Transcript
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: What's going on, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Welcome to another episode, and I'm super stoked for this one because we have someone that's I would consider one of the LeBron James of this industry.
Speaker: He's the, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, Ashton, but he's the National Sales Director for Legacy, right?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: And he has been top producer for them.
Speaker: I've heard him in the myths of solar.
Speaker: I've heard him in legends of solar.
Speaker: that he is one of the top dogs.
Speaker: So we got him here with us, excited to get him on the podcast.
Speaker: And I know he's a super busy guy, so really appreciative of him taking the time to be on the podcast.
Speaker: So Ashton, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks.
Speaker: Glad to be here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Be a good time.
Speaker: And I'll tell you, I was doing some research on you, just what we can focus on before.
Speaker: And the first thing that pops up is we've got a video of you on ESPN, man.
Speaker: What's going on with that?
Speaker: I don't know if slower was a sports thing.
Speaker: How'd you get to do that?
Speaker: ESPN radio.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Dream come true.
Speaker: It's kind of funny.
Speaker: ESPN radio has a bunch of other advertising type spots.
Speaker: So I told my friends I was gonna be on ESPN radio.
Speaker: I've been on ESPN in high school.
Speaker: I was a high school Heisman and whatever else.
Speaker: I wasn't sure if that's what you were talking about, but I didn't know about that.
Speaker: That was just a radio show.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I watch it.
Speaker: It's the first video that pops up about you and you're on ESPN radio talking about solar.
Speaker: I'm like, what on earth?
Speaker: How do you
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And so I see you were, was that legacy's number one rep in 2015, got the settlement of the year.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've won a couple of awards.
Speaker: I mean, if you want to give me a, if you want me to give a quick.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's hear, let's hear about some records that you set.
Speaker: I know you've had some crazy records.
Speaker: So tell us about, I don't know, most sold in a week in a day.
Speaker: I just recently broke my personal sold in a day record.
Speaker: I signed 21 deals in a day.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: A couple of Saturdays ago.
Speaker: A few three for ones in there, which I was grateful for is end of a sales competition.
Speaker: That week set a new record for most in a week and sold 42 in a week.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Pretty freaking crazy week.
Speaker: Monday to Saturday.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I have over 500 personal installs, around 550 personal installs and my teams I've overseen a few thousand.
Speaker: Holy cow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, my top install year, I should be at, I'm hoping to hit 150 this year.
Speaker: We're at about 135 right now, as long as...
Speaker: everybody else doesn't fill out the calendar.
Speaker: I should be able to get it.
Speaker: I got enough permits that came back and stuff.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's insane, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's the stuff you hear that no one believes.
Speaker: Like when I hear 20 in a day or something, I said, no, maybe in like pest control or something, but solar, you don't hear that kind of stuff going around.
Speaker: Do you get a hater?
Speaker: Do you have people doubting you on that?
Speaker: That it's even possible?
Speaker: I mean, I did 16 in a day a couple of years ago and people thought it was the craziest thing.
Speaker: Jed Sewell, also another legend.
Speaker: 15 the same day oh my gosh so it was pretty crazy pretty crazy time but yeah a lot of it has to do with prepping customers you know you're getting in those particular cases getting customers bought into the competitions that i'm in and and if i don't close the deal saying hey look i'd really appreciate it if you knew if you knew of anybody else kind of taking the pressure off of them
Speaker: And so if there's anybody else that you know, this isn't about me, it's about you, but I'm in this sales competition just so you know, and then tell them about it and then say, if you know anybody, please let them know about it.
Speaker: And if you guys end up deciding you want to go for it, I'd really, really appreciate it if we could do everything by September 17th or whatever the last day is.
Speaker: And so it turns, it takes pressure off of them and then it allows it to be like, here's a good solid deadline.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then a lot of people, I would just go through the agreement with them right then and there, they weren't ready to close, but I would just say, I'll email this to you.
Speaker: If, if you're a go, then you, we've already gone through it and you just need to click through the buttons and away we go.
Speaker: So that's how you have a big, that's how you have a massive day.
Speaker: I mean, I can't be in 20 appointments at one, you know, in a day, but, um, That's insane.
Speaker: So a lot of these are a lot of them referrals.
Speaker: Then when you get in your competitions and closing that many,
Speaker: Um, or a good chunk from referrals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But a lot.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: You kind of cut out for a second, but I think you said referrals.
Speaker: A lot, a lot of it was referrals, but a lot of it also is just people I've been working with forever.
