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89: Why Should I Do Incentives In Solar + 5 Dope And Fresh Incentive Ideas
56 Plays6 years ago
Corona Virus shouldn't stop you from increasing your sales. Why is incentive important in solar? Find fresh new tips from this episode so you can incorporate incentives in order to improve your sales.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solopreneurs
00:00:00
Speaker
What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
00:00:05
Speaker
We call ourselves solopreneurs.
00:00:08
Speaker
And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
00:00:17
Speaker
Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
00:00:30
Speaker
We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hey, what's up solopreneurs?
00:00:35
Speaker
Taylor here.
00:00:36
Speaker
How are ya?
00:00:37
Speaker
Hope you are having a fabulous day.
Pandemic as a Sales Opportunity
00:00:39
Speaker
And if you are listening to this in March of 2020, I hope you're surviving the pandemic, the coronavirus.
00:00:49
Speaker
We're all gonna die.
00:00:50
Speaker
Just kidding, I don't think so.
00:00:53
Speaker
But I do sincerely hope that you're not letting it affect yourselves.
00:00:57
Speaker
Because while people are freaking out, guess what?
00:01:00
Speaker
This is a chance for us to go make more money, get in more homes, and dominate the market while everyone else is losing their minds.
00:01:10
Speaker
So take it as an opportunity to go out and make money while the rest of the people are not working.
00:01:15
Speaker
More people should be home getting those homes.
00:01:18
Speaker
Don't let it be an excuse.
00:01:21
Speaker
But anyways...
Motivating Sales Teams with Incentives
00:01:23
Speaker
Today I wanted to do a unique show about incentives.
00:01:31
Speaker
Something I've been thinking about a lot here in my company.
00:01:35
Speaker
We are in our annual sales competition.
00:01:38
Speaker
Actually we have two a year.
00:01:40
Speaker
And let me tell you, it's just nice to see the excitement, the comradery,
00:01:46
Speaker
the extra income extra sales generated during these competitions and if you are not utilizing incentives and competitions in your solar business you're missing out so whether you're a manager whether you're a solar company owner or just a rep think about what incentives can you do in your company and how can you use them to boost your cells
00:02:14
Speaker
Okay, so today I want to talk about number one, why do incentives?
00:02:18
Speaker
Why is it even important?
00:02:19
Speaker
And number two, we got five dope and fresh incentive ideas that you probably haven't heard before that I'm going to give you that you can utilize in your company, in your business.
00:02:36
Speaker
So here we go.
00:02:37
Speaker
Why should we even do incentives?
00:02:40
Speaker
Hopefully it's a given that in any sales environment you should have some type of incentive.
00:02:46
Speaker
But I'm going to tell you why I think it's important and a little bit of research I've done too.
00:02:55
Speaker
So why is it important?
00:02:57
Speaker
Well, if you've been in the industry for a while, you know any salesperson should be competitive.
00:03:03
Speaker
I think that's a key trait in any sales business, especially in solar.
00:03:08
Speaker
And let's be honest, if you're not competitive, then you're probably missing out.
00:03:13
Speaker
So if you don't feel like you're a competitive salesperson, maybe start thinking about that.
00:03:19
Speaker
Because I think any successful salesperson, the top guys, I think they thrive on this competition.
00:03:31
Speaker
I remember when I got into sales, back when I did pest control, I did it in Dallas, Texas.
00:03:38
Speaker
And one of our best dudes there, this guy named Devin, he was a cross country runner for UVU.
00:03:45
Speaker
We were both first year reps and I did okay, hit 100, 150 for the summer.
00:03:57
Speaker
Any of you that have been in pest control, you know that's just okay.
00:04:03
Speaker
But like that commercial says, if any of you have watched it, just okay is not okay.
00:04:08
Speaker
Wanna dominate.
00:04:08
Speaker
But this kid, Devin, he got in, he was a college athlete.
00:04:13
Speaker
And this guy, he would go out and run five to 10 miles every morning.
00:04:19
Speaker
And then every day, we're knocking eight to 10 hours a day in pest control.
00:04:24
Speaker
He'd literally be running door to door.
00:04:27
Speaker
And he would win almost every competition.
00:04:30
Speaker
I think he ended the summer with.
00:04:33
Speaker
350 account 300 to I don't know around 400 accounts anyone that's in pest control if you're a first year rep that's smoking that's doing awesome hey what's up solar previewers Taylor here
00:04:49
Speaker
I got to thinking the other day, wouldn't it be nice if we had a compilation of all the greatest tips from the people we've had on the show?
