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The BEST Appointment Setting Framework In Solar
168 Plays2 days ago
This episode is a throwback to the most optimal framework that I use for setting, geared towards making the presentation more valuable and approachable for the homeowner. While we all have our styles for setting, it is important that we cover the bases with attention to quality and rapport.
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Success Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask? 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.
Framework for Solar Appointment Setting
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, what's up, solopreneurs? Today, we're going to be going through the best solar appointment setting framework you should be following, should be teaching your reps, and hopefully helps you set more appointments.
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry. We are free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can listen to podcasts.
00:01:08
Speaker
We're coming at you on Tuesday and Friday every week. So thank you for being a listener to the show. I wanted to give a quick thank you to our latest review on the podcast, FFGGG.
00:01:19
Speaker
Hi, DF. But they left us nice review over on iTunes saying, thank you for the knowledge you share with us. Gave us a little five stars. So thank you, FFGGG.
00:01:32
Speaker
You are the man or the woman, non-binary, whatever gender you are. Thank you so much for leaving us the review. And i hope you crush it in solar this week and next
Recording Challenges During COVID
00:01:43
Speaker
week.
00:01:43
Speaker
Today, wanted to do a podcast on appointment setting. If you are watching the video or clip of this, um I'm actually outside on my little deck for recording this podcast. So apologize in advance if you're birds chirping or a fire trucks.
00:01:59
Speaker
Who knows what can happen? but We got a bird's nest sitting in one of the lights on our deck. So do get some birds flying around out here. ah The reason I'm doing it out here is because we actually just had our third kid in had our baby about two weeks ago now. And long story short, mother-in-law came out to help us.
00:02:17
Speaker
She ended up getting COVID. So she's here with us, but she is crashing in our spare room where I usually record the podcast. So my studio is out on the deck today, but hey, I like the vibe. Always nice to get out and get out in some nature, do some recording.
00:02:32
Speaker
um so That's why i'm doing it outside. That's why you're probably hearing some wind and birds and all
Mastering Appointment Setting
00:02:37
Speaker
that. um But that aside, the reason other reason we're doing an appointment setting podcast is because I am actually, this year, I'm in Sam Taggart's Door-to-Door Experts program. I think it's called Platinum Elite League.
00:02:51
Speaker
um so He has a little mastermind group. decided to link up with him and join his coaching group, his mastermind. and That group... They do like monthly calls and competitions.
00:03:03
Speaker
Fun group to be in. I'll probably do a review of it later. think I have like four months or so in it now. um So I'll do a review on my feedback for the program, those that are wondering.
00:03:15
Speaker
But we had a call this morning, and a lot of these people in the group, lot of them were on track for Golden Doors, really high-producing reps and their managers, I think a few owners.
00:03:28
Speaker
And the call was about setting. So at first I was like, what are we doing call on about setting a lot of these guys are like high level managers um and that is all different industries.
00:03:43
Speaker
um So I guess there's that. But I think sometimes with us in solar, a lot of us, we think solar is, we think appointment setting is maybe like the low level skill. Once you figure it out, you don't need to talk about it as much.
00:03:56
Speaker
um I know for me in our office here in San Diego, we run the meetings separated. They have a set a setter training and then a closer training. Then they separate. They do like an intro with the whole team.
00:04:07
Speaker
And then usually 30 minutes in, we separate, divide it into setters and closers. So it's good. I think it is ah necessary to have separate trainings. But the downside is I think sometimes people think of setting like a lower level thing. Only new guys should be in there.
00:04:25
Speaker
And even at our company, I see sometimes guys that probably shouldn't be in closer training that just want to jump to it just because they, you know, feel like they're just, I don't know, a new rep or like a lower level, entry level thing if they're sitting in setting training.
00:04:45
Speaker
And I myself, a lot of times I'll sit in the setters training. And this is what I was reminded of today too and and in our call in the mastermind is that we can never stop learning about setting because if we don't know to set and if we don't know how to teach others to set appointments, then that's where the business stops.
00:05:04
Speaker
So I think it is the most important skill we can have to set an appointment. Because we have no closing opportunities. We have no opportunities for new business. We have no opportunities to get glass on the roof unless we know how to set an appointment and make it stick and make it solid. Hey, so that's why whether you're an experienced rep, maybe you've been closing,
00:05:25
Speaker
or maybe you're new, just remember this is a skill that you constantly have to work on. And even if you've been in solar for eight plus years like myself, I'm still learning things about setting and I'm still trying to like continually master it because I know that if I can't set, how can I teach others to do it?
00:05:41
Speaker
How can i get more deals if I don't know to set, right? So even if you are maybe running a set or closer program, you don't do a lot of door knocking yourself. I think you should still learn and still get out there definitely from time to time.
00:05:54
Speaker
Hey, so let's jump into this topic. yeah I'm going to take you through ah this framework.
Jordan Adams' Seven-Step Approach
00:05:59
Speaker
And some of these things we went over on our a mastermind call this morning. Good reminder. um But this guy, his name is Jordan Adams.