Speaker: I mean, the first time I got 16 in a day or the day I got 16 in a day, I signed up three people that I've been working with for a year.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Just kind of reached back out to them.
Speaker: I said, look, man, are you still interested?
Speaker: You have never told me no.
Speaker: Are you still interested in getting solar?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, man, we're still interested.
Speaker: Okay, well, let me know what's on.
Speaker: Let me tell you what's on the line.
Speaker: At that point, it was a Tesla.
Speaker: I want a Tesla.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tesla's on the line.
Speaker: If you're going to do it, man, I'd be super grateful if we did it today.
Speaker: Got them to pass credit and signed the deal.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Yeah, it was great.
Speaker: Yeah, it's definitely got to build some urgency if they know you're winning a Tesla.
Speaker: Who's going to help someone get a Tesla?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: So one of the biggest problems that I know I face and other reps is staying organized with all these people that maybe you're following up with.
Speaker: Cause you say you keep pushing them for a year or so.
Speaker: I've got all these leads in the pipeline.
Speaker: So how are you like staying organized and how are you keeping track of these people and know, all right, this guy was on the edge.
Speaker: Let me try contacting this guy or going following up with referrals.
Speaker: What's kind of your process for that?
Speaker: I'm old school.
Speaker: I have a book.
Speaker: And I write down names and I write down, I'll create lists at different times of hot prospects.
Speaker: I'll also keep some in my phone.
Speaker: But mostly I have just my book and you could steal my book.
Speaker: They don't have addresses so you wouldn't be able to find out who they are, but I know who they are, right?
Speaker: And I have a list of my hot prospects and then next to their name, I'll write down the last contact I had with them.
Speaker: So if it was a text,
Speaker: on 12 seven then i'll put text 12 7 voicemail you know 11 30 or whatever and so i know i remember the last time that i made a touch with them and i don't do that with every customer every every single person that i sit with or talk to i don't follow up like that but it's somebody that is genuinely interested i think in the solar business there's people that are going to get solar
Speaker: And it's either going to be from you or from someone else.
Speaker: And I want to be the person they're going to get it from.
Speaker: And so those people are the people that I'm keeping track of because they're, they said, I'm going to do this at some point.
Speaker: I'm going to do this one day.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So those are the people that I, I follow up with and keep track of in my, in my list.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And how do you, do you have a process for how often you're following up with them?
Speaker: Or is it just kind of like, all right, this guy was pretty interested back then.
Speaker: Just kind of when you think about it or get around to it next or.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It depends on the interaction with the customer, frankly.
Speaker: You know, some people I'll try to reach out to every month, but others on those ones that are like, yeah, we're going to get to it.
Speaker: It's maybe every three months.
Speaker: I'll send them a Christmas card.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Customers Christmas cards and then those hot prospects that I know haven't got sore.
Speaker: I mean, the heartbreak is when you drive in the neighborhood and you see someone else's freaking sore.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the worst.
Speaker: That's the worst, man.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I was working with you, dude.
Speaker: I was following up.
Speaker: I'm better than that guy.
Speaker: What the crap, man?
Speaker: I know how that happens to me too.
Speaker: So that sucks when that happens.
Speaker: But it's part of the game.
Speaker: It's just an embers game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't send them a Christmas card anymore.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: So how, when these competitions, do you keep people kind of on the back burner because you know you're going to be in a competition?
Speaker: Or how do you like turn it up so much for these competitions?
Speaker: No, frankly, I just spend luck.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Speaker: But frankly, I've had competitions in the finals week where I have got like three or four and I, and a normal week, that's a great week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm expected to get 10 or 15 for my team in a finals week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: But sometimes it just doesn't happen that way, right?
Speaker: If you can create, if you're in a good vein of people and you're getting some good traction and stuff like that and you can feel some urgency towards these different competitions, it's really helpful.
Speaker: But some of it is just luck.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, gotta get lucky.
Speaker: But also if there's multiple different sales things that talk about people that don't follow up enough, that people sign up on the eighth touch.
Speaker: people give up on the third touch or fourth touch right and everyone's I mean I had one guy that I probably touched 30 times but it was on my way home in my area where I was working really hard I would just at nighttime he got he worked late so I just drive by and I'd knock on his door and sometimes he'd be there and sometimes he wouldn't be there and if he's there just checking in Ed
Speaker: How's everything going?
Speaker: And again, he never told me no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And a lot of times I'm just like, just tell me no, dude.
