Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
2 Mistakes That are Costing You Thousands in Solar Commissions
52 Plays4 years ago
SOLARCON April 21st - 23rd, 2022
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://attendsolarcon.com/tickets/
DISCOUNT CODE: solarpreneur25
GET FREE SOLCIETY ACCESS!
HOW: Send a screenshot of your receipt totaylor@solarpreneurs.com or support@solarpreneurs.com
DOWNLOAD SOLCIETY APP NOW!
Thanks to our sponsor Pi Syndicate for this episode!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Taylor's 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 how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
What is a Solarpreneur?
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong here, as usual, back with another episode.
Podcast Goals and Valentine's Day Wishes
00:00:48
Speaker
And we are making your life easier as a solar professional by helping you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much easier and more enjoyable time in the solar industry.
00:01:01
Speaker
Hope you're doing well.
00:01:02
Speaker
Recording this on Valentine's Day.
00:01:04
Speaker
So if you are listening to this probably the day after, happy Valentine's Day to you.
00:01:11
Speaker
Hopefully you got some love in your solar appointments and for that special person, if you have a special person in your life.
Upcoming Episode Preview with Jake Hess
00:01:19
Speaker
So today we're going to be talking about a few things that are going to change the way you sell.
00:01:25
Speaker
And that is two mistakes that I see a lot of reps make.
00:01:31
Speaker
And I'm talking about these specific mistakes because we have my friend Jake Hess is coming on the podcast for the following episode, which will be released on Friday.
00:01:42
Speaker
And if you don't know, Jake Cassie is the owner of the Solar Academy, which they do solar consulting.
00:01:48
Speaker
They've trained and consulted dozens of companies and hundreds, if not thousands of reps.
00:01:55
Speaker
And these are actually two things that I learned from my man, Jake Cass.
00:02:00
Speaker
So he's going to be going much more in depth on these couple of things.
00:02:04
Speaker
As we get into next episode, but just wanted to give my little, I guess, spin on them and just kind of reiterate the importance of these two mistakes.
Apology for Missed Episode and Hosting Change
00:02:17
Speaker
Before we jump into that, though, I wanted to do a quick apology.
00:02:21
Speaker
If you were expecting an episode last week, we switched podcasts hosting services last week and we had a little mistake with our publishing team.
00:02:34
Speaker
So there was an episode on Friday.
00:02:36
Speaker
I think it came out on iTunes, but not Spotify yet.
00:02:40
Speaker
So depending on where you listen, you may not have seen the new, the most recent episode that came out before this.
00:02:47
Speaker
So hopefully it's fixed by now.
00:02:50
Speaker
If not, if it's not on Spotify, it will be soon.
00:02:53
Speaker
Should be on all the other platforms coming up.
00:02:56
Speaker
So that's why you didn't see an episode.
00:02:59
Speaker
Hopefully you're sitting first thing in the morning in your bed trying to open an episode.
00:03:04
Speaker
So I apologize if you cannot open it.
SolarCon Event and Tax Savings Tips
00:03:08
Speaker
And the second thing is, um, guys go grab your ticket for solar con.
00:03:12
Speaker
It's coming out, coming up in April here.
00:03:17
Speaker
Um, I'm going to be there.
00:03:18
Speaker
Jay Kess is going to be there.
00:03:20
Speaker
Who's on the next episode.
00:03:22
Speaker
We're going to have a good time jamming on some solar and hearing what the top dogs of the industry are doing.
00:03:29
Speaker
So don't miss out.
00:03:30
Speaker
Grab your ticket.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's in the show note.
00:03:32
Speaker
And second thing,
00:03:34
Speaker
Tax season is coming up soon, our favorite time of the year for all us 1099 solar reps.
00:03:42
Speaker
So if you don't have your taxes figured out, go check out Pi Syndicate.
00:03:49
Speaker
They have helped me save thousands and thousands on taxes and has blown my mind some of the strategies they're helping me implement.
00:03:57
Speaker
So if you don't want to see that big tax bill at the end of the year,
00:04:01
Speaker
Go do a call with them.
00:04:03
Speaker
Go see what they can do for your taxes and also just your financial situation in general.
00:04:10
Speaker
Hey, go listen to those episodes if you haven't already, but they're doing some pretty amazing stuff.
00:04:14
Speaker
Jerry Fusel and the boys over at Pius Indicate.
00:04:18
Speaker
So both of those will be in the link of the podcast if you want to check out either SolarCon or Pius Indicate.
Importance of Electrical Knowledge in Solar
00:04:26
Speaker
So let's jump into the topic, the two mistakes that so many reps make that cost them thousands and thousands in commissions.
00:04:35
Speaker
So mistake number one, that is not knowing
00:04:39
Speaker
your electric knowledge.
00:04:42
Speaker
Okay, probably a better way to say that, but not knowing anything about the electrical portion of solar, or just kind of the more technical details.
