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The Dark Side of Solar 😨
72 Plays3 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction and Journey
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 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.
Defining 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.
00:00:43
Speaker
What's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:45
Speaker
We're here with another episode, here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better experience and time in the solar industry.
00:00:53
Speaker
And specifically today, we are talking about the third piece of that equation, having a better experience in the solar industry.
00:01:00
Speaker
Because unfortunately,
00:01:02
Speaker
I went through a rough transition just barely.
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm owed a lot in commissions, had some things that happened that I wouldn't wish upon anybody in the industry.
Challenges in Solar Industry
00:01:12
Speaker
And we're going to get to that, but I'm going to tell the story here.
00:01:15
Speaker
But unfortunately, there's way too many accounts, way too many stories I've heard of people not getting paid, people having bad experiences with installers, installers messing up jobs.
00:01:25
Speaker
And a lot of that same stuff happened to me very recently.
00:01:28
Speaker
In fact, I'm going through it right now.
00:01:30
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you that experience.
00:01:31
Speaker
I'm going to tell you some things I wish I would have looked out for, some things I wish I would have done a little bit better.
00:01:36
Speaker
And hopefully you can learn from it.
00:01:38
Speaker
And then I just want to preface all this with if anyone from that company, I'm going to try it out, you know, not mention specific names and all that, because I don't know a lot.
00:01:48
Speaker
I'm still in this process right now of things that are going down.
00:01:51
Speaker
But if you are going through similar things that I'm going to talk about here in a second, reach out to me.
00:01:56
Speaker
Let me know.
00:01:57
Speaker
Would love to hear what your experience with it has been.
00:01:59
Speaker
And hopefully we can just all learn from it and be better as an industry.
00:02:04
Speaker
So I hear to wait, way too many accounts of the dark side of solar, as I'm calling this episode and just bad experiences that have happened.
00:02:12
Speaker
So if you're a new rep, learn from some mistakes I made.
00:02:15
Speaker
If you're an experienced rep, hit me up and tell me if you've had a similar experience.
00:02:20
Speaker
And let's just all try to up-level the industry.
00:02:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:23
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you my story.
00:02:24
Speaker
Long story short, I'm in a battle right now.
00:02:28
Speaker
At the time of this recording, I'm owed around 90,000 commissions, plus or minus, that I'm still waiting on.
00:02:36
Speaker
The verdict is out, hoping I'm going to get paid these amounts.
00:02:39
Speaker
And again, I'm not pointing fingers yet because supposedly there's a good chance we're going to get paid this, but I'm talking accounts from four or five, six months ago that still have not been paid on, unfortunately.
00:02:50
Speaker
So, yeah, here's how it all started.
Company Transition
00:02:53
Speaker
So my previous company I was with was working for them for, I don't know, about a year and a half.
00:02:59
Speaker
And those of you that know my story in solar, I really only switched from one company.
00:03:05
Speaker
My first company was a company called New Power.
00:03:07
Speaker
I was managing a team there.
00:03:09
Speaker
And what happened is a lot of our few of our owners that I really connected with and a lot of the leadership had just fallen off.
00:03:15
Speaker
They'd gone to other things.
00:03:17
Speaker
The company was getting smaller and smaller, butted heads with the leaders that were remaining and ended up just not being a good fit.
00:03:24
Speaker
And on top of that, they were paying way less than most other companies at the time.
00:03:28
Speaker
So this was back in 2019.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, 2019.
00:03:33
Speaker
And I was with that company for about four years.
00:03:35
Speaker
I guess actually it was about 2020 that I made the switch.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, because I was with them through part of COVID too.
00:03:41
Speaker
So after that, I switched to a company called Switch to Solar.
00:03:44
Speaker
Shout out to all my Switch to Solar gang there.
00:03:46
Speaker
And that was with Bennett Maxwell.
00:03:48
Speaker
He's come on the podcast.
00:03:50
Speaker
Brent Attaway, who's doing awesome things in solar right now over at Solar Academy and he's got his CRMX platform.
00:03:58
Speaker
But yeah, what happened with them is it was going great with them, but Bennett decided to go start Dirty Dough, his cookie business.
00:04:05
Speaker
And they had the opportunity where they could sell to this other company.
00:04:10
Speaker
So that's what happened.
00:04:11
Speaker
We were sold off and it is what it is, right?
00:04:14
Speaker
I mean, I don't control these things.
00:04:15
Speaker
So we went to the new team and ended up not being a great fit for some of our guys.
00:04:20
Speaker
Some guys fell off after that.
00:04:22
Speaker
I stayed.
00:04:22
Speaker
I'm like, no, you know, I'm going to make it work.
00:04:23
Speaker
And a lot of great things happened from this.
00:04:26
Speaker
This company after was great in a lot of ways, had some of the highest level producers I've ever brushed.
