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The Powerful Technique to Take People from "Not Interested" to "Maybe"
76 Plays4 years ago
Related Episodes: 2 Ninja Techniques to Get Your Prospects to Drop Their Guard
Book Mentioned: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
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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 solopreneur, you might ask?
Springtime and Solar Sales
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.
00:00:41
Speaker
What's going on solopreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
I'm excited for another episode.
00:00:46
Speaker
As usual, if you are new to the show, we are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:00:56
Speaker
I hope you're doing well.
00:00:58
Speaker
We're recording this podcast in the springtime.
00:01:00
Speaker
It's warming up here and it's the best time of the year because daylight savings time.
00:01:06
Speaker
Let's go.
00:01:07
Speaker
We got an extra hour of daylight, which makes it so much easier to be out there talking to people, talking to homeowners, talking to prospects.
00:01:16
Speaker
And you don't have to have people tell you, oh, it's too late.
00:01:18
Speaker
It's too dark outside.
00:01:20
Speaker
We got an extra hour of daylight.
00:01:22
Speaker
I hope you're taking advantage of that.
Ninja Techniques in Solar Sales
00:01:25
Speaker
Today's episode, we're going to be talking about a super powerful principle that I'm realizing more and more is how customers can just get super excited about whatever you're offering them.
00:01:37
Speaker
I think it's kind of a ninja technique because you can take something that seems not even that great and make it sound just the best thing in the world.
00:01:46
Speaker
So I'm going to be sharing how to do that, how to get your solar prospects just stoked to go solar with you and to get them to sign up today.
00:01:56
Speaker
So we're going to be jumping into that.
00:01:57
Speaker
But before we get into the episode, I wanted to thank we have got two new reviews on iTunes.
00:02:05
Speaker
The past few weeks, I said, hey, it's been a little bit since people have left a review.
00:02:10
Speaker
Am I doing a terrible job on the show or what's going on here?
00:02:14
Speaker
And so I'm super grateful for, we got one from TNR.hda.
00:02:21
Speaker
It's a cool name.
00:02:22
Speaker
He must be from Star Wars or something.
00:02:24
Speaker
He says, me and my two buddies are driving out to California right now to sell solar for the first time and we are listening right now.
00:02:31
Speaker
This podcast has been a huge motivator and help for the past few months and we can't wait to see what new episodes you have coming.
00:02:37
Speaker
Also love these live door reactions.
00:02:41
Speaker
So appreciate that.
00:02:42
Speaker
Much appreciated.
00:02:43
Speaker
And we did, I think two episodes ago,
00:02:46
Speaker
a live door approach kind of breakdown and sounds like, sounds like they liked it.
00:02:53
Speaker
So we might, we may be doing more of those here soon.
00:02:58
Speaker
And the next one we had was from a Yoda speaking of star Wars, right?
00:03:03
Speaker
Yoda with six zeros after his name.
00:03:06
Speaker
He says, awesome podcast, bro.
00:03:07
Speaker
Been sharing your cast with some of the teams.
00:03:09
Speaker
This is my ninth year in solar and still learning something new everyday student mindset.
00:03:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:15
Speaker
I love that Yoda.
00:03:16
Speaker
And just like the Jedi master himself, I think that's one of the most important things in any sales job, especially solar is to have a student mindset, always be learning.
00:03:27
Speaker
Because the second you stop learning, second you stop growing, you're contracting.
00:03:33
Speaker
What I've learned, there's no neutral in this business.
00:03:35
Speaker
You're either growing, you're either getting better,
00:03:38
Speaker
or you're getting worse if you're not sharpening your saw and making improvements every single day.
00:03:45
Speaker
So again, appreciate the support.
00:03:48
Speaker
If you want to leave us a review, it's pretty simple.
00:03:50
Speaker
You can go on iTunes, wherever you listen to podcasts, also on Spotify.
00:03:55
Speaker
Tap the stars and leave and click on where it says write a review.
00:04:00
Speaker
And the other best way to help grow the show, if you would like to support, is just by sharing it.
00:04:07
Speaker
So appreciate all of you that have tagged me on Instagram, posted on Facebook, shared it in any way possible.
00:04:13
Speaker
That is how we grow the community and help each other all have a much better time in the industry.
00:04:21
Speaker
So with that being said, let's jump into the topic today.
Comparing and Contrasting in Sales
00:04:24
Speaker
So what we're going to be talking about, like I said, it's a super powerful principle that we've been using on our teams here in San Diego.
00:04:33
Speaker
And we've been having a ton of success with to get people that thought they never were interested in solar and to take them to get that interest level high.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so this secret technique, here's what it is.
00:04:46
Speaker
It's called comparing and contrasting.
00:04:49
Speaker
I'm going to get into how that's used here.
00:04:51
Speaker
You're probably like comparing and contrasting.
