
Speaker
And on the flip side, if you keep keeping around people that –
00:37:41
Speaker
you know, there's no true like pace setter and you've got, you know, people just, just kind of being profitable for you before you know it, you'd be losing money and you'd be like, how am I losing money on this?
00:37:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:37:53
Speaker
So I've seen both ends of that and you know, you've really got to, you've really got to treat it just like you would, you know, a business that you run in the States.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:06
Speaker
Just because it looks like it's marginally profitable doesn't mean that it's running how it should be.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:13
Speaker
When I think guys too, cause I'm sure a lot of people that fell at this, it's like, they're probably just going on Upwork or something and hiring someone to do calls and they don't have anything set up.
00:38:22
Speaker
They've never done it themselves.
00:38:24
Speaker
So how'd you guys go about like setting up a system and like, I don't know, hiring these people, training them and knowing it was going to work without maybe you didn't lose money in the beginning, but like, I don't know.
00:38:34
Speaker
How did you, was it a lot of trial and error or
00:38:37
Speaker
Was it learning from other people that have done it before?
00:38:39
Speaker
How did you set up a system to be able to do all this?
00:38:43
Speaker
It was some trial and error.
00:38:45
Speaker
One of the guys that worked with us, he's got family down there.
00:38:48
Speaker
And so we started just running some ads.
00:38:50
Speaker
They are getting involved in the Latin American Facebook groups and stuff like that.
00:38:54
Speaker
And then honestly, we treat it just like we would recruit like a door-to-door rep in the States.
00:39:01
Speaker
You ask them the same type of questions, you give them the same type of training.
00:39:06
Speaker
After a while, you just know what to look for.
00:39:10
Speaker
You give them the scripts and they come do their pitch and they just say, oh, I didn't really look at it.
00:39:16
Speaker
The difference is since we're in a virtual world,
00:39:20
Speaker
know, you can rip through 50, 60, 70 candidates and, you know, you don't got to show up to the office and do this whole, you know, regular morale and, you know, all that.
00:39:30
Speaker
And then we just, we give them full on sales training, you know, we, we do a lot of old school stuff, a lot of Tom Hopkins stuff, you know, um, I mean, that stuff's timeless, you know, it really helps you understand the psychology of everything and, you know, Upwork and Fiverr and stuff like that are, are cool.
00:39:51
Speaker
But, you know, those people don't come with sales training, you know, they don't come with that, you know, maybe something someday will, but, you know, they don't come with that.
00:40:03
Speaker
You can test their competency, but how do you test somebody's sales skills?
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah, really tough.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:40:10
Speaker
Well, I think for our listeners, probably the biggest thing is, like you said at the beginning of this, if you really want to learn to do this, just go hire Cody or get someone to actually consult you.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:21
Speaker
It is like you don't have to go through all this trial and error as much as I'm sure you guys did when you were starting it out.
00:40:27
Speaker
So I know you guys also do a little bit of consulting.
00:40:30
Speaker
Cody, do you want to tell us a little bit about that and why you guys were interested in starting up kind of that side of your business too?
00:40:37
Speaker
Yeah, that side's new.
00:40:38
Speaker
It's been fun.
00:40:39
Speaker
It's different than just your typical, like, here's the information.
00:40:44
Speaker
And, you know, this could evolve.
00:40:46
Speaker
But right now, it's kind of, it's more, hey, we help you build up your call center, you know, from ground zero.
00:40:53
Speaker
And it's not just like, hey, we're going to hire guys for you, show you what dialer to use.
00:40:56
Speaker
It's, hey, we're going to get guys for you.
00:40:58
Speaker
We're going to train them up.
00:41:01
Speaker
And then we're going to teach you, you know, whether you want your setters, existing setters to be the ones that are kind of taking these transfers and setting them, or whether you want us to go outside and find a recruit guys for you and bring them in and train them.
00:41:16
Speaker
We do that too.
00:41:17
Speaker
So it's really kind of almost like a done for you, you know, business.
00:41:23
Speaker
And, you know, right before this, that's, you know, right before I hopped on this call today, I was doing a meeting for another sales org with getting their setters, you know, doing a daily meeting for them, you know, and it's not...