00:06:08
Speaker
He is one of the DDD experts. He ran our mastermind call this morning. And he was just talking about the number one way he's seen people have success in setting appointments and and having success on the doors is he calls it the authoritative approach.
00:06:23
Speaker
And it's actually very similar to what I follow and what I feel is the best way to set appointments in solar. So I thought, okay, let's go through this. um Got some nuggets in here. And a lot of these things I have touched on in the podcast in previous episodes, but going to break it down And hopefully if you do have setters or if you're trying to improve your setting, hopefully there's a few things you can take from this. Okay, so he has seven steps that are part of this authoritative approach, right? And so the first one is the homeowner name.
00:06:54
Speaker
hey And many of us, we have access to this data. You guys heard me talk about SolarScout, one of the sponsors on our show, or pretty much whatever door knocking app you're using. whatever software, a lot of software's out there habits where they tell you the name of the homeowner, right? But what's interesting, Jordan, the guy that ran this call, he um has been doing door-to-door forever. But he talked about how even before there were apps, even before there were there was data like that, he would just go to like white pages.
00:07:23
Speaker
He'd literally open a phone book in his old street sheets. They would write the homeowner data. Obviously, it was way less accurate back then. and a pain, but he would actually do this way before we had like the rep cards, the cells rabbit, the solar scouts. He would go and literally just write this data on his street sheet on his little map quest thing that showed all the homes.
00:07:43
Speaker
He'd write it. Okay. So people Apparently, I've been doing this for a while, but a really powerful way to approach it is having that data, the name of the person. and So that's step number one. And then step number two is ah just talking about the program.
00:07:58
Speaker
Right. So you bring up the name of the homeowner. Hey, just making Shama right at the right spot. Is this still the Johnson's? It's the right place. Okay. And then that's giving you a little bit more authority just right off the bat. Right. You got to sound different.
00:08:12
Speaker
And then from there, he is basically confirming he's at the right spots. So, again, you can do something like I just did. is this still the right house? Just making sure at the right place.
00:08:23
Speaker
Right. And then doing that, it confirms ah that you're legit official. Right. And then it really just makes it seem like you're not selling something. That's how we all want to be perceived, right? That we're not doing sales, that we're just like the UPS guy showing up, that we're the pizza delivery guy.
00:08:39
Speaker
And my favorite time to knock is right after the Domino's delivery guy or right before, I should say, because everyone opens the door, they're happy, and they think it's pizza. And our job is just to keep them happy, make them think that we're not bugging them with sales.
00:08:51
Speaker
And then, yeah, from there, you got to get into the problem. So a lot of us know you need to bring up the problem before you can introduce a solution, right? And so... So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San
Using SolarScout in Sales
00:09:05
Speaker
Diego.
00:09:05
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:09:16
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:09:35
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:09:50
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor. Okay, back to the show.
00:10:06
Speaker
um If you don't have a solid problem in your area, wherever you're selling, make sure you have a really dialed down problem. Hey, for us, we talk about how they're having to buy a lot of power from out of state.
00:10:17
Speaker
I know a lot of guys are doing power poles being swapped out. That's a good one there. Hey, they're replacing all the wooden poles with the metal ones. Guess who's paying for all that? Yeah, we are.
00:10:28
Speaker
Right. So make them buy into a problem. And hopefully it's a problem that a lot of people are aware of. If not, you need to be using Slicks. You need to have at minimum pull out like an article from the news, something that you can show them that really just validate the problem you're introducing to them, right? And then he talks about having a program deliverable. hey And this is before giving them the solution. right And so this was interesting. And again, he is applying this for different industries.
00:10:58
Speaker
So if you were in roofs, it could be like a damage report. think you talked about other ones, but that was the main focus, roofs and solar. Energy audit is one he used for me personally.
00:11:09
Speaker
My deliverable is that we're going to ah custom brochure for the home. I do do that a lot of times, bring up the problem, just be like, hey, we're going to see if the home qualifies. And then we would get you ah custom report from there, get you all the details about it. I like just bringing up this deliverable though, because um at the door, you just don't want people to think that they're being sold something. You want to you want to think that you're just the first step, you're coming back. Because most people will will agree to get information about something.
00:11:40
Speaker
right But if they feel like they have to commit something at the door, then it is harder. i did pest control for two years and I thought it was hard getting people to commit right at the door. Granted, it is a lower ticket item.
00:11:54
Speaker
But I do like that about solar because you're not necessarily trying to get them to commit right away. Okay. So that's step number four, program deliverable. Then step five is telling them the the solution, right? So our solution is is um instead of people buying so much power from out of state and paying all the fees and surcharges that go with that, where look they're looking for homes that can potentially produce their own power on site.
00:12:20
Speaker
So that would eliminate the need to buy so much power from out of state. So that's the solution, right? It helps the state out. In California, we have Senate Bill 100, which is just the renewable energy goal for the state.
00:12:32
Speaker
I'm saying they need to reach, I think it's 50% renewable power by 2030. So I'm sure there's yeah all types, whatever state you're in, there's got to be mandates. There's got to be stuff going on with green energy.
