Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
This Strategy Took One Rep From $200k to $400k+
81 Plays3 years ago
https://solciety.co/ - JOIN NOW!
Thanks to our sponsor Pi Syndicate for this episode!
DOWNLOAD THE CHEAT SHEET HERE! TOP 10 MOST DOWNLOADED EPISODES OF ALL TIME
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Personal Transformation
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:30
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:32
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.
Thrill of Solar Sales vs. Trick-or-Treating
00:00:43
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:45
Speaker
We are here with another podcast.
00:00:47
Speaker
And as usual, we're here to help you grow your solar business by closing more deals, generating more leads and referrals, and having a much better time in the solar industry.
00:00:56
Speaker
Hope you're doing awesome.
00:00:57
Speaker
We just had a great trick-or-treating weekend.
00:01:01
Speaker
Time I'm recording this, we just finished Halloween here.
00:01:04
Speaker
If you want to have a better time Halloween, take some kids out because it is a lot funner with kids trick-or-treating.
00:01:11
Speaker
But of course, the most fun trick-or-treating you can do is knocking doors for solar because what's better than getting that king-sized candy bar at the door?
00:01:19
Speaker
The next best thing is getting a solar customer that makes you fat stacks behind the door.
00:01:25
Speaker
Okay, tough to beat the king-sized candy bar, but everyone loves trick-or-treating for money too.
00:01:29
Speaker
That's
Identifying Untapped Markets
00:01:30
Speaker
what we do.
00:01:30
Speaker
So today's episode, I'm going to be talking about something that we haven't brought up for a little bit in the podcast, and that is how to find the lay down cells, how to find the people that have not been talked to, and how to really capitalize on it.
00:01:43
Speaker
So if you are someone that gets sick of knocking door after door, getting stuck in saturated areas, maybe you got dropped off, maybe you've been knocking for hours and are just running into rejection after rejection,
00:01:57
Speaker
I think there's going to be some nuggets in here for you to help you find those people that really are just the lay down cells.
00:02:03
Speaker
People that have not been talked to as much.
00:02:05
Speaker
Okay, so let's jump right into it.
00:02:09
Speaker
First of all, the reason we're talking about this, I actually met with a good friend of mine, went out to lunch the other day.
00:02:16
Speaker
And if he's listening to this, you know who you are.
00:02:19
Speaker
But we went out to lunch and this guy, he was pretty average...
00:02:23
Speaker
sells rep no offense if he's listening but pretty average rep we worked together at one of our previous companies um and um he he was selling but was never like a top producer he always just kind of wanted to do his own thing and take time off and wasn't selling a ton so i think he made i don't know 150 to 200 grand here in san diego which is um you know average money out here in san diego not terrible but definitely people doing a lot more too
00:02:51
Speaker
And so I talked to him.
00:02:52
Speaker
We're at lunch.
00:02:53
Speaker
I started asking him, I'm like, hey, man, how's it been going?
00:02:55
Speaker
I know you're just kind of doing your own thing.
00:02:58
Speaker
He was set up just kind of as a dealer through some power.
00:03:02
Speaker
So he tells me, he's like, Taylor, it's going awesome.
00:03:05
Speaker
Actually, this is the first year that I'm going to be clearing 400 grand in a year.
00:03:09
Speaker
And I'm actually closing more deals than I probably have at any time.
00:03:13
Speaker
And when he told me that, I'm like, whoa,
00:03:16
Speaker
400 grand?
Solo vs. Team Sales Approaches
00:03:17
Speaker
You're making that out here in San Diego?
00:03:20
Speaker
He's like, yeah, just been working by myself and I've been able to close a lot of deals and just crush some goals.
00:03:26
Speaker
I'm like, dude, is this the same person we're talking to?
00:03:29
Speaker
When we were working together, and this was when we were on a team, right?
00:03:32
Speaker
So he had more motivation.
00:03:34
Speaker
He had kind of the team environment and he was making 150 to 200 grand.
00:03:38
Speaker
So I'm thinking to myself,
00:03:39
Speaker
Surely he's going to be producing less.
00:03:42
Speaker
He will have sold much less than we talked the last time because he's a one man show.
00:03:47
Speaker
I mean, how are you going to stay motivated?
00:03:48
Speaker
And anytime I've seen people go off on their own, it has its benefits.
00:03:52
Speaker
But most people that go off and trying to do their own thing and just sell by themselves without having that peloton, without having the team behind you, most people will drop in production, not sell as much.
00:04:02
Speaker
So I'm going to share with you some of the things he told me, what worked for him, and just some ideas I have around this.
00:04:09
Speaker
But the way he did this, and before I get into this, I was pretty hesitant to do a podcast on this because these are a lot of the strategies that I have used.
