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Episode #5 How To 10X Your Referrals With Ben Claybrook
68 Plays7 years ago
On this episode of the Solarpreneur podcast we have solar expert Ben Claybrook here to talk about some killer strategies to increase your referrals and even throw in some tips with online funnels.
To learn more about online lead generation for your business check out Ben Claybrook or visit us at sevenfiguresolar.com today.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
00:00:03
Speaker
There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
00:00:08
Speaker
The question is, which one will you be?
00:00:12
Speaker
Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
00:00:23
Speaker
So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
00:00:28
Speaker
This podcast is your answer.
00:00:31
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.
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Ben Claybrook's Journey to Solar Success
00:00:54
Speaker
Okay, good morning, solarpreneurs.
00:00:56
Speaker
We have got the one and the only Ben Claybrook here.
00:01:01
Speaker
He is the master of online lead generation and has taught me a lot.
00:01:06
Speaker
Welcome to the show, Ben.
00:01:07
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:08
Speaker
It's great to be here.
00:01:10
Speaker
Cool, man, so good to have you on.
00:01:12
Speaker
Just a little bit of background with Ben here.
00:01:14
Speaker
He was the one that kinda got me started into the online lead generation for solar.
00:01:20
Speaker
I kinda doweled in ClickFunnels and built in some online funnels, but didn't really know how to use it to get leads for solar or anything like that.
00:01:30
Speaker
And then Ben, I think I found him through a Facebook group or something.
00:01:34
Speaker
Do you remember?
00:01:35
Speaker
Was it the ClickFunnels group maybe online?
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:38
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:01:39
Speaker
What's that?
00:01:41
Speaker
Uh, yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:42
Speaker
That's right.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:44
Speaker
So someone connected me through there and he was the first person I saw that was like using click funnels to get leads online.
00:01:50
Speaker
So I'm like, Oh my gosh, you can actually do that.
00:01:52
Speaker
I got to figure out what this kid's doing.
00:01:56
Speaker
So he got me on it, let me on on his secrets, kind of joined his coaching program and took his online course and got me started in all of it.
00:02:06
Speaker
So we want to hear from Ben today.
00:02:07
Speaker
How did you get into the solar industry and what's kind of your story behind that?
00:02:12
Speaker
So I was actually, I was going door to door for Vivint on the alarm side.
00:02:16
Speaker
So not even in the solar industry, I went door to door and on the seventh year I was pretty burnt out, pretty sick of it, trying to find something new to do.
00:02:25
Speaker
But like, I don't know if, yeah, you're familiar with the alarm door to door side of it, but like you make really good money in the summertime, right?
00:02:32
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So I would work like four to five months and then just go to Austria, go to Europe and just travel for the other eight months.
00:02:39
Speaker
and rinse and repeat every year.
00:02:41
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But after seven years of doing it, you start to go a little crazy because it's just like a plateau.
00:02:46
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You make really good money in the summer.
00:02:48
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So I remember I was in San Diego actually going door to door and I could just feel it.
00:02:53
Speaker
I was done.
00:02:55
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I didn't want to go door to door.
00:02:56
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So one morning I got contacted by a recruiter from SolarCity.
00:03:01
Speaker
And that was back in 2016, I think, right?
00:03:04
Speaker
No, it was 2013.
00:03:05
Speaker
That was a while ago.
00:03:07
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So they contacted me and I immediately went in for an interview, dressed up in my nicest suit I had.
00:03:13
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And that was super casual.
00:03:15
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So it was way overboard.
00:03:18
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But no, I loved it.
00:03:18
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So I was on SolarCity on the corporate side.
00:03:21
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So like where they send you appointments.
00:03:23
Speaker
And I just, yeah, I killed it from day one.
00:03:26
Speaker
Did really well just because they were giving me leads, right?
00:03:28
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So I wasn't
00:03:30
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Having to go door-to-door anymore.
00:03:31
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That's all I really cared about as long as I don't have to go door-to-door So yeah, they had guys that kind of worked in Home Depot and they would set appointments So I went and I built relationships with those guys so that would trust me with their leads and then they would I would go to like Yeah, three to five appointments a day and yeah, that was kind of how I got into the solar industry and
00:03:51
Speaker
There you go.
00:03:52
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There you go.
Challenges and Strategies in Door-to-Door Sales
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:53
Speaker
Similar story.
00:03:54
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I think a lot of people went through that because for me, I heard that I can make more money knocking way less doors doing solar.
00:04:01
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Cause I was out there grinding and pest control.
00:04:05
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Do this.
00:04:06
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My buddy out here doing this was only knocking four hours and I was not going to eat.
00:04:10
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I'm like, okay, I need to get in on that.
00:04:13
Speaker
They got something figured out that I didn't know.
00:04:15
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Yeah.
00:04:16
Speaker
That's cool.
00:04:17
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That's interesting.
00:04:18
Speaker
Cause I never, I mean, I went, no, I mean, I barely did any door to door for solar a little bit near the end, uh, just for fun.
00:04:25
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Yeah.
00:04:26
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Yeah.
00:04:26
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How was that?
00:04:28
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Yeah, I mean, I'm still going door to door.
00:04:32
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I'm getting more, our company's starting to push towards a similar thing where we're just having people set up the leads and getting sent to us, but we're still going door to door a little bit.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:42
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Definitely not as long as pest control though.
00:04:45
Speaker
I'm sure it was the same in alarms, right?
00:04:47
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:04:48
Speaker
In the summertime we would, because I run on the doors or whatever.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I started in Florida and Orlando and then Oklahoma City, Kansas City, all these different random cities we'd go to every year.
00:05:01
Speaker
We'd just go to a new one, right?
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, you'd be out there and like, especially Oklahoma City and Florida, I just remember the rainstorms and the peak of summer.
00:05:10
Speaker
It was just crazy.
00:05:11
Speaker
Like you'd have your umbrella and it was just pouring for like a good 30 minutes and it would stop.
00:05:16
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But it was just crazy.
00:05:18
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Good times.
00:05:19
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I remember like, oh yeah, in Oklahoma City, we actually got hit by a tornado.
00:05:22
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And so I had to hide out in somebody's house where I sold them an alarm.
00:05:27
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Because I didn't have time to get to the car just hit so fast and so we all hid in their house till it passed over and like when we came out of the house there was like Those aluminum garages, you know, like some people do those temporary garage get like picked up and put on somebody else's house and like Oh my god like trees were laying down.
00:05:43
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I was like, oh my god That's the door-to-door life.
