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How to Dominate in Solar as a Summer Sales Program - Tanner Huber
58 Plays4 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
Introducing Tanner Huber and Solar Industry Topics
00:00:42
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
We are here with the one, the only, Tanner Huber.
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm excited for him to come on the show.
00:00:48
Speaker
We're going to be jamming on building teams, running summer programs, some cool topics we're going to jump into.
00:00:54
Speaker
So, Tanner, thanks for coming on the podcast with us today.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, Taylor, thanks for having me, man.
00:00:59
Speaker
I've actually listened to your podcast for the last three, four years now since you started up.
00:01:04
Speaker
It's been awesome and it's cool to be here.
00:01:06
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:06
Speaker
Appreciate the support.
00:01:08
Speaker
And yeah, just great to connect with guys like you.
00:01:10
Speaker
I feel weird saying your name because Tanner, he's my brother.
Founding of NLight Home and Personal Anecdotes
00:01:13
Speaker
That's my brother's name.
00:01:14
Speaker
And he came out for it this summer.
00:01:20
Speaker
He left me.
00:01:21
Speaker
He's not doing solar, so couldn't bring him back.
00:01:25
Speaker
I know I've got a younger brother I'm bringing up through the ranks too he's like 17 right now and so I'm excited to get him out on the doors the next couple years we actually had a little group of 18 year olds kill it last year a couple of them cleared over 100 grand the first year so I think you can do it too yeah that's awesome well cool so yeah I'm excited to get in the show Tanner you've been you co-founded nlight energy correct me if I'm saying anything wrong nlight home nlight home yeah you guys can
00:01:51
Speaker
Find us Instagram, go NLight.
00:01:53
Speaker
But yeah, NLight Home.
00:01:54
Speaker
NLight, okay.
00:01:55
Speaker
All right.
00:01:56
Speaker
NLight Home and you guys have been running since 2016.
00:01:59
Speaker
And what's most impressive that we're going to be talking to our listeners today is I don't think I've heard anyone just focusing as much on the summer program, at least for as long as you guys have been doing it.
Unique Focus on Solar Summer Programs
00:02:10
Speaker
um since 2016 and you've been building huge summer teams i know you got year-round teams but um you said you've you know keep a year round of 20 to 30 guys and then you jumped like like 350 reps or something in the summer is that right yeah yeah that's kind of how we do it yeah but uh but yeah that's that's kind of the unique thing i'd say in light we started and our slogan was the solar summer like we're and actually the solar summer.com is one of our websites but
00:02:36
Speaker
we prided ourselves on being the one that mastered it over the summer because solar is tough.
00:02:41
Speaker
I mean, especially five, six years ago when install times were a little longer and processes weren't as smooth.
00:02:48
Speaker
It was a, it was a daunting task to put together a program that could get installs in two, three weeks and train young 19, 20, 21 year olds to go sell such a large contract.
00:03:02
Speaker
Cause back then it was like, you know, all the pest, all the alarms would say, no way.
00:03:06
Speaker
You can't do that.
00:03:07
Speaker
You're only 20.
00:03:07
Speaker
This is too big.
00:03:09
Speaker
Takes too long.
00:03:10
Speaker
You're never going to make money.
00:03:12
Speaker
And we figured it out.
00:03:13
Speaker
And honestly, now, you know, now there's a lot of people I'd say in our space, but because we're coming up on our seventh year, we figured out a lot of things.
00:03:21
Speaker
Like, I mean, I'll be honest.
00:03:22
Speaker
You're one, two, three.
00:03:23
Speaker
We learned a lot.
00:03:24
Speaker
We learned a lot and went through a lot of growth and found our culture and our process and made it happen.
Strategy Behind Summer Programs
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:03:31
Speaker
So yeah, I want to hear your story and just, I mean, why you guys decided to focus so much on the summer when at the time, I don't think anyone was really doing the summer focus.
00:03:41
Speaker
I remember when I got in solar 2016 as well.
00:03:44
Speaker
And yeah, my company was like, no, do not focus on the summer.
00:03:48
Speaker
We can't have like the spikes in production.
00:03:50
Speaker
You're going to mess up our installers.
00:03:53
Speaker
We don't want just summer spikes.
00:03:54
Speaker
We want guys even kill.
00:03:56
Speaker
We want them staying all year long.
00:03:58
Speaker
So, um, yeah, I'm curious to know how you guys handled all those.
00:04:02
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:04:03
Speaker
So, so it's interesting.
00:04:04
Speaker
I mean, like, man, there's so many technicalities behind it.
00:04:07
Speaker
And as I've grown up and as I've gotten more into the business side and as a partner, I understand it better now.
00:04:12
Speaker
You know, when you're a door to door rep, you're just like, yeah, install my deals and install them quick.
00:04:15
Speaker
What's what's going on, you know?
00:04:17
Speaker
But it really is a conflict of interest.
00:04:20
Speaker
I'd say you have a summer program in solar.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker
Because as an installer, you want a consistent, easy flowing process where you're just installing X amount of deals every month and your crews are busy, right?
00:04:34
Speaker
Your crews are just consistently busy.
00:04:36
Speaker
When we inject the spike, I mean, doing tons and tons of volume, hundreds and hundreds of deals a week,
00:04:44
Speaker
over a four-month period it does cause issues that we were able to figure out and that's what everybody else was running into yeah and and so because profitability wise you want to have it steady and even keel and so but then also you also want quick installs and so yeah you got to find that kind of sweet spot and again i mean we've kept it to two three week installs even with throwing in
00:05:09
Speaker
you know, almost about a megawatt a week every summer, you know, so we're able to really, really make it work.
Recruitment Strategies Similar to Mission Programs
00:05:16
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:17
Speaker
So, and then, and then also I'll talk about reps, right?
00:05:20
Speaker
So, and why we switched to the, to the summer program, just based off of the individuals we're working with and year round guys are hard to,
00:05:29
Speaker
to keep motivated and to get large production.
00:05:32
Speaker
And in a summer you've got, you know, your, your structure and all your guys really pushing.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I, I'm actually LDS.
00:05:39
Speaker
And so I related it, I related to people to being a ward missionary versus a missionary out in the field.
00:05:45
Speaker
Right.
00:05:45
Speaker
And you definitely get a lot more production out of a missionary mission than award mission, you know, word missionary because their structure.
00:05:52
Speaker
And I attribute back to the day, I mean, I hadn't thought about doing a summer program.
00:05:56
Speaker
It wasn't my idea, right?
00:05:57
Speaker
But my partner, Sanjeev Takur, awesome guy.
00:06:01
Speaker
He just thought, okay, there's all these dealers coming into the market in 2016, 2017.
00:06:04
Speaker
How are we going to be different?
00:06:07
Speaker
And what are we going to do?
00:06:08
Speaker
And I came in with another buddy of mine and we blew it up just for a summer.
00:06:12
Speaker
He was like, wow, these kids, they didn't actually want to hire us on.
00:06:15
Speaker
They didn't want to bring us on, but they were like, man, these kids are doing well.
00:06:19
Speaker
Let's do some more of it and let's try it.
00:06:21
Speaker
We kind of dipped our foot in the water.
00:06:23
Speaker
Let's try a summer program.
00:06:24
Speaker
We do a little small run the next year and everybody came out loving it, making a ton of money.
00:06:29
Speaker
And so we kept pushing that way.
00:06:31
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's definitely an interesting idea.
00:06:34
Speaker
And I think, like I said, no one was doing it at the time that I heard of, but I know there are companies now that are making that the focus is just coming out, having guys sling for the summer.
00:06:44
Speaker
We had on a Sully zinc.
00:06:45
Speaker
I don't know if you heard that podcast, but she's also running a summer program out in Texas.
00:06:50
Speaker
And a lot of our guys are, you know, making way more money than these year round guys, just because they're pushing way harder.
00:06:57
Speaker
We're all the year round guys.
00:06:59
Speaker
Like you said, they're lazy and
00:07:00
Speaker
sometimes not always but you know right that they can go get one deal two deals a month and live a comfortable lifestyle yeah but when you got a summer kid out here with high hopes and expectations and this is and they've relocated just to be here for four months well they might as well go make a lot of money you know they might as well well what else i'm gonna do like go knock some doors for those six eight hours a day and really put in some good volume yeah
00:07:24
Speaker
True.
00:07:24
Speaker
So yeah, that's cool.
00:07:26
Speaker
So yeah, I'm super curious to dive in and you know, get into a little more of the weeds here how exactly how you guys run it.
00:07:31
Speaker
But before that, can you give us just like, I don't know, the summary of how you got started in solar and your background in that and why you guys started to start in light?
