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How to Separate Yourself from the Competition Without Backstabbing image

How to Separate Yourself from the Competition Without Backstabbing

E150 ยท The Solarpreneur
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71 Plays4 years ago

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, 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 you might ask 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 what's up Solarpreneurs.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Back. We're gearing up for the summer. We are today. Memorial day is when I'm recording this episode. You'll probably hear it later, but we are ready for an awesome summer to close enormous amounts of deals and take advantage of these hot temperatures that we're being given right now. So I'm excited. I'm ready to start crushing some summer deals. I hope you are in whether you are a summer sales rep or you're doing it year after year after year, like myself, take advantage of this summer, coming up and use it to really jumpstart your deals. So I'm excited for an episode. And first, before we jump into anything, I need to give a huge thank you to you. My listeners, um, I just, we just got our hundredth review over on iTunes and I am super appreciative. So if you are a long-time listener or you're just hearing these episodes, give yourself a pat on the back right now.

Speaker 2 (01:44):

I love you guys and appreciate the support that you've given us over the years of we'd done this. Um, it's been a long time. If you look back, we've been doing this podcast since 2018 now, and as I've said before, there's no way I would have kept this going. If it weren't for people sending me comments, leaving reviews, uh, let me know that it's helped them. And then on top of that, just me being a little benefit as well. I'd tell a lot of people that even if guys don't listen to the show, it's helped me learn more. And it's helping me connect with guys who are really doing some awesome things in the industry. So thank you again. Thank you for helping us get to a hundred reviews and yeah, I hope you are taking some good stuff. That's helping you in your cells from the Solarpreneur podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:34):

So that being said, let's jump into it. Um, I did a little presentation two or three weeks ago. We had an event here in San Diego, which we're actually going to be having more. So I'd love for you to come out to our next one, if you want to find out more, um, yeah, shoot me a message. We actually have, I think a list we can put you on that would notify you for any future events. Um, but it was a good event and we had myself, we had Earl Kapule here in San Diego. Who's been on the show, uh, Brent Attaway our marketing guy. Um, and Jay Pez, another big guy that does events with the soar academy here in San Diego. We all spoke at it. We had a good turnout, probably around 30 people there, um, which we didn't promote it a ton, but it's just good to kind of, um, you know, connect with others network and then hear from some of the top minds in solar.

Speaker 2 (03:32):

So what I want to talk about today is just, um, what I presented on at this event. And we had some pretty cool slides that we went over and obviously I'm not going to do the whole presentation. It was like an hour, hour and a half presentation that I gave out this event. So I'm not gonna, um, do an hour and a half podcast right now

Recommended
Transcript

Introduction & Personal 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.
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.

Excitement for Summer Sales

00:00:41
Speaker
What's up, Solarpreneurs?
00:00:42
Speaker
We are back.
00:00:43
Speaker
We are gearing up for the summer.
00:00:45
Speaker
We are today, Memorial Day.
00:00:48
Speaker
It's when I'm recording this episode.
00:00:49
Speaker
You'll probably hear it later.
00:00:51
Speaker
But we are ready for an awesome summer to close enormous amounts of deals and take advantage of these hot temperatures that we are being given right now.
00:01:03
Speaker
So I'm excited.
00:01:04
Speaker
I'm ready to start crushing some summer deals.
00:01:06
Speaker
I hope you are.
00:01:07
Speaker
And whether you are a summer sales rep
00:01:10
Speaker
or you're doing it year after year after year like myself, take advantage of this summer coming up and use it to really jumpstart your deals.

