Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you 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: Okay, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: I'm excited for today's episode.
Speaker: We have a very special guest on, and he was actually introduced to me by a mutual friend, which most of you on the podcast probably know, Taylor McCarthy.
Speaker: So anyone that Taylor McCarthy introduces, you know is going to be money.
Speaker: He's going to have some golden nuggets to share.
Speaker: So I'm excited to have today's guest on, Mr. Brian Leposki.
Speaker: Brian, thanks for coming on with us today.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be a good time.
Speaker: And you have kind of a unique background and, you know, unique position, different than a lot of people we get on the show.
Speaker: So I'm excited to dive into it.
Speaker: But yeah, I guess you can introduce yourself a little bit more.
Speaker: But I guess, you know, the short introduction from what we know about each other so far is that you worked with Taylor McCarthy over at SolarCity and you are a regional manager there.
Speaker: And then you now obviously, you know, once that kind of got...
Speaker: They got rid of their door to door.
Speaker: You went on more to marketing and you started a marketing agency and you're crushing it in that.
Speaker: And you're still pretty involved in solar as well.
Speaker: So you can correct me if I'm wrong on any of that.
Speaker: But besides that, you want to give us kind of the deeper background and kind of how you know Taylor and how you got involved in solar and everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'll tell you what, it takes me back to 2010.
Speaker: So February 21st, 2010, I actually started with a direct sales company.
Speaker: And at that time, the company was TRG and they were marketing Verizon Fios.
Speaker: Truth be told, whenever I interviewed, I had not even known what Verizon was.
Speaker: I was living in the south side of Pittsburgh.
Speaker: available in my hometown.
Speaker: And about two, two and a half months later, a former colleague at the company approached myself and some others and said, hey, come on over and join a startup company that a lot of us spun off of from ERG.
Speaker: And I sat down and I clicked with the individual very, very closely.
Speaker: quick.
Speaker: And he said, you know, I heard that you want to go up to Boston.
Speaker: And I said, yeah, I mean, I'd be open to it.
Speaker: And what makes you bring it up?
Speaker: And he said, well, we just got a contract up there with Charter Spectrum.
Speaker: We have a group of guys up there and, you know, that we feel like you'd really click with.
Speaker: And we need three, four more people to go up.
Speaker: And he said, I'm going to tell you now, he said, you and a kid up there are going to go to war.
Speaker: And I said, who's that?
Speaker: And he said, Taylor McCarthy.
Speaker: He said, this kid's young.
Speaker: He's like 19, 20 years old or something.
Speaker: But he said he's amazing on the doors.
Speaker: He leads every single week in sales and he's very competitive.
Speaker: So growing up, we had a 10 and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh to Boston.
Speaker: And I get up there and Taylor's waiting for me in the parking lot.
Speaker: I remember we had a football.
Speaker: And right when I get out, I'll never forget.
Speaker: I'm just stretching the legs.
Speaker: Taylor comes right up to me and said, let me hear your presentation.
Speaker: And I looked at that and I said, how's it going?
Speaker: We shook in.
Speaker: I said, I'm going to throw the football around a little bit.
Speaker: I got to stretch the legs.
Speaker: I said, we'll see it out on the doors.
Speaker: And I'll tell you what, that summer, I mean, I look back at the group up there as a whole.
Speaker: I mean, there were some amazing people up there and we really didn't know what was being started.
Speaker: And, you know, I'll tell you for myself at that time, I didn't see this as a career.
Speaker: I seen it space that I had first entered and I was going to school
Speaker: you know wanting to you know get involved in other industries and then i fell in love with the business week after week after week and then came back from boston from that summer back to pittsburgh where our headquarters were taylor went and joined the alarm industry which you know ended up crossing a lot of paths down the road for us and you know from that point you know we had become the largest comcast dealer in the nation and you know
Speaker: something we were really proud of.
Speaker: And, you know, we, we grew a tremendous business and, you know, I had a lot of really good mentors there.
Speaker: A lot of people that took me under their wing and fast forward, what six years, you know, Taylor called me and we always had stayed in touch.
Speaker: And he said, you know, Hey, I want you to come
Speaker: to Boston and help co-manage a office.
Speaker: And I said, what?
Speaker: And he said, put solar panels on people's homes.
Speaker: And I said, Taylor, what do you mean solar panels?
Speaker: And he said, like, we literally cut their electric bills.
Speaker: And it was just, he was like, I'm telling you, I'm leaving in three weeks.
Speaker: I'm going over there.
Speaker: And I said, Taylor, I just, I can't even really understand what it is you're telling me at this time.
Speaker: And he was like, well, we're working for this guy, Elon Musk.
Speaker: And at that time, really, it was like 2012, 2013.
Speaker: There were no Tesla stores, no Teslas in Pittsburgh.
Speaker: You know, I Google him.
Speaker: I'm like, I see he was like involved with PayPal.
Speaker: That's pretty cool.
Speaker: And the other said, this guy's going to be the richest guy in the world.
Speaker: I'm telling you, you watch me, this guy's doing this electric car stuff.
Speaker: He's doing
Speaker: two more years um and i've seen the excitement the energy um that you know taylor and others in the solar industry were involved in and i crossed paths with uh chance allred and a lot of the vivant guys um you know previous to that um you know joined them on uh wall street you know for an event um and so our company had a lot of mutual ties to a lot of the uh you know the solar pros and you know entrepreneurs out in the you know utah valley and uh california area and
Speaker: You know, we talked and Taylor said, look, I'm telling you, you have to give me a 24-hour answer.
