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 fail.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on?
Speaker: We are back with another episode, and we've got someone that has been on not just once, but for the second time, the one, the only Mike Sesniak.
Speaker: Thanks for coming back for the second time, Mike.
Speaker: Thanks for having me, bro.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Must not been a complete train wreck the first time.
Speaker: If you're willing to come back for a second.
Speaker: No, it was awesome.
Speaker: I appreciate it, brother.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so if you have not listened to Mike's first episode, we will link to it here in the show notes, but definitely go check it out.
Speaker: We talked about just how he's coaching his clients, how he's getting solar sales reps to double their sales, triple, quadruple and help reps help their guys do the same.
Speaker: Um, so go listen to that and you'll get kind of the full intro, but, um, for guys that haven't heard as much, do you want to give just kind of the quick readers digest, uh, background for you, Mike, and what you do and how you help solar cells guys?
Speaker: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker: So I'll give the super spark notes.
Speaker: I think we dove into it a whole lot more on that first episode.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But the spark notes, I run a company called the results engine, high performance coaching, consulting.
Speaker: We help sales guys make more money, spend a lot of time in the door to door space, specifically solar.
Speaker: I think probably like 93% of our clients right now are solar.
Speaker: A hundred percent of them knock doors.
Speaker: We've been in this industry about three and a half years now at this point, I've been running the results engine for about six, almost seven years now at this point though.
Speaker: I worked with tons of different industries.
Speaker: I've personally been in sales over 20 years, never knocked a door to sell anything in my life.
Speaker: And that is one of the first things that I say whenever I'm speaking at any of these events, because I don't want people to feel like I'm pulling the wool over their eyes.
Speaker: But I'm just an engineering nerd at heart who has been in sales for a really long time that has systems that solve very expensive problems in the door to door space, especially in the solar space.
Speaker: So I've grown to love it.
Speaker: I have so much appreciation for this space.
Speaker: And, dude, it's an absolute freaking honor to serve it.
Speaker: But we've had a lot of fun over the years and helped a bunch of guys and girls make a boatload of money.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: So again, yeah, go listen to the first episode if you want to hear more of the background and how Mike started his company or his old engines and all that.
Speaker: But yeah, we're going to be talking about some more specific things today.
Speaker: And don't get me wrong, Mike, he still knows how to sell because I remember like the first episode, you're kind of playing it off like, oh, yeah, I've never knocked the door, but I just kept you get people results.
Speaker: But then I remember we talked at the last conference we met up at.
Speaker: And as you know, I've kind of started coaching some guys and getting into that more and more.
Speaker: And I was telling you, I'm like, man, Mike, it's hard to get people sold on getting in coaching programs.
Speaker: A lot of people drag their feet and don't want to do it.
Speaker: Like, what are you doing?
Speaker: So I realized that I'm like, OK, Mike, he knows how to sell if he can get guys in his coaching program because that's not an easy sell either.
Speaker: gotta, gotta hand it to you.
Speaker: You play it off.
Speaker: Like you don't know how to sell, but this guy can sell people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe I'm a humble dude, but, um, no, I mean, the reality is coaching is fairly challenging to sell, right?
Speaker: Like, uh, and let me preface what I'm about to say, which with like, I don't mean that any of it is unethical or that you're not selling value, but essentially coaching and consulting, like you're selling air, you're selling a belief, you're selling like a brand,
Speaker: I'm selling me to a client.
Speaker: And the systems are things that I just generated out of thin air.
Speaker: I'm not selling a tangible solar panel that's going on someone's house.
Speaker: So sometimes that becomes really challenging.
Speaker: But when the concept that you're selling has a proven track record, it becomes a lot easier and
Speaker: Thankfully, we've worked with hundreds of reps and gotten some pretty decent results.
Speaker: So that makes it a little bit easier.
Speaker: But yeah, I've been around the block on the sales game.
Speaker: So definitely, I just say all that, frankly, because we very often get associated with sales training.
Speaker: That's not it.
Speaker: We're not the what to say, right?
Speaker: A lot of my buddies are in that space and I send our clients to them when they want the industry specific, right?
Speaker: sales principles.
Speaker: I know a lot of them because I've hired a lot of these coaches in the more like industry agnostic, like this is just how to sell.
Speaker: And I'll tell people how we sell, but I don't claim to be that expert because I've never sold solar roofing, pest control alarms, like any of the things that we've helped reps sell more of.
Speaker: So that's why I like to play it that way because it's like, that's not my space.
Speaker: I'm the high performance dude, but don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Like I'll close you.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I was telling you, I'm like, man, I'll close five solar deals in a week, but sometimes getting someone to take action on a coaching program, it's like pulling teeth.
Speaker: But, you know, yeah, you've mastered it.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm excited today, Mike, because we're going to talk about just why coaching is important, how to get guys motivated, some other things.
Speaker: But before we dive into that, I'm curious.
Speaker: Last time we had you on the podcast about a year and a half ago.
Speaker: So catch us up in the past year and a half.