Speaker: So I can freaking stop coming to your house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I've told a couple of people that like, Hey man, is there, is this something you're sincerely interested in?
Speaker: You haven't told me no yet, but I'd rather not come by if you're not serious and yeah.
Speaker: And what have you, but he never told me no.
Speaker: And 30 touches later he was ready and he got,
Speaker: It's his panels on his roof, you know?
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: And so how do you know if someone's worth following up that much?
Speaker: Because I have some leads that maybe I don't even meet with one time that sometimes maybe it could be a waste of time to be, you know, pushing out hours trying to follow up with them.
Speaker: So what do you consider someone that's worth following up on?
Speaker: Again, in their conversation, it was very apparent.
Speaker: And what I've really become is I've become a professional body language reader.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If somebody, they can tell me, Oh yeah, we're interested.
Speaker: Oh no, we're not interested right now or whatever.
Speaker: But if their body language is saying, no, we're going to interested in solar, just not right now, then I'm going to follow up with them.
Speaker: If they're, if, if it's somebody that's, I'm pushing more for the cell than they're wanting it.
Speaker: And I'm not going to spend as much time with that person, but okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And are you guys meeting in your company?
Speaker: Are you meeting with people like the same day?
Speaker: Are you setting appointments for days out to meet with them?
Speaker: How does, how does your process?
Speaker: I personally like scheduling an appointment.
Speaker: That's my personal preference and legacy.
Speaker: We have lots of guys that do same day closes.
Speaker: I do same day closes every once in a while.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: My personal preference is to,
Speaker: get their utility bill, get all their information that I need to create a lead and create a design for them and then come back another day.
Speaker: What I figure is I wasn't invited when I first knocked on their door.
Speaker: And not that that's a bad thing, but I just wasn't invited and they weren't expecting to make a long-term decision that afternoon.
Speaker: And often the husband and wife aren't there together anyway.
Speaker: and you would need them both or want them both there anyway.
Speaker: So, so typically I personally like to schedule a followup.
Speaker: If somebody was going to cancel on me before I sat down for the appointment, they probably would have canceled on me if I signed them up that same day.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: My emotions would have been like excited and I would have felt like I had a cell and the false, you know, true sale.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just personal preference.
Speaker: Guys have gotten, I know some guys that have gotten just incredibly good at same day sales and we go to install and more power to them, you know, but yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, very true.
Speaker: Yeah, our company is kind of doing a mix of it.
Speaker: Same days and next days.
Speaker: We're having quite a bit of success with the same days.
Speaker: Just because I guess the benefit is if you have them the same day, then they can't really forget you're coming.
Speaker: If you say, hey, we got someone coming in 20 minutes, they'll be here, set an appointment then.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But my next question is if you sit the next day and say they don't show up, are you still going to follow up with that person?
Speaker: Or is it just going to depend on how interested you saw they were with the first contact you made?
Speaker: I'll follow up with everyone.
Speaker: I never, I never, again, I keep going until they tell me no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: When somebody tells me no, then they're off the list.
Speaker: Uh, so if somebody, if somebody is a no show on me, I'll blame it on myself.
Speaker: Oh shoot.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I thought I put it in my calendar for today at two.
Speaker: No one was home.
Speaker: I must've made a mistake.
Speaker: Was it tomorrow at two or when would be a better time to get together?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sort of a little bit knowing that dude, they knew and I knew that it was today at two, but by giving them some grace, lots of times I get some grace back and,
Speaker: And they may just text back and say, we've decided we're not interested.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then I'll try to come back a little bit.
Speaker: I'll, I'll, well, what was it?
Speaker: How, how come did your neighbor tell you something bad about solar?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Some reviews online.
Speaker: What was it that, are you deciding to get solar from someone else?
Speaker: What, how come you're not interested all of a sudden when we just talked yesterday and try to find out, you got to be bold sometimes and call people out a little bit, but yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because, yeah, I had a guy.
Speaker: I keep following up until I tell you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: See, I'm just curious.
Speaker: I had a guy in Mira Mesa here that I was a couple months back, I think.
Speaker: Seemed like he was super interested, but then you know how it goes.
Speaker: Didn't show up to the appointment.
Speaker: I call on fur.
Speaker: for, I don't know, call them four or five times over the next two weeks, text them multiple times and just can't get a response out of this guy.
Speaker: And so those guys, as you know, it's super frustrating how many times you follow up with them.
Speaker: They're not even responding at all.
