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2 Ninja Techniques to Get Your Prospects to Drop Their Guard image

2 Ninja Techniques to Get Your Prospects to Drop Their Guard

E201 ยท The Solarpreneur
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53 Plays4 years ago

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Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. 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 fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask 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 2 (00:42):

What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here with another episode as usual here to make your time as a solar professional, much more enjoyable. And of course help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals and dominate the solar industry. So let's jump into the episode before we get into this one, to think all of you that have gone on to leave a review or share the podcast. That's what keeps us going over here at Solarpreneur and just super grateful. It's coming up on a Thanksgiving actually in a few days as I'm recording this year and want to express my gratitude to all the listeners and all the people that have reached out to let me know that something's helps you or I made it easier to close a deal or get that next lead. That's really what we're all about here at the podcast and love hearing your feedback.

Speaker 2 (01:40):

So thank you. Thank you so much for those who haven't done that and wanted to give a shout out as well too. We got a recent review from a sports master 92. He says amazing. I listened for the first time last week, my team was in a slump and I made all of my reps start listening and we have had a big turnaround that quickly have in we'll keep recommending sports master 92. I love sports as well. You rock. Thanks for the good review. And so today's episode, we're going to talk about something that has been helping me quite a bit recently want to give my man a Jason newbie, a shout out something that I didn't remember, but we've been doing some trainings here in our team correlations. And I started implementing a couple of these techniques and it's been helping me immensely.

Speaker 2 (02:35):

Just get people to open up more, get people to listen. And those of you that knocked doors, really anyone, whether you're knocking doors or closing deals, that's what we need. We need people to open up to us. We need them to tell us what they're thinking, because really that's how you're going to gain the trust. That's how you're going to know how to overcome their objections. And really that's the goal of any fact-finding you can do as you're sitting in these. You just want people to spill the beans. You want them to tell you exactly why they haven't gone solar. Exactly what their concerns are, because guess what they tell you, those things the deal's done. They just told you exactly how to close them. Because if you can overcome those objections and answer those questions that they're having answer the reasons why they hadn't gone solar yet, boom, it's a done deal.

Speaker 2 (03:23):

So today we're going to talk about two techniques to ninja techniques that help your prospects open up in a way that they wouldn't otherwise. And these techniques, they come from a book called never split the difference by Chris Voss, great book, recommend a hundred percent go read it. I need to reread it. I listened to it on audible, but ton of takeaways you can get from that book. And for those that haven't heard of the book, Chris' boss, you as an FBI, negotiator would literally negotiate with you know, people doing crazy things murders, I don't know, just all sorts of different situations. And he takes what he learned

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Transcript

Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast

00:00:03
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.
00:00:10
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.
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.

What is a Solarpreneur?

00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's up solarpreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong here with another episode as usual here to make your time as a solar professional much more enjoyable and of course help you close more deals and
00:00:55
Speaker
generate more leads and referrals, and dominate the solar industry.
00:01:00
Speaker
So let's jump into the episode.
00:01:02
Speaker
Before we get into this, I wanted to thank all of you today.
00:01:05
Speaker
that have gone on to leave a review or share the podcast.
00:01:10
Speaker
That's what keeps us going over here at Solrepreneur and just super grateful.
00:01:16
Speaker
It's coming up on Thanksgiving, actually in a few days as I'm recording this here and want to express my gratitude to all the listeners and all the people that have reached out to let me know that some things helped you or, uh,
00:01:31
Speaker
I made it easier to close a deal or get that next lead.
00:01:34
Speaker
That's really what we're all about here at the podcast and love hearing your feedback.
00:01:40
Speaker
So thank you.
00:01:40
Speaker
Thank you so much for Lulz having done that and wanted to give a shout out as well to we got a recent review.