00:05:47
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Yeah
00:05:53
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I know I was in I did it in Texas and North Carolina and similar stuff man you got some crazy hell storms out there just out there trying to walk around with an umbrella and yeah did you guys go out in car groups too so you didn't have your car you're just like stranded couldn't do anything oh man because it helped to get in the doors though right if you got the raining cats and dogs gives you a good excuse to make your way inside the house that's right yeah that's right
00:06:19
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That's cool.
00:06:20
Speaker
And so how long were you at SolarCity?
00:06:23
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So how long were you in that position?
00:06:25
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I was there almost three years.
00:06:28
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It was two years, ten months.
00:06:31
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And I think I got just over a megawatt of solar installed.
Follow-Up Techniques and Customer Engagement
00:06:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:36
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So it worked out the, I, yeah, it was, it was quick.
00:06:39
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Like at the, at the beginning, I realized very quick that I had to build relationships with those guys that were setting appointments in order for me to kind of fill my pipeline.
00:06:46
Speaker
Right.
00:06:47
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Especially at the beginning where I didn't have like a pipeline to get referrals off of.
00:06:51
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Um, but yeah, I think we'll get into that.
00:06:53
Speaker
Right.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:55
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Yeah.
00:06:55
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We'll go into that.
00:06:56
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So yeah, what we want to build on today, because especially what I learned a ton from Ben here is number one with his referral process.
00:07:04
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It gave me some really cool ideas as far as getting referrals.
00:07:08
Speaker
As our company, we're mostly knocking doors and it was very, very little referral based.
00:07:14
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So when Ben told me that you were, because you were getting most of your appointments just off referrals, right?
00:07:21
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At one point, just pretty much pure referrals.
00:07:23
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Yeah.
00:07:24
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I mean, the first couple of months, I just hustled as much as I could.
00:07:28
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I built those relationships with those guys that were like appointment setters because they really had to trust you because they get a commission if the appointment sells.
00:07:35
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And if you're some new guy, right, they would rather give it to a seasoned guy.
00:07:39
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But yeah, I went door to door, so I was hungry, right?
00:07:42
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So it's like I would close a lot of them.
00:07:44
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I noticed really fast, though, the turnover rate was really high.
00:07:47
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So they would just not hear from me anymore.
00:07:49
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Or they would just fall off the face of the earth.
00:07:51
Speaker
That's kind of how you put it, right?
00:07:52
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You'd sell them.
00:07:53
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They wouldn't answer the phone anymore.
00:07:54
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And it's like, what's going on?
00:07:56
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So I quickly changed, kind of evolved to a very meticulous follow-up strategy.
00:08:02
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So every day I would spend a good hour to two hours just following up with all the people I'd already sold.
00:08:07
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Nice.
00:08:08
Speaker
And I would do that by, we use Salesforce, but now I use, after we stopped using it, I just use my calendar.
00:08:16
Speaker
And so every time I'd sell someone, I'd just schedule a time like a week later when I need to follow up with them.
00:08:22
Speaker
And I would make sure that every person until they got to install is following up with by text and email at least once a week.
00:08:28
Speaker
And I really feel like doing that for consistently for like six, six months, it got my, you know, the people I was selling, it got them to remember me a lot more and it got them
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, I was just always top of mind.
00:08:43
Speaker
Even if there was nothing new to say, like with solar, sometimes you go three or four weeks where there's just nothing new, you're just waiting.
00:08:49
Speaker
Because they're hearing my texts or getting my texts and my emails, I'm just top of mind when they're talking about solar with their friend or something.
00:08:58
Speaker
And if you combine that with just making everybody save your number in their phone, you know, like even if you're just sitting there awkwardly while they save their number, save your number and just under a solar guy or whatever you want to do.
00:09:11
Speaker
That way they can easily just text you, right?
00:09:13
Speaker
You just have to kind of coach the people.
00:09:15
Speaker
And if you combine kind of that kind of referral coaching with meticulously taking care of people, then they'll think of you kind of naturally.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, that was super interesting to me.
00:09:27
Speaker
And so how did you like develop this referral process?
00:09:31
Speaker
Were you just kind of like experimenting with ideas or were you just starting to like realize that people needed help?
00:09:38
Speaker
No, there was definitely a few of the, I'd always look at the top guys in the company and some of the top guys were doing at that time, like one of the guys was just selling over the phone.
00:09:49
Speaker
That's, he hardly ever did appointments in person.
00:09:52
Speaker
He never took appointments from the lead setter guys, the appointment setter guys.
00:09:55
Speaker
He always just did, it was like 90 to 100% referrals.
00:09:58
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I was like, okay, what's that guy doing?
00:10:01
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And I looked and his process was,
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, he would meticulously follow up with everybody he sold.
00:10:09
Speaker
And then, yeah, so it was really learning it from other people that were already doing it.
00:10:13
Speaker
But these guys, I noticed really quickly, you know, they weren't door to door guys.
00:10:16
Speaker
They were project managers, basically.
00:10:19
Speaker
And what they kind of thought of you was if you manage the projects, then you take care of the customers, they'll take care of you.
00:10:24
Speaker
It's kind of like when you see a couple walking down the street and either the guy or the girl is checking out another person.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
for the for the partner right yeah to me that's like what the customer feels like when you're constantly trying to get the new people and you're not taking care of your your spouse or your your partner you know what i mean the customer's like your partner so if you're always checking out the other people that's kind of what they feel like if you're not really staying on top of it um but yeah there was one other thing i learned from a door-to-door guy mike mueller actually
00:10:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:58
Speaker
Because he was getting crazy referrals too.
00:10:59
Speaker
So I would kind of like take little bits and pieces from different people and kind of made it my own.
00:11:03
Speaker
But what he would do is he would send brownies to people.
00:11:06
Speaker
I think I told you about that.
00:11:08
Speaker
I loved it because it was like ridiculous.
00:11:10
Speaker
And I'm not usually very –
00:11:13
Speaker
I don't know.
00:11:13
Speaker
I keep a pretty clear line between personal and business.
00:11:17
Speaker
So it was hard for me at first, but like we put together this card of just me and my wife saying, thank you for your business.
00:11:23
Speaker
Has a picture of us in there and just says, you know, look forward to helping you pay less for power.
00:11:27
Speaker
Here's some brownies.
00:11:28
Speaker
Enjoy.
00:11:29
Speaker
Just something really stupid, simple like that.
00:11:31
Speaker
They would go out in a nice little box.
00:11:32
Speaker
It costs me like six or seven bucks.
00:11:35
Speaker
So basically as soon as I signed somebody up, I send that out the next day.
00:11:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:40
Speaker
Regardless whether they pass the site survey or not, right?