Speaker: Um, so do you get guys like that, but just do not respond, don't say anything and you just still keep them on the list, keep following up, following up with them for a year at a time.
Speaker: If, if that, if that, that guy's not on my list for a year, for sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, if, if they've, I've, I've made four or five attempts, I might give it a little bit and put a reminder in my calendar to follow up with them like two or three months later.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And be blunt about it and just say, Hey, this is Ashland solar guy.
Speaker: Just thought I would follow up with you because we never connected a couple months ago.
Speaker: Are you still interested in solar?
Speaker: And just lay it out there.
Speaker: And if he is, great.
Speaker: And if he's not, then so be it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so let's talk about, I know you're working a ton and that's another thing I've heard about you is that you're a work, workhorse, man.
Speaker: You're outworking everyone out there.
Speaker: Is that true?
Speaker: Would you say you're outworking and that's been one of your biggest secrets is just putting in more work than pretty much anyone?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm willing to work really, really hard.
Speaker: That's, that's, I think anybody, if anybody, you know, legacy does door knocking.
Speaker: A lot of companies do door knocking.
Speaker: That's not the only route to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But if anyone is willing to knock seven hours a day every day for a year, they'll be a top producer in their company.
Speaker: I believe that 100% wholeheartedly.
Speaker: Most people aren't willing to do that.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: In the wintertime when it gets dark sooner, they're not willing to either start earlier or knock into the dark.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or they get things going and they're like things are running good and you're making good money or good enough money for their situation.
Speaker: where they're like, I don't need to knock today or I don't need to, I can maybe put in three hours today and people get complacent with their work ethic.
Speaker: I'm not the best sales guy.
Speaker: I bet you most people, not most people, I bet you there's a ton of people that are better sales people than I am as far as in the home closing or at the door closing.
Speaker: I've gotten really freaking good.
Speaker: I'm not probably the best sharpest skilled sales guy.
Speaker: But I work my guts out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm willing to work my guts out.
Speaker: So if you take somebody that's willing to work their guts out, combine that with some talent, then you've got worse to be reckoned with, right?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like you said, I mean, part of your work, luck you're going to get and success just keeps building upon success.
Speaker: And I know you definitely seen that, but I'm sure you get all the time.
Speaker: It's like, Ashton, what if I'm not like motivated to go out there and knock seven hours?
Speaker: Like how the freak do you just grab all his motivation?
Speaker: Like how do you turn a guy that's not even motivated to knock like three hours and it's been doing this for two years and doesn't want to knock anymore?
Speaker: or work is hard.
Speaker: How do you get to him and teach a guy to work?
Speaker: How do you like kind of infect that work ethic?
Speaker: You got it.
Speaker: You got to build on why they're even there.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Blunt back, you know, kind of the takeaway, even with a, that you do with the customer or takeaway you do with even a rep, like, dude, is this even right for you anymore?
Speaker: I mean, you can't forget what, what got you to where you're at.
Speaker: Don't ever forget that.
Speaker: And people rely on referrals and referrals are freaking the best money.
Speaker: Someone trusts someone else and they say, hey, I've walked into appointments where they've said, hey, we don't have time to research.
Speaker: Dan did the research.
Speaker: He said we should go with you.
Speaker: Where do we sign?
Speaker: That's like the easiest commission that you'll ever get.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But, and that's where it gets really fun, but you've got to always keep your, your, your tools sharp.
Speaker: And you do that by continuing to beat your craft on non-referral sources, right?
Speaker: If that's online sources, if that's knocking doors, if that's phone calls, however you go about creating your business, you've got to continue to beat that craft because if you can do that, then you're, you're, you know, you're going to find, then you'll get referrals, right?
Speaker: You can't forget where,
Speaker: that one referral source that you love like crazy where you got them from, right?
Speaker: You probably got them from a door knock or they were referred from somebody that was a door knock.
Speaker: I have one referral chain from a guy who knocked on his door, referred me to one guy.
Speaker: And that one guy referred, has referred me to like three or four.
Speaker: And then the two or three of those guys referred me to three or four.
Speaker: I've got one referral chain that I've probably made 200 plus thousand dollars off of.
Speaker: But it all came from just knocking on one dude's door.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: And then taking care of all the customers along the way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I've been having them all have a good experience and yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so let's get into that.
Speaker: With referrals, how are you getting these kind of referral chains?
Speaker: Because I think that's a big struggle.
Speaker: And I've seen in our company and other reps as well is asking for the referral and then getting just even creating a chain.
