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 fail.
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 solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Welcome to the Solopreneur Podcast, here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Today, we're going to be jamming on three
Speaker: huge problems that are preventing you from hitting your goals in solar cells.
Speaker: If you are not achieving the success you want and deserve, then you're probably not doing these three things.
Speaker: We're going to talk about that and much more.
Speaker: And disclaimer, this is the second time I'm recording this episode.
Speaker: If you were expecting an episode on Tuesday, this was supposed to be the episode on Tuesday, but I recorded the whole thing, planned for it, prepared it, submitted it,
Speaker: And then I pulled the audio file.
Speaker: It was complete crickets, silence, and didn't turn on the mic.
Speaker: So I apologize.
Speaker: We were only doing one episode this week.
Speaker: But hey, I'm human.
Speaker: Figuring out the technology.
Speaker: I'm getting old.
Speaker: I just turned 30.
Speaker: So pretty much technologically illiterate at this point.
Speaker: technology is surpassing me.
Speaker: So hopefully you'll have some patience with me.
Speaker: But we're going to jam on the topic today.
Speaker: And just wanted to thank our latest review we had from Joey5328.
Speaker: He gave us five stars.
Speaker: He says gold.
Speaker: This podcast is solar gold.
Speaker: If you need help or want to better yourself, you must give this a follow.
Speaker: Thank you so much, Joey.
Speaker: And thank you to everyone that has shared the podcast, left a review or supported the podcast in any way.
Speaker: That is what keeps the show going.
Speaker: I don't run ads.
Speaker: I think maybe rarely do we run ads on the show.
Speaker: It's just my way to give back the solar community.
Speaker: And that's how you guys can support me.
Speaker: is by sharing the podcast and leaving a review like that.
Speaker: Okay, so be much appreciated if you want to leave us a review.
Speaker: But let's get into the topic of today.
Speaker: And that is three problems preventing you from selling, from hitting your goals.
Speaker: Hey, this came about recently.
Speaker: I attended a conference we had
Speaker: here at our company and had the privilege of hearing for the second time from Doug Robinson, which if you don't know, he is CEO of Legacy Power, one of the biggest solar companies.
Speaker: He recently came on the podcast too.
Speaker: So if you haven't listened to that episode, definitely check it out.
Speaker: One of our, yeah, one of our best
Speaker: episodes as of late.
Speaker: We'll link to it in the show notes.
Speaker: But he came and talked to us just about some of these problems that we face as sales reps and what we can do as things we're not always thinking about and that we're sometimes missing.
Speaker: And it was actually eye opening to me.
Speaker: that it wasn't anything crazy talked about.
Speaker: I'm going to tell you here what he said in a second.
Speaker: But sometimes we forget about the basic things.
Speaker: I've been doing this seven years now and just Doug reviewing some of these basic principles.
Speaker: I'm like, huh, it's really easy to forget about these things.
Speaker: So whether you are new in solar, whether you've been in solar for a while,
Speaker: I think these are things that we need to remember, things that we need to pass on to our reps and be constantly reminding ourselves to do them.
Speaker: And so he told us a story about how he sold satellite systems, you know, DISH.
Speaker: I don't know if people are even doing that.
Speaker: I guess people probably still do this door to door.
Speaker: But going door to door, selling like DISH Network, Comcast, stuff like that, setting people up with a satellite, TV, internet.
Speaker: And he did this during the school year.
Speaker: which was really impressive.
Speaker: I was thinking to myself, man, we complain sometimes in solar that we got to go out and knock like four or five hours in a day.
Speaker: At least I have reps that do.
Speaker: Maybe you're not.
Speaker: But Doug Robinson, he was going to Utah State University and he was knocking in the winter months like four hours a day while going to school, taking 18 credit hours.
Speaker: So I'm like, man, if we're complaining about solar making all this money and some of us aren't willing to go out and knock for four or five hours a day, prospect whatever hard thing you don't want to do.
Speaker: Go look to some of these old school guys that were out there grinding and hustling, selling year round, knocking during the school year.
Speaker: I think that's super impressive.
