Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
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.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here.
Speaker: Today, we're going to be talking about the three reasons you are losing recruits.
Speaker: We're going to be continuing on the recruiting discussion.
Speaker: If you did not listen to the last podcast episode, I gave you a full recruiting recording of me trying to recruit someone at Cheesecake Factory.
Speaker: We're going to be continuing on the conversation on recruiting.
Speaker: And the reason for that is because we actually have a very special guest that's probably the number one recruiter in the solar industry.
Speaker: He was the lead recruiter over at Blue Raven Solar, a massive organization.
Speaker: And now he runs a company called Surge Sales Recruiting.
Speaker: His name's Clark Manwaring.
Speaker: He's going to be coming on and dropping the complete truth on everything about recruiting.
Speaker: Today's episode, we're going to be talking about just some of my own experiences.
Speaker: And disclaimer, this is the second time I'm recording this.
Speaker: So hopefully you guys are getting the better version.
Speaker: Did a full podcast and realized I did not have my mic turned on.
Speaker: Like, oh my gosh, going to have to try it again.
Speaker: So we'll try it again.
Speaker: Round two here.
Speaker: But again, welcome to the show.
Speaker: If you are new, we're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals.
Speaker: have a much better time in the industry.
Speaker: And also, in the case of today's episode, recruit more people for your team.
Speaker: Before we jump in, we got a couple small announcements.
Speaker: First, as always, don't forget to get your ticket to SolarCon that's coming up.
Speaker: Click the notes in the description and you're going to see the link.
Speaker: All you do is simply click the link and then just plug in the code SOLARPRENEUR.
Speaker: You're going to get the top listener discount, 30%.
Speaker: Hope to see you all there.
Speaker: Let me know if you want to do a meetup.
Speaker: We did one at DoorToDoorCon.com.
Speaker: Got a cool little turnout.
Speaker: Had a good time.
Speaker: So let me know if you want to do another one.
Speaker: Hey, and then second, just wanted to thank our latest review.
Speaker: We had Gary and Mike.
Speaker: He left a review over on iTunes, says solar is part of the future.
Speaker: Get prepared and educated to take the opportunity.
Speaker: Coming.
Speaker: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: Gary and Mike appreciate the five star review.
Speaker: And yeah, that's the truth.
Speaker: Solar is changing, especially here in the case of California.
Speaker: We got net meter 3.0.
Speaker: We had a drastic change and we're all having to adjust.
Speaker: So hopefully I can play a small part in this podcast can help you in whatever adjustment you may have to make or whatever sales skills you may need to require or recruiting skills.
Speaker: That being said, let's jump into this.
Speaker: What are the three mistakes you're making in your recruiting?
Speaker: There's a lot of reasons why people can leave.
Speaker: I've had recruits come on and so many times they stay for a week, then they're gone.
Speaker: What's going on?
Speaker: Why is this happening?
Speaker: We're going to be digging into it.
Speaker: Three things that I have happened that I have experienced myself that have happened.
Speaker: Let's check it out.
Speaker: So number one.
Speaker: They feel like they can't progress.
Speaker: When I first started, my first company I was with, we were running a setter closer model.
Speaker: We had tons of recruits coming in, but it was like, you've ever seen a hole with a bucket in it?
Speaker: You dump it in the bucket and then all the water's coming out slowly, right?
Speaker: And a bunch of little holes or a colander, I think that's what we call it.
Speaker: Sometimes that's what it felt like with these recruits is you get 20 recruits in, then at the end of the week, there'd be like two left.
Speaker: So it's like, what's going on?
Speaker: And so this was something that unfortunately we experienced is these recruits coming in.
Speaker: They felt like there was no progression.
Speaker: Hey, we get these guys coming in and then we're told, Hey, just keep them as setters.
Speaker: They're never, we want, we need more setters.
Speaker: We need more setters.
Speaker: We need to feed our closers.
Speaker: And then guys would hear that they couldn't progress.
Speaker: They didn't feel like there was a growth opportunity.
Speaker: Then we lost them.
Speaker: They go to a different company.
Speaker: So for you, what's the next step guys can take?
Speaker: Can they come in?
Speaker: Can they start training to be a closer?
Speaker: And I'm not saying everyone should need to be a closer.
Speaker: If you're listening to this and you're a setter, setter is not the bottom of the totem pole.
Speaker: Setters are probably the most important parts of this business.
Speaker: If someone isn't setting a lead, then there's no opportunity to close.
Speaker: But what opportunity can you give these people to progress from?
Speaker: Right now, what we're doing is guys come in, they start as rookies.
Speaker: They need to get eight deals to breast to mentee.
Speaker: Then after that, what we're experimenting with is having them, if they're doing good setting, hey, you can continue setting.
Speaker: And then we're going to drop the red line all day, get some more pay opportunities, some bonuses with that.
Speaker: But at that point, they can progress to closing to try it out.
Speaker: And so what's the progression?
Speaker: It should be super clear.
Speaker: What are the next steps?
Speaker: What are the next things we need to do to progress?
Speaker: How can I grow?
Speaker: So that's reason number one.
Speaker: Reason number two is there's no training program in place.
Speaker: Do you have an online training library?
Speaker: Do you have a way that guys can go listen to the top producers in your company?
Speaker: Is the only way they can get training is going out and shadowing these guys.
Speaker: Do they know where to go to get support, to get help?
Speaker: If you have one manager that's running a team of 20 people, even 10 people, you can't put your manager in every single place at the same time.