00:11:42
Speaker
It's just if they've signed a contract with me, they pass credit, it was worth it to send that out because I noticed a huge increase or decrease in the people that would, you know, fall off the face of the earth.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker
They got that personal touch and they're just like, wow, this guy actually cares.
00:11:58
Speaker
You know, he's going above and beyond.
00:12:01
Speaker
And that just made me way more memorable than all the other, because you're competing with all the other businesses out there, right?
00:12:06
Speaker
Because they all want referrals.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:12:10
Speaker
And that's something that I thought was really interesting, really cool.
00:12:13
Speaker
I'm like, wow, this is sending out brownies.
00:12:15
Speaker
No one's doing that.
00:12:17
Speaker
And that was like one of the key takeaways.
00:12:19
Speaker
I'm like, wow, that's genius.
00:12:21
Speaker
Because if you can save your number, number one, you're saving each time you close a deal, you're saving
Building Trust and Managing Client Expectations
00:12:27
Speaker
their number or your number in their phone, right?
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:31
Speaker
And the key with that, you already mentioned, is putting it as like solar guy or something.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:37
Speaker
Because that's what I've been trying to do too.
00:12:38
Speaker
Every time I close a deal, just say, don't even ask for just saying, hey, I'm going to just put my number in your phone.
00:12:45
Speaker
So that way if you have any other questions or think of someone that can benefit, then you just know right away.
00:12:51
Speaker
and then putting it as solar because guarantee when I step out of the door, people forget my name, I think instantly.
00:12:57
Speaker
Oh, it's solar.
00:12:59
Speaker
And what's interesting, I just got a text yesterday.
00:13:03
Speaker
I think it was two days ago from a guy I closed like three, four months ago.
00:13:08
Speaker
And I guarantee if I hadn't put my number in his phone, then he probably would have been too lazy to like figure out how to send him the referral.
00:13:15
Speaker
But just because I made it convenient for him,
00:13:18
Speaker
He just pulled up his phone and said, hey, I just talked to a neighbor that is interested in it and sent off the text.
00:13:24
Speaker
So I was impressed with that.
00:13:25
Speaker
I'm like, wow, this actually does work because now I'm like top of his mind.
00:13:30
Speaker
It's huge, right?
00:13:31
Speaker
And like in every house, I would, even though it just sounds obvious to us, I'd always be like, look, you know, obviously people are going to ask you about it once you go solar, right?
00:13:41
Speaker
So just every time someone asks you about it, instead of like giving them my number,
00:13:46
Speaker
it makes it way easier for them if you just text me their name and number and just get their permission.
00:13:50
Speaker
So I would say that like three or four times in every appointment.
00:13:54
Speaker
And it sounds obvious, but people are always, you know, they'll give out my number and then they'll tell me they gave some of my number, but it just, nothing ever happens because people are too...
00:14:01
Speaker
get too, and I always say they get too busy to call me, right?
00:14:04
Speaker
Or they're shy or whatnot.
00:14:06
Speaker
But if you text me their name and number, I'll take care of them, you know, just like I took care of you guys.
00:14:10
Speaker
And if you're really crazy about your follow-up, if you're actually doing that, then they know that you'll take care of them.
00:14:15
Speaker
That's, I think the biggest reason people don't refer their friends and family is if they see that you just kind of fall off the face of the earth after you sell them.
00:14:22
Speaker
Nobody wants to send that guy to their friends and family, you know, but if there's this guy that's like religious about his followup, they'd be like, well, yeah, he's going to take care of my mom or my dad.
00:14:31
Speaker
And like people would refer me to all their family because they, they knew that I would take care of them, you know?
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:37
Speaker
Like,
00:14:38
Speaker
So it's that trust factor, right?
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:42
Speaker
I think that's huge.
00:14:43
Speaker
So step one, you would instantly put your number in their phone or yeah, in their phone, right?
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
Step two, you'd send out the brownies like as soon as you could.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:53
Speaker
What's the service you use?
00:14:54
Speaker
Is it send out cards?
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:56
Speaker
Sendoutcards.com.
00:14:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:58
Speaker
It's,
00:14:59
Speaker
It's a network marketing company, but I never signed up for that side of the business.
00:15:03
Speaker
I just was a customer of it the whole time.
00:15:05
Speaker
And I think the cost was still good enough as a customer.
00:15:09
Speaker
Did you run the numbers recently?
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, right now I'm using it and I think it's 17 a month.
00:15:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:16
Speaker
You pay.
00:15:18
Speaker
Well, there's a couple of different tiers, I guess, of the service.
00:15:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:22
Speaker
The one I'm on at 17 a month.
00:15:23
Speaker
And then I think the two pack of brownies with a card is like seven, seven bucks or something.
00:15:30
Speaker
That's nice.
00:15:31
Speaker
Did you do the hand signature?
00:15:32
Speaker
So it looks like you actually signed the card.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
You can select my hand signature.
00:15:37
Speaker
So it's money, man.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, if you have that system, people really notice and you always get the text back saying, oh, thank you.
00:15:43
Speaker
That's so awesome.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
And then even the people, I've had a few people where I send it and then they cancel.
00:15:49
Speaker
But I like that at least if they do cancel, they should feel super bad about canceling.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:56
Speaker
And they'll usually like, they're usually, yeah.
00:16:01
Speaker
When they do cancel, it's like, sorry, man, it's just not working out.
00:16:03
Speaker
And it's not like, you know, because what drove me crazy are the ones that just didn't respond.
00:16:07
Speaker
You're just like, just tell me if it's not going to work.
00:16:11
Speaker
You know, whether it works or not, just let us know.
00:16:13
Speaker
And once you start doing brownies and stuff like that, then I just feel like they're way more inclined to actually talk to you.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's huge.
00:16:21
Speaker
So we're going to post that in the show notes.
00:16:23
Speaker
It's sendoutcards.com.
00:16:25
Speaker
Very cool.
00:16:25
Speaker
Go check it out.
00:16:27
Speaker
But yeah, I think that's huge.
00:16:28
Speaker
And then the other question I had is, in my case, our company has like project managers where they're actually sending out the updates and emailing them and everything.
00:16:37
Speaker
So that's my biggest struggle with the process is in my head, I'm like, okay, well, I don't need to follow up with them as much because the project managers, that's their job and that's what they're doing.
00:16:46
Speaker
So what would you suggest for people that are in companies where they have project managers and they're following up with them?
00:16:55
Speaker
Would you suggest still just like doing it yourself and...
00:16:59
Speaker
So the project manager, because SolarCity kind of evolved to start having project managers do stuff like that for us.
00:17:07
Speaker
And so what I kind of evolved to do is I would ask them to CC me every time they emailed the customer.
00:17:12
Speaker
Some companies won't do that if they're just too big or too corporate or not.