Tanner's Entry into the Solar Industry
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:07:41
Speaker
So, um, came home from my mission, just like everybody else getting approached by everybody to go to door to door.
00:07:46
Speaker
Didn't want to do it.
00:07:47
Speaker
I didn't think that pest back then it wasn't as popular.
00:07:50
Speaker
Didn't like the product.
00:07:51
Speaker
I was actually looking into Vivint, thought it was cool.
00:07:53
Speaker
They're the big dogs.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I thought, man, you know, maybe I'll go sell for this huge company.
00:07:57
Speaker
But then one of my friends and I'll shout out again, I always shout him out on podcast, Bryson Mummer.
00:08:02
Speaker
He introduced me and he said, Hey, solar is awesome.
00:08:04
Speaker
Solar's great.
00:08:05
Speaker
You know, they're doing PPA, the sun run.
00:08:06
Speaker
I was like, this sounds like too good to be true.
00:08:09
Speaker
It's a no brainer, you know?
00:08:10
Speaker
And I mapped out a roadmap to make a hundred thousand dollars in each industry as I was looking into it.
00:08:16
Speaker
And I thought, okay, what do I got to do in pest control?
00:08:18
Speaker
Well, probably about five, you know, as a first year, 500 accounts or so, maybe more or less, I'm not super familiar, but 500 accounts.
00:08:26
Speaker
I was like, that sounds like a lot of signing papers, you know?
00:08:29
Speaker
And then I looked into alarms and it's a couple hundred accounts.
00:08:32
Speaker
And I was like, well, as a rookie, I don't know that that's been done very often.
00:08:35
Speaker
And I believe in myself, but it sounds like a pretty tough road.
00:08:39
Speaker
And then I looked in solar and it was 15, 20 accounts and making a hundred grand.
00:08:43
Speaker
I was like back then and commissions are better now, right?
00:08:45
Speaker
You can even do it less.
00:08:46
Speaker
But I was like,
00:08:48
Speaker
I think I could do that.
00:08:49
Speaker
You know, I think that's my route.
00:08:51
Speaker
And I initially came on because of the product, but I will say I have stayed because of culture and relationships.
00:08:58
Speaker
And you know, that's, that's almost everything here in the business.
00:09:02
Speaker
You can hear a bunch of people talking a lot of talk, but,
00:09:06
Speaker
at Enlight, they really made it happen.
00:09:08
Speaker
And actually, I didn't first come to Enlight, to be honest, I actually went and sold with a guy.
00:09:12
Speaker
And I won't mention names, but it was just me and a guy.
00:09:14
Speaker
And man, we sold for two months, I installed zero deals, set all these appointments.
00:09:18
Speaker
And to what now in hindsight, I thought I sat down at least maybe 20, 30 appointments, maybe it was 10, 15.
00:09:24
Speaker
We closed zero, you know?
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:27
Speaker
And I was like, man, this is dumb.
00:09:29
Speaker
I don't know about this.
00:09:30
Speaker
And then I met Josh Bowling in my ward here in Sacramento.
00:09:34
Speaker
And my parents were like, yeah, he's a vinent guy.
00:09:36
Speaker
And I was like, he's a vinent guy.
00:09:37
Speaker
And I just thought he was doing alarms.
00:09:39
Speaker
But he wasn't a vinent guy.
00:09:41
Speaker
He was an n-light guy.
00:09:42
Speaker
And he was doing solar.
00:09:44
Speaker
And they had been around for about six to eight months at that time.
00:09:47
Speaker
And he's providing for his family.
00:09:48
Speaker
And I was like, hey, Josh, dude, I've been in 15 appointments.
00:09:51
Speaker
I haven't seen a single thing close.
00:09:53
Speaker
I'm done.
00:09:54
Speaker
I've got four appointments tomorrow.
00:09:55
Speaker
It's a Sunday.
00:09:56
Speaker
I got four appointments on Monday.
00:09:57
Speaker
Can you go close them?
00:09:58
Speaker
And he's like, you know what?
00:10:00
Speaker
If we put him through our company, yeah, I'll give it a shot.
00:10:02
Speaker
He went and closed all four.
00:10:03
Speaker
And I'd seen, you know, I was 0 for 20 with my other guy.
00:10:06
Speaker
And I was like, just amazing.
00:10:08
Speaker
Take me under your wing.
00:10:09
Speaker
I talked him into it.
00:10:10
Speaker
Like I said, I was a young kid.
00:10:12
Speaker
So they're like, I don't know.
00:10:13
Speaker
You know, they had a team of 10, 12 year round guys.
00:10:16
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, sure.
00:10:17
Speaker
Come on.
00:10:19
Speaker
And again, after I started at Enlight, actually, they were the year-round program, maybe a bunch of older, I'd kind of say, not dried up door-to-door guys, but guys who were tired of doing alarms.
00:10:31
Speaker
They wanted to stay in one spot, but they weren't super motivated.
00:10:34
Speaker
And I actually had a tough road my first month.
00:10:36
Speaker
Still maybe had a couple deals stick.
00:10:39
Speaker
I kept having these cancels.
00:10:40
Speaker
And then finally it clicked in my last like eight weeks, did 22 deals, made my 70 grand, you know, 75 grand in the summer and was like, Oh, okay.
00:10:52
Speaker
I like this.
00:10:53
Speaker
This is something I can do, you know?
00:10:55
Speaker
And Enlight took care of me.
00:10:56
Speaker
I'll be honest.
00:10:56
Speaker
It's funny actually to this day.
00:10:58
Speaker
And it's probably really bad if any lawyers are listening.
00:11:00
Speaker
You know, I signed something initially with Enlight back in the day in 2016, 17,
00:11:06
Speaker
And I've been paid every bit of overrides, every bit of commissions, everything, even more than I've been promised without having to get in the weeds and the nitty gritty of contracts and things.
00:11:20
Speaker
Never had to sign stuff again.
00:11:22
Speaker
And so that's something we pride ourselves on at NLINE, just being upfront and honest with our guys where in the industry, everybody's looking for ways to scrape back money.
00:11:31
Speaker
We're looking for ways to help guys out and make more.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, as you know, a lot of people can't say the same in the industry, unfortunately.
00:11:38
Speaker
And, you know, delays in pay I'm going through actually some of that stuff right now,
Overcoming Financial Challenges with Integrity
00:11:43
Speaker
which is tough.
00:11:43
Speaker
So super cool.
00:11:47
Speaker
Well, dude, actually, I mean, that actually brings up a memory.
00:11:50
Speaker
So it feels like so long ago because now we work with very consistent, you know, very consistent installer partnership.
00:11:57
Speaker
But back in the day when we started,
00:12:00
Speaker
our installer went under.
00:12:02
Speaker
I had no idea.
00:12:02
Speaker
I was, I was just a rep, right?
00:12:06
Speaker
And there was probably about 30 to $40,000 in commissions.
00:12:10
Speaker
And that, that company just, just said, Nope, we're not paying and light on this.
00:12:15
Speaker
Right.
00:12:16
Speaker
And as a small dealer, that could be the end of it.
00:12:20
Speaker
And it probably should have been, you know, we were in the red for sure.
00:12:24
Speaker
But guess what?
00:12:24
Speaker
I got paid.
00:12:25
Speaker
I got paid everything.
00:12:27
Speaker
I didn't even know that that happened.
00:12:30
Speaker
And a year or two later, they started getting more in the administrative side.
00:12:34
Speaker
Sanjeev, my business partner, told me, yeah, I mean, they he's like, we were out like he's like our installers at about a million bucks.
00:12:41
Speaker
He's like, but we were out, you know, a couple hundred grand in commissions.
00:12:46
Speaker
And then he said he's like that I paid out of my own pocket.
00:12:49
Speaker
I paid you.
00:12:51
Speaker
from my bank account, you know, and he's like, it took, and that's why a lot of guys, especially now I don't see as many people jumping into dealers.
00:12:57
Speaker
I don't know.
00:12:57
Speaker
How about you?
00:12:57
Speaker
Do you see a lot of young or, you know, like single reps trying to start dealers nowadays?
00:13:02
Speaker
I don't see it as often.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, not as many, I don't think.
00:13:05
Speaker
But anyway, a lot of people are like, well, I'm just going to start myself.
00:13:09
Speaker
Dude, Sanjeev, he started up NLite.
00:13:11
Speaker
I don't think he made a dime until like year three or four.
00:13:15
Speaker
And so all these guys thinking, oh, I'm going to go make this money.
