Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solarpreneur you might ask?
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.
Speaker: What's up solarpreneurs?
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
Speaker: generate more leads and referrals, and dominate the solar industry.
Speaker: So let's jump into the episode.
Speaker: Before we get into this, I wanted to thank all of you today.
Speaker: that have gone on to leave a review or share the podcast.
Speaker: That's what keeps us going over here at Solrepreneur and just super grateful.
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,
Speaker: I made it easier to close a deal or get that next lead.
Speaker: That's really what we're all about here at the podcast and love hearing your feedback.
Speaker: So thank you.
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.
Speaker: From Sportsmaster92, he says, Amazing.
Speaker: I listened for the first time last week.
Speaker: My team was in a slump and I made all of my reps start listening.
Speaker: And we have had a big turnaround that quickly have and will keep recommending.
Speaker: Sportsmaster92, I love sports as well.
Speaker: You rock.
Speaker: Thanks for the good review.
Speaker: And so today's episode, we're going to talk about something that has been helping me quite a bit recently.
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.
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
Speaker: And those of you that knock doors, really anyone, whether you're knocking doors or closing deals, that's what we need.
Speaker: We need people to open up to us.
Speaker: We need them to tell us what they're thinking because really that's how you're going to gain the trust.
Speaker: That's how you're going to know how to overcome their objections.
Speaker: And really that's the goal of any fact finding you can do as you're sitting in these deals.
Speaker: You just want people to spill the beans.
Speaker: You want them to tell you exactly why they haven't gone slower, exactly what their concerns are.
Speaker: Because guess what?
Speaker: If they tell you those things, the deal is done.
Speaker: They just told you exactly how to close them.
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,
Speaker: Boom, it's a done deal.
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.
Speaker: And these techniques, they come from a book called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.
Speaker: Great book, recommend 100%, go read it.
Speaker: I need to reread it, I listened to it on Audible.
Speaker: But a ton of takeaways you can get from that book.
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.
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.
Speaker: And so two of his techniques.
Speaker: Okay, the first one, it's called mirroring, mirroring, I can pronounce it.
Speaker: And then the second one is called labeling.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you a little story.
Speaker: And then I'm going to talk about these techniques and give you some implementations how you can start using them right away.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so I was out knocking.
Speaker: This was just last week out hitting some doors here.
Speaker: And we'd done this training pretty recently.
Speaker: We did a little exercise, which I'll talk about it for those leading teams.
Speaker: It's a great exercise.
Speaker: You can put your team through to help with these techniques.
Speaker: But I'm talking to this lady.
Speaker: And she is super closed off.
Speaker: She's the neighbor of the deal I just closed a couple days before.
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
Speaker: go get those HOA forms filled out.
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.
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.
Speaker: So I'm going, I'm getting the neighborhood signature.
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.
Speaker: And typically, every time I get, I fill out these forms, typically I get a couple appointments out of it.
Speaker: Because it's a great, you already got a name to drop.
Speaker: They know you're an install in their neighbor.
Speaker: And if you just kind of slip it in there, hey, we checked out, you haven't checked out solar before, have you?
Speaker: They'll give you an objection, whatever.
Speaker: So I go do this.
Speaker: I'm with the lady.
Speaker: She's being super closed off.
Speaker: Okay, of course, I slip that in there.
Speaker: So hey, I noticed you don't have solar.
Speaker: Have you guys ever looked into it?
Speaker: And instantly, usually they'll have a conversation with me, but this lady just instantly closes off.
Speaker: She's like, no, no, not interested.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I'm like, whoa, I wasn't even trying to pitch it.
Speaker: Because that's the other advantage.
Speaker: Usually people don't look at you as a salesman if you're just coming by to get signatures, right?
Speaker: But this lady right off the bat, she goes on the defense.
Speaker: She's saying, no, not interested.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And just didn't want to start a conversation about solar at all.
Speaker: Even though I wasn't coming across as salesy.
Speaker: So I start thinking about these two techniques, okay, mirroring and labeling.
Speaker: And I'm like, all right, I'm going to put these to the test.
Speaker: So she goes through, um, I finally get out of her.
Speaker: Like, oh no, Solor, not interested.
Speaker: Not interested.
Speaker: And force her to reply.
Speaker: Okay, here's the first technique.
Speaker: I'll explain these in more depth later.
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.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay, so she goes, oh yeah, not interested.
Speaker: No, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: And I go, doesn't make sense.
Speaker: Okay, and what's she going to do?
Speaker: She has to reply.
Speaker: Says, yeah, looked into it.
Speaker: Doesn't work for us.
Speaker: Doesn't work for you?
Speaker: I do it again.
Speaker: And what I'm doing, I'm forcing her to open up to elaborate on these things.
Speaker: And I noticed just from doing this, it worked way better than me being like, oh, why didn't it make sense?
Speaker: Oh, why didn't you check into it?
Speaker: Okay, because what happens, people feel like they're being interrogated sometimes when you just go after them with why, why, why, why.
Speaker: And this is what every other salesperson is doing, right?
Speaker: They're saying, why, why haven't you gone slower?
Speaker: Okay, so I'm trying it this way.
Speaker: I'm putting the Chris Voss technique to the test.
Speaker: So it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: She goes, yeah, we just have a low bill.
Speaker: And I noticed she starts to open up way more.
Speaker: She starts actually giving me reasons.
Speaker: And then I put the other technique into use.
Speaker: The other technique is called labeling.
Speaker: And this is where you basically summarize what you think they told you, but you put a sounds like in front of it.
Speaker: So she said, yeah, we have a pretty low bill.
Speaker: It's expensive.
Speaker: So I label that.
Speaker: I said, oh, sounds like solar was pretty expensive when you looked into it.