Speaker: People will get lucky and maybe get one referral.
Speaker: But how do you create a chain out of it?
Speaker: And how do you like, is it following up with these people or what's your referral process?
Speaker: It's tougher than solar because it takes so long.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're lots of people want to, I want to make sure that it works.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: You try to like, well, if it does, who would you refer me to?
Speaker: No, I'm just going to wait.
Speaker: You know, like you can try to kind of rush the referral a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I promise it's going to work.
Speaker: We could just get you money now for a referral bonus.
Speaker: We can get you money later up to you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just want to make sure to see how the process goes.
Speaker: And then some people refer you the first day.
Speaker: Hey, you need to go talk to my mom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And other people, I've got one guy that I'm saving over $200 a month every month.
Speaker: I mean, just tons of money every year and he won't ever open his mouth.
Speaker: And I'm like, dude, I'm saving you so much money.
Speaker: Tell your next door neighbor that I need to save the same amount of money.
Speaker: Come on, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So some people will just naturally do it.
Speaker: Others won't ever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But when you get a referral,
Speaker: the easiest way to continue on is you remind the person how they got introduced to you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If they were introduced to you as a referral, then you, you harp that up in this, in the close, like, just like you were referred to me by John, that's most of my business.
Speaker: And I'm just super grateful for that.
Speaker: I'm that's, that's,
Speaker: And if that's how they were introduced, then they often will reciprocate that.
Speaker: And that's how the chain keeps going.
Speaker: You make sure that they remember that they were introduced by a referral and that you need them now to take their turn and refer you to somebody.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So is it like, are you following up with them later down the road or is it just while you're in the meeting, you kind of remind them?
Speaker: In the initial close, I do.
Speaker: And then I...
Speaker: usually after everything's been installed.
Speaker: Again, because I've seen rather than be beating it, beating the drum of I need referrals, I need referrals.
Speaker: Lots of people just want to wait and see how it works out.
Speaker: So I kind of let that process go a little bit and then reach out to them after they're installed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And speaking of the holiday season, I know you said you send out Christmas cards and things like that, but does that produce quite a few referrals of sending out Christmas cards, the things you do at the holidays?
Speaker: No?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I thought the first year it would.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, dude, people are going to love my family and love hearing about the Buzz Wells.
Speaker: Because I love my family.
Speaker: And three little cute girls.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Frankly, I spend a few thousand dollars on these for my customers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And directly from them, I think I've got one.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Sell.
Speaker: And I've done it for the past couple of years.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But what I'm trying to do throughout my whole pitch, throughout everything that I am, is I'm trying to help everybody know that I'm just a regular guy, just like them.
Speaker: Regular people want to help regular people.
Speaker: And so I'm just a regular guy.
Speaker: If I'm knocking at their door, I'm a regular guy in the neighborhood.
Speaker: I'm not any flashy sales guy.
Speaker: When I send them a Christmas card, that's what regular people do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Regular friends send Christmas cards to their friends.
Speaker: So I send Christmas cards.
Speaker: I get Christmas cards back.
Speaker: My wife was on the phone with someone yesterday.
Speaker: I don't know who.
Speaker: And she said, she's like, I keep getting, we keep getting all these Christmas cards in the mail.
Speaker: I have no clue who the crap they are, but I just, customers.
Speaker: So there, so that means that we're friends, right?
Speaker: That we're at a different level than I'm just, I sold you your solar and you never see me again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So when,
Speaker: You know, Susan, Suzanne Gorsky, when she's in an opportunity to get me a referral, she remembers who I am and she remembers I have three cute daughters and she remembers I have a beautiful wife.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And she remembers that I still am there.
Speaker: I've also got some feedback from other people that I've done a poor job of following up with.
Speaker: I got your card in the mail and I was like, who the crap is this?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's a good job of cultivating a relationship after the install.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm just trying to be a regular guy and regular guys, regular friends send their friends Christmas cards.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, that's disappointing to hear, man, because I just sent out my Christmas cards to my, my customers for the first time.
Speaker: And I'm like, Ooh, I'm going to get spent, I don't know, three, 400 bucks sending them out and I'm going to get just tons of referrals from this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But hopefully my results will help you all get lucky.
Speaker: Hopefully you'll get lucky.
Speaker: If I do, I'll let you know.
Speaker: But no, I won't, I won't get my hopes up since he said that.
Speaker: That's, that's interesting though.