Celebrating Milestones

00:01:20
Speaker
So I'm excited for an episode.
00:01:22
Speaker
And first, before we jump into anything, I need to give a huge thank you to you, my listeners.
00:01:30
Speaker
We just got our 100th review over on iTunes.
00:01:35
Speaker
And I am super appreciative.
00:01:37
Speaker
So if you are a longtime listener or you're just hearing these episodes, give yourself a pat on the back right now.
00:01:44
Speaker
I love you guys and appreciate the support you've given us over the years.
00:01:49
Speaker
Have we done this?
00:01:50
Speaker
It's been a long time.
00:01:51
Speaker
If you look back, we've been doing this podcast since 2018 now.
00:01:56
Speaker
And as I've said before, there's no way I would have kept this going if it weren't for people sending me comments, leaving reviews, letting me know that it's helped them.
00:02:05
Speaker
And then on top of that, it's just me being a little benefit as well.
00:02:10
Speaker
I tell a lot of people that even if guys don't listen to the show,
00:02:14
Speaker
It's helping me learn more and it's helping me connect with guys who are really doing some awesome things in the industry.
00:02:21
Speaker
So thank you again.
00:02:22
Speaker
Thank you for helping us get to 100 reviews.
00:02:26
Speaker
And yeah, I hope you are taking some good stuff that's helping you in your sales from the Solarpreneur podcast.
00:02:34
Speaker
So that being said, let's jump into it.

San Diego Event & Networking

00:02:38
Speaker
I did a little presentation today.
00:02:41
Speaker
two or three weeks ago, we had an event here in San Diego, which we're actually going to be having more.
00:02:46
Speaker
So I'd love for you to come out to our next one.
00:02:48
Speaker
If you want to find out more, um, yeah, shoot me a message.
00:02:53
Speaker
We actually have, I think a list we can put you on that would notify you for any future events.
00:02:59
Speaker
Um, but it was a good event.
00:03:00
Speaker
We had myself, we had Earl Capule here in San Diego, who's been on the show, uh, Brent Attaway, our marketing guy.
00:03:10
Speaker
and jay kes another big guy that does events with the solar academy here in san diego we all spoke at it we had a good turnout probably around 30 people there um which we didn't promote it a ton but it's just good to kind of um you know connect with others network and then hear from some of the top minds in solar so what i want to talk about today is just um what i presented on at this event
00:03:38
Speaker
And we had some pretty cool slides that

Standing Out in the Market

00:03:41
Speaker
we went over.
00:03:41
Speaker
And obviously, I'm not going to do the whole presentation.
00:03:44
Speaker
It was like an hour, hour and a half presentation that I gave at this event.
00:03:49
Speaker
So I'm not going to do an hour and a half podcast right now.
00:03:53
Speaker
But if you want the slides that we did, hit me up and definitely send you those.
00:03:58
Speaker
But the title of the presentation I did at this event was called How to Separate Yourself from the Competition.
00:04:05
Speaker
Actually, I think it's How to Stand Out from the Competition.
00:04:09
Speaker
The reason I did this is because here in San Diego, there are so many solar companies.
00:04:15
Speaker
I went to church this last Sunday and someone at my church came up and said, actually, I already hooked them up with solar, but they came up and said, Taylor, since you hooked us up with our solar and got the process started, we've had like four or five guys come to our house.
00:04:30
Speaker
This is in the past month.
00:04:32
Speaker
So I don't know what it's like in other markets.
00:04:35
Speaker
Maybe areas are getting hit up that hard, but four to five people in a month, it's like one solar guy knocking on the door a week, right?
00:04:43
Speaker
So it's pretty saturated here.
00:04:45
Speaker
Guys get hit up a lot.
00:04:47
Speaker
And especially if you're in a saturated market like San Diego, if you're not progressing, if you are not hustling, then it's going to be really tough to have success.
00:04:57
Speaker
And that's why I did my presentation on that is just because in saturated markouts, you need to stand out.
00:05:03
Speaker
You need to think of ways to be different.
00:05:05
Speaker
And even if you're not in a saturated market, if you can do these things, it's going to get you even more sales.
00:05:11
Speaker
If you're in a market that hasn't been touched much at all, then it's going to be easier sales.
00:05:16
Speaker
But really implementing strategies that I'm going to talk here about in this episode, they're going to help you have even more success, even if you're not in a saturated market.