Negotiation Techniques from Chris Voss

00:01:50
Speaker
From Sportsmaster92, he says, Amazing.
00:01:54
Speaker
I listened for the first time last week.
00:01:56
Speaker
My team was in a slump and I made all of my reps start listening.
00:02:00
Speaker
And we have had a big turnaround that quickly have and will keep recommending.
00:02:06
Speaker
Sportsmaster92, I love sports as well.
00:02:09
Speaker
You rock.
00:02:10
Speaker
Thanks for the good review.
00:02:13
Speaker
And so today's episode, we're going to talk about something that has been helping me quite a bit recently.
00:02:20
Speaker
I want to give my man Jason Newby a shout out, something that I didn't remember, but we've been doing some trainings here in our team correlations.
00:02:29
Speaker
And I started implementing a couple of these techniques and it's been helping me immensely just get people to open up more, get people to listen and
00:02:39
Speaker
And those of you that knock doors, really anyone, whether you're knocking doors or closing deals, that's what we need.
00:02:45
Speaker
We need people to open up to us.
00:02:47
Speaker
We need them to tell us what they're thinking because really that's how you're going to gain the trust.
00:02:52
Speaker
That's how you're going to know how to overcome their objections.
00:02:55
Speaker
And really that's the goal of any fact finding you can do as you're sitting in these deals.
00:03:00
Speaker
You just want people to spill the beans.
00:03:02
Speaker
You want them to tell you exactly why they haven't gone slower, exactly what their concerns are.
00:03:06
Speaker
Because guess what?
00:03:07
Speaker
If they tell you those things, the deal is done.
00:03:10
Speaker
They just told you exactly how to close them.
00:03:12
Speaker
Because if you can overcome those objections and answer those questions that they're having, answer the reasons why they haven't gone slower yet,
00:03:21
Speaker
Boom, it's a done deal.
00:03:23
Speaker
So today we're gonna talk about two techniques, two ninja techniques that help your prospects open up in a way that they wouldn't otherwise.