Speaker: And so how much of your day, I know you guys are still knocking, but you're the national sales director now.
Speaker: Are you still knocking on a daily basis?
Speaker: Are you mostly training other reps or what are your days look like now?
Speaker: Yeah, my,
Speaker: I don't knock every day anymore because I have other responsibilities.
Speaker: I do still knock.
Speaker: And most of my knocking when I'm knocking is with I'm training someone.
Speaker: I also will just kind of my – one of the things that I've gotten pretty good at and that I think that guys that are good at this job get good at is they turn their brains on and off of certain things.
Speaker: To create a lead on the door is –
Speaker: different than sitting down at the kitchen table closing the deal you have to kind of your brain has to be thinking a little bit differently yeah and lots of guys will knock every day and then also schedule appointments and i think that's what they should do what i've done because i have certain day i have less days in a week to create my own accounts now
Speaker: is I will have days of knocking and then I'll have days of appointments.
Speaker: So I'm wearing that hat.
Speaker: And if I have a same day opportunity to walk in and close the deal, I'll often push it back to the next day or to my closing day or to the very end of my knocking time.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then I'll, and then I'll, I'll transition into the hat.
Speaker: But if I know that I've got a day where I can knock,
Speaker: And I can spend the full day knocking.
Speaker: I'll usually have two or three reps come out with me at different times and train and stuff.
Speaker: But, but I'll spend a whole day knocking doors and trying to create leads.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: And then I'll spend a whole day closing appointments.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And what about all these past leads or people that you're following up with?
Speaker: Are you spending chunks of time doing that or is that just here and there as needed?
Speaker: All the people that didn't show up.
Speaker: In the morning, I spend time doing progressing accounts, touching customers and letting them know how things are progressing, where they're at with the permit process and whatever else.
Speaker: And then I also would reach out to those past clients.
Speaker: or past leads and just touch base periodically.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, it's not every day, but.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Every other week or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you said it's all just in, just in a notebook, you said, right?
Speaker: You just.
Speaker: I should have a CRM, but I don't.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Just old school.
Speaker: That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker: So there's a notebook and you just have different sections of people you need to follow up with and.
Speaker: past customers or do you have a crm for everyone that's been installed or is that all just in a notebook too legacy legacy has something that yeah that that that shows all my previous customers and stuff so okay i use their i use their tools for that okay i see
Speaker: So you're just going through this notebook in the morning and calling a couple and just jotting down every single contact you had with them.
Speaker: If they don't answer, you're just saying call the voicemail, stuff like that, and just keeping it up to date.
Speaker: Basically it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's crazy how like you think top producers like you, you think it's some sort of magic pill or something crazy you're doing, but really it's just, you're keeping on top all of these little things that most people don't even think about.
Speaker: Because I've done all these little things, but the thing is just doing them all consistently.
Speaker: I think that's how you've seen such crazy results.
Speaker: Because you've just kept up all the little things.
Speaker: Kept up the work ethic.
Speaker: Kept up the things that I think a lot of reps don't want to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I look at this long term, too.
Speaker: I think some reps get caught up in the, I need money now.
Speaker: And we all need money now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm committed to be in solar for years, right?
Speaker: I've already been in five years and I'm committed to be here.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: There's really not a lot of other places I'd rather be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And one says, follow up with me next year.
Speaker: Most guys don't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ashton does.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I will put it, I will put in my calendar.
Speaker: I'll say, so if I followed up with you like next June,
Speaker: If they're taught, if I meet somebody today, like if I followed you up with you in June, would that work?
Speaker: Like, yeah, yeah, that should, that should work.
Speaker: We should have done this and this and this and this.
Speaker: Like, all right, I'm putting a calendar reminder in my phone that I'm going to follow up with you in June.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And then I'll follow up with them in June and I'll say, you've probably never had somebody actually follow up six months later, have you?
Speaker: And I'll tell them because I'm trying to tell them I'm good at my job.
Speaker: I'm good at my business.
Speaker: No, you've never had someone ever do this before.
Speaker: Probably have you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You should listen to me and give me some respect at least to sit down and have a conversation because I'm good at my job.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: I do what I say I'm going to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Actually follow up.
Speaker: And do you find that a lot of people like forget why they were even interested in the first place and try and say, Oh, not interested, not interested.
Speaker: Or did they honestly, if you are following up with them that much in advance, did they usually actually sit down with you again?
Speaker: Or what's your ratio?
Speaker: It's probably 75%.
Speaker: Oh no, man.