00:17:15
Speaker
But usually, you know, if you've got the relationship with the project manager, they can CC you without a problem.
00:17:21
Speaker
And then I would just text the customer.
00:17:22
Speaker
So, Hey, it looks like we got this.
00:17:23
Speaker
Hey, it looks like we, we got an update on the permit.
00:17:26
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:17:26
Speaker
So every time I get the email, I just find that people are more inclined to read their texts than they are the email.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:31
Speaker
And because when I was doing the full project manager, I would send the email and send the text anyways.
00:17:35
Speaker
Right.
00:17:36
Speaker
So now it just made my job a little bit easier because I would just send the text.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:40
Speaker
And if we're waiting on something, especially, oh, it's like one of the biggest things, I think, like this guy that was doing 90% referrals, he always said when a thing comes up, like a main panel upgrade or the roof or re-roof, attack it immediately.
00:17:54
Speaker
You know, a lot of times, I remember, especially at the beginning, I had the tendency to kind of postpone it.
00:17:58
Speaker
So it was like an awkward conversation I've got to have with the customer now, right?
00:18:01
Speaker
I'm like, oh, great.
00:18:02
Speaker
And I would put it off a day or two or a week sometimes, you know, because you just know maybe it's not going to work out for the customer.
Learning and Adapting for Success
00:18:09
Speaker
And so you just put it off because it's a bummer sometimes, you know?
00:18:12
Speaker
So, but what he was, he was always like, just attack it that same day.
00:18:16
Speaker
As soon as you get that message, just pick up the phone and call the customer, you know, just tell him, look, I know it sucks.
00:18:21
Speaker
It's sucks for me too, obviously.
00:18:23
Speaker
Um, but just immediately attack when problems come up.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:27
Speaker
I think that was one of the biggest things I learned from him.
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:18:30
Speaker
And I think that's why it's so big to model the people who are already successful because that's how, I mean, that's how we all get our best ideas.
00:18:38
Speaker
Go look at the top guys, model them, do what they're doing.
00:18:43
Speaker
And that's how we're going to get the results.
00:18:44
Speaker
We don't have to reinvent the wheel here.
00:18:46
Speaker
Just go and look at what the top guys are doing and then create your own system.
00:18:50
Speaker
I think that's what Ben did.
00:18:51
Speaker
And that's how he got these killer results with it.
00:18:54
Speaker
Some people have the problem where in their company, maybe they're like the top rep or maybe it's a smaller company and they don't have top reps to kind of model.
00:19:03
Speaker
But I think that's why it's important going to other, I mean, reaching out to other people who are successful.
00:19:11
Speaker
Like in this case, we're doing the podcast to try and get the top reps, see what they're doing here.
00:19:16
Speaker
So I see you're a big component of learning, Ben.
00:19:19
Speaker
And when we were working together, this is something that he always got me on.
00:19:23
Speaker
I would ask him questions and he would just slam me every time.
00:19:26
Speaker
He's like, dude, go Google it.
00:19:28
Speaker
I'm like, come on, Ben, just tell me the answer.
00:19:33
Speaker
I don't want to Google it.
00:19:34
Speaker
You're supposed to be in my dictionary.
00:19:36
Speaker
So he would slam me every time with that.
00:19:38
Speaker
Just tell me to go Google it.
00:19:40
Speaker
As you can see here, you're a big component of learning.
00:19:43
Speaker
Looks like you got a million books back there.
00:19:46
Speaker
You love to read.
00:19:48
Speaker
So has that been a big component to your success too?
00:19:51
Speaker
Is just always learning and reading all those books back there?
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:19:57
Speaker
I mean, if you're not reading, because there's just so much value people can put in a book.
00:20:01
Speaker
You know, you think about if you could just get one nugget out of a book, then it was worth it.
00:20:04
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:20:06
Speaker
But one of my favorite authors is Dan Kennedy.
00:20:08
Speaker
So if you follow like Russell Brunson or anything from ClickFunnels, I think he learned a lot of his stuff from Dan Kennedy.
00:20:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
These guys were huge.
00:20:18
Speaker
And I still think they're extremely relevant because a lot of these, like –
00:20:22
Speaker
A lot of the thing, like the marketers, they'll have a course or they'll teach something, but it's just regurgitated or repackaged.
00:20:28
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:20:28
Speaker
Because the core principles most of the time are the same.
00:20:31
Speaker
But yeah, if you're looking for a good book, check out Dan.
00:20:36
Speaker
And he's probably got about a hundred books.
00:20:39
Speaker
So a good place to start would be, I think it's the ultimate marketing plan.
00:20:44
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:20:45
Speaker
We'll post that in the show notes too.
00:20:47
Speaker
Ultimate marketing plan.
00:20:50
Speaker
Cool.
00:20:50
Speaker
And have you ever tried my thoughts on doing with your referral process too?
00:20:55
Speaker
Have you ever like plugged them in and into kind of like a quick funnels, quick funnels has the action edX and all that where you can send out the automated emails.
00:21:07
Speaker
What's your thoughts on like plugging each deal you close into like a, I don't know, a MailChimp or a quick funnels action edX and just sending them out like automated emails.
00:21:16
Speaker
Have you ever tried anything like that?
00:21:18
Speaker
I've thought about that a lot.
00:21:20
Speaker
And the only issue, yeah, I didn't get to that point of automating that just because, so my follow-up after somebody gets installed was always, I would follow up every other week until they got PTO.
00:21:32
Speaker
And then once they got PTO, I'd follow up after the first month, just so they were clear on how net metering works.
00:21:37
Speaker
Cause people always forget no matter how many times you say, it's just, it's, it's just something about,
00:21:42
Speaker
having them send you their utility bill after they have solar and then you circling on there, this is what net metering is and emailing that back to them so they can see on their bill.
00:21:51
Speaker
They're like, oh, okay, that makes sense.
00:21:54
Speaker
And so I'd always do that after the first month, after a first full month.
00:21:58
Speaker
And I always email them and say, hey, send me your utility bill so we can go over net metering so I can make sure it's producing.
00:22:03
Speaker
I always said, make sure it's producing what...
00:22:07
Speaker
Um, what we want it to be producing.
00:22:08
Speaker
So it sounds like we might've done something wrong kind of, so they're always quick to send me their utility bill.
00:22:12
Speaker
Right.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
Um, and then I would follow up again after three months and then six months and then a year later.
00:22:18
Speaker
Um, so yeah, at that time I didn't start using click funnels till the very end of my, uh, solar city career.
00:22:26
Speaker
And then once we started using click funnels, I actually heard about it on a podcast from a entrepreneur on fire.
