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 solar printers taylor armstrong here with another episode as usual here to help you dominate in the solar industry and if you're listening you might be wondering why the audio called quality probably sounds like crap right now not the greatest i'll be honest i am driving right now we're on the road
Speaker: And you're going to hear why here in a second, but you're going to also hear some important sales lessons that are going to help you take your sales to another level.
Speaker: So even though the quality is not the greatest, make sure you do not turn off the episode because you're going to be missing out on some nuggets.
Speaker: But before we jump into that, I want to introduce a very special guest on the episode today.
Speaker: And that guest is my soulmate, Natalie Armstrong, here today.
Speaker: So, Nat, you want to say what's up to the Soulpreneur listeners?
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: It's an honor.
Speaker: Even though you probably felt like you had no choice, I'm sitting right next to you for the next hour.
Speaker: Yeah, she's here.
Speaker: We're actually headed back home from Disneyland.
Speaker: And so I thought, well, hey, why not introduce her to the listeners and say what's going on?
Speaker: Because we're all big family, right?
Speaker: We're solopreneurs here, and we want to welcome you to the family.
Speaker: So consider not your Aunt Natalie or whatever you want to call her.
Speaker: The uncle or mother.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, could be.
Speaker: But, uh, so anyways, we're actually on our way home from Disneyland, and this podcast was not planned originally to be recorded on the way home.
Speaker: But, Nat, do you want to tell them why we're headed?
Speaker: So the original plan was we're going to leave at, like, 8 o'clock.
Speaker: We got two kids, right?
Speaker: So we're planning to leave a little bit early.
Speaker: put kids to bed and I was gonna get home record a podcast episode in the home studio but plans changed a little bit and we actually didn't end up leaving till almost 11 o'clock which seems insane with two kids but uh do you want to tell them why we ended up staying so late and kind of why the plans changed that
Speaker: Well, first off, we purchased a genie pass.
Speaker: What's a genie pass?
Speaker: Oh, a genie pass is you spend 20 extra bucks to be able to skip the line.
Speaker: Well, not skip the line, but get in a faster line for some really popular rides.
Speaker: So we got the genie pass, and we had a time window to go to Monsters, Inc.,
Speaker: And when we went, the ride was broken down.
Speaker: So they gave us like kind of a voucher for multiple rides where we could just go like right ahead of the line.
Speaker: So we thought that only worked for one time, but turns out, I don't know if we did it wrong or they did it wrong, but we could use it a lot.
Speaker: So we took advantage and we hit up all the rides.
Speaker: Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker: We basically hit up every ride in the park.
Speaker: We didn't realize it until later in the day, too.
Speaker: But once we realized it, we're like, wow, we're going to go on all these rides because we got two kids now, our older one, he's two and a half.
Speaker: And he will not stay put in a line for more than like 10 minutes.
Speaker: He starts going nuts.
Speaker: If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw some of this, but he's like running behind gates multiple times throughout the day.
Speaker: He sprinted through lines.
Speaker: We had to chase him.
Speaker: And what's crazy is people will not grab him.
Speaker: They see him just running, making a mad dash to the exit or to the front of the line.
Speaker: And people just sit and stare.
Speaker: I'm like, come on, can you grab our kid?
Speaker: Don't just keep watching him run and run and run.
Speaker: So, yeah, we thought, all right, if we have this pass, we're going to take advantage of it because...
Speaker: All these kids rides, some of them have like 30, 40 minute waits.
Speaker: And no way are we going to wait that long with the two and a half year olds in a line that's nuts.
Speaker: So, yeah, we ended up just going on ride after ride after ride.
Speaker: So that is why we're driving home so late.
Speaker: And I'll be honest, I did not really want to record a podcast at one in the morning.
Speaker: So that's the other reason we're recording one here on the road.
Speaker: So, kind of a long explanation.
Speaker: But, that all being said, we've got some important lessons we actually learned directly from Disneyland.
Speaker: Just that we can apply it to solar cells.
