Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Today we're going to be talking about the best questions you can and should be asking in the close.
Speaker: A lot of us have heard you need to ask great questions to be a great closer and you need to ask questions to help prospective customers make realizations on why they should go solar, because people believe what they answer themselves, what they say themselves.
Speaker: So today that's what we're going to be talking about.
Speaker: Welcome to the show.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, tune in more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: If you are watching the video version of this, we are trying to up the quality a little bit.
Speaker: Just got a nice new light.
Speaker: So let me know if you notice any difference.
Speaker: Hopefully it looks a little bit better, a little bit clearer.
Speaker: Just haven't been doing a video before.
Speaker: for the podcast for too long.
Speaker: So slowly upgrading the equipment with that.
Speaker: So let me know if you do watch this on YouTube or watch any of our clips, if you notice a difference.
Speaker: Hey, but the reason we're talking about this, I have a student in our coaching program right now.
Speaker: who he's out in Florida, which shout out to Florida.
Speaker: Hope everyone's doing okay there.
Speaker: If you are in Florida, um, at the time of this recording, got the hurricanes there, hurricane Milton and, uh, you know, crazy devastation.
Speaker: So, um, you are in my prayers.
Speaker: Hopefully you're doing okay.
Speaker: And if you are selling where the hurricane is, um, I hope you can get back to selling very soon.
Speaker: But anyway, so we have a person, a student in the coaching group where he has been a pretty successful setter for a while now.
Speaker: But recently he is starting to go into his own appointments, starting to close his own deals.
Speaker: And something we've been talking about in calls we do is just like, hey, what are some effective questions you can ask?
Speaker: And what questions should you be asking in the close?
Speaker: What questions should you be asking in the pre-frame, in the fact finding?
Speaker: And I think they play a lot of importance.
Speaker: And so this call-in, if you're listening to this, hopefully this helps supplement what we're talking about and also helps anyone else listening to the show today, which by the way, we have a few openings.
Speaker: If you would like to get some additional coaching, shoot me an email, taylorsolapreneurs.com.
Speaker: We can hop on a call and see if it's a good fit for you.
Speaker: So I'm going to go through a few questions, try to keep it pretty to the point here.
Speaker: And most of these are questions you can ask in the fact finding and more in pre-frame beginning of the close.
Speaker: But then a few questions as you are leading up to the actual close that I think teed up very nicely.
Speaker: And then also shout out to my good friends and one of our leaders here where I'm at in San Diego, John Soriano, the general.
Speaker: Shoot him a follow if you're not over on Instagram.
Speaker: But this guy, he is one of the people I respect most in the solar industry.
Speaker: I've had him on the podcast.
Speaker: amazing leader, amazing closer.
Speaker: And he actually gave a similar training to us, to our sales group here, down here, went through all of these questions.
Speaker: And I use all of the questions that he mentioned, but there are a few that I really, really like leading up to the close.
Speaker: So I'm going to steal a little bit of his stuff.
Speaker: Hopefully he doesn't mind.
Speaker: Sorry, John, if you're listening to this, but I'm sharing it with the world.
Speaker: So you're getting exclusive VIP content.
Speaker: Hopefully he's okay with me sharing, but either way, I'm going to give it to you here.
Speaker: No, nothing is held back on the show.
Speaker: I share what is working for me, what is working for others.
Speaker: And that's how I believe is that we should all have an abundance mindset.
Speaker: I don't like this secret of, oh, you can only know the secrets if you join our company.
Speaker: I think we should all up-level each other.
Speaker: And also at the end of the day, I know that statistically, there's very few people that are going to actually go out and apply online.
Speaker: and make changes due to the information on the podcast.
Speaker: Just how it is.
Speaker: So prove me wrong.
Speaker: Go out and use these in your closes and in your cells.
Speaker: We're just going to go through them one by one.
Speaker: A lot of these I use in the beginning of the close.
Speaker: So here, let's hit you with it.
Speaker: Okay, so the first one, just a little quote that John Soriano gave us.
Speaker: He said, amateur salespeople know the right thing to say, while professional salespeople know the right questions to ask.
Speaker: And again, that goes back to people are going to believe what they say themselves.
Speaker: I've said it on the show, but it's like they believe 25% of what you say or 50%.
Speaker: Sorry, I think it's 50%.
Speaker: They believe 75% of what they hear from somebody else, like a third party.
Speaker: Then they believe 100% of what they say themselves.
Speaker: So the idea with questions is you can have them realize something on their own, and they're going to believe it if they say it themselves.
Speaker: So it's sort of the Jedi mind trick for you to make a point and then them to repeat it back to you.
Speaker: You know that they believe it if you can get them to answer the questions.
Speaker: Okay, and so here's a question you can ask right when you get to the close.
Speaker: You're in the appointment.
Speaker: Yeah, I love this question.
