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Live Roleplays With Taylor Armstrong & James Swiderski
67 Plays6 years ago
What's up Solarpreneurs! We want to shake things up a bit with today's episode and do some full roleplays with Taylor Armstrong with our different styles of solar pitch and give you guys some pointers to take home.
Let us know if you'd like to see more content like this or what else you'd like to see on the channel/podcast.
Recommended
Transcript
Reunion and Excitement
00:00:00
Speaker
All right.
00:00:00
Speaker
What is up, solopreneurs?
00:00:01
Speaker
This is James Swinerski and Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:04
Speaker
We haven't had an episode together in, what, like 10 months, right?
00:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's been a while, man.
00:00:10
Speaker
Miss you on the show.
00:00:12
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:00:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's sweet.
00:00:15
Speaker
It's sweet.
00:00:15
Speaker
So yeah, it's been a good while.
00:00:16
Speaker
We wanted to actually do on this episode some coaching calls, specifically like some role plays.
00:00:22
Speaker
We're going to role play some common scenarios.
00:00:24
Speaker
I know a lot of you guys are going through.
00:00:26
Speaker
Taylor's going to handle some.
00:00:28
Speaker
Give me some advice.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm going to handle some.
00:00:29
Speaker
Give him some advice.
00:00:30
Speaker
It's going to be a fun time.
00:00:31
Speaker
Let's go ahead and roll the intro and we'll get started.
Introducing Solarpreneur
00:00:34
Speaker
What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
00:00:40
Speaker
We call ourselves solarpreneurs and while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
00:00:52
Speaker
Solarpreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
00:01:04
Speaker
We are solarpreneurs and this is our story.
00:01:14
Speaker
All right.
00:01:15
Speaker
Welcome back, school for new words.
00:01:17
Speaker
This is James Swinorski here.
00:01:18
Speaker
I've got the man, Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:20
Speaker
Say hello to everybody.
00:01:22
Speaker
What's up, dude?
00:01:23
Speaker
I got to ask, man.
00:01:24
Speaker
Did you have like your Darth Vader mask on or something for that intro?
00:01:29
Speaker
Sometimes I'm like, no, I did it.
00:01:31
Speaker
I did it really early in the morning is what happened.
00:01:35
Speaker
I don't know what it is.
00:01:36
Speaker
The first couple hours in the morning, my voice is like a good, I don't know, however you measure voice volume.
00:01:41
Speaker
It's low.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it is a sick intro, but every time I'm like, he must have the Darth Vader mask on or something.
00:01:48
Speaker
Could have done the Batman voice.
00:01:51
Speaker
It would have been better.
00:01:54
Speaker
Next time, we're going to have to have different superhero themes and change the voice for each one.
00:02:00
Speaker
Not have those voice changers.
00:02:01
Speaker
What happens?
00:02:03
Speaker
We hired a guy on Upwork actually due to that intro and we had a few people do it and it was awful, just straight awful.
00:02:12
Speaker
The guy sounded like he was playing a Halo game or something, like an alien blaster.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, the voice was just – he had this hard rock music.
00:02:23
Speaker
I'm like, man, I'm just going to do it myself.
00:02:24
Speaker
It was terrible.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah.
What is a Solopreneur?
00:02:28
Speaker
it's embarrassing yeah all right good stuff man good stuff well tanner what the heck is the solopreneur about man who's the welcome people who are new to the show man tell them what it's about yeah so if you hadn't heard our past episodes i would definitely suggest go back and listen to episode number one that's where we go into what is a solopreneur going in the background and
00:02:52
Speaker
And we're constantly trying to improve the episodes, so maybe it did get a bit rambly and stuff in the first episodes.
00:02:58
Speaker
But yeah, basically a solopreneur is just someone that's trying to put the entrepreneurship into their solar game.
00:03:06
Speaker
Because when you talk about solar, at least when I got in here, I thought that solar was just going to be like any other door-to-door type thing.
00:03:13
Speaker
Came from the pest control industry.
00:03:15
Speaker
So I thought it was going to be knocking on some doors, closing them on the spots.
00:03:19
Speaker
What I didn't realize is that to truly master a solar game, you got to master the follow up.
00:03:24
Speaker
You got to master the close.
00:03:25
Speaker
You got to master the digital marketing.
00:03:28
Speaker
So in my opinion, that's what being a solopreneur is.
00:03:30
Speaker
It's just learning all these aspects and then also learning to grow a team and get people to help you with the stuff where you're uncomfortable.
00:03:38
Speaker
So that's what's been a solopreneur is all about for me.
Role Plays and In-home Presentation Techniques
00:03:41
Speaker
100%.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool.
00:03:44
Speaker
So Taylor, I think we're going to dive into some role plays, man, hopefully.
00:03:48
Speaker
And the goal of this is, guys, we don't do enough live action role plays, recordings of actual in-home presentations.
00:03:56
Speaker
And that's kind of the content route, I think, that's...
00:03:59
Speaker
going to help solopreneurs out more than anything right now is the application.
00:04:03
Speaker
So you can actually see all the stuff that we've talked about that maybe you think sounds good in theory, but you're not sure how you could pull it off or how you can apply it to your market, right?
00:04:13
Speaker
So we're really just going to take those questions out here.
00:04:17
Speaker
I'll really show you how it's done, how to apply this.
00:04:19
Speaker
San Diego is a spot where Taylor and I both sell.
00:04:23
Speaker
And Taylor's been doing it a very long time.
00:04:25
Speaker
He's pretty experienced, gets a pretty consistent deal flow in San Diego.
00:04:29
Speaker
I think he really knows his stuff too.
00:04:30
Speaker
So I think it's going to be good to role play with him, go off of that.
00:04:33
Speaker
You'll have to excuse me.
00:04:34
Speaker
I'm sick right now.
00:04:35
Speaker
So my voice is pretty messed up as well.
00:04:37
Speaker
So...
00:04:38
Speaker
If I cough or something, yeah, you know what's up.
00:04:41
Speaker
So Taylor, let's go ahead and dive into some role plays, man.
00:04:44
Speaker
If you want to do like... Let's do just in the house, man.
00:04:48
Speaker
So you just show up at the house, do all of your... Hey, how you doing?
00:04:53
Speaker
And then we'll just get started with that.
00:04:55
Speaker
I'll be the...
00:04:56
Speaker
homeowner to start and then we'll trade off and go from there.
00:04:59
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:05:00
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:05:01
Speaker
And yeah, just a disclaimer before, I mean, obviously we're over the phone, but we're doing in-house presentation versus on the phone.
00:05:08
Speaker
This is going to be a little bit different when I'm doing over the phone.
00:05:12
Speaker
I try to use like a zoom room or join me some, some type of thing where they can see my screen.
00:05:19
Speaker
Um, but I'm going to do it as if we're in the home here.
00:05:22
Speaker
So if I'm in the home, I'm going to be using a notepad.
00:05:25
Speaker
I'm going to be showing resources and be showing links of a couple of different things.
00:05:29
Speaker
So you're not going to see that on the audio, obviously, but just a little disclaimer.
00:05:33
Speaker
But let's get it rolling.
00:05:35
Speaker
Cool.
00:05:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:37
Speaker
So I walk up to James' home, sit down on, first of all, not going to sit down on the couch.
00:05:44
Speaker
I'm going to get to the kitchen table.
00:05:46
Speaker
Should be hopefully a no-brainer for people, but...
00:05:49
Speaker
I like to think people are, forget the saying, but it's a pest outside of the home.
00:05:54
Speaker
Do you remember what that saying is?
00:05:56
Speaker
A pest on the porch, a guest in the house.
00:06:01
Speaker
I don't know what it is, but I like where it's going.
00:06:05
Speaker
I've never heard it.
00:06:06
Speaker
Okay, I butchered that, but there's some saying.
00:06:08
Speaker
A pest on the house, a guest on the couch, yeah.
00:06:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:14
Speaker
I'm stealing that one.
00:06:15
Speaker
That's funny.
00:06:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:16
Speaker
Well, I'll figure out the story later.
00:06:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:19
Speaker
So we're sitting on the table.
00:06:21
Speaker
We're sitting down with James and his wife.
00:06:24
Speaker
In this scenario, he's married.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, I'm married now.
00:06:27
Speaker
Newsflash.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:30
Speaker
So James, we built some rapport.
00:06:32
Speaker
We talked about his dog.
00:06:33
Speaker
We talked about his kids.
00:06:36
Speaker
Five, 10 minutes, maybe we talked about that stuff.
00:06:38
Speaker
Built some rapport.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
So James, now that I've gotten to know you a little bit, I do have to be a little bit quick.