Free Closing Guide Offer
00:04:56
Speaker
So my team and I, we took the liberty of preparing a little closing guide because it's all about closing more deals.
00:05:03
Speaker
That's how the money is made.
00:05:04
Speaker
We prepared a closing guide from some of the greatest closers in the industry and people we've had on the show here.
00:05:12
Speaker
So I wanted to give that guide to you for free.
00:05:15
Speaker
So if you want to check out the guide head on over to closer.solarpreneurs.com and we will give you a copy 100% free delivered straight to your email.
00:05:26
Speaker
See you on the other side.
00:05:36
Speaker
So why was he so successful?
00:05:38
Speaker
I honestly think it's just his competitiveness, his drive to be the best.
00:05:43
Speaker
And if you're recruiting in solar, you need to recognize this too.
00:05:48
Speaker
Any competitive person, it's a good chance they're gonna thrive in this industry.
00:05:54
Speaker
So that's why it's important to have the incentives, because it's gonna bring out the best of these competitive people.
00:06:01
Speaker
Even if they're not as competitive, everyone wants to win.
00:06:04
Speaker
Everyone wants to be the best.
00:06:09
Speaker
And going along with that,
00:06:11
Speaker
When you do incentives, it drives collaboration.
00:06:15
Speaker
One of the best ways to get this collaboration camaraderie that I've seen is you need to have a good, clear leaderboard.
00:06:24
Speaker
So in your company, what are your key performance indicators, your KPIs?
00:06:29
Speaker
And can people recognize those and see those?
00:06:33
Speaker
So if you don't have some sort of leaderboard, something where reps can go on and see how they're stacking up against the competition for the week, for the month, for the year, you're definitely missing out on helping reps perform to the best of their abilities.
00:06:50
Speaker
Our company, we have a custom one that's designed in our software.
00:06:57
Speaker
It's okay, but there are some awesome leaderboard apps out there.
00:07:03
Speaker
you go Google just sells leaderboard apps you're gonna have a bunch pop out of you but go and look for some way to major these things and have a leaderboard that people can go on at any time and see how they're stacking up against the competition but that's the other reason for incentives can drive that collaboration and the other two big things here are incentives creates focus
00:07:30
Speaker
Then it adds energy and excitement.
00:07:33
Speaker
Like I mentioned, our company, we're in our twice a year, they call it Ironman competition.
00:07:41
Speaker
And it's crazy to see how motivated people get.
00:07:45
Speaker
Just how stoked they are to go out and get the sales, create the focus.
00:07:52
Speaker
And along with these twice a year competitions we do, we do them kind of tournament style.
00:07:59
Speaker
We have a regular season similar to like a basketball season or football.
00:08:03
Speaker
We have a regular season where people go out and get wins.
00:08:06
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The last month and a half or so.
00:08:10
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And then we have a playoff period where people are seated.
00:08:13
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And it's March Madness style.
00:08:16
Speaker
Which, not good to bring up right now because unfortunately March Madness got cancelled.
00:08:22
Speaker
But...
00:08:24
Speaker
We have a tournament set up like that where it's regular season, then playoffs, and then it's elimination from there.
00:08:29
Speaker
And the winner gets a sweet trip and obviously prizes along the way.
00:08:35
Speaker
But that's the other reason for the incentive.
00:08:37
Speaker
It's going to create
Saturday Incentives for Lead Generation
00:08:38
Speaker
that focus.
00:08:38
Speaker
It's going to add energy and excitement.
00:08:40
Speaker
Another thing we've been doing that's been super successful lately is Saturday sells incentives.
00:08:50
Speaker
And it's where...
00:08:53
Speaker
Every Saturday we have a specific incentive and in our company it's anyone that gets three appointments booked.
00:09:02
Speaker
So for us an appointment is just a new lead generated that's energy usage for the lead.
00:09:11
Speaker
It's obviously name, address, phone number, email and a solid appointment time.
00:09:18
Speaker
So anyone that gets three of those in a day they're gonna get
00:09:23
Speaker
a cool incentive for that day.
00:09:26
Speaker
And it's been awesome because I've been out here doing this, what, three years, three, four years about now.
00:09:35
Speaker
When you've been knocking that long, I don't know about everyone else, but you need something to get that focus for you.
00:09:42
Speaker
So when I'm going out on Saturdays knocking, I just had a kid, so a lot of times it's tough for me to be thinking about, oh, what's my kid doing?
00:09:50
Speaker
My wife's at the beach right now, I'm out here grinding on doors.
00:09:54
Speaker
When you have something like that to focus on and incentive for the day, it doesn't become work anymore.