00:04:33
Speaker
rub shoulders with and just learned a tremendous amount.
00:04:35
Speaker
So, you know, without mentioning name, just shout out to the guys over there.
00:04:39
Speaker
Learned so much and really appreciate a lot of things that were going on.
00:04:42
Speaker
But where things started going downhill is we're working with a specific installer.
Financial Hurdles
00:04:47
Speaker
And I noticed that accounts all of a sudden were slow on.
00:04:52
Speaker
We're getting, you know, delayed and delayed on paying out on time.
00:04:56
Speaker
This happened for a little bit.
00:04:57
Speaker
Then it got better.
00:04:58
Speaker
We asked questions and it's like, oh, no, they're just like they got a new CEO.
00:05:02
Speaker
They fired the other one.
00:05:04
Speaker
One had a heart attack, apparently.
00:05:05
Speaker
So just kind of strings things going on.
00:05:08
Speaker
And it got better for a time.
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm like, OK.
00:05:10
Speaker
And then a lot of other, you know, higher producing reps on the team were running through this installer.
00:05:15
Speaker
So I thought everything was fine.
00:05:16
Speaker
But then another four or five months go by, they were paying.
00:05:19
Speaker
And then we get to this point again, we're like, okay, yeah, you know what, they're catching up on accounts, we've had some delays.
00:05:28
Speaker
Their finance department went through a bunch of changes.
00:05:31
Speaker
And they're not collecting the money on time.
00:05:34
Speaker
So we're going to be late on paying you guys.
00:05:37
Speaker
And keep in mind, I'm sharing this from my perspective.
00:05:39
Speaker
So if I got like, you know, people that were in the behind the scenes of this, it may be a drastically different story, but I'm telling it from what I know, what I was told in my perspective on all this.
00:05:51
Speaker
But yeah, we start getting longer and longer timelines to be paid out on.
00:05:55
Speaker
And first it's like, we'll pay you after install.
00:05:58
Speaker
And it's like, we'll pay you after PTO.
00:06:00
Speaker
And then it's like, oh, we'll catch up on other accounts and we'll pay you.
00:06:04
Speaker
And it got to the point where they're paying very slowly.
00:06:07
Speaker
And the money our dealer was receiving, it was just going to guys' accounts, like kind of think of the furthest account installed.
00:06:14
Speaker
So someone had an account installed like three months back.
00:06:16
Speaker
They would pay him.
00:06:17
Speaker
They would catch up on a few others.
00:06:18
Speaker
So really, they were just prioritizing the oldest accounts and trying to catch up.
00:06:23
Speaker
And this is where I wish I would have, you know, really figured out some different options.
00:06:29
Speaker
But me just being a trusting guy and just really an optimist, I feel like I'm an optimist always.
00:06:35
Speaker
And, you know, just to the point, even now I'm an optimist, hoping that we will get paid and maybe we won't.
00:06:41
Speaker
But...
00:06:43
Speaker
It should have raised some red flags and some concerns probably that all this money we were receiving, it wasn't even being really tracked on.
00:06:50
Speaker
You know, it wasn't like, oh, this money is for this person.
00:06:53
Speaker
It was just like, OK, we're receiving $100,000 from this installer.
00:06:56
Speaker
Let's go catch up on all these accounts.
00:06:59
Speaker
And so now what's going on is I think really that's part of the big issue that we're having now is they stopped paying altogether.
00:07:08
Speaker
And this company actually isn't, you know, even around my dealer at the time.
00:07:13
Speaker
They're not really a company even anymore just because all the, you know, unfortunate issues that went on.
00:07:18
Speaker
So what's happening now is they're doing entire audits, this installer is, to really figure out what's been paid on, what hasn't been paid on, and we're just at a standstill.
00:07:28
Speaker
So it's been like this for like three, four months now.
00:07:30
Speaker
No one has been paid a penny on all their accounts because a lot of those things went down.
00:07:36
Speaker
Some of it I'm not at liberty to discuss on the podcast probably.
00:07:41
Speaker
It would be best if I didn't, but yeah.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, people quit.
00:07:46
Speaker
A lot of guys were owed money.
00:07:48
Speaker
And now this installer is auditing every single dime that was paid out, every single account, and figuring out what's owed.
00:07:55
Speaker
And then supposedly once that's done, we're going to get paid on the accounts.
00:08:00
Speaker
So time will tell and I'll update.
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, I'll give an update on the podcast.
00:08:06
Speaker
I'm hoping I will get paid.
00:08:07
Speaker
But for me, it's about 90,000.
00:08:09
Speaker
Like I said, plus or minus that I'm owed.
00:08:11
Speaker
Some other guys are owed a lot more than that.
00:08:14
Speaker
Some are owed less.
00:08:15
Speaker
And it's just an unfortunate situation.
00:08:18
Speaker
You know, I'm actually in the process of buying a house.