Speaker: So tell me, why am I here?
Speaker: You would not have agreed to meet with me unless you saw something in it for yourself.
Speaker: What is that?
Speaker: And I love that because it's framing it that you're the expert.
Speaker: You're the one that's giving your valuable time.
Speaker: And it is a bold question, right?
Speaker: I know some people are probably hearing this and like, oh, that's a scary question to ask.
Speaker: I don't want them to like tell me to get out of here.
Speaker: But I like it because, again, it's bold.
Speaker: It's set in the frame that you're the professional.
Speaker: Your time is valuable.
Speaker: It's getting the information from them.
Speaker: of why they actually agreed in an appointment.
Speaker: And this is, I would say more so if you are going to appointments that are set for you, then especially ask this question.
Speaker: If you are self generating your own leads, self generating your own deals, then you should know to a degree, like why they set up the appointment, right?
Speaker: Because I have sometimes set my own appointments.
Speaker: And then I say, I ask them a similar question.
Speaker: They're like, oh, well, you're the one that came to me.
Speaker: You came to my house.
Speaker: So they try to like flip the frame on you.
Speaker: So just don't fall in that trap.
Speaker: If you set the appointments, make sure you're careful with that because you don't want them flipping it on its head.
Speaker: But especially if it's an appointment set from a setter, this is a great question.
Speaker: Okay, another question I love that I learned from my friend Josh, who has been on the podcast too.
Speaker: Actually, sorry, not Josh, mixing up the names.
Speaker: Done so many podcasts with so many people.
Speaker: So I'll remember this later.
Speaker: But another question I like is, hey, did you guys call into the office or did someone stop by the house if you're going to set her appointment?
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Sets up the frame that you're in a lot of homes, a lot of people call in.
Speaker: And I think that's a great question.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
Speaker: It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show.
Speaker: You need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: Yes, here's another one.
Speaker: And these are all fact finding questions.
Speaker: Have you ever looked into solar before?
Speaker: If they say no, then you ask them what stopped you before in the past from looking into it.
Speaker: They say yes, why didn't you go solar with them?
Speaker: And these are all discovery questions.
Speaker: You're discovering why they did not...
Speaker: go solar in the past.
Speaker: And then you're discovering maybe things that they've prevented them from looking at it.
Speaker: Oh, I heard that it puts liens on the home.
Speaker: Oh, I heard that it costs a ton of money.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And these are great.
Speaker: And one thing I would suggest is always be writing things down, right?
Speaker: Grant Cardone says in his closer survival guide, that great closers always have a pad and a paper or sorry, a pad and a pencil or a pen.
Speaker: And they're writing down the questions people have.
Speaker: They're writing down anything you say.
Speaker: People believe what they see.
Speaker: And so this not only helps you remember it, but I think it makes you look more professional because it shows you're actually caring about what they say.
Speaker: And then the best answers I get to this, if you ask them, hey, why have you looked into it?
Speaker: Oh, it's been way too expensive.
Speaker: It's way too much out of pocket.
Speaker: I love it when they tell me things like that because then you know, it's like, okay, well, guess what?
Speaker: We got an option where you don't have to pay anything.
Speaker: Let me ask you, Mr. Home Warner, if we had an option where you didn't have to pay anything,
Speaker: Sounds like you guys would be pretty open to it.
Speaker: That's the only thing that's sold you back in the past.
Speaker: Yeah, if there's something like that, be pretty open to it.
Speaker: You know they're pretty much sold.
Speaker: So great question right there.
Speaker: All right, number three, what do you know about solar?
Speaker: The good, the bad, the ugly?
Speaker: Hey, you're just getting them to tell everything they've heard about it.
Speaker: And this seems, you know, kind of as a follow up to the previous question, just getting them to expound on
Speaker: What have they heard?
Speaker: Why haven't they gone solar?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So great question.
Speaker: And again, you're taking notes during all this.
Speaker: And here's one.
Speaker: This one, a lot of times I'll ask as I'm actually getting to the numbers, but you could ask it in your fact findings more towards the beginning of the clues.
Speaker: But it's what would you say is your average electric bill?
Speaker: And you should have the copy of their bill, right?
Speaker: never close a deal without a copy of their bill and knowing exactly what they're using.
Speaker: It's a good thing to know what they think their bill is.
Speaker: And I've had this go one of two ways.
Speaker: It's like sometimes they think their bill is way more than it is.
Speaker: Sometimes they think their bill is way less than it is.
Speaker: And I guess third, sometimes they know just about exactly what it is.
Speaker: But it's actually pretty rare that people know exactly what they're paying in my experience.
Speaker: And most of the time, I would say it's most common that people are underestimating what they're paying.
Speaker: So if you have this happen, make sure you break down and get a true average for them.
Speaker: Then another caveat with this is if they overestimate their bill, make sure you don't just roll with it.
