Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Hey, what's going on, Solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here.
Speaker: Today, we're going to be discussing should you do online leads?
Speaker: And if you do decide to do online leads, what are the questions you should be asking?
Speaker: Very important.
Speaker: You're going to hear it all today.
Speaker: Welcome to the podcast or welcome back.
Speaker: If you are a longtime listener, we're here to help you generate more leads.
Speaker: and referrals and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hey, we're coming on, I think, 370 episodes or so, so it has been a journey.
Speaker: Thank you for being a part of it.
Speaker: And I want to start this episode off with apologizing because...
Speaker: Apparently we had a technical error, I think a week and a half back.
Speaker: We did a little Taylor McCarthy solar breakdown, and I guess we published the same episode twice in a row.
Speaker: I'm supposed to have two parts to it.
Speaker: So I apologize if you were expecting something different.
Speaker: We're going to republish the correct episode on that one.
Speaker: And thank you to someone who reached out.
Speaker: And the funny thing was, it took like almost two weeks, I think, for someone to reach out and say, hey, Taylor.
Speaker: This is the same episode that's playing.
Speaker: So thank you for reaching out.
Speaker: And if you hear mistakes like that, please hit me up.
Speaker: Hey, this is not a perfect podcast.
Speaker: This is something that I do as, you know, a side thing, right?
Speaker: I'm out here selling full time.
Speaker: And so I'm not constantly reviewing every episode.
Speaker: We have a small team here.
Speaker: We make mistakes.
Speaker: So thank you for understanding.
Speaker: Hey, we are human over here.
Speaker: I know it sounds like I'm the greatest superhuman solar guy in the world, but I make mistakes too.
Speaker: We all make them.
Speaker: But anyways, that being said, we're going to jump into the episode, hopefully not as many mistakes here today.
Speaker: And just wanted to thank a recent review we had.
Speaker: This was from, looks like he put his names from Ken.
Speaker: He gave us five stars.
Speaker: He says, hats off to Taylor for a great podcast.
Speaker: This has become a staple for my week's listening.
Speaker: And it's filled with great nuggets for all SolarCell's reps, no matter the skill level or tenure.
Speaker: I appreciate all you do for us out here in the field.
Speaker: Thank you so much, Ken.
Speaker: You rock.
Speaker: And appreciate everyone that has left a review.
Speaker: The podcast would not have continued without people's reviews, without people reaching out, leaving messages.
Speaker: So appreciate the support.
Speaker: And all we can ask is that you continue to do that.
Speaker: Okay, I'll be honest, the numbers have been down a little bit lately.
Speaker: And probably part of it is because, you know, some mistakes published in the same episode twice.
Speaker: Yeah, get it.
Speaker: I wouldn't listen to that episode either.
Speaker: But sometimes it gets frustrating where I'm like, I was having a ton of people listen this week.
Speaker: It's not so much.
Speaker: Hey, and I know some episodes aren't as good as others.
Speaker: But really, what keeps us going is people sharing it, people reaching out saying it's helped them.
Speaker: And more than anything, that's what I do to give back.
Speaker: And that's what helps keep this flame going is messages like that.
Speaker: So thank you so much.
Speaker: Okay, well, let's get to the topic.
Speaker: So today we're going to be talking about the online leads.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And we're going to have someone that's a pro on this for the next episode.
Speaker: Tune in.
Speaker: His name is Garrett Mendelsohn.
Speaker: This guy, he is doing some pretty incredible things in the online lead gen space and is, you know, making a
Speaker: A million a year has had multiple months where he's sold over 30.
Speaker: A lot of them completely over the phone online.
Speaker: So you're not going to miss out on what he says about the online leads and about getting into it.
Speaker: But just thought I would give my take on a few things.
Speaker: If that is something you are exploring, something you've thought about, or just want to know more about online leads.
Speaker: And I disclaimer, I have not done online leads myself for probably about a year.
Speaker: been strictly door knocking since, um,
Speaker: I don't know, maybe end of 2021, something like that, maybe a year and a half.
Speaker: Hey, and I don't hate them.
Speaker: I've had success doing online leads.
Speaker: But the reason I stopped my story with online leads is it just got tough when I'm running a door to door team.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I was having people set leads in one part of town.