Speaker: Have you changed anything in your coaching or what's what's new with Mike over there at Results Engine the past year and a half?
Speaker: Dude, a year and a half.
Speaker: If you can remember anything.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't even know what day it is today.
Speaker: That's not true.
Speaker: I actually do because yesterday was the 4th of July as we're recording this.
Speaker: So there was a bit of an anchor point.
Speaker: But yeah, dude, a lot has changed.
Speaker: I mean, ultimately, the core principles of what we're doing at the results engine have not changed.
Speaker: For a while, we spent a decent more time on the B2B side of things, even though everything we do is B2B because technically every sales rep is their own business.
Speaker: We spent a decent amount of time pivoting more towards serving teams.
Speaker: And we've since kind of, we still do a bit of that, but now we're in the B2C and B2B space.
Speaker: The work is all the same though.
Speaker: When we're selling B2B, we were just using the same infrastructure to serve at scale.
Speaker: Really not a lot has changed, dude.
Speaker: Like there's some interesting volatility in the solar industry right now that I'm sure we'll talk about.
Speaker: So that kind of played a role as to why we strayed more into the B2C side of things.
Speaker: But yeah, dude, we're still doing the same thing and systems are getting better.
Speaker: Client results are getting better.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: And yeah, I got back in the driver's seat of a lot of things.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a lot of fun for sure.
Speaker: Are you still, is it still basically all solar reps, solar, like team leaders, managers, uh, mostly solar that you're coaching at this point?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think, um,
Speaker: Which is interesting.
Speaker: I mean, it makes sense, right?
Speaker: Like that's where we got our start.
Speaker: Mikey Lucas was our first client and like he was in the solar space.
Speaker: So that helped the fact that it's a gold rush helped.
Speaker: And the fact that a lot of our early client results all came from that space and the problems are just so expensive.
Speaker: Meaning like if we can help add a couple extra deals a month in solar, that means a whole lot more than in like past or alarms, right?
Speaker: Because the volume is different.
Speaker: So all those things put together, I think that's why we have so many people in solar.
Speaker: But yeah, right now, I think I did the numbers earlier and it was like less than 10% of our clients are outside of solar right now.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Solar is the place to be in.
Speaker: I think even some of the challenges going on, I think there's even more opportunity to have coaches and people helping out, especially with the mental side of things.
Speaker: And I want to talk about that a little bit because as I'm sure you know, Mike, we got the change that happened in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You talked about the volatility, you know, the dealer fees are higher and solar interest rates are higher.
Speaker: So I'm sure that's been brought up in your coaching with your clients is I'm sure issues and mental blocks and things like that.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: How has that affected your coaching?
Speaker: All these, you know, some call issues, some call opportunities, I guess.
Speaker: But have you seen people, I don't know, kind of lose their minds about this or how has that affected you in working with your clients?
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: So how do I, what's the easiest way to talk about this?
Speaker: So like the dealer fees, the interest rates, a lot of those things, like a lot of what you're seeing on the EPC and the install side, some companies going out of business that impacted our company, not from a mindset perspective, but from a, there was a lot of missing money.
Speaker: So like that's, I mentioned earlier, like pivoting back B2B into B2C, but
Speaker: Like that's a lot of those reasons why.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And those details are not as important to our conversation.
Speaker: I think the mindset piece is the bigger one.
Speaker: And it's a really interesting thing.
Speaker: Like NEM 3.0 is one part.
Speaker: The interest rates and the dealer fees are another part.
Speaker: It's interesting to me.
Speaker: I understand why people were running away from California.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: Like I disagreed with it, but I get it.
Speaker: And I understand that piece.
Speaker: It was really cool to see certain leaders like take that head on.
Speaker: And I know you work with one of those companies.
Speaker: And there were a couple other big leaders in the space that I really respect.
Speaker: And it was really cool to see not just people talking about not being afraid of it because they know that's what they're supposed to do from a leadership perspective, but like genuinely believe it, right?
Speaker: You can feel that energy is very different.
Speaker: And there were a handful of companies that I think did that really well.
Speaker: The interest rates in the dealer fee thing is really interesting to me because you're seeing a lot of people running away from solar and they're like, it's gone.
Speaker: The gold rush is over.
Speaker: It's like, no, dude, it just, you actually have to sell now.
Speaker: Like you are a glorified order taker getting rich.
Speaker: That's what you were.
Speaker: And now that you actually have to sell, you're going to take your ball and go home and search for the green grass somewhere else.
Speaker: Like now people need to earn their stripes.
Speaker: And it's like, wait, you actually have to work to make half a million bucks a year.
Speaker: Darn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's a lot of what I'm seeing.
Speaker: And I think the mindset around it, yes, it's easier to sell other things, but like, do you always want to chase the easy thing or do you actually want to build some skill sets?
Speaker: And I think that like, that's the, that's the sale that leaders need to be making right now to their reps is like, dude, like this is business comes in cycles.
Speaker: Like this is what we're here for.
Speaker: So we got to sharpen the ax more.