Speaker: I've had people overestimate their bill.
Speaker: And I haven't corrected them on it in the past.
Speaker: And we haven't gotten a true average for them.
Speaker: This has happened a few times.
Speaker: And it's not like I'm trying to deceive them, them thinking their bill's way higher.
Speaker: But I have had it where we didn't calculate a true average.
Speaker: or I didn't myself know exactly what their average is because we didn't go look at every single billing amount.
Speaker: We knew their kilowatt hour usage, but we didn't go look at every single billing amount.
Speaker: And I've had that come back to bite me because most people, even if they sign the deal, most people are going to go back and calculate their true average,
Speaker: sometimes incorrectly.
Speaker: And then they're going to compare that to exactly what you told them.
Speaker: So I've had it happen where we didn't calculate their true average and people have either calculated it wrong or they did calculate it right.
Speaker: Then they see that there's not as much savings as they thought.
Speaker: They canceled deals.
Speaker: So yeah, just make sure you get as much as possible, a true average and let them know that.
Speaker: But yeah, it is good to ask them what they think their average bill is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Number, I think this is question five.
Speaker: What is the condition of your roof and main electric panel?
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: Shows you're a professional.
Speaker: Shows you're qualifying them.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And every solar pro should know the basics of roofs.
Speaker: Should know when people need a panel upgrade.
Speaker: Topic for another day.
Speaker: We've talked about that in previous episodes.
Speaker: But you should know if people need a new, if they're likely to need a panel upgrade or a new roof.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's a great question or no.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And then this is as you're designing the panels.
Speaker: It's a good one.
Speaker: Where would you like the solar panels to go?
Speaker: And me personally, I love designing the system with them.
Speaker: You can ask them if they have a preference where the panels go.
Speaker: Obviously, you're going to be an expert and tell them where it would be best.
Speaker: But maybe you got like...
Speaker: you know, two roof planes that are basically the same.
Speaker: Maybe you got east, west that are basically going to get the same production.
Speaker: So it is cool to get them involved because they're seeing themselves with the product.
Speaker: If you can get them to design it, say, hey, where would you like this?
Speaker: Do you have a preference on where we put your battery?
Speaker: If you're doing a battery, do you have a preference on where the inverter goes?
Speaker: you know, figure out if you have flexibility on where you can place equipment.
Speaker: But they're seeing themselves purchasing the products if you can get them to answer those questions.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I like it.
Speaker: It's a good assumptive way of selling, imagining that they already have the product up there.
Speaker: Okay, number six, how long have you lived here?
Speaker: Do you plan on moving?
Speaker: How many people live in the home?
Speaker: Very important question to know because you want to know how big you need to design the system.
Speaker: If people are moving out, if people are moving in, maybe you need a bigger system.
Speaker: Maybe you can make it slightly smaller.
Speaker: And keep in mind, even if they have two, three people move out, typically it's not going to be a way smaller system.
Speaker: I think sometimes people lowball it where there's people moving out.
Speaker: It's not like it makes a massive difference normally.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But yeah, good thing to know if they have someone moving in or they have things that they're going to do that would require more electricity, which leads us to our next question.
Speaker: Any upcoming changes to your electrical usage that will either increase or decrease your usage?
Speaker: You know, like renovations, electric cars.
Speaker: Hot tub pools, people moving in or out.
Speaker: Okay, great thing to know if you need to design the system bigger.
Speaker: Last question going along with that.
Speaker: In the last 12 months, would you say you've been conservative with your power usage or have used it whenever you want to?
Speaker: Some people, it's like where I'm at, a lot of people are just living in a very difficult situation where they don't turn on the AC anymore.
Speaker: They just roast alive in their house because they're scared of turning on the, on the AC.
Speaker: They're scared of having to pay the bill if they use electricity, how they, how they want to.
Speaker: So, um, part of something, part of, uh, a way to get emotion involved is, you know, get them future pacing.
Speaker: Hey, can you imagine what it'd be like to actually be able to turn on your AC to live how you want and not have to stress about what the bill would be?
Speaker: Hey, those are great pictures to paint in their head.
Speaker: Okay, and then last couple questions here.
Speaker: This is a good one.
Speaker: What would you say you dislike the most about your utility?
Speaker: This is a question I haven't used, but I love it.
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: Get them to sell you on why they hate the utility.
Speaker: Really good question.
Speaker: Okay, and then here are two questions you can use at the end of your cell to close this out.
Speaker: Okay, so you get to the end.
Speaker: You've gone through numbers.
Speaker: You've hopefully had them.
Speaker: got them pretty excited about the possibility of going solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, um, a question that's John Soriano taught us, he says, what is your favorite part about all this?
Speaker: Um, so, you know, I'm just thinking in my head leading up to this question, maybe you've gone through numbers, you've answered their questions, made sure that's all good.
