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: How are you?
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong and we are here as usual to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Today we're going to be jamming on some recruiting
Speaker: And the reason I want to talk about this is because recently I was at a little recruiting retreat, not retreat, but onboarding boot camp.
Speaker: with my friend Jerry Fussell.
Speaker: He was on the show two episodes ago.
Speaker: So hopefully you listened to his podcast, ton of takeaways.
Speaker: The guy grew over a hundred million dollar company, a solar company, and he's starting a new one.
Speaker: So some incredible takeaways from that podcast.
Speaker: But anyways, I was there at their bootcamp.
Speaker: And we're jamming, recording podcasts, hanging out there.
Speaker: But I got to be just kind of applying it on the wall and see how they run their boot camps there.
Speaker: So I want to talk about a few things I observed.
Speaker: And then also next episode, we're going to have on Josh Peters, who is their, I think, director of experience is his title.
Speaker: But basically, they're a recruiting expert.
Speaker: He came on the show, was generous enough to talk about what they do in their recruiting, out of their model, and then also just share the experiences he's had.
Speaker: He was a...
Speaker: over he worked over at door-to-door experts in uh in their recruiting department who's recruited hundreds and hundreds of reps so a ton of experience got to pick his brain as well so i just want to give a couple observations i noticed and if you are in charge of your recruiting at all um you can get some takeaways from this but also send this um it's nice to have someone that is over recruiting so if you don't have anyone
Speaker: that's helping you organize your recruiting structure your recruiting I think that is a big secret so if you're a company owner or if you
Speaker: You know, if you're just a rep at a company, maybe send this to your, you know, management.
Speaker: Have your guys get someone that can help with organizing the recruits, that can help with setting up a structure, and that can help just getting everything squared away so people have the best experience coming in.
Speaker: Because the last thing you want to happen is guys come in, they say, hey, what am I doing?
Speaker: What does day one look like?
Speaker: Am I going to shadow someone?
Speaker: Who am I going to shadow?
Speaker: Who am I going to shadow?
Speaker: And then what I see it, the majority of companies being quite frank, is that they don't have these things set up.
Speaker: They don't know who a new rep is going to go shadow.
Speaker: They don't know the exact steps that a new rep needs to take to be onboarded.
Speaker: And a lot of companies, let's be honest, they don't even have someone running or helping with this.
Speaker: So maybe you're a one-man show trainer recruit.
Speaker: maybe you're a rep at a company, whatever it is, consider hiring someone.
Speaker: You can get someone yourself to help with your personal recruits if you don't have someone, or just figure out a way to implement these things.
Speaker: But trust me, it's gonna be a lot easier if you have someone that is dedicated to doing these things.
Speaker: Okay, so I'm gonna jump into three ways to onboard new solar recruits.
Speaker: Okay, and again, you don't have to have someone doing this, but anyone,
Speaker: that is recruiting new reps, you're going to want to figure out a way, especially the first one I'm going to share with you.
Speaker: This one is absolutely essential.
Speaker: Make sure you're doing this one.
Speaker: But the other two, just some observations that I had while I was at their boot camp this past weekend in Vegas.
Speaker: So here's number one, crucial, crucial, crucial.
Speaker: Make sure every new recruit is recording and passing off their door presentation or pitch, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker: I call it presentation because I'm in the Noxstar mastermind right now.
Speaker: And Taylor McCarty bends us over and spanks us if we say pitch.
Speaker: So trying to get that out of my vocabulary.
Speaker: But presentation, right?
Speaker: So make sure every new recruit, every potential recruit, make sure anyone you're bringing on
Speaker: is passing off their presentation.
Speaker: Everyone should have a script they're following, right?
Speaker: Make sure they're recording it, passing it off.
Speaker: And what was really cool this past weekend in Vegas, not only did these recruits, these new recruits have to pass off their presentation, but they had to do it live in front of everybody.