Speaker: You got to become better.
Speaker: You have to become worthy of those deals.
Speaker: They won't be as frequent, as abundant, but they're still there.
Speaker: The opportunity is not gone in solar.
Speaker: It's just so interesting to see so many people running.
Speaker: Again, for people like yourself who really take it head on,
Speaker: You will win, like not immediately, but definitely it's inevitable.
Speaker: So it always becomes a mindset conversation.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Out here in California, in a way, we like it because so many of these reps, they've just run to other states and there's like panic going on and people don't know where to go to.
Speaker: A lot of smaller organizations are disappearing and even guys getting out of the industry.
Speaker: So I'm like, all right, you guys can all leave San Diego and more more customers for me.
Speaker: Way less saturated.
Speaker: People still save money out here, even with all the changes that have gone on.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm liking it in that aspect.
Speaker: But yeah, I know there's been.
Speaker: A lot of, you know, mental box for people.
Speaker: So right now, are you coaching just kind of a mix of everybody?
Speaker: Or do you have separate programs for like managers versus reps?
Speaker: Do you have like a mix of business owners and reps and things like that in your programs?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I don't know how much we dove into this on the first call, but we've always had two programs in our company.
Speaker: We have launch and accelerator.
Speaker: Launch is where we're
Speaker: working primarily with setters and like early self-gen guys and girls and really like building that foundation, building the consistency, getting some decent deal flow.
Speaker: Accelerators are our backend program.
Speaker: That's where executives, owners, leaders, managers, top closers, and even like setter managers, we have...
Speaker: you know, guys running large setter organizations or just setting themselves doing like 20 plus deals a month, you know, like people doing like pretty decent volume.
Speaker: I always kind of compare it to like launches where you're trying to make your first six figures and accelerators where you're trying to get past like
Speaker: a quarter to like half a million and then some.
Speaker: So the problems that we're solving are different in each of those.
Speaker: And it's dependent on where people are at, but you know, it's, it's usually a handful of similar problems.
Speaker: You know, it's like, how do we execute consistently?
Speaker: That's the number one word that everybody wants.
Speaker: It's what everybody wants in their business.
Speaker: especially in commission sales, because it's like fairly volatile, right?
Speaker: Especially like an industry like solar, where it's a couple deals a month, and you're making really decent money.
Speaker: How do you navigate the inputs effectively such that the outputs are somewhat consistent?
Speaker: How do you manage your energy with all of these variables going around, right?
Speaker: Interest rates, dealer fees,
Speaker: net metering things happening, like your installers going out of business permits taking forever, how do you navigate all of this from a mental side of things to make sure that you keep filling top of funnel.
Speaker: So that's what we're working with a lot of our, our reps on and just making sure that
Speaker: while they're doing that they're filling their cup right high performance is not just about building a stack of cash at the expense of everything else and in fact nothing that we do has anything to do with solar we just aim it there so our guys and girls can make a boatload of freaking money yeah but again they do it while filling their cup too so it's it's like figuring out what that work-life harmony looks like and how to navigate it in a healthy way for them yeah okay gotcha
Speaker: Yeah, no, no.
Speaker: We talked a little bit about that last time.
Speaker: Like, what are some of the things you do to help individual reps increase their sales and everything?
Speaker: But what about as you're getting people on this accelerator, more manager, company owners, things like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sure a lot of questions you get is, Hey, you're coaching me.
Speaker: I've increased my cells, but how do I get without my reps all signing up for your program?
Speaker: Which sounds like you did a little bit of that too, but what are some things you coach these guys on now that they've gotten their results at a high level?
Speaker: How do you get them to kind of like reflect that onto their reps that they're leading without them all having to sign up for your per, I mean, I'm sure you'd wish that they all sign up for your programming.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, first of all, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When people pay, they pay attention, right, Taylor?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, but jokes aside, I think the most overlooked and underappreciated leadership tactic, I'll call it, is leveling ourselves up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I mean by that, the reason I share this is people don't say what, do what we say, they do what we do.
Speaker: So no matter what cliches we want to insert, insert into this conversation, like we are the only bottleneck in our business.
Speaker: You could use like John Maxwell's law of the lid, right?
Speaker: Like as leaders, it is our obligation to do anything that we can to increase and raise that lid.
Speaker: Because what that's going to do is it's going to open up all of this space for our people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Another way that you could look at it is like as leaders, as business owners, our vision needs to be so big that it can fill all of our people's vision can fit inside of it.
Speaker: So we do that through growing ourselves.
Speaker: And that's why all of these leaders are enrolling in our program.
Speaker: So what we're doing is we're helping figure out what what is a 13 out of 10 version of Taylor look like.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Because then when we can help you get there and we can dive into some of the pillars of what that looks like.
Speaker: I know we spent a lot of time on that in the last call, but I'm happy to do that.
Speaker: Or the last episode, we can do some more of that today.
Speaker: But like when we figure out what that looks like, dude, that will trickle down.
Speaker: It's inevitable.