00:04:51
Speaker
When I first started out in solar, I knew nothing about like what a main panel upgrade was.
00:04:58
Speaker
I didn't know how, I don't know what like an 100 amp panel meant.
00:05:04
Speaker
I didn't know any of that electrical stuff.
00:05:06
Speaker
And for the longest time, I just thought there's no need to know this.
00:05:09
Speaker
All I need to know is that panels can get slapped on the roof.
00:05:12
Speaker
People get a cheaper energy bill and that's it.
00:05:15
Speaker
Boom.
00:05:16
Speaker
That's all you need to sell solar.
00:05:18
Speaker
And you can sell solar that way.
00:05:21
Speaker
And dozens, well, I would say 90% of the reps in the industry sell that way.
00:05:28
Speaker
Not really knowing much about, you know, the more technical side of solar and the electrical stuff.
00:05:35
Speaker
But guess what?
00:05:35
Speaker
If you can get just a basic knowledge of when you need to do a panel upgrade, what are the specific warranties on panels?
00:05:45
Speaker
Does it include performance?
00:05:48
Speaker
Things like that.
00:05:50
Speaker
What are the exact details in your contract?
00:05:55
Speaker
Have you actually read your contracts?
00:05:57
Speaker
Hey, you know, I'm guilty of this.
00:05:59
Speaker
There's still because I, you know, we have a lot of different installers.
00:06:02
Speaker
So there are still contracts that I'm not very familiar.
00:06:06
Speaker
So I'm saying these things for my own benefit, too.
00:06:11
Speaker
How much do you actually know about the product you're selling?
00:06:15
Speaker
So that is the first mistake that people make.
00:06:18
Speaker
And this thing, just knowing some basic stuff about the panels, this actually saved me just $1,000 last week.
00:06:28
Speaker
Okay, I was trying to do...
00:06:33
Speaker
I was doing a panel upgrade for a customer.
00:06:37
Speaker
I got a notification.
00:06:38
Speaker
They did the site survey.
00:06:39
Speaker
They said, Taylor, this guy isn't going to need a panel upgrade.
00:06:42
Speaker
You want it to come out of the commission.
00:06:45
Speaker
And because of my friend, Jay Kess, this is something he talks about.
00:06:50
Speaker
I knew that here in San Diego, and I'm speaking for San Diego, I assume there are options like this in other markets.
00:06:57
Speaker
But here in San Diego, we can do what's called a RMA, a renewable meter adapter.
00:07:03
Speaker
And it happens to be about $1,000.
00:07:05
Speaker
It might be around $1,000 cheaper than a panel upgrade.
00:07:12
Speaker
So guess what?
00:07:13
Speaker
By knowing that one thing, the installer, they told me, Taylor, this needs a panel upgrade.
00:07:20
Speaker
But just this piece of knowledge, I said, guys, can we do a RMA?
00:07:24
Speaker
Can it have a renewable meter adapter?
00:07:29
Speaker
And to be blunt, I do not know the exact qualifications on when you can do a RMA versus a panel upgrade, but I didn't know it was an option.
00:07:39
Speaker
So because of that, I got a message back and they said, Taylor, yeah, we can do RME.
00:07:46
Speaker
And because guess what?
00:07:47
Speaker
The people doing the site survey, they don't care.
00:07:49
Speaker
They're just going to suggest a panel upgrade, but they don't necessarily know most of the time that that's coming out of the commission, that that could be way less money that comes out of my pocket too, right?
00:08:05
Speaker
So a lot of times it's either convince the customer to do a panel upgrade or
00:08:10
Speaker
Or we're paying it out of our pocket and hopefully we sold the deal high enough.
00:08:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:15
Speaker
Because a lot of times you go back to them, say, Hey, we're going to have to pay an extra two grand, three grand.
00:08:21
Speaker
We're going to add it to the loan.
00:08:23
Speaker
Sometimes people cancel over that stuff.
00:08:27
Speaker
Okay, so just last week, an extra thousand dollars in my pocket just from that one piece of knowledge.
00:08:34
Speaker
So again, you're going to hear Jake Hess talk about this more in depth on the following episode.
00:08:40
Speaker
But just a quick reminder, go get some technical knowledge, study this stuff.
00:08:46
Speaker
And Jake's going to talk about some resources he has with it in the next episode.
00:08:50
Speaker
So don't miss out.
00:08:51
Speaker
But that is your reminder.
00:08:52
Speaker
And that is the first mistake.
Strategic Prospecting Tips
00:08:55
Speaker
Okay, and mistake number two I see is reps not, reps just knocking mindlessly.
00:09:03
Speaker
Okay, what do I mean by that?
00:09:06
Speaker
So many people are just out there knocking, knocking, knocking on doors without really thinking.
00:09:12
Speaker
Does this customer...
00:09:14
Speaker
Have a good roof for solar.