Speaker: Who's someone they can go to to get support?
Speaker: Who are the people they can reach out to?
Speaker: who can they reach out to if they need more training so if you need help with your training reach out we have got a full training library here at solopreneur we can get you or your company access we also have the ability to add in videos if you'd like to do some white labeling type stuff but you need to have a portal set up you need to have an easy place where guys can access training videos where guys can access different recordings from reps and in my opinion the best way to do this is just get zero
Speaker: That's the app that I talk about all the time in the podcast.
Speaker: You can go and give guys access to, you know, the top reps in your company.
Speaker: They can go listen to recordings.
Speaker: They can record themselves, get feedback.
Speaker: But even if you're not using an app like Ciro, just have guys record, have your top guys record themselves, upload it to Google Drive, put it on a spreadsheet and boom, there's a solution if you don't want to get Ciro.
Speaker: So get a training program in place.
Speaker: If you don't have one, you're losing reps.
Speaker: Number three is...
Speaker: they aren't making money.
Speaker: And this should be a no-brainer.
Speaker: Guys aren't making money.
Speaker: They're probably not going to last super long.
Speaker: So if you are interviewing reps, make sure, just like you set an expectation with a customer, hey, Mr. Homeowner, just so you know, this process can take two, even three months sometimes.
Speaker: No news is good news.
Speaker: So we're going to give you updates.
Speaker: But if you don't hear anything, just know we're working on it.
Speaker: Got to set the proper expectations because if you tell someone, hey, your deal is going to get installed in two months or in two weeks and it's not going to cause some upset.
Speaker: So it's the same thing when you're recruiting.
Speaker: You got to make sure guys know when can they expect to be paid?
Speaker: When can they expect to start making money if they're new?
Speaker: And make sure it's not confusing.
Speaker: Make sure they know exactly what the timeline is for it.
Speaker: We're dealing with something right now where, unfortunately, some people were under the impression that, hey, we get paid immediately after the account gets installed.
Speaker: No issues.
Speaker: But the truth is we don't get paid until the job is funded.
Speaker: And so funding, sometimes it can take, it's not PTO, right?
Speaker: But customer has to sign off on a completion certificate.
Speaker: Couple other things.
Speaker: So sometimes funding is two weeks after.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it's causing some disconnects and guys don't like that.
Speaker: So you got to make sure that it is clear.
Speaker: Are they getting paid right after a sale happens?
Speaker: If you have to tell a guy that you're going to get paid all the commission right after they sell account, that's not true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You're not getting paid until install.
Speaker: And for new guys, you should set it up to where they're getting paid something up front, right?
Speaker: There should be upfront money for setters.
Speaker: You've all heard the little introduction where I came into this industry with 50 bucks in my bank account.
Speaker: I wouldn't have lasted if I didn't get at least a little bit upfront.
Speaker: Got to have some money upfront or at least enough for food.
Speaker: Like when I came in, I was, you know, stealing food from guys, making their breakfast and all that.
Speaker: But give them something.
Speaker: And so those are the three reasons why
Speaker: And especially the last one I've been with, yeah, some organizations, seen organizations, especially where guys have massive delays in pay.
Speaker: And this is sort of the ugly side of the industry is guys not getting paid and guys leaving companies not getting paid.
Speaker: So I think we all need to up level.
Speaker: Let's figure out that pay part.
Speaker: And I hate to see what unfortunately had happened to me where I've been in places where I was not paid on time, where I was not paid what I expected I was going to pay.
Speaker: And of course, it causes a lot of disconnect, a lot of upset, upset people.
Speaker: So those are the three things that I have seen personally go down.
Speaker: Three reasons why I have seen a lot of reps leave in my day.
Speaker: Number one is you got to have a way for people to progress.
Speaker: Number two is you got to have a training program in place.
Speaker: Easy way to access that.
Speaker: Number three, you got to be making money.
Speaker: You got to have clear expectations of when that money is going to be paid out and when that
Speaker: you know, when it's going to hit the actual bank account.
Speaker: So if you do these three things, if you do the reverse of the three things we just talked about, then you're going to be much more likely to keep reps on.
Speaker: But next episode, we're going to hear from the master.
Speaker: Clark is going to come on.
Speaker: He's going to share with us everything he does from A to Z on how to
Speaker: get more recruits, how to keep them and how to grow your organization.
Speaker: So even if you're not actively recruiting, listen to this, even if you're not a manager, even if you're not an owner, we should all be trying to recruit more guys into our organizations.
Speaker: And that is how we grow more ourselves.
Speaker: Grant Cardone says, you don't know someone, you don't know something until you can teach it to someone else.
Speaker: That's what I love about recruiting is because when you recruit someone, you're giving them an opportunity for them to grow themselves.
Speaker: But then you're also giving yourself an opportunity to share something, to share what you've learned about sales, about solar.
Speaker: And as you teach it to someone, you're going to learn more yourself.
Speaker: And also it keeps you way more accountable.
Speaker: We've heard Michael O'Donnell, who goes out and knocks.
Speaker: He says the best way to go out and get yourself to knock is to have someone meet you at a Starbucks or meet you in an area.
Speaker: Then you're going to get out and knock.
Speaker: Because if someone meets you, there's no excuses.
Speaker: So go recruit this week.
Speaker: Think of people you can recruit on your teams.
Speaker: Send this to someone who is trying to actively grow their team, who could use some help recruiting.
Speaker: And we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Keep crushing.
Speaker: Peace out.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solopreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet.
Speaker: So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