00:06:46
Speaker
We're meeting with so many people out here.
00:06:48
Speaker
But tell me, what is it that you're looking to get out of going solar?
00:06:52
Speaker
I just want to save money.
00:06:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:57
Speaker
So if we can save you some money, you'd be happy with it?
00:07:00
Speaker
You'd be ready to roll?
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, let's save some money, man.
00:07:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:06
Speaker
Awesome.
00:07:07
Speaker
Great.
00:07:08
Speaker
Well, let's get that happening.
00:07:10
Speaker
And then what questions or concerns would you have about going solar?
00:07:15
Speaker
How do I save money if I got to spend money?
00:07:17
Speaker
That doesn't make any sense.
00:07:20
Speaker
Okay, good question.
00:07:22
Speaker
I'm going to write that down.
00:07:25
Speaker
What if the panels stop working?
00:07:27
Speaker
Okay, great question.
00:07:29
Speaker
What if the utility company, what if SPG&E stops working?
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point.
00:07:35
Speaker
I'm going to write all that down.
00:07:38
Speaker
All right.
00:07:39
Speaker
Uh, I see.
00:07:41
Speaker
What if like some birds come in like, or like a golf ball breaks one of the panels.
00:07:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:48
Speaker
If a kid throws a Frisbee up there or something, my kids are pretty crazy.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:52
Speaker
Got to keep those rascals under control.
00:07:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:56
Speaker
Well, thanks for your parenting advice, Taylor.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:59
Speaker
I'm having to appreciate it.
00:08:00
Speaker
I'm having to keep myself.
00:08:03
Speaker
Got one on the way, one on the way.
00:08:04
Speaker
So.
00:08:05
Speaker
That's right.
00:08:06
Speaker
That's right.
00:08:07
Speaker
Sweet.
00:08:07
Speaker
I think that's about it, man.
00:08:09
Speaker
That's all the questions I have.
Addressing Objections and Closing Sales
00:08:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:10
Speaker
Right now.
00:08:11
Speaker
Cool.
00:08:11
Speaker
I just kind of want to hear your presentation though.
00:08:14
Speaker
Four questions.
00:08:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:15
Speaker
Awesome.
00:08:16
Speaker
Great.
00:08:16
Speaker
And then you guys plan on staying in the home, right, James?
00:08:19
Speaker
No plans to sell?
00:08:22
Speaker
Not as far as I know.
00:08:24
Speaker
Okay, awesome.
00:08:26
Speaker
Great.
00:08:26
Speaker
Well, my goal with this is I want to answer all your questions, and I want you to ask as many questions as possible because our goal here is to help you come to a decision either way.
00:08:34
Speaker
I'm fine with either one.
00:08:36
Speaker
So what we'll do, James, is, yeah, I'm going to obviously show you how the solar works.
00:08:41
Speaker
We're going to look at how much you'll save each month, stuff like that.
00:08:44
Speaker
Then we'll get into your questions.
00:08:46
Speaker
So assuming I can answer your questions and everything looks good, what I'll do today with you is submit an application.
00:08:53
Speaker
And help you guys come to decision.
00:08:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:56
Speaker
But if there are unanswered questions or it's not what you expected, then I don't expect you guys to do anything.
00:09:03
Speaker
But if it is, then great.
00:09:04
Speaker
We'll get it rolling, do an application and submit some documents with you guys.
00:09:08
Speaker
That sound fair?
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:11
Speaker
Sounds okay.
00:09:12
Speaker
Awesome.
00:09:13
Speaker
Great.
00:09:14
Speaker
Well, let's get into this, James.
00:09:15
Speaker
So you, you guys have been in the home, what, about five years now?
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah, five.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, just about.
00:09:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:25
Speaker
So the way solar works, I don't know how much you've heard, but we have an agreement with the utility company out here.
00:09:31
Speaker
It's called net metering.
00:09:32
Speaker
Have you guys heard about that before?
00:09:35
Speaker
Never heard about it.
00:09:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:37
Speaker
So what it is, it's what allows you to get solar without needing to buy a bunch of batteries.
00:09:41
Speaker
Because as you know, you're not going to produce anything at nighttime.
00:09:45
Speaker
You're only producing energy during the day.
00:09:48
Speaker
So we have the agreements where they will credit you for all the energy you produce during the day.
00:09:53
Speaker
And then you can just use it back at nighttime or when it's cloudy, things like that.
00:09:59
Speaker
So that makes it nice.
00:09:59
Speaker
And then the other thing is they let you bank it up over time.
00:10:03
Speaker
And it works kind of like, do you remember how they used to have the roll over minutes with the cell phones?
00:10:08
Speaker
Sure.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, so same concept.
00:10:11
Speaker
If you guys don't use all your energy one month, it's going to roll into the future months and keep on using that energy bank that you build up.
00:10:19
Speaker
But hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:10:20
Speaker
They got rid of rollover minutes, though.
00:10:22
Speaker
What if they get rid of this?
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, good point, good point.
00:10:27
Speaker
So they are trying to change a lot of things, and that's actually what I was going to tell you, is they do charge about $10 a month to be connected to this.
00:10:38
Speaker
That's kind of their connection fee that they charge.
00:10:41
Speaker
So that's the one thing they don't let us get rid of.
00:10:45
Speaker
And it's gotten worse as time goes on, believe it or not.
00:10:49
Speaker
Because in the past, yeah, they used to give people, write people checks, give people a lot more credits.
00:10:56
Speaker
So here's what happens.
00:10:58
Speaker
If we can get you approved and SDG&E approves this, the utility company approves it, we will get your grandfathered in to how it is right now, James, and everything will be good.
00:11:09
Speaker
They said that they're going to grandfather for 20 years.
00:11:12
Speaker
So yeah, I would hope they wouldn't change it after that, but at least you got 20 years.
00:11:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:19
Speaker
So yeah, that's why we're meeting with so many people right now is hopefully we can get everything approved, worked out.
00:11:25
Speaker
We'll get it all approved, all locked in.
00:11:27
Speaker
That way they can't change it.
00:11:29
Speaker
So it can't be like the whole roll over minutes that change.
00:11:32
Speaker
Does that answer your question though, James?
00:11:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:11:35
Speaker
Awesome.
00:11:36
Speaker
Awesome.
Emotional Selling and Creating Urgency
00:11:38
Speaker
Great.
00:11:38
Speaker
So that's how that works.
00:11:39
Speaker
And then as far as how they bill you, have you guys actually looked at your utility bills?
00:11:45
Speaker
Would you guys mostly just pay them and kind of get rid of them?
00:11:49
Speaker
Just pay it, man.
00:11:50
Speaker
It's auto pay.
00:11:51
Speaker
I'd never see it.
00:11:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:54
Speaker
So yeah, just a couple of things that people have told me and then I'm going to pull up your proposal here, James.
00:12:00
Speaker
But just so you know, there's been quite a few issues with the utility going on.
00:12:06
Speaker
Part of it is they have these things called tiers.
00:12:09
Speaker
And I'll draw it out here for you on my pad of paper.
00:12:13
Speaker
What's happening is the more energy you use, the more they bill you for it.
00:12:18
Speaker
So it's kind of the opposite.
00:12:19
Speaker
Like I shop at Costco.
00:12:21
Speaker
It looks like you guys do too.
00:12:23
Speaker
Got some Costco muffins over there.
00:12:26
Speaker
So Costco, they usually give you a discount for buying in bulk, you know.
00:12:31
Speaker
But SDG&E, the utility company, they're going to charge you more for the more energy you use.
00:12:38
Speaker
So that's what's going on, and that's why people are getting such high bills in the summer and other months is because your rate is literally doubling when you cross the thresholds.
00:12:48
Speaker
So every time you use over the amount that they give you, they move you up into a higher tier and you pay more per unit of electricity, more per kilowatt.
00:12:57
Speaker
They do it.
00:12:59
Speaker
So that's the first thing people are telling me about.
00:13:02
Speaker
And the other thing, James, is there's been a lot of things going on here in San Diego.
00:13:07
Speaker
One is like they closed that nuclear power plant down.
00:13:10
Speaker
It's called San Onofre.
00:13:12
Speaker
I don't know if you guys have seen it along the I-5 there.
00:13:15
Speaker
But did you know that they're making us pay for that, for the decommissioning of it?
00:13:20
Speaker
I didn't know that, no.
00:13:21
Speaker
Well, yeah, I'll show you on your bill here.
00:13:24
Speaker
But it shows you here we pay for nuclear decommissioning.
00:13:28
Speaker
And then also we're paying for a lot of the fires.
00:13:31
Speaker
Probably heard about some of the fires they've had in the past.