Speaker: I can let you run the state of PA, but I need an answer like now or else they're putting in a release out there.
Speaker: And I linked up, you know, two days later, I think I flew up to New York.
Speaker: met the VP and away as it went.
Speaker: And I'll tell you, I mean, for me, I fell in love with the industry, Taylor.
Speaker: You know, it was just such a fascinating space where I felt like we were creating change and we were providing a solution to so many families, you know, locking them into rates and giving them, you know, that, that, I guess, platform to release and have an energy independence.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: When I came from a lot of cable and the alarms, it was really, I feel like a lot of niche markets.
Speaker: You had people that love those spaces for maybe providing the savings or doing a takeover.
Speaker: But solar, it created so many different areas.
Speaker: If you're environmentally based, savings based,
Speaker: you know rewards based i mean whatever it is i mean the platform yeah that's awesome that's funny to hear even back then um first thing taylor says is let me hear your presentation um because we're i mean myself i'm in his coaching group right now and he always um gives us a hard time he never lets anyone say pitch if anyone says the word pitch it's like give me 30 push-ups right now and so like even back then he's like we had a presentation
Speaker: But no, it sounds like you guys went at it.
Speaker: So I got to ask, did you ever beat him in sales?
Speaker: Do you have any, I don't know, dirt you can rub on him?
Speaker: Did you ever humiliate him a little bit?
Speaker: First week we got up there, Taylor certainly took the gold.
Speaker: Taylor, I actually shadowed a little bit.
Speaker: It was a little bit of a niche sale up there, right?
Speaker: So we were learning some things.
Speaker: I will say two of the weeks up there, certainly got him on the back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I think we're up for six weeks.
Speaker: So, you know, I think two of the weeks.
Speaker: And I want to say he then left to go snowboarding in like Argentina.
Speaker: I mean, look, Taylor is by no means, he is a pro and a talent and, you know, has total passion for what it is that he does.
Speaker: And I don't think anybody would ever take that away.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: Are you as competitive as he is or not quite?
Speaker: I will say this.
Speaker: We've been, I guess, five years running in fantasy football.
Speaker: Last week was rivalry.
Speaker: I did beat him.
Speaker: He knocked me out in the playoffs last year.
Speaker: He won it all.
Speaker: You know, very competitive.
Speaker: And it doesn't matter what I think he and I are doing.
Speaker: We're going to be competitive at it.
Speaker: We're going to win it.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, no, I think that's a good trait.
Speaker: You know, top guys, every top guy, it seems like they are pretty ultra competitive and everything and they hate to lose.
Speaker: So that's something that I've definitely seen and been trying to get more competitive myself.
Speaker: But speaking of that, I mean, as you've been on teams, because I know you've ran a lot of teams, helped a lot of guys.
Speaker: Do you have any advice on like, I don't know, how to help guys maybe like...
Speaker: be more competitive themselves because you know how it is there's guys on teams they're just like i don't really care for competitions i'm just gonna go out work do my best whatever happens so i don't know how do you like light a fire under people and get them to i don't know be more competitive or push more do you have any advice on that yeah and i i will say it this way i think at every level the
Speaker: what role you're playing as part of the solar company, you got to find your passion and your why.
Speaker: You have to understand that.
Speaker: And I think when we talk about lighting a fire, we see there's emotional leaders out there that when they're around, the team goes.
Speaker: When they're away, the team goes back.
Speaker: And it's a big reason I'm big on managing processes, managing systems, and teaching and educating people to understand what it is that you're teaching them.
Speaker: and why you're managing them the way they are to be able to show them in areas they're able to grow and improve.
Speaker: And I look back at myself from 21 joining this space to turn 34 tomorrow and how much I've learned.
Speaker: talk to people in the solar space that three years ago was their first year you know they were a rookie and three years later the things they're able to do inside of a home and even learning how to you know create referrals and you know being able to create a system for themselves inside of their own system right and that's what i would recommend to everyone like you have to have those small wins you have to understand you know looking at business i'm a big believer of like
Speaker: three, six, nine, 12, right?
Speaker: Looking at it in that quarterly aspect of growing in an aspect and getting better.
Speaker: I always, you know, a lot of sports analogies, you see a lot of the ballplayers, especially in the NBA, in the off season, they'll work on one or two things to hone in for the upcoming season.
Speaker: And then year 10, year 11, you see people are very polished all the way around.
Speaker: You know, people always look to Kobe that way, you know, trying a lot in the post.
Speaker: Well, when he was a rookie, it wasn't really part of his game, but later in his career, he was able to play with his back to the basket.
Speaker: And I think to bring back a Taylor McCarthy, Taylor has become such a deep vocabulary in this space, right?
Speaker: And develop that and understands really how to overcome and navigate.
Speaker: And I would say, don't be discouraged.
Speaker: If you're new in any position from a sales manager to a energy consultant, to a VP of a company,
Speaker: you have to realize that you're going to have to take your legs in that new position and get better and, you know, embrace it, embrace failure, embrace change.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, just learn how to continue with that.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: Well, I agree with that.
Speaker: And if there's one thing I've seen in solar, it's like almost anyone can be successful at this if they just don't quit and keep rolling.
Speaker: Cause I mean, there's so much money to be made so many people to help, but the only ones that really fell at this are the ones that quit from what I've seen doing this about six years now.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But no, and then another big thing, I know you guys were at SolarCity.
