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112. How to Knock ONLY on Doors of Qualified Prospects
37 Plays5 years ago
There are few things that are more annoying than a conversation with someone who doesn't really care, it's true in life and in selling solar. So I make sure that every door I knock on is at least prepared or able to invest in their own house.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
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 cells reps fell.
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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, following up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
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Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one of them.
Improving Lives of Solar Professionals
00:00:42
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
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Speaker
Taylor Armstrong back.
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How are you?
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Here to make your life as a solar professional more effective, more profitable, and just better in every way possible.
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So I hope I've been able to do that.
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And today we're going to take that even further and make it even easier.
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So let's jump into the episode.
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Quick story to start it off.
Focusing on Quality Prospects
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So last, I think it was about two weeks ago, I got a lead actually from someone that I used to work with.
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Kay just ran into a homeowner.
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She's pretty old, but she really wants solar.
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So I'm like, okay, I'll go check it out.
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He is actually working for a different company that isn't doing PPAs, which are power purchase agreements, which tend to be better for older folks a lot of times since they aren't able to claim the tax credits.
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But anyways, he gave me this lead.
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I go there and she is, I find out she is 92.
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So super old, but I don't discriminate against age.
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Anyone should be able to go solar if they want to.
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We get to talking, and she is one of those kind of long-winded, just old people.
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She really wants to talk and really wants to tell you her whole life story.
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So I hear her out, and that's something that I'm trying to improve on.
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Obviously, you want to be nice, but you don't want to spend all day either if they're not going to buy.
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But I made the mistake of hearing her out for probably like,
00:02:28
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over an hour and we did talk about solar too but we talked for probably just an hour about her life and everything and it's nice to brighten someone's day so i know that was a more important thing but come to find out after about an hour and a half she was only paying like 20 bucks a month for electricity and out here in california where i'm at that's next to nothing and we definitely couldn't save her money and i think she was also on a discount which made it tougher
00:02:58
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So I still attempted to sell her.
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I'm like, hey, I think her name was Patricia.
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But Patricia, would you go solar if we could lock your bill in?
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You wouldn't save money, but would you go solar?
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And she's like, no, actually, no, no, it's just too big of a change.
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No, I won't even consider it.
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And I'm like, oh my gosh, sat here for an hour and a half and just talked to a homeowner that really wasn't that qualified and shouldn't really be spending my time with her.
Targeting Homeowners Likely to Buy Solar
00:03:30
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So the point of that is how often are you spending your time with people that aren't quality prospects?
00:03:39
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Are you like me and get in front of old people and just too nice to say, hey, I got to go, I got to get to work?
00:03:48
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It's good to do that sometimes, but in order to be effective in this industry, you got to be picky with your time.
00:03:54
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You got to be effective.
00:03:56
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You got to be super efficient.
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I think that's one of the biggest secrets.
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So I learned, well, I'm still learning.
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You got to be picky with those people.
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And that's what I want to talk about today is how do you spend more time with quality prospects?
00:04:13
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How do you get in front of people that are more likely to buy, that are quality?
00:04:18
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With solar, sometimes it can be a challenge.
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I mean, really anyone with a roof, with some common sense should go solar.
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So we have a super broad audience, and most people aren't like that.
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You look at most industries, companies,
00:04:34
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I guess door to door, you're pretty much able to benefit anyone that owns a home.
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But you look at other industries like, I don't know, cat litter.
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You're not going to sell cat litter to someone that doesn't have a cat.
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I don't think so, unless they're nuts.
00:04:51
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But what products are out there where you're targeting a specific audience, you look at all these people doing Facebook ads, you look at marketers, you
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If someone is selling a cat product, cat litter, for example, you're not going to target everyone.
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You're going to go, you're going to see who is in a cat, maybe Facebook group.
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You're going to go who see, who, uh, figure out who likes the cats illustrated magazine or whatever.
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You're going to look for people that's your target audience, right?
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And you're going to target those people.
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Another example, if you're trying to sell Make America Great hats or Keep America Great, going on election time right now, you're going to target Donald Trump fans, right?
00:05:41
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You're going to target people that voted for Donald Trump.
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Because if you go in the Democratic National Convention trying to sell those things, guess what?
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You're walking out of there with zero sales.
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Okay, so...