Speaker: And Jerry Fussell was up there, he was listening.
Speaker: And a couple people, if it wasn't, if it didn't make sense, if it was lacking energy,
Speaker: If it was just way off, he made them go back, practiced outside and come back in.
Speaker: Then they had to pass it off in front of everyone.
Speaker: So I thought this was a great idea.
Speaker: So I think it should be two things.
Speaker: Have them record it, do video or audio, some way to record it.
Speaker: Have them pass it off word for word that way.
Speaker: but they can you know they could just be reading the script probably if they're recording it right so that's a good way to do it but I think if you want to take it to a next level what I really liked about what Jerry and the boys were doing is if you make them passed off live it adds that pressure element to it right it's almost like performing in practice versus performing in a game and obviously that's not you know 100% how it's going to be on the doors either but
Speaker: It adds another layer of pressure, right?
Speaker: And it's going to make them think that much more.
Speaker: You're going to see if they actually have the presentation memorized and can overcome a few objections.
Speaker: They're not going to be impossible for them, but consider that.
Speaker: So make sure people passed off number one in a recorded setting.
Speaker: And number two, have them do a live role play in front of everyone.
Speaker: Okay, and then the second key, the second observation, second way you can onboard new people in your company, consider doing some type of bootcamp.
Speaker: This is something I'm seeing a lot of companies do recently.
Speaker: Guys that are having a lot of success, Jerry Fussell, they have all their guys flying in, they do this bootcamp.
Speaker: And he doesn't have them all working local in Vegas.
Speaker: But he flies them in and then some of them are staying, some of them are going back to their markets, but they have groups of recruits come in a bootcamp style.
Speaker: And I know another company doing this is a true power I've seen doing bootcamp style like this.
Speaker: They've been growing a ton.
Speaker: Recently had Alex Hogan Hall on the podcast who is crushing it, doing some amazing things, growing her company a ton.
Speaker: I know they do bootcamps.
Speaker: So success leaves clues, right?
Speaker: You're seeing these successful companies do these things.
Speaker: Maybe it's something you should implement, okay?
Speaker: You don't necessarily have to do these things to be successful, but...
Speaker: It's something you should think about.
Speaker: So in Vegas, they had all these recruits come in.
Speaker: They had food ready.
Speaker: And what was really cool about it is we were all staying at a big mansion there.
Speaker: So I thought it was cool because everyone was learning at the same speed.
Speaker: Everyone was getting motivated at the same level.
Speaker: They were all kind of in the same boat.
Speaker: They didn't feel like they were just the brand new guy coming in and just getting thrown into the wolves.
Speaker: They're all doing it as a team.
Speaker: So what I thought was really cool is just the level of excitement as everyone was going in.
Speaker: I've never been in like, I don't know, Marines or Navy or anything like that, but it's how I imagine like a Navy boot camp going.
Speaker: Like you're going in with a group of guys, you're forming a brotherhood, a sisterhood, whatever.
Speaker: And they're all kind of in the same boat.
Speaker: So you all feel like you're connected, right?
Speaker: And you all want to see each other succeed.
Speaker: That's the feeling I got from this.
Speaker: So if you're at a company, if you're recruiting guys, consider doing something like that.
Speaker: Maybe it's just a day boot camp.
Speaker: Bring them in, have them play sports.
Speaker: I don't know, do competitions, have some fun.
Speaker: Have a box of Pop-Tarts.
Speaker: That's what I had.
Speaker: I ate so many Pop-Tarts in this house because they had tons of Pop-Tarts laying around.
Speaker: I don't have little snacks and stuff, right?
Speaker: Make it fun.
Speaker: And then do the presentation recording and make sure they get all the training they can at that boot camp.
Speaker: Okay, and then the third thing, third observation, a third way, third thing to consider as you're bringing on new recruits,
Speaker: This was a cool idea.
Speaker: I'd never seen it done actually before I got to their bootcamp, but they did a scavenger hunt.