Speaker: Um, so in my head, the transition would be something like this.
Speaker: Um, okay, Mr. Homeowner.
Speaker: So that's pretty much all I had to show you today.
Speaker: that all the numbers and everything made sense, right?
Speaker: So let me ask you, what is your, for you guys, I know we've gone through a lot, but what is your favorite part about all this?
Speaker: Get them to sell you on it.
Speaker: If they don't really give an answer, then probably know you didn't do too great of a job.
Speaker: But hopefully they tell you, I like that we'd be able to use a lot more power.
Speaker: I like that we would have rate protection on the bill.
Speaker: I like that we would be independent from the utility, whatever they say.
Speaker: And then the question right after that, that John taught us here the other day, he says, so I hope you can qualify for this.
Speaker: If you were to qualify and we could lower your electric bill to 23 cents instead of 45 cents.
Speaker: And obviously, insert...
Speaker: your rate, we're doing mostly power purchase agreements here in California.
Speaker: But if you're doing a loan, whatever you're doing, insert, obviously adjust it.
Speaker: If we could lower it to 23 cents to the 45 cents so that you could, and then put in what they told you, what they told you they liked about the program.
Speaker: So you could run more AC, so you could have that rate protected.
Speaker: So you could say if you're a Kitsch college, whatever, it's an emotional statement, right?
Speaker: Hopefully getting some emotion involved.
Speaker: Do you see any reason why this would not make sense for you?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I was doing a variation of this question, but yeah, I love what he's saying here about making them sell you on it and then inserting an emotional statement right there.
Speaker: And then the idea behind this is you're asking a no question.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because what does everyone expect with sales is that you want them to say yes.
Speaker: So the psychology behind this is you're getting them to say no, but really it is agreeing to the whole program.
Speaker: And so if you did this right, most people should say, no, I don't see why it wouldn't make sense for me.
Speaker: And then from there, you're doing your pullback and going straight into the application, right?
Speaker: Assuming you're doing, you know, financing or approving for a lease or a PPA.
Speaker: Okay, so something like, okay, great.
Speaker: Well, they will come out and check the home.
Speaker: Hopefully everything works out.
Speaker: Hopefully the home's eligible.
Speaker: um so like i said today all we do is fill out a quick application i get the forums in has all their terms and conditions everything i told you in writing and then we'll go from there get everything scheduled cool so email was this right and then you can just straight go into it assumptive close okay and then obviously it's not always going to be just a slam dunk from there a lot of times what will happen to me is we'll get in the application
Speaker: Then when we get into the actual documents, people are like, wait, am I signing a contract today then?
Speaker: And then you have to explain them.
Speaker: Yeah, explain to them that it is the agreement.
Speaker: We still got to get it approved.
Speaker: But yeah, it's the agreements.
Speaker: It's all conditional on if the home can get approved.
Speaker: But obviously, make sure they know it's an agreement.
Speaker: Make sure they know that's
Speaker: they should be, you know, pretty much committed at that point.
Speaker: Okay, so that's a topic for another day.
Speaker: But those are some questions you can and should be using very powerful questions.
Speaker: Okay, so I hope this helps.
Speaker: I hope this elevates the questions you ask in your clothes in your presentations.
Speaker: Let me know if you're listening to this on YouTube, would love to hear in the comments section.
Speaker: shoot me a DM, shoot us an email.
Speaker: Would love to hear what's working for you.
Speaker: If you have any questions that work well for you in the close.
Speaker: And then we probably will make a little PDF of this.
Speaker: So if you would like a copy of that, because I know it's a lot to take in.
Speaker: A lot of notes you would have to take throughout this podcast.
Speaker: So if you are interested in getting a copy of these questions and the way you can use them in your clothes, then let me know.
Speaker: We'll try to have a link for a website where you can get a copy of that either on this week or next week.
Speaker: Check in the show notes.
Speaker: If you don't see it, it'll be on next week's podcast.
Speaker: And then last thing, last episode, we had the founder and CEO of SolarScout on.
Speaker: Hopefully, y'all were able to listen to that episode with Shadi.
Speaker: But he talked about all the powerful features of SolarScout.
Speaker: So I just wanted to shoot a reminder to anyone listening to
Speaker: If you would like to have access to that and join the biggest, baddest team in California, maybe not the biggest, but the best team, most powerful team, shoot me a message or we have a link for our application in the show notes if you would like to be considered for a spot.
Speaker: on our team and get access to SolarScout and the world's top training.
Speaker: Fill out that form if you'd like to apply.
Speaker: Other than that, keep selling, keep crushing, and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
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.
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.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals
Speaker: to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
Speaker: And it's called Solcite.
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.
Speaker: Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
Speaker: So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
Speaker: This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
Speaker: We'll see you on the inside.