Importance of Preparation

00:05:27
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about a few of them.
00:05:29
Speaker
Okay, and so first of all, I have a story that happened a few weeks back that illustrates a couple of these points.
00:05:37
Speaker
I was down and knocking around Chula Vista here at just kind of the suburb of San Diego and actually got a referral from a deal that I was working with.
00:05:49
Speaker
And funny about this deal, I had gone to him
00:05:52
Speaker
He had already signed with another company and I thought we could get him like switched over.
00:05:57
Speaker
I, you know, built some value.
00:05:59
Speaker
I showed him what's different about our product, what we had to offer him.
00:06:03
Speaker
He's like, Taylor, that's sweet.
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker
Help me get switched over.
00:06:07
Speaker
And what happened was he ended up being basically really far along in the process.
00:06:13
Speaker
He was going to get hit with, um,
00:06:15
Speaker
huge cancellation fee and actually he didn't even know how to fully cancel it.
00:06:19
Speaker
So by the time I was helping him get the process started with us, he calls me like early in the next week and said, Taylor, yeah, actually I can't cancel.
00:06:29
Speaker
They're on my roof right now.
00:06:30
Speaker
Sorry.
00:06:31
Speaker
I'm like, dang it.
00:06:33
Speaker
Didn't get to him fast enough.
00:06:35
Speaker
So I got beat to it.
00:06:36
Speaker
But what happened with this deal, he actually gave me a referral to
00:06:41
Speaker
He got installed by a different solar company, but he gave me a referral, which was his son.
00:06:48
Speaker
So this was the other deal I went to, and that's what I want to talk about.
00:06:52
Speaker
So I show up to his son's house.
00:06:54
Speaker
It's the referral and never had a referral like that, really, where they signed with another company and, you know, gave me the referral, even though they got installed by someone else.
00:07:06
Speaker
But I'm talking to his son.
00:07:07
Speaker
I'm saying, hey, yeah, unfortunately, we weren't able to get your dad installed, but he did like our program way better.
00:07:14
Speaker
There are some good benefits we were able to offer to him.
00:07:17
Speaker
So I think you're going to love it.
00:07:19
Speaker
And so I made some crucial mistakes with this appointment that I'm going to bring up here.
00:07:26
Speaker
But as I'm going in the appointment, it's going pretty well.
00:07:30
Speaker
He's telling me what he wants.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'm going through the fact finding saying, hey, what's your experience?
00:07:35
Speaker
What do you want out of solar?
00:07:36
Speaker
What are you looking to do?
00:07:39
Speaker
Which everyone should be doing, you know, taking out your notepad, writing down what his experience has been with solar, writing down what he wants, writing down what questions he has.
00:07:47
Speaker
And then as I'm figuring out these things, he tells me, oh yeah, Taylor, so I do actually want to get AC and a new roof included in with my solar deal.
00:07:58
Speaker
So at this point, it kind of throws me for a curveball.
00:08:00
Speaker
I'm like, okay, yeah, let's look into that.
00:08:05
Speaker
And yeah, so he wanted to make a huge project.
00:08:09
Speaker
He wanted to add in all these extra things, which some people do this, but I prefer to just hopefully keep it as simple as possible.
00:08:17
Speaker
I personally don't love adding all these things in, even though it can be super powerful if you were adding in different products and different home improvements into the project.
00:08:27
Speaker
But of course, I'm like, okay, no worries.
00:08:29
Speaker
We're going to get you this.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, we can do that.
00:08:31
Speaker
No problem.
00:08:32
Speaker
So we're going in the deal and it became pretty obvious as I went on that I wasn't ready to necessarily add these different home improvement products in with the deal.
00:08:43
Speaker
I was telling them we could get them for them, but truth is I had no idea how much those things were gonna cost.
00:08:50
Speaker
I had no idea how to get those things started right then.
00:08:56
Speaker
I just thought, okay, I'm gonna sell this deal high, I'm gonna add in,
00:09:00
Speaker
10, 15 grand on the total cost of the project and that should cover it.
00:09:05
Speaker
Actually, it was more than that because he wanted a roof too.
00:09:08
Speaker
So I think I added in like 20 grand for a new roof and AC.
00:09:12
Speaker
So pretty big project.
00:09:14
Speaker
And then we're going, he's liking everything about it.
00:09:17
Speaker
We're talking with him and his wife and we got him approved for credit.
00:09:21
Speaker
Everything's good.
00:09:22
Speaker
Then we go to sign the dotted line.
00:09:25
Speaker
The wife comes out, swoops out of nowhere and says, Taylor,
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't feel comfortable.
00:09:30
Speaker
I know you're saying you can get us the AC and the new roof, but it's not detailed anywhere in the contract.
00:09:37
Speaker
And yeah, it seems like you're not prepared with that yet.
00:09:42
Speaker
So we're going to have to hold off and then we can get back to you.
00:09:46
Speaker
So my big mistake was I wasn't prepared to have these things added in.
00:09:52
Speaker
And these homeowners, they could sense it.
00:09:54
Speaker
They knew that I didn't know what needed to be added in exactly.
00:09:57
Speaker
They knew
00:09:58
Speaker
I wasn't ready to fully close this deal.
00:10:02
Speaker
And so it killed me.
00:10:03
Speaker
The wife sensed that.
00:10:04
Speaker
And then ever since this time, I haven't been able to get back in touch with them, unfortunately.
00:10:10
Speaker
And they were comparing me with another company too.
00:10:13
Speaker
It was funny.
00:10:13
Speaker
Actually, the same company installed their dad.
00:10:15
Speaker
They gave me the referral.
00:10:17
Speaker
He gave them the referral originally first, but then he gave it to me after and said, hey, get my son to switch because I think he's going to sign with this company too.
00:10:28
Speaker
So I'm still trying to get in touch with them, but a couple points from this deal that I want to talk about is number one, know your competition.