00:41:36
Speaker
It's not a daily meeting forever, but you know, it's, you know, till it's got its wings to fly, you know, and the idea is to teach you how to, you know, and that that one's been going for, I think, I think this is the third week, they've already got several deals close from it.
00:41:50
Speaker
So they've already hit their, you know, their ROI.
00:41:54
Speaker
And so the idea with that was, you know, I know my limitations, right?
00:41:59
Speaker
Like,
00:42:01
Speaker
Humility is a real thing, right?
00:42:03
Speaker
And being humble doesn't just mean like, you know, if you're dope, it's okay to think you're super dope, right?
00:42:08
Speaker
Like that's, to me, that, you know, being humble is knowing what you're super good at, right?
00:42:14
Speaker
Like, it's not just like, it's not just like, oh, shucks.
00:42:17
Speaker
No, I'm not that good.
00:42:18
Speaker
It's like, no, being humble to me means if you're fucking, if you're the man at something,
00:42:23
Speaker
then be the man.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah, right.
00:42:25
Speaker
Like, know that you're the man if and if you lack an areas, then then then be humble enough to admit where you're where you're not, you know, nothing.
00:42:35
Speaker
And for me, you know, organization isn't my isn't my strength, right.
00:42:39
Speaker
But creating is right.
00:42:40
Speaker
I'm good at creating.
00:42:41
Speaker
I'm good at training.
00:42:42
Speaker
I'm good at
00:42:44
Speaker
you know, getting things off the ground and getting excitement.
00:42:47
Speaker
And, and that's what I'm good at.
00:42:48
Speaker
And that's what I like to do, you know?
00:42:51
Speaker
And so I have, I have a rule, you know, because I, I'm sure you're in the same boat, you know, I get some, you know, I get friends and colleagues that come to me and say, you know, Hey, I've got this, I've got this business idea.
00:43:03
Speaker
And I used to always think that I had to like, yeah, yeah, I want that.
00:43:05
Speaker
I want to do that too.
00:43:07
Speaker
And, and now I have to ask myself, like, you know, is it something I'm passionate about?
00:43:13
Speaker
And if my answer is no, then I don't do it, even if it's potential, even if I'm losing out on a lot of money, right?
00:43:19
Speaker
Even if I'm like, that's a, that's a banging idea.
00:43:22
Speaker
It's going to make a ton of money.
00:43:24
Speaker
Right.
00:43:25
Speaker
If I'm not, if it's not something that I go, oh yeah, I want to do that because I feel, cause that sounds like, like fun to me.
00:43:31
Speaker
Right.
00:43:32
Speaker
And I use fun lightly.
00:43:33
Speaker
It doesn't mean like, oh, I gotta like, you know, go on and jump up and down.
00:43:40
Speaker
It's, it's, is it mentally going to be fun for me?
00:43:43
Speaker
Like I let the problem solve, like, is it going to be the kind of problems that I, that I find joy in solving?
00:43:48
Speaker
And if the answer is no,
00:43:51
Speaker
then I'm not going to do it.
00:43:52
Speaker
And so we have this goal to get to all these all these sales and stuff like that.
00:43:57
Speaker
And we've sold you know, we've had months where we've sold hundreds of accounts and we always do over 100 a month.
00:44:01
Speaker
And for me, I wasn't
00:44:05
Speaker
I wasn't passionate about growing it like that anymore, and neither was one of my partners.
00:44:10
Speaker
And so we said, well, this sounds like a new challenge.
00:44:14
Speaker
It's fun.
00:44:15
Speaker
In the beginning, you're not really making on this first beta test, we're not really making any money.
00:44:22
Speaker
But the idea is it's almost like a franchise.
00:44:26
Speaker
You get a bunch of these going.
00:44:28
Speaker
and you know you get some get some recurring going and you know it's fun because i get to work with leaders of other companies who do things differently than me you know the one company in the world right now they've got a thousand sales reps and are massive recruiting and they're in 15 states and they think differently
00:44:44
Speaker
You know, they do things differently.
00:44:46
Speaker
And so for me, that's fun.
00:44:48
Speaker
You know, that's something I can I can be passionate about.
