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The Dreaded "Customer Needs a New Roof" Deals
55 Plays6 years ago
Listen up Solarpreneurs!
Ever lose a deal to the customer needing a new roof? Wonder how to save a deal from cancelling due to roof work complications?
We have an awesome process for you, and it’s nothing out of the ordinary. It is all about your mindset- Always assume the sale! In this episode, Taylor shares a story where he almost had a customer in tears in efforts to save them from cancelling their solar agreement.
Let’s finish off this quarter strong and save those pesky roof deals.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solopreneurs
00:00:00
Speaker
What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
00:00:05
Speaker
We call ourselves solopreneurs.
00:00:08
Speaker
And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
00:00:18
Speaker
Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
00:00:30
Speaker
We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Seasonal Reflections and Personal Wins
00:01:01
Speaker
Boom, what's going on, solopreneurs?
00:01:03
Speaker
We are nearing fall now.
00:01:05
Speaker
Actually, it's fall here in California.
00:01:08
Speaker
Quarter three is coming to a close.
00:01:10
Speaker
Are you crushing your deals?
00:01:12
Speaker
If you haven't had the best quarter, now is the time.
00:01:15
Speaker
Put in the work.
00:01:16
Speaker
Don't wait until next quarter.
00:01:18
Speaker
Do it right now.
00:01:19
Speaker
I'm excited to be here for another episode.
00:01:23
Speaker
Just finished my Halo Top ice cream here.
00:01:29
Speaker
It's kind of my go-to sugar rush.
00:01:33
Speaker
I don't want to eat sugar, so I go to that ice cream, and I figure I can eat as much as I want out of it, because it's healthy, right?
00:01:42
Speaker
Just kidding, that's not the right attitude to have.
00:01:45
Speaker
I'm trying to get them to be a sponsor of the show, so we'll see if that happens.
00:01:49
Speaker
Halo Top Ice Cream, what do you guys think?
00:01:53
Speaker
But I'm excited for today.
00:01:55
Speaker
We have a special episode, and I'm going to talk about something that I've been seeing float around a little bit in the communities there on Facebook.
00:02:04
Speaker
But first, I wanted to give you a progress update.
00:02:09
Speaker
Keeps me accountable, kind of tell where I'm at in my cells.
00:02:13
Speaker
I have up and down weeks just like everyone sometimes.
00:02:17
Speaker
Last week I was able to hit my career high of eight closed deals in a week.
00:02:24
Speaker
And I'm pretty stoked about it.
00:02:25
Speaker
It's my personal best.
00:02:27
Speaker
I feel like I just hit the game winner.
00:02:30
Speaker
It was an awesome week for me.
00:02:32
Speaker
Eight deals.
00:02:37
Speaker
And San Diego, the systems are a little bit smaller, but I was able to close eight deals.
00:02:43
Speaker
Pretty good checks coming in with that.
00:02:48
Speaker
And what I've taken from it is it's just all about consistency.
00:02:52
Speaker
There's going to be ups and downs in sales.
The Power of Consistency in Sales
00:02:56
Speaker
But if we're doing the little things, if we're being consistent in our little things,
00:03:01
Speaker
It's going to help us have those big weeks.
00:03:04
Speaker
You think of Kobe Bryant.
00:03:05
Speaker
You think of Michael Jordan.
00:03:07
Speaker
You think of Donovan Mitchell, who I'm a big fan of, Utah Jazz.
00:03:12
Speaker
But they do the little things consistently.
00:03:14
Speaker
They don't have big nights every night, but they have consistent weeks, consistent months.
00:03:22
Speaker
They're having good games, but their career highs, that's only happening once a season.
00:03:29
Speaker
I mean, you can't have career highs all the time.
00:03:31
Speaker
So it's all about doing the little things.
00:03:33
Speaker
What do your mornings look like?
00:03:35
Speaker
What do your days look like?
00:03:36
Speaker
What do you do to be consistent in your sales?
00:03:40
Speaker
And if you do the little things, if you track your progress, that's when you're going to have the monster week.
00:03:47
Speaker
That's when you're going to hit your career highs.
00:03:50
Speaker
So be consistent in whatever you're doing and don't be up and down.
00:03:54
Speaker
Sales, sometimes we can't always...
