Transcript
Speaker: on this episode of the solarpreneur podcast i'm gonna talk about how to sell solar from home there's very few people who have done this successfully and i happen to be one of the few and i have a step-by-step guide and five tips that you need to follow if you want to learn how to sell solar remotely over the phone or via online presentation let's get going
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing pros.
Speaker: and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best solar sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: What is up, everybody?
Speaker: This is James Swiderski.
Speaker: I know, I know.
Speaker: It's been like three months since I've been on this podcast, putting out any content, and there's a good reason for it.
Speaker: So first, we're going to talk about where I've been, some of the things that I've learned and how they're going to apply to you, and then we're going to dive into today's topic, which is a doozy, right?
Speaker: How to sell virtually.
Speaker: There's been a lot of
Speaker: buzz around the industry is the best word I can putt for it.
Speaker: But there's been a lot of talk about, you know, selling virtually over the phone via online meeting.
Speaker: Is it even worth your time?
Speaker: Is it a gimmick?
Speaker: Is it just something that people like to talk about, but there's no proven process for it?
Speaker: Is anybody actually doing it successfully?
Speaker: And then some of the questions you guys have around virtual sales as well, right?
Speaker: I'm not oblivious to the fact that there's the same four or five questions that keep going around and I'm gonna answer those for you to finally put this thing to rest and decide if this is worth your time, if there's something you're missing out on and if it's gonna be a right fit for you or your company.
Speaker: So some of those questions, right, we're gonna talk about
Speaker: How do you build enough trust with homeowners to do a virtual sale?
Speaker: What if the job requires, you know, an upgrade or something needs to be changed later?
Speaker: Maybe they need an electrical upgrade.
Speaker: What do you do in that scenario when you can't actually go check it out yourself?
Speaker: What if the roof's in a bad condition?
Speaker: What if there are distractions, right?
Speaker: Like a kid or...
Speaker: various whatever, right?
Speaker: You know all the distractions, phones going off.
Speaker: How do you know the homeowner is actually paying attention to you in an online meeting?
Speaker: And then what if both decision makers aren't present, right?
Speaker: You don't really know.
Speaker: You can't see them.
Speaker: How do you present to them and make them come to the decision to close?
Speaker: These are the common objections that I get when I bring up the topic of virtual sales, and I'm going to answer those.
Speaker: But before we get into that, though, I want to talk about what I've been up to in the last three months, right?
Speaker: I've kind of ghosted out.
Speaker: I've went off grid, so to speak, the last three months to really work on myself personally, work on my products and work on my company, Lumen Solar as well.
Speaker: As many of you know, I've had a solar sales team, a virtual solar sales team for a couple of years, right?
Speaker: In addition to the clients that we have.
Speaker: And I've decided to restructure that company into Lumen Solar is the new company here.
Speaker: Really dial things back into a select few markets and states that are going to be most profitable for us and allow us to focus on what we do best, which is closing.
Speaker: Some of the things that I've improved on are lead generation, which I'm going to be talking about in the coming episodes.
Speaker: I've went around and been working with some of the top lead gen mentors.
Speaker: Joseph, that you've met on the other episodes, he's going to be appearing on episodes as well to share some of those secrets.
Speaker: But he's been working hard with me on this, and we've developed some projects.
Speaker: Pretty killer lead gen strategies that not only help with virtual sales primarily is where we focused on, but they're also going to help with just everyday solar lead gen, right?
Speaker: Kitchen table conversations.
Speaker: So that's where I've been.
Speaker: The last three months has really been me working on my company, working on myself, working on my process, and working on something I'm very excited to announce in this episode, quite possibly the best sales and lead gen platform system on this market.
Speaker: I know it is because I've been working on it for three years straight here.
Speaker: This is the compilation of everything I've learned in the industry through mentors and investing, and it is a kick-ass system, guys.
Speaker: You are going to love it.
Speaker: But enough about that.
Speaker: We won't talk about it right now.
Speaker: I want to dive into the topic at hand here.
Speaker: Virtual sales.
Speaker: And first and foremost, I want you to realize this.
Speaker: Virtual sales sounds cool, right?
Speaker: It's one of those things that people like to flash around fancy terms and strategies, like tick chat bots, for example, right?
Speaker: Everybody's obsessed with chatbots, or they were really obsessed with it earlier this year, and especially in 2018.
Speaker: That was the thing.
Speaker: And I was guilty of that too.