Speaker: We're not new.
Speaker: We're not interested anymore.
Speaker: Like, I don't even remember who you are.
Speaker: I've seen a thousand.
Speaker: I talked to you and now we're not interested anymore.
Speaker: But 25% will say, yeah, thanks for calling.
Speaker: Wow, holy cow, dude.
Speaker: I haven't ever had anybody follow up with me a year later.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sure, let's talk.
Speaker: I mean, I don't know if we're there yet.
Speaker: We're still thinking about it, but I'm willing to sit down with you.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Then let's sit down and talk.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: Ashton, I know we're, uh, I know we're running out of time here, but the last thing I just wanted to hear, what's your closing process when you're sitting down with your customers?
Speaker: What's, do you have a specific process you're going through and how long do your closes take?
Speaker: Can you kind of walk us through that just to wrap up here?
Speaker: Yeah, my clothes usually, so I like, I probably spend a little bit more time in closes than a lot of people do.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because a couple of reasons I want to, I want to,
Speaker: tell them everything.
Speaker: One of the things I love about solar is the more honest you are, the better you are.
Speaker: If you lie ever, they'll find out and they have plenty of time to cancel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's stupid to try to make crap up or lie in any kind of way.
Speaker: So, and then I also like to cover everything because they're going to have next door neighbor question them on what they did.
Speaker: Mom questioned them, work questioned them.
Speaker: They're going to go online and question things.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Solar's a scam and whatever else, right?
Speaker: So I personally spend 45 minutes.
Speaker: I go into it trying to spend between 45 minutes to an hour and a half.
Speaker: But for the most part, it's around an hour and a half.
Speaker: Around an hour and a half?
Speaker: The time that I'm spending with somebody.
Speaker: Every once in a while, I get up to two hours, but customers are getting customer fatigue and I'm trying to get out of there.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: For an hour and a half.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My framework of my clothes, I talked to them about solar in general.
Speaker: I talked to them about the utility company and I talked to him about my company and the company and all the other competition out there.
Speaker: And then I go into the proposals for, for the options for what they can choose with me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Try to close them on it.
Speaker: And if it works, it works.
Speaker: If it doesn't, it doesn't.
Speaker: I tried to, too, at the start.
Speaker: I mean, again, I try to be a regular dude.
Speaker: And at the very, very start, I tell them, this is what I'm going to talk about.
Speaker: And if you want to get enrolled, you can get enrolled.
Speaker: And if not, no sweat.
Speaker: I'm just grateful to be here because I want walls to be down.
Speaker: I want them to be a regular person, just like I'm a regular person.
Speaker: and not be tense and not expecting me to close them right then and there.
Speaker: In my mind, I'm like a freaking lion and I'm going to close them that day.
Speaker: But to them, I just want them to feel like I'm just a nice guy, regular guy.
Speaker: And if I've done my job properly, solar is such a good product.
Speaker: If I've done my job properly by the end, they should be like, yeah, there's no reason I shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker: That's kind of how I see it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And what's your, as you get into the close, what's your closing question that you ask them?
Speaker: What's the first close that you try and throw on them?
Speaker: You may have heard it before.
Speaker: You're getting my close question, but it's not anything fancy.
Speaker: I try to make the right answer be no.
Speaker: Because everybody wants to tell you no.
Speaker: So I ask them if we can blank, blank.
Speaker: can you see any reason not to do this?
Speaker: And if they say no, that's the answer that I want to get.
Speaker: Again, because most people want to tell you no.
Speaker: It's different than the theory of trying to get 20 yeses.
Speaker: By the end, it's easy to say yes because they've been saying yes along the way.
Speaker: Have you looked at solar before?
Speaker: It would go on the back of your roof, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I agree with that theory.
Speaker: You want to have it be positive the whole time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's my closing question.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So if we can save you $200, if we can save you $50 a month and not have it cost you anything up front, can you see any reason not to do this?
Speaker: And I kind of give a little bit of a deaf face.
Speaker: Like, can you see any reason not to do this?
Speaker: I mean, it's not that extreme, but it is, it is kind of like, can you see any reason not to do this?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just a little bit of a universal, like, I'd be crazy to not do this, right?
Speaker: I'd be crazy not to do this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And then if they say, well, yeah, and they give me an excuse, then I come back to that.
Speaker: I say the exact same closing question.
Speaker: I resolve that concern and say, well, yeah, so if we can make sure they're not on the front of the house, can you see any other reason not to do this?