Speaker: You guys were crushing it there.
Speaker: And then like probably most people know that listen to podcasts is SolarCity ended their whole door to door site.
Speaker: And what was that?
Speaker: Five thousand people were let go just right off the bat.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I'll tell you what, it was a tough situation.
Speaker: We had just came off a record month.
Speaker: I think our two markets did 90% of our divisions entire volume the month prior.
Speaker: We were truly to say we were flying high in April, shutdown in May.
Speaker: May 1st, when we got all let go May 1st.
Speaker: And when I look back, it was tough because for myself and anybody operating out of Pennsylvania,
Speaker: any of those territories, there were not a lot of solar companies in that territory at that time.
Speaker: And for me, there were none.
Speaker: So when we got laid off, it actually forced us to kind of reevaluate what we wanted to do moving forward.
Speaker: And this kind of is an area that I'd love to shout some people out.
Speaker: I mean, we had a lot of help and support by some really amazing, amazing people that probably a lot of people know.
Speaker: So at that time, you know, everyone kind of scattered.
Speaker: We ended up during that time looking into the Sprint product and realized that there was a little bit of a niche going on where it was the first time ever there was like a direct sales program around Sprint.
Speaker: And we kind of all said, hey, can we hold the fort?
Speaker: and start a company and that's where our company was formed in November of 2017 and we all said you know if we could get behind this and we worked with Michael and Jeremy Hammett you know the caliber group where they had that contract and you know Jeremy and I sat down and you know we had an agreement where you know it was like hey
Speaker: give us everything you got we all understood your your end games to get onto solar and you know once you're able to do that you're going to do that um and you know i will tell you they put me into an amazing spot in my career um you know introduced me to some you know colleagues that they knew inside the space through digital marketing um which really allowed us to you know create a whole nother business you know years down the line and uh
Speaker: You know, it was it's really awesome when you see, you know, good people trying to help one another out in tough spots because that's what it was for a lot of people.
Speaker: And, you know, and that's whenever, you know, we found the opportunity to get back into solar and we went all in.
Speaker: We're very, very proud of the trajectory we've gone on.
Speaker: since that time.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, I don't know when, when all this happened, were you pretty stressed with like all these jobs disappearing overnight?
Speaker: Like what was your, I imagine it's probably pretty stressful or how were you feeling all the time?
Speaker: I'll tell you, I mean, I was so stressed out
Speaker: That summer, I mean, for not only myself, but my peers, right?
Speaker: The people that I worked with, some of them for at that point, eight years, you know, seven years and, you know, seeing them go from making, you know, the income they were making and the passion they had and the referral base they had to customers calling them and then telling them.
Speaker: we're no longer in business you know there's nowhere to put the referral program in and you know they would ask is there another company you're working with now and the answer was no nobody else operates here you know it's a very small niche market that solar city entered um you know nobody else wants to bring build out their ops and you know that was a time where i think a lot of people were hesitant on investing further into the solar industry
Speaker: as far as putting in brick and mortar warehouses and operations and not understanding where the ITC federal credit was going, not understanding where more of the politics dynamic were going on with solar.
Speaker: So everyone was kind of holding the fort
Speaker: And then we, you know, again, got a amazing partner to come in and support us.
Speaker: And, you know, that's where I ended up meeting Chris Kemper, the founder of Palmetto.
Speaker: And I flew down to Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker: I told him we were going to become their number one partner.
Speaker: And like most, he smiled and said, you know, many, many people say that.
Speaker: And it took us about a year to get to there.
Speaker: And I will tell you, it was a big, big point for us was for them to come put a brick and mortar facility up in Pittsburgh.
Speaker: We were not going to operate with any solar company without them investing that, putting their flag down and showing that they were all in.
Speaker: They did that.
Speaker: And I think our first month with them, we put up like 48 deals and it really opened up their eyes.
Speaker: And we showed them that this was like the number one group here, Harrisburg and other parts of
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And so when you say we you is you and like a bunch of guys you were managing over at Solar City, you guys all went in and just started this thing under Palmetto.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yeah, so it's, I would say it was a three year tears, right?
Speaker: We had a few people come on right away and join our company.
Speaker: And remember, we were already formed at that time, we were still doing the sprint.
Speaker: And, you know, we had revenue coming in as a company.
Speaker: But when we got in with Palmetto, it took some time to get people, you know, seeing is believing, right?
Speaker: A lot of people felt
Speaker: scorned from the whole experience over at SolarCity.
Speaker: They left some extremely good careers to come over and they were not only
Speaker: not able to get back with their old company, they had to lose their job here and go find out and interview with other positions again.
Speaker: So it took some people a year to see installs fall, quality service, and actually see pay hit.
Speaker: There was a lot of trust.
Speaker: And once that happened, it was almost as if a wall just came down and we've been able to really, really scale year over year quite a bit.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, and so, yeah, do you have anything you did?
Speaker: Was it pretty much the same stuff you're doing at SolarCity that you just went over and applied to, you know, your other company or was it different growth strategies or how did you, anything you did different to like scale this time versus when you're at SolarCity?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think it was quite different because at
Speaker: When I started the conversation, I said I didn't know who Elon Musk was.
Speaker: At the end, when we were working for SolarCity, he was the face.
Speaker: That was the brand.
Speaker: I mean, when you were recruiting people there, it was like, hey, come join Elon Musk's company.