Speaker: I was selling off chatbots.
Speaker: I was involved in it, in the trenches with it.
Speaker: And I can tell you that it will work, just like everything else, just like knocking doors, just like any sales strategy, just like hide the sales rep type of marketing.
Speaker: They work.
Speaker: but they're not for everyone.
Speaker: There is no one clear-cut strategy that works for every single professional in this industry.
Speaker: Chatbots may not be for you.
Speaker: Personally, I don't like chatbots.
Speaker: I don't like them at all.
Speaker: They don't work well for my company.
Speaker: Of course, maybe I'm missing out on things, right?
Speaker: And I decided to get rid of chatbots altogether this year because I think they're just not as effective for what we're doing with my company and what my clients are doing
Speaker: getting to use as well as part of my programs.
Speaker: So I cut those out, right?
Speaker: So for you, where I'm getting at is virtual sales may be one of those things that you take a pass on.
Speaker: You just say, hey, you know what?
Speaker: It's for some people, but it's not for me.
Speaker: It's not for my company.
Speaker: And I want you to know that's perfectly fine.
Speaker: You know this, there's people in this industry that are absolutely just destroying it.
Speaker: There's guys who only knock doors right now and clear $3 million in commissions a year.
Speaker: They're putting $30 million in the bank and jobs for their company.
Speaker: You don't need to try and do all of these things.
Speaker: You don't need to feel like you have to reinvent the wheel and you don't need to feel like you're missing out.
Speaker: This isn't a case of FOMO here, right?
Speaker: You're not missing out if virtual sales is not part of your game.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: If you don't want to do virtual sales, if this isn't for you, then skip this episode.
Speaker: That's what we're going to talk about for the rest of this.
Speaker: But if you want to stay around, you want to get the truth on this, really.
Speaker: You want to get some actual strategies on this topic.
Speaker: None of this fluffy bullshit stuff, right?
Speaker: This is going to be concrete stuff that works and what doesn't work because I'm the guy who's been selling virtually for almost my entire career in this industry.
Speaker: I've been in the industry for three years.
Speaker: I've been selling virtually off and on about two and a half of those three years.
Speaker: I've been doing it longer than anyone and I could tell you I've made every mistake in the book with this.
Speaker: I've been the guy who's tried to force virtual sales onto my team when they weren't ready for it and it was just a bad move.
Speaker: So I could tell you that's first.
Speaker: Decide what kind of solar rep, what kind of solar company you wanna be.
Speaker: Figure out what the heck your goals are, right?
Speaker: Have some clarity and some vision.
Speaker: What do you wanna accomplish?
Speaker: If you just want to make six figures and commissions, you don't need to sell virtually.
Speaker: I would say absolutely avoid it.
Speaker: It's ludicrous.
Speaker: You don't need fucking chatbots if you want to learn how to sell virtually.
Speaker: I mean, you don't need chatbots if you want to make 100 grand.
Speaker: You don't need funnels if you want to make 100 grand.
Speaker: All these terms that are getting buzzed around are just madness.
Speaker: You just need to focus on one thing that amplifies your strengths.
Speaker: So one of my strengths...
Speaker: is selling over the phone.
Speaker: I've been selling over the phone for years, way before I got into solar.
Speaker: I used to do coaching programs in music and fine arts.
Speaker: I used to do coaching programs in real estate.
Speaker: So I'm comfortable on the phone more than even in person, right?
Speaker: And I prefer this.
Speaker: I prefer the one-line communication where it's just tonality and words to talk with people.
Speaker: So that played off of my strengths.
Speaker: Virtual sales was a no-brainer at this point.
Speaker: But maybe you're a guy who likes to connect with somebody across the table, shake hands with them.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: Good for you.
Speaker: You're gonna be successful at it if you're using proper training, you're learning proper methods, you have a proper lead gen system, all things we talk about on the Solarpreneur podcast.
Speaker: And we will be giving more strategies, of course.
Speaker: So, let's dive into virtual.
Speaker: If you feel like you need more time in your day
Speaker: If you feel like you have too many leads right now to handle or you want to learn how to do those leads so you can eventually sell virtually.
Speaker: If you want to be able to control your resources, right?
Speaker: The three resources every solely professional has, which is time, energy, and income, money.
Speaker: If you want to control those, and I call them the three currencies actually with our clients, controlling those three currencies, balancing them, spending your energy in places where it matters most, where you'll get the most return on your investment of energy.