00:03:57
Speaker
We can't always control who's going to say yes, but we can control the little things that we're doing.
00:04:03
Speaker
Are we getting consistent leads?
00:04:05
Speaker
Are we prospecting consistently?
Challenges with Roof Replacements
00:04:08
Speaker
I talked to some people where they're trying to do all these fancy online lead gen things and they're not working out.
00:04:17
Speaker
So they just, that's the only solution they have.
00:04:21
Speaker
If the online lead gen isn't working out, go out and hit some doors.
00:04:25
Speaker
That's one thing you can control.
00:04:27
Speaker
Maybe you can't control how many leads are coming in online directly, but you can go out and knock some doors.
00:04:33
Speaker
You can get leads in an hour knocking some doors.
00:04:36
Speaker
So do those things that you can control.
00:04:40
Speaker
Anyways, so I want to get into the episode of the show today, or the topic rather, of the show.
00:04:46
Speaker
and that is new roofs dun dun dun it's the dreaded new roofs we hate well I should say roofs that need replacing in order to get solar that's what I mean by new roofs in the past that was like my biggest fear is signing up a deal and then only to find out they get their site survey their inspections done and I get the dreaded email this customer needs a new roof
00:05:17
Speaker
And worst thing is, it usually happens when these people are stoked to go solar.
00:05:22
Speaker
They're all stoked to go solar.
00:05:23
Speaker
They need a new roof.
00:05:24
Speaker
And then I would lose the deal every single time.
00:05:28
Speaker
We're doing mostly loans here, so I know a lot of folks are doing PPAs, maybe leases.
00:05:35
Speaker
And I'd love to hear from you guys about what your experience is, what you do with new roofs.
00:05:40
Speaker
Because I'll be honest, I actually haven't funded a new roof if it's a rental or if it's a PPA.
00:05:48
Speaker
So those of you that are doing that, you can let me know how that works.
00:05:51
Speaker
But as far as what we're doing down here with my company, we're doing loans.
Financing Solutions for Roof Replacements
00:05:57
Speaker
So the way the process works, if a customer needs a new roof, we'll actually wrap that in their solar loan.
00:06:06
Speaker
A lot of times now we have to do two different finance companies.
00:06:11
Speaker
Right now we're using LoanPal.
00:06:12
Speaker
Service Finance is the other one.
00:06:16
Speaker
if they do need the new roof most of the time we will need to wrap the loan and put it in these two different funds part of it in loan pal part of it in service finance so what will happen is they'll do the site survey they will send us the results and we'll get an email back that says how much they need to fund for the roof and how much is included
00:06:41
Speaker
exactly what the process is going to be.
00:06:44
Speaker
So first of all, if you find out that they need a new roof from the beginning, include it in the deal from the get-go.
00:06:52
Speaker
I had a deal just last week where I was able to do this, close them up, it's going to make your life way simpler.
00:06:59
Speaker
If you can't figure out that they need a new roof from the beginning, then you can just include it from the
00:07:05
Speaker
as you're signing up that person rather than needing to go back.
00:07:08
Speaker
It's going to save you time.
00:07:11
Speaker
But if you do get the dreaded email, if you do get the results back from your site survey, what do you do?
00:07:17
Speaker
How are you going to make that deal close even though they need a new roof?
00:07:21
Speaker
for me it was a super negative thing when I saw the email come back that they need a new roof I just assumed I was screwed every time nothing I could do these people weren't gonna want a new roof they only want to go solar if the roof passes inspection well I'm happy to say I have been able to turn things around a little bit it's not a perfect system
00:07:49
Speaker
I still lose dills when they need new roofs.
00:07:52
Speaker
That is something that I'm doing to build earners in the cell.
00:07:55
Speaker
Flip the script as we've talked about.
00:07:58
Speaker
If you haven't already read pitch anything but you're trying to flip the script.
00:08:03
Speaker
So I do use that as sort of a takeaway in my dills.
00:08:06
Speaker
I say look we still need to figure out if your roof can even pass inspection.
00:08:11
Speaker
We still need to get you approved on our end.
00:08:13
Speaker
Let's figure that out first and then we can go solar from there.