00:13:18
Speaker
Well, to provide real value and to really back your reps, it takes some good volume and it takes a while.
00:13:24
Speaker
And in that case, I was taken care of.
00:13:27
Speaker
Where I know in other companies, it would have been a rough road.
00:13:31
Speaker
I would have been out 30 grand.
00:13:34
Speaker
I just love the culture and integrity.
00:13:36
Speaker
That's huge for us.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's huge.
00:13:39
Speaker
And no wonder you guys have been able to sustain a lot of success.
00:13:41
Speaker
Because like you said, there's so many dealers where that happens.
00:13:44
Speaker
They're out of business.
00:13:45
Speaker
They don't pay their reps.
00:13:46
Speaker
I mean, I've been with a few different dealers and stuff like that has already happened to me.
00:13:50
Speaker
So I think anyone who starts a dealer, it's going to happen at some point.
00:13:54
Speaker
So that's a good question to ask yourself.
00:13:55
Speaker
If you're thinking of starting a dealer, do you have the deep pockets to pay your rep still?
00:14:01
Speaker
Something like that happens.
00:14:02
Speaker
Because I don't think I've heard of a dealer that something like that hasn't happened to.
00:14:07
Speaker
So it seems like it's pretty much inevitable.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:09
Speaker
Oh, it's inevitable.
00:14:10
Speaker
It'll happen.
00:14:11
Speaker
You gotta, you gotta make sure you're partnering up with the right people.
00:14:13
Speaker
And I mean, I haven't heard that.
00:14:16
Speaker
Anyways, in the industry, I don't want to mention names, but a big, big, uh, probably the biggest solar company just parted ways with one of the biggest installers.
00:14:23
Speaker
I think Titan just backed away from somebody.
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:26
Speaker
And I don't know what happened there, but.
00:14:28
Speaker
It even happened to the big levels, man.
00:14:30
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:14:31
Speaker
For sure.
00:14:32
Speaker
Crazy stuff.
00:14:33
Speaker
Well, no, that's cool to hear your story, Tanner.
00:14:35
Speaker
And something I want to ask you, because I know we have a lot of listeners on the podcast here that we're probably in similar situations.
00:14:41
Speaker
Like you said, you had a tough start, took things a while to kind of click in and start making awesome money.
00:14:47
Speaker
So is there anything that you did specifically or anything you feel like helped you have that like click in moments where, you know, first month or two, weren't having deals close, lots of cancels, where all of a sudden something changed and you were able to just turn it around?
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
You know, the thing with solar I love is it's like you're mining for gold and there's golden nuggets, right?
00:15:06
Speaker
It's not like, oh man, I need to do a thousand of these.
00:15:08
Speaker
It's like, no, I mean, you know, I wish we're all doing a couple hundred a year, but if you can get that consistency of a couple a week, you're good.
00:15:17
Speaker
That's all you need.
00:15:18
Speaker
And so what I kind of did is I broke it down and I do this with my reps and I just find the bottleneck.
00:15:23
Speaker
So there was a point in time where I was like, man, I'm just really killing it in leads.
00:15:26
Speaker
I'm getting a lot of appointments set.
00:15:29
Speaker
but they're not sitting down, right?
00:15:31
Speaker
Or they're sitting down, we're signing and they're not getting installed.
00:15:34
Speaker
And so I was looking through it and there was points that I was, parts of my job or my sales process, I was doing really well.
00:15:41
Speaker
And there was other parts that were suffering drastically, right?
00:15:45
Speaker
And there's certain things you can do to improve those.
00:15:48
Speaker
And it all starts with what you put in.
00:15:50
Speaker
In my mission, we kept talking about the masa and the tortilla maker out of Mexico City.
00:15:54
Speaker
And so it's like, you want to make sure first and foremost, you're putting masa in, right?
00:15:58
Speaker
If you're not putting in hours and doors, nothing's going to come out the other end, right?
00:16:03
Speaker
But if you've got, okay, I've got my motivation, my determination, my, you know, my, my discipline down, that's first.
00:16:08
Speaker
I'm putting in my eight hours a day, putting in my
00:16:11
Speaker
150 doors or whatever it is.
00:16:13
Speaker
Right.
00:16:14
Speaker
And my, and then, and then all of a sudden you're like, well, my conversion ratio sucks.
00:16:16
Speaker
I've got two leads a day.
00:16:17
Speaker
That blows.
00:16:19
Speaker
You're putting in a ton of time.
00:16:20
Speaker
You should be getting a lead an hour, you know, then you work on that.
00:16:22
Speaker
Then once you got your eight leads or, you know, eight leads a day, they're like, wow, I'm booked.
00:16:26
Speaker
Then they don't sit and you got to work on, okay, what are you doing to make them sit?
00:16:30
Speaker
So I just kind of went through every little thing.
00:16:31
Speaker
And I'll tell you, Taylor, the thing that made me,
00:16:34
Speaker
had a jump in my production, going from installing 20, 30 a year to that.
00:16:40
Speaker
I'm still only doing like 60, 70 years.
00:16:42
Speaker
I'm doing summers and I'm trying to run a business, you know?
00:16:45
Speaker
But what made me jump from, you know, two, three a week to like that six to eight, you know, consistently per week is I actually started recording myself and I actually ran our entire training program for a while, making trainings, you know, making sure trainings were happening, videos, all that.
00:17:03
Speaker
And as I got into the weeds of our training and listening myself,
00:17:07
Speaker
I was like, wow, I sound like a goof or a man.
00:17:10
Speaker
I can improve that.
00:17:10
Speaker
I'm a loser.
00:17:11
Speaker
You know, why am I saying that?
00:17:13
Speaker
It helped my training process a lot.
00:17:15
Speaker
And to this day, yesterday I was with a recruit and said, Hey, record this whole close, send it to me.
00:17:21
Speaker
I want to listen to it because, you know, seven years in, I'm like, seven summers.
00:17:25
Speaker
And I'm like, I still need to refine stuff because I'm not perfect.
00:17:30
Speaker
You know?
00:17:30
Speaker
And I think listening to yourself, watching game film, you know, being that athlete, being the competitor,
00:17:36
Speaker
will make you a lot better.
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome advice.
00:17:39
Speaker
And yeah, so many people have come on the podcast say the same thing.
00:17:42
Speaker
So it's funny how like people are looking for this secret, you know, secret line or whatever.
00:17:46
Speaker
It's like pretty much every top producer, you guys are all saying similar things.
00:17:51
Speaker
So it's just like for those that are struggling or going through a rough patch, whatever.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, do those things.
00:17:57
Speaker
Start tracking your numbers like crazy.
00:17:58
Speaker
Start recording yourself.
00:18:00
Speaker
And I don't know if we should get you hooked up.
00:18:02
Speaker
Have you heard of Ciro, Tanner?
00:18:04
Speaker
It's like a recording app.
00:18:06
Speaker
I'll tell you more about it later.
00:18:08
Speaker
But yeah, it's an app where like,
00:18:11
Speaker
reps can just hit record on it um it's you can turn it into like a widget on your phone so it's super easy to just go hit record and then what it does it like transcribes the whole recording into different sections so you can go on objections
Improving Sales Pitches with Self-Recording
00:18:25
Speaker
and then you tag your manager in it so it'll ping them and say hey go review this section or go let's shout out shout out to zero so s-i-r-o or how do you yeah s-i-r-o yeah
00:18:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:36
Speaker
I'm gonna look that up, man.
00:18:37
Speaker
You know, I think we're using rep card now and stuff like that.
00:18:39
Speaker
I'm like, I already, I always love a little added technology in there to make your sales process better, training process better.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:46
Speaker
So I'll shoot you the pot.
00:18:47
Speaker
We did a podcast with him and we'll talk more later.
00:18:49
Speaker
But yeah, anyways, for those that are trying to record yourselves, I would suggest definitely using something like that.
00:18:56
Speaker
But anyways, so yeah, awesome tip you had there, Tanner.
00:18:59
Speaker
So let's jump into just kind of how you guys started the summer program.
00:19:02
Speaker
I want to hear more about that, how you guys structured it and maybe keys to success.
00:19:07
Speaker
So was it, you said this was your business partner's idea to just kind of like focus more on the summer?
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker
I mean, so Sanjeev Dukur, Josh Bowling.
00:19:15
Speaker
Okay, so hopefully, you know, they've been heard of.
00:19:19
Speaker
I know Josh was like a legend.
00:19:21
Speaker
Josh Bowling was a legend at Bibbit.
00:19:22
Speaker
He's like 43, sold all kinds of records, was like top producer a couple years.