Speaker: Where can you spend your time, right?
Speaker: We talk about time management a lot.
Speaker: Where do you spend your time that gives you the most return on your time invested?
Speaker: And then where do you spend your money, right?
Speaker: These are the three currencies.
Speaker: That's a whole separate episode and topic there.
Speaker: But I want you to realize that virtual sales may be the key to this.
Speaker: If you want to make more of your career, if you want to become a massive company.
Speaker: Personally, I want to grow Lumen Solar to be a nine-figure solar company.
Speaker: It's a hundred million in revenue.
Speaker: That's a huge goal.
Speaker: And I know virtual is going to be the key for us getting there mainly because I have a proven process for this that has worked and I'm able to scale my company at a rapid pace using these strategies.
Speaker: So if you want to take more control of your income, energy, and time, virtual sales is definitely one of the answers.
Speaker: Now, five steps here.
Speaker: I'm going to give you five tips on how to successfully sell virtually.
Speaker: I'm going to get straight to the point.
Speaker: And just so you know, right, this is right out of my program.
Speaker: The new program I'm going to talk about, I'm excited about is the Solar Spartan System.
Speaker: This is right out of one of the modules in there where we give you the exact blueprint to developing virtual sales processes that kick some serious ass.
Speaker: But we'll talk about that later, okay?
Speaker: Let's dive into the five tips.
Speaker: So number one here is about lead generation.
Speaker: Virtual sales starts at lead gen.
Speaker: And the reason it starts here is simple.
Speaker: If you go knock on somebody's door, okay?
Speaker: Say you're still knocking doors for lead generation, which is fine, right?
Speaker: You can make a lot of money doing so.
Speaker: If you tell that person, hey, and you connect with them on the door, hey, I'm just going to do a phone call instead, right, or a video presentation.
Speaker: I don't really want to come over here.
Speaker: They're going to think it's kind of weird because you connected with them one way, right, in person with various communication avenues, right, body language, tonality, how you're speaking to them.
Speaker: They could see you're a genuine person.
Speaker: And then you cut off those communications.
Speaker: There's a disconnect and rapport there.
Speaker: So where you generate the lead determines where you present.
Speaker: I'm going to say that again, where you generate and how you generate your lead and the expectations you put out with that lead is going to determine what kind of presentation is available or not available to you.
Speaker: And in this case, virtual or non-virtual.
Speaker: So the way you do this is simple.
Speaker: You got to master online lead generation, right?
Speaker: There's a lot of ways to do this.
Speaker: Facebook ads, chatbots, Facebook lead forms, funnels, webinars, LinkedIn prospecting, Instagram, Facebook groups, all the stuff we teach you in the Spartan system.
Speaker: It doesn't matter which one you pick, but you got to pick it and set the expectation with that homeowner the correct way that you're going to present virtually.
Speaker: Now there's three parts to this lead gen that are different, that are controversial, that are different than from what maybe some of you guys are using in other programs out there about lead generation.
Speaker: First and foremost, the hide the sales rep strategy, right?
Speaker: And I use this with Lumen Solar locally, right?
Speaker: When I'm selling in Utah or San Diego locally, we use what we call the hide the sales rep strategy where it's a community group, right?
Speaker: Where we're putting out articles and content there and we're able to connect the homeowner with us, the salespeople later on.
Speaker: And it's fine, they don't know who we are because we're gonna go over and build all the rapport and that connection with them
Speaker: across from the kitchen table.
Speaker: But let me ask you this.
Speaker: If you use the hide the sales rep methodology, and if you guys aren't familiar with that, there's plenty of videos and things that people are talking about, right?
Speaker: Just go look at any solar company page.
Speaker: A lot of them are doing that right now.
Speaker: If you use that strategy,
Speaker: You don't have any connection with the prospect prior to the appointment.
Speaker: And if there's one thing I want you to realize with virtual sales is yes, your objection of is it more difficult to connect with people, get them to trust you, absolutely, if you go at it a traditional way.
Speaker: The traditional way, of course, is you show up to the phone presentation or the webinar and you try to connect and build rapport with that prospect as if you guys have never known each other.
Speaker: That is not going to work.
Speaker: The key to virtual sales is to build that trust and that credibility with their prospect before you ever have a presentation.
Speaker: How you do this is simple.
Speaker: Focus on organic lead generation first.
Speaker: Master organic lead gen.