00:22:32
Speaker
You know, that jail, the, it was a good one.
00:22:35
Speaker
And then, and then I use ClickFunnels.
00:22:37
Speaker
Like I built up the webinar pretty much after.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:41
Speaker
Well, no, when I first got it, I didn't even use it.
00:22:43
Speaker
I had it for about six months and then I started using it, you know, like signed up immediately, got excited and then didn't touch it cause I was too busy.
00:22:51
Speaker
But then, yeah, I created a webinar to kind of keep selling my, my old cold leads basically.
00:22:58
Speaker
My point was I had a hard time automating.
00:23:03
Speaker
I'm just careful about automating too much with my customers just because they can feel it a lot of the time, especially if it's not done right and people don't like automation.
00:23:12
Speaker
They don't want to feel like they're just, you know,
00:23:16
Speaker
not being taken care of.
00:23:17
Speaker
So I kept a lot of it as genuine and authentic as possible, but I did still have templates.
00:23:22
Speaker
So when I would follow up with the one month, three months, six month mark, I had an email template.
00:23:26
Speaker
So I would just copy and paste and then just swap out stuff.
00:23:29
Speaker
Um, if I were to automate it now, I would just have like a MailChimp or active campaign for once it PTO is when I would trigger it for that customer.
00:23:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:38
Speaker
That's smart.
00:23:40
Speaker
And for those of our audience that don't know what that is, I know we probably have a varying range of audience here, but MailChimp, that's just a service where you can plug in emails of your customers and just send out kind of mass emails, right?
00:23:54
Speaker
Same with ActiveCampaign.
00:23:56
Speaker
QuickFunnels, you can do the same, but obviously QuickFunnels is building out the online sales funnels, which we're going to get into here.
00:24:04
Speaker
in a second.
00:24:05
Speaker
But yeah, that, that reminds me of the time.
00:24:07
Speaker
Another thing I learned from Ben here is he used to use the webinars, um, to send all your past leads, right?
00:24:14
Speaker
You built out a webinar online and then sent it out to kind of all your people that were on the fence.
00:24:20
Speaker
And what I, maybe we can talk a little bit about that, but that reminds me of when I did that.
00:24:25
Speaker
I sent out the automated email and you probably remember this, but I forgot to put, I didn't test it right.
00:24:32
Speaker
And instead of showing their first name on there, it showed hi, first name.
00:24:37
Speaker
And then that's the danger of automating.
00:24:41
Speaker
If you don't test it out, I think that killed my conversions.
00:24:45
Speaker
Cause I was here.
00:24:46
Speaker
If they say, hey, first name, and it doesn't actually say their first name, they're like, oh, this guy is just, what are we just like, a robot sending us all emails, and then no one responded or did anything.
00:24:58
Speaker
So I think that's true.
00:24:59
Speaker
You got to make sure you're testing these things and make sure it's set up right, and you don't want to do too much automation.
00:25:06
Speaker
Got to be careful with that.
Transition to Lead Generation and Sales Funnels
00:25:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:25:10
Speaker
So cool.
00:25:10
Speaker
Let's kind of shift gears here.
00:25:11
Speaker
And I want to get into so right now you run solar lead generation lead generation agency, right?
00:25:19
Speaker
Yes.
00:25:19
Speaker
And your big thing.
00:25:21
Speaker
And how did you let's hear that history?
00:25:23
Speaker
How did you get into kind of this online space of generating leads online?
00:25:27
Speaker
What's that story?
00:25:29
Speaker
When I was going door to door through college, I studied computer science.
00:25:33
Speaker
So I always liked programming.
00:25:35
Speaker
And then at SolarCity, I got super into project management.
00:25:39
Speaker
And then, yeah, near the end of it, I heard that podcast from JLD and he talked about ClickFunnels.
00:25:45
Speaker
So I figured that would be a great kind of connection, right?
00:25:47
Speaker
Because programming I love, but I don't have time to sit there and program something from scratch.
00:25:53
Speaker
ClickFunnels kind of made it easy to build stuff, you know?
00:25:56
Speaker
So yeah, I built out that webinar and I sold like three deals just from that very first launch, just from the contacts I had just sitting there.
00:26:06
Speaker
I sent those out.
00:26:07
Speaker
Those people signed up on there.
00:26:08
Speaker
Well, there's something there.
00:26:09
Speaker
So then once I built that webinar, there was a bit of a learning curve with ClickFunnels.
00:26:13
Speaker
You probably noticed that even though they make it sound super easy.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:26:19
Speaker
And so, but it's easier than programming from scratch, definitely, right?
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:26:24
Speaker
Trying to glue all the pieces together.
00:26:26
Speaker
But so after I built that up, my wife, Cornelia, she got into ClickFunnels too and kind of built out a course for herself.
00:26:34
Speaker
But once we got good at ClickFunnels, we noticed there was a lot of people that needed help building out their funnels.
00:26:40
Speaker
And so we basically started the digital marketing agency where we would just build sales funnels for people.
00:26:47
Speaker
They would give us the access to their click funnels and we would build up the funnels.
00:26:50
Speaker
And since I know Photoshop and all that, I can make them look pretty.
00:26:53
Speaker
I got the programming side so I can make them actually work.
00:26:56
Speaker
And then from that point, I started learning traffic like Facebook ads.
00:27:00
Speaker
Google ads, not so much, mostly Facebook ads at first.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:05
Speaker
And so over the last three years, we've kind of evolved it to where we were first just building out funnels and then, then we added on traffic.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:14
Speaker
And so now we work on her side of the business is like expert based,
00:27:18
Speaker
entrepreneurs.
00:27:19
Speaker
So like one of them is a food photographer.
00:27:22
Speaker
She does really well like award-winning.
00:27:24
Speaker
She sells a course on food photography.
00:27:27
Speaker
And another one is like a sex therapist.
00:27:29
Speaker
So like, there you go.
00:27:30
Speaker
Which is online about sex therapy.
00:27:32
Speaker
And then another one is like a restaurant coach basically.
00:27:37
Speaker
But my side of the business is all focused on solar just because that's what I've always been passionate about since being recruited to SolarCity.
00:27:44
Speaker
Since we got the funnel side down, I started kind of taking on more and more solar clients.
00:27:49
Speaker
And lead generation is totally different than selling courses online.
00:27:54
Speaker
But it does have some of the same principles.
00:28:00
Speaker
The first client I took on was actually from Texas and there were just a lot of sleepless nights.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker
I get, yeah, I really care.
00:28:11
Speaker
You know, when I take on a client, it's like, I stress more than I do about my own, especially when I'm using their money for the ads budget.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:18
Speaker
I stress more than I do about my own money for the ads budget.
