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 a 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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
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.
Speaker: What's up, Solarpreneurs?
Speaker: We are back.
Speaker: We are gearing up for the summer.
Speaker: We are today, Memorial Day.
Speaker: It's when I'm recording this episode.
Speaker: You'll probably hear it later.
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.
Speaker: So I'm excited.
Speaker: I'm ready to start crushing some summer deals.
Speaker: I hope you are.
Speaker: And whether you are a summer sales rep
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.
Speaker: So I'm excited for an episode.
Speaker: And first, before we jump into anything, I need to give a huge thank you to you, my listeners.
Speaker: We just got our 100th review over on iTunes.
Speaker: And I am super appreciative.
Speaker: So if you are a longtime listener or you're just hearing these episodes, give yourself a pat on the back right now.
Speaker: I love you guys and appreciate the support you've given us over the years.
Speaker: Have we done this?
Speaker: It's been a long time.
Speaker: If you look back, we've been doing this podcast since 2018 now.
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.
Speaker: And then on top of that, it's just me being a little benefit as well.
Speaker: I tell a lot of people that even if guys don't listen to the show,
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.
Speaker: So thank you again.
Speaker: Thank you for helping us get to 100 reviews.
Speaker: And yeah, I hope you are taking some good stuff that's helping you in your sales from the Solarpreneur podcast.
Speaker: So that being said, let's jump into it.
Speaker: I did a little presentation today.
Speaker: two or three weeks ago, we had an event here in San Diego, which we're actually going to be having more.
Speaker: So I'd love for you to come out to our next one.
Speaker: If you want to find out more, um, yeah, shoot me a message.
Speaker: We actually have, I think a list we can put you on that would notify you for any future events.
Speaker: Um, but it w as a good event.
Speaker: We had myself, we had Earl Capule here in San Diego, who's been on the show, uh, Brent Attaway, our marketing guy.
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
Speaker: And we had some pretty cool slides that we went over.
Speaker: And obviously, I'm not going to do the whole presentation.
Speaker: It was like an hour, hour and a half presentation that I gave at this event.
Speaker: So I'm not going to do an hour and a half podcast right now.
Speaker: But if you want the slides that we did, hit me up and definitely send you those.
Speaker: But the title of the presentation I did at this event was called How to Separate Yourself from the Competition.
Speaker: Actually, I think it's How to Stand Out from the Competition.
Speaker: The reason I did this is because here in San Diego, there are so many solar companies.
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.
Speaker: This is in the past month.
Speaker: So I don't know what it's like in other markets.
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?
Speaker: So it's pretty saturated here.
Speaker: Guys get hit up a lot.
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.
Speaker: And that's why I did my presentation on that is just because in saturated markouts, you need to stand out.
Speaker: You need to think of ways to be different.
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.
Speaker: If you're in a market that hasn't been touched much at all, then it's going to be easier sales.
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.
Speaker: Okay, so let's talk about a few of them.
Speaker: Okay, and so first of all, I have a story that happened a few weeks back that illustrates a couple of these points.
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.
Speaker: And funny about this deal, I had gone to him
Speaker: He had already signed with another company and I thought we could get him like switched over.
Speaker: I, you know, built some value.
Speaker: I showed him what's different about our product, what we had to offer him.
Speaker: He's like, Taylor, that's sweet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Help me get switched over.
Speaker: And what happened was he ended up being basically really far along in the process.
Speaker: He was going to get hit with, um,
Speaker: huge cancellation fee and actually he didn't even know how to fully cancel it.
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.
Speaker: They're on my roof right now.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I'm like, dang it.
Speaker: Didn't get to him fast enough.
Speaker: So I got beat to it.
Speaker: But what happened with this deal, he actually gave me a referral to
Speaker: He got installed by a different solar company, but he gave me a referral, which was his son.
Speaker: So this was the other deal I went to, and that's what I want to talk about.
Speaker: So I show up to his son's house.
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.
Speaker: But I'm talking to his son.
Speaker: I'm saying, hey, yeah, unfortunately, we weren't able to get your dad installed, but he did like our program way better.
Speaker: There are some good benefits we were able to offer to him.
Speaker: So I think you're going to love it.
Speaker: And so I made some crucial mistakes with this appointment that I'm going to bring up here.
Speaker: But as I'm going in the appointment, it's going pretty well.
Speaker: He's telling me what he wants.
Speaker: I'm going through the fact finding saying, hey, what's your experience?
Speaker: What do you want out of solar?
Speaker: What are you looking to do?
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.
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.
Speaker: So at this point, it kind of throws me for a curveball.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, yeah, let's look into that.
Speaker: And yeah, so he wanted to make a huge project.
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.
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.
Speaker: But of course, I'm like, okay, no worries.
Speaker: We're going to get you this.
Speaker: Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker: No problem.
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.
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.
Speaker: I had no idea how to get those things started right then.
Speaker: I just thought, okay, I'm gonna sell this deal high, I'm gonna add in,
Speaker: 10, 15 grand on the total cost of the project and that should cover it.
Speaker: Actually, it was more than that because he wanted a roof too.
Speaker: So I think I added in like 20 grand for a new roof and AC.
Speaker: So pretty big project.
Speaker: And then we're going, he's liking everything about it.
Speaker: We're talking with him and his wife and we got him approved for credit.
Speaker: Everything's good.
Speaker: Then we go to sign the dotted line.
Speaker: The wife comes out, swoops out of nowhere and says, Taylor,
Speaker: Yeah, I just don't feel comfortable.
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.
Speaker: And yeah, it seems like you're not prepared with that yet.
Speaker: So we're going to have to hold off and then we can get back to you.