00:10:02
Speaker
becomes what can I do to get that awesome incentive gotta get two more important two more appointments then I get the prize that's the key here make the incentive something their reps can focus on instead of work so just a couple things that's why you should do incentives definitely you know utilize them and before I get into some dope and fresh incentive ideas
00:10:31
Speaker
just another key thing I wanted to mention make sure you're delivering your incentives instantly if possible or give up something that they can have right when they get it so I've noticed over the years sometimes companies I've been with they've been good and some not so good with this is just delivering on the incentives
00:11:00
Speaker
And for two reasons, number one, if you don't deliver an incentive right away, a lot of times you're gonna forget to even give it.
00:11:08
Speaker
So if you're a sales manager, just do your reps a favor, get them the incentive right away.
00:11:14
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Don't make them beg you for it.
00:11:16
Speaker
Because the truth is if they have to beg you for it, that's almost counteracting the incentive.
00:11:23
Speaker
It becomes something where they feel bad.
00:11:27
Speaker
There's some reps that will feel too bad to even ask.
00:11:30
Speaker
they win something and then they feel bad I have a friend you know he knows who he is but he probably has like 10 incentives that he just hasn't gotten because he feels bad asking for the incentives so some reps are gonna feel bad about it won't even get incentive and then it's counteractive it's demotivating then they don't even want to go get the next incentive because they know there's a good chance they won't get it or
00:11:58
Speaker
or someone will forget to give it to them.
00:12:01
Speaker
That's something super important, deliver on your incentives.
00:12:06
Speaker
If it's something big, I don't know, give them an email, something tangible that they can have to just know that they got rewarded right away.
00:12:17
Speaker
Because the more time they have to wait, the less motivating it's going to be.
Creative Incentive Ideas
00:12:22
Speaker
Okay, with that being said, let's jump over to five awesome incentives here.
00:12:29
Speaker
And some of these were super new for me.
00:12:33
Speaker
Maybe some people have heard of these things.
00:12:35
Speaker
Let's roll with it.
00:12:37
Speaker
And let me know.
00:12:39
Speaker
Give us a comment in the Facebook group or send me a DM.
00:12:44
Speaker
Let me know if you have any other sweet incentive ideas.
00:12:48
Speaker
And we'll be sure to let people know.
00:12:52
Speaker
But here we go.
00:12:53
Speaker
Number one.
00:12:54
Speaker
First incentive idea is a Segway Mini.
00:12:59
Speaker
So if you haven't heard of this, Segway minis are just, like it sounds, a mini Segway.
00:13:06
Speaker
And the reason it's so cool is because you can take these things door to door.
00:13:10
Speaker
Especially if you are a rep that knocks doors.
00:13:14
Speaker
If you're going door to door at all.
00:13:16
Speaker
I think this is one of the coolest incentives.
00:13:19
Speaker
It was a game changer for me when I won this.
00:13:21
Speaker
We had it as an incentive a year or two back.
00:13:26
Speaker
And...
00:13:28
Speaker
It's awesome these things.
00:13:29
Speaker
I mean they're like 500 bucks, so it's not a cheap incentive either you can get cheaper models of it But you can hop on these things and just fly door-to-door they go like 12 miles an hour on a single charge the last year most of the day Depending on how far you're going, but the other cool thing is here in San Diego we go up a lot of homes have hills and
00:13:54
Speaker
San Diego is pretty hilly.
00:13:56
Speaker
So these homes that have longer driveways, hills, it's so nice that you can just fly up the driveway, get to the door.
00:14:04
Speaker
So it changed my knocking game.
00:14:06
Speaker
I thought it was awesome because here's the thing, a lot of incentives that you get or give, for me, they weren't necessarily something that I was going to go out and buy.
00:14:15
Speaker
I mean, I probably, for me, I don't know if I would go out and spend 500 bucks on a Segway Mini, but if I win something,
00:14:25
Speaker
then especially if it's kind of a novel thing that I wouldn't necessarily buy with my own money out of pocket that's what makes it even cooler so that's number one Segway Mini and you can use that to fly between doors number two and this is something that blew my mind got it pretty recently but number two is a gold belly gift card
00:14:55
Speaker
Okay, so Gold Belly, if you haven't heard of it, it's a service where you can buy food from almost any restaurant.
00:15:04
Speaker
Well, any iconic restaurant that you think of.
00:15:09
Speaker
Like you got Philly Cheese Steaks, Philadelphia, Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, New York Bagels, New York Cheesecake, all these iconic foods that you would only get if you were in that place.
00:15:24
Speaker
or only get the best version of it.