00:04:19
Speaker
And especially out here in San Diego, don't be stealing my deals.
00:04:22
Speaker
You can turn off the podcast if you're in San Diego.
00:04:25
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:04:26
Speaker
But these are great ways.
00:04:27
Speaker
And this is primarily how I have been knocking, how I have been getting my leads.
00:04:32
Speaker
Probably the past year is mostly by some of these tactics, these secret techniques we're going to talk about.
00:04:39
Speaker
So let's get into it.
00:04:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:41
Speaker
And the way my buddy did this and something that's worked for me, it's called off the beaten path knocking.
00:04:49
Speaker
And we've talked about this in the show.
00:04:51
Speaker
I know I've done an episode on episode on it in the past.
00:04:54
Speaker
But what my friend told me, the way he was able to double his income this year compared to last year, is he just focused 100% of his time on going to people that he thinks have not been talked to about solar.
00:05:07
Speaker
So he does not go to cookie cutter neighborhoods.
00:05:10
Speaker
He doesn't go to your typical place where you see, you know, reps, pest control reps getting dropped off, the van, the van full of people all on loan.
00:05:19
Speaker
And he doesn't go to those places.
00:05:20
Speaker
Where does he go?
00:05:21
Speaker
He goes to places in the boonies.
00:05:23
Speaker
He goes to places where it's dirt roads.
00:05:25
Speaker
He goes to places where you're only driving to.
00:05:28
Speaker
You are not walking door to door.
00:05:30
Speaker
These places he's going to.
00:05:31
Speaker
You only drive.
00:05:32
Speaker
And he's driving straight up the driveway talking to him.
00:05:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:35
Speaker
And so he tells me these things and I'm like, oh, it makes sense.
00:05:39
Speaker
And especially for solar, because you think about it, what are the typical homes?
00:05:43
Speaker
What do the homes look like that you drive to?
00:05:45
Speaker
They're typically bigger homes.
00:05:47
Speaker
A lot of them have pools,
00:05:49
Speaker
I guess I'm speaking for California out here.
00:05:52
Speaker
They're bigger properties.
00:05:53
Speaker
They're in hotter areas a lot of times.
00:05:57
Speaker
And they're using much more electricity typically.
00:06:00
Speaker
So the way that he was able to double his income is number one, he is getting more quality looks.
00:06:06
Speaker
He's going for the layups instead of the three-point shots.
00:06:08
Speaker
And then he is going for bigger systems, people that probably have not been talked to as much.
00:06:14
Speaker
Okay, so that's really it.
00:06:16
Speaker
And when he told me this, it made sense.
00:06:18
Speaker
He didn't even, I don't think, close too many more deals, but it's just that he was getting bigger systems and talking to more quality people.
00:06:26
Speaker
And so before we get into a little more strategy around this, just want to give a disclaimer.
00:06:32
Speaker
If you are a new rep or if you are new in solar, I would recommend that you do go to cookie cutter neighborhoods, that you do go knock those doors where they maybe are more saturated and
00:06:44
Speaker
To a degree, you know, if you're getting to a door and they're like, dude, you're the fifth solar guy this week, then yeah, of course, maybe go look for some different area that's a little less knocked up, right?
00:06:53
Speaker
But if you are newer, there's a lot to be said about just developing that skill of overcoming the objections, of increasing your skill sets, of putting in the hours, of getting past the learning curve.
Developing Skills and Strategies
00:07:04
Speaker
Because if you can do that...
00:07:06
Speaker
then how much better, how much easier is it going to be when you get to these bigger homes that maybe haven't been talked to as much?
00:07:11
Speaker
Now you're a pro, you know how to overcome every objection, you know what it's like knocking in the hood with all the other reps.
00:07:18
Speaker
So it's going to be that much easier to really get these leads and convert these into appointments.
00:07:23
Speaker
So that's the disclaimer.
00:07:24
Speaker
If you're new, I would probably not really do these strategies for now.
00:07:29
Speaker
Get past your learning curve and learn to be able to set appointments in saturated areas or in places where people maybe have more objections or maybe have been knocked on more.
00:07:39
Speaker
So that's my thought on it, but take what you want from it.
00:07:44
Speaker
And so one of my favorite books on door to door that we have brought up in the podcast, it is called More Door to Door Millionaire by my friend Lenny Gray.
00:07:52
Speaker
He has been on the podcast, a great book if you have not read it, but he has a whole section on this off the beaten path.
00:07:58
Speaker
If you have the book, it's on page 114.
00:08:00
Speaker
He talks about how when he was training his pest control reps back in the day,
00:08:05
Speaker
He, um, one time he was out in the neighborhood.