Speaker: The right people are going to be pulled up with you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then on top of that, like, dude, a lot of our systems are very simple.
Speaker: Like it's, it's very much by design, life, business, it's all simple.
Speaker: Humans complicate it.
Speaker: So we keep our stuff really simple so that it is repeatable, replicatable.
Speaker: When you do it properly, like it's very easy for, you know, our guys to impart a lot of that.
Speaker: But the reality is, you know, like you can only help someone as much as they're willing to be helped.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You learn that really quickly in business.
Speaker: So that's why I was joking.
Speaker: Like they should all hire us.
Speaker: And the reason for that is because they're never going to get as good results as when they put their own dollars on the line.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I'm not here to plug that.
Speaker: I'm just saying like, yeah, that's the main reason, right?
Speaker: When we elevate, it trickles down to all of our people.
Speaker: If we want our guys and girls to show up at an eight out of 10, we need to be at a 12, right?
Speaker: So that's what we're focusing on.
Speaker: And we'll do that in all the major areas of high performance.
Speaker: But ultimately it's like monkey see monkey do.
Speaker: If we're doing it, they'll be seeing it.
Speaker: And then eventually they'll start doing it.
Speaker: That's the theory behind it.
Speaker: And you know, it,
Speaker: We see it in practice every single day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I agree with that because as I've started coaching people more and more to people that are in, you know, paying me for coaching.
Speaker: Sometimes I wonder, I'm like, man, I'm telling these exact same things to my coaching clients.
Speaker: I'm telling them to the guys on my team.
Speaker: And the guys I'm coaching, they're getting like way better results doing some of these things.
Speaker: So let's just be, but yeah, I think it's a big part of it is they're paying more attention.
Speaker: They're taking it more seriously because they've gotten money on the line.
Speaker: And, um, I don't know, something that I've heard too, being in sales is people will do 50% of the good things you do.
Speaker: And then like your reps will do half of what you do good and then twice them out of what you do bad.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: I don't know if that's definitely partly true for sure.
Speaker: It sounds true to me.
Speaker: But dude, I want to underline that for people because it's like, I wish it weren't this way.
Speaker: Because I think every coach goes through this.
Speaker: When you're building a coaching business, you try and give all the stuff away.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You give it away for free and then you give it away for free to people that, you know, and then the people that, you know, get pissed at you and say your systems didn't work.
Speaker: And I look at the spreadsheets and none of them are filled out.
Speaker: I log into the video modules.
Speaker: There's zero percent completion.
Speaker: I'm like, what do you mean this didn't work?
Speaker: Like you didn't freaking work.
Speaker: And I think that's a really important piece.
Speaker: It always sounded like such a sales pitch when I was on the client side, buying programs and investing all this money into myself and my personal development, which I still do to this day.
Speaker: But like, I always thought it was a sales pitch when they said, when you pay, you pay attention.
Speaker: I'm like, yeah, that's easy for you to say you want my money right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But dude, it's just the truth.
Speaker: Like when there is skin in the game, you'll execute.
Speaker: We have to raise the necessity that we're going to execute.
Speaker: A great way to raise the necessity is to vote with your wallet.
Speaker: So I wish it weren't that way because I'd love to just help a lot more people at scale.
Speaker: What better way to do that than giving it away?
Speaker: Well, you give everything away and then no one freaking uses it.
Speaker: So it's just an unfortunate part of human nature and an unfortunate part of the business, but it is what it is.
Speaker: Well, and yeah, at the end of the day, I'm sure between the two of us, I'm sure you might probably give away 80 to 90% of your stuff in the podcast, in your program.
Speaker: And same with me, like everything we talk about, but it's like, why can't people just go listen to these podcasts and double their sales?
Speaker: Probably because they're not implementing all of it.
Speaker: They're not taking it seriously.
Speaker: They're not like, you know, digging into it as much.
Speaker: So I think there's definitely something to be said about getting a coach and
Speaker: putting your money on the line like that.
Speaker: But people in your accelerator program, do you see maybe like the managers, team leads?
Speaker: Do you see that generally as they get more sales, as their results go up, does their team do better?
Speaker: You know, just from that, have you seen that as you've coached guys that their team improves?
Speaker: You know, that's a good thing that we should start tracking.
Speaker: We don't track that as much as personal volume.
Speaker: So that's a good piece of feedback for me.
Speaker: I will say that like the intangible things that we're noticing, right?
Speaker: Happiness and fulfillment from the leaders is through the roof, which a big determinant of that is work-life harmony.
Speaker: And also are there reps making money?
Speaker: which when that's going, so like you could paint that picture, but I don't have a hard data for it.
Speaker: It seems to be the case.
Speaker: The intangibles are pointing very much in that favor.
Speaker: But yeah, I definitely need to track that a bit more.
Speaker: That'd be good.
Speaker: Good data point.
Speaker: Yeah, it'd be interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And last podcast we did together, I know we talked a lot about how you help guys set up their systems that track the data and you got, you know, the engineering background.
Speaker: So I know you're big on numbers, big on tracking.