Speaker: And I think even so, that was a big thing inside the home when selling homeowners and showing them who was behind this product.
Speaker: So when we restarted, not only did we shift away from leases and PPAs in this market, where we operate, we've done installs in 11 states this year, but talking more so on how we were founded in the market and the niche we were in, we had to really shift our mindset around loans.
Speaker: And that was something that one really had to relearn.
Speaker: We had to understand the benefits of people getting the ITC, the benefits of getting the state incentives where it applied.
Speaker: And throughout that, Taylor,
Speaker: I think that it put us in an amazing, amazing position because it really made us work extremely hard at adopting because we sat out for two years and the industry shifted in that time.
Speaker: Pay models shifted in that time.
Speaker: Overrides shifted.
Speaker: I mean, a lot of things changed.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: we had to really reform and rebrand that identity.
Speaker: So I would say the big turning point was right after COVID.
Speaker: That was spring 2.0 with Palmetto.
Speaker: And when we shifted, we really realized that we had to start
Speaker: At scale, if we were ever on a scale, we had to invest into a CRM.
Speaker: That was where I would say for the last two years, we've put so much effort and time into tech and automation from recruiting to follow-ups to email drips to understanding onboarding to bring everyone on that same platform the same way and giving everyone that equal opportunity that people want.
Speaker: Through that, we were really able to measure our numbers out.
Speaker: To the point where we know to, if we enter X amount of leads, we know exactly how many installs that's going to net us.
Speaker: And, you know, we could see everything to a, you know, micro point every single day on any aspect.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's crazy for sure.
Speaker: And I know we were talking about this the other day off the recording here, but just how much it's shifted and, you know, how much advances we have in CRMs available.
Speaker: Like when I first started out in door-to-door and pest control, we were out there using.
Speaker: chalk and you know chalk on the sidewalk and no door knocking apps no smartphones nothing and then uh i mean similar when i got into solar we had at least knocking apps but there we didn't have like crms i remember eventually our company built like a custom one on a website but it was still like very basic compared to what you have now and um
Speaker: Yeah, just the data we have available.
Speaker: And I know even now there's still, you know, a lot of door to door guys that I don't think are using CRMs, their capabilities.
Speaker: And I mean, still a lot of people aren't following up with leads, tracking all that.
Speaker: So, yeah, like for you guys, what what CRM did you use?
Speaker: And I guess, sorry, getting over a cold.
Speaker: What did you guys start tracking and everything?
Speaker: And what CRM did you use?
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: So we went with monday.com and, you know, we looked into Salesforce.
Speaker: We looked into Monday and we worked with our tech team and really understanding.
Speaker: And, you know, I work with a lot of people that previous they were familiar with, like go high level.
Speaker: And we like, you know, Monday because it was a.
Speaker: higher investment but i think it was a bigger reward and you know the things that we put in right away were um we put apis into our client um so what we have is when you enter a lead it goes right into palmetto's platform does all the designing for you
Speaker: You're able to upload everything right on the doors where a lot of platforms aren't built around a certain niche of marketing, whether it's direct sales, whether it's events in retail, online marketing.
Speaker: But what they're amazing at is the platform of actually selling the consumer and being able to get that consumer to install.
Speaker: So what we realized was a lot of the stuff top of the funnel was, you know, hey, that's that's data that's valuable.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Getting that email, getting that phone number, you know, getting that address.
Speaker: And this gave us the ability to be able to really track one.
Speaker: How many appointments do we have today?
Speaker: Because so many people will and I see it still from people that come out from other companies or affiliates that come in.
Speaker: You know, we'll ask them, well, how many or how many appointments do you run a day?
Speaker: Their answer is either I don't know or let me figure this out.
Speaker: And then like 10 minutes later, they're telling us because they have to either go track it down from their team and or they're putting it into Slack or a group me asking people, hey, who has appointments today?
Speaker: Or we're able to just click a few buttons.
Speaker: Well, now let's measure what happens with that.
Speaker: Like what happened with your lead?
Speaker: Did it close?
Speaker: Did it ghost you and never show up?
Speaker: Did it sit but close lost?
Speaker: So we put all these metrics in place where if a customer ghost, we're able to actually send them an MVP offer to try to get them back in front of us.
Speaker: If a customer's closed lost, we have retention that's able to then work to get back in front of them.
Speaker: If a customer closed one,
Speaker: Well, I want you to know immediately what your commissions are on that.
Speaker: So we go in all of our commission grids, right in they put form two, that lets everyone know.
Speaker: Everyone in their upline is immediately sent an SMS to be told that they're making this amount of money off of it, that this customer closed from this energy consultant.
Speaker: And likewise, when the jobs tailor move stages, right?
Speaker: If a job hits engineering, that's important.
Speaker: to understand where those blueprints are.
Speaker: If a job's permit's sent, these are all great touch points with that homeowner to reach out, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, and let them know what's going on.
Speaker: Equally to that, you're getting into a position where the job's installed ready.
Speaker: Time is of essence with that, right?
Speaker: We see a lot of companies where these sit, because if one person gets a notification, well, maybe there was turnover and the AC's no longer here,
Speaker: You know, so nobody looks at that.
Speaker: Well, now that whole offline seeing that our admin team seeing that they're notifying everyone right away if it's within 24 hours and nothing's done.
Speaker: And then install schedule and install complete PTO, all of it.
Speaker: We're automating that so people have full transparency at all times.
Speaker: Because I really believe that's so important.