Speaker: And, if you've listened to previous episodes, sometimes I get a little crazy with these comparisons.
Speaker: But, the truth is, there's cells in everything.
Speaker: If you haven't read Grant Cardone's Cellar Be Sold...
Speaker: go read it, but everything in life, it's pretty much a sale, and you see what goes on at Disneyland, these guys are experts, these guys are gurus at getting people to spend money, and so next time you are at, I don't know, a place like Disneyland, or anywhere people are spending massive amounts of money,
Speaker: Maybe you should take a hint.
Speaker: Maybe you should start to open your eyes because there's lots of things that you can apply in your business, in your life, and especially in your solar cells specific to what we're doing, right?
Speaker: So today in the podcast, we're going to break down three things we kind of noticed as we're at Disneyland.
Speaker: Three things we're thinking about and let's apply them to the solar world.
Speaker: So, let's jump straight into it.
Speaker: Number one.
Speaker: Do you remember what number one was?
Speaker: No?
Speaker: Uh... I don't remember what number one was.
Speaker: Alright.
Speaker: She already forgot.
Speaker: I'm not a pro at this.
Speaker: I just got stuck in the car with him.
Speaker: Okay, she forgot.
Speaker: So, number one is this.
Speaker: People will spend massive amounts of money for an experience.
Speaker: And the reason I say this is because at Disneyland, there's a couple different things you can buy there that I've seen people spend money on personally.
Speaker: And the first one is you can get this.
Speaker: You may have heard there's some like Disneyland secrets.
Speaker: I'm sure it's at other kind of amusement parks and everything.
Speaker: But there's a secret VIP club.
Speaker: It's called Club 33.
Speaker: And I was doing some research on this.
Speaker: If you go to Disneyland, it is kind of over by...
Speaker: The, uh, I forget what it's called.
Speaker: Kind of Indiana Jones section.
Speaker: Um, do you remember what it's called?
Speaker: New Orleans, New Orleans Square, I think over there.
Speaker: Pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaker: There's a secret VIP room where people will spend, I think it's 50 grand is what I was reading to get access to this.
Speaker: And they go eat dinner there.
Speaker: It has a nice view.
Speaker: There's, I'm sure, some other perks they get.
Speaker: Season passes, obviously, they get.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I think meet and greet with some characters.
Speaker: They get a great view while they're eating dinner.
Speaker: Obviously, some super good food up there.
Speaker: But really, that's basically it.
Speaker: At least from what I was reading.
Speaker: So why do people spend $50,000 when they don't need to?
Speaker: When they can just spend $700 like we did.
Speaker: I think we spent $800 on our season passes.
Speaker: And the reason is because people like to spend money.
Speaker: People like VIP experiences.
Speaker: And people like to be surrounded by others that are in their same class, right?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: The other thing is there's a, uh, you can buy a private tour guide at Disneyland.
Speaker: I've seen a lot of people do this.
Speaker: And all it is, essentially, is you just get one of the workers.
Speaker: They take you on the fast pass lines, and they tell you history of the rides, history of the parks.
Speaker: They plan the rides out for you.
Speaker: They plan out your eating stops.
Speaker: They know exactly where to go.
Speaker: So it's a nice thing to have, but I think these VIP tour guides, I think they cost like $5,000.
Speaker: So we have to...
Speaker: Way more than we spent on an entire season.
Speaker: People are spending one day VIP tickets, VIP tour guide.
Speaker: Seems crazy to some of us, but there are lots of people willing to drop that kind of money.
Speaker: So what's the lesson from this?
Speaker: If people are willing to spend these insane amounts at Disneyland, then they're probably willing to spend some money on solar or two.
Speaker: Especially when in most cases we're saving them money.
Speaker: So next time you're out selling solar, first lesson from this, don't drop your prices like a madman.
Speaker: This is something that drives me more nuts than anything is people undercut their services.
Speaker: People sell themselves shorts when you should be making great money in solar.
Speaker: I see some people out there dropping their commissions to make a thousand bucks on a sell.
