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The Questions To Ask When Joining A Solar Company
79 Plays3 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction to 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 solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
Choosing the Right Solar Company
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey what's up solarpreneurs, Taylor Armstrong here.
00:00:43
Speaker
Today we're going to be talking about the questions you should be asking before you choose a solar company.
00:00:50
Speaker
And these are questions now being six, coming up on seven years in the industry.
00:00:55
Speaker
I wish I would have known these things.
00:00:58
Speaker
I don't know if it would have changed my decision on the first company I would have worked for, but with so many companies available, it can be overwhelming.
00:01:05
Speaker
How do you choose the right company to work with?
00:01:09
Speaker
So this is going to be geared towards new people in the industry, but maybe you've been with the company for a while.
00:01:15
Speaker
Maybe you are exploring other companies.
00:01:17
Speaker
Then this podcast is for you.
00:01:19
Speaker
Or really just anyone that's looking for good questions to ask your company.
00:01:24
Speaker
Maybe you've been with them for a while and you haven't asked these things.
00:01:27
Speaker
So good questions to ask.
00:01:30
Speaker
So let's jump into it.
00:01:31
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:33
Speaker
If I didn't already say that, sorry if I'm repeating myself.
00:01:36
Speaker
And we are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Upcoming Events and Meetups
00:01:43
Speaker
If you're new to the podcast, welcome.
00:01:45
Speaker
If you are not new, thanks for coming back and thanks for always sharing and supporting the show.
00:01:51
Speaker
Before we jump into it, we're coming up soon on the conference season for Door to Door.
00:01:57
Speaker
We got Door to DoorCon coming up.
00:01:59
Speaker
We got SolarCon coming after that.
00:02:02
Speaker
My two favorite events for solar and all things Door to Door.
00:02:07
Speaker
So if you were planning on going to Door to DoorCon today,
00:02:10
Speaker
I am thinking about doing a little meetup.
00:02:13
Speaker
Would love to meet some of the listeners, hear feedback from you guys and just do a little hangout.
00:02:19
Speaker
So shoot me an email, taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:02:23
Speaker
Go grab your tickets.
00:02:25
Speaker
We should have a link for that.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:28
Speaker
You know what?
00:02:28
Speaker
We'll have a link.
00:02:29
Speaker
I'm going to put it in the show notes if you want to support the show.
00:02:33
Speaker
and get your tickets through our little link, then they'll be much appreciated.
00:02:38
Speaker
I think there's a discount code with it.
00:02:41
Speaker
But go grab your ticket.
00:02:42
Speaker
Send me an email.
00:02:43
Speaker
Would love to do a little hangout.
00:02:45
Speaker
Jam with y'all at DoorToDoorCon.
00:02:49
Speaker
And with that being said, I think that's all the little announcements we got.
00:02:54
Speaker
So let's get into it.
Essential Questions for Selecting a Solar Company
00:02:57
Speaker
So we're talking about questions you should ask before you link up with a solar company.
00:03:03
Speaker
And when I first started, I didn't know any of these things to ask.
00:03:07
Speaker
There's lots of things I think could have been improved.
00:03:11
Speaker
And the cool thing is just by asking some of these questions, it may be that the people you're talking to, the people you're getting recruited by, maybe they don't really think about things.
00:03:23
Speaker
Maybe they don't think about these things as they're recruiting people.
00:03:26
Speaker
And so it could be an opportunity for them to make improvements as well.
00:03:31
Speaker
Maybe you're with a company and you haven't asked these things.
00:03:34
Speaker
These could be improvements that you help your current company with.
00:03:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:40
Speaker
So I'm just going to just going to spout out a bunch of questions here.
00:03:46
Speaker
And I'll give some feedback why I picked these questions.
00:03:52
Speaker
And then as usual, I would love to hear from y'all from the audience if you have other questions that you think we're missing here.
00:03:58
Speaker
OK, but good question to ask.
00:04:02
Speaker
I think one of the most important things is to know who you're going to be surrounded with.
00:04:06
Speaker
Who are the guys you're selling with?
00:04:07
Speaker
What are they producing?
00:04:09
Speaker
So good question to ask.
00:04:10
Speaker
What are the top guys doing?
00:04:12
Speaker
How many sales and installs are they getting?