00:44:51
Speaker
You know, I get people to talk to me a lot about, you know, the software players.
00:44:55
Speaker
I'm like, dude, I had a flip phone until like five years ago.
00:45:00
Speaker
I don't do software well.
00:45:02
Speaker
So, you know, I made a rule that I stopped saying yes to things that I'm not I'm not passionate about.
00:45:08
Speaker
you know, building these centers out and getting to, it's great for networking too, because you're not building these out for, you know, a sales rep, you're building it out for other, other business owners, you know, and so that's a new, a new perspective and it's, it's exciting and it's, you know, kind of reinvigorating because they can get old, you know, the same thing over and over again.
00:45:31
Speaker
yeah no for sure no that's a huge nugget i'm a lot of rich people out there that hate what they're doing and are miserable so i mean might as well at least like what you're doing and be able to make some money at it do both at the same time yeah because it's not it's not fun then like you know yeah to me what's the point yeah
00:45:54
Speaker
I know.
00:45:55
Speaker
I love that.
00:45:55
Speaker
And so, yeah, I think that's a huge nugget for our listeners.
00:45:59
Speaker
Make sure you like what you're doing.
00:46:00
Speaker
And then number two, just go get people that are already doing it well.
00:46:04
Speaker
Work with a guy like Cody and shortcut your success for sure.
00:46:08
Speaker
And then just last question or two before we kind of start wrapping up here, Cody, I know you also run some door to door still.
00:46:16
Speaker
So what's can you tell us about like what that balance is like between having your door to door team having your call center and your closers going to those leads you keep those pretty separate or those kind of flow together how does that work in your company right now.
00:46:30
Speaker
So those are, those are separate.
00:46:32
Speaker
Um, as far as the door to door stuff goes, I don't have much involvement on the day to day basis.
00:46:38
Speaker
I did for years.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:40
Speaker
Um, and then we've got, we've got a manager that, um, you know, he was a sales rep that like really stepped it up, um, throughout the years and, you know, really just kept pushing it and pushing it, pushing it.
00:46:52
Speaker
And this is, you know,
00:46:53
Speaker
I always tell guys that work for me like, Hey, man, there's no glass ceiling.
00:46:56
Speaker
And I and I mean it, you know, and so he got to the point where he was, you know, learning more and more, taking more and more control the office.
00:47:07
Speaker
And, you know, just just killing it.
00:47:10
Speaker
So he actually has the majority of the of the
00:47:18
Speaker
ownership or, you know, profit share of that office now.
00:47:21
Speaker
And so I meet with him, you know, I chat with him probably a couple of times a week.
00:47:25
Speaker
You know, I look at the reporting and everything like that and see it, but you know, he's, he's really taken that over.
00:47:32
Speaker
So I make a small cut on it and, you know, I put a, you know, I put a lot of time into it, you know, and put years into it.
00:47:37
Speaker
It's a business, you know, more than it's not just a you know, it's a summer sales office.
00:47:43
Speaker
It's a year round, you know,
00:47:45
Speaker
It's got, you know, it's got its admin, it's got his project managers and stuff like that.
00:47:48
Speaker
So he earned, you know, the majority of that business.
00:47:53
Speaker
And, you know, when it when it became time to be like, hey, I'm not, you know, I'm not too proud to say when I'm not adding a ton of value anymore, because it's not again, it's not something I'm passionate about right now.
00:48:05
Speaker
I'm not super passionate about growing that door to door business.
00:48:08
Speaker
So he is.
00:48:10
Speaker
And so I'll gladly step aside and say, hey, here's your
00:48:14
Speaker
I'll offer help whenever you need it.
00:48:16
Speaker
I'll offer as much input as you want.
00:48:19
Speaker
But you know, you've earned it.
00:48:21
Speaker
So he was the guy who just started off as a, as an, you know, as an opener.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah, four or five years ago.
00:48:27
Speaker
Now he's, you know, told him, you know, you put your put the name of your office on there if you want.
00:48:32
Speaker
And you know, that's, that's yours, you know,
00:48:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
Well, that's cool.
00:48:36
Speaker
You're not being like your old, uh, your old boss.
00:48:39
Speaker
You mentioned that said, I'm going to take 50% cut.