Speaker: No, that's true.
Speaker: And so are you automating like, for example, when they have permits received and all that, is that just automated stuff that goes out?
Speaker: Just like texts or emails or both or?
Speaker: So for some of them pay related stages, we're emailing and texting.
Speaker: It's just a change of stage.
Speaker: We're sending out that text message, right?
Speaker: Directly to that upline and letting the right people know.
Speaker: And even from like culture standpoint, you know, bonuses, you know, newsletters, a lot of what we do even for bonuses, you know, giving away iPads or giving away fast sort bonuses.
Speaker: It was a big thing we implemented at the beginning of the year.
Speaker: That's all sent out.
Speaker: And we have even our executive team get notifications when people reach those bonus milestones, because those are the people that are starting strong, coming into the company.
Speaker: And we want them to be recognized amongst everyone company wide, just to put that name out in front of them.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And what about, you talked about, um, like if the customer goes, someone no shows their appointments, it goes into a different kind of bucket.
Speaker: So is that like just the same thing, like an automated texting that will go out, Hey, we missed you, stuff like that.
Speaker: Or what, what type of stuff goes out if it's someone that goes on an appointment?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that is something that we are, we've, we've worked on already.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it was something that we wanted to roll out the correct way.
Speaker: Being an energy consultant, that is equally as important to you.
Speaker: And until our teams got up and trained on it and really understood how to update things, we didn't want to walk on anybody's toes.
Speaker: So going into Q4, we'll be rolling out multiple forms of marketing.
Speaker: email drips, we will equally be marketing out SMS drips, and then the big one is we're gonna do piece mail.
Speaker: We do wanna get out in front of people and have piece mail, and I'm a big believer of awkward sized pieces of mail,
Speaker: have a big call to action on that with an MVP offer to try to get that homeowner back in front of that, whether it's QR code.
Speaker: And if you're relating to people three different ways from that point, that first touch was on the doors.
Speaker: Our whole goal is to get them back in front
Speaker: of whoever originally knocked out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so you're not like, it's, it's basically like a whole team that does this or like, I don't know, I guess how much is automated versus, cause I'm just thinking if it's someone that's like a door to door rep, for example, like most door to door reps, they're not going to like set this up for themselves.
Speaker: So, um, I mean, do you have this just on like a company level and you do it for like all your reps or how's that kind of balance between you doing it versus like an individual rep?
Speaker: So every bit of this is on Curve Central.
Speaker: It's all automated.
Speaker: It's based off of the metrics we put in, the exact this many days after move to this, send this.
Speaker: And that's the automation that we've spent
Speaker: A lot of time, a lot of money in the putting in.
Speaker: And it's something that, again, has only gotten better.
Speaker: Our CTO just moved to Pittsburgh actually two days ago.
Speaker: He's really been the brainchild, if you will, behind a lot of this.
Speaker: You know, and building it out and bringing, you know, others into the company.
Speaker: And, you know, as we've scaled, it's been something that we've seen direct financial reward to our ECs, to everyone involved in the company, just because of that level of transparency.
Speaker: That's huge.
Speaker: Well, no, that's cool.
Speaker: You guys obviously have a dialed in and a whole system in place, which not a lot of people can say.
Speaker: I know some people have it set up on like a more basic level.
Speaker: But what would you suggest, Brian, for people that maybe they're just like a rep working at a company or their company doesn't have any of this stuff built out?
Speaker: Would you suggest just like an individual rep just trying to figure all this out and build out for themselves or like, I don't know, paying someone?
Speaker: Or what would you tell someone that's like, Brian, I don't have any of this set up, but I want to have it set up.
Speaker: My company's not doing it.
Speaker: What's your advice for someone like that?
Speaker: Oh, you know, I think that's in two or maybe even three parts.
Speaker: So the first part is if you're an individual and you're an independent contractor working through a company, you know, you're self-employed, you don't have anybody working with you, and you're just looking to be out there, don't be afraid to invest in
Speaker: sometime every week into learning new things.
Speaker: A lot of this information can be provided to you if you even watch things on YouTube or Google a lot of these things.
Speaker: And it doesn't have to become aggressively expensive because everything's at scale.
Speaker: So if you're an individual and you set up an individual one account, maybe you don't need Monday, but maybe you could get set up with, you know, Twilio and some of these other platforms to be able to learn how to do automation, you know, you know, even go high level again, might be a little bit too expensive for an individual to use.
Speaker: But at the same time, I would recommend people to get integrated with tech.
Speaker: Don't be afraid of it.
Speaker: Embrace it because it's the
Speaker: probably the direction our industry is heading, whether you like it or not.
Speaker: So just get a point to do that.
Speaker: Now, if I were working at a company, and this is where everyone's marketing niches are different, everyone's companies are different.
Speaker: And what people do with the revenue, and I'll be the first to say, there's companies out there that I believe we're much better than at certain things.
Speaker: And there's companies out there that are better than us at other things.
Speaker: because it's where they're choosing to put their revenue it's where we're choosing to put our revenue and you know that's why i i don't want to critique without knowing but i would say this i think every company should be investing into the tech um that's just that's very very important for anybody to have that off yeah okay and i think we talked a little bit about this off the recording too but um i know a lot of
Speaker: people these days are all about like online leads.
Speaker: And with solar, it's probably one of the lazier door to door people, I would say compared to, you know, like alarms, pest control, because there's just so much money to be made.