Speaker: This is connecting with a prospect via message, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever your platform is, text, phone calls.
Speaker: Master this organic lead gen first and foremost.
Speaker: This isn't gonna be a today type of sale.
Speaker: Virtual sales is long form.
Speaker: It's three, four, five months plus.
Speaker: You gotta have a killer follow-up process.
Speaker: You gotta use automation tools, right?
Speaker: Following up with these people.
Speaker: But organically, Jen's gonna do one thing
Speaker: best.
Speaker: It's going to develop trust with your prospect.
Speaker: They're going to trust that you're not just a fly by night sales guy because you've been talking to them via messenger.
Speaker: You've been following up with them the last one month, two, three, four, five, six, 12 months even.
Speaker: That is key.
Speaker: You have to show your face.
Speaker: And along with that is personal branding.
Speaker: You can't use hide the sales rep methods with virtual sales because they don't know who you are.
Speaker: And when it comes down to it, when push comes to shove, right?
Speaker: If a homeowner is going to get a virtual presentation from you and they've had two other in-person appointments where they actually got to shake the hand of that sales rep, they're nine times out of 10, if you've never met them before and you don't have a relationship, they're going to go with those in-person sales professionals.
Speaker: That's the matter of fact, right?
Speaker: People buy you.
Speaker: They buy the person and the connection.
Speaker: So the question with virtual isn't how do I connect with people on the phone call?
Speaker: It's how do I connect with people before the phone call?
Speaker: Organic lead generation, personal branding, and then you could think about paid traffic.
Speaker: Paid traffic does one thing and one thing only.
Speaker: It amplifies what your business and your sales pipeline is already doing.
Speaker: It's gonna show all of the problems.
Speaker: You know this too.
Speaker: If you guys, if this sounds familiar, right, you launch a Facebook ad campaign, you get just tons of leads, right?
Speaker: 30, 40, 50 leads coming in the door.
Speaker: That's easy.
Speaker: A lot of people could do that.
Speaker: There's a lot of systems out there that help you do that.
Speaker: Especially in the last year, there's a lot of systems that have popped up.
Speaker: But what happens after those leads are generated?
Speaker: How many of those are actually sit down appointments?
Speaker: The difference is there's no connection.
Speaker: The reason your leads aren't converting into appointments is there's no personal connection.
Speaker: So that's the problem.
Speaker: Online lead chain and paid traffic just amplified that problem.
Speaker: It showed you at a bigger scale that, oh crap, we're not connecting with our prospect.
Speaker: They don't know who we are.
Speaker: They don't trust us.
Speaker: No wonder they don't want to meet with us.
Speaker: So to wrap up point number one, the golden rule of successfully connecting with your prospect is you need to develop more trust and a system to develop more trust than somebody would in an in-person appointment.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: Step number two is a mindset issue.
Speaker: I get this a lot.
Speaker: James, I'm a traditional guy.
Speaker: I can't sell virtually.
Speaker: Or how can I connect with somebody, right?
Speaker: I don't think the prospect's gonna make a big purchase decision when I'm not across from the kitchen table with them, right?
Speaker: Shaking their hand, making eye contact.
Speaker: False.
Speaker: This is a limiting belief.
Speaker: Remember, and I've said a million times, you create your own obstacles in sales.
Speaker: You don't have sales problems.
Speaker: You don't have virtual sales problems.
Speaker: You don't have business problems.
Speaker: You have personal problems and beliefs that are reflecting in your business.
Speaker: You create your own objections.
Speaker: So if you believe right now that virtual sales is going to be hard, boom, it's going to be difficult.
Speaker: No question.
Speaker: If you believe that virtual sales is going to be hard to connect and build trust with them, then you're right.
Speaker: If you believe it's hard to do an online meeting or sell over the phone, boom, you're right.
Speaker: So you got to get your mindset right.
Speaker: There's no getting around this.
Speaker: That goes along with anything, right?
Speaker: But especially virtual sales.
Speaker: A lot of you guys think it's impossible because of course nobody's done it.
Speaker: This is one of the first, I'm one of the first few people have done this at scale, right?
Speaker: And you don't see a lot of people pulling this off.
Speaker: So it seems impossible at the surface until you actually do it and you install that belief.
Speaker: So the best way to overcome this is find an example, find somebody who is selling virtually, learn from them, figure out what they're doing so that you can believe it is possible.
Speaker: That belief you could then build off of and understand that you are really just creating your own roadblocks with this and that anybody could sell virtually.