00:48:42
Speaker
You gotta be grounded in reality.
00:48:46
Speaker
You know, just because you did something five years ago, it doesn't mean that you get to, you know, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to be, um, I don't want to be managing door to door.
00:48:56
Speaker
It's not, you know, everybody's got what they like.
00:49:00
Speaker
And, you know, so I like that I get to,
00:49:03
Speaker
you know, meet with him a couple times a week.
00:49:05
Speaker
You know, last year, we'll probably do it again this year.
00:49:07
Speaker
Last year, we took all those guys to Vegas and stuff like that.
00:49:10
Speaker
And it was a good time.
00:49:12
Speaker
So I like that, you know.
00:49:15
Speaker
It's just not what I'm, you know, like I said, I keep saying it, but it's just not what I'm passionate about.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:21
Speaker
So your focus is more just on like the phone stuff and you kind of let, just let that guy run with this team, do what he wants to do.
00:49:28
Speaker
And then you're more kind of daily involved in the phone stuff and making sure that's rolling and everything.
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah, and really, even when it comes to that, it's, you know, doing some trainings with some guys is what I like to do for the phones, then just just kind of networking and finding, you know, not everybody's going to be a good partner to work with on this.
00:49:45
Speaker
It sounds cliche, but it's like, you know, some people, you know, there's been people that I've talked to before, they're like, Oh, man, I'd like to get into that.
00:49:52
Speaker
And it's
00:49:53
Speaker
and in your head you're like that would suck to work you know so you don't really you don't really pursue it too much it just it just is what it is you know yeah yeah for sure i'm sure there's plenty of people that meet me and i like that guy's okay like we should we shouldn't all like each other i know well no that's true for sure lots of people in this world to work with and um
00:50:17
Speaker
I mean, you moved out of California.
00:50:18
Speaker
Maybe you got sick of California, but probably got a lot of new opportunities out there.
00:50:22
Speaker
How was that move, by the way?
00:50:25
Speaker
California to South Carolina, right?
00:50:28
Speaker
It was, it felt like it took forever.
00:50:30
Speaker
We, we drove and we, we brought, I have four kids.
00:50:33
Speaker
We took the two youngest, the two older ones stayed back in California for the rest of the summer.
00:50:37
Speaker
Now we got them out here.
00:50:40
Speaker
But we drove, we drove cross country with the two little ones, two years old, five years old.
00:50:44
Speaker
And our, our Pomeranian who,
00:50:48
Speaker
did a lot of barking.
00:50:50
Speaker
And, uh, and we, we, we brought the Tesla and we, we charged every few hundred miles.
00:50:57
Speaker
That's a lot.
00:50:58
Speaker
But it was, uh, it was, uh, I was hoping it was gonna, you know, we were going to take our time,
00:51:04
Speaker
but it was so hot.
00:51:06
Speaker
It was like in the first week of July and the whole country was getting a heat wave.
00:51:10
Speaker
I think every state we were in, it was over a hundred degrees.
00:51:13
Speaker
Wow.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:15
Speaker
That's insane.
00:51:16
Speaker
Well, you got, yeah, you got my respect with four kids.
00:51:19
Speaker
I don't know if I'd ever do that, Jay, with four kids.
00:51:22
Speaker
I guess you only had two at the time, right?
00:51:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:24
Speaker
It's still brutal enough.
00:51:26
Speaker
It was a good experience.
00:51:28
Speaker
And, you know, solar's starting to take off here in South Carolina and
00:51:32
Speaker
Yeah, I've heard.
00:51:33
Speaker
I'll be looking at, uh, you know, getting settled in now, but definitely be doing something, something soon.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:40
Speaker
Right on.
00:51:40
Speaker
Well, Cody, we appreciate you coming on the show today.
00:51:43
Speaker
And then, um, if guys want to like potentially start working with you more on the consulting side or connect with you more, what's the best way to be able to do that and connect with you and everything?
00:51:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:52
Speaker
So the best way is probably, uh, probably Instagram.
00:51:56
Speaker
Um,
00:51:57
Speaker
My at is Cody underscore booth underscore 315.
00:52:01
Speaker
Okay, awesome.