Speaker: And last time you talked about how guys track their doors, number of people they talk to.
Speaker: What else are you having guys track?
Speaker: What are their like data points?
Speaker: Is it just kind of the standard KPIs that we all think about?
Speaker: Are there like KPIs that you're introducing the guys you coach that they've never tracked before?
Speaker: I guess what type of systems you help guys set up that maybe they didn't think about or weren't thinking of tracking before they started working with you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the KPIs we care about, the metrics that we're tracking hasn't changed.
Speaker: So to recap for people who haven't seen that first interview, and again, press pause and go listen to it first and foremost.
Speaker: Yeah, it's everything from top to bottom of funnel.
Speaker: So door knocked, decision maker spoken to, appointment set, appointment sat, deals closed, deals installed.
Speaker: The labels will change based on industry, but that's what we care about in solar.
Speaker: And to answer your question, well, what data are we having them track that they weren't doing prior?
Speaker: It's interesting how few people actually track their data.
Speaker: And if they are tracking it, it's just stuck in whatever platform their company is using, SalesRabbit, Sunbase, whatever.
Speaker: And they're not looking at it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we're basically just having them take all that data if they are tracking it and put it into simple spreadsheets or use something like tally counters or hell, a freaking notebook for all I care, but like actually tracking their volume because the amount of times I get on calls and people are like, I feel like I knock like 70 doors a day.
Speaker: Like, okay, cool.
Speaker: How many did you knock yesterday?
Speaker: And they go, oh, well, 37.
Speaker: But like I had to take my dog to the vet.
Speaker: Okay, how about the day before that?
Speaker: It's like, oh, 17, but like I had a dentist appointment and I had to pick my sister up from school.
Speaker: It's like, how about the day before that?
Speaker: None.
Speaker: Like I had a family day.
Speaker: It's like, so you're not knocking.
Speaker: And I don't say this to shame people.
Speaker: I say this because our feelings are liars is really why I say it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The running joke that I always tell this story to kind of like shed light on how funny it is.
Speaker: But people will be like, Mike, our clients will come on calls.
Speaker: They'll be like, Mike, I feel like this is going on.
Speaker: Like respectfully, Susan, don't care how you feel.
Speaker: Show me the data.
Speaker: Like let's get to the point of like what's actually going on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: All data, no drama.
Speaker: So we need that at top to bottom of funnel because, and I show this in a lot of the talks that we give, but like if I just track top and bottom, well, you can play the volume game, right?
Speaker: And maybe you'll realize like, cool, I get one deal installed for every like 347 doors that I knock, for example, random arbitrary number.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Well, if you want to add an extra install a month,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: Then maybe you just add an extra 347 doors a month.
Speaker: So 347 divided by four and a half, because there's four and a half weeks in a month.
Speaker: So that's 77 a week divided by like, let's say it's six days a week that you're knocking.
Speaker: That's an extra 12.8 doors a day.
Speaker: Reasonable, but that's just going pure volume.
Speaker: And maybe you don't want to do that.
Speaker: So if we have our conversions at every step of the process, and this is really hard to talk out without looking at spreadsheets and whatnot, but like you might realize like, dude, my appointments, they're not sticky at all.
Speaker: Like you might realize, holy crap, I'm only sitting 14, 15, 16% of my appointments that I'm setting.
Speaker: Like that's a massive bottleneck.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And when you have all of these pieces, then you could start to play around with the numbers.
Speaker: So we have all these conversion trackers that we have for our clients where we'll literally help them track all of that data and plug in their targets.
Speaker: So like I want 40 installs, 60 installs this year.
Speaker: I get I make on average five grand a deal.
Speaker: It's like, cool, then you're going to make 300 grand on 60 installs.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If we have all of our conversions, we know how much we're making per door and we can guesstimate exactly, it's fun to say guesstimate and exactly, but you get what I mean.
Speaker: Like we have a pretty dang good estimation of how many doors need to be knocked
Speaker: however many days per week based on our historical conversions because we have the data.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we can work smart and hard.
Speaker: And then odds are when we solve one of those bottlenecks, the door volume goes down.
Speaker: But maybe we still want to knock that same amount of doors.
Speaker: Well, all of a sudden, if we cut our door volume in half, now we can still knock the same amount
Speaker: So double that volume, but now we've doubled our outcome.
Speaker: Like we've doubled our results by working smart and hard.
Speaker: So it's a very important piece of the business that unfortunately not very many people are taking as seriously as they should.
Speaker: We all know that sales is numbers and everyone talks about how it sales is numbers.
Speaker: And
Speaker: They just talk about it from a volume perspective, which is, again, super cute advice, but missing a ton of context.
Speaker: What we really mean is go knock more doors with the same energy and the same performance.
Speaker: Then it will lead to more sales.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But when you also know these pieces, you can play them all together in a really powerful way that that leads to really, really significant results.
Speaker: So people need to be tracking it however you need to.
Speaker: But track that numbers, those numbers.
Speaker: Excuse me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's incredible.