00:13:35
Speaker
So, yeah, the rates are going up.
00:13:36
Speaker
You knew the rates were going up, though, every year, right?
00:13:38
Speaker
I'm sure that's not a surprise.
00:13:41
Speaker
I guess so, yeah.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
So I'll show you a couple articles here.
00:13:46
Speaker
But, yeah, as you can see in this news article, it's going up.
00:13:51
Speaker
They just requested a 28% rate hike.
00:13:54
Speaker
It's been going up on average like 6% a year or so.
00:13:59
Speaker
It's pretty bad.
00:14:00
Speaker
But yeah, so maybe you heard that.
00:14:01
Speaker
The main thing is, though, they got the monopoly.
00:14:03
Speaker
So unless you guys want to go Amish or stop using energy, I guess you got no choice but to continue using SDGD.
00:14:12
Speaker
So just a couple things, James.
00:14:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, things are going up always.
00:14:18
Speaker
So what we're doing here with the solar, it's pretty straightforward.
00:14:22
Speaker
The solar is just going up on the roof, and we're just swapping out the bill.
00:14:27
Speaker
So we're going to eliminate your bill
00:14:29
Speaker
with utility, you'll stop paying SDG&E and we're going to give you a new bill.
00:14:35
Speaker
And the difference is now it's just going towards an asset on the home that's adding value to your home.
00:14:41
Speaker
And that's going to be something you own up there too.
00:14:45
Speaker
And that's really the main point of it.
00:14:46
Speaker
Because like if you're paying electricity already, don't you think it'd be better to go towards something that at least adds to your home?
00:14:55
Speaker
I don't know.
00:14:55
Speaker
I would think so.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
So yeah, that's the main point of it.
00:15:02
Speaker
I guess on a side note though, it will be cheaper than what you're paying.
00:15:07
Speaker
And then also the bills will stay flat.
00:15:09
Speaker
So you're not going to have any of these rate hikes like I just showed you with SDG&E.
00:15:15
Speaker
And then with this program, the bill will end.
00:15:19
Speaker
You guys have been here five years and talked to people that have been paying their utility bill for 50 years now.
00:15:25
Speaker
Never ending.
00:15:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:26
Speaker
So with this, the bill will end when you guys move or at 20 years, whichever comes first.
00:15:33
Speaker
So it's just going to add value to the home.
00:15:35
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:15:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:37
Speaker
So that's about it, James.
00:15:38
Speaker
So that's the whole concept of it.
00:15:40
Speaker
Wow.
00:15:42
Speaker
Interesting.
00:15:43
Speaker
Well, cool.
00:15:43
Speaker
We're going to go ahead and think about this, man.
00:15:46
Speaker
Thanks for the information, man.
00:15:47
Speaker
You've been really informative.
00:15:48
Speaker
Awesome.
00:15:49
Speaker
So yeah, do you feel like you have enough information to be able to make a decision on it with what I've showed you here, James?
00:15:57
Speaker
I feel like maybe we... I don't think you answered my questions, though.
00:16:04
Speaker
Remember, what if something hits or blocks the panels?
00:16:07
Speaker
What if the panels break?
00:16:09
Speaker
I had a couple questions.
00:16:10
Speaker
You kind of skipped over those.
00:16:11
Speaker
Right.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, let's get into those questions.
00:16:14
Speaker
So I'll just, okay, cool.
00:16:16
Speaker
We'll stop there.
00:16:16
Speaker
We'll play.
00:16:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:18
Speaker
Awesome.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:18
Speaker
Cause I don't think Taylor wrote down the questions, which is fine.
00:16:21
Speaker
We're talking here, but anyway, yeah.
00:16:24
Speaker
Taylor would have answered my questions.
00:16:25
Speaker
I've seen, I've been on appointments with him.
00:16:27
Speaker
He answers the questions.
00:16:29
Speaker
We go from there.
00:16:30
Speaker
Cool.
00:16:31
Speaker
So Taylor, what'd you think about your role play, man?
00:16:33
Speaker
What, how do you think it went?
00:16:35
Speaker
What do you think could have went better?
00:16:36
Speaker
Just kind of from your perspective.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was, I think it was not bad.
00:16:43
Speaker
Obviously, like I mentioned before, doing it over the phone.
00:16:47
Speaker
I'm going to be showing them, writing a lot more stuff down, and obviously showing them some stuff on the computer as I'm talking.
00:16:54
Speaker
But yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
Taylor's pretty old school.
00:16:57
Speaker
He does mostly in-person appointments, so it's kind of his style.
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
I'm definitely not the expert yet for the virtual ones, like the Master James here.
00:17:10
Speaker
But yeah, I thought it was decent.
00:17:11
Speaker
You can kind of tell how sold people are.
00:17:15
Speaker
So, like just listening over the phone with James, you can kind of sense that he wasn't sold.
00:17:22
Speaker
I mean, that's why he said, great.
00:17:24
Speaker
Thanks for the information.
00:17:25
Speaker
I'm going to think about it.
00:17:27
Speaker
So what I've realized is that'll happen a lot of times.
00:17:30
Speaker
That just means they haven't gotten enough information yet.
00:17:32
Speaker
They're not sold and built urgency.
00:17:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:36
Speaker
So...
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on it.
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, no, a
Pitch Strategies and Frame Control
00:17:43
Speaker
couple of things.
00:17:43
Speaker
So I like Taylor did a great job at asking introductory questions.
00:17:47
Speaker
So he really had that discovery phase fully in there.
00:17:52
Speaker
What happens is the more time you could spend really discovering what your prospects intentions are with questions they have, what their current understanding is, the more familiar you're going to be with where they stand at, right?
00:18:03
Speaker
And if we know our prospects,
00:18:06
Speaker
as well as we know ourselves, then we're able to predict where they're going to go.
00:18:10
Speaker
We know what they're going to say, and it's not going to come as a surprise.
00:18:13
Speaker
We're able to actually steer and take control of the entire sale and lead it to where we want to.
00:18:19
Speaker
So Taylor did a great job at that.
00:18:20
Speaker
The more questions you can ask in the beginning part of your pitch, that gives you more ammunition to use later on so you can leverage that.
00:18:27
Speaker
So some of the things I would have done with Taylor here...
00:18:31
Speaker
I want to ask more deep questions on understanding why they want to save money.
00:18:37
Speaker
So they said they want to save money, but ask them specifically like, hey, what do they do?
00:18:41
Speaker
What do you guys do for work?
00:18:42
Speaker
Speaking of money, we do this and this.
00:18:45
Speaker
Do you guys get a lot of free time?
00:18:46
Speaker
Do you go on vacations?
00:18:48
Speaker
What do you guys do for fun?
00:18:50
Speaker
I don't know.
00:18:50
Speaker
We do this.
00:18:51
Speaker
Maybe they say something like, we don't have a lot of time.
00:18:55
Speaker
Or they complain about money and they say they don't have a lot of money to go do a ton of stuff, right?
00:18:59
Speaker
Then I'll ask them, well, look, our average customer in San Diego right now, they're saving like $25,000, $26,000 off their electricity costs just by swapping to solar.
00:19:09
Speaker
What would you guys do with an extra $26,000?
00:19:11
Speaker
And get them talking, right?
00:19:13
Speaker
You paint that picture.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, because what this does, this opens up the emotional floodgates.
00:19:19
Speaker
That's what I call them, just right off the bat.
00:19:21
Speaker
They start thinking emotionally.
00:19:23
Speaker
They stop thinking with their head, start thinking with their heart more.
00:19:26
Speaker
That's what we're looking for because if you can unlock that, get them thinking with emotion, then now we have more control over the sale.
00:19:33
Speaker
Just how people pay attention during a movie, right?
00:19:36
Speaker
They don't walk out in the middle of a movie.
00:19:39
Speaker
because they're emotionally invested.
00:19:41
Speaker
Get them emotionally invested as quickly as possible in your pitch.
00:19:45
Speaker
That's the only other thing I would say with Taylor's role play.
00:19:48
Speaker
It was really good, really structured.
00:19:49
Speaker
He covered most of the information.
00:19:52
Speaker
He would have covered the questions.
00:19:53
Speaker
It just didn't have any emotion was the problem.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah, true.
00:19:57
Speaker
Without emotion, you're not going to have a whole lot of urgency.
00:20:00
Speaker
They're not going to feel anything.
00:20:01
Speaker
And it's just going to look like a transactional, like logical based thing.
00:20:05
Speaker
If Taylor had a story about somebody, and I've heard him use a story or two before, a story about somebody who actually went solar and they had X result.