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:28:23
Speaker
We're just talking about this beforehand, but that's what I'm trying to do too is expand out into other clients.
00:28:29
Speaker
Especially if someone's paying you, you feel like you're on the line.
00:28:32
Speaker
You have to be getting them results.
00:28:34
Speaker
You just feel terrible.
00:28:36
Speaker
I thought I knew how to do this, but...
00:28:38
Speaker
It's like way harder than you thought because it's true when you listen to all these podcasts and things, everyone talks ClickFunnels, makes it sound so easy.
00:28:45
Speaker
But when you get into it, there's a lot of like aspects of it that's a little bit tougher.
00:28:51
Speaker
I mean, you got to learn to build it.
00:28:52
Speaker
You got to learn how to push the traffic to it.
00:28:55
Speaker
got to learn how to follow up and do the retargeting campaigns and all that.
00:29:00
Speaker
So definitely a lot, but yeah, how would you suggest, I mean, we got, we take a solar rep or someone that wants to like get into this online lead generation space.
00:29:10
Speaker
How would you suggest to them to start like learning how to do that for themselves or they want to like get an online lead generation?
00:29:18
Speaker
There's two ways to do it, right?
00:29:22
Speaker
Both are going to cost money.
00:29:28
Speaker
You spend a lot of money testing a lot of different stuff, you know, until you find winning stuff or you pay for coaching or consulting.
00:29:36
Speaker
Both are going to cost money.
00:29:39
Speaker
Just one, it's going to save some time.
00:29:43
Speaker
Who knows, maybe if you're, if you're test, cause I, I really don't think there's any like super genius marketers out there.
00:29:49
Speaker
There's just great testers and people that might, you know, see what other people are doing and then, you know, take the good stuff and combine it together for their own campaign.
00:29:56
Speaker
But they're just constantly testing, you know, and then, and then Facebook and Google, they'll throw curve balls at you or you got to start from scratch.
00:30:03
Speaker
Like they used to have, Facebook used to have an audience of homeowners.
00:30:07
Speaker
So how easy is that?
00:30:08
Speaker
You just say, okay, I want to target homeowners.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
With this ad and start my ad.
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
And now Facebook changed it in, I think it was July.
00:30:17
Speaker
They got rid of the audience, just gone from one day to the next.
00:30:20
Speaker
Right.
00:30:21
Speaker
I mean, they warned you like a month in a head, Hey, we're going to get rid of some audiences, but they didn't say which ones.
00:30:26
Speaker
And so then from one day to the next, you have no more homeowner audience.
00:30:28
Speaker
You do have that still on other, other networks, but that's why you've got to kind of search the different networks.
00:30:33
Speaker
But yeah.
00:30:34
Speaker
So to bring it back to the point, if you're just getting into it,
00:30:39
Speaker
I would say look what other people are doing that's actually working.
00:30:44
Speaker
You know, watch webinars is what I did at the beginning, a lot of webinars and read books on it.
00:30:49
Speaker
And then if you have money, then pay for coaching because that'll get you there a little bit faster.
00:30:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
That's huge.
00:30:56
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, that's basically what I did with Ben here.
00:30:58
Speaker
I knew I saw that it was possible.
00:31:00
Speaker
And instead of just testing it and running trial and error and probably spending a lot more money, it made more sense for me to just pay someone who already has had success and knows how to do it.
00:31:12
Speaker
And then that jumpstart that, I mean, that just...
00:31:16
Speaker
took me to a whole different level because rather than like spending all the time of trying to figure out myself, you can just find someone who's already doing it.
00:31:22
Speaker
Then yeah, if you know, you're going to get results, then it makes sense.
00:31:26
Speaker
Just pay them.
00:31:27
Speaker
So that's, I mean, I think that's huge.
00:31:29
Speaker
And that's probably what you did.
00:31:30
Speaker
That's the whole concept of funnel hacking, right?
00:31:33
Speaker
Just copying what other people already did.
00:31:35
Speaker
So did you have any like early coaches or mentors or anything when you started generating leads online or were you just, like you said, just watching webinars, reading books?
00:31:44
Speaker
I know I bought a lot of programs too.
00:31:46
Speaker
I don't even know how much I spent on programs.
00:31:50
Speaker
It's worth the investment though.
00:31:51
Speaker
If you can save you a little bit of time, I don't even remember what they're all called.
00:31:55
Speaker
There's so many of them.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
Each one is just like reading a new book.
00:31:59
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:31:59
Speaker
If you can just take one little nugget, cause I figure each of these, these people, as long as they've got good reviews, you know what I mean?
00:32:06
Speaker
Um, I mean, somebody has gotten results and the way marketing is, yeah, it's like, it's just not,
00:32:14
Speaker
Super predictable, I guess.
00:32:16
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:32:17
Speaker
Cause yeah, there's no guarantees in marketing.
00:32:19
Speaker
You know, you could spend a hundred thousand on Facebook, but they're not going to guarantee you're going to get the installs.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:26
Speaker
So, but not, if I could just take even like a nugget from each of these courses or books, it was worth it for me.
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:33
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I'm sure it's the same way.
00:32:35
Speaker
You got all your books.
00:32:36
Speaker
I don't have that many books, but I have quite a few too.
00:32:39
Speaker
And then I have the whole bookmarks, all the bookmarks of all the courses I bought.
00:32:44
Speaker
It's like a mile long of all the courses and everything.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:47
Speaker
If you want to learn something, you got to be willing to spend the money.
Client Relationships and Lead Conversion
00:32:51
Speaker
And I know lots of people that they just want to learn, but they're not willing to invest to spend the money.
00:32:56
Speaker
If you can get even one little nugget from all these courses, then that's going to be worth it.
00:33:01
Speaker
Maybe there's some that I know there's some I invested in that maybe it wasn't the best use of my money, but I think it's true.
00:33:08
Speaker
You got to be those that pay attention.
00:33:14
Speaker
You got to spend the money to start learning, right?
00:33:17
Speaker
Exactly.
00:33:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:33:20
Speaker
And it's always, yeah, for me, at least when I, when I work with people, I love working with the people that have actually tried it themselves first.
00:33:28
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:33:29
Speaker
Cause once haven't, they're just like, just, just do it.
00:33:33
Speaker
Just generate me some leads.
00:33:35
Speaker
They don't, they don't know the pain, you know, it's like the, the, the work it takes to generate decent quality leads online, you know?
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:45
Speaker
That's what's,
00:33:46
Speaker
And it's true.
00:33:47
Speaker
And I'm sure you're always learning new ways because, I mean, there's a lot of people now generating leads online in the solar space.