00:15:28
Speaker
What Gold Belly is, it's a website where they literally deliver these foods to your home, sort of like Uber Eats, but from the best restaurants, most iconic restaurants in the world.
00:15:41
Speaker
This blew my mind, I'm a big foodie, maybe this isn't super motivating to everyone, but I was in New York last summer, I had some of the best pizza I'd ever had,
00:15:52
Speaker
got some super good cheesecake stuff like that so when I heard about this I thought it was awesome so last week actually a couple days ago at the time of this recording a box showed up to my door open it up I have two Chicago deep dish pizzas I had a New York cheesecake sitting in there
00:16:14
Speaker
I had this delicious banana pudding from Bagnolias Bakery which is the best bakery I think in New York City.
00:16:25
Speaker
That's awesome because they deliver it right to your door and you can just pig out.
00:16:31
Speaker
I'm a big foodie so I love this.
Incentives for Personal Development
00:16:33
Speaker
Again this is something, it's not cheap so they were doing $200 gift cards and if that gets you, I don't know.
00:16:42
Speaker
three four things maybe each thing on there is like 60 60 to 100 bucks or so that's not cheap but again if you're doing an incentive it's something that it's like cool probably wouldn't spend 70 bucks to get a cheesecake door to my door but it's an incentive heck yeah that's number two go check it out gold belly gift card google gold belly and it'll take your right to have the website number three
00:17:13
Speaker
This gets a little geeky here for our sales fanatics.
00:17:18
Speaker
But number three is tickets to any sales conference or coaching
00:17:25
Speaker
Okay, a lot of guys, if you're in sales, that's another thing.
00:17:28
Speaker
You should be interested in personal development.
00:17:31
Speaker
You should be interested in self-improvement.
00:17:36
Speaker
And for me, I love going to self-improvement conferences.
00:17:39
Speaker
I love going to sales conventions, anything where I know I'm developing and improving myself.
00:17:46
Speaker
But here's the thing.
00:17:47
Speaker
They do get a little bit pricey.
00:17:49
Speaker
Okay, so that's another thing.
00:17:54
Speaker
is you can just to give you an example i mean grant cardone has this 10x 10x con we've talked about door-to-door con on the podcast uh grant cardone does this sells boot camps there's all sorts of personal developments and motivational seminars so stuff like that so if you're
00:18:18
Speaker
If you're in your sales organization, suggest it to your leadership or consider doing something where it's like a team incentive to you.
00:18:27
Speaker
Where you can send just not one guy but a whole team of people to these things.
00:18:32
Speaker
When our company did one of these, we went to Grant Cardone's 10X Con and it was awesome just knowing that we all hit a goal together.
00:18:40
Speaker
All were rewarded.
00:18:44
Speaker
And then also we did different levels to it.
00:18:47
Speaker
It was like whoever got, I don't know, I think it was at the time maybe six cells for the month, got a ticket, but then going up it was tiers of things.
00:18:59
Speaker
So eight cells got you, maybe your hotel room, 10 cells got you gambling money since it was in Vegas that year.
00:19:07
Speaker
So think about that too, make it in levels and think about doing a team incentive.
00:19:16
Speaker
Along with that, number four is online courses.
00:19:19
Speaker
Another thing for our sales junkies, for our self-improvement nerds.
00:19:24
Speaker
For me, I have a bookmarked folder of probably 30 courses or so, and I haven't gone through a lot of them, so don't be like me.
00:19:35
Speaker
If you're going to get a course, go through it, take what you can from it.
00:19:39
Speaker
But these online courses can be super valuable.
00:19:42
Speaker
Again, they can get pricey.
00:19:45
Speaker
The only thing you want to be careful about with this is the level of commitment.
00:19:50
Speaker
That's the thing about going to seminars or online courses.
00:19:55
Speaker
If you pay the money, you're that much more committed to implement what you're learning in the courses.
00:20:01
Speaker
Implement whatever actionable steps you receive from them.
00:20:08
Speaker
Be careful with them.
00:20:09
Speaker
Make sure you set the standard high and make sure people want it.
00:20:15
Speaker
Think about making it custom for each person too.
00:20:19
Speaker
Maybe I care a ton about going to Grant Cardone's 10XCon.
00:20:23
Speaker
But maybe Jimmy, maybe he doesn't.
00:20:27
Speaker
And if you give him a ticket, maybe he's not going to be motivated.
00:20:30
Speaker
So think about how you can customize it.
00:20:33
Speaker
But some online courses specifically for sales.
00:20:35
Speaker
You got Cardone U. That's been a good one for us.
00:20:38
Speaker
You got Door-to-Door U.
00:20:41
Speaker
Sam Taggart's course.