Real-life Application of Techniques

00:03:34
Speaker
And these techniques, they come from a book called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.
00:03:41
Speaker
Great book, recommend 100%, go read it.
00:03:44
Speaker
I need to reread it, I listened to it on Audible.
00:03:47
Speaker
But a ton of takeaways you can get from that book.
00:03:50
Speaker
And for those that haven't heard of the book, Chris Voss, he was an FBI negotiator, would literally negotiate with people doing crazy things, murders, I don't know, just all sorts of different situations.
00:04:05
Speaker
And he takes what he learned and talks about how we can apply those same negotiation techniques in the business world and in sales.
00:04:15
Speaker
And so two of his techniques.
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay, the first one, it's called mirroring, mirroring, I can pronounce it.
00:04:22
Speaker
And then the second one is called labeling.
00:04:24
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you a little story.
00:04:27
Speaker
And then I'm going to talk about these techniques and give you some implementations how you can start using them right away.
00:04:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:36
Speaker
And so I was out knocking.
00:04:38
Speaker
This was just last week out hitting some doors here.
00:04:42
Speaker
And we'd done this training pretty recently.
00:04:45
Speaker
We did a little exercise, which I'll talk about it for those leading teams.
00:04:50
Speaker
It's a great exercise.
00:04:51
Speaker
You can put your team through to help with these techniques.
00:04:56
Speaker
But I'm talking to this lady.
00:04:59
Speaker
And she is super closed off.
00:05:01
Speaker
She's the neighbor of the deal I just closed a couple days before.
00:05:04
Speaker
And I was trying to get some HOA signatures, which I've talked about this before, but one of the best ways to little hacks to pick up some quick leads is
00:05:15
Speaker
go get those HOA forms filled out.
00:05:17
Speaker
Here in California, I assume it's probably the same with most HOAs, but here in California, you have to go get neighborhood signatures typically for these HOAs saying that they acknowledge, they know that there's solar being installed.
00:05:31
Speaker
Here in California, it's nice because the laws make it so they can't deny the solar, but HOAs still typically require this thing.
00:05:39
Speaker
So I'm going, I'm getting the neighborhood signature.
00:05:41
Speaker
And of course, you know, I'm going to use that to my advantage, try and get some more appointments as I'm getting these neighborhood signatures.
00:05:50
Speaker
And typically, every time I get, I fill out these forms, typically I get a couple appointments out of it.
00:05:56
Speaker
Because it's a great, you already got a name to drop.
00:05:59
Speaker
They know you're an install in their neighbor.
00:06:02
Speaker
And if you just kind of slip it in there, hey, we checked out, you haven't checked out solar before, have you?
00:06:07
Speaker
They'll give you an objection, whatever.
00:06:10
Speaker
So I go do this.
00:06:11
Speaker
I'm with the lady.
00:06:12
Speaker
She's being super closed off.
00:06:14
Speaker
Okay, of course, I slip that in there.
00:06:16
Speaker
So hey, I noticed you don't have solar.
00:06:18
Speaker
Have you guys ever looked into it?
00:06:20
Speaker
And instantly, usually they'll have a conversation with me, but this lady just instantly closes off.
00:06:25
Speaker
She's like, no, no, not interested.
00:06:27
Speaker
No.
00:06:27
Speaker
I'm like, whoa, I wasn't even trying to pitch it.
00:06:30
Speaker
Because that's the other advantage.
00:06:32
Speaker
Usually people don't look at you as a salesman if you're just coming by to get signatures, right?
00:06:37
Speaker
But this lady right off the bat, she goes on the defense.
00:06:40
Speaker
She's saying, no, not interested.
00:06:41
Speaker
No.
00:06:42
Speaker
And just didn't want to start a conversation about solar at all.
00:06:47
Speaker
Even though I wasn't coming across as salesy.
00:06:50
Speaker
So I start thinking about these two techniques, okay, mirroring and labeling.
00:06:56
Speaker
And I'm like, all right, I'm going to put these to the test.
00:07:00
Speaker
So she goes through, um, I finally get out of her.
00:07:06
Speaker
Like, oh no, Solor, not interested.
00:07:10
Speaker
Not interested.
00:07:11
Speaker
And force her to reply.
00:07:14
Speaker
Okay, here's the first technique.
00:07:16
Speaker
I'll explain these in more depth later.
00:07:18
Speaker
But mirroring is basically you repeat the last two words that they said or you repeat some keywords they said in the statement and force them to elaborate.
00:07:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:29
Speaker
Okay, so she goes, oh yeah, not interested.
00:07:32
Speaker
No, it doesn't make sense.
00:07:35
Speaker
And I go, doesn't make sense.
00:07:36
Speaker
Okay, and what's she going to do?
00:07:38
Speaker
She has to reply.
00:07:40
Speaker
Says, yeah, looked into it.
00:07:43
Speaker
Doesn't work for us.
00:07:45
Speaker
Doesn't work for you?
00:07:46
Speaker
I do it again.
00:07:48
Speaker
And what I'm doing, I'm forcing her to open up to elaborate on these things.
00:07:53
Speaker
And I noticed just from doing this, it worked way better than me being like, oh, why didn't it make sense?
00:08:02
Speaker
Oh, why didn't you check into it?
00:08:05
Speaker
Okay, because what happens, people feel like they're being interrogated sometimes when you just go after them with why, why, why, why.
00:08:11
Speaker
And this is what every other salesperson is doing, right?
00:08:15
Speaker
They're saying, why, why haven't you gone slower?
00:08:17
Speaker
Okay, so I'm trying it this way.
00:08:20
Speaker
I'm putting the Chris Voss technique to the test.