Understanding Competitors

00:10:40
Speaker
And the big mistake I made with this referral and his dad is I didn't know the competition.
00:10:47
Speaker
I didn't know who they were going with.
00:10:49
Speaker
I didn't know anything about them really.
00:10:52
Speaker
So I wasn't prepared to show them the differences.
00:10:55
Speaker
I said what I thought based on what they told me.
00:10:58
Speaker
but I didn't truly know what they were being offered.
00:11:01
Speaker
They told me the company and there's so many here in San Diego, it's tough to know them all.
00:11:06
Speaker
Um, but what I should have done hindsight is figured out all these details.
00:11:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:13
Speaker
And, uh, even better if I had could have had a contract saved maybe from this other company, maybe what they're offering would have helped out a ton.
00:11:23
Speaker
I was on a Instagram the other day and, um,
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, someone I follow, her name's Kiara.
00:11:29
Speaker
She's going to be on this show here.
00:11:31
Speaker
She does a lot of virtual sales, virtual closing, has a team.
00:11:36
Speaker
And she demoed her sales portal that she uses with her team.
00:11:41
Speaker
And I thought this was a great idea, something that you could implement yourself or with your team.
00:11:47
Speaker
She saves an entire folder of dozens of different contracts from other companies.
00:11:52
Speaker
Just at least she's collected over time.
00:11:54
Speaker
And as someone says they're comparing, she has multiple contracts.
00:12:01
Speaker
And most of the time she has contracts from the exact companies that people are comparing.
00:12:08
Speaker
So that's something you can do as you're meeting with people, as they're comparing your product.
00:12:14
Speaker
See if you can get their contract and then save that bad boy.
00:12:17
Speaker
If you can have those contracts saved, if you can have that ammo stored up, it's going to be so powerful.
00:12:23
Speaker
If you can be like, Mr. Customer, oh, you're with XYZ Company?
00:12:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
Actually, one of your neighbors, they were thinking of going with them.
00:12:31
Speaker
Matter of fact, here's their agreement that they had.
00:12:35
Speaker
But I'm just going to point out a few things that they didn't like.
00:12:38
Speaker
And this is coming straight from their agreement.
00:12:39
Speaker
Let me show you here real quick.
00:12:41
Speaker
Boom, you pull up the contract.
00:12:42
Speaker
You show them those things.
00:12:44
Speaker
If you can have stuff like that saved, if you can know your competition like the back of your hand, it's going to be so powerful.
00:12:50
Speaker
You can help these people switch.
00:12:53
Speaker
Hey, and then another, this is something we did actually back when I was doing pest control.
00:12:58
Speaker
We knew all the companies, our whole sales manual, it had a bunch of different competitors listed out exactly what they're offering.
00:13:07
Speaker
And it really helps you be perceived as the expert.
00:13:10
Speaker
If you can tell your customer, oh yeah, we've dealt with them.
00:13:13
Speaker
This is exactly what they're doing.
00:13:15
Speaker
And pest control is, oh, they don't have their agricultural license.
00:13:21
Speaker
They actually can't spray the yard.
00:13:23
Speaker
We have our agricultural license.
00:13:24
Speaker
We can cover the yard.
00:13:25
Speaker
We can cover these different types of pests.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah, I know I would get destroyed by people selling pest control right now.
00:13:32
Speaker
It's been a long time since I've been out on the doors slinging pest control.
00:13:37
Speaker
But the point is, if you can know all these things, if you know what's being offered, you're perceived as the expert and it's going to make you that much more powerful in your closes.