Speaker: Okay, but three things he talked about, three things that you might not be doing.
Speaker: Okay, the first was, if you are not writing out your goals and not keeping your goals at the forefront, you are not reaching your potential.
Speaker: And that's something he talked about every day when he was out knocking with Doug Robinson was out hitting doors in the winter in the snow.
Speaker: He was constantly thinking about his goals.
Speaker: He told us he had to hit 100 satellite accounts to go on this company cruise.
Speaker: I guess it was they had.
Speaker: So he mapped out his goals.
Speaker: He figured out exactly what he needed to do on a week by week basis to hit this 100 account number and to achieve it.
Speaker: And because he was doing that, he was writing out his goals.
Speaker: That was a big factor in actually helping them achieve it.
Speaker: Go figure, right?
Speaker: So for you, ask yourself, am I writing out my goals every day?
Speaker: Do I have a vision board?
Speaker: Do I think about my goals constantly?
Speaker: Do I do a weekly planning session and write out and review my goals?
Speaker: If you said no to most of those questions, then you're probably missing out on money and you're probably not thinking about your goals.
Speaker: I highly suggest doing something doing most, if not all of those.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Grant Cardone, he has the 10x planner, which I've used for.
Speaker: I don't use it currently, but I've used off and on.
Speaker: And it's really cool.
Speaker: It has a section where you write out your goals every day.
Speaker: Grant Cardone talks about it, too.
Speaker: A lot of the top guys, this is what they're doing, vision boards.
Speaker: I know a lot of top reps that I've talked to, they put these vision boards where they're adding pictures.
Speaker: They're tying it to their goals.
Speaker: They're looking at it while they brush their teeth.
Speaker: I think we've actually done an episode on it.
Speaker: But vision boards, great way to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind, right?
Speaker: So that's the first mistake.
Speaker: If you are not writing out your goals, if you're not thinking about them, you're missing out on money.
Speaker: And number two is if you are not writing out your schedule, thinking about the hours you're going to be prospecting, closing and planning to do it, then you're losing money again.
Speaker: Hey, Doug Robinson, he told us when he was knocking in Logan, Utah, while he's going to school, every single week he would map out the exact schedule he's going to follow.
Speaker: He knew, OK, I'm going to go to classes from 9 a.m.
Speaker: to 1 p.m.
Speaker: and I do homework for an hour.
Speaker: And then I'm out knocking from I think it was two to six or something.
Speaker: But he knew every day what his schedule was going to be.
Speaker: And he didn't deviate from that schedule.
Speaker: How many of us get out there on a hard day and we're like, this appointment fell through.
Speaker: I'm not feeling knocking doors.
Speaker: I don't want to call anybody.
Speaker: You know, I'm just going to call it early today.
Speaker: Super easy to do, especially if you're a year round rep knocking.
Speaker: I fall into this trap.
Speaker: I've got kids sometimes like, man, it'd be so nice to just go hang out with the kids there.
Speaker: They're at a pool party right now.
Speaker: I was invited to.
Speaker: I'm out here knocking doors.
Speaker: I fall into that trap sometimes.
Speaker: But as much as possible, write out your goals.
Speaker: Or sorry, write out.
Speaker: That's step one.
Speaker: But step two, write out your schedule and follow that schedule.
Speaker: And if you have an accountability partner, this is something, especially for guys that are running solar more independently, if you're a one-man company or something, find a accountability partner, someone to hold you accountable on that schedule.
Speaker: I remember when I won my...
Speaker: when I had my first breakthrough in solar and won our company competitions called Ironman, this is what I did.
Speaker: I wrote out the schedule and I said, do or die.
Speaker: I'm going to get out there and knock six hours.
Speaker: These are the minimum hours I'm going to be out there.
Speaker: And I had my wife drop me off.
Speaker: I had a coach stayed accountable.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So if it gets to that point, you can try that.
Speaker: Have someone drop you off if you're out knocking doors or do like a session.
Speaker: There's the Focusmate, which I've talked about.
Speaker: You can go online and maybe you're following up on accounts or maybe you're calling referrals.