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You've got to target the right people.
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In solar, although we have a super broad audience, we can target...
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a lot of different homeowners, most anyone that owns a home, there still are ways to be more effective with this.
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So how can you target homeowners that are more likely to buy?
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How can you target homeowners that are bigger systems, that can benefit you more, that are going to say yes rather than just make you come back and follow up endlessly?
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So that's what we're going to talk about.
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So I've got a few tips that's going to help you with exactly that.
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And we've talked about a few of them on the show before.
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So this may be a reminder for a couple of them.
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And actually, a few of them, I can point you to the other episodes where I went in a little more depth.
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But the strategy is this.
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To target, my first tip is target people that just moved in.
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These are people that just bought a home, that want their home to be more efficient, that are looking to save money, that just made a huge purchase.
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Target those people.
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Okay, I have been implementing this strategy.
00:07:10
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I heard it from my buddy Matt.
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He came on the podcast about a year ago and first kind of introduced me to this strategy of targeting new homeowners.
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And I've been using it more than ever, probably the past few months actually.
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But it's been huge.
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It's helped my team close tons and tons of deals and just spend more time with people that are likely to buy.
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Because new move-ins, like I said, they're people usually in a buying mode.
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They just bought their home.
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They want it to be more efficient.
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They want to improve it.
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And ideally with that, you want someone that has been there three to four months.
00:07:51
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What can happen, you do run the risk of new homeowners.
00:07:55
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And I'm speaking specifically for California, but this, well, this should apply anywhere.
00:08:01
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But people that have only been there less than a month, that haven't even gotten a bill, sometimes they can be a little bit tricky to sell just because, like, do you know how much energy you're going to be using?
00:08:11
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Sometimes they do.
00:08:13
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And I still have sold plenty of people that maybe haven't even gotten a bill.
00:08:18
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But target specifically people that have been there three to four months, ideally.
00:08:23
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They're still new, but they should have gotten a few bills.
00:08:25
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They should know generally what they're paying.
00:08:28
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They should have an idea of it.
00:08:30
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And to do that, just to be brief with it, go on Zillow, go on Redfin.
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You can find it there.
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Make a spreadsheet.
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Target them.
Identifying High Energy Consumption Homeowners
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But even just generally, if you're in an area, if you're on a team, if you're signing an area,
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Ask neighbors, hey, do you know anyone that just moved in?
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Do you know any new move-ins around here?
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They could use some savings on their energy bill.
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And I've gotten tons of sales just by asking for referrals this way too.
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And then when you're doing it this way, it's super effective.
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When you go to the door and say, hey, your neighbor Jim just told me you guys just moved in, so you probably hadn't heard about the solar program going on in the neighborhood, right?
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And then it's immediately creating the curiosity.
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It's creating the credibility because they know that the neighbor Jim just sent you over there.
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So that's super effective.
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Even if you don't want to go do the whole Redfin Zillow strategy, do something like that.
00:09:28
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That's something you can implement tomorrow.
00:09:32
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And number two, look for people that have energy-sucking appliances or pools or something that I ran into just the other day, ponds.
00:09:41
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Someone actually had a koi pond in their backyard, and they were getting monstrous bills.
00:09:49
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Seemed a bit fishy to me, no pun intended.
00:09:53
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But look for people like that.
00:09:55
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Look for people that have those energy-sucking appliances that are using energy.
00:10:00
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Obviously, you're not going to be able to tell every time.
00:10:04
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But for me personally, we use cells rabbit here.
00:10:06
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Whatever door-knocking CRM you have, there are a bunch of good ones.
00:10:12
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You can go on there.
00:10:13
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You can see who has pools.
00:10:15
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Yeah, or ponds in this case.
00:10:18
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Maybe you can see if they have...
00:10:21
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You know, bigger houses are another one, but that's kind of generic.
00:10:25
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Look for clues, though, of people that are using way more energy that have the higher bills.
00:10:30
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And go to those people first.
00:10:32
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Okay, target and bring it up.
00:10:33
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Say, hey, notice you have a pool.
00:10:36
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We're just supposed to follow up with all the people with pools in the neighborhood and maybe make that your initial pitch.
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So things like that.
00:10:45
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That's the second strategy.
00:10:46
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Target those people.
00:10:48
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Look for people that have higher bills because of those things.