00:08:18
Speaker
I am using it as kind of a takeaway, which does make it a little bit worse if they do need the new roof, because if you're using it as a takeaway like I am, then that kind of defeats the purpose.
00:08:33
Speaker
You already told them that they essentially can't go solar if they need a new roof.
00:08:40
Speaker
If you need to do that, do it to close the deal.
00:08:45
Speaker
but it is gonna make it a little bit tougher to go back and say, all right, we can actually do the new roof for you.
00:08:50
Speaker
Here's the details.
00:08:53
Speaker
So what do you do?
00:08:54
Speaker
If you have told them that, first of all, remain calm.
00:08:57
Speaker
I'm gonna give you some tips.
00:08:59
Speaker
I'm gonna help you figure out how to close them.
Framing Roof Replacements Positively
00:09:02
Speaker
Here's what you do.
00:09:03
Speaker
You're gonna keep super positive
00:09:07
Speaker
It can be a negative thing, especially if you use that as a takeaway in the cell.
00:09:12
Speaker
So you've got to actually flip the script again, and now you're going to make them think that this is a positive, and now you're going to build urgency on why they need to do this now.
00:09:23
Speaker
Okay, so you're going to call them.
00:09:27
Speaker
You're going to tell them that there needs to be some roof work done, but instead of making it sound negative, you're going to say, look, our people inspected your roof, and we had two options.
00:09:41
Speaker
We could either put the solar up.
00:09:43
Speaker
we could have potential issues with the roof later or option number two is we could do some roof we could do some work on the roof right now and be able to fully guarantee your roof and be able to make sure that the solar is up there for good and never has issues ever again you're making it seem like a good thing so at that point you Tom we picked the second option we want to make sure the roof is good
00:10:12
Speaker
We want to make sure that we can fully guarantee the roof.
00:10:16
Speaker
So we just want to do some roof work up there.
00:10:20
Speaker
At that point they may panic.
00:10:22
Speaker
They may say, oh, what are we talking about here?
00:10:24
Speaker
Again, you're going to remain calm.
00:10:27
Speaker
They're probably going to ask questions.
00:10:28
Speaker
Oh, how much is my roof?
00:10:30
Speaker
How much is that going to cost me?
00:10:32
Speaker
And here's what I'm doing that I feel is working.
00:10:36
Speaker
You don't want to shove all this information down.
00:10:38
Speaker
It can be a lot to take on, especially if you're doing the financing for it.
00:10:44
Speaker
You don't want to just start throwing out numbers.
00:10:47
Speaker
Because what I've found, people tend to think in, if you give them the monthly numbers versus the total finance numbers, if you give them that big finance number, that's going to scare a lot of people, just hearing that right off the bat.
00:11:03
Speaker
If we do a new roof and we finance it through, loan, pound, service finance, that finance price is going to be probably five, six, seven grand more than what it would be if it was just paid for cash.
00:11:20
Speaker
So you're not going to want to give them all this information, at least right now, not right off the bat.
00:11:24
Speaker
You want to spoon feed this information to them.
00:11:28
Speaker
What I found is you need to get back in their home and just go through it.
00:11:31
Speaker
They're going to need to sign documents anyways.
00:11:34
Speaker
And if you are doing it through multiple funds, it's going to make it a little more simple if you can get back and explain rather than trying to tell them that they're going to be funded through two different financers and go into all those details.
00:11:48
Speaker
So that's step number two.
00:11:49
Speaker
Just get back into the home.
00:11:51
Speaker
if they're insisting on information you can tell them like a ballpark number.
00:11:55
Speaker
I'll be like yeah.
00:11:56
Speaker
Good news is it actually doesn't go up too much more per month.
00:11:59
Speaker
You only are paying what?
00:12:00
Speaker
About a hundred bucks for the solar after the tax credit.
00:12:05
Speaker
Well good news is roof is only going to be 40 bucks more than that.
00:12:08
Speaker
So you're going to get a new roof and you're only paying around 40 more a month.
00:12:13
Speaker
But I'll have the exact number when we meet up.
00:12:17
Speaker
That's what you're going to tell them and then you're going to push to get back in the home.
00:12:22
Speaker
Once you are back in the home, here's the next thing you do.
00:12:27
Speaker
You got to, got to, got to be super assumptive.