00:20:15
Speaker
And that result happened to be exactly what the prospect was looking for.
00:20:19
Speaker
Then boom, he would have clicked it.
00:20:21
Speaker
Just like a movie, they can relate to that character.
00:20:24
Speaker
Um,
00:20:25
Speaker
That's the thing I would have changed with Taylor's pitch more than anything.
00:20:28
Speaker
Cause at the end of that, you're going to get the usual objections because they don't feel like a drive to move forward.
00:20:35
Speaker
You got them the information.
00:20:37
Speaker
They just maybe don't want to make a move quite yet.
00:20:40
Speaker
No, I agree.
00:20:41
Speaker
I agree.
00:20:41
Speaker
And I can definitely tell that in my deals.
00:20:44
Speaker
Cause I'll usually get exactly what James just did.
00:20:46
Speaker
Just, Oh, I need to think about it.
00:20:48
Speaker
Then tell when they're not connected.
00:20:50
Speaker
Cause you won't get as much interaction from them.
00:20:52
Speaker
And,
00:20:54
Speaker
stuff like that.
00:20:54
Speaker
So what do you do, James, if they're not like talking and if you're not getting them to open up, do you like kind of call them out on it?
00:21:01
Speaker
Or do you ever get that where people like don't open up and like, why they want to save money?
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:08
Speaker
So I call this frame control, right?
00:21:10
Speaker
And I think Taylor's talked about it a little bit.
00:21:12
Speaker
We borrowed this from Oren Klaff, really have used it just in solar and gotten crazy results from it.
00:21:17
Speaker
If you guys don't know Oren Klaff, he actually has a background in investment banking.
00:21:23
Speaker
And really just being one of those like hardcore B2B type of sales guys, you might say, well, how can I apply B2B investment banking to solar homeowners, to homeowners?
00:21:34
Speaker
And it's really frame control, which is just the outcome of a social interaction.
00:21:39
Speaker
Like when Taylor and I talk, when we hop on this podcast, there is a frame battle going on.
00:21:44
Speaker
And you can tell like the person who usually leads the conversation or asks the question and the other person answers it, they usually control the frame and kind of how the social outcome would be going.
00:21:55
Speaker
So how I would use this with Taylor in this situation is you just want to make sure you're taking control of asking questions like Taylor did.
00:22:03
Speaker
Um,
00:22:05
Speaker
Taylor, specifically, what was your question?
00:22:07
Speaker
Again, man, I just lost my train of thought.
00:22:08
Speaker
I'm just saying like, if they don't give you like feedback,
00:22:13
Speaker
If they don't open up.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
So to get them to open up, I just call them out.
00:22:17
Speaker
So we call this a pattern interrupt and it's really heavy on what we call the power frame.
00:22:22
Speaker
So somebody is just like, like in me in that case, or I'm just like, yeah, that's cool.
00:22:27
Speaker
I'll just say, Hey, obviously this isn't very interesting for you guys.
00:22:31
Speaker
Let me ask you before I go here, what were you hoping to get out of this appointment?
00:22:36
Speaker
That's it.
00:22:37
Speaker
Love it.
00:22:38
Speaker
So you take away, you say, look, obviously something's on your mind and this isn't very interesting.
00:22:44
Speaker
Does that sound correct?
00:22:45
Speaker
And they're like, what the... Instantly, it's going to shock them, right?
00:22:49
Speaker
Because they're like, nobody talks to me like that.
00:22:51
Speaker
I thought this guy was just going to spew on his pitch, right?
00:22:54
Speaker
Stop them immediately.
00:22:56
Speaker
If you're in person...
00:22:58
Speaker
This is really easy to tell engagement because you can see their eyes, right?
00:23:01
Speaker
If the eye, if they ever stop like making eye contact or they look in the other room, I stop immediately.
00:23:08
Speaker
I don't keep going.
00:23:09
Speaker
I don't say a single word more.
00:23:10
Speaker
It's done.
00:23:11
Speaker
Like, all right, guys.
00:23:13
Speaker
something's on your mind.
00:23:14
Speaker
Let's get out of here.
00:23:14
Speaker
If they're checking the phone, they're checking the watch, they're trying to talk to the kid, end the thing.
00:23:20
Speaker
If you're doing a virtual presentation and you're doing it over the phone, it's a little bit more difficult because you may not know where their attention is.
00:23:27
Speaker
This is why your pitch has to be
00:23:29
Speaker
so dialed in.
00:23:30
Speaker
That's why the emotional story side has to be like 80% of it over the phone because they could go look at anything.
00:23:37
Speaker
I don't know what they're looking at.
00:23:38
Speaker
They could be cooking a meal for all I know, right?
00:23:41
Speaker
They could be washing the dishes or something like that.
00:23:44
Speaker
You got to be able to be so engaging and so enticing just over the phone.
00:23:48
Speaker
Things like tonality, you've got to hook them in.
00:23:51
Speaker
So I don't recommend if you've heard the virtual sales episode,
00:23:54
Speaker
Most people should not start virtually.
00:23:56
Speaker
Absolutely just suicide because there's so many elements you can't control.
00:24:00
Speaker
There's a lot of things have to be set up correctly.
00:24:02
Speaker
So yeah, that's what I think.
00:24:04
Speaker
In fact, I made a mistake on that this morning.
00:24:07
Speaker
I was literally in a deal this morning.
00:24:09
Speaker
The guy was watching TV in the deal.
00:24:12
Speaker
His TV was more important than what I was saying.
00:24:15
Speaker
Yeah, you got to get rid of those distractions.
00:24:20
Speaker
I think it would have been way more effective if I did what you did.
00:24:23
Speaker
I asked him to turn the TV off.
00:24:24
Speaker
I'm like, I'm like, look, man, can we, uh, let me just show you what I got here.
00:24:29
Speaker
Let's turn the TV off.
00:24:30
Speaker
That's okay.
00:24:32
Speaker
So you turn it off, but, um, I think it would have even been even better, like caught his attention.
00:24:37
Speaker
And I think if I would have done that, cause I didn't close this deal, maybe I would have closed them.
00:24:42
Speaker
Cause then I would have completely taken the frame from, I think, but.
00:24:46
Speaker
I think that's huge.
00:24:48
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
Well, let's do a role play.
00:24:51
Speaker
So I'll give you kind of an idea of how I would start a pitch.
00:24:54
Speaker
I'll do the same thing Taylor did.
00:24:55
Speaker
We could go the other side.
00:24:56
Speaker
It's going to be a very different pitch style because, again, I do mostly virtual sales.
00:25:00
Speaker
So the setup Taylor and I are talking right now is exactly how I would do it in real life.
00:25:05
Speaker
So it's not too different.
00:25:07
Speaker
All right.
00:25:08
Speaker
Let's roll.
00:25:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:09
Speaker
So I just come in.
00:25:10
Speaker
Taylor, what's up, man?
00:25:11
Speaker
How are you doing?
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah, we're... What's going on?
00:25:14
Speaker
Hey.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:15
Speaker
Taylor, I don't want to be too abrasive here, man, but I got about 12, 15 minutes to go over this.
00:25:21
Speaker
We're seeing a lot of homeowners in the area here.
00:25:23
Speaker
You just happened to be my appointment here at 6 o'clock.
00:25:26
Speaker
So do you want to sit at the kitchen table or do you want to go in the living room?
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah, you know what?
00:25:30
Speaker
Let's just go on the couch here.
00:25:32
Speaker
And yeah, that works out good because I'm pretty busy too.
00:25:35
Speaker
So the couch here, okay?
00:25:38
Speaker
Cool, cool.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yep, that's fine.
00:25:40
Speaker
And then your wife didn't want to make this.
00:25:42
Speaker
It sounds like you said you would be comfortable making a decision on this from our phone calls.
00:25:46
Speaker
That's still the case.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, probably wouldn't be able to make a decision today.
00:25:49
Speaker
But yeah, looking forward to seeing what you got.
00:25:52
Speaker
So go ahead.
00:25:55
Speaker
All right, well, I didn't know if this was super clear, so I should probably take off then.
00:26:00
Speaker
My job today is pretty simple, Taylor.
00:26:03
Speaker
I'm going to help you decide if solar makes sense or not, okay?
00:26:06
Speaker
And I'm fine if it doesn't make sense.
00:26:08
Speaker
I'm the guy who's going to tell you the truth with this.
00:26:10
Speaker
If it does make sense, cool, I'll help you move forward.
00:26:13
Speaker
But at the end of our conversation, if we move forward with this today, I don't want to hear like, I need to think about it.
00:26:19
Speaker
I need to do more research because that means I didn't do my job right.