Speaker: You can go on Focusmate.com, the website I use quite a bit, and you get paired with an accountability buddy that's on camera that's holding you accountable.
Speaker: Hey, so report to a manager, get an accountability partner.
Speaker: but stick to a schedule when you are working.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And number three is Doug called this be ready to die on a treadmill.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And the reason he called it this is because really it just comes down to that hustle principle.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: You got to be willing to hustle.
Speaker: You got to be willing to put in more hours than other people around you.
Speaker: So I'm going to play a little video that we listen to.
Speaker: This is from Will Smith.
Speaker: I never heard this video.
Speaker: Maybe some of you have.
Speaker: But Will Smith, super hard worker.
Speaker: And this is what he says.
Speaker: And I think you're going to understand how it ties in here.
Speaker: The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill, right?
Speaker: I will run.
Speaker: You would not be outworked.
Speaker: I will not be outworked, period.
Speaker: You know, you might have more talent than me.
Speaker: You might be smarter than me.
Speaker: You might be sexier than me.
Speaker: You might be all of those things.
Speaker: You got it on me in nine categories.
Speaker: But if we get on the treadmill together, right, there's two things you're getting off first or I'm going to die.
Speaker: It's really that simple.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: So Will Smith said it best.
Speaker: But are you willing to hustle like Will Smith is talking about?
Speaker: Are you willing to die on a treadmill?
Speaker: I think that's what separates the contenders from the pretenders.
Speaker: They're willing to out hustle, to out work.
Speaker: to be out there past nine o'clock at night, okay, they're willing to put in the work that other people aren't.
Speaker: And I think if you want to have success and if you want to leave a legacy, if you want to be someone that's known and slower, if you want to make the money that hopefully your goals are pointing towards, you need to have that hustle factor.
Speaker: You need to be willing to put in one hour, two hour, three hour more than other people that aren't working as hard.
Speaker: If you think about it, let's say you just put in one
Speaker: extra hour a day, right?
Speaker: Then you were planning or one extra hour than what your company asked you to do.
Speaker: That adds up to six hours a week, right?
Speaker: If you're doing that on a week by week basis, that's 24 in a month.
Speaker: If you do that for an entire year, that's 280 extra hours a year.
Speaker: I think I did that math right.
Speaker: And adds up to, I think, an extra work week, basically, just by working one extra hour.
Speaker: Compound effect, baby.
Speaker: So do you want success as badly as you want to breathe the air around you?
Speaker: Okay, ask yourself that question.
Speaker: How badly do you want to have success?
Speaker: How badly do you want to achieve your goals?
Speaker: Maybe your why isn't strong enough.
Speaker: Okay, so go dig deep as you're writing your goals.
Speaker: Figure out why do I actually want this?
Speaker: Take it seven layers deep and figure out your deep personal why.
Speaker: And that's going to help you push harder.
Speaker: That's going to help you tap into that hustle factor and be willing to die on the treadmill, just like Will Smith is talking about.
Speaker: So those are three things that you may not be doing.
Speaker: And it's holding you back from achieving your goals, from having the success you want and deserve in sales.
Speaker: Again, number one is you got to be willing to write out your goals.
Speaker: You're probably not writing out your goals.
Speaker: Number two is you're probably not writing out your schedule and following it exactly like you wanted to.
Speaker: And number three, you're not having that hustle factor.
Speaker: You're not willing to die on the treadmill and you're giving up too easy.
Speaker: Hey, so do those things, turn it around.
Speaker: I want you to have success in solar.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: It breaks my heart when I hear people that's just don't make money in solar and get out of it and can't take the heat, aren't getting sales or having their deals cancel.
Speaker: Let's up level the industry.
Speaker: Let's start doing these things, help our teams do the same so we can all achieve the success we need.
Speaker: So I hope that helps.
Speaker: Apologize again for this episode coming out late.
Speaker: We've got some stellar guests coming up, so make sure you tune in normally every Tuesday and Friday.
Speaker: Apologize if I miss an episode here and there, but hey, I'm human.
Speaker: I'm out hustling myself, but I love you guys.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in the show and we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker: Peace out.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
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 Solopreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