00:04:53
Speaker
What even is that?
00:04:55
Speaker
But if you can do this successfully in as you're knocking doors, as you're prospecting and even in closes, it's going to make things a lot easier.
00:05:05
Speaker
So what is comparing and contrasting?
00:05:08
Speaker
So I'm going to give you a little story.
00:05:09
Speaker
It's going to kind of illustrate why this is so powerful.
00:05:14
Speaker
So this is taken from online.
00:05:18
Speaker
It says, contrast principle affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another.
00:05:26
Speaker
Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is.
00:05:33
Speaker
And just to kind of illustrate for that, there's a story, maybe some of you have heard about this, but they did a study.
00:05:42
Speaker
I think it was at a university.
00:05:44
Speaker
It says it was at a psychophysics laboratory.
00:05:47
Speaker
What they did, they had these students take turns sitting in front of three pails of water.
00:05:52
Speaker
One was cold, one was at room temperature, and one was hot.
00:05:57
Speaker
And what they had them do, they said, hey, okay, put your hand in the cold water and then put one hand in the hot water.
00:06:05
Speaker
And then after setting their hands in the cold and the hot water, they said, okay, now put it into the lukewarm water at the same time.
00:06:15
Speaker
And what happens, you probably know the result of this story.
00:06:18
Speaker
The one that was sitting in the cold water, the hand that was in the cold water, all of a sudden it feels super warm.
00:06:24
Speaker
It's like, oh, this is nice.
00:06:26
Speaker
But the one that was sitting in the hot water, it feels freezing now because you went from hot to lukewarm.
00:06:33
Speaker
Right.
00:06:34
Speaker
So how do you use this in cells?
00:06:36
Speaker
What does this have to do with cells?
00:06:38
Speaker
You probably all experience this.
00:06:40
Speaker
Maybe some of you do cold showers, hot.
00:06:43
Speaker
But if there's a contrast, if there's a difference, you notice it a lot more.
00:06:48
Speaker
So here's how we use it in sales.
00:06:50
Speaker
We take something that maybe wasn't as exciting for the customer and we contrast it.
00:06:57
Speaker
So I'm gonna give you a few examples of something we've been using as we're knocking doors, and then also give you an example as you were out closing deals.
00:07:07
Speaker
So how do you use this if you're out knocking doors?
00:07:09
Speaker
You need to contrast what you were offering with what was offered in the past.
00:07:16
Speaker
So especially for those that are in California or those that are in hotter markets, there's usually a reason that people haven't gone solar, right?
00:07:25
Speaker
Maybe it's because they heard that there are liens on the home.
00:07:30
Speaker
Maybe it's because in California, there's a lot of people that lease their solar that maybe it wasn't the best program for them.
00:07:37
Speaker
Maybe it's because they heard that there were roof leaks, whatever it is.
00:07:42
Speaker
So what you're doing, you're basically taking out all these bad things, all these terrible reasons why people have not gone solar, all the horror stories, and you're contrasting it with what you do now.
00:07:53
Speaker
So as you compare and contrast, all of a sudden it makes your offering look a lot better.
00:07:57
Speaker
Okay, so how do you use this on the doors?
00:08:01
Speaker
If you're knocking doors, for example, in California, a lot of times we get, oh, solar?
00:08:06
Speaker
No, not interested.
00:08:09
Speaker
So if you are listening to this, you can play this back over and over.
00:08:12
Speaker
This has gotten me so many appointments in the past couple of weeks and want to thank our team.
00:08:18
Speaker
They Jason Newby here in the squad.
00:08:21
Speaker
This is something we've been talking about a lot in our meetings.
00:08:24
Speaker
So I'm sharing some company secrets.
00:08:26
Speaker
Hopefully I do not get, I don't know, reprimanded or something for this.
00:08:32
Speaker
But I was doing it to a degree before, so nothing too new here.
00:08:36
Speaker
This is a sales principle for sure.
00:08:39
Speaker
But the way you do it, let's say you're knocking on the door.
00:08:42
Speaker
Taylor, no, you know what?
00:08:43
Speaker
We've checked into solar.
00:08:45
Speaker
Doesn't make sense.
00:08:47
Speaker
Oh, for sure.
00:08:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure you had.
00:08:50
Speaker
Pretty much everyone's looked into it.
00:08:52
Speaker
I'm guessing when you looked at it, it was probably like a huge upfront cost.
00:08:56
Speaker
So that's what was going on, right?
00:08:59
Speaker
Or just say any, you know, any contrasting principle you can think of.
00:09:03
Speaker
So what's one reason that someone hasn't gone solar?
00:09:06
Speaker
The upfront costs, the leases, the liens on the home, whatever negative thing.
00:09:12
Speaker
And guess what?