00:33:54
Speaker
So have you seen a lot of differences?
00:33:56
Speaker
Are you always like learning different ways of generating leads too?
00:33:59
Speaker
Or did you kind of find your one set way and just stick with that?
00:34:04
Speaker
I'd say, yeah, it's always evolving, I'd say.
00:34:07
Speaker
And I'm more about...
00:34:10
Speaker
Trying to evolve the marketing side enough to where the sales side is easier.
00:34:14
Speaker
Because just giving somebody a ton of leads can just be a lot of work for them, right?
00:34:20
Speaker
And so I'm trying to evolve the process to where we're able to set more appointments automatically instead of just leads going to the person.
00:34:27
Speaker
And there's just so many automation softwares out there that's definitely doable.
00:34:31
Speaker
It's more just about finding the right hook to get people to take action with the right urgency instead of them just giving you their number and then you playing phone tag back and forth for weeks.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah, and that brings me to another point.
00:34:47
Speaker
I mean, this is something I know we've talked about before, but...
00:34:51
Speaker
I'm sure you've seen it, but when you get a lead, the second half is you have to know how to contact them and actually set an appointment.
00:34:58
Speaker
In your experience, let's say we've got a lead here online, but how do you go about contacting these leads?
00:35:04
Speaker
I just...
00:35:07
Speaker
So if you're the type of person that's growing an agency, one of the lessons I've learned on the agency side is not every company or person you're working with is equal.
00:35:21
Speaker
I remember that first client I took on,
00:35:24
Speaker
I was, the leads were actually, it was in Texas and so the cost isn't that bad in Texas.
00:35:29
Speaker
We were generating leads for about 10 bucks a lead and we're doing pretty consistent in like one to two a day after we found the winning campaign.
00:35:36
Speaker
So the first month didn't go well at all.
00:35:38
Speaker
We were like testing, I was testing so many different things.
00:35:42
Speaker
And another lesson I learned was not to end the test too soon.
00:35:46
Speaker
A lot of times you test something and then you'd be like, it's not working after like a day.
00:35:50
Speaker
You'd be like, it's not working.
00:35:51
Speaker
Scratch it.
00:35:51
Speaker
We'll go to the next thing.
00:35:52
Speaker
It's like, that's way too soon.
00:35:54
Speaker
You know, you got to let at least a hundred people, you know, click on it or something just to see if you've got enough data to see if that's a winning campaign or not.
00:36:00
Speaker
But yeah, so after we found the winning campaign, finally by watching, you know,
00:36:04
Speaker
It's like a gradual process first you watch the click rate the click through rate and then the lead rate right how many leads you're getting then your cost per lead and then finally the cost per acquisition, right?
00:36:14
Speaker
But I remember it got going where it was flowing really well, right?
00:36:17
Speaker
I was like, oh finally I can sleep again and like yeah, he's like these leads aren't answering the phone This is you know, these are terrible leads.
00:36:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's like well So we had the conversation.
00:36:27
Speaker
I was like, well, how soon do you call him?
00:36:29
Speaker
He's like, yeah about usually within three days like
00:36:36
Speaker
Three days, are you kidding me?
00:36:38
Speaker
They filled out the form in three days.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah, because he's like, you know, they don't even know they fill out a form.
00:36:42
Speaker
I'm like, well, obviously it's been three days.
00:36:44
Speaker
You know, we do so many things.
00:36:46
Speaker
There's so many distractions.
00:36:47
Speaker
Another thing I like to do is when I see a solar ad, I'll go through the process and put in my real number.
00:36:54
Speaker
And I like to see how quickly they call and I like to see what text messages they send me to follow up.
00:36:59
Speaker
Just to completely see because what's the worst can happen?
00:37:01
Speaker
They realize, hey, you're a marketer.
00:37:04
Speaker
People do it to my stuff all the time.
00:37:06
Speaker
It's like, I like to go through and then like the ones that are on top of it, they're calling me within five minutes.
00:37:12
Speaker
Like this one was within 30 seconds.
00:37:14
Speaker
I put in my number.
00:37:16
Speaker
I got a call within 30 seconds.
00:37:18
Speaker
That was from Sunrun.
00:37:19
Speaker
I just tested it on Saturday because I saw the ad pop up.
Sales Process Improvement and Coaching
00:37:24
Speaker
I was like, we'll see how they do on a Saturday evening.
00:37:26
Speaker
Probably within 30 seconds.
00:37:27
Speaker
I was like, wow, that's impressive.
00:37:32
Speaker
They weren't too big on the email follow-up though.
00:37:36
Speaker
I was curious about that.
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:38
Speaker
We know that was in my other email.
00:37:39
Speaker
So they might be, I haven't checked that, but I know just the call blew me away.
00:37:43
Speaker
And so that's, that's what I mean by each person I work with.
00:37:46
Speaker
I realized very quickly it's not always my fault as the marketer or as the agency.
00:37:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:51
Speaker
A lot of times people just aren't calling them.
00:37:55
Speaker
nearly fast enough or enough, you know what I mean?
00:37:59
Speaker
So the process we found the winning process to be to call immediately as soon as you can if they don't set an appointment right away with the Calendly service.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:08
Speaker
And then text instead of leaving a voicemail, just text them right away right after you call if they don't answer.
00:38:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:15
Speaker
And then call again the next day and leave a voicemail on the second time you call.
00:38:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:19
Speaker
And then we've got like a six to seven day follow up email campaign that goes automatically.
00:38:24
Speaker
That's like one email every day.
00:38:26
Speaker
You've seen that.
00:38:26
Speaker
It's kind of like an educational thing about solar, the equipment and stuff like that.
00:38:31
Speaker
And the whole goal, it's all like about baby steps, just like going door to door.
00:38:36
Speaker
So that first contact, if they answer the phone or if they don't, it's just to get them to talk to you on the phone.
00:38:43
Speaker
So your call to action basically on that initial text, it should never be to set an appointment.
00:38:49
Speaker
It should be, when's a good time to chat?
00:38:51
Speaker
Really quick.
00:38:52
Speaker
Make it sound super painless, right?
00:38:54
Speaker
Just like on the door, you would never say, you know, with the alarm, you know what I mean?
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:58
Speaker
Let's sign you up now.
00:38:59
Speaker
It's like, let's take a quick look at your back door just to make sure, you know, we can take care of it.
00:39:03
Speaker
Something little baby step.
00:39:04
Speaker
It's the same thing I found kind of online, right?
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's true because that's something that took me a while to learn.
00:39:10
Speaker
I thought when we're getting these leads in, I was thinking they're going to like golden prospects.
00:39:14
Speaker
They're going to be all ready to go.