00:52:04
Speaker
And then you can look me up on Facebook as well.
00:52:09
Speaker
I think my profile is public there.
00:52:14
Speaker
And you can email me.
00:52:17
Speaker
but we all know how that goes.
00:52:19
Speaker
My email is Cody booth at S O L C A L energy.com.
00:52:24
Speaker
Honestly, the easiest way is to just, just to DM me and, uh,
00:52:28
Speaker
you know, go from there.
00:52:30
Speaker
Okay, sweet.
00:52:32
Speaker
And then, um, yeah, what final question here before we, uh, say goodbye, um, if you could go back and I'll give yourself some advice or maybe a new rep starting out or a new, new, um, company owner, just starting your sales org, any, uh, final words of wisdom or final advice you would give if you could go back and talk to yourself.
00:52:52
Speaker
I would say use your use your money, you know, those early commission checks, right?
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah, you pay attention to guys that are that are doing what, you know, what you want to do what you wish you were, you know what I mean?
00:53:05
Speaker
It's, you know, find the guys that have what you want.
00:53:08
Speaker
And if it costs you money, if it costs you time, you know, focus on focus on that, you know, whether it's in your industry or not, you know, focus on
00:53:17
Speaker
you know, it's tough, because look out for snakes too, because there's plenty of people that will take your money and tell you to come to their seminar, and they'll just give you some bullshit.
00:53:26
Speaker
It just this is what it is.
00:53:28
Speaker
But really, look, really study the people that you work with, the people that run your run your organization, you know, go out meet people network.
00:53:37
Speaker
And, you know, like I said, spend your time, spend your money on on on learning.
00:53:43
Speaker
Because, you know,
00:53:46
Speaker
you're going to get so much, you know, I wish that I, you know, networked more in the beginning and wish that, you know, I valued spending my time and money on, you know, paying people to teach me things that I don't know.
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'll save myself some mistakes.
00:54:01
Speaker
So rather than go out and buy like the freshest car because you got your big, you know, check or, you know, blowing your money, which, you know, I'm talking to, I'm talking to me eight years ago right now.
00:54:12
Speaker
You know, invest that, invest that.
00:54:16
Speaker
know, invest that time and money into, you know, into people that have what you want, you know, and that and that could be doesn't have to be material could be family, you know, it could be, you know, talk to people that, you know, have the life you want.
00:54:29
Speaker
If you're a single guy that wants a wife and kids, you know, find out, you know, meet with those people, you know, put yourself in a position where you're going to attract what you want.
00:54:41
Speaker
And not just business, but in in life and personal and friendship and relationship, family, you know, and really pay attention to those guys, you know, and then find out if they're really if they really who they, you know, get to know them for real.
00:54:56
Speaker
Yeah, true.
00:54:58
Speaker
Now, I love that.
00:54:59
Speaker
Awesome way to wrap up.
00:55:00
Speaker
Jesus always said, by their fruits, you shall know them, right?
00:55:03
Speaker
So I think it's the same way in solar, same way in business.
00:55:08
Speaker
See what they're doing, see how their relationships are.
00:55:10
Speaker
And then I think that's a good indicator to know if you should work with those people.
00:55:15
Speaker
And yeah, and then obviously in reinvesting yourself.
00:55:18
Speaker
Great advice right there.
00:55:20
Speaker
So Cody, thanks again for coming on with us on the show today.
00:55:23
Speaker
We'll post his Instagram handle.
00:55:24
Speaker
Go shoot him a follow.
00:55:25
Speaker
Shoot him a message.
00:55:26
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated his content today.
00:55:30
Speaker
And thanks again.
00:55:31
Speaker
We'll have to have you on the show again.
00:55:32
Speaker
But appreciate you, Cody.
00:55:34
Speaker
Thanks, Taylor.
00:55:34
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:55:35
Speaker
All right.
00:55:36
Speaker
Peace.
00:55:38
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:55:40
Speaker
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00:55:50
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:56:02
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:56:13
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
00:56:15
Speaker
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00:56:34
Speaker
Currently, Soul Society is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:56:40
Speaker
So go to soulciety.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:56:48
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to soulciety.co and join.
00:56:55
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.