00:26:22
Speaker
My job is to help you feel comfortable making a yes or no decision.
00:26:26
Speaker
So Taylor, before we even move forward here, can you agree that you'll be able to make that firm decision if you have the correct information?
00:26:33
Speaker
I guess if I have the correct information, so we'll see.
00:26:36
Speaker
I don't want to make any promises, but yeah, if I have all the information.
00:26:41
Speaker
Are you sure?
00:26:42
Speaker
Doesn't sound like you're too sure about that, man.
00:26:45
Speaker
If it's a no, man, it's fine.
00:26:46
Speaker
I could take off right now.
00:26:47
Speaker
Okay, well...
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, I guess just show me what you got and yeah, let's do it.
00:26:52
Speaker
All right, Taylor, I think we should do this.
00:26:57
Speaker
I think I'm going to send you a video I've got here.
00:26:59
Speaker
I'm going to pack up and leave here.
00:27:02
Speaker
you and your wife watched that video.
00:27:05
Speaker
You could communicate with me on Messenger or email, give you my contact information.
00:27:10
Speaker
If you have any questions on that, that you need, like maybe you got to go research somebody who's went solar with our company.
00:27:18
Speaker
Maybe you got to do a little research on solar itself.
00:27:21
Speaker
Why don't you do that first?
00:27:22
Speaker
Because when I come over, I mean business and we're going to get the job done.
00:27:25
Speaker
Yes or no.
00:27:26
Speaker
And I don't want to waste the next 15 minutes of your time if you're not ready to move forward with this.
00:27:30
Speaker
Does that sound fair enough?
00:27:32
Speaker
Go ahead and send me it.
00:27:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:34
Speaker
Sounds great.
00:27:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:37
Speaker
Well, we didn't get into the presentation because Taylor wanted to hardball me.
00:27:44
Speaker
Super real scenario though.
00:27:46
Speaker
I've done this a million, million times.
00:27:49
Speaker
That exact thing right there, I won't present.
00:27:52
Speaker
If they need to do something like research, they need a client testimonial, they need to talk to another homeowner, I'm going to give it to them first.
00:28:00
Speaker
Because what happens when I unleash that proposal and the price?
00:28:03
Speaker
You know this, Taylor.
00:28:04
Speaker
As soon as that hits the table and they've seen the numbers, what happens?
00:28:07
Speaker
Then they have everything.
00:28:09
Speaker
They make a decision either way.
00:28:11
Speaker
They have all the leverage, all leverage, right?
00:28:14
Speaker
They have nothing.
00:28:15
Speaker
I'm holding the prize right now.
00:28:17
Speaker
And by me pulling away and saying, I'm not presenting because you're not following my agenda.
00:28:22
Speaker
That's the frame that's happening here.
00:28:24
Speaker
I don't literally say that, but they get the feel.
00:28:26
Speaker
They're like, oh shit.
00:28:28
Speaker
Like this guy, he's serious.
00:28:30
Speaker
Like what's going on here, right?
00:28:32
Speaker
And I'm like, nope, this is how we play the game.
00:28:35
Speaker
You can play by my rules or we can't play at all.
00:28:38
Speaker
Instantly.
00:28:38
Speaker
It may seem like you're turning off the customer.
00:28:40
Speaker
This is what most salespeople would think, right?
00:28:43
Speaker
You're solidifying your status immediately.
00:28:45
Speaker
You're like the super prized surgeon that people wait eight months to go and see, right?
00:28:51
Speaker
Like, boom, letter of the law.
00:28:52
Speaker
This is how you operate.
00:28:54
Speaker
And if you have like a third party resource, like a video, I like to use video sequences or some sort of resource to build that relationship up more, you're going to get that deal.
00:29:03
Speaker
And if they have competitors, you're going to win the deal.
00:29:05
Speaker
So...
00:29:06
Speaker
That was ballsy, man.
00:29:08
Speaker
Got to have big balls to do that for sure.
Handling Objections and Referrals
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
Let's do an actual pitch, though.
00:29:14
Speaker
Let's see if you let me in.
00:29:16
Speaker
So let you in.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah, James, you know what?
00:29:18
Speaker
If I have all the information, I'll go ahead and make a decision.
00:29:21
Speaker
So show me what you got.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:23
Speaker
Are you sure?
00:29:25
Speaker
All right, cool.
00:29:26
Speaker
Let's get started.
00:29:27
Speaker
So Taylor, tell me first, man.
00:29:30
Speaker
We had a little bit of a conversation about it, but remind me, I got some notes here.
00:29:33
Speaker
I'm whipping out my notepad.
00:29:34
Speaker
I know we're over the phone.
00:29:35
Speaker
I guess we're in person here.
00:29:36
Speaker
All right, so I got my notepad.
00:29:39
Speaker
I'm going to take some notes here.
00:29:42
Speaker
Tell me, man, what do you know about solar?
00:29:44
Speaker
What kind of questions do you have about it so far?
00:29:46
Speaker
I just want to know, well, price is the big one because, yeah, obviously I want it.
00:29:51
Speaker
a good deal on what we're doing here.
00:29:54
Speaker
And I just want to know like what happens if they break.
00:30:00
Speaker
And then I've heard like there's some like leasing programs.
00:30:03
Speaker
So I want to know, like I've thought about maybe like leasing them.
00:30:07
Speaker
So if you can like explain to me that difference, but that's pretty much it, man.
00:30:11
Speaker
Just the price and then warranty, I guess.
00:30:16
Speaker
And then explain to me, uh,
00:30:18
Speaker
about leasing, if that's what you guys are doing.
00:30:22
Speaker
Would I be leasing them with you guys?
00:30:24
Speaker
Yeah, so Taylor...
00:30:26
Speaker
I'm not sure what kind of research you did too on us.
00:30:30
Speaker
I don't actually do leasing.
00:30:31
Speaker
You could go and talk to another company that does leasing.
00:30:35
Speaker
I actually have a couple of guys in the business I can recommend to you, but I don't do leasing programs for solar.
00:30:40
Speaker
It's not personally what I would put on my own house.
00:30:43
Speaker
When I got my parents' solar a couple of years back, I didn't get them leasing either.
00:30:48
Speaker
And I'll explain why.
00:30:49
Speaker
But if you're looking for leasing and you're dead set on that, maybe I should recommend you to somebody else.
00:30:53
Speaker
Well, no, I'm not dead set on it.
00:30:55
Speaker
So if you're saying...
00:30:56
Speaker
If you're telling me owning is better, then yeah, then that's what I'd want to do.
00:31:03
Speaker
All right.
00:31:04
Speaker
So what do you know about solar so far, though?
00:31:06
Speaker
So it sounds like you've checked it out a couple of times, right?
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've had some neighbors do it.
00:31:10
Speaker
So I know it saves people money.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, I know it's good for the environment.
00:31:17
Speaker
What have they said about it?
00:31:18
Speaker
I mean, they've said some of them have told me it's cut their bill in half.
00:31:21
Speaker
So that's pretty much it.
00:31:25
Speaker
I mean...
00:31:26
Speaker
is there any other reason to go solar besides saving money and I guess helping the environment?
00:31:34
Speaker
I don't know.
00:31:35
Speaker
You tell me.
00:31:38
Speaker
You don't know anything else?
00:31:39
Speaker
It's just environment and money then.
00:31:42
Speaker
So let's see what you got.
00:31:44
Speaker
Fair enough.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:47
Speaker
Do you have any other like concerns about solar?
00:31:49
Speaker
I've got a pretty good list here.
00:31:51
Speaker
Pretty good idea.
00:31:51
Speaker
Anything else you'd want me to know?
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's it.
00:31:55
Speaker
Do you have to have good credit for this too?
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah, is that going to be a problem?
00:32:04
Speaker
No, I got good credit.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah, so it should be fine.
00:32:09
Speaker
No, so why did you ask the question?
00:32:10
Speaker
Just because I have some friends that don't have good credit that we're thinking about going solar.
00:32:16
Speaker
So... Hmm, okay.
00:32:18
Speaker
Actually, I'm glad you brought that up, Taylor.
00:32:20
Speaker
So...
00:32:21
Speaker
Obviously, I'm going to help you decide if this makes sense or not, answer your questions.
00:32:24
Speaker
But if I'm able to do that, could you help me out and actually get in front of some more people that would be interested in going solar as well so I can help them make that decision as well?
00:32:33
Speaker
If it makes complete sense and helps me out, then yeah.
00:32:36
Speaker
I'll look and see who we can help you guys get.
00:32:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:32:42
Speaker
All right.
00:32:42
Speaker
So Taylor, I'm not going to be a broken record here.