Speaker: And she goes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: She starts telling me, you know, basically all the reasons why she didn't go solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I will say I didn't end up booking this appointment.
Speaker: So it doesn't have a happy ending, but I did throw these techniques into place.
Speaker: And I noticed I got way further than I probably would have just doing my typical stuff.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cause typically I would just do though.
Speaker: Why haven't you done it?
Speaker: oh, well, solar is different now.
Speaker: Here's why X, Y, Z. But what I was doing, I was getting her to open up.
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.
Speaker: So she opened up way more, still couldn't get her to buy on an appointment.
Speaker: But she told me all the reasons she wasn't spending a bunch of money.
Speaker: She was too busy.
Speaker: XYZ tried to overcome it, couldn't.
Speaker: But I got her to actually start talking.
Speaker: I got her to elaborate on what she was feeling.
Speaker: Okay.
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.
Speaker: Oh, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah, you know what?
Speaker: Our bills are too low.
Speaker: Oh, sounds like you guys looked into it before and financially didn't make sense.
Speaker: Yeah, we looked into it a long time ago.
Speaker: We looked into it like three years ago and it didn't save us any money.
Speaker: Save you any money?
Speaker: Yeah, because we're expecting to save a bunch and it only saved us like five bucks a month.
Speaker: Okay, there maybe you find out that they're expecting to save, I don't know, 10 bucks a month.
Speaker: It's all about expectations.
Speaker: These are ways you can figure out what their expectations were.
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.
Speaker: And Chris Voss talks about this, just using it in conversations.
Speaker: It's a way to get people to open up and just feel like they're being listened to more.
Speaker: Okay, so those are the two techniques and I'll read a little description of them.
Speaker: Okay, the first one was mirroring and that's again taking two to three keywords and repeating them.
Speaker: Yeah, solar is too expensive.
Speaker: Too expensive?
Speaker: Yeah, we looked into it before and it costs like 40 grand.
Speaker: 40 grand, just labeling or sorry, mirroring is repeating back two to three keywords and using it to gather intel.
Speaker: And then it expands what you know about them in their position.
Speaker: That's textbook definition right there.
Speaker: And then the second one, again, is called labeling.
Speaker: And that is where you basically summarize what they told you.
Speaker: Hey, by using, oh, seems like it cost a lot back then.
Speaker: Oh, sounds like you guys didn't have a good experience with what you're looking at.
Speaker: And those are the two, I think those are the two key phrases.
Speaker: Sounds like or seems like seems to be the one that Chris Voss uses more than anything.
Speaker: And it's important.
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.
Speaker: And as you do a first person phrase like this, sometimes it can signal that you're the number one priority.
Speaker: And we don't want it to come across as this is what we think.
Speaker: We want it to be about them.
Speaker: Because what do people care about?
Speaker: Brian Tracy says WIIFM, right?
Speaker: What's in it for me?
Speaker: That's all people care about.
Speaker: Doesn't matter if they're saving money.
Speaker: Doesn't matter what's in it for them and what do they want.
Speaker: That's what these two techniques are going to dig up is what do they really want?
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?
Speaker: If they don't care about savings, but they care about saving the planet, you're going to hit on that.
Speaker: And that's how these techniques can be effective.
Speaker: Okay, so make sure you're using them.
Speaker: Again, that's mirroring and labeling.
Speaker: And this is just a crash course on it, but a great exercise you can do with your teams.
Speaker: Maybe you're leading the team, maybe you're managing, or go bring this back to one of your trainings.
Speaker: If you're just, you know, maybe you're not managing, but go take it back to your teams.
Speaker: Go practice this.
Speaker: A great exercise we did that got me thinking way more about this is in our meetings.
Speaker: We had someone just go up, stand in front of the room, and he started off with like a statement.
Speaker: And then we just went down every single rep that was in that room.
Speaker: And we did either a mirror statement or we did a label.
Speaker: So for example, I think the rep started out with, yeah, it's been a really tough day lately.
Speaker: I don't know, started out with just something random.
Speaker: And then the first rep in front, he had to say tough day lately.
Speaker: And then the guy was,
Speaker: In front of the room, he said, yeah, I didn't get a good grade on my test.
Speaker: X, Y, I don't know.
Speaker: He started expounding on that.
Speaker: And then the second one, and then you go down the line.
Speaker: And the next person, he could do a mirror label.
Speaker: So he could do, oh, sounds like it's been rough times lately.
Speaker: And then you're just constantly getting the person in front of the room to elaborate on what they said.
Speaker: Obviously, keeping it in line with the topic.
Speaker: You're not going way off topic.
Speaker: You're keeping it on track and you're trying to dig up relevant information.
Speaker: So think about that as you're knocking or as you're out there closing deals.
Speaker: Use these two techniques, mirroring and labeling.
Speaker: Hey, it's been a game changer for me.
Speaker: So probably my two takeaways from the book and go read the Chris Voss book.
Speaker: Sorry, my mind just drew a blank.
Speaker: Yeah, anyways, we'll post to it here in the show notes.
Speaker: Go read it.
Speaker: Let me know if you have any takeaways or things you are using from the book.
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.
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.
Speaker: And hope you have a great Thanksgiving if you're listening to this before or on or after Thanksgiving.
Speaker: Whenever it is, make sure to be grateful.
Speaker: A great episode on gratitude we had probably six months or so back.
Speaker: Go look, Earl Kapule, he is Mr. Gratitude.
Speaker: He talks a lot about how gratitude has been a game changer in his solar cells.
Speaker: So don't forget, be grateful in all that you do.
Speaker: Keep a gratitude journal.
Speaker: And let's go out and crush it this week.
Speaker: Go close some deals and I'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Hey Solarpreneurs, quick question.
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