Speaker: All of a sudden I would get an online lead that was 45 minutes to the north.
Speaker: So I'd drive clear up there.
Speaker: Sometimes they'd be super solid.
Speaker: Sometimes they'd just be okay.
Speaker: And I found myself having to give away door-to-door appointments at times to go to these online leads.
Speaker: And it was just hit and miss.
Speaker: I had months where I killed it.
Speaker: I had months where not so much.
Speaker: And so I don't claim to be the experts on solar online lead, Jenny.
Speaker: That's why I bring in guests like Garrett.
Speaker: But I have had experience with it.
Speaker: And I would just say, if you're going to do it, make sure you know how to close first.
Speaker: I would not get an online leads just starting out in solar.
Speaker: I would build a basis of knocking doors.
Speaker: I would make sure you have a solid close first because these people, they can be hard to close.
Speaker: And I would argue that a lot of times they're tougher to close because sometimes they're getting multiple quotes online.
Speaker: Sometimes the trust isn't there quite as much, but they can be highly qualified too.
Speaker: OK, so that's my that's my story on it.
Speaker: That's my experience.
Speaker: And also just depends on your goals.
Speaker: Are you trying to build this setter closer model where you are working a team door to door?
Speaker: The thing is, with these leads, you can target a specific area.
Speaker: But the smaller area you target, the less leads you're going to get.
Speaker: So that's why for me, I was targeting all of San Diego here.
Speaker: And that's a wide area, right?
Speaker: It covers a lot of different areas.
Speaker: So it could be an hour drive from one lead to another if you're doing that.
Speaker: But that's how you're going to get the most leads from it.
Speaker: And so that was my experience.
Speaker: If you are thinking of hiring a lead gen company, the three that I have interviewed on the show that I have experience with, I'll give them a little shout out here.
Speaker: prospect bacon that's josiah atkins great guy
Speaker: Okay, you got Solar Exclusive, which is a great one.
Speaker: You got Solar Funnels.
Speaker: It's another one I've used.
Speaker: Ben Claybrook.
Speaker: Well, the first two, they're the biggest ones.
Speaker: Most people have heard of Prospect Bacon and Solar Exclusive, right?
Speaker: And they have a good reputation.
Speaker: I definitely recommend them.
Speaker: Okay, but if you are going to use different lead gen company, maybe you've got a buddy that hit you up that started doing online leads.
Speaker: Maybe you're getting hit up by marketers, which I do all the time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And careful.
Speaker: A lot of these guys are scammers.
Speaker: Don't know what they're doing.
Speaker: I've had a lot of people have not so great experiences with the, with random companies that hit them up.
Speaker: So be careful.
Speaker: Hey, but I'm going to go through some questions that I, some of these, I did not think to ask some of them I'd heard.
Speaker: I've heard from other people you should be asking.
Speaker: Some of them just came from my own research.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So here's some questions you should be asking if you were thinking of hiring a
Speaker: Allegiant company.
Speaker: OK, the first one is cost.
Speaker: Obviously, we all want to know how much, how much, how much.
Speaker: And you're going to get a varying amount on these, but cheaper is not always better with these guys.
Speaker: Trust me.
Speaker: You probably don't want to go with the cheap route because they're going to be crap leads.
Speaker: Hey, but ask the company you're thinking of hiring.
Speaker: What's the what's the costs?
Speaker: What are what's the required ad spend?
Speaker: Some of these companies, I think the bigger ones, typically they don't want to work with one guy.
Speaker: They want they want to have an ad spend that's worth it because they've got entire teams.
Speaker: They're spending a lot of time setting all this stuff up.
Speaker: So a lot of these companies, they have a minimum ad spend.
Speaker: I think when I was doing it, I was spending like $2,000 a month.
Speaker: And I was usually getting two to four closes a month from it.
Speaker: But yeah, figure out how much you're going to spend in ads.
Speaker: And then the second question, is there a guarantee for how many leads I will get?
Speaker: No lead gen company is going to guarantee that you close deals because that's out of their hands, right?
Speaker: They don't know
Speaker: you're sending guys that don't know how to close.
Speaker: They don't know what you're doing, but what they can and should guarantee is a minimum amount of leads.