Evaluating Team Performance
00:04:15
Speaker
If you're someone that wants to produce at a high volume, which hopefully everyone is that listen to this podcast, then I think the best thing is to be surrounded by those who are producing at a high volume themselves.
00:04:29
Speaker
If you're getting on a team where their top guy is doing like two, three installs a month, probably not the best opportunity for you.
00:04:39
Speaker
Unless you're going on to run that team or something.
00:04:41
Speaker
But if you're going to join a team, it's a bunch of low producers.
00:04:45
Speaker
Chances are you're going to get dragged down by those low producers.
00:04:50
Speaker
So try to be someone that is on a high producing team, on a team that's doing a decent volume.
00:04:59
Speaker
Hey, and then I think training is a really good thing you should be asking about.
Training and Flexibility in Solar Companies
00:05:04
Speaker
So especially if you're new, right?
00:05:06
Speaker
How often you guys have meetings?
00:05:08
Speaker
What type of trainings are there?
00:05:10
Speaker
How long does it take for people to get their first sale?
00:05:14
Speaker
If you're new in solar, right?
00:05:15
Speaker
You should know those things.
00:05:16
Speaker
You want to know how good are these guys that taking a brand new rep, getting them to his first sale and getting this guy paid.
00:05:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:24
Speaker
Because that's one of the complaints about solar.
00:05:26
Speaker
I remember talking to some pest control friends.
00:05:30
Speaker
And this is what the pest control guys think about solar is that, oh, it takes way too long to get paid.
00:05:35
Speaker
You got to wait forever.
00:05:36
Speaker
It's just funny because a lot of these other industries, you got to wait for backends and all that to get paid.
00:05:42
Speaker
Solar, we get paid after install.
00:05:45
Speaker
But I get it.
00:05:45
Speaker
There's usually not a ton of upfront money.
00:05:49
Speaker
depending on how they set it up.
00:05:52
Speaker
So that's a good thing to ask though about training.
00:05:54
Speaker
And you want to know who's doing the training.
00:05:57
Speaker
What types of trainings are there?
00:06:00
Speaker
What type of accountability is there?
00:06:01
Speaker
What's like their schedule of going out and working?
00:06:05
Speaker
And most solar companies, they're going to be flexible.
00:06:09
Speaker
There's not a lot of solar companies that are like, you got to be working 10 a.m.
00:06:13
Speaker
to 8 p.m.
00:06:14
Speaker
you're fired.
00:06:16
Speaker
That's a pretty hardcore company if you're with that company.
00:06:19
Speaker
But almost every company I know in solar, they're pretty flexible on how much you work.
00:06:27
Speaker
So you want some structure, but I would recommend getting with a company that has the guidelines, people going out, but also gives you some flexibility.
00:06:38
Speaker
But not too much flexibility.
00:06:39
Speaker
I like to be held a little bit accountable depending on what type of person you are, how good you work alone.
00:06:45
Speaker
And then here's a big one just on the projects in general.
Project Management and Customer Updates
00:06:49
Speaker
And a lot of these things I have in my questions to ask because I have been burned.
00:06:54
Speaker
I've been with three companies now.
00:06:58
Speaker
And yeah, at times the companies I've been with have not been very good at these things.
00:07:06
Speaker
And we'll probably do a separate podcast on how to know if you should leave a company because that's a good thing to know too.
00:07:14
Speaker
Kind of a grim topic.
00:07:16
Speaker
I'm not all about leaving companies over and over, but at some point it has to be done.
00:07:20
Speaker
So let me know if you would like to hear a podcast about that.
00:07:25
Speaker
But for this question, you should be asking who manages the projects?
00:07:29
Speaker
Do you have project managers?
00:07:31
Speaker
Who deals with HOAs?
00:07:35
Speaker
My first company I was with, they were really good at this.
00:07:38
Speaker
They had project managers,
00:07:40
Speaker
They had people that gave the customers updates every single week.
00:07:45
Speaker
I could pretty much sell a deal and forget about it, which I don't really recommend.
00:07:49
Speaker
Even if you do have really good project managers, definitely check in and stay in contact with your customers, with your pipeline.
00:07:57
Speaker
But even more so, if you are with a dealer or a company who does not have project managers, and keep in mind, most people will say they have project managers.