Speaker: And what was cool about it, and I didn't really think about this, is before these new reps even go out to knock a door, he was having them go out and do a scavenger hunt.
Speaker: So in a way it's knocking doors, but you're not actually like, you know, you're not going to pitch anyone.
Speaker: You're not doing a presentation yet.
Speaker: So in Vegas, this was a prime place to do it because he just took this band full of recruits, dumped them off on the strip.
Speaker: And plenty of interesting things going on the strip, plenty of interesting people that he was scavenging out with.
Speaker: But Jerry, he had them do things like take a picture with a baby, go do a truss ball on someone random,
Speaker: Go get a picture with a cop.
Speaker: Go do a dance in public.
Speaker: I don't know, just crazy stuff.
Speaker: And then record a video of it.
Speaker: Then he gave cash prizes to the ones that were the most interesting.
Speaker: The ones that were the craziest.
Speaker: And he had like three prizes with it.
Speaker: So, I don't know.
Speaker: Three winners.
Speaker: Most interesting.
Speaker: Craziest.
Speaker: And longest.
Speaker: I can't remember what the third one was.
Speaker: But I thought that was a great idea.
Speaker: Send your guys out.
Speaker: break the ice with them.
Speaker: And after they got back doing the scavenger, everyone just came back like laughing, having a good time.
Speaker: They were out there essentially doing the same thing that we do on the doors, right?
Speaker: And that's getting in uncomfortable situations in front of new people.
Speaker: That's what door knocking is.
Speaker: So after that, he said, guys, you just went out and did basically what the job is.
Speaker: You did it in a group, right?
Speaker: You did some wacky stuff and people probably weren't really like mean to you.
Speaker: But that's what door knocking is.
Speaker: You're just going out in front of new people, doing something uncomfortable, but only now you're getting paid the big bucks for it.
Speaker: So maybe you're on board and bringing on groups of new recruits.
Speaker: Go try out something like this.
Speaker: Maybe go do a scavenger hunt.
Speaker: Get them to do something to break the ice, get past their fears, and show them that it's not that hard.
Speaker: Sometimes we overthink door knocking so much, prospecting.
Speaker: Really, that's all it is.
Speaker: And if you can learn to get past that fear, that's what it takes to be successful in the solar industry.
Speaker: So those are three just observations I have.
Speaker: Okay, remember, the first one, though, I think is going to be your crucial one.
Speaker: Make sure any new person, even if you're just a one-man band, you're a lone wolf in it, if you bring on anyone,
Speaker: Just make sure they memorize a presentation, give them a script.
Speaker: And then if you want to take it on the next level, use a tool like Ciro.
Speaker: Talked about this on the podcast.
Speaker: But it is an app where you can record your presentations.
Speaker: It will automatically transcribe it.
Speaker: It will categorize it into sections and objections.
Speaker: And it's great for training your reps.
Speaker: And it will help you take these things to the next level.
Speaker: So if you want access to that, go download our SoulCity app.
Speaker: You can join SoulCity.
Speaker: You're going to get access to all these things.
Speaker: But consider using a tool like Serial for your company where reps can record themselves.
Speaker: So I hope those things helped.
Speaker: Whether you're just recruiting reps yourself or maybe you are the recruiting person in your company.
Speaker: Try that out.
Speaker: Let me know if it helps.
Speaker: We're definitely going to be experimenting with them here in San Diego.
Speaker: And then remember, on the next episode, we're going to have Josh Peters himself.
Speaker: He's going to drop some fire on what it takes to really build an empire and bring in quality recruits.
Speaker: So don't miss out on the next one.
Speaker: Share this with anyone who needs to up-level their recruiting game, and we will see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, 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 level solar professionals 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 learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
Speaker: And it's called Solcitee.
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, less than $3.45 a day.
Speaker: Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
Speaker: So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
Speaker: This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
Speaker: We'll see you on the inside.