Speaker: So a lot of people go close one deal, they made five, 10 grand or like, sweet, I'm set for the next couple weeks or the month, whatever.
Speaker: And then a lot of people are just trying to go all in on online leads and all that.
Speaker: So what's your take on that?
Speaker: Do you guys do online leads right now?
Speaker: And
Speaker: I don't know, door to door versus online leads.
Speaker: What's your take on that?
Speaker: So my take is I own a digital marketing company.
Speaker: However, we do not spend as much budgeting on online marketing as many that I speak to.
Speaker: Personally, I would rather spend online marketing money on recruiting.
Speaker: I would rather spend online marketing on other aspects to my business where I believe it could be better returns long term.
Speaker: And I will say, I think with solar, because of the way the sale is presented, direct sales and event marketing is going to be your best way.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: When homeowners are collecting the same $0 down ads and a very, very, almost to a certainty, very similar ads to others, they're dealing with the same people telling them the same things.
Speaker: And what happens a lot of the time, Taylor, I feel it's a bid to the bottom.
Speaker: I've seen a lot of bigger companies that I've talked to deal with it.
Speaker: We've dealt with it.
Speaker: Some of our clients have dealt with it.
Speaker: And then there's a run rate involved.
Speaker: So what happens a lot of the time with solar,
Speaker: is you do six deals your first month, and now you're getting your leads through either a big provider or you're doing it yourself.
Speaker: Well, now your Facebook marketing or Instagram comes due, you pay.
Speaker: Well, now month two, you do four deals.
Speaker: So you have 10 deals that you've done.
Speaker: Well, now you got undercut on four or five of them.
Speaker: So now you only have five to six left.
Speaker: Well, now in a lot of markets, these jobs aren't installed yet.
Speaker: So now you're paying your bill again.
Speaker: So what happens a lot of the time, and I've seen it even with two big companies recent, their run rate outpaced them.
Speaker: And when things affected the industry with supply chain and had to change up the pricing, it allowed them to become less competitive going into the home.
Speaker: Where if you're going out and knocking, if you're going out and working events,
Speaker: You're a hunter.
Speaker: You're finding people, right?
Speaker: You're creating the urgency.
Speaker: That homeowner that you're dealing with is not looking to go work with anybody else.
Speaker: They're working with you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I agree 100%.
Speaker: And I mean, I've ran a lot of online leads off and on, but I agree with all that.
Speaker: It's, you know, way more competitive.
Speaker: People are looking for the prices.
Speaker: You got the websites like Energy Sage where it's just everyone shooting out their lowest prices and
Speaker: Um, racing the bottom of the barrel, like you said.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's why I always encourage, especially people starting out.
Speaker: I mean, I think it's good to do a little bit of online lead supplement, but, um, it's just like, there's so much more money to be made, I think in door to door where you can take them from that, um, you know, low level interests, explaining the benefits and get them highly interested and then actually make what you're worth on it instead of just, you know, fighting for these scraps.
Speaker: Like a lot of times the online leads are.
Speaker: And then obviously, like for you guys, you're set up a lot better for online leads, too, because that's what I've noticed.
Speaker: A lot of guys will want to do online leads, but they have no follow up system set up in place.
Speaker: They don't have any of the things set up like you just mentioned before.
Speaker: And so they get a lead, they call it once and like, oh, why aren't these working?
Speaker: I called them, they didn't answer.
Speaker: And then it's like, that's it.
Speaker: It's like, dude, you got to know how to follow up.
Speaker: You got to know how to, you know, handle the ones that ghost you and have the system set up.
Speaker: And, you know, to add to that, I mean, it's not as if we haven't done it, not set up.
Speaker: I mean, we have a whole system set up where if a lead comes in through a zip code and we have that zip code automatically aligned for a certain closer and it automatically reroutes to them, sets it up into their calendar.
Speaker: If that customer pre sets an appointment.
Speaker: Otherwise, we have it automate for them to reach back out and cold call that customer immediately.
Speaker: And again, I think there's a lot of people that are super successful in online marketing.
Speaker: And I think the niche that I would say is if you're able to handle your leads yourself, you'll probably be all right in online marketing.
Speaker: But at scale, that's where companies could struggle because if you add your top two, three closers, four closers that are taking those leads,
Speaker: You and I both know they're going to be talented no matter what they do.
Speaker: But when you do it at scale and now you're delivering those to 40, 50 different people or 120 different people, it's harder to measure the outcome because the training's necessarily not there.
Speaker: There's too much overturn and market share alone really will not hold it, which drives up the lead cost.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: No, definitely important things to consider.
Speaker: Well, something I wanted to get into, Brian, just to segue over as we start kind of getting closer to wrapping up here.
Speaker: Before the call started here, we're talking about just how I think now more than ever, we're starting to see people need actual like servicing on their systems.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you know, maybe an inverter goes out, maybe they're coming up with problems.
Speaker: Cause I mean, especially as we've been in this longer than, um, a lot of people, um, what solar city was that like?
Speaker: 2016 was solar city or, um, yeah, I mean, you know, 20, 20, uh,
Speaker: 17 is when they had.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so like a lot of these, I see it here in San Diego where I'm at too, where people have solar city and, um, you know, we're doing add on systems for them.
Speaker: Um, something's not working right up there.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: What's your, uh, I don't know.
Speaker: Thoughts on that with like more servicing being needed and like longevity of these companies, all that, what do you think is, uh, I don't know, an answer to like all these servicing issues and things like that, that we see come up as people have had their systems for a while.