Speaker: So my big mistake was I wasn't prepared to have these things added in.
Speaker: And these homeowners, they could sense it.
Speaker: They knew that I didn't know what needed to be added in exactly.
Speaker: They knew
Speaker: I wasn't ready to fully close this deal.
Speaker: And so it killed me.
Speaker: The wife sensed that.
Speaker: And then ever since this time, I haven't been able to get back in touch with them, unfortunately.
Speaker: And they were comparing me with another company too.
Speaker: It was funny.
Speaker: Actually, the same company installed their dad.
Speaker: They gave me the referral.
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.
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.
Speaker: And the big mistake I made with this referral and his dad is I didn't know the competition.
Speaker: I didn't know who they were going with.
Speaker: I didn't know anything about them really.
Speaker: So I wasn't prepared to show them the differences.
Speaker: I said what I thought based on what they told me.
Speaker: but I didn't truly know what they were being offered.
Speaker: They told me the company and there's so many here in San Diego, it's tough to know them all.
Speaker: Um, but what I should have done hindsight is figured out all these details.
Speaker: Okay.
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.
Speaker: I was on a Instagram the other day and, um,
Speaker: Yeah, someone I follow, her name's Kiara.
Speaker: She's going to be on this show here.
Speaker: She does a lot of virtual sales, virtual closing, has a team.
Speaker: And she demoed her sales portal that she uses with her team.
Speaker: And I thought this was a great idea, something that you could implement yourself or with your team.
Speaker: She saves an entire folder of dozens of different contracts from other companies.
Speaker: Just at least she's collected over time.
Speaker: And as someone says they're comparing, she has multiple contracts.
Speaker: And most of the time she has contracts from the exact companies that people are comparing.
Speaker: So that's something you can do as you're meeting with people, as they're comparing your product.
Speaker: See if you can get their contract and then save that bad boy.
Speaker: If you can have those contracts saved, if you can have that ammo stored up, it's going to be so powerful.
Speaker: If you can be like, Mr. Customer, oh, you're with XYZ Company?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Actually, one of your neighbors, they were thinking of going with them.
Speaker: Matter of fact, here's their agreement that they had.
Speaker: But I'm just going to point out a few things that they didn't like.
Speaker: And this is coming straight from their agreement.
Speaker: Let me show you here real quick.
Speaker: Boom, you pull up the contract.
Speaker: You show them those things.
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.
Speaker: You can help these people switch.
Speaker: Hey, and then another, this is something we did actually back when I was doing pest control.
Speaker: We knew all the companies, our whole sales manual, it had a bunch of different competitors listed out exactly what they're offering.
Speaker: And it really helps you be perceived as the expert.
Speaker: If you can tell your customer, oh yeah, we've dealt with them.
Speaker: This is exactly what they're doing.
Speaker: And pest control is, oh, they don't have their agricultural license.
Speaker: They actually can't spray the yard.
Speaker: We have our agricultural license.
Speaker: We can cover the yard.
Speaker: We can cover these different types of pests.
Speaker: Yeah, I know I would get destroyed by people selling pest control right now.
Speaker: It's been a long time since I've been out on the doors slinging pest control.
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.
Speaker: And so I wasn't prepared.
Speaker: I didn't have contracts saved from the other company.
Speaker: And I wasn't prepared in the fact that I didn't have these things factored in that he wanted.
Speaker: He told me he wanted AC factored in.
Speaker: He told me he wanted a new roof.
Speaker: So if you can know these things beforehand, it's going to help you be prepared as possible.
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.
Speaker: And little things, little delays, things like the home is in the trust.
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?
Speaker: So things like that.
Speaker: And the way to be prepared is try to do a mini back find in your, as you set the appointment, right?
Speaker: And sometimes it's not always possible.
Speaker: Maybe you're doing a same day appointment, but if you're setting appointment, ask these things.
Speaker: If they're older homeowners, Mr. Customer has a home and a trust, right?
Speaker: If the roof isn't looking great, Mr. Customer, how old is your roof up there?
Speaker: If they have an older electric panel, Mr. Customer, do you know how many amps your electric panel was?
Speaker: No?
Speaker: Well, let me take a look.
Speaker: Let me grab a picture of it.
Speaker: Then you know things like if they're going to need an electric panel upgrade.
Speaker: So gather as much information as you can.
Speaker: Be prepared.
Speaker: figure out what they want, figure out why they hadn't gone solar.
Speaker: And that's going to help you have all your ammo ready, locked and loaded.
Speaker: So you can close any deal so you can be ready for any scenario that you come across.
Speaker: Okay, so that's just a couple points that I talked about in the presentation a few weeks back.
Speaker: Again, if you want the slides from this, hit me up.
Speaker: Happy to send them.
Speaker: I went over way more details, had a lot more specific things in it.
Speaker: But just thought I'd give you guys a recap.
Speaker: And those are a few things you can do to set yourself apart from the competition.
Speaker: Save contracts from other companies.
Speaker: Know your competitors.
Speaker: And then be prepared.
Speaker: Be prepared to throw in extra home improvements projects.
Speaker: Be prepared with prices.
Speaker: Be prepared with everything you need.
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.
Speaker: And so if this helped you, share it with someone.
Speaker: Thanks again for helping us get to 100 reviews.
Speaker: You guys are awesome.
Speaker: And this is how we're going to change the industry is by knowing our competitors and being experts.
Speaker: So go out and do those things and keep crushing.
Speaker: Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
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?
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals
Speaker: and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
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.
Speaker: And it's called Soul Society.
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?
Speaker: Less than $3.45 a day.
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.
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.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker: We'll catch you again in the next episode.