00:12:33
Speaker
Anyone that needs new roofs, anyone that there's a change of work, well, technically they have the right to cancel if there's a change in the work that's going to be done.
00:12:43
Speaker
But you're not necessarily going to tell them that.
00:12:45
Speaker
You don't want them to think that they can just cancel.
00:12:49
Speaker
They can, but you want to be super assumptive.
00:12:52
Speaker
You want to make it seem like you're still doing this deal.
00:12:54
Speaker
Yeah, the roof's a minor setback, but you're assumptive, you're confident, you're still having all the confidence that they're going to do it.
00:13:05
Speaker
I had a deal a couple weeks, about a month back,
00:13:10
Speaker
and this lady needed a new roof i went back followed the same process and it became pretty obvious that maybe the roof wasn't going to be the best thing her roof still had a decent amount of time on it and just because of some i guess maybe there wasn't enough support underneath the shingle something like that they need to do some roof work but she had about a 60 bill before
00:13:38
Speaker
So it was probably about tripling her bill by the time the roof work was done.
00:13:44
Speaker
So I knew it was kind of going to be a stretch.
00:13:47
Speaker
She was just an older lady living off of her income.
00:13:53
Speaker
So at that point...
00:13:55
Speaker
There's some concerns about her even being able to pay the bill.
00:13:58
Speaker
I knew she was on a fixed income.
00:14:00
Speaker
So I knew it was going to be a stretch.
00:14:01
Speaker
I still went in there super assumptive.
00:14:03
Speaker
I still went in there fully expecting the deal to happen.
00:14:07
Speaker
But I was so assumptive even knowing that maybe it wasn't the greatest thing for her.
00:14:15
Speaker
I still went in super assumptive.
00:14:17
Speaker
And she believed so much that she needed to make the deal happen that she still needed to go through with it.
00:14:24
Speaker
that she basically told me, Taylor, I know this is honestly out of my budget.
00:14:31
Speaker
I don't want to do this.
00:14:33
Speaker
Is there any way I can get out of this?
00:14:37
Speaker
And I had told her, even before I got there, I had told her that she'd still have the option.
00:14:42
Speaker
But when I got in there, I was just so assumptive.
Maintaining a Positive Sales Attitude
00:14:45
Speaker
Just told her numbers, just made it seem like a super positive thing that she believed that she needed to still do it, even though maybe it wasn't in her best interest.
00:14:55
Speaker
And I think I almost had her in tears at one point just because she didn't want to do it at all.
00:15:00
Speaker
Knew it was probably out of what she wanted to pay right now.
00:15:05
Speaker
So that's the key.
00:15:06
Speaker
Just be super assumptive with it.
00:15:10
Speaker
Tell your stories.
00:15:11
Speaker
Make them believe that it's going to be a good thing for the home.
00:15:15
Speaker
So that's probably the most important thing when you're in the home, being assumptive.
00:15:20
Speaker
After you do that, you just want to make it clear the benefits.
00:15:24
Speaker
If they didn't pass the roof inspection, chances are they're going to need a new roof pretty soon anyways.
00:15:30
Speaker
So you need to sell them hard on this.
00:15:32
Speaker
What are the benefits to them?
00:15:35
Speaker
If they need a new roof anyways, why not just do it right now?
00:15:37
Speaker
Because here's what happens if they do it right now.
00:15:42
Speaker
The bill is still going to stay the same if it is financed.
00:15:47
Speaker
The roof will be guaranteed now.
00:15:50
Speaker
And here's the kicker, the tax credit will increase.
00:15:55
Speaker
I know there's been some controversy with this.
00:15:56
Speaker
It's been floating around the communities a little bit.
00:15:59
Speaker
Some people are saying that they only credit you for the actual portion of the roof that the solar is gonna be on.
00:16:07
Speaker
But I'm of the mindset, and I've heard this from accountants too, if you do the entire project as one contract, if you have all the numbers together,
00:16:21
Speaker
Then they just show their tax person, just fill out the form 5695, fill that out, and you're putting the total project cost on there.
00:16:29
Speaker
So they're going to get a full 30% tax credit, at least at the time of this recording.
00:16:35
Speaker
We all know it's going down next year.