Speaker: Think about it.
Speaker: We buy everything else online.
Speaker: We could buy cars now that get delivered to our home online without meeting anybody in person.
Speaker: Who decided solar had to be any different?
Speaker: Think about it.
Speaker: Why do we think the way we think?
Speaker: Really ponder that because I'm telling you, it's just because other people are doing it is why you believe that is the tried and true way.
Speaker: Number three, phone or online meeting.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Those are the primary two ways to do a virtual sale.
Speaker: Yes, you can use a webinar.
Speaker: Yes, you can use a long form video, but when it comes down to it, when you answer those few objections that they have, you give that pitch.
Speaker: It's going to be a phone or an online meeting.
Speaker: Which one do you use?
Speaker: Is there a preference?
Speaker: Is one better than the other?
Speaker: One of the big mistakes that most people make, some of our students in the Spartan system when they first come in and they want to learn how to do this, is they attempt to overcomplicate the situation.
Speaker: They want to make it overcomplicated because it's cool.
Speaker: It's a new shiny object.
Speaker: It's exciting.
Speaker: So they go, what do they do?
Speaker: They go out and they make like five, six different variations of pitch decks and super long slides that are complicated with videos and all this stuff.
Speaker: They find the best software for sharing a screen and video with somebody.
Speaker: And what happens?
Speaker: The homeowner has no idea how to install the software.
Speaker: There's technical issues.
Speaker: Signal breaks up.
Speaker: They don't pay attention.
Speaker: They don't close.
Speaker: And it just becomes a distraction from their process.
Speaker: So the key with this is to simplify.
Speaker: I personally rarely do video presentations virtually.
Speaker: I literally just pick up the phone, have them put it on speakerphone so that they can hear me, both the husband and the wife or the spouses, right?
Speaker: And that's freaking it.
Speaker: And why does that work?
Speaker: Because they already know who I am.
Speaker: They've seen my face because I'm sending them sales videos.
Speaker: They've seen my content.
Speaker: They've messaged me before, back and forth, for maybe a couple of weeks.
Speaker: So they have a relationship with me before that.
Speaker: So they don't give two flying freaks, right, about if they see me or if the video's right or if my background looks good or how my slides look.
Speaker: simplify.
Speaker: And if you are going to use slides in a software, make it simple.
Speaker: Don't make them install a software, right?
Speaker: And make sure they're comfortable with the technology.
Speaker: Just ask your prospect, do you want to do a phone, an online meeting, or do you want to do in person?
Speaker: Just give them the options.
Speaker: So me, when I want to do virtual, it's just, do you prefer phone or do you want to hop on the computer for this?
Speaker: Oh, phone's fine.
Speaker: They just go for phone, right?
Speaker: And I can tell you this, an online video presentation is not going to build that much more trust than a phone one.
Speaker: What is going to build trust is making things a better experience for your prospect.
Speaker: not forcing them to download a video software if they suck at technology.
Speaker: That's going to build more trust for them than maybe a couple of slides you could have shown them.
Speaker: And if you're following the stuff we teach in the Spartan system where it's a simple 20-minute presentation, you don't need a complicated slide.
Speaker: There's honestly five, six slides I would use, and they have like 10 words on them.
Speaker: They have a little graph to show them the monthly payments.
Speaker: That's freaking it.
Speaker: So guys, I've got two more tips on this coming up, but we're going to go ahead and take a break and we'll be right back.
Speaker: Hey listeners, it's James Swiderski here.
Speaker: I promise we'll be right back to this fire content you're enjoying, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about the number one training platform that I trust my own clients as well as my own solar team with, and it's called the Solar Spartan System.
Speaker: Now, the Solar Spartan System is not your traditional course.
Speaker: It's a solar sales transformation experience that's combined over 11,000 hours of research on today's top sales and marketing professionals and condensed their strategies into one streamlined system that practically forces you...
Speaker: yeah, that's right, forces you to have success in reaching your goals.
Speaker: And the best part is, guys, it's designed specifically for solar, and it's been tested on over 800 solar professionals to date.
Speaker: Now, you might be saying, James, that's cool, but...
Speaker: How does it force me to have success?
Speaker: And this is where it gets pretty ninja, my friends.
Speaker: So listen up.
Speaker: So here's what makes the Solar Spartan system so effective.
Speaker: It's the combination of applying the minimum amount of inputs, minimum effective dose of what it takes to get you to that next level.