00:19:29
Speaker
And I actually saw Matt Taggart posted something recently, and like Josh was right there next to him on some...
00:19:34
Speaker
You know, on this old light high summer, you know, I forgot it was on their app back in the day.
00:19:38
Speaker
But so those two came from a summer program, right?
00:19:42
Speaker
Like they came from the industry of door to door sales over a summer.
00:19:46
Speaker
They moved into solar.
00:19:47
Speaker
Sanji was kind of the solar guy for like 10 years, you know, previous to forming Enlight, doing commercial solar and Vivint solar door to door and all kinds of stuff.
00:19:57
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:19:58
Speaker
And then Nlight he formed because he was like, I want to be different.
00:20:00
Speaker
I want to provide quicker installs, better pay, all that kind of stuff for Nlight.
00:20:05
Speaker
a year-round program.
00:20:06
Speaker
Josh Ballen came in and he was like, hey, I'll run the sales team and then Sanjeev, you run the business side.
00:20:13
Speaker
And they were growing, but I don't think it was necessarily like, oh, we got this big vision to be competitors with legacy in these big year-round programs.
00:20:22
Speaker
Because it was, it was like 10 to 12 guys when I showed up and I was like, okay, it's cool, and they're doing good volume.
00:20:27
Speaker
But they said, okay, we're up against these big competitors.
00:20:32
Speaker
And
00:20:33
Speaker
trying to motivate these year-round guys and it's just hard you know and so when we shifted into summer that's kind of when we blew up because we were the only ones and offering such a huge product and it's a huge opportunity like you know solar is to young guys was was a huge competitive advantage and gotten us where we are today
00:20:50
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:20:51
Speaker
It's pretty cool.
00:20:52
Speaker
Well, something I'm super curious about is like, you're saying you went, you go from like 20, 30 people in the off season and you're getting like 300, 350 reps in the summer.
00:21:03
Speaker
How are you guys getting so many guys to come up for the summer?
00:21:05
Speaker
Are these like repeat recruits or what are you guys doing?
00:21:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:09
Speaker
So you know what I love?
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, what I love about Enlight is, one, we have really true values, morals, and we stick to them, right?
00:21:18
Speaker
And Craig, gosh, I'm going to get off on tangents.
00:21:19
Speaker
I need to remember where I want to go.
00:21:20
Speaker
But a lot of companies, they'll say, our value is technology and this big valuation, and we're going to sell one day and whatever.
00:21:28
Speaker
And we just say, no, our value is making you the best sales and you're going to make this much money and very realistic outcomes.
00:21:34
Speaker
And so we come through in our promises every time, every time.
00:21:37
Speaker
And we've set
Partnering with Reps for Sustainable Growth
00:21:38
Speaker
very accurate expectations.
00:21:39
Speaker
Right.
00:21:40
Speaker
But one big thing I'd say from early on that we did was really treat people as partners, myself included.
00:21:46
Speaker
Right.
00:21:47
Speaker
Now I am a partner.
00:21:48
Speaker
And but I.
00:21:50
Speaker
we treated people and we didn't say, okay, Taylor Armstrong, how much money can I make off of you this summer?
00:21:55
Speaker
And then I probably won't see again.
00:21:57
Speaker
It was, Hey, we want to build something large, Taylor or whoever, right?
00:22:02
Speaker
How can I help you be the best version of yourself, but grow your business to be, you know, so where you can be financially stable and you can, you know, achieve all your dreams.
00:22:13
Speaker
And we really, and that's why I'd say Sandeep and, and Josh, I mean, Josh too, as an owner was,
00:22:20
Speaker
wasn't pulling money from the company until year four, you know?
00:22:22
Speaker
And so I'd say we really reinvested a lot of that money into people like myself.
00:22:27
Speaker
I mean, I actually got treated super well early on and I was, Sanji would tell me, Hey, you're the LeBron, you're the LeBron James, the team, you're going to be the one making all the money, especially for the first bit.
00:22:38
Speaker
But we need the LeBron James.
00:22:39
Speaker
We need these big players to attract others and to grow.
00:22:44
Speaker
And I think a lot of companies, they aren't willing to forego those initial profits.
00:22:49
Speaker
in order to build something really stable.
00:22:51
Speaker
And so we did forego for years, making really good money as an executive team to solidify pillars.
00:23:00
Speaker
Right.
00:23:00
Speaker
And so I'd say, yeah, to be honest, I get the summer program.
00:23:03
Speaker
I was probably the little pillar number one, but then I brought on pillar two, three, four, five, and now we've grown and it's those pillars who help us grow our business.
00:23:12
Speaker
And we treat
00:23:13
Speaker
these pillars, these guys, McKay, Brandon, all these guys, McKay Newell, Brandon Regeer, their studs, Spencer Hart as partners, and they get paid very well.
00:23:24
Speaker
They get really, really taken care of.
00:23:26
Speaker
They have a lot of efficacy or influence in our business.
00:23:31
Speaker
And so people don't leave.
00:23:33
Speaker
I'll be honest, Taylor.
00:23:34
Speaker
I've seen like in pest control companies where, man, you're re-recruiting every year.
00:23:39
Speaker
At NLight, as a door-to-door young summer guy, there isn't another solar program for a summer that's even close.
00:23:48
Speaker
That's one.
00:23:50
Speaker
And then two, you don't leave solar over a summer to go do pest control.
00:23:55
Speaker
You really don't.
00:23:56
Speaker
I'll be honest.
00:23:56
Speaker
And I love that this is a solar-dominant podcast, so we can say that.
00:24:00
Speaker
But man, when you're making your knock-knock 10 grand on that door, you don't say, you know what?
00:24:04
Speaker
I actually want to do 1,000 of these and make $250, $300 a door.
00:24:08
Speaker
No, you say, how can I just get from that 40 in a summer to 50, 60, you know, and actually shout out to, we actually had a first year rep and tell me if you've ever heard this in the industry as a first year, 21 year old girl, Alison, her name is Alison.
00:24:25
Speaker
She made $455,000 in a summer.
00:24:25
Speaker
Whoa.
00:24:26
Speaker
In a single summer.
00:24:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:24:26
Speaker
Installed 50.
00:24:33
Speaker
55 accounts, signed probably 80, you know, but with the tradition or maybe more, installed 55 deals over the summer.
00:24:38
Speaker
It was insane.
00:24:39
Speaker
Jeez.
00:24:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a record.
00:24:41
Speaker
That's insane.
00:24:42
Speaker
Right?
00:24:43
Speaker
I mean, like, I feel like, and like we're small, people don't talk about us.
00:24:46
Speaker
And actually that's part of our whole thing is we don't want to be always in the limelight being like,
00:24:51
Speaker
oh, they're a scandal or, or we don't, I don't think we'll ever, you know, own the Utah Jazz Arena or anything like that.
00:24:57
Speaker
But we had these crazy producers and like, I wish that got out there a little more.
00:25:02
Speaker
And that's why I'm glad we're on this podcast because $455,000 as a first year rep in a summer, I would say even 355, 255.
00:25:05
Speaker
Those are crazy numbers.
00:25:06
Speaker
Our top first year, the year before that broke 300 as a first year.
00:25:19
Speaker
And that was big, right?
00:25:21
Speaker
But then this year, it was just off the charts.
00:25:23
Speaker
We were just blown away.
00:25:24
Speaker
I was blown away.
00:25:25
Speaker
I mean, I didn't really get to sell this summer, but I was like, oh my gosh, she's beating me on the year.
00:25:29
Speaker
Oh my gosh, like I gotta pick it up.
00:25:31
Speaker
You know, it was June and she had 55 or July and I was like,
00:25:34
Speaker
I don't have 55 in the year yet.
00:25:35
Speaker
I need to get moving, you know?
00:25:36
Speaker
So we sell it a couple of days a week, but geez.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:39
Speaker
We'll have to grab her on a podcast.
00:25:41
Speaker
That's insane.
00:25:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:43
Speaker
It was impressive.
00:25:45
Speaker
Impressive.
00:25:45
Speaker
And you know what?
00:25:45
Speaker
Actually we had several, several girls.
00:25:47
Speaker
It's so funny.
00:25:48
Speaker
We actually hadn't had a lot of success with our, with our women knockers out there just because I don't think we provided the right structure for them.
00:25:55
Speaker
But this year, man, we had three or four women out there just kicking tail, showing the guys how it's done.
00:26:01
Speaker
And we loved it.
00:26:02
Speaker
It was awesome.
00:26:03
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:26:03
Speaker
Shout out to those ladies.
00:26:04
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:26:05
Speaker
They will blow it up.