00:09:13
Speaker
As you're saying these things, customers, I've noticed 90% of the time, even if that's not the reason that they did not go solar or they're saying they're not interested, they will agree with whatever you're saying.
00:09:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:25
Speaker
And sometimes it's just to get you off their porch or whatever.
00:09:27
Speaker
Right.
00:09:28
Speaker
They'll agree with it.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, it was probably, it was, you know, it was going to be like 40 grand.
00:09:33
Speaker
It was going to be like a lot of upfront costs for us.
00:09:37
Speaker
And a lot of times the reason they haven't gone slower, they don't understand.
00:09:41
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:42
Speaker
Maybe they were offered the exact same zero down program.
00:09:46
Speaker
Maybe they're offered no upfront costs, but they're
00:09:49
Speaker
A lot of times they're just misunderstanding.
00:09:51
Speaker
People do not understand how solar works.
00:09:55
Speaker
As you're contrasting this way, they're going to agree with you.
00:09:57
Speaker
They're going to say, oh yeah, there's a huge upfront cost.
00:10:00
Speaker
Oh yeah, there's liens on the home.
00:10:02
Speaker
Oh yeah, we are concerned about our roof.
00:10:04
Speaker
Whatever you're telling them, most of the time they will agree.
00:10:08
Speaker
Or if not, a lot of times they'll tell you the reason.
Mirroring for Deeper Engagement
00:10:11
Speaker
They'll tell you why.
00:10:12
Speaker
And then the key with this, dig deeper.
00:10:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:17
Speaker
So they might agree.
00:10:18
Speaker
They said, oh yeah.
00:10:19
Speaker
So the upfront costs, it was pretty high.
00:10:22
Speaker
Sounds like.
00:10:24
Speaker
See if you can get them to expound.
00:10:26
Speaker
And if you haven't heard the podcast,
00:10:29
Speaker
It's called Mirroring.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think this was 10 episodes ago.
00:10:33
Speaker
We'll put it in the show notes here.
00:10:35
Speaker
But Mirroring.
00:10:38
Speaker
And then I'm drawing a blank.
00:10:41
Speaker
But it's from the...
00:10:43
Speaker
book never split the difference um the author he calls it mirroring and then the other one sorry i'm getting a brain fart here but go read that book we will post it in the show notes but that is how you get people to expound you say oh sounds like you guys were we're gonna have to pay a ton for this and then they will expound or they'll say oh yeah it's too expensive and you say oh expensive
00:11:09
Speaker
get them to expound on it.
00:11:10
Speaker
Those are two techniques, two powerful techniques to get them to expound.
00:11:15
Speaker
So that's how you do it and you contrast it.
00:11:17
Speaker
So after you get them to kind of spill the beans, tell you what they were offered before you say, Oh, cool.
00:11:24
Speaker
Well, you know what?
00:11:25
Speaker
That's actually why I'm here.
00:11:27
Speaker
Cause you know, almost all your neighbors, they're the same when they looked into it, there's going to be some huge upfront costs.
00:11:32
Speaker
There's liens on the home.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:34
Speaker
I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have checked that out either.
00:11:37
Speaker
So what we're doing here, it's actually quite a bit different.
00:11:40
Speaker
The reason you're in, if you can pull out personal names with this, that's why I talk about using a name list all the time.
00:11:46
Speaker
I talk about name dropping makes it more believable, more powerful.
00:11:51
Speaker
So the reason why Judy across the street actually looked into this, cause she didn't have to pay anything.
00:11:56
Speaker
She didn't have to take money out of her checkings account.
00:11:59
Speaker
She didn't have to win the lottery.
00:12:00
Speaker
She didn't have to, I mean, there was no money she had to come up to do this.
00:12:06
Speaker
All it did for her was it gave her a much cheaper bill on what she was paying monthly.
00:12:11
Speaker
And then from there, boom, you can do a takeaway.
00:12:13
Speaker
Not everyone qualifies or whatever you want to do.
00:12:17
Speaker
So this is super powerful.
00:12:18
Speaker
Contrast that way.
00:12:20
Speaker
So contrast with what they looked at in the past year.
00:12:23
Speaker
to what they're going to get if they go solar with you and then do a takeaway.
00:12:28
Speaker
So I guarantee you, if you are not doing this right now, as you're prospecting, it is going to help so much, especially in these saturated areas.
00:12:36
Speaker
And what if you're in an area where solar is pretty new?
00:12:41
Speaker
Well, then probably even easier.
00:12:43
Speaker
You'll still get some of the same stuff.
00:12:45
Speaker
You'll still get people saying, oh, yeah, we don't have money.
00:12:48
Speaker
We can't afford it.
00:12:49
Speaker
It's a perfect opportunity to contrast.
00:12:51
Speaker
So it works whether you are in saturated markets that have been hit a lot or whether you're in newer areas where maybe solar is pretty new.
00:13:02
Speaker
Okay, so that's the first way.
