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 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 going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong.
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.
Speaker: And specifically today, we are talking about the third piece of that equation, having a better experience in the solar industry.
Speaker: Because unfortunately,
Speaker: I went through a rough transition just barely.
Speaker: I'm owed a lot in commissions, had some things that happened that I wouldn't wish upon anybody in the industry.
Speaker: And we're going to get to that, but I'm going to tell the story here.
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.
Speaker: And a lot of that same stuff happened to me very recently.
Speaker: In fact, I'm going through it right now.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you that experience.
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.
Speaker: And hopefully you can learn from it.
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.
Speaker: I'm still in this process right now of things that are going down.
Speaker: But if you are going through similar things that I'm going to talk about here in a second, reach out to me.
Speaker: Let me know.
Speaker: Would love to hear what your experience with it has been.
Speaker: And hopefully we can just all learn from it and be better as an industry.
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.
Speaker: So if you're a new rep, learn from some mistakes I made.
Speaker: If you're an experienced rep, hit me up and tell me if you've had a similar experience.
Speaker: And let's just all try to up-level the industry.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you my story.
Speaker: Long story short, I'm in a battle right now.
Speaker: At the time of this recording, I'm owed around 90,000 commissions, plus or minus, that I'm still waiting on.
Speaker: The verdict is out, hoping I'm going to get paid these amounts.
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.
Speaker: So, yeah, here's how it all started.
Speaker: So my previous company I was with was working for them for, I don't know, about a year and a half.
Speaker: And those of you that know my story in solar, I really only switched from one company.
Speaker: My first company was a company called New Power.
Speaker: I was managing a team there.
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.
Speaker: They'd gone to other things.
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.
Speaker: And on top of that, they were paying way less than most other companies at the time.
Speaker: So this was back in 2019.
Speaker: Yeah, 2019.
Speaker: And I was with that company for about four years.
Speaker: I guess actually it was about 2020 that I made the switch.
Speaker: Yeah, because I was with them through part of COVID too.
Speaker: So after that, I switched to a company called Switch to Solar.
Speaker: Shout out to all my Switch to Solar gang there.
Speaker: And that was with Bennett Maxwell.
Speaker: He's come on the podcast.
Speaker: Brent Attaway, who's doing awesome things in solar right now over at Solar Academy and he's got his CRMX platform.
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.
Speaker: And they had the opportunity where they could sell to this other company.
Speaker: So that's what happened.
Speaker: We were sold off and it is what it is, right?
Speaker: I mean, I don't control these things.
Speaker: So we went to the new team and ended up not being a great fit for some of our guys.
Speaker: Some guys fell off after that.
Speaker: I stayed.
Speaker: I'm like, no, you know, I'm going to make it work.
Speaker: And a lot of great things happened from this.
Speaker: This company after was great in a lot of ways, had some of the highest level producers I've ever brushed.
Speaker: rub shoulders with and just learned a tremendous amount.
Speaker: So, you know, without mentioning name, just shout out to the guys over there.
Speaker: Learned so much and really appreciate a lot of things that were going on.
Speaker: But where things started going downhill is we're working with a specific installer.
Speaker: And I noticed that accounts all of a sudden were slow on.
Speaker: We're getting, you know, delayed and delayed on paying out on time.
Speaker: This happened for a little bit.
Speaker: Then it got better.
Speaker: We asked questions and it's like, oh, no, they're just like they got a new CEO.
Speaker: They fired the other one.
Speaker: One had a heart attack, apparently.
Speaker: So just kind of strings things going on.
Speaker: And it got better for a time.
Speaker: I'm like, OK.
Speaker: And then a lot of other, you know, higher producing reps on the team were running through this installer.
Speaker: So I thought everything was fine.
Speaker: But then another four or five months go by, they were paying.
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.
Speaker: Their finance department went through a bunch of changes.
Speaker: And they're not collecting the money on time.
Speaker: So we're going to be late on paying you guys.
Speaker: And keep in mind, I'm sharing this from my perspective.
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.
Speaker: But yeah, we start getting longer and longer timelines to be paid out on.
Speaker: And first it's like, we'll pay you after install.
Speaker: And it's like, we'll pay you after PTO.
Speaker: And then it's like, oh, we'll catch up on other accounts and we'll pay you.
Speaker: And it got to the point where they're paying very slowly.
Speaker: And the money our dealer was receiving, it was just going to guys' accounts, like kind of think of the furthest account installed.
Speaker: So someone had an account installed like three months back.
Speaker: They would pay him.
Speaker: They would catch up on a few others.