00:32:46
Speaker
You know the idea with solar, right?
00:32:47
Speaker
You have one bill.
00:32:49
Speaker
Looks like you guys are paying about $160 a month or so right now.
00:32:52
Speaker
We can usually cut that down by 20%, 30% from month one.
00:32:55
Speaker
But you know that too.
00:32:57
Speaker
You're a smart guy.
00:32:58
Speaker
That's like $20.
00:33:00
Speaker
And people don't go solar just to save $20, right?
00:33:03
Speaker
I mean, is it really worth the hassle to save $20 a month?
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:33:06
Speaker
And that's kind of why we hadn't looked into it much before because... Yeah, I didn't know if it was worth the hassle.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, for $20 a month, I wouldn't get solar on my house.
00:33:17
Speaker
Not a million years.
00:33:18
Speaker
Okay, well, why should I do this then?
00:33:21
Speaker
That's all it did.
00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah, but why do you think people go solar besides just saving a couple of bucks month to month?
00:33:29
Speaker
Why are they really interested in doing this?
00:33:31
Speaker
I don't know.
00:33:31
Speaker
I thought that's what you were here to tell me, James.
00:33:36
Speaker
I am.
00:33:37
Speaker
I'm just curious where your thoughts are on this as well.
00:33:40
Speaker
Would it be the environment?
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, I would guess the environment.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:47
Speaker
Is that pretty important to you guys?
00:33:49
Speaker
It doesn't sound like it's too big of a deal, right?
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's good.
00:33:53
Speaker
We care more about saving money probably, but we probably care more about the green in our pockets than the actual green.
00:34:01
Speaker
But I guess it's nice.
00:34:03
Speaker
I mean, we're not like tree huggers or anything.
00:34:04
Speaker
Really?
00:34:08
Speaker
Not tree huggers.
00:34:09
Speaker
But if you had the option to do good for the environment and your pocket, wouldn't you want to do both?
00:34:15
Speaker
Yep.
00:34:16
Speaker
You sure?
00:34:19
Speaker
All right.
00:34:19
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:34:20
Speaker
So here's the deal.
00:34:22
Speaker
What we're looking at right now, I've got your proposal, right?
00:34:25
Speaker
You guys are going to save about $23,000 is what it looks like over the long term.
00:34:30
Speaker
The reason this happens is simple.
00:34:31
Speaker
You cut down the bill.
00:34:32
Speaker
It's about 20% less.
00:34:34
Speaker
We talked about that.
00:34:35
Speaker
But it's not about just saving that money today.
00:34:37
Speaker
It's about locking in that rate, okay?
00:34:41
Speaker
Taylor, I want you to imagine for a second that we went back to 1996 when I was born, okay?
00:34:47
Speaker
And the price of gas, a gallon of gas was like 75 cents a gallon, okay?
00:34:52
Speaker
Imagine that you had an ability, some magic genie gave you a wish and said, all right, we can lock in this rate and it's never gonna go up for the rest of your life and you're gonna pay 75 cents for a gallon of gas today, right?
00:35:06
Speaker
What kind of money would you have been saving over that last 23 years?
00:35:09
Speaker
Oh yeah, that'd be huge.
00:35:10
Speaker
I mean, I can't even imagine, but yeah, thousands.
00:35:13
Speaker
A lot of money, right?
00:35:17
Speaker
Well, guess what?
00:35:17
Speaker
I actually have one of those cards in my pocket right now.
00:35:20
Speaker
These gasoline cards.
00:35:21
Speaker
I want you to have it.
00:35:24
Speaker
I'm just kidding.
00:35:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:27
Speaker
It's for you.
00:35:27
Speaker
It's yours right now.
00:35:30
Speaker
$14.99.
00:35:30
Speaker
Here we go.
00:35:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:32
Speaker
So all seriousness aside though, Taylor, this is the exact same thing for solar.
00:35:38
Speaker
We're doing the same thing with electricity here.
00:35:41
Speaker
We're allowing you right now to lock in the rate for you pay electricity right now for the next 20 years.
00:35:46
Speaker
After 20 years,
00:35:48
Speaker
Unlike that gallon of gasoline card from the Magic Genie, you actually get to own your system completely and pay nothing for electricity after 20 years.
00:35:58
Speaker
So we're literally allowing you, yes, the opportunity to save 20 bucks a month, that's cool.
00:36:02
Speaker
But we get to lock it in over 20 years.
00:36:04
Speaker
Looks like we're going to save 23 grand over the next 20 years as well.
00:36:08
Speaker
You're going to save the environment at the same time.
00:36:11
Speaker
Uncle Sam's going to cut you a check for 30% of the cost of your system.
00:36:15
Speaker
And you get to be a pretty sweet badass on your corner.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:19
Speaker
With those panels on your house, right?
00:36:23
Speaker
So that's why people go smaller, man.
00:36:24
Speaker
How do I know I'm getting?
00:36:25
Speaker
Because I know there's lots of companies.
00:36:29
Speaker
How do I know I'm getting the best deal out there, James?
00:36:33
Speaker
Because I don't want to shop around.
00:36:36
Speaker
I don't know.
00:36:38
Speaker
How do you know, Taylor?
00:36:39
Speaker
You're the one who's making the decision here.
00:36:41
Speaker
How would you know if you're getting the best company?
00:36:44
Speaker
Well, I'd have to research them.
00:36:47
Speaker
But I told you I'd make a decision.
00:36:49
Speaker
So can you tell me, I guess, a little bit about your company, James?
00:36:53
Speaker
Like, why are you guys the best ones?
00:36:55
Speaker
Why should I pick you guys?
00:36:56
Speaker
Well, no.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah, I respect you in research.
00:37:01
Speaker
I do research as well on stuff I buy, of course, especially if it's something like this, right?
00:37:06
Speaker
It'd be ludicrous not to research these types of things.
00:37:08
Speaker
So let's say, Taylor, I gave you like two days, right?
00:37:12
Speaker
And you did some research on my company, Lumen.
00:37:15
Speaker
What kind of research would you be looking for?
00:37:17
Speaker
What would you be doing during that research?
00:37:18
Speaker
Probably look on Better Business Bureau, look on Yelp, just make sure you guys don't have a ton of negatives.
00:37:28
Speaker
And...
00:37:31
Speaker
That's probably about it, honestly.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:36
Speaker
That's about it.
00:37:37
Speaker
All right.
00:37:39
Speaker
So let's say that you jumped on Better Business Bureau.
00:37:43
Speaker
You checked out Google Reviews.
00:37:44
Speaker
Maybe Solar Reviews is another great site I'd recommend you check out.
00:37:48
Speaker
Lots of solar companies on there in San Diego.
00:37:51
Speaker
So you check it out.
00:37:51
Speaker
Everything looks good.
00:37:52
Speaker
What would you tell me?
00:37:54
Speaker
I mean, I'd be happy.
00:37:56
Speaker
Be happy with the decision.
00:38:00
Speaker
You'd be happy moving forward.
00:38:04
Speaker
All right.
00:38:04
Speaker
Well, why don't we look at some reviews right now?
00:38:08
Speaker
Check it out.
00:38:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:10
Speaker
Wow, looks great.
00:38:10
Speaker
That's true.
00:38:11
Speaker
No negatives.
00:38:12
Speaker
Cool, man.
00:38:13
Speaker
Well, here's the next step, Taylor.
00:38:16
Speaker
We just submit an application to the credit union.
00:38:18
Speaker
They're going to check, make sure that you're good.
00:38:20
Speaker
You're going to qualify for solar.
00:38:21
Speaker
We'll submit an application here with the power company for the net metering program.
00:38:25
Speaker
This is how you're going to work hand in hand with the power company a little bit.
00:38:29
Speaker
We didn't go into too much detail because I'm assuming that you know a little bit about it.
00:38:33
Speaker
But basically, that's just so you don't have to get like backup batteries.
00:38:36
Speaker
And it's how you're able to send the excess electricity that you create with your solar system.
00:38:42
Speaker
You send it into the grid and then they give it back to you when the sun's not shining.
00:38:46
Speaker
That's pretty much how it works.
00:38:48
Speaker
So we submit an application in.
00:38:49
Speaker
If you're approved, our install crew comes out.
00:38:52
Speaker
It takes about 30, 45 days to get everything approved and up and running from there.
00:38:56
Speaker
They're going to check the roof, make sure everything's good there.
00:38:59
Speaker
If something's not good, we're going to let you know and the whole thing's null and void.
00:39:03
Speaker
So actually, I got their calendar open here.
00:39:06
Speaker
When's a better time to have them come out and check out the roof and whatnot?