Team Exercises for Better Communication

00:08:23
Speaker
So it doesn't make sense.
00:08:25
Speaker
She goes, yeah, we just have a low bill.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I noticed she starts to open up way more.
00:08:31
Speaker
She starts actually giving me reasons.
00:08:35
Speaker
And then I put the other technique into use.
00:08:38
Speaker
The other technique is called labeling.
00:08:41
Speaker
And this is where you basically summarize what you think they told you, but you put a sounds like in front of it.
00:08:49
Speaker
So she said, yeah, we have a pretty low bill.
00:08:53
Speaker
It's expensive.
00:08:56
Speaker
So I label that.
00:08:58
Speaker
I said, oh, sounds like solar was pretty expensive when you looked into it.
00:09:03
Speaker
And she goes, yeah, yeah.
00:09:06
Speaker
She starts telling me, you know, basically all the reasons why she didn't go solar.
00:09:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:11
Speaker
And I will say I didn't end up booking this appointment.
00:09:14
Speaker
So it doesn't have a happy ending, but I did throw these techniques into place.
00:09:19
Speaker
And I noticed I got way further than I probably would have just doing my typical stuff.
00:09:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:26
Speaker
Cause typically I would just do though.
00:09:27
Speaker
Why haven't you done it?
00:09:29
Speaker
oh, well, solar is different now.
00:09:32
Speaker
Here's why X, Y, Z. But what I was doing, I was getting her to open up.
00:09:37
Speaker
I was, again, having her tell me all the reasons she hadn't done it and doing it in these ways with these techniques, it made it way less threatening because especially with someone closed off like this, the more you can seem like you're not trying to just be the typical sales guy, trying to interrogate them, the more they're going to open up to it.
00:10:00
Speaker
So she opened up way more, still couldn't get her to buy on an appointment.
00:10:06
Speaker
But she told me all the reasons she wasn't spending a bunch of money.
00:10:10
Speaker
She was too busy.
00:10:11
Speaker
XYZ tried to overcome it, couldn't.
00:10:14
Speaker
But I got her to actually start talking.
00:10:16
Speaker
I got her to elaborate on what she was feeling.
00:10:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:20
Speaker
And I'm noticing that as I do this, people are talking way more, not only in on the doors, but also in appointments as I'm sitting in appointments.
00:10:30
Speaker
Oh, Taylor.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah, you know what?
00:10:34
Speaker
Our bills are too low.
00:10:37
Speaker
Oh, sounds like you guys looked into it before and financially didn't make sense.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, we looked into it a long time ago.
00:10:43
Speaker
We looked into it like three years ago and it didn't save us any money.
00:10:49
Speaker
Save you any money?
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, because we're expecting to save a bunch and it only saved us like five bucks a month.
00:10:56
Speaker
Okay, there maybe you find out that they're expecting to save, I don't know, 10 bucks a month.
00:11:02
Speaker
It's all about expectations.
00:11:04
Speaker
These are ways you can figure out what their expectations were.
00:11:09
Speaker
So you can use this with pretty much anything and anyone, any objections, but you can also use it in your daily social situations.
00:11:18
Speaker
And Chris Voss talks about this, just using it in conversations.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's a way to get people to open up and just feel like they're being listened to more.
00:11:29
Speaker
Okay, so those are the two techniques and I'll read a little description of them.
00:11:33
Speaker
Okay, the first one was mirroring and that's again taking two to three keywords and repeating them.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, solar is too expensive.
00:11:45
Speaker
Too expensive?
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, we looked into it before and it costs like 40 grand.
00:11:52
Speaker
40 grand, just labeling or sorry, mirroring is repeating back two to three keywords and using it to gather intel.
00:12:03
Speaker
And then it expands what you know about them in their position.
00:12:08
Speaker
That's textbook definition right there.
00:12:11
Speaker
And then the second one, again, is called labeling.
00:12:14
Speaker
And that is where you basically summarize what they told you.
00:12:18
Speaker
Hey, by using, oh, seems like it cost a lot back then.
00:12:24
Speaker
Oh, sounds like you guys didn't have a good experience with what you're looking at.
00:12:31
Speaker
And those are the two, I think those are the two key phrases.
00:12:35
Speaker
Sounds like or seems like seems to be the one that Chris Voss uses more than anything.
00:12:42
Speaker
And it's important.