00:39:16
Speaker
But really, I mean, maybe they're warmer, but you got to take them through the smaller steps just like you're knocking a door because it's tough sometimes.
00:39:23
Speaker
You call them, you immediately push to sit down with them.
00:39:26
Speaker
And some of these people are like, oh, I don't know.
00:39:28
Speaker
I don't want to sit down.
00:39:29
Speaker
I thought you were just emailing me some information.
00:39:31
Speaker
I just wanted information, right?
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
So it's like, if you don't know how to give them the reasons for that information, then it's going to be super tough to get in.
00:39:40
Speaker
So everything you got to give them the reason, right?
00:39:42
Speaker
The reason you want to come back is, oh, I need it.
00:39:45
Speaker
I just want to check out your roof and then also make sure we got it right with the design.
00:39:49
Speaker
And I'll just run through it quick with you.
00:39:51
Speaker
Make it no big deal and push to get in the door, right?
00:39:55
Speaker
Super painless, right?
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
But it's huge for anyone that's getting online leads or building these for other companies.
00:40:02
Speaker
It's something I think you've got to coach the people through it and make sure they understand because otherwise, yeah, definitely not going to be getting results.
00:40:10
Speaker
Right.
00:40:11
Speaker
That's a great point.
00:40:12
Speaker
Right.
00:40:12
Speaker
Cause and if you're able to, like you said, as long as you coach them, right.
00:40:17
Speaker
I found that to be, yeah, I'm still learning that coaching, you know, the clients just like you'd coach your customers on giving referrals.
00:40:24
Speaker
If you coach them right, then their expectations will be,
00:40:27
Speaker
appropriate right yeah it's huge well cool Ben I know we gotta wrap up here pretty soon but we've gone through a ton of information and I know like you said it's not something you all take in one day at a time and this is kind of your specialty that's how I learned this from masters like Ben here and so someone that wants to learn more about this or kind of put themselves in the world of online lead generation where can they find out more about you or maybe check out your courses or anything
00:40:56
Speaker
The website is solarfunnels.com.
Promoting SolarFunnels.com and Additional Training
00:41:00
Speaker
I can't believe that one was available, but I got that one a while ago.
00:41:04
Speaker
And then I think like a cool special offer for your guys would be the webinar funnel.
00:41:11
Speaker
I think that's a great start just cause a lot of guys have these, you know, cold leads that are just sitting there.
00:41:17
Speaker
But they're not doing anything with.
00:41:18
Speaker
So they can get it on the marketplace from ClickFunnels for $2.97.
00:41:21
Speaker
I figure if they just go to solarfunnels.com, I don't know if I can just send you the link.
00:41:27
Speaker
We'll do like slash,
00:41:29
Speaker
What should we do?
00:41:30
Speaker
Slash webinar?
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, we would do that.
00:41:33
Speaker
And I'll do it for like $197 or something.
00:41:36
Speaker
And then the people that buy that funnel, I'll make sure to include the training on how to record the webinar, the training on the referral training, and the training on the slides and everything.
00:41:48
Speaker
And also the email templates.
00:41:49
Speaker
I put all of that in the training.
00:41:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:52
Speaker
That'd be a cool offer, I think.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:41:54
Speaker
And that's something that if you have these old leads, especially if you do it right, don't do it like I did and don't mess up the name and everything.
00:42:01
Speaker
But if you do it right, then you can get all these people that are on the fence actually contacting you.
00:42:07
Speaker
So we will link to that.
00:42:08
Speaker
That's going to be huge.
00:42:10
Speaker
solarfunnels.com slash webinar, right?
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, we'll do that.
00:42:14
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:42:14
Speaker
We'll put that in the show notes and definitely check out his stuff.
00:42:18
Speaker
Ben can teach you how to start getting these leads and my results with them.
00:42:22
Speaker
I didn't think I would get that good of results, honestly, but he started teaching me how I started building out my funnels.
00:42:28
Speaker
And I think I closed three deals from them within a month.
00:42:32
Speaker
Then you started doing the agency.
00:42:35
Speaker
I love it.
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:37
Speaker
And now I'm making money building up for other people.
00:42:41
Speaker
So I'm no expert, but yeah, I mean, just take out that middle portion.
00:42:45
Speaker
Don't wait.
00:42:45
Speaker
Don't spend all this time when you can just take a shortcut and learn from experts.
00:42:50
Speaker
So we're going to post that and then get his webinar funnel.
00:42:53
Speaker
And then from there, you can definitely check out his course.
00:42:55
Speaker
I know he has like a webinar just on your solar funnels.com, right?
00:42:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:00
Speaker
You watch that, learn from that.
00:43:01
Speaker
And it's definitely a good way to jumpstart your way into this.
00:43:05
Speaker
marketing world here so cool any final thoughts you want to share with the solar industry or the the solarpreneurs here ben keep up the great work and always be testing i'd say okay that's true it's a big test and it's something he's ben's getting on my back too is
00:43:24
Speaker
I thought Ben gave me one ad to run and I thought that ad would work forever, but it's true.
00:43:28
Speaker
You gotta be swapping out ads.
00:43:30
Speaker
You gotta be testing results.
00:43:33
Speaker
We'll start not showing up anymore.
00:43:36
Speaker
Definitely always pay attention to the other ads.
00:43:39
Speaker
I love that.
00:43:39
Speaker
It's like one of the biggest learning things and people probably don't use it as much.
00:43:43
Speaker
So always take screenshots of their ads and then just click on the learn more button and take a screenshot of their landing page.
00:43:49
Speaker
You can usually tell which ones are doing well.
00:43:51
Speaker
It's hard to know which ones are profitable and which ones aren't.
00:43:55
Speaker
Sometimes you can see, if you see a lot of social proof on an ad, especially on Facebook, you see like 30, 40, 50 likes.
00:44:01
Speaker
for hearts, whatever that stuff is, you know, then, then you can tell that when they've been running it for a while, so it must be doing okay.
00:44:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:09
Speaker
Cool.
00:44:10
Speaker
Well, thanks for being on the podcast, Ben.
00:44:12
Speaker
And thanks for letting us pick your brain for a minute here and definitely find out more and we will continue to be in touch.
00:44:20
Speaker
Thanks again, Ben.
00:44:21
Speaker
Thank you.
00:44:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:44:23
Speaker
Wow.
00:44:24
Speaker
What another amazing episode of the solarpreneur podcast.
00:44:28
Speaker
Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
00:44:36
Speaker
It helps us get the word out about the solarpreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
00:44:45
Speaker
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00:44:51
Speaker
That's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
00:44:55
Speaker
See you guys in the next episode.