00:20:43
Speaker
I know Jordan Belfort, he has his Wolf of Wall Street Cells course.
00:20:49
Speaker
Haven't actually done that one, but read his book, heard good things about it.
00:20:55
Speaker
So let me know if you've hopped on that one.
00:20:57
Speaker
And then pretty soon, we've got the Solar Cells Mastery course coming out.
00:21:04
Speaker
Little self-promo there.
00:21:06
Speaker
But if you want access to that course,
00:21:09
Speaker
Send me a message.
00:21:10
Speaker
I'm actually looking for five people to beta the course right now.
00:21:15
Speaker
Getting the beta testing at a super discounted rate.
00:21:19
Speaker
That's gonna be custom to solar cells pros.
00:21:23
Speaker
Teach you how to take your game to the next level.
00:21:25
Speaker
If that is in the works right now, send me a message if you wanna be in the beta or depending on when you're listening to this, maybe it's already out.
00:21:33
Speaker
Send me a message.
00:21:35
Speaker
It's Taylor Armstrong or Taylor J Armstrong on Instagram.
00:21:41
Speaker
Okay, that's number four though.
00:21:43
Speaker
Online courses, reward them with that.
Memorable Experience Trips as Incentives
00:21:48
Speaker
And the last one, last but not least, is a trip.
00:21:54
Speaker
And I know this is kind of cliche, I mean everyone knows that trips make greats, great incentives.
00:22:04
Speaker
But anything that's experience, that's an experience,
00:22:09
Speaker
gonna be memorable I think those are a lot of times way more motivating people something that's gonna be memorable something that people are gonna appreciate hey I've won a trip to Hawaii that was super cool we did that and even if you are a low budget there's actually services out there that will let you send trip vouchers for free okay so if you're I mean if you're a sales manager if you're looking for
00:22:39
Speaker
to not spend a ton of money you can send trip vouchers you can get trip vouchers okay and disclaimer I haven't used I've checked out a couple of these services I haven't actually tried them myself I've heard mixed reviews about them but if you want to find out more hit me a message and get your info on that but it's websites that will let you send most of them are monthly subscriptions and they let you send trip vouchers
00:23:08
Speaker
and they're free trip vouchers you obviously pay like the flights but their places let you stay for free and they try and fill up just when they have kind of down times or extra rooms so that's kind of how it works i know it sounds to you to be true so do your homework but consider trip vouchers um i mean you can go on groupon there's always good deals for trips
00:23:33
Speaker
But you guys, don't be cheap either.
00:23:35
Speaker
I mean, the last thing reps want is knowing that you nickel and dimed them on an incentive, made it sound all sweet, and then it wasn't that sweet in reality.
00:23:47
Speaker
So make sure people know what they're getting.
00:23:49
Speaker
We had one time where, again, he knows who he is, but one time...
00:23:57
Speaker
one of our leadership he did an incentive for these sweet Ray-Bans sunglasses and it was kind of a low requirement to be able to get it.
00:24:07
Speaker
Ray-Bans?
00:24:08
Speaker
Wow, those are like $100 glasses.
00:24:10
Speaker
And I think you only had to book one appointment or something.
00:24:13
Speaker
Not a super high standard, so like sweet.
00:24:16
Speaker
So a ton of people got it.
00:24:18
Speaker
And then when we get these Ray-Bans we see them and they're made in China.
00:24:24
Speaker
They're these
00:24:26
Speaker
fake Ray-Bans basically so I mean it's a good thought but if you're gonna do incentives maybe tell people that I mean your reps don't want to know that they're getting the short end of the stick that they're not getting what they thought it was so especially when you're doing vacations when you're doing experiences make it be something awesome and I mean you don't necessarily want to tell people you're giving them a free trip but make sure they know what they're getting over deliver and
00:24:57
Speaker
and make sure again you deliver right away so reps know they're getting what they asked for so there you have it let me know what you think if you haven't already left us a review please go on let us know what you think
00:25:13
Speaker
Give us five stars, give us one star, I don't care.
00:25:15
Speaker
I just want to know what people think.
00:25:18
Speaker
We're trying to deliver weekly content.
00:25:20
Speaker
I'm out here trying to dominate.
00:25:23
Speaker
So I apologize for being off on a couple weeks.
00:25:27
Speaker
But we're going to strive to give you weekly content.
00:25:30
Speaker
The greatest material for solar cells professionals to help you dominate your industry.
00:25:37
Speaker
So go out and crush it.
00:25:39
Speaker
Hit your goals and don't get infected by the coronavirus.
00:25:44
Speaker
Alright, peace out guys.