00:12:43
Speaker
ah Should be pretty much every state has some green energy initiatives. So you can bring those up. One thing I will say, be careful. You never want to get in too much trouble talking about like government things. I made this mistake when I did some blitzes in Texas and I started talking about too much kind of politics related things, government. Keep that in mind. If you're in a place where people are kind of like...
00:13:06
Speaker
you know, a little more conservative, a little more anti-government being involved in things, then you want to be careful with throwing out that it's like a government program um or they're using federal funds.
00:13:18
Speaker
yeah Just be careful with that. Because sometimes I got a few doors slammed in my face in Texas with a some people that just did not like that at all. okay So something to keep in mind. yeah But you're telling them the solution and then you're giving them proof or evidence of it. That's where it goes into using a slick.
00:13:35
Speaker
some type of news article. California, you got the CPUC. you can literally print a lot of these things out and show them really solid proof. But again, your state should have something like this.
00:13:47
Speaker
And then last but not least, you have the pullback and transition. right So everyone needs to be making sure they're doing a solid pullback, saying I'm out here because not everyone qualifies.
00:13:58
Speaker
So my job is just to see if the home is a candidate or not. And then going into a few qualified qualifying questions. So you're the homeowner here, right? You should already know that long before.
00:14:10
Speaker
But cool. And then your bill has to be... It doesn't work. It depends on what rate plan you're on. depends on how much you're paying. Do you know ballpark what you guys pay on average here for electricity?
00:14:23
Speaker
hey And then a solid line. This is a hack right here. If you are in a place, for example, like by the coast in California, a lot of people have low bills.
00:14:33
Speaker
So you flip that on them, right? I make that one of the qualifications is, hey, your bill has to be lower. Because what of these people heard? They've heard that unless you have a really high bill, solar doesn't make sense.
00:14:44
Speaker
right So the secret to that is you bring it up before they do and you make that one of the qualifiers. Hey, in order to qualify for this, your bill actually has to be lower. It is a new program. Before you probably hold heard you had to have insanely high bills for solar to make sense. This one is different.
00:14:59
Speaker
Hey, and then you're flipping it on its head and this thing works insanely well. Been having a lot of success in lower
The Assumptive Sales Technique
00:15:06
Speaker
usage areas. Hey, if you like selling smaller systems, if you're not about that, then Just go to areas where they're all to have higher bills. But even then, you still run into people with lower usage, no matter where you're selling.
00:15:18
Speaker
Hey, so those are the steps. I'm going to repeat it one more time. So you bring up the name, bring up the program that they're on a list, and then you bring up the event or problem. You bring up the program deliverable, bring up the solution, tell about your program, you show them proof or evidence, and then you have a pullback and transition. So hopefully that's a good refresher.
00:15:37
Speaker
Share this with your teams. And then last thing I wanted to mention is make sure you're just being assumptive. A huge mistake I see all the time is just setters asking for permission. So this is another thing we talked about in our little mastermind call this morning is just phrases to avoid are things like, can I, will you, can you, is it okay if, maybe, we we're just out here.
00:15:59
Speaker
You want to avoid all these iffy language patterns, right? It's like if you think of the pizza delivery guy, um They're not coming to the door saying, hey, is it okay if I drop off your pizza? Hey, at least they shouldn't be saying that.
00:16:12
Speaker
You think of the Amazon delivery guy. Is it okay if I drop off the package? No, that's what they got a job to do. That's why they're there. And they're being assumptive with it. So we need to have that same thinking, right? We're there for a reason.
00:16:24
Speaker
People shouldn't be saying no to this because everyone needs to get the information we have. Remember, we're not committing them to buy solar. We're not getting committing them to get a solar at the door. All we're committing them to do is to get more information and who shouldn't agree to that. Okay, you have to have the belief that you are helping them and that there should very rarely be a legitimate reason why they shouldn't be able to look into solar or get some more info. Okay, so think of it like that and I promise it will help your setting and it will help your belief and make sure you have ah deep belief in solar. If you don't, then either figure out how to get that belief, probably not gonna have a lot of success, okay? Because you gotta have belief in what you are presenting to people.
00:17:03
Speaker
Okay, so I
Preview of Upcoming Guest and Community Announcement
00:17:04
Speaker
hope that helps. Next episode, we're going to have someone that has mastered setting and is doing some incredible things. This kid's name is Conrad Seaman. He is a setter manager for Legacy Power over on the East Coast. I think i believe he's there one of their blitzing team. He runs one of their blitzing teams.
00:17:23
Speaker
and just has an incredible story. Super impressed with this guy. Ran into him over at SolarCon. We did an interview. So excited for you guys to check that one out. He shares a story. He used to be dealing drugs on the streets, served little bit time and just has had an extreme breakthrough, having tons of success. So make sure you tune in, hear the incredible story. Big thank you to our sponsors. Please leave us a review. Share the podcast if you haven't already. And we'll see you guys on the next one.
00:17:52
Speaker
Peace out. Yeah. Hey Solarpreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:18:06
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called Solcitee. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience means now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.