Speaker: I mean, way less than you should be making your market.
Speaker: So don't drop your price at value.
Speaker: How can you add value to it instead of dropping your price instead of getting to the bottom of the barrel?
Speaker: And it's by doing the same thing that Disney does, creating an experience.
Speaker: So that's the first lesson we kind of notice as we're going there.
Speaker: And the second one is this.
Speaker: Disney, even though we have season passes, we spend about $800 on these.
Speaker: Disney is a master at getting you to spend more money once you're in the park.
Speaker: So even though we have these passes, the spending's not over.
Speaker: How much would you say we typically...
Speaker: Like, you know, spins as we're going to Disneyland and what are some other things that Disney tricks us into buying that you've seen now?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: We probably spend like $60 to $70 every time we go.
Speaker: I mean, we buy a Genie Pass, so there's $20.
Speaker: If you wanted to do like the new Star Wars ride or the Web Slingers ride and you wanted to go in that lightning lane, that's an extra $15 per ride because it's new.
Speaker: And it's popular.
Speaker: And so we haven't done that.
Speaker: But that's another upsell.
Speaker: I mean, everywhere you turn, there's food, shops.
Speaker: I mean, every ride ends in a gift shop.
Speaker: And your kids see all these fun things, all these souvenirs.
Speaker: So there's an upsell right there for a little keychain that's 30 bucks.
Speaker: And a bubble maker, that's $40.
Speaker: You know you could get for about $3 off Amazon.
Speaker: And let's see what else.
Speaker: I mean, you've got to get a churro when you're in Disneyland and some Dole Whip.
Speaker: Those are non-negotiables, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker: So Disneyland is just their masters at getting you to spend more and more and more.
Speaker: And it's something I notice every time is they're very strategic in where they're placing things.
Speaker: They're very strategic with getting the kids begging their parents for the toys, their masters.
Speaker: And so how does this apply to solar?
Speaker: Well, Grant Cardone, he says the second cell is the easiest cell.
Speaker: After you get someone to purchase one thing, it should be very easy to get them to buy another thing.
Speaker: And so are you doing this in solar?
Speaker: How can we make a second cell in solar?
Speaker: If you think about it, there's batteries.
Speaker: There's more panels.
Speaker: We're not quite like Disneyland.
Speaker: We're probably not necessarily going to sell materials or lightsabers after a cell, right?
Speaker: But things that are related to solar, right?
Speaker: And I'll say something that I'm seeing over and over is just how many people now, particularly in California, need add-on systems, need more panels up there.
Speaker: We've gotten to a point in California where the new homes are built with solar now.
Speaker: And typically there are not enough panels.
Speaker: So over and over and over people are needing more panels up there.
Speaker: And batteries are starting to become better and better.
Speaker: a great second sale as well so more importantly are your customers coming to you when they need these extra products are they getting these through you because i'll say right now our team is getting dozens and dozens of sales where we weren't the ones who put the panels up there in the first place
Speaker: And I'm guilty of this myself.
Speaker: I know for sure that I have not followed up with customers, my previous clients, in a really effective way.
Speaker: So I'm almost positive that there's probably several of my old customers where they bought add-on systems through other companies.
Speaker: And so how often are you following up with your customers to make sure they're happy, to make sure their system's producing, and to make sure if they need new panels, they're going to get them through you, or if they need a battery, they're going to get them through you.
Speaker: And a lot of times it's not that people undersize their systems.
Speaker: That does happen, unfortunately, where people, and if you follow me on Instagram, it actually happened last week where someone told me,
Speaker: This customer that they only needed eight panels when that was a very egregious mistake because the house was pretty huge.
Speaker: It was in a place where they would use a ton of AC and they recommended them eight panels.
Speaker: But anyways, besides the point here, make sure you're recommending the correct amount of panels for customers.
Speaker: Um, but a lot of times people do have the correct panels and it's just, they got a Tesla, they got whatever electric car they added in the hot tub, they added in the AC unit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so when they do do those things, like they're going to come back to you or they're going to go to someone else.