Speaker: And I think, you know, in talking to a lot of people and just even understanding our own dynamic bar business, you know, a lot of the race for the last 10 years in solar has been SLAs, you know, how quick can I get my jobs installed?
Speaker: You know, I sell it, you know, and you see in Florida, you'll see 10-day installs, Nevada, 10-day installs, parts of Texas, 14-day installs, California, same week installs.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: Whether they're picking the permits up or not to install those is probably a different question.
Speaker: It just got announced in California that I guess next September they have to do same day permits, I guess, in California.
Speaker: So it's going to be even quicker.
Speaker: Which is amazing.
Speaker: It's very valuable.
Speaker: Now, with that, I think what's happening is we've seen this...
Speaker: epic surge of solar demand in the last three to five years and you know it's been amazing returns for so many in the space right but what's happening now is a lot of these homeowners are realizing their systems aren't working or something's off with it and because i think this industry got away from
Speaker: where at one time was SolarCity, Vivint Solar and Sunrun, you know, the three titans.
Speaker: Well, now you really only have one of them left with Sunrun.
Speaker: And from that standpoint, you have a lot of companies that went more
Speaker: towards tech platforms and you have a lot more companies that have verticalized throughout the entire country.
Speaker: And whether it's shareholders or reaching those needed margins, where we're at today is a lot of these service issues can create headaches for the salespeople, right?
Speaker: Sales leaders, because homeowners are saying, hey, my inverter's working, could you come out and fix it?
Speaker: You know, and this is an example in our company, right?
Speaker: This is an example where we're seeing the whole industry going because we're all buying from the, you know, whether it's SolarEdge or Enphase or, you know, and everyone knows whether it's an appliance in your house or a computer in your house, something could go wrong.
Speaker: You need to fix it.
Speaker: So that's why we as a company, we're actually shifting to investing a lot of time and money into servicing.
Speaker: We want to make sure that, you know, equally where people want quick install timelines, we immediately get ahead of service calls because if we see it happening with other companies now, it's going to happen to us.
Speaker: It's just a matter of time.
Speaker: It's nobody's fault.
Speaker: It's just the industry and where it's going to head.
Speaker: So if we can get ahead of those issues and be able to service our sales consultants, right, our solar energy consultants, our, you know,
Speaker: regionals and directors and VPs to regions, they're going to be very motivated to go out onto the doors or work in event or run online marketing because they know that their customers are being taken care of.
Speaker: And the biggest piece of that's the referrals, right?
Speaker: You're not gonna get referrals from unhappy customers.
Speaker: So I think it's really important for us as an industry as a whole to shift a lot of focus and understanding service.
Speaker: Well, no, I agree.
Speaker: I think it hurts the whole industry when there's all this bad service.
Speaker: And it's unfortunate because so many people out here in California, like we've got probably more solar than anywhere really, except I don't know, maybe Hawaii or something, but pretty close to the highest solar.
Speaker: And the people that haven't gone solar yet, the main reason is because they heard of, you know, bad servicing of issues down the road.
Speaker: And I even had a guy the other day where he signed his contract and
Speaker: But then he calls me three weeks after I signed him and said, hey, Taylor, you know what?
Speaker: My neighbor across the street, he said solar for a while now.
Speaker: But I've seen a truck show up at his house five times this week.
Speaker: And he's told me he's had a terrible experience.
Speaker: And so I'm just not feeling good about this anymore.
Speaker: I'm going to cancel it.
Speaker: I'm like, come on, man.
Speaker: It's like we're a different company than your neighbor.
Speaker: Like you can't cancel because of that.
Speaker: But it's like just because he sees his neighbors, he sees a truck show up five times the same week.
Speaker: He's all like, you know, scared to put it up on his roof now.
Speaker: So I think it's hurting the whole industry.
Speaker: And then, yeah, same thing with referrals.
Speaker: It's like I think most companies, I've been a part of a few companies where they're so focused on getting the new customers that if they get like a service inquiry, they're taking, you know, weeks to respond to it.
Speaker: But it's like, as I've been in this for a while, it's like, do you realize you could use that and as...
Speaker: an opportunity to get referrals, but how likely are you going to get a referral if you're taking a week to response to their service requests and putting on the back burner?
Speaker: Cause they're so focused on getting, you know, the new customer.
Speaker: So, so yeah, I think it's all big points for sure.
Speaker: Um, but, uh, no, so just as we kind of wrap up here, unless you had anything else you wanted to say about that, Brian, um, I had one other thing I wanted to kind of pick your brain about, um,
Speaker: So I know you've probably seen this out there, but just with the rising rates, interest rates, the dealer fees going up.
Speaker: I've had actually a few people hit me with this message and I don't know if I have a good answer for it, but I don't know if you, as your guys have been doing deals, I know you've probably seen this too, but what are your thoughts around that?
Speaker: I mean, the rates are going up.
Speaker: with interest, the dealer fees are going up.
Speaker: So how can we kind of, I don't know, still sell effectively?
Speaker: And I don't know, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker: I'm still being off route and not losing our minds over all these, you know, dealer fees and stuff going up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, Taylor, this is a, if you will, maybe a little bit of a curveball question.
Speaker: This is not in the pre-summary page, but I think it may be the best question you've asked.
Speaker: And I will tell you,
Speaker: probably such a keen point in the industry.
Speaker: And, you know, I'll tell you on last Wednesday, you know, we had to roll out the dealer fee raises.