00:08:08
Speaker
They were in a, uh, area that had been knocked super heavily.
00:08:11
Speaker
Um, for the first hour, they couldn't even get 10 words out before the door was slammed because so many people had been by selling pest control.
00:08:18
Speaker
And then just like we've been talking about what he did is he went on a main road where the homes were spread out, um, way more traffic going by.
00:08:26
Speaker
So people weren't really walking.
00:08:27
Speaker
He went to these and he sold like four of the next, uh, homes on this busy street with the long driveways.
00:08:34
Speaker
And so what he says about it, the tactic is to simply knock doors that have likely been ignored by other door-to-door sales reps.
00:08:41
Speaker
Although homes off the beaten path don't generally come in bunches, they do offer the opportunity to talk with people who are approached less frequently.
00:08:48
Speaker
This can be a welcomed relief from knocking on the doors of potential customers who have been targeted consistently by other sales reps.
00:08:54
Speaker
This strategy is a quality over quantity play.
00:08:57
Speaker
Although sales reps will likely decrease their contacts per hour by knocking off the beaten path.
00:09:02
Speaker
They will likely increase the amount of people they qualify, and of course, potential customers who qualify are more likely to purchase what is being sold.
00:09:09
Speaker
Off the beaten path, homes can be found along major roads and highways, built on large lots, or even homes in the middle of farmlands.
00:09:16
Speaker
Wherever you find them, homes off the beaten path are likely to be occupied by prospects who are more willing to listen because they haven't had sales reps constantly knocking on their doors, as is the case in cookie-cutter neighborhoods.
00:09:27
Speaker
So there you have it.
00:09:28
Speaker
Really, he just gave you the blueprints.
00:09:29
Speaker
Hey, and so where can you find these off the beaten path homes?
00:09:33
Speaker
Because in solar, guess what?
00:09:35
Speaker
There's other opportunities to go off the beaten path.
00:09:38
Speaker
So I'm gonna share with you some homes that maybe you're not thinking of.
00:09:42
Speaker
Hey, so Lenny Gray, he just talked about long driveways, dirt roads.
00:09:48
Speaker
If you go out to these small towns, that's why I think it's good to throw in some blitzes because maybe you can go out and blitz for a week in an area that's an hour away in the middle of nowhere.
00:09:56
Speaker
guess what?
00:09:57
Speaker
Probably no one has been talked to, right?
00:09:59
Speaker
So that's definitely a strategy.
00:10:02
Speaker
Other beaten path solar cells that I have had have come in gated communities.
00:10:07
Speaker
Less people are going to knock in gated communities, condos and townhomes.
00:10:11
Speaker
And then here's a big one, add-on systems.
00:10:14
Speaker
How many people are knocking the doors of someone that already has solar?
00:10:17
Speaker
Not that many, right?
00:10:18
Speaker
If you go to someone that has solar, they probably are not getting knocked for solar,
00:10:22
Speaker
Right.
00:10:23
Speaker
So this is a great opportunity.
00:10:24
Speaker
And I am speaking, you know, I'm speaking for San Diego here, which is where I'm at.
00:10:30
Speaker
There's tons of opportunities for add on systems, but maybe in a market that doesn't have very much solar yet.
00:10:36
Speaker
Even these markets, you can look for older systems.
00:10:38
Speaker
If you see older panels up on the roof,
00:10:40
Speaker
Great opportunity to go knock it.
00:10:42
Speaker
Even if it's not someone that has a true bill or that needs more panels up there, great opportunity to just ask them why they went slower, maybe grab a video testimonial with them and then ask them about the neighborhood.
00:10:53
Speaker
Say, hey, who's the most influential person in your neighborhood or who's someone that everyone knows in your neighborhood that everyone likes and really just scope out those influential people.
00:11:03
Speaker
Hey, so a couple ideas for you there are the, again, gated communities, condo townhomes, dirt roads.
00:11:10
Speaker
And then last one that I could think of off the top of my head are people that you can't seem to catch home.
00:11:16
Speaker
So what does that mean?
00:11:17
Speaker
Maybe you're in a neighborhood that you have re-knocked five, six times now, and there's people that haven't been home, or maybe they're only there a Saturday for like a two-hour window of time.
00:11:28
Speaker
I've had a lot of success just by targeting these people.
00:11:31
Speaker
So if someone if I've re-knocked a neighborhood or a home two, three times, maybe a kid answers the door and says, oh, my parents are only home at 930 Saturday morning, then guess where I'm going to be 930 Saturday morning?
00:11:44
Speaker
I'm going to be at that home because chances are.
00:11:46
Speaker
I've been back to that home three times.
00:11:48
Speaker
I have not talked to the homeowner.