Speaker: them no all right well then let's just make sure the trainer knows not to put them on the front of the house nice cool and then you go straight in do you guys get a lot of like oh well we need to think about this or we need to make sure we want to do this how do you handle that concern when you get that yeah i mean i i talk to him about it so either we'll say
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's not a today or no day sort of thing.
Speaker: Or I'll jump in like, no, it's got to be today.
Speaker: But I'll say, I mean, it doesn't have to be today.
Speaker: Do you have any other questions?
Speaker: Did I miss something?
Speaker: It sounded like you, like we covered everything, but maybe I missed something.
Speaker: What did I miss?
Speaker: And some people, frankly, just aren't going to.
Speaker: sign that day.
Speaker: I just don't sign on the first day.
Speaker: I don't buy things from door-to-door salesmen.
Speaker: Whatever, right?
Speaker: Whatever the case may be.
Speaker: And again, back to the follow-up thing, I follow up.
Speaker: Other people don't follow up.
Speaker: If they're like, well, let us think about it.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'll give you some time.
Speaker: I'll let you think about it and then I'll follow up because we're obviously this far along.
Speaker: You spent an hour with me
Speaker: talking about it.
Speaker: So when should I follow up?
Speaker: Then I follow up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, that's somebody gives me more than like a two week, more than a week.
Speaker: I usually be like, do you need that long?
Speaker: I mean, what if it's today's Wednesday?
Speaker: Why don't I just call you next Wednesday if I don't hear from you before then?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Usually they're, they're okay with that.
Speaker: Other people are like, no, I need, I need, I need two weeks.
Speaker: Give me two weeks.
Speaker: okay, I'll follow up in two weeks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I follow up.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Simple as that.
Speaker: Well, that's crazy.
Speaker: It sounds so simple, but I don't think most people are doing it, man.
Speaker: So I think that's a huge thing is just the follow up.
Speaker: Cause yeah, I mean, there's no crazy sales, clothes, no crazy, anything.
Speaker: Just got to follow the steps and then think follow up like you're saying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: I took about five pages of notes here.
Speaker: So I hope everyone that's listening, I hope they're going to take some notes too, because you dropped some knowledge bombs on it.
Speaker: So thanks for sharing some secrets.
Speaker: And the last thing I wanted to ask you is how, so in your competition, how many hours would you say you worked in the week?
Speaker: Was it like sun up, sun down into the all hours of the night?
Speaker: What did that look like?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, nine to nine, but usually, I mean, I,
Speaker: That's really not true.
Speaker: It's probably more like eight in the morning.
Speaker: My, my sacred hour every day is between seven and eight 15.
Speaker: I wake up my daughters.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We have lunch or we have breakfast, sorry.
Speaker: And I'm ready for school.
Speaker: And then I walk them to school and that's a lot of times the only hour and 15 minutes I get to see my kids.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Which sucks because I want to spend more time with them, but I'll take other things and,
Speaker: and do things like that.
Speaker: I surprised my daughter at school today and I took her to lunch.
Speaker: She didn't expect to me, went to her school and pulled her out and we went to lunch.
Speaker: But anyway, during competitions, I am working eight in the morning till probably midnight or one or two.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: The thing that my, my boss, I'm a bishop at church too.
Speaker: And I, I,
Speaker: they have a family and they've got tons of stuff going on.
Speaker: And my boss was like, dude, I'm sure how you fit it all in.
Speaker: And I said, I went to bed at three 30 last night.
Speaker: I was like, that's what, that's what I'm losing, man.
Speaker: I'm waking up at seven.
Speaker: It's, it's sleep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: Well, you're a madman, Ashton, and appreciate you being on the show, man.
Speaker: And I think we all learned a lot, but the bottom line is just the hard work, the follow-up and the little things that people aren't doing.
Speaker: So appreciate your words of wisdom on that.
Speaker: As we, as we peace out here, any parting words of wisdom you want to share with the solar industry or solar reps that are struggling?
Speaker: Any final thoughts?
Speaker: Yeah, just stick with it.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: If you give up too soon, you're not going to see the reward.
Speaker: So stick it out.
Speaker: Stay with it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, thanks again, Ashton.
Speaker: And we'll definitely share this podcast, promote it.
Speaker: Definitely some golden gems you dropped on us.
Speaker: And we will talk soon.
Speaker: So thanks again, Ashton.
Speaker: See ya.
Speaker: See ya.
Speaker: Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
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Speaker: That's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