Customer-Centric Strategies

00:13:47
Speaker
And so I wasn't prepared.
00:13:50
Speaker
I didn't have contracts saved from the other company.
00:13:55
Speaker
And I wasn't prepared in the fact that I didn't have these things factored in that he wanted.
00:14:02
Speaker
He told me he wanted AC factored in.
00:14:05
Speaker
He told me he wanted a new roof.
00:14:08
Speaker
So if you can know these things beforehand, it's going to help you be prepared as possible.
00:14:13
Speaker
And I can tell you, I've lost a lot of deals over time just because of the simple fact that I haven't been prepared.
00:14:21
Speaker
And little things, little delays, things like the home is in the trust.
00:14:26
Speaker
If a homeowner has a home and a trust, you need to know those things because most finance companies that you deal with, they're going to need copies of those trust documents, right?
00:14:35
Speaker
So things like that.
00:14:36
Speaker
And the way to be prepared is try to do a mini back find in your, as you set the appointment, right?
00:14:45
Speaker
And sometimes it's not always possible.
00:14:46
Speaker
Maybe you're doing a same day appointment, but if you're setting appointment, ask these things.
00:14:51
Speaker
If they're older homeowners, Mr. Customer has a home and a trust, right?
00:14:56
Speaker
If the roof isn't looking great, Mr. Customer, how old is your roof up there?
00:15:01
Speaker
If they have an older electric panel, Mr. Customer, do you know how many amps your electric panel was?
00:15:08
Speaker
No?
00:15:08
Speaker
Well, let me take a look.
00:15:09
Speaker
Let me grab a picture of it.
00:15:10
Speaker
Then you know things like if they're going to need an electric panel upgrade.
00:15:15
Speaker
So gather as much information as you can.
00:15:17
Speaker
Be prepared.
00:15:19
Speaker
figure out what they want, figure out why they hadn't gone solar.
00:15:22
Speaker
And that's going to help you have all your ammo ready, locked and loaded.
00:15:27
Speaker
So you can close any deal so you can be ready for any scenario that you come across.
00:15:32
Speaker
Okay, so that's just a couple points that I talked about in the presentation a few weeks back.
00:15:39
Speaker
Again, if you want the slides from this, hit me up.
00:15:41
Speaker
Happy to send them.
00:15:42
Speaker
I went over way more details, had a lot more specific things in it.
00:15:47
Speaker
But just thought I'd give you guys a recap.
00:15:50
Speaker
And those are a few things you can do to set yourself apart from the competition.
00:15:54
Speaker
Save contracts from other companies.
00:15:56
Speaker
Know your competitors.
00:15:57
Speaker
And then be prepared.
00:15:59
Speaker
Be prepared to throw in extra home improvements projects.
00:16:04
Speaker
Be prepared with prices.
00:16:05
Speaker
Be prepared with everything you need.
00:16:07
Speaker
And then that's going to help you just lock down the deal the first time and not have to have it be an endless follow-up like I'm going through right now.
00:16:15
Speaker
And so if this helped you, share it with someone.
00:16:17
Speaker
Thanks again for helping us get to 100 reviews.
00:16:21
Speaker
You guys are awesome.
00:16:22
Speaker
And this is how we're going to change the industry is by knowing our competitors and being experts.
00:16:29
Speaker
So go out and do those things and keep crushing.

Introducing Soul Society

00:16:33
Speaker
Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
00:16:35
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?
00:16:44
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals
00:16:50
Speaker
and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:16:56
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
00:17:07
Speaker
And it's called Soul Society.
00:17:09
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?
00:17:24
Speaker
Less than $3.45 a day.
00:17:27
Speaker
Currently, Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only, but solopreneurs can go to soulciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
00:17:41
Speaker
Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
00:17:53
Speaker
Thanks again for listening.
00:17:55
Speaker
We'll catch you again in the next episode.