00:26:09
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:26:10
Speaker
So it sounds kind of like you guys are just, to me, it sounds similar to like referrals.
00:26:14
Speaker
You know how you go get a solar referral and you find one person that will give you like, you know, 10 referrals.
00:26:20
Speaker
You find just those gems that just keep cranking out referrals.
00:26:23
Speaker
So it sounds like you guys are doing recruiting kind of in the same, same concept as that.
00:26:28
Speaker
You're finding pillars and then they're bringing on guys and then you're just bringing back these same pillars year after year.
00:26:34
Speaker
And that's what's kind of helping grow in the teams.
00:26:36
Speaker
Is that right?
00:26:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:37
Speaker
Exactly.
00:26:38
Speaker
I mean, it's all about retention.
00:26:41
Speaker
I think a lot of people measure their recruiting by how many guys are getting.
00:26:45
Speaker
But if you're not measuring retention either, you're not doing well.
00:26:48
Speaker
And again, I actually, I said like, Hey, people don't leave and like to go do pest control.
00:26:52
Speaker
But again, they only leave and like to go do their dream career.
00:26:56
Speaker
That's about it.
00:26:57
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:26:57
Speaker
It's either like, Hey, you're going to sell solar or you're going to go be that doctor or that lawyer.
00:27:01
Speaker
Hey, and I support you, get your education.
00:27:03
Speaker
We love that.
00:27:04
Speaker
You know?
00:27:06
Speaker
And that's kind of how we do it.
00:27:07
Speaker
And I mean, our third year, so it was kind of the year that I think I was able to provide a lot of value to NLI and that I hope, hopefully I still totally do.
00:27:15
Speaker
Right.
00:27:16
Speaker
But, but that year I actually lived with McKay Newell.
00:27:21
Speaker
He's our, he's one of our regionals and,
00:27:23
Speaker
You know, we recruited McKay, Brandon McGuire, all these guys.
00:27:26
Speaker
And we got, we went from about 15 guys our first little summer.
00:27:30
Speaker
Cause it was me one, one summer, next summer about 15 guys.
00:27:32
Speaker
And then we went 85, 90.
00:27:34
Speaker
Right.
00:27:35
Speaker
And we blew up.
00:27:36
Speaker
It was me working with McKay and Brandon and these guys.
00:27:39
Speaker
And I could technically say, yeah, no, I recruited 85 guys.
00:27:42
Speaker
No, I recruited like seven to nine guys.
00:27:46
Speaker
And, but we worked, it's about the processes of working with your recruits to recruit.
00:27:52
Speaker
Right.
00:27:53
Speaker
And I always tell all of our guys every, every year, every off season, I say, okay, the four months of summer, you are selling solar.
00:28:01
Speaker
After that, you sell NLite.
00:28:02
Speaker
And you know what I tell them?
00:28:03
Speaker
I'm like, hey, look, don't be embarrassed as a first year guy.
00:28:06
Speaker
You don't feel like that recruiter.
00:28:08
Speaker
Don't feel like the guy who's just wanting to make money on people because everybody's being recruited no matter what.
00:28:13
Speaker
I need you to know that right now.
00:28:14
Speaker
Your friends are being talked to, whether you're talking to them or not.
00:28:17
Speaker
And I kind of joke around, but I'm like, it's like the mission when you say, hey, they're going to go to a church.
00:28:22
Speaker
So might as well bring them to the true church.
00:28:24
Speaker
That's what I say, but I was just joking.
00:28:25
Speaker
But I'm like, NLite, you got to think of it as the truth.
00:28:28
Speaker
You bring them to the truth.
00:28:29
Speaker
Don't feel weird about introducing it.
00:28:32
Speaker
And you need to sell and light the rest of the year.
00:28:34
Speaker
And as managers, as executives, we have to provide so much value and really build out a process and structures and culture that our reps feel comfortable and confident and have this strong
Charity Work and Company Culture at NLight
00:28:50
Speaker
desire to recruit and say, I want other people to be a part of this.
00:28:54
Speaker
And so actually what we've been doing lately, and it's a huge...
00:28:59
Speaker
pillar of nlight is our charity uh contributions and our charity movement and we appeal to different people in the industry there's a whole segment of people who don't freaking care they don't care about charity there's like you're a store door we should make a ton of money there's a lot of good people who do care but it's kind of a back back thought you know like oh yeah you know throw some money to charity and then we appeal to a group of people who say hey um i want to impact the world
00:29:25
Speaker
And if I can make money while doing it, a lot of money, awesome, right?
00:29:29
Speaker
So this last year, we've actually, we're on the board of directors of this foundation called Migo Dan Esperanza.
00:29:36
Speaker
And that is a huge, I would say, appeal to people.
00:29:40
Speaker
And it's a huge, it fills me up.
00:29:43
Speaker
It fills me up, Sanjeev, Josh, because at a certain point, money isn't everything.
00:29:47
Speaker
And so we were on this board and we partnered with this foundation and we were able to contribute and donate as a 250 rep company.
00:29:55
Speaker
We donated half a million dollars last year to Migrana Esperanza and they are a child cancer hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah, so they own their own hospital down there and we're helping complete it.
00:30:11
Speaker
But I mean, and not to toot horns and maybe you can toot it for me, but I'm saying, but not toot horns on donations.
00:30:19
Speaker
But, you know, it's just that we want that to be who we are and what we're about.
00:30:25
Speaker
And we're actually going to have a nonprofit division here soon.
00:30:28
Speaker
But there's a lot of companies out there who are much, much, much bigger.
00:30:31
Speaker
And they'll be like, yeah, we donate 50 grand.
00:30:33
Speaker
you know, as a multi multi-million dollar company.
00:30:35
Speaker
And you're like, cool dude, that's awesome.
00:30:37
Speaker
But it's not who they are.
00:30:39
Speaker
And actually that, that first year Taylor, when we didn't make any money,
00:30:43
Speaker
Sanjeev decided to take all of us to Mexico City and we donated, I think it was $20,000 to a children hospital there.
00:30:53
Speaker
Again, most of it was out of Sanjeev's pocket.
00:30:55
Speaker
And he said he did it.
00:30:56
Speaker
He said, look, I did it to create culture.
00:30:59
Speaker
Like it was, he's like, I did it to bond us as a group of 10, 15 guys.
00:31:04
Speaker
He's like, when you give when it hurts,
00:31:06
Speaker
That's when it matters.
00:31:07
Speaker
It's like, yeah, you can give when you got a ton laying around, right?
00:31:10
Speaker
When you give when it hurts, that's what forms culture.
00:31:13
Speaker
And that core group that went on that first Mexico trip, that's who is still with us now.
00:31:20
Speaker
And that humanitarian aspect, I'd say really bonds us.
00:31:23
Speaker
And that's like one root core value within NLINE.
00:31:27
Speaker
that you give and it's it's a known thing and actually it's cool because over summer we um we assign a child in need to each rep or a couple reps because sometimes they're sometimes a child needs more like five or six thousand for their
00:31:41
Speaker
for their treatment.
00:31:42
Speaker
And so we'll assign them to a couple of reps, but you know, it's like, Hey Taylor, as a rep, you were assigned, you know, assigned Eduardo, he has this cancer.
00:31:48
Speaker
Here's a video.
00:31:49
Speaker
You can actually WhatsApp text him and his family.
00:31:53
Speaker
And your goal is to raise a couple thousand dollars from your commissions a summer to pay for his cancer treatments.
00:31:59
Speaker
And then we'll fly you down after summer and you get to go meet him and see how he's doing and see his family.
00:32:06
Speaker
Wow.
00:32:06
Speaker
So it's a pretty cool, yeah, that was a big, big side note, but that's actually really important in our business because I don't want to be everybody else.
00:32:17
Speaker
You know, I don't want to, I don't care what everybody else is doing.
00:32:21
Speaker
I don't care if they're doing crypto and paying their reps in crypto or if they got this new tech cool app or if they got this billion dollar valuation.
00:32:29
Speaker
I care about the impact we have on our reps, the impact that we have on the people around us and the sustainability of our company long-term and the real value that we're going
Solar Industry Philosophy and Business Models
00:32:38
Speaker
to add.
00:32:38
Speaker
Cause I hate like, and you've seen it when people are like, Oh, we're going to sell or we've got this billion dollar valuation or we've got this, this app that's worth all this money.
00:32:47
Speaker
And then the next year they're like,
00:32:49
Speaker
Okay, well, we don't have the app, but now we're doing crypto.
00:32:51
Speaker
What?
00:32:52
Speaker
Oh, we don't have the crypto, but now we're going to do alarms, roofing, solar, pest control.