Speaker: And it's crazy.
Speaker: I think most sales reps know all this stuff, but I'm sure you can agree, Mike.
Speaker: It's insane the amount of people that don't do this.
Speaker: And I find myself like I coach people on this.
Speaker: I coach my guys, my teams on this.
Speaker: But sometimes I'll go a couple of weeks and I'll look at my tracker and I realized I forgot to track it for like two weeks straight.
Speaker: So I think it's like and that's what's cool about having a coach is you have someone that can hold you accountable on these things and.
Speaker: um, you know, look at the actual data and all that.
Speaker: So what system, do you have any systems in your program?
Speaker: Is it just like you do weekly calls and review these numbers first, first thing, or what type of systems you have to kind of keep guys accountable with this and make sure they're tracking it ultra, um, accurate and things like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean, most of our programs, like guys are on calls with coaches every other week.
Speaker: On average, we have group calls every single week.
Speaker: They're texting their coach every other day.
Speaker: Usually, um,
Speaker: But I think the important thing is like, let's unpack the accountability piece.
Speaker: Yeah, because accountability is really important, right?
Speaker: I believe there's two types of accountability, though.
Speaker: The first one is external accountability.
Speaker: So that's what most people think about.
Speaker: They think of a coach, they think of an accountability partner, they think about like, you know, publicizing a goal on social media, reverse bets, like any of these things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is great.
Speaker: And that's where it starts.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The problem is we're dependent on something external, something else.
Speaker: The goal, and this is what we do in a lot of our programs is to get you to the internal accountability, that second type.
Speaker: Now,
Speaker: This is a massive self-confidence play.
Speaker: It's a self-trust play.
Speaker: It takes a lot of work to get there.
Speaker: But the goal is, you know, you start with the external, you transition over to the internal where you become so accountable to your own word, like your confidence in keeping your word because you have a mountain of undeniable proof.
Speaker: That you are what you say you are like Alex Ramosi likes to talk about, right?
Speaker: You have that proof.
Speaker: So you trust that you get to the point where all you need to do is declare that something will be done and it's as good as done and you're accountable to yourself.
Speaker: That's the goal.
Speaker: That's the holy grail.
Speaker: That's where we need to get to.
Speaker: So we start with the external and we'll use parts of like, dude, the external works.
Speaker: That's why it still exists.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we'll use parts of the external.
Speaker: We'll use things like reverse bets in our programs because it's a good jolt.
Speaker: But all of it is ultimately a self-confidence play where it's like, dude, we build this stack of wins that like,
Speaker: We know what we are.
Speaker: We know who we are.
Speaker: And we do what we say we're going to do.
Speaker: And we just happen to make commitments around the things that move the needle in our business.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the things that move the needle in our relationships and in our health.
Speaker: Kind of went on a tangent there, but I think that's really important to understand because we want to start over on the external because that's what we always have access to.
Speaker: But the problem is we're dependent.
Speaker: We want to build the independence.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's the game that we play.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, I think ultimately if you can get to that level, yeah, that's when you're that's when you're starting to crush it.
Speaker: That's when things get fun.
Speaker: But how do you take guys from the external to that internal motivation?
Speaker: Is it just like having them figure out their whys and deeper meanings?
Speaker: I know all that stuff helps, but is there anything you do to help guys get to that level where it's internal, where they can just declare it and go out and do it without having to be babysat and stuff like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it starts with a lot of those things.
Speaker: Like you, you have to understand your reasons, right?
Speaker: Like why are you doing it?
Speaker: Those things get the fire started, but ultimately what finalizes that transition is the stack of undeniable proof.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: There's a, there's a great quote from Ed Milet that absolutely changed the game for me.
Speaker: And it's, it's,
Speaker: The fabric of or it played a big role in the fabric of everything that we've built in our companies.
Speaker: And it's similar to that Alex Hormozzi quote that I paraphrased, right?
Speaker: Like building a stack of undeniable proof.
Speaker: This is back when this is probably six, seven years ago at this point, like back when he was still Ed Milet, but no one knew who Ed Milet was.
Speaker: It was right when he started building his personal brand.
Speaker: He did a big podcast tour.
Speaker: He did like School of Greatness with Lewis Howes.
Speaker: He did Tom Bilyeu, Impact Theory, a lot of those shows.
Speaker: And he said something on Lewis Howes School of Greatness interview where he said, happiness comes from self-confidence and self-confidence comes from doing what you say you're going to do over and over and over and over and over again.
Speaker: That's how we build it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like you think about a morning routine, you think about making your bed and how it's the most important skill set to build a seven figure business.
Speaker: Bro, no, it's not like making your bed has nothing to do with making millions of dollars.
Speaker: Like I checked my bank account every single day and making my bed has never deposited a dollar.
Speaker: It's not about the tax.
Speaker: Like that's not it.
Speaker: Like the only purpose for any of these things, the reason they're so important is because you're stacking wins in the beginning of the day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You're building a stack of wins that specifically in the morning will get you into a state where you're like, dude, I'm going to dominate today.