00:16:37
Speaker
We'll choose that to build your urgency if you're not.
00:16:40
Speaker
They're going to get that full tax credit, though, and they're going to be able to apply that towards the roof.
00:16:49
Speaker
so you can explain this to them this the big benefit be like look we do the roof direction let us get credit towards that roof to you so federal government is gonna pay for essentially thirty percent of your new roof with the solar that's not good to you guys and there you go here explaining that clearly and yeah again it's been financed put the emphasis more on the monthly numbers
00:17:17
Speaker
If you're financing 10, 15 grand onto the system, the bill's probably not gonna go up.
00:17:23
Speaker
We do the 20-year terms.
00:17:26
Speaker
Bill's probably not gonna go up more than 50, 60 bucks.
00:17:31
Speaker
So use that to your advantage.
00:17:34
Speaker
Tell them, look, we're talking 50, about 50 bucks extra in a month to get a new roof, protect your home, and then lock your bill in.
00:17:44
Speaker
And the federal government is gonna pay for part of that.
00:17:47
Speaker
So all we're going to do, Mr. Homeowner, we're going to just, we got these documents updated with you.
00:17:53
Speaker
Since it is coming from a different financer now, we are going to send an application.
00:18:00
Speaker
They'll just verify you have a decent credit for that.
00:18:04
Speaker
And then we'll make sure everything gets done with it.
00:18:06
Speaker
So let me get you these updated documents.
00:18:09
Speaker
So you're not asking them.
00:18:10
Speaker
You're being super assumptive.
00:18:12
Speaker
You're telling them you're going to get the documents and you're making it happen.
00:18:16
Speaker
So that's a couple of things that have been helping me.
00:18:19
Speaker
Let me know what you think about this.
00:18:21
Speaker
Is this something that you're running into?
00:18:24
Speaker
Something that happens pretty frequently in our deals down here in San Diego.
00:18:28
Speaker
There's a lot of not so great roofs.
00:18:32
Speaker
That's another tip.
00:18:34
Speaker
Maybe some of these
00:18:36
Speaker
You don't necessarily need to go to every home that has a bad roof because I know it's not ideal.
00:18:43
Speaker
We definitely don't want every deal to need a new roof because it does delay the process.
00:18:49
Speaker
It's not a perfect situation.
00:18:52
Speaker
But using just these tips, I was able to close the last four out of the five deals that needed roof work.
00:18:59
Speaker
And let me tell you, in the past, I didn't close any of these deals.
00:19:03
Speaker
It was more like me going to them and being like, yeah, yeah.
00:19:07
Speaker
They do need to do some roof work.
00:19:10
Speaker
Would you guys want to do it?
00:19:11
Speaker
It's going to be like $13,000 is all.
00:19:16
Speaker
Would you guys want to do it?
00:19:18
Speaker
That's basically what I was doing.
00:19:21
Speaker
So go in there, be super assumptive, let them know the benefits, let them know why they should do it now.
00:19:27
Speaker
Something they're going to do anyways.
00:19:29
Speaker
And using those, just making the simple switch, being assumptive, keeping things positive, explaining to them those benefits, you're going to see your ratio go way up.
00:19:41
Speaker
You'll be able to close more roof deals, and you're not going to lose near as many deals when they fill the roof inspection.
00:19:52
Speaker
Let us know if you have any other tips on what you guys do in these situations.
00:19:57
Speaker
How do you handle the roof deals?
00:19:59
Speaker
How do you handle new roofs?
00:20:01
Speaker
And how do you make it a positive thing for them?
Call to Action and Engagement
00:20:04
Speaker
If you haven't, click the subscribe button.
00:20:07
Speaker
Let us know what you think.
00:20:08
Speaker
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00:20:12
Speaker
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00:20:17
Speaker
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00:20:23
Speaker
Thanks, guys.
00:20:24
Speaker
Crush the rest this quarter, and then let's gear up for quarter four.
00:20:30
Speaker
Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
00:20:34
Speaker
Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
00:20:44
Speaker
And we do it all for free.
00:20:46
Speaker
And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes.
00:20:55
Speaker
so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
00:20:59
Speaker
And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
00:21:08
Speaker
Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
00:21:12
Speaker
So take care of that now, and we'll see you on the next episode.