00:32:57
Speaker
And so they change every year and there's fluctuating all over and they don't know who they are.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:33:05
Speaker
I definitely want to just stay true to who we are and keep that.
00:33:09
Speaker
that humanitarian aspect and be true to our guys.
00:33:11
Speaker
But anyway, sorry, long tangent.
00:33:13
Speaker
No, no, I love hearing that.
00:33:14
Speaker
And yeah, anyone that's, you know, running a team or running a company, that's, yeah, I hope you're taking notes because that's powerful, man.
00:33:21
Speaker
And I can see, you know, the values you guys have and just how much success it's been able to help your company, your teams have.
00:33:27
Speaker
And like you said, keep guys on because, yeah, if you can build that deep connection and get guys to, you know, really buy in that they're helping a specific person, specific family, that's powerful.
00:33:38
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, my, my companies, we've done things on a smaller scale of that, but yeah, that's, that's really cool what you guys are doing.
00:33:44
Speaker
So definitely.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:46
Speaker
I'm going to take notes on that, but it's been awesome.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
And then for sure to your point of just like having the newest technology, newest ops, all that.
00:33:54
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I've been the first company I was with without mentioning names and all that.
00:33:58
Speaker
That was the, that was the thing for like four or five years.
00:34:01
Speaker
Even we were having lots of issues, lots of problems, um,
00:34:04
Speaker
And like the only reason I stayed that long is because, oh, we're, they're like, we're going to sell for sure.
00:34:09
Speaker
You're going to get this money.
00:34:10
Speaker
We're going to sell.
00:34:11
Speaker
And we, you know, valuation, exactly what you're saying.
00:34:14
Speaker
So I think if you're trying to base your company just off of that, that you're going to sell on just this golden handcuff type thing, then it's tough to get your reps as bought in.
00:34:22
Speaker
Cause I know I wasn't really bought in.
00:34:24
Speaker
I was like,
00:34:24
Speaker
the solar reason i was staying so yeah well i'll be honest to anybody who's listened to this and i love that there's a solar dominant you know solar podcast yeah dude solar uh unless they own their financing right like sunrun they're valuable right publicly traded of course yeah right unless they own assets that have reoccurring revenue
00:34:48
Speaker
they're probably not selling for much.
00:34:50
Speaker
I mean, they might.
00:34:51
Speaker
And I think maybe one day I know Lumio is like bundling up these companies, you know, whatever.
00:34:54
Speaker
There's doing a lot of, there's a lot of stuff out there.
00:34:58
Speaker
But,
00:34:59
Speaker
it's going to be rare and it's probably not going to happen because if Taylor Armstrong has a team of 10 guys and they eat what they kill and they just go out and sell.
00:35:08
Speaker
And then I buy them and I said, dude, how much are you selling?
00:35:11
Speaker
Well, we're doing actually like a hundred a week.
00:35:14
Speaker
Oh, are you?
00:35:14
Speaker
I don't know how to prove that.
00:35:15
Speaker
Right.
00:35:16
Speaker
But then I buy you.
00:35:17
Speaker
Well, what's the guarantee that you guys are going to stay there, that they're going to continue to sell a hundred a week or even 10 a week.
00:35:23
Speaker
And so as an investor on my end,
00:35:25
Speaker
That was a really stupid decision.
00:35:26
Speaker
But I'd say like solar companies, they're not sitting on assets where other companies, yeah, some of them are.
00:35:35
Speaker
I mean, I'll be honest.
00:35:37
Speaker
Solar is great because our reps get like
00:35:41
Speaker
80, 90% of the total payable commissions, like even possible, right?
00:35:45
Speaker
As a, as a dealer, like we only take a small, a small portion for the service and value that we provide.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
Where you look at pest control.
00:35:53
Speaker
I love that.
00:35:53
Speaker
I can just talk openly about pest control on this, on this podcast.
00:35:57
Speaker
Pest control.
00:35:58
Speaker
Actually, I sat down with a guy and I said, look, um, how long does an average pest control count stick around?
00:36:03
Speaker
Uh, let's say, I don't know, six, seven years.
00:36:05
Speaker
Sometimes I know my mom's had pest control for like 15 years.
00:36:07
Speaker
Right.
00:36:08
Speaker
I don't know, let's say five, six, seven years.
00:36:10
Speaker
I don't know how long they do.
00:36:11
Speaker
But even if it's six, seven years, right?
00:36:13
Speaker
Six years at $600, it's $3,600 that that company's pulling in off that contract, right?
00:36:19
Speaker
And they're paying you, I don't know if you're good, you know, first you're 45, 50%, right?
00:36:22
Speaker
So $300, you're one, that's it.
00:36:27
Speaker
off a $3,600 valued revenue contract.
00:36:31
Speaker
So they're paying, you know, a little less than 10%, about an 8%.
00:36:34
Speaker
You know, they love you, Taylor, 8%.
00:36:37
Speaker
You know, they love that rep, 8% worth.
00:36:40
Speaker
Where here in solar, out of everything payable over a 25-year loan, 25-year PPA, whatever,
00:36:46
Speaker
we're paying like 80, 90% to reps.
00:36:49
Speaker
And that's why they make the 10 grand, you know, per sale where pest control.
00:36:54
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:55
Speaker
The executive man, you as a company owner, you're sitting on cash, but as a first year rep,
00:37:01
Speaker
Maybe, you know, when you're like the VP and you're working your way up to regional and stuff, yeah, you're probably getting some good residuals and payoffs, obviously.
00:37:07
Speaker
But I would say I care more about let's get that money to those reps.
00:37:11
Speaker
Let's make a difference.
00:37:12
Speaker
And that's kind of why, again, I don't think any solar, there's not a lot of solar companies out there.
00:37:16
Speaker
I mean, Legacy, I will shout out, they're doing a good job who can go sponsor the Utah Jazz and stuff because you're having this, you eat what you kill.
00:37:25
Speaker
You're not sitting on a ton of value.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:29
Speaker
Man, I love hearing you bash on the pest because actually I have a cousin right now that's at BYU.
00:37:33
Speaker
You know how BYU is?
00:37:35
Speaker
He's been hit by a thousand pest control companies.
00:37:38
Speaker
And he's like, I'm trying to get him to come do solar.
00:37:41
Speaker
And he's like, Taylor, but pests sound so good.
00:37:43
Speaker
I can like start making all this residual.
00:37:46
Speaker
I'm like, bro, you can literally make it.
00:37:48
Speaker
You're like, yeah.
00:37:49
Speaker
The pest control money in one day.
00:37:50
Speaker
If you recruit like a hundred of your friends, you will make so much money off your friends.
00:37:54
Speaker
I know.
00:37:54
Speaker
So I'm going to have to send this podcast to them after we're done.
00:37:59
Speaker
Oh man.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:00
Speaker
Send it to them because that is the way that's when I was looking into it and I'm sure, you know, back in the day when you were two, it's like, okay, so if I recruit a ton of people in pest control, I'd make a lot of money.
00:38:09
Speaker
But if I personally do,
00:38:11
Speaker
sell a lot in pest control, I'll make okay.
00:38:13
Speaker
But if I personally work hard in solar, I'll make a ton of money.
00:38:17
Speaker
That's why to this day, as an owner of the company, I go out and bust my butt a couple days a week, really throw them in.
00:38:24
Speaker
Because, hey, if you're going to pay me 10 to 20 grand for going out and working a day,
00:38:29
Speaker
That's hard to talk to you out of.
00:38:31
Speaker
It really is.
00:38:32
Speaker
I took out a few reps the other day.
00:38:33
Speaker
You know, we closed two deals.
00:38:34
Speaker
Hey, I was like 26 grand.
00:38:35
Speaker
What?
00:38:36
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, that was a good day.
00:38:37
Speaker
You know, solid day.
00:38:38
Speaker
Tell me one pest control guy who's ever done 26 grand commission paid to them in a day.
00:38:44
Speaker
You know, it doesn't happen.
00:38:46
Speaker
And I can do that.
00:38:47
Speaker
I can do that day over day.
00:38:48
Speaker
You know, if I want to put in
The 80/20 Principle in Self-Improvement
00:38:51
Speaker
that word.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:38:52
Speaker
And it's so funny how like the solar money is just because pest control is good money.
00:38:56
Speaker
Like when I was in college, I was like, Oh my gosh, 20, 30, maybe even 30 grand in a summer.
00:39:00
Speaker
That's insane.
00:39:02
Speaker
And now it's like, you know, in solar, if you're not doing that in a month, you're like, okay, you're not working that hard.