Speaker: Combining that with the power of social accountability and then top-notch strategies used by today's solar professionals, solopreneurs, right?
Speaker: So what does this mean for you?
Speaker: No more watching 15-hour courses.
Speaker: No more banging your head trying to figure out how to apply Grant Cardone's strategies over here and Dan Lok's strategies over here to solar specifically.
Speaker: And no more guesswork.
Speaker: The Solar Spartan system is 100% action oriented, meaning you won't be given more content to study than what you need to actually reach your next four deals, 10 deals, 16, 20 deals, whatever your goal is, there's a milestone for it within the system.
Speaker: And to give you guys an idea of what you can expect out of this, I've taken some of my lowest producing reps and clients from closing one to maybe struggling to get that third or fourth deal a month, all the way to closing 18 to 20 deals a month in less than 90 days.
Speaker: It's that good.
Speaker: That's why I want to go ahead and offer you guys, Solapreneur listeners, a special discount on the Solar Spartan System.
Speaker: You guys head on over to Solarspartansystem.com.
Speaker: You could try it out for 30 days.
Speaker: Again, guys, don't put your success on hold.
Speaker: This is something I would not promote on the podcast if I didn't fully believe in it.
Speaker: It's something I trust my clients, but as well my own solar company, my own reps,
Speaker: They go through this exact same training.
Speaker: So again, head over to solarspartansystem.com to get started and my team and I will see you inside.
Speaker: Let's get back to the show.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Welcome back, solopreneurs.
Speaker: James Swiderski here.
Speaker: Today, we're talking about virtual sales, if you're just tuning in here.
Speaker: That little commercial break was about the solar Spartan system I talked about and the primary goal of the Spartan system and what I've used and learned from the last three years of study, working relentlessly on this system.
Speaker: is helping you have the opportunity to master lead generation through these skills.
Speaker: Master appointment setting, master closing, presenting in 20 minutes, right?
Speaker: Getting your prospects to sell you instead of the other way around.
Speaker: Master leads coming in automatically through paid advertising, organic free advertising.
Speaker: And mastering virtual sales and providing the tools and the platform it takes to do so.
Speaker: These are the skills that are taught in the Spartan system.
Speaker: And as I talked about in the transformation triangle, right?
Speaker: The methodology we use in the learning system I've developed for this is after mastering the skills, we help you develop mentorship, right?
Speaker: We assign every one of the Spartans as a member of this program a mentor who has actually used and had success at the thing you're trying to master.
Speaker: So if you're trying to master door knocking, we have Spartan mentors who are going to help you with door knocking.
Speaker: If you want to master paid ads, we have the best paid advertisers in the industry available to train you.
Speaker: Want to master virtual sales and making seven figures a year?
Speaker: We've got sales reps who are clearing a million dollars in commissions a year and they're going to help you do it.
Speaker: That's part of the Spartan system.
Speaker: We keep it simple, tactical, and give you what you need to get you results.
Speaker: That's enough about the commercial break.
Speaker: If you want to check that out, I've got a free live demo of this.
Speaker: Take a demo of the system.
Speaker: Take it for a test drive and tell me what you think about it and decide for yourself if it's going to be worth your investment in time.
Speaker: Go to solarspartansystem.com.
Speaker: All right, back to our topic here.
Speaker: So four, mastering markets.
Speaker: This is one of those things that I neglected to think about when I got into virtual sales and I got hit in the face with it pretty recently.
Speaker: This summer, I started doing sales for the first time with Lumen in North and South Carolina.
Speaker: Never sold over there before.
Speaker: Didn't know anything about the markets.
Speaker: Attempted to go in there, right, thinking that I knew enough, right?
Speaker: People were maybe 10 years behind the technology.
Speaker: They didn't understand it.
Speaker: They kind of spoke with a thick accent, right?
Speaker: And it was a little difficult for me to communicate with them.
Speaker: Those are the things I thought I knew.
Speaker: And then I got hit with, you know, some of the utility companies that are very anti-solar companies.
Speaker: And then I got hit with the motivations of those buyers.
Speaker: The people over there were motivated by money and they couldn't give two craps about the environment like in San Diego where I'm selling a lot of the time or Utah.
Speaker: So these are some of the things you got to be aware of.
Speaker: You got to know what you're getting into.
Speaker: What kind of solar makes the most sense?
Speaker: Is it a lease?