00:39:10
Speaker
Can you guys come weekends like on Saturday?
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, I'll have to check with them.
00:39:18
Speaker
Probably Saturday from like 2 to 5.
00:39:19
Speaker
Does that work?
00:39:21
Speaker
It only takes about like 30 minutes, but they like to leave an opening of about three hours or so.
00:39:26
Speaker
How much are we talking here?
00:39:27
Speaker
You didn't even show me the price, James.
00:39:29
Speaker
So what would I have to pay to do this?
00:39:33
Speaker
Oh.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah, so right now the monthly payment on that is $125,000.
00:39:39
Speaker
The total cost to the system is about $31,000.
00:39:42
Speaker
Like I said, you don't pay anything out of pocket for it.
00:39:44
Speaker
It's just a simple swap of your bill.
00:39:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yep.
00:39:49
Speaker
All right, let's end the role play.
00:39:51
Speaker
Okay, Taylor.
00:39:52
Speaker
So different kind of role play.
00:39:55
Speaker
Definitely different.
00:39:56
Speaker
What stood out to you is this role play.
Debrief: Techniques and Emotional Balance
00:39:58
Speaker
Very much in control.
00:40:01
Speaker
I don't think I've ever felt as...
00:40:05
Speaker
like as much out of control as that before because you could just see that James had control of the entire situation and every question I asked it was like it was like basically what do you think first so yeah I think you had complete like frame control all the time
00:40:24
Speaker
Yeah, one of those stood out.
00:40:27
Speaker
You asked me a tough one.
00:40:29
Speaker
I know a lot of listeners are having.
00:40:31
Speaker
You asked me one question.
00:40:33
Speaker
It was, what are some of the questions you asked?
00:40:35
Speaker
I know you were trying to be a hard ass on those questions too.
00:40:38
Speaker
I was trying to think of a way to make it hard, but not have you say, okay, I'm going to come back because you're not ready.
00:40:47
Speaker
But yeah, I asked about the company.
00:40:50
Speaker
I asked, how do I know that I'm getting...
00:40:53
Speaker
Something like the best deal from the best company.
00:40:55
Speaker
Oh, that's a good one.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:57
Speaker
How do I know you're a good company?
00:41:00
Speaker
I don't know.
00:41:00
Speaker
You tell me.
00:41:02
Speaker
That's a great saying, okay?
00:41:03
Speaker
That's fantastic.
00:41:04
Speaker
Because you know what this does, that saying?
00:41:06
Speaker
First of all, it's a default.
00:41:08
Speaker
You could say it literally on anything.
00:41:10
Speaker
And what does it do?
00:41:11
Speaker
It throws off the prospect.
00:41:13
Speaker
Because you're the salesperson.
00:41:14
Speaker
You're supposed to know everything, right?
00:41:17
Speaker
Wrong.
00:41:17
Speaker
You don't know everything.
00:41:19
Speaker
You absolutely do not.
00:41:20
Speaker
That's why I'm talking to Taylor.
00:41:22
Speaker
I don't know what the hell he's thinking.
00:41:24
Speaker
I don't know what he does when he researches a company.
00:41:26
Speaker
How am I supposed to overcome that objection if I don't even know what he's thinking?
00:41:30
Speaker
So I'm going to flip it back on.
00:41:32
Speaker
Hey, I don't know, man.
00:41:33
Speaker
When you research a company, what are you looking for?
00:41:36
Speaker
Then I can address it.
00:41:37
Speaker
I knew he wanted to look at reviews and I was able to, boom, handle that thing right on the spot.
00:41:42
Speaker
I think that's a mistake a lot of people make is you're not trying to have them go and do it themselves.
00:41:48
Speaker
I know Oren Klaff talks about this.
00:41:51
Speaker
He shows them the information that they need right at the moment, but he doesn't let them overanalyze them because the second you let them get in that analysis mode, then they're instantly going to want to think about it more effectively.
00:42:04
Speaker
So I like what James did, showed him right then.
00:42:07
Speaker
You don't need to let him sit and analyze it, but just be like, yeah, so I'll show you right here.
00:42:11
Speaker
We got five stars on Yelp.
00:42:13
Speaker
We're A-plus better business for all.
00:42:15
Speaker
Got our Google reviews, and then boom.
00:42:18
Speaker
That should be about it.
00:42:20
Speaker
So I think you did a good job at tackling that projection.
00:42:23
Speaker
Like if you get...
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah, because if you can't show them, your job is to help them make a decision and feel comfortable making that decision.
00:42:34
Speaker
What are they going to find?
00:42:35
Speaker
I always ask prospects this too.
00:42:36
Speaker
I'll ask them, all right, let's say you do research.
00:42:38
Speaker
What do you think you're going to find online that you can't get from me, somebody who's worked at the company for the last three years today?
00:42:46
Speaker
What are you going to find that I can't help you with?
00:42:47
Speaker
Because if I can't help you do it, you certainly can't do it, right?
00:42:51
Speaker
What's the problem?
00:42:55
Speaker
And guys, the flip on this that makes it so easy, I think the general like button up the package here because there's a lot of crap going on in that presentation that we even have time to break down here, which is in a lot of other episodes.
00:43:10
Speaker
I just wanted to give you a picture.
00:43:11
Speaker
The main thing is, and it's a quote, I've been doing it for solar with years, right?
00:43:16
Speaker
The helping them make a decision, but I actually recently was watching a Jeff Bezos documentary on Amazon Prime
00:43:24
Speaker
And he actually founded this out and he used this strategy with Amazon back in the early 90s.
00:43:30
Speaker
Okay, guys?
00:43:31
Speaker
And he said, and super profound, he said that people... You don't make money, he said, selling people something.
00:43:40
Speaker
You don't make money when you sell something to someone.
00:43:43
Speaker
You make money when you help someone make a purchase decision.
00:43:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:48
Speaker
And the reason Bezos said this was at the time in the 90s when he started Amazon, e-commerce businesses didn't want to put negative reviews up on their website.
00:44:02
Speaker
They didn't want to.
00:44:03
Speaker
They only published positive reviews.
00:44:05
Speaker
And one of the members of the board actually went and asked Bezos and they said, why are we deciding to publish negative reviews?
00:44:11
Speaker
And this was Bezos's answer.
00:44:13
Speaker
Like you make money when you help people make a purchase decision, because what happens when you are the guy who's ballsy enough to tell this prospect that no, PPAs don't make sense.
00:44:23
Speaker
I don't do PPAs.
00:44:25
Speaker
This is how I operate.
00:44:27
Speaker
I'm going to help you make a decision.
00:44:29
Speaker
If it's a no, fantastic.
00:44:31
Speaker
I don't even care, right?
00:44:32
Speaker
I could tell you that the people that I do help decide solar does not make sense.
00:44:36
Speaker
And it happens a lot of the time, okay?
00:44:39
Speaker
Normally, I try to get it out before the presentation.
00:44:41
Speaker
I get so many referrals off of those people.
00:44:44
Speaker
And you know why?
00:44:45
Speaker
They trust me.
00:44:46
Speaker
They trust me instantly.
00:44:48
Speaker
I've gotten like... I think my best...
00:44:51
Speaker
String with that is I told this one lady, we basically had this popcorn bucket movie ticket thing at my company in Utah.
00:44:59
Speaker
And we gave these out for appointments.
00:45:01
Speaker
So I show up, I give her the bucket and the movie tickets, and she starts zoning out within 60 seconds.
00:45:08
Speaker
And I say, look, I know you just did this for the movie bucket and the tickets, right?
00:45:12
Speaker
And she's like, uh...
00:45:14
Speaker
It threw her off.
00:45:15
Speaker
And then she's like, yeah, yeah, that's probably true.
00:45:17
Speaker
Honestly, we're moving in six months.
00:45:19
Speaker
It's just not going to make sense.
00:45:21
Speaker
I'm like, look, my job is to help you decide if this makes sense or not.
00:45:23
Speaker
Sounds like it's a no-go.
00:45:24
Speaker
Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and take off here.
00:45:27
Speaker
Anything else you need from me?
00:45:28
Speaker
And she's like, can I get your number?
00:45:30
Speaker
I want to text this.
00:45:31
Speaker
I want to text some of my friends actually around here and see if they'd be interested in hearing this.
00:45:36
Speaker
Because honestly...
00:45:37
Speaker
Like, you've been the best sales rep to work with.
00:45:39
Speaker
She told me this.
00:45:40
Speaker
I've been in the house for three minutes.
00:45:42
Speaker
We didn't even sit down."
00:45:43
Speaker
And this is what she said, right?
00:45:44
Speaker
I'm like, cool.