Speaker: Like get in my way.
Speaker: You're getting run over.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's what it's supposed to do.
Speaker: And making the bed is just one of those things.
Speaker: So you build that stack of this undeniable proof.
Speaker: And eventually, dude, you're going to start believing what you say.
Speaker: And we just, again, we architect this in such a way that the wins that we're stacking also move the needle in our business.
Speaker: And we do it in a way that we can scale the volume.
Speaker: We progressively overload the volume, just like you do in the gym.
Speaker: You don't go in the gym first day.
Speaker: You're like, bro, I'm going to bench 405.
Speaker: Hell, you might never get to 405.
Speaker: You might never get to 225.
Speaker: But you sure as hell ain't starting there.
Speaker: So you start where you start and then you progressively overload.
Speaker: We do the same thing.
Speaker: we just do it very in a very uh very sustainable approach because if it's not simple it's not sustainable and if it's not sustainable what the hell are we doing it for yeah right we need sustainability that's the move yeah that's so cool yeah it's huge and i if every guy could do this i don't even think we'd need teams anymore because like imagine if everyone had just that internal drive and was doing what they said they needed to do we
Speaker: we could probably just all go out and make a million dollars and not need teams, not need managers, but I think combine these things.
Speaker: Um, yeah, that's, that's cool.
Speaker: It's cool to hear that.
Speaker: And, um, just the little thing.
Speaker: So is that something that's big in your program too, is just going through guys like morning routines and stacking these little wins and commitments to yourself.
Speaker: How important is that in your coaching?
Speaker: Is that a lot of just like mindsets, um, routines, stuff like that too?
Speaker: Yeah, not necessarily morning routines, so to speak, but like we definitely track what I call the life things as well.
Speaker: So if you remember what I said earlier, it's like high performance is not just building a stack of cash at the expense of everything else.
Speaker: It's about like basically it's building a well-oiled machine that's just firing on all cylinders, right?
Speaker: Life and business.
Speaker: So not –
Speaker: Not building the business, but letting health deteriorate or relationships fall apart.
Speaker: For any of our guys and girls in our programs that are in committed relationships, almost all of them have date night as a non-negotiable.
Speaker: And for anyone listening to this, if you're married, if you're in a committed relationship and date night is not a weekly non-negotiable, make it one.
Speaker: And I don't care how busy you think you are.
Speaker: Make time.
Speaker: Your partner will love you for it.
Speaker: And it is unfortunately common how often that gets neglected.
Speaker: So like we're tracking those things as well.
Speaker: Now, do they need to be in the morning?
Speaker: Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Speaker: Like my non-negotiables happen to all fit in my morning because I want to, I know that that gets me into a state to dominate and I know what my morning looks like.
Speaker: So really we're just focusing on what are the things, what are the needle movers that are getting neglected?
Speaker: Is it meditation?
Speaker: Is it reading?
Speaker: Can they be done in the morning?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Can they be done at night?
Speaker: I'm unattached to that as long as they get done.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So to answer your question, like kind of, but it's really more about what are the things that are happening in life that should be happening more frequently or aren't happening at all?
Speaker: And they should be happening.
Speaker: And let's build some structure around bringing those to life because we know they'll add value and fill our cup.
Speaker: That's really what we do.
Speaker: And the time is not as relevant for us because we're just about building the wins, stacking the wins and leading to the momentum, the happiness, the fulfillment, everything that we want in life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And I know we're short on time here, Mike, but last question or two before we wrap up, you've coached, I'm sure, dozens, if not hundreds of reps at this point and seen a lot of the industry, seen a lot of what guys struggle with.
Speaker: So probably you, maybe better than anyone, have seen behind the scenes and taken a look in the brains of the solar cells guys.
Speaker: So what is it, after all your coaching you've done over, what, eight years now, you said?
Speaker: Is it seven, eight years you've been doing this?
Speaker: Seven-ish.
Speaker: Seven, okay.
Speaker: So what would you say, if you could narrow it down, what are some of the biggest problems that these reps face?
Speaker: Is it just the consistency stuff like we're talking about?
Speaker: Is there anything else that you think is like, okay, every rep I start coaching, they're struggling with this and this is what we're doing for that.
Speaker: So I don't know if it's possible to narrow it down into a few.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Consistency is definitely the most common one.
Speaker: It does feel like a cop-out answer probably because I talk about it so much, but that's a hundred percent the number one.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then I would also say that, um,
Speaker: Two other pieces that I find myself training on a lot right now.
Speaker: Number one is the life stuff.
Speaker: That gets neglected.
Speaker: People are very volatile.
Speaker: So it's either all in or all out.
Speaker: When people are all in on working, the life cup doesn't get filled as much as it should.
Speaker: And people think that they fill everybody else's cup by like pouring ours out instead of realizing that you fill everybody else's cup by filling your cup so damn high and lifting it above everybody else's and filling theirs from the overflow.