00:39:08
Speaker
It's true.
00:39:09
Speaker
It's very true.
00:39:11
Speaker
It's true, man.
00:39:12
Speaker
And you know what I've learned and actually I want to talk, I want to share a little, a little gold nugget that we've been working on at NLIFE is when it comes to sales, like we've been really trying to push our guys.
00:39:22
Speaker
We have this mentality as rule within our company of 80, 20.
00:39:27
Speaker
And I think a lot of guys come into a summer or into a company and they're kind of like, cool, like, so where's my 20, 30 grand that you promised?
00:39:35
Speaker
You know, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
00:39:37
Speaker
Like, there's some expectation to be set.
00:39:40
Speaker
Actually, that's what I've learned as a business owner.
00:39:43
Speaker
is expectations are super key.
00:39:45
Speaker
I think as salesmen, if we try to go start a business, sometimes we're just like running and gunning and we're a little unclear with expectations.
00:39:54
Speaker
And so we'd say 80, 20 at NLINE, 80% of the time and the work is put into yourself.
00:40:01
Speaker
If Tanner Huber isn't a stud, if he's not a baller, I won't be able to recruit or sell, you know?
00:40:07
Speaker
And then 20% is delegating out and giving tools to others.
00:40:12
Speaker
So as a manager, 20% is really just setting expectations, following up, giving of that 80% that you just did.
00:40:21
Speaker
So I'll be working in my office and I'll try to do 80% of my time is creating value.
00:40:26
Speaker
And then 20% of time is delivering it to others.
00:40:31
Speaker
Because I think too many people get bogged down doing other people's jobs
00:40:37
Speaker
and not investing enough in themselves.
00:40:40
Speaker
And so for example, my reps, their 80% is they need to be putting in the time.
00:40:44
Speaker
They need to be watching the videos, doing the trainings, and taking advantage of that and putting time into themselves and taking advantage of my 20% that I'm giving them.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's super powerful.
00:40:57
Speaker
Yeah, don't take enough personal responsibility on and they don't take advantage of those tools that are provided from a company and they think that you're supposed to do it for them.
00:41:05
Speaker
It's like, no, no, no.
00:41:06
Speaker
Hey, man, I'm going to give you everything and all the value and the processes that you need, but you need to take this and excel.
00:41:12
Speaker
That's what we're going to work on at that point.
00:41:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, I love that.
00:41:15
Speaker
And it's just the whole concept of, you know, leading from the front and all that.
00:41:18
Speaker
And, you know, or you've heard like the church talks, all that help put your mask on on their plane before you help other people put their masks on.
00:41:26
Speaker
So it's like, you know, same concept.
00:41:28
Speaker
And I think a lot of people forget it.
00:41:29
Speaker
They're trying to go recruit these teams and get that next big rep when they're not, they're not watering their own field.
00:41:35
Speaker
So love that.
00:41:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
And actually,
00:41:39
Speaker
Um, here at Enlight, just real quick to talk about leading from the front.
Incentive Structure for Leaders
00:41:42
Speaker
We, we structure our pay that way too.
00:41:46
Speaker
Not, never will our area managers, our managers be able to sit on their butt and just make money off guys.
00:41:51
Speaker
That's not how it's done here.
00:41:53
Speaker
We actually pay them more on their sales as they recruit more.
00:41:56
Speaker
Isn't that cool?
00:41:57
Speaker
So instead of taking more from other guys, we pay them more on their own.
00:42:01
Speaker
Um,
00:42:02
Speaker
And so it's a cool incentive to say, hey, if you recruit more, you're going to make more on your sales.
00:42:06
Speaker
So then that motivates you to sell more and be a better example from the front.
00:42:11
Speaker
Where other companies structure it and they say, yeah, go recruit, make a ton of money off of people.
00:42:16
Speaker
And then you're kind of incentivized to just recruit and just kind of sit around and make money off your team.
00:42:20
Speaker
But then as a leader, when you go out over summer, you're sitting around and you have really no motivation to go sell.
00:42:27
Speaker
Because you're like, yeah, I'm going to make like 5% of my income on my sales.
00:42:31
Speaker
95% of it comes from these guys.
00:42:35
Speaker
So we try to change that.
00:42:36
Speaker
We try to always keep a good portion of income coming from those sales.
00:42:40
Speaker
Even if it means we're making nothing on that manager, we say, I want you to lead from the front.
00:42:44
Speaker
Because your value isn't to us, isn't the money we're making on your sales.
00:42:47
Speaker
It's the example you're setting.
00:42:48
Speaker
It's the people you're leading.
00:42:51
Speaker
Even if we're making nothing, you go make all that money on your sales so you can show the rest that it can be done.
00:42:57
Speaker
as a leader.
00:42:58
Speaker
A hundred percent.
00:42:59
Speaker
That's a great point with that.
00:43:00
Speaker
And so Tanner, as we're running a little bit short on time here, but last couple of questions I kind of wanted to hit you with, um, with your summer program.
00:43:08
Speaker
I know a big problem that you probably seen, um, is guys come out, especially in short amount of time,
00:43:15
Speaker
Um, sometimes it takes guys just like it took you a couple months to ramp up, maybe start closing their own deals.
00:43:21
Speaker
So how do you guys structure it when they're coming out just for the summer?
00:43:24
Speaker
The guys are going to start closing right off the bat or do you the whole like, you know, quote, have your first five, 10 deals?
00:43:29
Speaker
We do.
00:43:30
Speaker
We actually believe in closing right off the bat.
00:43:33
Speaker
You know, I mean,
00:43:34
Speaker
you have to get it approved.
00:43:35
Speaker
You got to be an approved closer and you got to pass it off.
00:43:38
Speaker
But we want a hundred percent of our guys passed off pre-summer.
00:43:40
Speaker
There's a handful of guys, you know, that takes two weeks maybe, but man, if you're after two weeks, not closing an end line, you're not doing your job because Taylor, I'll be honest when I don't know how these other companies do it.
00:43:51
Speaker
I don't, it doesn't go through my mind, but if I came to you and said, Hey, you can be a setter and make, you know, I don't know how they even pay 10% commission or,
00:44:02
Speaker
$20 an hour or whatever, you make 10%.
00:44:05
Speaker
Or you can learn to be a closer and make 100%.
00:44:08
Speaker
And then you tell me, I'll just make the 10.
00:44:10
Speaker
I'd be like, what?
00:44:12
Speaker
I don't even know if I want that person associated with my company because they're so satisfied with just setting leads.
00:44:18
Speaker
And maybe there's different skill sets, right?
00:44:20
Speaker
But again, I hope that that person's motivated enough to learn the skill set of closing.
00:44:25
Speaker
And so we bring on people who are motivated enough to learn to be closers.
00:44:28
Speaker
And so everybody closes here at Enlight.
00:44:31
Speaker
But we have this insane training program.
00:44:33
Speaker
So it started out when I started.
00:44:35
Speaker
It was like, hey, and I shadowed Josh on the doors and Sanjeev ran me through the clothes.
00:44:39
Speaker
And it was like, learn how you can go.
00:44:41
Speaker
Every year it's gotten more meticulous.
00:44:43
Speaker
And now we have this six-step training process.
00:44:46
Speaker
I mean, we've got a call center.
00:44:47
Speaker
We sell in Utah.
00:44:48
Speaker
So they've got to go sell in Utah.
00:44:50
Speaker
They've got to do the call center.
00:44:51
Speaker
They've got to go to California.
00:44:52
Speaker
They've got to do a preseason.
00:44:54
Speaker
They've got the online training.
00:44:55
Speaker
They've got the in-person trainings.
00:44:56
Speaker
They've got the Sunrun portal.
00:44:57
Speaker
They've got the SunPower portal.
00:44:58
Speaker
They've got all of these training processes and we require them to pass off six steps.
00:45:02
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff they've got to do.
00:45:05
Speaker
That's why we probably could have the five, six, seven hundred reps.
00:45:08
Speaker
I mean, there could be more, but a lot of them aren't willing to do what it takes.
00:45:11
Speaker
We'd say, cool, no worries.
00:45:13
Speaker
You're going to probably have a struggling, have a rough summer ahead of you.
00:45:17
Speaker
So it's best that you don't come out because you aren't able to fulfill these requirements.
00:45:21
Speaker
Wow, that's cool.
00:45:22
Speaker
So you guys are basically set to go off and running by the time they get there.
00:45:26
Speaker
It's none of this boot camp.
00:45:28
Speaker
They already know the stuff by the time they're out for the summer.
00:45:30
Speaker
Dude, we don't want to waste any time.