Speaker: So anyways, that's the second point of this though.
Speaker: Make sure you are effectively doing a second cell.
Speaker: Make sure you are, um,
Speaker: mastering the art of upselling just like Disney does.
Speaker: So that's point number two.
Speaker: And then the last thing that we notice kind of going along with all with the other two points here is just the level of customer service at Disneyland and just Disney in general.
Speaker: So now what did you see as far as from a customer service standpoint at Disneyland when we were there today?
Speaker: Um, well, that, that genie pass that, um, we, we got that was just very fruitful in giving to us.
Speaker: We went to, um, a ride at the exit because that's where you can go to kind of skip most of the lines.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: We were chatting with the girl and well we went to pull up this pass and it wasn't really loading, it wasn't working and so we're like okay well this might be the end of this pass but she's like you know what don't even worry about it just go ahead and go on so that was so awesome.
Speaker: we really weren't expecting to get as much out of that pass as we did.
Speaker: But anyway, so we get off and we see the same girl at the exit.
Speaker: And before we'd been chatting about the ride Peter Pan.
Speaker: And if you know Peter Pan, if you've been on Peter Pan, it is a really cute ride, but it lasts about 30 seconds and you got to wait minimum 45 minutes to get on this thing.
Speaker: So
Speaker: Really cute ride, but definitely not worth the wait.
Speaker: And so we were talking about it beforehand, and we get off, and she sees we've got these two young kids.
Speaker: It's way past bedtime, and she's like, do you guys want to go on Peter Pan?
Speaker: And we're like, yeah, I mean, it'd be nice.
Speaker: And so she's like, come on.
Speaker: And so she walks us over to Peter Pan herself, and...
Speaker: gives a little head nod and then the lady there just lets us jump right ahead of the line.
Speaker: So I felt a little guilty for waving to all these people that have been waiting for over an hour to get on this ride.
Speaker: But anyways, it was just like a really small thing that she did.
Speaker: I mean, she literally had to walk us like 20 feet and then just give a little head nod to the lady and then we got through like right away.
Speaker: These people probably hated us because we're going through, like, the handicapped entrance.
Speaker: Like, these people do not... I don't know.
Speaker: I probably look handicapped, but... No, but if we've learned anything, one of us needs to be handicapped every time we go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm bringing a wheelchair.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To get in those lanes next time.
Speaker: Yeah, you can skip everything.
Speaker: Anyway, it wasn't a big deal for her, but it really made our night way better because our toddler, our two-year-old, we're in a terrible two-stage.
Speaker: He will run in front of any line or climb over any fence or whatever he's not supposed to do.
Speaker: He'll do that.
Speaker: Yeah, and so just the level of customer service there...
Speaker: It's outstanding.
Speaker: You know, everywhere you look, there's guys, just the level of detail.
Speaker: Obviously, they're all in their little costumes.
Speaker: They're all just doing little things.
Speaker: The guy, we're walking through the security entrance.
Speaker: The guy is talking like Donald Duck, making our kid laugh, right?
Speaker: It's like, where else do you see security guards talking like Donald Duck?
Speaker: Little things like that.
Speaker: And so it's that level of detail that we should be bringing to our solar cells.
Speaker: So how, so on a scale of one to 10 right now, how do you rate your customer service?
Speaker: And I'm actually really excited to be talking more about this topic.
Speaker: Did a podcast recently with Lindsay Erickson over at Radiant Resources.
Speaker: If you don't follow her on Instagram or don't know who she is, she is the master of this.
Speaker: And she's just created a business around this just because there is definitely a void of customer service in the solar industry.
Speaker: Not at the level it needs to be for sure.
Speaker: And so identify what level of service you have, scale one to 10.
Speaker: And obviously there's things you can do.
Speaker: We're going to be talking more about strategies around this, but just in general, are you getting calls from your customer after the sale asking for updates?
Speaker: Are you getting comments from your customers saying they're not sure where things are at in the process or they don't know what to expect?