Networking for Solar Leads
00:10:52
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Okay, my last tip on this is look for people already spending money on projects.
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Maybe it's windows.
00:10:59
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Maybe it's things to make their home more efficient.
00:11:03
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And this is where the networking definitely comes in big time here.
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Because who's working with your ideal customers right now?
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Guess what?
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A lot of people are.
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If someone that's doing windows, someone that's doing roofs is a huge one.
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How can you get those people in your contacts?
00:11:23
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How can you network with them?
00:11:24
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I don't have a ton of personal experience with this one personally, but a lot of people on my team, a lot of other people I've interviewed are having huge success with this.
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Go to business networking groups.
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There's a group, BNI, where I know it's sometimes hit and miss, but go to groups like those.
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What it is, it's where you can network with people from other industries that also have your potential customers.
00:11:53
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So yeah, maybe it was people in landscaping, people doing pools, people in roofing.
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They're all working on homes.
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They're all working with homeowners.
00:12:01
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So they all have your potential customers too.
00:12:05
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So setting up some type of referral program with them, if it's a roof company,
00:12:11
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Maybe setting up with them, hey, I know you guys have an email list of all your clients.
00:12:16
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If it's a big groove company, maybe they have a thousand customers or hundreds of customers.
00:12:22
Speaker
So working something up with them, hey, if you guys allow me to email your customer and give them a special deal with the solar,
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Speaker
I will give you $1,000 for every deal that closes or whatever it is.
00:12:36
Speaker
Figure out the margins on it.
00:12:38
Speaker
I know tons of people that are having huge success with that, networking with these roofing companies, networking with someone that has your potential clients.
00:12:48
Speaker
So do those things.
00:12:49
Speaker
That's going to help you find people that are more likely to buy.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, you can go out and knock a million doors and door knocking is always the bread and butter.
00:12:58
Speaker
But start thinking, where are my best customers at?
00:13:02
Speaker
Where are the people at that are most likely to buy?
00:13:05
Speaker
Who's the most qualified?
00:13:07
Speaker
Because sometimes you knock on door after door after door, you're getting endless renters.
00:13:12
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You're getting people that have $20 bills, like I just mentioned.
00:13:16
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You're getting people that have terrible roofs, that need a ton of roof work, which they're great customers too, but just add some more work.
00:13:23
Speaker
So how can you find the people that are most likely to buy?
00:13:26
Speaker
How can you find these super qualified people?
00:13:28
Speaker
So that's the secrets.
00:13:31
Speaker
Look for people that are using higher bills, have those appliances, pools, koi ponds,
00:13:37
Speaker
look for the new move-ins, and then look for people already spending money on projects.
00:13:42
Speaker
Again, you can do this just out knocking too.
00:13:45
Speaker
You can see people with signs in the yard that said maybe they just got landscaped by X company.
00:13:50
Speaker
That's one way to do it too.
00:13:52
Speaker
But start networking, start seeing who has your money, who has your potential clients, and that is going to help you take it to another level.
Invitation to Solar Sales Success Training
00:14:01
Speaker
That's today's tips.
00:14:02
Speaker
Let me know what you think and we will see you on the next show.
00:14:06
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning into today's episode.
00:14:09
Speaker
I know when I got into the industry, I had almost no resources like this.
00:14:13
Speaker
So I hope this show is helping you get the success you deserve.
00:14:17
Speaker
If you found value from anything in this episode today, think about someone who can benefit so you and I can help people fulfill their potential.
00:14:25
Speaker
Zig Ziglar said if you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.
00:14:30
Speaker
So I promise by sharing this it will help you grow and improve.
00:14:33
Speaker
The value bombs on today's show will take you one step closer to success, but it's always to the degree that you apply and execute the principles.
00:14:42
Speaker
I've spent the last few years interviewing the top solar experts and helping other reps and businesses discover their potential.
00:14:49
Speaker
If you want more help achieving your goals, then I put together an exclusive video training on three hacks that helped me close multiple deals a week while knocking less than 10 hours.
00:14:59
Speaker
And who doesn't want that?
00:15:01
Speaker
So go check it out at webclass.solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:04
Speaker
Once again, that's webclass.solarpreneurs.com to get exclusive access to the training and take your skills to the next level.