Speaker: We know another set or set to come again with sunlight.
Speaker: And, you know, we, we, I think equally all have to realize, and this is where it's a tough subject, but it's either you have a choice.
Speaker: You're either in it or you're out, right?
Speaker: If you can't,
Speaker: overcome the fact that dealer fees are going up and it's going to hinder your commissions, you have a choice.
Speaker: You're either in or out because otherwise you're going back to doing what?
Speaker: Cash deals.
Speaker: And it's not like the industry is going to scale at that point.
Speaker: Now with that, we did a training company wide on this.
Speaker: And it's another thing that we're set to do next week where we have all our directors doing a workshop and in the workshop, we're showing the commissions, we're showing utilities and the inflation there.
Speaker: And I think that this is the biggest one that a lot of people in our industry are not as well aware as they should be.
Speaker: Understanding where this is tied to the Fed, right?
Speaker: The Fed continues to hike.
Speaker: The rates will continue to go up on the APRs and the dealer fees because the money as a whole is not as appealing for a accredited investor to want to take.
Speaker: You know, as it was a year or two ago, you know, the risk is higher of people defaulting or moving.
Speaker: So I think that it took appreciation and understanding of where the industry is today.
Speaker: And, you know, the fact that we all have our jobs.
Speaker: You know, the solar industry in the last two, three years did amazing.
Speaker: It's still doing amazing.
Speaker: Where a lot of people were actually let go, you know, throughout, you know, due to COVID or throughout a lot of the shifts in the economy.
Speaker: So, you know, I think that that is really where we have to have an understanding where if it hurts you for even three to 12 months, that's the place it's at.
Speaker: but it would be a lot worse yeah no and that's I mean that's basically my thoughts it's like we can't do much about it but I mean a lot of good happened too it's like the ITC got extended the tax credit went up so I mean yeah I mean you have the negatives of the door fees but it's all fluctuation right and
Speaker: The people that adapt and roll with it are going to have the success and people that let them affect them.
Speaker: I think it can affect us a lot in our minds.
Speaker: The more we think, oh, this sucks, it's hurting my deals, the more it's actually going to happen.
Speaker: It's kind of my dig on it.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: One last thing to add to that is we looked at a year back where it was 26% to a 30% where the utility rates were to now.
Speaker: And the commissions a year ago to the commissions now actually align is the same.
Speaker: If you were selling the same amount of savings to a homeowner in about 5% of the markets we operate in.
Speaker: So it was unique for us to see where a lot of times people look at what they lose, but they'll understand what they gained.
Speaker: And we, the last year, a lot of gains.
Speaker: And, you know, right now it takes back to a year, well, a year ago is where we created all of our growth to go again this year.
Speaker: So that's where I take, say on our side, we have a lot of amazing leaders at our company.
Speaker: A lot of people I'm very grateful to be able to call leaders here and get to work with and side by side.
Speaker: you know, I'll tell you, you know, they're a big part of the reason where we're at and, you know, where, you know, when we roll out, if you will, a negative message, you know, it comes in positive and record numbers.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Well, I agree with all that.
Speaker: And Brian, it's been great having you on the show here today.
Speaker: And as we wrap up here, if guys want to connect more with you or, I don't know, hear about, I don't know, ask more questions on the marketing side of stuff, what's the best way to get in touch with you and connect with you more?
Speaker: Let's probably say LinkedIn.
Speaker: I would probably say Instagram.
Speaker: I almost said LinkedIn.
Speaker: I don't want those spammy inboxes.
Speaker: I would say Instagram is probably the best way.
Speaker: We're happy to help anybody out that finds themselves as an entrepreneur mindset and
Speaker: You know, if give some advice and, you know, I want to shout you out as well, Taylor.
Speaker: I mean, podcast, I know multiple people at our company that listen to it and, you know, pre Taylor McCarthy reaching out, you know, to get me on to here.
Speaker: I definitely want to say you're doing an amazing thing.
Speaker: You're bringing a lot of good insight to people in the industry.
Speaker: And, you know, I know it's changing a lot of people's lives.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Appreciate that, man.
Speaker: And couldn't do it without amazing guests like yourself.
Speaker: So thanks for making the time and coming on the show.
Speaker: And so, guys, go shoot Brian a message.
Speaker: Shoot him a DM.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show today.
Speaker: And just as we wrap up here, any final advice or words of wisdom you'd share for our solopreneur listeners here, Brian?
Speaker: Stick with it.
Speaker: Stick with it.
Speaker: No matter what you're doing, just stick with it.
Speaker: I mean, I will tell everyone I've had two to three reasons to leave the space from the first week I started to shifting out of it and getting out of SolarCity due to a layoff, not having any other opportunities around.
Speaker: Sticking with it is probably the number one thing and find yourself a good mentor.
Speaker: That was my biggest advice.
Speaker: Find yourself a good mentor, somebody that you can lean on for advice and hopefully one day you can pay that back to somebody else.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Well, for our listeners, you are the average of the five people you surround yourself and you've been hanging out with Taylor and Brian today.
Speaker: So thanks for listening to the show.
Speaker: And Brian, we'll hopefully have you on in the future.
Speaker: But thanks again for coming on the show with us today.
Speaker: Would love it.
Speaker: Take care of Taylor.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs.
Speaker: Are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I. And the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
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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 the time that works best.
Speaker: So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
Speaker: What's up, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solrepreneur.
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