Speaker: Or even worse, are you getting negative reviews from your customers?
Speaker: Any of these things is a sign that you are dropping the ball when it comes to customer service.
Speaker: And I know as sales reps, depending on what your position in solar is, maybe you're just selling it.
Speaker: Maybe you're a business owner.
Speaker: Maybe you are working in an office.
Speaker: But ultimately, it's up to us as the sales reps, as whatever you're doing, it's up to us.
Speaker: We need to take that ownership and
Speaker: to get the level of customer service where it needs to be.
Speaker: And if it's not, work with your company owners, work with your team, work with whoever you have to help get that level of customer service higher.
Speaker: And if it's not, maybe you're going to do things that you feel are not your responsibility.
Speaker: But hire your own assistant to send the customer updates.
Speaker: Do whatever it takes because at the end of the day, it falls on our shoulders, whatever position we have in the industry.
Speaker: So make sure you have that perfect customer experience.
Speaker: Make sure you're walking the customer through that.
Speaker: And really just think, how would I want to be treated?
Speaker: How would I want to fill in this process?
Speaker: Are my expectations being met?
Speaker: Do I know exactly what to expect?
Speaker: And you're probably going to identify some things that you can change or improve.
Speaker: So those are the three things we kind of noticed at Disneyland today.
Speaker: Number one, master the second cell.
Speaker: No, was that number two?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right, that was number two.
Speaker: Number one was people.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: I'm getting my points mixed up.
Speaker: It is way too late.
Speaker: It's like after midnight right now.
Speaker: We're getting home.
Speaker: It's amazing we're still awake.
Speaker: And the other thing is, this is actually the second time we recorded this because we got through the podcast and we realized there was like a glitch in the recording or something.
Speaker: And it didn't record like the entire second half.
Speaker: So we're a little, yeah, we're going on fumes right now.
Speaker: But those are the three points though.
Speaker: And then third, just the customer service, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So make sure you are remembering those things and just pay attention wherever you go to the customer service, to the business tactics being used, the sales tactics, and you might learn a thing or two that you can apply in your solar business.
Speaker: So that's what we notice.
Speaker: And then before we wrap up here,
Speaker: Guys, we have coming on the next show Eric Sanchez.
Speaker: He has an awesome solar business, and he's going to be talking about how you can create a call center in solar.
Speaker: He started a call center in Colombia.
Speaker: He's dominating.
Speaker: He's doing virtual sales, and he came as a foreigner, had to learn English, and he calls himself the solar king, by the way.
Speaker: so he's got the name to go with it so don't miss out on next episode and again we want to thank nat for coming on the show here with us today and also she's got a little uh vip experience that she can take you through because she has a clothing boutique so before we wrap up here nat do you want to give our listeners how they can uh get some new swag and
Speaker: Maybe it's not for all the slurpreners, but maybe tell them who it's for.
Speaker: And then give them the plug if they want to learn more about that.
Speaker: Yeah, I own a women's clothing boutique online, so probably not for a lot of the solopreneurs.
Speaker: Hey, we've got women solopreneurs here.
Speaker: Yeah, just some of them.
Speaker: Or the significant others of solopreneurs.
Speaker: You never know.
Speaker: Mother's Day, birthday, whatever.
Speaker: But yeah, it's called Coastal Fringe Boutique, and my website is coastalfringeboutique.com.
Speaker: You can follow...
Speaker: on Instagram and how about solar print use code solar printer for 20% off how about that okay well she's already taking some tips from the podcast today hopefully you guys are as well so that being said we're actually pulling into the parking lot we got our kids passed out here so we need to take them put these animals to bed
Speaker: But I hope you guys took a thing or two from this episode.
Speaker: Let us know if you like this type of content.
Speaker: We apologize for the quality.
Speaker: The audio obviously isn't quite as good.
Speaker: Just recording it in a car here.
Speaker: But hopefully you were able to glean a couple things.
Speaker: So we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Keep crushing it.
Speaker: And go grab some sales this week.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: What's up, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: And
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solrepreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