00:45:33
Speaker
Day one, they're out there closing.
00:45:34
Speaker
Obviously, their cancellation ratio, their first month kind of sucks.
00:45:38
Speaker
We know that already.
00:45:39
Speaker
And then they improve it, slowly improve it, improve it.
00:45:41
Speaker
And then June, July, August, they're just killing it.
00:45:44
Speaker
Wow.
00:45:45
Speaker
Incredible.
00:45:46
Speaker
That's a good tip with that.
00:45:48
Speaker
Cool.
00:45:48
Speaker
And then last question here, Tanner, for you guys recruiting, are you doing the whole like, you know, zip recruiter recruiting local or are you guys trying to get people out of
Intensive Pre-Summer Training Program
00:45:57
Speaker
Utah, different states, whatever, kind of like the typical summer sales thing or what's your best strategies on finding those like pillar guys?
00:46:03
Speaker
I'll be honest.
00:46:05
Speaker
We are like purebred.
00:46:07
Speaker
But I'll say like, you know, you're like, dude, go BYU thing.
00:46:10
Speaker
You know, we do a lot of BYU, a lot of BYU guys.
00:46:15
Speaker
But, you know, as you grow, you can never just stay at BYU, right?
00:46:18
Speaker
I think a lot of companies start that way.
00:46:21
Speaker
But, you know, we're up in Rexburg.
00:46:22
Speaker
We're down in Dixie.
00:46:24
Speaker
We're all over Utah, you know.
00:46:26
Speaker
We've been out here in Sacramento.
00:46:27
Speaker
We've been recruiting.
00:46:28
Speaker
But I'd say predominantly, you know, we definitely look –
00:46:31
Speaker
to bring on these intelligent people.
00:46:34
Speaker
You bring on smart people.
00:46:36
Speaker
Our top reps aren't the bros.
00:46:38
Speaker
I've actually, and Taylor, I don't know how, I don't know in your opinion, tell me what you think.
00:46:42
Speaker
Can you spot a stud rep?
00:46:45
Speaker
Can you just tell me like, that guy's gonna kill it?
00:46:48
Speaker
I don't know anymore.
00:46:49
Speaker
I don't know.
00:46:50
Speaker
Can you?
00:46:51
Speaker
I don't know.
00:46:52
Speaker
No, it's tough.
00:46:53
Speaker
Because I'll tell you, I didn't think Allison was going to sell $455,000 worth of solar.
00:46:59
Speaker
We've had reps that are the most unassuming reps, but they go through our process and they kill it.
00:47:06
Speaker
And then I have other reps where I'm like, dude, you're a stud.
00:47:09
Speaker
You're on the, you know, your football team guy, you're the lacrosse guy.
00:47:11
Speaker
Like you're just a total baller and he's even got experience, but he's not willing to put in those little steps.
00:47:18
Speaker
And he's outperformed like 10 to one by these other people.
00:47:21
Speaker
So it's crazy.
00:47:22
Speaker
So, so we bring them all on.
00:47:23
Speaker
We bring in a lot of volume.
00:47:25
Speaker
We'd sift it through our processes.
00:47:27
Speaker
Right.
00:47:27
Speaker
And we get those that are willing to work on the other side and willing to complete the objectives.
00:47:32
Speaker
And those are the ones that get to go out with us over summer.
00:47:35
Speaker
Love that.
00:47:36
Speaker
That's fire.
00:47:37
Speaker
So yeah, great tips for recruiting.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, awesome stuff.
00:47:40
Speaker
You talked about Tanner and I appreciate you coming on the show.
00:47:43
Speaker
And by the way, how did, so we got connected by Bennett, who was my old, you know, guy who started the dealer I was working for.
00:47:51
Speaker
You got any juicy stories on Bennett or can we see any lazy days from Bennett that I can give him crap?
00:47:56
Speaker
No, well,
00:47:57
Speaker
Yes and no.
00:47:58
Speaker
So Bennett, man, you know, he came on, like we didn't even recruit him until maybe a couple of weeks before summer.
00:48:04
Speaker
And he came on and I love, I would love to say, well, I trained him up.
00:48:07
Speaker
No, that guy, man, he trained himself.
00:48:09
Speaker
And then he went out.
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah, he is, he is a different guy.
00:48:14
Speaker
His mind is just a million miles an hour, but he went out and I remember, I think we were like 33 deals mid June.
00:48:21
Speaker
Right.
00:48:21
Speaker
So it was like a month and a half in and we're like both at 33.
00:48:23
Speaker
And I was like,
00:48:25
Speaker
No, no, no, no.
00:48:26
Speaker
I'm the top guy.
00:48:27
Speaker
Like this was when I got to actually sell.
00:48:29
Speaker
And at Enlight, I wasn't a partner yet.
00:48:32
Speaker
And I was like, no, no, no.
00:48:32
Speaker
My only value, my only value is being the number one rep.
00:48:36
Speaker
Like if I'm not the number one rep, Sanjeev and Josh won't love me anymore.
00:48:40
Speaker
You know, I was like, oh no.
00:48:41
Speaker
And so I was like distraught.
00:48:43
Speaker
I was like, oh my gosh, Bennett is, what the freak is his first year in solar?
00:48:46
Speaker
He is crushing it.
00:48:47
Speaker
I was like upset.
00:48:48
Speaker
Like, what are you doing?
00:48:49
Speaker
You know, and he'd give me tips and tricks when he'd kind of talk.
00:48:52
Speaker
But, and then the last half of summer,
00:48:54
Speaker
Bennett is all about processes.
00:48:56
Speaker
I don't know if you know.
00:48:58
Speaker
And so he actually kind of faded off the doors a little bit, really focused on all these processes, which ended up paying him long term when he went and did his own thing.
00:49:06
Speaker
But I was able to beat him because he kind of got off the doors.
00:49:09
Speaker
And I was like, thank goodness.
00:49:10
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:49:12
Speaker
And so I came through and did more than him.
00:49:14
Speaker
But it's those processes that ended up making him a lot of money long term and he killed it.
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:19
Speaker
No, he's a good guy.
00:49:20
Speaker
He's a good guy.
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:23
Speaker
Well, Dan, I know we'll let you get to your training and stuff you got coming up here, but before we wrap up here, if guys want to connect with you or find out more about Nlight, do you have some, I don't know, social media handles or anything?
00:49:33
Speaker
Any way guys can connect with you from the podcast?
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:36
Speaker
So at GoNlight, and actually I manage all marketing at Nlight, so I kind of help oversee that.
00:49:43
Speaker
at go in light.
00:49:44
Speaker
Uh, I got a little touch in there and then the solar summer.com or nlight home.com.
00:49:49
Speaker
But really the solar summer.com is kind of our rep facing.
00:49:52
Speaker
And then for me personally reach out.
00:49:53
Speaker
I also love real estate.
00:49:54
Speaker
I've got 18 units, you know, just flip the sixplex got, you know, a bunch of duplexes under work.
00:50:00
Speaker
Like I love real estate investing.
00:50:03
Speaker
Um, you know, I've got like a, you know, 5.7 million or something in the portfolio.
00:50:08
Speaker
So there's, you know, got a lot of stuff going on.
00:50:09
Speaker
You're going to reach out to me and like get any tips or tricks like, Hey man, how are you doing real estate?
00:50:14
Speaker
Well, first of all, I got to have some money.
00:50:16
Speaker
And so I found that through door to door, but reach out to me.
00:50:18
Speaker
It's at T underscore Hughes, H U B E S. Cool.
00:50:23
Speaker
So Tanner Huber, that's, that's my, uh, my handle there.
00:50:25
Speaker
So, okay.
00:50:26
Speaker
Perfect.
00:50:27
Speaker
Well, we will drop that in the show notes and yeah, maybe we'll have to do another show on real estate because that's something guys looking to get into.
00:50:35
Speaker
But anyways, thanks for coming on Tanner.
00:50:37
Speaker
Thanks for all the value you dropped and guys go hit him up.
00:50:40
Speaker
Let him know you appreciate it for him coming on the show with us today.
00:50:44
Speaker
And I'm sure we'll talk soon, but appreciate you Tanner.
00:50:47
Speaker
Great.
00:50:47
Speaker
Thank you, Taylor.
00:50:48
Speaker
That was awesome.
00:50:50
Speaker
Hey Solarpreneurs, quick question.
00:50:52
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?
00:51:02
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.
00:51:14
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.
00:51:25
Speaker
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00:51:27
Speaker
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00:51:46
Speaker
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00:51:52
Speaker
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00:52:00
Speaker
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00:52:07
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.