00:08:08
Speaker
But you don't really know what they're actually doing.
00:08:13
Speaker
So ask the company you're checking out, hey, how often are they giving updates?
00:08:18
Speaker
What type of project managing are they doing?
00:08:21
Speaker
Am I expected to manage all that?
00:08:24
Speaker
because I mentioned it in a previous podcast, I think last week, that this cost me deals by not knowing if the installer was giving updates to my customers like the other installer.
00:08:36
Speaker
So you want to know this if you're linking up with a different solar company.
00:08:40
Speaker
Right.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay.
Pricing, Commissions, and Sales Methods
00:08:42
Speaker
Number four, what do you typically sell the jobs at?
00:08:45
Speaker
What pricing do you usually, how high do you sell the customer?
00:08:48
Speaker
How high do you price them?
00:08:49
Speaker
What type of commissions do you make?
00:08:52
Speaker
Do you do more leases or loans?
00:08:54
Speaker
Right.
00:08:56
Speaker
and what type of reviews do you guys have a lot in there so i just kind of rapid firing but this is great to know you want to know what type of company you're getting involved with is that something that's going to be coming up if you're with a company that has terrible reviews then um that's something you want to factor into your decision because guess what if you have terrible reviews and
00:09:19
Speaker
it will make your job a little bit harder to sell.
00:09:22
Speaker
Most people, they go online, they Google companies.
00:09:25
Speaker
Not everyone's a lay down.
00:09:27
Speaker
So you want to know these things.
00:09:30
Speaker
And I'm not saying you shouldn't sell with a company if they have bad reviews, but it should be something that factors in your decision.
00:09:38
Speaker
And then just what do you sell the jobs at?
00:09:41
Speaker
I think it's good to know, like, what are people typically charging the customers?
00:09:46
Speaker
Are the guys I'm selling with screwing their customers over?
00:09:49
Speaker
Maybe they are.
00:09:52
Speaker
And then are they getting a lot of cancels?
00:09:55
Speaker
All these things are good to know.
00:09:57
Speaker
And in California, where I'm at, it is tough to screw someone over with pricing.
00:10:02
Speaker
But I'm
00:10:04
Speaker
You can sell pretty high and still save people a lot of money.
00:10:07
Speaker
But I think there is points where maybe you're selling a little too high.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, you can send me a message if you want to know what that point is.
00:10:16
Speaker
But yeah, good thing to ask.
00:10:20
Speaker
And then just more leases or loans.
00:10:23
Speaker
Ownership is typically better for customers.
00:10:26
Speaker
Everyone hopefully knows that.
00:10:28
Speaker
But, you know, you get like Sunrun out in California.
00:10:32
Speaker
They're selling mostly leases, PPAs.
00:10:35
Speaker
So if you're new, maybe this doesn't matter to you.
00:10:39
Speaker
But if you've been in the industry for a while, if you're used to selling loans and all the company offers are leases or PPAs or that's their main focus, that's their big focus, and they have a crappy loan product or crappy ownership product, then you might want to factor that in your decision too.
00:10:58
Speaker
At one point, I almost went with a company that I thought had just as good loans, financing, and ownership options.
00:11:06
Speaker
Then when I really dug into it, they barely had any options for ownership, and the warranties were not very good on their ownership products, just because they didn't really care about it.
00:11:17
Speaker
So good thing to know up front, good thing to ask.
Install Times and Growth Opportunities
00:11:21
Speaker
Hey, and another important one, what's the average install time?
00:11:26
Speaker
What type of growth opportunities are available?
00:11:31
Speaker
Not really related to those questions, but how quick are you going to get installs in?
00:11:35
Speaker
There's been points in my solar career where I have waited six plus months for an install.
00:11:40
Speaker
Not common, but you want to know what type of timeline you're looking at.
00:11:45
Speaker
Another big tip with this is ask other people.
00:11:48
Speaker
If you're just talking to the manager of the team,
00:11:51
Speaker
They're probably going to tell you what you want to hear, right?
00:11:54
Speaker
But I would go talk to other reps in the office, talk to people who have maybe been with that company for a little bit, say, hey, be real with me.
00:12:01
Speaker
How quick are your installs typically?
00:12:04
Speaker
Can you tell me?