00:12:43
Speaker
Another thing I dug up as I was kind of researching, a lot of us tend to do phrases like, oh, what I'm hearing is, or I think.
00:12:54
Speaker
And as you do a first person phrase like this, sometimes it can signal that you're the number one priority.
00:13:02
Speaker
And we don't want it to come across as this is what we think.
00:13:05
Speaker
We want it to be about them.
00:13:07
Speaker
Because what do people care about?
00:13:09
Speaker
Brian Tracy says WIIFM, right?
00:13:13
Speaker
What's in it for me?
00:13:15
Speaker
That's all people care about.
00:13:16
Speaker
Doesn't matter if they're saving money.
00:13:19
Speaker
Doesn't matter what's in it for them and what do they want.
00:13:22
Speaker
That's what these two techniques are going to dig up is what do they really want?
00:13:26
Speaker
And if you can make people think, oh, this product has what I need, what I want, that's all they care about, right?
00:13:37
Speaker
If they don't care about savings, but they care about saving the planet, you're going to hit on that.
00:13:41
Speaker
And that's how these techniques can be effective.
00:13:46
Speaker
Okay, so make sure you're using them.
00:13:48
Speaker
Again, that's mirroring and labeling.
00:13:51
Speaker
And this is just a crash course on it, but a great exercise you can do with your teams.
00:13:56
Speaker
Maybe you're leading the team, maybe you're managing, or go bring this back to one of your trainings.
00:14:01
Speaker
If you're just, you know, maybe you're not managing, but go take it back to your teams.
00:14:06
Speaker
Go practice this.
00:14:07
Speaker
A great exercise we did that got me thinking way more about this is in our meetings.
00:14:12
Speaker
We had someone just go up, stand in front of the room, and he started off with like a statement.
00:14:20
Speaker
And then we just went down every single rep that was in that room.
00:14:24
Speaker
And we did either a mirror statement or we did a label.
00:14:29
Speaker
So for example, I think the rep started out with, yeah, it's been a really tough day lately.
00:14:36
Speaker
I don't know, started out with just something random.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then the first rep in front, he had to say tough day lately.
00:14:43
Speaker
And then the guy was,
00:14:45
Speaker
In front of the room, he said, yeah, I didn't get a good grade on my test.
00:14:50
Speaker
X, Y, I don't know.
00:14:50
Speaker
He started expounding on that.
00:14:53
Speaker
And then the second one, and then you go down the line.
00:14:56
Speaker
And the next person, he could do a mirror label.
00:14:59
Speaker
So he could do, oh, sounds like it's been rough times lately.
00:15:03
Speaker
And then you're just constantly getting the person in front of the room to elaborate on what they said.
00:15:09
Speaker
Obviously, keeping it in line with the topic.
00:15:11
Speaker
You're not going way off topic.
00:15:13
Speaker
You're keeping it on track and you're trying to dig up relevant information.
00:15:18
Speaker
So think about that as you're knocking or as you're out there closing deals.
00:15:23
Speaker
Use these two techniques, mirroring and labeling.
00:15:26
Speaker
Hey, it's been a game changer for me.
00:15:28
Speaker
So probably my two takeaways from the book and go read the Chris Voss book.
00:15:36
Speaker
Sorry, my mind just drew a blank.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, anyways, we'll post to it here in the show notes.
00:15:43
Speaker
Go read it.
00:15:44
Speaker
Let me know if you have any takeaways or things you are using from the book.
00:15:48
Speaker
We'd love to hear it and would love to hear any other ways you're using to mirror and label your prospects in your deals or on the doors.
00:15:59
Speaker
So go out, apply this, send it to someone that has been struggling to connect with people, to book appointments out there in the neighborhoods.
00:16:08
Speaker
And hope you have a great Thanksgiving if you're listening to this before or on or after Thanksgiving.
00:16:14
Speaker
Whenever it is, make sure to be grateful.
00:16:17
Speaker
A great episode on gratitude we had probably six months or so back.
00:16:23
Speaker
Go look, Earl Kapule, he is Mr. Gratitude.
00:16:26
Speaker
He talks a lot about how gratitude has been a game changer in his solar cells.
00:16:31
Speaker
So don't forget, be grateful in all that you do.
00:16:34
Speaker
Keep a gratitude journal.
00:16:37
Speaker
And let's go out and crush it this week.
00:16:39
Speaker
Go close some deals and I'll see you on the next episode.
00:16:42
Speaker
Peace.

Introduction to 'Solciety'

00:16:45
Speaker
Hey Solarpreneurs, quick question.
00:16:46
Speaker
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Speaker
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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.
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