00:13:03
Speaker
And then second, if you are closing your appointments, if you were out there closing deals, you can also contrast in the close.
00:13:12
Speaker
So a lot of these same word tracks, a lot of these same lines, obviously you can use them in the close.
00:13:17
Speaker
But something that's really powerful as you're closing, you can get them excited about what you're doing.
00:13:27
Speaker
And then when they see what the actual numbers are, they can get even more excited.
00:13:31
Speaker
So what I mean by that is let's say you're in an appointment.
00:13:35
Speaker
You know that their monthly bill with the financing is going to be, I don't know, let's say 120 a month.
00:13:43
Speaker
Well, what you can do is say, Mr. Customer,
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah, it looks like it's definitely going to be some savings for you.
00:13:50
Speaker
It's probably going to be in the range of 140 to 150.
00:13:55
Speaker
What we're doing though is we actually submit an application.
00:13:58
Speaker
And once we submit this, we're going to get your exact numbers.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then you'll be able to see exactly what we're talking about here in the rate and everything.
00:14:08
Speaker
So something that's really powerful, if you can get them excited on paying, I don't know, ballpark $150 a month, imagine how excited they're going to be when their credit gets approved, application is passed, and they're only paying $120, right?
00:14:23
Speaker
So it's the same thing.
00:14:24
Speaker
You're taking that bucket of water, you're taking that hand from cold to lukewarm, right?
00:14:31
Speaker
Some people, if you have surprises, they're taking it from hot water to the lukewarm and their customers are all of a sudden not as excited.
00:14:40
Speaker
So how can you take them from the lukewarm to the warmer water?
00:14:44
Speaker
How can you get them more and more excited on this?
00:14:47
Speaker
You sell them on ownership.
00:14:49
Speaker
And I know out here in California, we enjoy helping people save some big money, but it's not like that in a lot of markets.
00:14:56
Speaker
I get it.
00:14:57
Speaker
So for you that do not really sell on savings or that don't get savings for your customers, then maybe you're selling purely on ownership.
00:15:07
Speaker
right?
00:15:09
Speaker
And then once they see that maybe the bill, instead of paying an extra, I don't know, $30 a month, but it actually gets their bill equal to what they're paying, how excited are they going to be?
00:15:19
Speaker
You're telling me I can own something, have an asset, something that's valuable for my home, and I can pay exactly what I'm paying right now.
00:15:27
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:15:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:28
Speaker
Where before maybe they thought, and you're not lying to them.
00:15:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:32
Speaker
So you don't, you know, don't just tell them lies.
00:15:35
Speaker
But the key is you don't always have to give people exact numbers.
00:15:40
Speaker
I don't do this every time, but it is very powerful when you can give someone, you know, a ballpark number.
00:15:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:47
Speaker
As long as they're not drilling you for exact numbers.
00:15:51
Speaker
But a lot of times I'll just give them an estimation and then they're going to be that much more excited when they find out exactly how much they're going to be saving, exactly what the terms are.
00:16:02
Speaker
You do need to make sure you're selling them on the ownership, on the principles of going solar though.
00:16:08
Speaker
So those are two ways I use comparing and contrasting.
00:16:11
Speaker
Start using it in your closes, in your cells, in your door knocking.
00:16:16
Speaker
Let me know if you have any other ways that you can trust.
Engagement and Community Building
00:16:20
Speaker
As usual, you can hit me up on Instagram at Taylor J. Armstrong, on Facebook, on all the social medias.
00:16:27
Speaker
And I can't wait.
00:16:28
Speaker
We've got some exciting guests coming up.
00:16:30
Speaker
So make sure you tune in to the episodes that are coming up.
00:16:35
Speaker
And last thing before we leave, we hope to see you all at SolarCon is coming up here next month in April.
00:16:42
Speaker
We'll post the link to it in the show notes if you haven't gotten your exclusive solar printer discount.
00:16:48
Speaker
And we'd like to thank our sponsors, Pi Syndicate, for supporting the show.
00:16:53
Speaker
So if you haven't got your finances in order, if you need help with your taxes, let me know.
00:16:58
Speaker
We'll post that again also in the show notes where you can get linked up with them, do a call.
00:17:04
Speaker
They've helped me tremendously in my financial journey, helping me actually get into investments that are getting me good returns and not having to spend a time researching stuff because I like to just have a coach that can tell me, hey, this is good.
00:17:17
Speaker
This is bad.
00:17:18
Speaker
I don't have to spend a ton of time on it.
00:17:21
Speaker
So go check them out and we will see you guys on the next episode.
00:17:25
Speaker
Keep crushing.
00:17:27
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:17:28
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.
00:17:38
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.
00:17:50
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.
00:18:01
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
00:18:03
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
00:18:22
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:18:28
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:18:36
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:18:43
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.