Speaker: So that would be one.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The other piece would be daily non-negotiables that are flexible.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What I mean by that is like, I guess a different way to say it would be flexibility into your routine.
Speaker: while you're traveling.
Speaker: I think this is especially important for anyone running blitz models, whether it's 10 on 20 off or like, you know, just mini blitzes throughout the month or whatever it may be.
Speaker: But you need a certain level of flexibility in your calendar.
Speaker: Because what happens for most people, even at like the top performing levels, they move, they, they go out to hood and then they're there for 10 days and they're working so hard, but they're literally like
Speaker: burning the midnight oil, so to speak, like, they're not working out, they're not doing a lot of these things.
Speaker: And it's unfortunately common.
Speaker: So what I've been talking to a lot of guys and girls about lately is how do you build that flexibility into the routine such that you're not dependent on something?
Speaker: Because the reality is as humans, we're so easy to fall out of routine.
Speaker: And sometimes it's just being dependent on one little thing that subconsciously we're like, nope, I can't do that part of my routine.
Speaker: I'm not home.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: For me, anybody that watches my Instagram stories probably thinks that, okay, well, if lifetime is not at wherever Mike is, then it's not going to happen.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: It's like, no, it's not about the lifetime.
Speaker: It's not about the jacuzzi or the sauna.
Speaker: It's like, okay, well, what, what can my what can my alternative be?
Speaker: Like, and by the way, y'all went in doubt use fricking chat GPT.
Speaker: Literally, I was on a coaching call with a bunch of our clients.
Speaker: And one of the clients is like, Hey, I'm traveling.
Speaker: I'm like, cool.
Speaker: Well, you can either get the passport membership at your gym, or you can figure out how to do a body weight workout.
Speaker: So I went into chat GPT and I typed in act as a personal trainer and give me a full body body weight exercise that I don't need to have a gym for.
Speaker: So
Speaker: And in 30 seconds, it like spun out this incredible thing, which I'll definitely use.
Speaker: You know, it's like to sum it back or to bring it back to the point because I know that we're short on time.
Speaker: We need flexibility.
Speaker: So you need flexibility into your routines such that you're not dependent on something that you won't have wherever you are.
Speaker: If you're dependent on your hypervolt or your massage gun, like what else can you do if that's not with you?
Speaker: If you're dependent on your reading chair, how do you make it a little bit easier?
Speaker: Whatever it is, it sounds so silly, but it's true.
Speaker: And we cling to these things to allow ourselves to fall off of routine.
Speaker: So you got to figure out what is that plan B, plan C to make sure that you can consistently hit your non-negotiables even when you're traveling.
Speaker: And if you can do that, you'll stack wins forever and you will forever build momentum.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: That's a nugger right there.
Speaker: And so important.
Speaker: And I love what you said, too, about having not having the all or nothing mindset, because I know in times in my career, it's like I only talked to two people today instead of like this day shot.
Speaker: So I'm sure you see that in your coaching to guys just like giving up on a day just because they know they're not going to hit their commitment to themselves.
Speaker: Like, no, you still have time to go out and talk to them.
Speaker: eight people, maybe it's not the 10 you planned on, but at least go hit that number.
Speaker: Don't just throw the whole day out.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: And just to add to that really quickly, what's interesting is
Speaker: Without fail, the clients who do their best to stick to their commitments, even if they don't hit it, they typically end up getting rewarded for it.
Speaker: So I'll just throw that out there for everybody listening.
Speaker: Yeah, so important.
Speaker: So yeah, I know we can talk more and more about this stuff, but I know you got a call coming up here, Mike.
Speaker: But just to wrap things up and we'll have to jump on another podcast again, because it's always a good time having you on.
Speaker: But where can guys reach out to you?
Speaker: Working guys, um, hit you up.
Speaker: They possibly want to get in your coaching program or learn more real quick.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: We'll absolutely run it back for a third time.
Speaker: You just let me know.
Speaker: I love to love to chop it up.
Speaker: It's always fun, but, uh, best places, Instagram at Mike says, Nick on Instagram.
Speaker: I probably need to link that up because the Polish Z's get really confusing.
Speaker: Instagram is the best spot websites, results, engine.com, but Instagram is the best place we can communicate.
Speaker: My team's in there pretty much all day.
Speaker: So any questions people have, they want to build on something, ask questions, get clarity around something that we talked about in this interview, slide in the DMS.
Speaker: We'll get you supported.
Speaker: OK, awesome.
Speaker: 100 percent.
Speaker: So we will link that in the show notes here.
Speaker: And thanks so much for coming on with us, Mike.
Speaker: And whether you get coached by Mike or you want to get in some of the solopreneur programs, it's going to change your game.
Speaker: So important to have a coach and Mike will get your mind right.
Speaker: He will get you a mind of steel and make sure you're hitting those commitments to yourself.
Speaker: So definitely go check out what he's got going on.
Speaker: And I appreciate you again, thanks again for coming on for a second time, Mike.
Speaker: Thanks for having me, brother.
Speaker: Always a good time.
Speaker: All right, we'll talk soon.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
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