00:08:20
Speaker
Like I've also mentioned fairly recently.
00:08:23
Speaker
And this is money that, you know, would have made home buying a little less stressful.
00:08:27
Speaker
It's money was counting on to be in my account right now.
00:08:30
Speaker
But it is what it is.
00:08:31
Speaker
And so really just to offer my advice to anyone that maybe has seen some red flags in your solar company or maybe you've had similar experiences.
Financial Advice
00:08:42
Speaker
What I wish I would have done is number one, just keep track of the accounts to a T. What am I owed on?
00:08:47
Speaker
That would have been helpful.
00:08:48
Speaker
And I have that now I have, you know, the list of every single count I'm out on, you know, down to the penny, what I should be paid.
00:08:56
Speaker
And so this is something I wish I was doing more precisely.
00:08:59
Speaker
And not that that wouldn't necessarily helped in all this.
00:09:02
Speaker
But it is a good thing to know just in general, for anyone in solar, make sure you're keeping track of that.
00:09:06
Speaker
And then number two, just really figure out, you know, ask the questions of the installers you're using.
00:09:14
Speaker
If you're a rep at this company and you see some shady things going on like this, or you're having delays and getting paid, probably it would be wise to really dive deep, ask some questions, really challenge your leaders on what's going on.
00:09:28
Speaker
And if you're seeing delays and getting paid, probably best to not go through the installer that's delaying on paying out.
00:09:35
Speaker
That's what I wish I would have done.
00:09:37
Speaker
If I could go back right when I started seeing these delays, what I should have done is just gone to a different installer until all this stuff got figured out because they weren't paying.
00:09:47
Speaker
And it sucks to be in that situation.
00:09:50
Speaker
Take it from me.
00:09:51
Speaker
So just wanted to share my experience with it.
00:09:54
Speaker
Let me know if you've gone through something similar.
00:09:57
Speaker
Maybe you have advice for me.
00:09:59
Speaker
We're just waiting in time.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's gotten to the point.
00:10:01
Speaker
You know, we've given them deadlines.
00:10:03
Speaker
They've told us when we should expect to be getting our money and expect things to happen.
00:10:09
Speaker
If it doesn't happen, then yeah, obviously we're going to take some legal action, figure out what we what we what we can do from that standpoint.
00:10:15
Speaker
But I hope that no one has to go through this experience.
00:10:18
Speaker
And it actually happened to one of my good friends.
00:10:22
Speaker
And he's going to come on Nick's podcast and share a little bit of his experience too.
Preview of Next Episode
00:10:26
Speaker
That's kind of why I did this episode today.
00:10:28
Speaker
So his name is Ruben Ayala.
00:10:30
Speaker
He's been on the podcast as well.
00:10:32
Speaker
But he actually had a similar experience.
00:10:34
Speaker
Just wanted to share my experience and give you a little preview for some of what we talk about on the next episode.
00:10:41
Speaker
So check it out.
00:10:42
Speaker
Don't miss out on the next podcast and don't make some of the same mistakes I made.
00:10:47
Speaker
Really make sure you're using reputable installers, guys that pay out on time.
00:10:52
Speaker
Make sure you're keeping track of all your accounts.
00:10:54
Speaker
Make sure you ask the hard questions.
00:10:58
Speaker
If someone says you're supposed to get paid this date and you don't, you got to be smart about this.
00:11:03
Speaker
You got to get paid what you're worth and you got to get paid in a timely manner.
00:11:06
Speaker
So hope that helps, you know, sort of a dark topic.
00:11:11
Speaker
And I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.
00:11:13
Speaker
But again, let's just up level everything we can in the solar industry, try to make this a space where we're all going to get paid and all going to get treated fairly.
00:11:21
Speaker
So that's the topic today.
00:11:23
Speaker
And tune in next episode, you're going to hear a little bit more on this and what happened to my buddy Ruben.
00:11:28
Speaker
Also, he's got some funny stories.
00:11:29
Speaker
We actually recorded this at DoorToDoorCon.com.
00:11:31
Speaker
So pretty funny, a little bar fight experience that you're going to think is hilarious.
00:11:36
Speaker
So don't miss out on that either.
00:11:38
Speaker
So we'll see you on the next one.
00:11:39
Speaker
Keep crushing and don't let this podcast bring you down.
00:11:42
Speaker
Use it as fuel to be smart, to go out and close deals and make sure you get paid.
00:11:47
Speaker
So we'll see you on the next one.
00:11:48
Speaker
Love you all.
00:11:49
Speaker
Peace out and keep closing those deals.
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00:11:52
Speaker
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00:11:58
Speaker
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00:12:05
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
So book a call now.
00:12:22
Speaker
Don't miss out.
00:12:23
Speaker
What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:12:28
Speaker
That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s dot com.
00:12:32
Speaker
I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
00:12:37
Speaker
So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.