00:11:50
Speaker
So chances are, if I can get in front of them at the time that they're the one time they're there during the week, then they're probably not.
00:11:56
Speaker
They probably will not have talked to many other solar reps.
00:11:59
Speaker
Right.
00:12:00
Speaker
So that's your strategies.
00:12:02
Speaker
That's how you find these lay down deals.
Strategic Sales Timing and Location
00:12:04
Speaker
And reminds me, if you have not listened to the episode with Ty Segan, he closed, I think it was, I don't know,
00:12:12
Speaker
40 deals in the same, I forget, 40, 50 deals in the same neighborhood.
00:12:16
Speaker
Maybe it was more.
00:12:17
Speaker
But if you have not listened to Ty Segan's episode, go listen to that because he tells a story about how he literally waited out someone outside someone's house for like hours.
00:12:28
Speaker
I think he's falling off with people doing paperwork.
00:12:30
Speaker
He's like, okay, well, I've re-knocked this home like five times now.
00:12:35
Speaker
No one's been home.
00:12:36
Speaker
He waits outside this person's house for hours, just doing follow-ups, calling other customers.
00:12:42
Speaker
He finally sees them drive in.
00:12:43
Speaker
He goes and catches them right away, turns into a lay down cell.
00:12:47
Speaker
So don't underestimate the re-knocking.
00:12:50
Speaker
And I'm not saying that you should only target off the beaten path homes.
00:12:56
Speaker
Again, like Lenny Gray said, is a quality over quantity thing.
00:13:00
Speaker
You are going to get more quality looks.
00:13:02
Speaker
But if you are having success just going to regular neighborhoods, then stick with that.
00:13:07
Speaker
I think it's great to switch it up.
00:13:08
Speaker
Okay, I still do go to cookie cutter neighborhoods.
00:13:11
Speaker
I still do get dropped off from time to time.
00:13:14
Speaker
But it's super powerful to be able to alternate between these.
00:13:17
Speaker
Okay, maybe one day you're going off the beaten path homes.
00:13:21
Speaker
One day you're going cookie cutter neighborhood.
00:13:24
Speaker
One day you're going to new move-ins, which is another one.
00:13:28
Speaker
off the beaten path type look.
00:13:30
Speaker
Someone that just moved in the home, they're probably not looking or probably not getting hit up a ton.
00:13:35
Speaker
And then you're just kind of cycling between that.
00:13:37
Speaker
I think it's great to cycle, switch it up.
00:13:39
Speaker
For me, it kind of keeps me, gives me that fresh look at things, gives me new motivation if I can switch it up day after day.
00:13:46
Speaker
Hey, so that's my tip of the day.
00:13:48
Speaker
That's what has been working for me.
00:13:50
Speaker
And that's how I find success in saturated markets is I look for these off the beaten path homes.
00:13:56
Speaker
And that has worked for a lot of people I know.
00:13:58
Speaker
So yeah, let's hope not everyone in the world does this because maybe everyone will take my advice on this podcast.
00:14:05
Speaker
And then all of a sudden the off the beaten path homes become worse than going to the cookie cutter neighborhoods.
00:14:10
Speaker
Who knows?
00:14:10
Speaker
So don't everyone be driving to all these homes at once.
00:14:14
Speaker
But just keep that in mind.
00:14:16
Speaker
Be looking for homes where you think, hey, this guy probably hasn't been talked to as much.
00:14:21
Speaker
Okay, so send this to someone that is in a slump.
00:14:23
Speaker
This is a great way to get out of a slump.
00:14:25
Speaker
This is a great way to give yourself a fresh look and fresh approach and hit some softer doors.
00:14:32
Speaker
So try it.
00:14:33
Speaker
Let me know if this helps.
00:14:34
Speaker
And we will see you guys on the next podcast.
Announcements and Promotions
00:14:39
Speaker
Hey, solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
00:14:45
Speaker
Well, so was I. And the truth is, I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
00:14:51
Speaker
So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free cells diagnostic.
00:14:57
Speaker
We'll break down your cells process.
00:14:59
Speaker
to figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
00:15:04
Speaker
So at now, we have six bucks for this month.
00:15:07
Speaker
So book a call now.
00:15:08
Speaker
Don't miss out.
00:15:10
Speaker
What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:15
Speaker
That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s dot com.
00:15:19
Speaker
I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
00:15:23
Speaker
So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
00:15:29
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:15:31
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:15:32
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.
00:15:43
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:15:50
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:15:53
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:15:58
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.
00:16:11
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
00:16:13
Speaker
So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:16:20
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:16:21
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:16:25
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:16:30
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:16:33
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:16:34
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:16:37
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:16:42
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:16:43
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.