Speaker: Is a lease going to be best over here or is it going to be a loan system?
Speaker: Is it going to go against the net metering?
Speaker: Do they have good net metering policies?
Speaker: Is it time of use?
Speaker: How are they working over there, right?
Speaker: Every market is completely different with solar.
Speaker: There's no similarities.
Speaker: Every utility company's got their own policy.
Speaker: Every buyer is going to be different.
Speaker: One of the main things I would say you need to focus on in markets is what is the motivation of that type of buyer and that customer?
Speaker: an easy tactical thing to do.
Speaker: If you want to jump into a new market, start selling, and you have the platform to do so, what I would do is I would go to Facebook, Instagram, your social media of choice, and start searching the location and just scroll through what those locals are talking about.
Speaker: How do they talk?
Speaker: What do they like?
Speaker: What kind of products do they like?
Speaker: Are they skeptical about solar or are they open to it?
Speaker: Have they been hit really hard with solar and you need to do a different angle?
Speaker: You've got to know your market.
Speaker: Understand what those people are thinking before you go in it blindly.
Speaker: Number five, the last piece here, you need a platform that allows you the flexibility of virtual sales.
Speaker: There are a lot of platforms out there.
Speaker: You could connect with an EPC company.
Speaker: You could connect with installers yourself.
Speaker: You could connect with companies like Power, right, where they have a fantastic platform for that.
Speaker: You could connect with any of these guys, and I've done all of the above.
Speaker: But I can tell you what's most important is you need to have confidence in the install, that the install is going to be a good product, that the company is going to take care of your customer.
Speaker: And that installer can back this up.
Speaker: They could show you some of these things.
Speaker: And then you need to have the support it takes.
Speaker: Be transparent.
Speaker: Tell the platform of choice.
Speaker: Tell the install company what you're trying to do, how you're going to do it.
Speaker: and see if they could support you along that route.
Speaker: See if they could provide the level of support with designs and systems and make sure that things like contracts are in place, contingency agreements, to where if the customer needed an electrical upgrade after a site survey, they could take care of that and you don't have to worry about it.
Speaker: These are some of the qualifications you wanna make sure with a good platform.
Speaker: And it all comes down to transparency, telling them you're trying to sell virtually, setting the intention, and getting the job done.
Speaker: So guys, that's it.
Speaker: Let's review this real quick.
Speaker: So you got to mask your lead gen.
Speaker: More importantly, you got to build trust and a method and system to build more trust upfront than at the appointment.
Speaker: Most of the trust has to be done upfront.
Speaker: How you present online or phone does not matter.
Speaker: What matters is your presentation is simple, sharp, clean, and effective.
Speaker: You create your own obstacles and objections with virtual sales.
Speaker: If you believe it's difficult, it will be.
Speaker: If you believe it's easy, it will be.
Speaker: You need to master your market.
Speaker: You need to be knowledgeable.
Speaker: You need to know just as much, if not more, than somebody who has been living in that market for 20 years.
Speaker: See what the locals are doing.
Speaker: See what their intentions are.
Speaker: See how they end up making purchasing decisions and their decisions on solar.
Speaker: Look at the pricing.
Speaker: How much does solar cost in that area so you can know what to base off of?
Speaker: Do your research.
Speaker: And then last, make sure you have a solid platform that allows you to accomplish your goals with virtual sales or heck, even non-virtual sales.
Speaker: Make sure you have a good company.
Speaker: Guys, that is it for this episode of the Solipreneur podcast.
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker: I wanted to really lay down the exact methods and tips that I can offer on virtual sales.
Speaker: If you want to learn how to sell virtually, if you want access to a platform that I've been developing for the last three years with the best lead gen training on paid advertising, organic presentations, closing, and
Speaker: check out the Solar Spartan System again.
Speaker: I've been working my tail off the last three months, perfecting this, the final 10%, the final stretch to help you or your company get to the next level.
Speaker: Go to solarspartansystem.com.
Speaker: Check out a free demo today.
Speaker: Okay, guys, that's it for this episode.
Speaker: As always,
Speaker: subscribe, right?
Speaker: Go leave us a review on iTunes.
Speaker: I'm going to be making appearances on this.
Speaker: I want to make sure the content on this podcast is a quality world-class, giving you all the tools and knowledge that I've developed.
Speaker: That's going to help you be successful in this industry.
Speaker: Okay, guys, I'll catch you later.