Speaker: So really, they were just prioritizing the oldest accounts and trying to catch up.
Speaker: And this is where I wish I would have, you know, really figured out some different options.
Speaker: But me just being a trusting guy and just really an optimist, I feel like I'm an optimist always.
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.
Speaker: But...
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.
Speaker: You know, it wasn't like, oh, this money is for this person.
Speaker: It was just like, OK, we're receiving $100,000 from this installer.
Speaker: Let's go catch up on all these accounts.
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.
Speaker: And this company actually isn't, you know, even around my dealer at the time.
Speaker: They're not really a company even anymore just because all the, you know, unfortunate issues that went on.
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.
Speaker: So it's been like this for like three, four months now.
Speaker: No one has been paid a penny on all their accounts because a lot of those things went down.
Speaker: Some of it I'm not at liberty to discuss on the podcast probably.
Speaker: It would be best if I didn't, but yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, people quit.
Speaker: A lot of guys were owed money.
Speaker: And now this installer is auditing every single dime that was paid out, every single account, and figuring out what's owed.
Speaker: And then supposedly once that's done, we're going to get paid on the accounts.
Speaker: So time will tell and I'll update.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll give an update on the podcast.
Speaker: I'm hoping I will get paid.
Speaker: But for me, it's about 90,000.
Speaker: Like I said, plus or minus that I'm owed.
Speaker: Some other guys are owed a lot more than that.
Speaker: Some are owed less.
Speaker: And it's just an unfortunate situation.
Speaker: You know, I'm actually in the process of buying a house.
Speaker: Like I've also mentioned fairly recently.
Speaker: And this is money that, you know, would have made home buying a little less stressful.
Speaker: It's money was counting on to be in my account right now.
Speaker: But it is what it is.
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.
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?
Speaker: That would have been helpful.
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.
Speaker: And so this is something I wish I was doing more precisely.
Speaker: And not that that wouldn't necessarily helped in all this.
Speaker: But it is a good thing to know just in general, for anyone in solar, make sure you're keeping track of that.
Speaker: And then number two, just really figure out, you know, ask the questions of the installers you're using.
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.
Speaker: And if you're seeing delays and getting paid, probably best to not go through the installer that's delaying on paying out.
Speaker: That's what I wish I would have done.
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.
Speaker: And it sucks to be in that situation.
Speaker: Take it from me.
Speaker: So just wanted to share my experience with it.
Speaker: Let me know if you've gone through something similar.
Speaker: Maybe you have advice for me.
Speaker: We're just waiting in time.
Speaker: Yeah, it's gotten to the point.
Speaker: You know, we've given them deadlines.
Speaker: They've told us when we should expect to be getting our money and expect things to happen.
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.
Speaker: But I hope that no one has to go through this experience.
Speaker: And it actually happened to one of my good friends.
Speaker: And he's going to come on Nick's podcast and share a little bit of his experience too.
Speaker: That's kind of why I did this episode today.
Speaker: So his name is Ruben Ayala.
Speaker: He's been on the podcast as well.
Speaker: But he actually had a similar experience.
Speaker: Just wanted to share my experience and give you a little preview for some of what we talk about on the next episode.
Speaker: So check it out.
Speaker: Don't miss out on the next podcast and don't make some of the same mistakes I made.
Speaker: Really make sure you're using reputable installers, guys that pay out on time.
Speaker: Make sure you're keeping track of all your accounts.
Speaker: Make sure you ask the hard questions.
Speaker: If someone says you're supposed to get paid this date and you don't, you got to be smart about this.
Speaker: You got to get paid what you're worth and you got to get paid in a timely manner.
Speaker: So hope that helps, you know, sort of a dark topic.
Speaker: And I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.
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.
Speaker: So that's the topic today.
Speaker: And tune in next episode, you're going to hear a little bit more on this and what happened to my buddy Ruben.
Speaker: Also, he's got some funny stories.
Speaker: We actually recorded this at DoorToDoorCon.com.
Speaker: So pretty funny, a little bar fight experience that you're going to think is hilarious.
Speaker: So don't miss out on that either.
Speaker: So we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker: Keep crushing and don't let this podcast bring you down.
Speaker: Use it as fuel to be smart, to go out and close deals and make sure you get paid.
Speaker: So we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker: Love you all.
Speaker: Peace out and keep closing those deals.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I. And the truth is, I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free cells diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your cells process.
Speaker: to figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: So at now we have six bucks for this month.
Speaker: So book a call now.
Speaker: Don't miss out.
Speaker: What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s dot com.
Speaker: I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
Speaker: So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