00:12:06
Speaker
And then ask multiple people their experience of the office, of the company.
00:12:11
Speaker
You want to get the real feedback, not just the feedback from one manager, right?
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:19
Speaker
So great question to ask.
00:12:20
Speaker
And then if you're looking to grow with the company, what type of growth opportunities are there?
00:12:25
Speaker
Are you just going to come in?
00:12:26
Speaker
Is it a massive company?
00:12:28
Speaker
Are you coming as a rep and not really have the chance to grow?
00:12:31
Speaker
Hey, ask them these things.
00:12:34
Speaker
Ask them, hey, what does it look like if I want to step in to manage a team?
00:12:37
Speaker
If I want to grow, if I recruit guys, is there any type of overrides on that?
00:12:44
Speaker
What do I get paid for recruiting for bringing guys in?
00:12:49
Speaker
You want to know what that looks like.
00:12:51
Speaker
How can you grow?
00:12:52
Speaker
Because you should always be looking to improve.
00:12:54
Speaker
You should be always looking to get better in solar.
00:12:59
Speaker
And then just the size of the company.
00:13:01
Speaker
How many reps do you have?
00:13:03
Speaker
What's the turnover on your reps?
00:13:06
Speaker
Do most people stick?
00:13:08
Speaker
What's your recruiting?
00:13:09
Speaker
Do you guys run ads, get recruits in that way?
00:13:12
Speaker
What does that look like?
00:13:14
Speaker
And then with payment, you want to ask, do I get paid M1s?
Understanding Payment Structures
00:13:20
Speaker
Which is, you know, when you do the site survey for the job, the first milestone payment, do you get paid anything initially or is it all paid after install?
00:13:32
Speaker
Do I have to wait until permission to operate?
00:13:35
Speaker
And then what CRMs, what knocking apps do you guys use?
00:13:40
Speaker
What does that look like?
00:13:41
Speaker
How is the project being managed?
00:13:44
Speaker
So a ton of questions here.
00:13:46
Speaker
Hey, and I could probably go on and on with more questions.
00:13:49
Speaker
But just if just like anything, I would write down all your questions, have them ready.
00:13:54
Speaker
If you are looking at different companies, different options, if you're new, write down all these things.
00:14:00
Speaker
Make sure you don't forget and then shoot me a DM if you want like all these questions and list form.
00:14:06
Speaker
I just ran off with a bunch of them.
00:14:08
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, there's a ton of great options in solar.
00:14:13
Speaker
The best option is out here.
00:14:15
Speaker
in San Diego, if you want to come work with yours truly.
Humorous Legitimacy Test for Companies
00:14:19
Speaker
But whatever you do, make sure you hustle hard and factor all these things in your decision as you're deciding on a company to work with.
00:14:29
Speaker
And here's the most important question you should be asking.
00:14:32
Speaker
We saved the best for last.
00:14:34
Speaker
So don't forget this question when you're out investigating.
00:14:38
Speaker
And that is, hey, have you guys heard of the Solrepreneur podcast?
00:14:41
Speaker
Do you listen to it?
00:14:43
Speaker
If they say no, drop that company immediately.
00:14:46
Speaker
Don't check them out.
00:14:47
Speaker
They're not legit.
00:14:49
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:14:50
Speaker
But that should be a factor because come on, who's not going to listen to the greatest solar podcasts out there?
00:14:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:58
Speaker
So remember, you are the average of the five people you hang out with.
00:15:02
Speaker
You've been hanging out with Taylor Amshon today.
00:15:05
Speaker
And don't forget, we're going to have some awesome guests on here coming up soon.
00:15:10
Speaker
So tune in in the next one.
00:15:11
Speaker
Share it, like it, subscribe.
00:15:13
Speaker
Thanks for coming on and we'll see you guys on the next podcast.
Free Sales Diagnostic Offer
00:15:18
Speaker
Hey Solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
00:15:24
Speaker
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00:15:30
Speaker
So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
00:15:36
Speaker
We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
00:15:43
Speaker
So at now we have six bucks for this month.
00:15:46
Speaker
So book a call now.
00:15:47
Speaker
Don't miss out.
00:15:49
Speaker
What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:54
Speaker
That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an S dot com.
00:15:58
Speaker
I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
00:16:02
Speaker
So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.