Speaker: If you're spending 10 grand a month, you're only getting two leads from them.
Speaker: You got to figure something out.
Speaker: That's not going to cut it.
Speaker: So what's the guarantee for the amount of leads they can get you?
Speaker: Hey, what type of guarantee will they give you?
Speaker: Hey, when they're doing the lead gen, another question is what info
Speaker: will I be getting for the leads?
Speaker: Hey, there's different.
Speaker: Some of these people, they will get leads on Facebook, for example.
Speaker: And some of these leads, it's just name and phone number and that's it.
Speaker: And then half the time you call in the phone disconnected, it's not even a solid lead.
Speaker: Hey, so figure out what is the information you're actually collecting.
Speaker: Ideally, you want name, phone number, email address, estimated credit score, blood type, social security number.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: That would be nice.
Speaker: Really, the more information you get, typically, the more solid the lead is going to be.
Speaker: And a good strategy for those listening is if you do get the address,
Speaker: Sometimes these people aren't going to answer the phone no matter what.
Speaker: But if you show up at an address, you can actually convert some of these.
Speaker: I've worked with lead gen companies where I got the address.
Speaker: I would not get a hold of them on the phone.
Speaker: But if it wasn't like crazy far or whatever, I would actually show up to the addresses and they convert better.
Speaker: It's like knocking a warm lead, knocking the door and you know they're already somehow interested.
Speaker: So good thing if you can get the address for sure.
Speaker: Another question is, do you offer to set the appointments?
Speaker: If you are busy, if you're doing door to door, if you're running appointments, maybe you have a team of setters.
Speaker: A lot of times you may not have time to call into these leads.
Speaker: And when it comes to online lead gen, speed is the name of the game.
Speaker: If you're not calling these people right off the bat,
Speaker: within a couple minutes, then you're going to lose some of these leads.
Speaker: People forget what they filled in.
Speaker: They're most likely by their phone when they fill out these forms online.
Speaker: So you want to be doing it quick.
Speaker: But that presents the problem.
Speaker: If you are knocking doors, if you're running other appointments, you might not be able to call super quick.
Speaker: So a good question to ask is, is there some type of appointment setting service?
Speaker: Or maybe you can hire your own appointment setter.
Speaker: But it might be something worth considering.
Speaker: Another question is, do you give follow-up scripts?
Speaker: Do I have access to a CRM?
Speaker: If you don't have a CRM already, you want some type of CRM that's going to organize these leads.
Speaker: You're going to see all the data on them.
Speaker: They're going to be kept track of.
Speaker: They have automations in place.
Speaker: If the lead gen company you're working with does not have something like this, then are they going to help you set it up?
Speaker: okay because it's crucial you need something like that
Speaker: Most lead gen companies these days are using a CRM go high level, right?
Speaker: That's the one you can call from.
Speaker: That's the one I personally use.
Speaker: Shout out to Brent Attaway CRMX.
Speaker: It's the one I'm using right now.
Speaker: I know there's other ones that are great, but yeah, you want some type of CRM.
Speaker: Okay, another question.
Speaker: Where are you getting the leads?
Speaker: Is it just Facebook?
Speaker: Hey, are you using Google SEO search engine optimization?
Speaker: There are a bunch of different ways you can get the leads.
Speaker: Hey, but how are you actually getting the leads?
Speaker: And it might be useful.
Speaker: Now, if they're just getting Facebook leads, I've worked with a lot of guys getting Facebook leads.
Speaker: Typically, these are the most low quality leads.
Speaker: They can be good, but typically lower quality and more leads, you have to dial through a lot of them.
Speaker: So you might want to consider, hey, are you getting leads from YouTube?
Speaker: Are you getting leads from these other sources?
Speaker: It's almost likely be a little higher quality from multiple sources, not just one or two.
Speaker: And what type of marketing are you doing?
Speaker: Hey, do you verify credits?
Speaker: Do you confirm that there are homeowners?
Speaker: I was shocked when I started doing online leads, how many people called and
Speaker: They sounded super interested, would get their address, be like, oh, by the way, I don't own the place.
Speaker: Oh, by the way, this is an apartment.
Speaker: You guys do apartments.