00:09:17
Speaker
What could be my ideal customer?
00:09:20
Speaker
And this is something I also learned from Jake because he does not really go out and knock just a cookie cutter neighborhood just 10 hours a day.
00:09:32
Speaker
When he is out there, he's strategic.
00:09:35
Speaker
And this is probably the number one thing that I changed that instantly took my cells up and that allowed me to get more cells and work less hours.
00:09:44
Speaker
And that is being more efficient with my knocking.
00:09:48
Speaker
How many people do you know that just go out...
00:09:51
Speaker
day after day and they're just knocking the neighborhood without thinking twice about, hey, I wonder if I went and knocked this house with a pool, why don't they have solar?
00:10:02
Speaker
I wonder if I went to where it's a little less, the homes are more spread out.
00:10:08
Speaker
I wonder if less people would have been knocking this neighborhood.
00:10:12
Speaker
So when you go out in a neighborhood, when you're out prospecting, you need to change the mindset more from, oh, I'm just going to knock 10 hours today to I'm going to put myself in the best position to get a sell.
00:10:27
Speaker
So think, how can I get an install?
00:10:31
Speaker
It's not just how many doors I knock.
00:10:33
Speaker
It's what homes can I knock that will give me the best shot at getting an install.
00:10:39
Speaker
So my two best tips with this are just look at the sun angles before you go out in a neighborhood.
00:10:45
Speaker
Look at homes which have solar and which don't.
00:10:47
Speaker
Obviously some maps you can't necessarily tell right off the bat.
00:10:51
Speaker
But my favorite ways to do this
00:10:54
Speaker
Two apps we mentioned in the show many, many times.
00:10:58
Speaker
Number one is Sunseeker.
00:11:00
Speaker
It's about $20 on the App Store.
00:11:03
Speaker
And number two is free.
00:11:04
Speaker
It's called Sun's Path.
00:11:06
Speaker
You can go and see how the sun is going over the homes that you're hitting up.
00:11:12
Speaker
So the suggestion is don't knock mindlessly.
00:11:15
Speaker
Whatever neighborhood you're in, go just take a look at that app before.
00:11:20
Speaker
Which homes are getting the most amount of sun?
00:11:23
Speaker
Which homes have pools?
00:11:25
Speaker
Which homes have electric cars?
00:11:27
Speaker
Maybe you do a drive-by before you start a neighborhood.
00:11:30
Speaker
So if you can shift your mindset to not just jump in and start knocking mindlessly, but scope out the neighborhood, do some research, figure out what the demographic is,
00:11:41
Speaker
Go look at the pools and even mark them before you start knocking.
00:11:45
Speaker
If you have some type of door knocking app, your cells rabbit, your active knocker, your whatever knocking app you use, or if you don't use a knocking app, actually, it's funny, Jake Hess, he actually talks down on people.
00:12:00
Speaker
He does not like people using knocking apps, and it's for that reason.
00:12:05
Speaker
Because it trains rep to just knock mindlessly, just clock in, clock out.
00:12:10
Speaker
But what if you can do it more strategically?
00:12:14
Speaker
What if you can mark these homes that have pools?
00:12:16
Speaker
What if you mark the ones that have electric cars?
00:12:19
Speaker
What if you can mark the ones where you know it's a family that needs to save money, right?
00:12:24
Speaker
What do they have the family van out front?
00:12:27
Speaker
Or is it the old retired folks?
00:12:29
Speaker
Okay, who are you targeting?
00:12:31
Speaker
So all those questions should be questions you're asking yourself before you hit up a neighborhood.
00:12:37
Speaker
So those are the two mistakes.
00:12:40
Speaker
Knocking mindlessly, not knowing what your target customer is, not looking for the cells, right?
00:12:47
Speaker
Knocking mindlessly versus knocking to get an install.
00:12:50
Speaker
And mistake number one is not knowing anything about the technical side of solar.
00:12:57
Speaker
Hey, so send this to someone that needs that.
00:13:00
Speaker
Send this to someone who is making those mistakes.
00:13:03
Speaker
Don't be the rep like me that did those things, that made those mistakes for my first four years in solar.
00:13:11
Speaker
Imagine all the commissions I could have had if I would have known these things.
00:13:15
Speaker
Lost out on a lot.
00:13:16
Speaker
So don't be like me.
00:13:18
Speaker
Go do these things now.
00:13:19
Speaker
Learn from my mistakes.
00:13:21
Speaker
And don't forget, tune in to next episode because you're going to hear Jcast go much more in depth on these topics and much, much more.
00:13:29
Speaker
So we'll see you on the next one and go crush it this week.
00:13:33
Speaker
Peace.
Introducing Solcitee Community
00:13:34
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:13:36
Speaker
What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day.
00:13:46
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:13:58
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:14:09
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
00:14:11
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
00:14:30
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:14:36
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:14:44
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:14:51
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.