00:45:46
Speaker
I ended up closing three deals off of her string of friends in that exact same neighborhood because of this one moment.
00:45:53
Speaker
What would the average sales rep do?
00:45:55
Speaker
They'd say, hey, just give me like 30 minutes.
00:45:57
Speaker
So I'll try to explain why you should do it anyway, right?
00:46:00
Speaker
No, it's not what you do.
00:46:01
Speaker
If you wouldn't do it and you're the homeowner, don't freaking do it, okay?
00:46:05
Speaker
People can see this.
00:46:06
Speaker
This is what today's buyer needs.
00:46:08
Speaker
This is how you make a difference in any marketplace.
00:46:10
Speaker
And I think there's that balance.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah, James, as you can see,
00:46:14
Speaker
He's like, they're not going to make a decision, shut it down right away.
00:46:18
Speaker
But I think there's a balance.
00:46:19
Speaker
You just got to, and you, I think you get it as experience comes, you start to realize when it's a waste of time and then you do what James is doing and just shut it down.
00:46:28
Speaker
Don't waste your time.
00:46:29
Speaker
Don't spend time with people.
00:46:31
Speaker
Aren't going to make a decision, but you also got to realize there's some people that as they get the more information, they can make a decision.
00:46:40
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's just finding that balance and learning to recognize the signs.
00:46:43
Speaker
Because yeah, people do get afraid to say they're going to make a decision now.
Importance of Abundant Leads
00:46:47
Speaker
People want every excuse to back out.
00:46:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's no doubt.
00:46:53
Speaker
Let's fight in Taylor's circumstance here.
00:46:56
Speaker
100%.
00:46:56
Speaker
The way I do it, you're going to lose out on opportunities, okay?
00:47:00
Speaker
And you need to be okay with it.
00:47:02
Speaker
I would say I'd probably lose 20% of potential deals by doing this method, okay?
00:47:08
Speaker
And why do I do it though?
00:47:10
Speaker
I value my time first and foremost, but I've also got an influx of leads.
00:47:14
Speaker
If you don't have a lot of leads going on right now, you can't do this stuff.
00:47:18
Speaker
There's no way.
00:47:20
Speaker
Because you're losing out on potential deals, 100%.
00:47:22
Speaker
And if you're in person, obviously, you're going to have a lot more sway as well because you got body language, you have tonality, you can have eye contact, all the different communication channels.
00:47:33
Speaker
Over the phone, it's just voice.
00:47:34
Speaker
It's quick.
00:47:35
Speaker
It's transactional.
00:47:36
Speaker
Let's get the job done.
00:47:38
Speaker
So yeah, Taylor's definitely right on that one.
00:47:42
Speaker
The way I do this is you got to be in a state of abundance.
00:47:44
Speaker
If you know, all right, I've got...
00:47:46
Speaker
five other homeowners I could speak to today, why the hell would I waste time with this tire kicker right here when I could get the job done with the next guy in half the time?
00:47:55
Speaker
That's how I think when I go into it.
00:47:57
Speaker
But yeah, both ways work.
00:47:59
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with how Taylor does it.
00:48:01
Speaker
A lot of leads because then you can afford to do that.
00:48:04
Speaker
I mean, don't spend time with the people because you've got 10 more leads that probably will do it.
00:48:09
Speaker
So I think there's a lot to be said.
00:48:10
Speaker
And then, yeah, over the phone, I agree 100% with what James is doing because you got to be like that on the phone.
00:48:17
Speaker
Otherwise, you're just going to start wasting time.
00:48:19
Speaker
But especially in person, number one thing I have seen, like if the spouse isn't there, you got to ask that question right away.
00:48:26
Speaker
Ask them if they're going to be okay to make a decision without their spouse.
00:48:29
Speaker
And if it's a no, I think you're just wasting your time pretty much from there.
00:48:38
Speaker
You are.
00:48:39
Speaker
100%.
00:48:40
Speaker
I used to think... I think it was... Yeah, you studied this too.
00:48:44
Speaker
Grant Cardone's closed his book.
00:48:46
Speaker
He has a bunch of spouse objection ones in there.
00:48:49
Speaker
I remember that I thought I was pretty hot stuff doing this.
00:48:53
Speaker
And I'm like, hey, these are sweet.
00:48:55
Speaker
I could close every single spouse that's coming through.
00:48:58
Speaker
And I did.
00:48:59
Speaker
I did close all these one-legged appointments.
00:49:01
Speaker
And guess what happened?
00:49:02
Speaker
They just canceled.
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:04
Speaker
Every single time.
00:49:05
Speaker
They always cancel.
00:49:07
Speaker
So I think find the balance and then learn lead generation because then you can do whatever you want with the leads.
00:49:15
Speaker
Then you just scrap the ones right away that aren't going to make a decision.
00:49:18
Speaker
So good stuff to be learned.
00:49:22
Speaker
It's like...
00:49:23
Speaker
It's like your methodology on lead gen too, because I
Closing Thoughts and Encouragement
00:49:28
Speaker
wouldn't say it's like scrapping them because the way I like to do lead gen and the way I'm able to sell solar for over $5 a watt, Taylor also does it over $5 a watt.
00:49:40
Speaker
The way you're able to do that and break through the competition, I don't care how many bids are on the table.
00:49:45
Speaker
I'm going to beat out every single one of them with this pitch.
00:49:49
Speaker
It's because I elevate my status.
00:49:50
Speaker
I understand buyer psychology.
00:49:53
Speaker
I understand that perceived value and actual value are completely different.
00:49:58
Speaker
So by taking myself out of the situation, constantly pulling away from the sale and testing the homeowner, I'm instantly skyrocketing my status to where the competition has zero chance of ever beating me at that point.
00:50:13
Speaker
So that's why I do it.
00:50:14
Speaker
It allows you to just work a lot easier to get leads.
00:50:17
Speaker
But yeah, it's definitely some work to get up there.
00:50:19
Speaker
The only other thing I would...
00:50:20
Speaker
Well, I'm sure maybe you do this in an in-person appointment, James, but everyone knows, I think, sell with emotion, close with logic.
00:50:28
Speaker
So I like to use some sort of spreadsheets when you're breaking down the price.
00:50:33
Speaker
Show them some type of spreadsheets.
00:50:35
Speaker
Just make it a logical thing.
00:50:37
Speaker
And that's been helping me to close out.
00:50:39
Speaker
Oh, sure.
00:50:39
Speaker
Just breaking down the numbers.
00:50:41
Speaker
They can see year after year.
00:50:43
Speaker
Their electricity rates are going up.
00:50:45
Speaker
Their other rate is staying the same.
00:50:48
Speaker
Break that down for them.
00:50:49
Speaker
Maybe even pull out a calculator.
00:50:53
Speaker
Do you use the calculator?
00:50:55
Speaker
Do you use like a calculator?
00:50:56
Speaker
Show them like the 4% to 6% increase on the monthly payments?
00:50:58
Speaker
I use a spreadsheet that is automatically on there.
00:51:00
Speaker
I think you might have seen me use it.
00:51:01
Speaker
We went to some deals, but... Yeah.
00:51:05
Speaker
Nah, 100%.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, it depends on the buyer too.
00:51:10
Speaker
Like...
00:51:12
Speaker
If they really want the logical reason, yeah, you're going to have to give it to them.
00:51:16
Speaker
Some people don't though, honestly.
00:51:17
Speaker
You could close deals without even showing them numbers.
00:51:19
Speaker
And when you see they're sold, no reason to wait.
00:51:21
Speaker
I think that's another mistake people make is like, you don't have to go through a full presentation every time.
00:51:27
Speaker
I've had people, I've seen their solds in 10 minutes and boom, close right there.
00:51:34
Speaker
So good stuff.
00:51:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:38
Speaker
Have you guys seen enough to move forward with this?
00:51:41
Speaker
Classic grant.
00:51:44
Speaker
You guys ready to move?
00:51:44
Speaker
Let's go.
00:51:45
Speaker
Awesome.
00:51:46
Speaker
Well, I think that was a successful episode, Taylor.
00:51:48
Speaker
I think there's a lot of value in there.
00:51:51
Speaker
Let us know how it's going, closing like James.
00:51:54
Speaker
Let us know what you implemented.
00:51:56
Speaker
And I think that's it for the episode.
00:51:59
Speaker
Anything else, James?
00:52:00
Speaker
No, that's it, guys.
00:52:01
Speaker
Keep crushing it.
00:52:02
Speaker
We'll see you.
00:52:19
Speaker
And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
00:52:31
Speaker
And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
00:52:40
Speaker
Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
00:52:45
Speaker
So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.