Speaker: It's like some things that you think would be insanely obvious.
Speaker: These people were filling out forms thinking they could get solar on their apartment complex.
Speaker: It's like, no, you got to own the home.
Speaker: OK, oh, my credit's like at 400.
Speaker: Is that a problem?
Speaker: So see if you can figure out a way to verify some of these no winner things because you don't want to be wasting time calling unqualified leads too, right?
Speaker: So make sure there are somewhat qualified leads.
Speaker: Hey, and then just general credibility, right?
Speaker: Who has worked with you that I can talk to?
Speaker: How long you've been doing this?
Speaker: Have you done leads in my markets?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Some of these people, they're doing leads.
Speaker: Maybe where solar is pretty untapped.
Speaker: maybe a state in the east or whatever.
Speaker: And they're getting quick leads.
Speaker: They're getting cheap leads.
Speaker: But I'm in California.
Speaker: Depending on where you're at, you may be in somewhere that's super competitive for leads.
Speaker: In San Diego, where I'm at, everyone and their dog is posting ads about solar.
Speaker: Everyone's trying to we're in like the Mecca of solar right here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So if I talk to someone that's like, oh, I'm getting leads for a dollar.
Speaker: I'm calling BS on that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: San Diego.
Speaker: This is not Wyoming.
Speaker: This is not Rhode Island.
Speaker: I don't I think they're cheaper there.
Speaker: I would assume.
Speaker: But make sure they have experience getting leads in your market.
Speaker: And then are my leads exclusive and solar exclusive?
Speaker: It's probably why they have that name because they give exclusive leads only to you.
Speaker: Some of these leads young companies, they will circulate.
Speaker: They will send a lead to like 10 different people and it's getting hit up.
Speaker: One person's getting hit up by 10 people.
Speaker: Yeah, not ideal, extremely tough to convert those types of leads.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So those are just a few questions I thought of.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Online leads can be great.
Speaker: I think it's a good thing to supplement your door knocking.
Speaker: Just do it wisely.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And if you are trying to build a hardcore like team of setters, closers, it can be tough.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you may want to go full force in that.
Speaker: Um, I haven't seen too many people that's trying to do a combination.
Speaker: It generally doesn't work out as great.
Speaker: So I would suggest leads.
Speaker: If you are just doing self-gen deals, knocking your own doors, um, not, not running a bunch of appointments from people on your team, then online leads, I would definitely look into it.
Speaker: But if you have
Speaker: a big team, if you're running like set or closer leads, you've got people concentrated in one area working and you know it's going to be a problem to have to drive to different parts, then you may want to consider not doing it.
Speaker: So that's the verdict.
Speaker: That's my take on it.
Speaker: Hope those questions helped.
Speaker: If you are thinking of hiring someone to do online leads for you.
Speaker: you can learn yourself too i have i've done some of my own online ads online leads and it is tough takes a lot of work take takes a lot to manage okay so just remember is it worth putting in the work when maybe i could get someone else to do that when i'm an expert in my case or when they're an expert rather in my case made more sense to hire other people i just got burned out it's a lot to manage doing it all by yourself
Speaker: And also manage a team and also close and also have a family.
Speaker: All the other stuff we we do in solar, you know, we do so much.
Speaker: OK, so don't forget, we got Garrett Mendelsohn.
Speaker: This guy's a pro.
Speaker: If you want to hear more about even if you're not into the online lead stuff, this guy closes like a man man.
Speaker: He closes on the phone and he's got some cool competition software to that he's launching for solar teams.
Speaker: It's like a Twitch gaming platform, but for solar, super unique.
Speaker: So make sure you don't miss out on that episode.
Speaker: We're going to be dropping some exciting episodes.
Speaker: We've got some great future guests.
Speaker: Thank you for the support of the podcast.
Speaker: And thank you for your patience when we have mistakes occasionally on the show.
Speaker: Hopefully you'll keep tuning in and we'll see you guys on the next one.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs.
Speaker: Are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I and
Speaker: And the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: You'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: So at now we have six bucks for this month.
Speaker: So book a call now.
Speaker: Don't miss out.
Speaker: What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an S dot com.
Speaker: I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out a time that works best.
Speaker: So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
