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How To Save Yourself Thousands in Adder Costs
4 Plays12 minutes ago
Adders are inevitable for every install, but these costs aren't always set in stone. This episode will go through my personal experiences on how a bit of knowledgeability can help you get less adders on your installation's final bill.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you 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? 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.
Innovating Solar Sales Strategies
00:00:42
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:00:46
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. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:00:57
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. 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.
00:01:16
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Maximizing Benefits with Solar Scout
00:01:21
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:01:31
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. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:01:44
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
Understanding and Managing Solar Adders
00:01:46
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs? We're recording a podcast live from St. George, Utah, right here in front of the pool, the lagoon, little wind in the background. Hopefully it's not too crazy.
00:01:58
Speaker
But today we're goingnna be talking about how you can save yourself thousands in adder fees, right? If you've been in solar for a while, you know that sometimes there's unexpected costs that come up.
00:02:10
Speaker
Sometimes there's things that the installers hit you with that can seem ridiculous. a lot of times it's justified, but I'm going talk to you about how you can save yourself on a lot of these items.
00:02:21
Speaker
So all that and a whole lot more today. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:02:32
Speaker
We are in the summer season. i hope you're grinding. i hope you're not taking time off like I am right now. But if you are, make sure you deserve it. Right. Nothing worse than taking time off when you've had yeah you know bad week the previous week, haven't closed any any deals.
00:02:50
Speaker
So if you know you're taking time off, make sure you get that grind in so then you can relax and be fully present when you're taking time off. Today, I wanted to bring those thoughts to you and just some things that are on my mind about ah the big A word, and that's adders, right? So you you got the standard adders in Solary. You got main panel upgrades, right?
00:03:14
Speaker
Some companies, they do travel adders if they have a job that's further than their normal routes. You got trenching that can get called out. You got gas line relocations.
00:03:29
Speaker
Those can happen a lot here in San Diego where I where i sell out of. And so first of all, know your adders. and Don't go into a deal blindly. Nothing worse than selling a deal thinking you're going make a good commission on it.
00:03:44
Speaker
And then all of a sudden you see the commission report and you're hit with every adder under the book. Okay, so know what your adders are. Know the installers you're working with.
00:03:54
Speaker
And, ah you know, make sure you have fair adders, right? um There's some people that maybe have the really low baselines, low, really low red lines, but then they got just adders up the wazoo. Okay. And so sometimes um the lowest red line isn't always the best.
00:04:12
Speaker
And if you're new to solar, red line, you can you know look up some YouTube videos on this red lines, baselines. But it's essentially the cost that the installer has of them doing business. And then what we sell for above that is our commissions, right? Our profits.
00:04:30
Speaker
Okay, and so I'm going to get into some lessons that I learned. A few of them were a little bit painful. You know, a few of them, luckily I was able to save myself from losing a lot lot more money on these deals.
00:04:42
Speaker
I'm going share a couple stories and things I learned from these that hopefully can help you be more profitable in your solar journey. Okay, so the first one was I had this account installed about a year ago.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I'm not going to name who this installer was. You know, extremely frustrating. Okay. what happened with this, but we installed it. Everything was good.
00:05:05
Speaker
and then, ah you know, about a year goes by and this customer still doesn't have permission to operate. We're still not passing an inspection. We don't know what's going on. And so finally i get an email from this installer and they say, Hey, uh, we need in order to pass this inspection.
00:05:23
Speaker
Turns out we need to upgrade their main panel and we also need to do trenching. And it's been a year, right? I've already been paid out commission on this deal.
00:05:35
Speaker
Nothing more frustrating. I'm like, man, why could you guys not tell me this in the beginning? Why can we not know this before it was installed? So next thing I know, I'm getting clawed back money, all this money I'd made.
00:05:47
Speaker
um It's just a negative balance now. And just so frustrating, right? um Because it was all on them. So I'm like, why can't you guys pay for this?
00:05:59
Speaker
And they did they they are like, oh, well, we'll split the cost with you. But it was like a $18,000 adder. I think it was called out on this between trenching, between upgrading the electric panel.
00:06:11
Speaker
So stuff that they should have caught. What I did and here's what saved me a little bit is I started asking questions. Like, why send me all the details on this?
00:06:22
Speaker
And they sent me exactly what needs to be done, trenching, panel upgrade, photos, this and that. What I did is I go, okay, well, let's see if there's another contractor that can do this cheaper because it's a lot of money.
00:06:36
Speaker
So I went out, luckily had some other contacts, roofing companies I contacted, went through the photos I sent them, was able to save myself, I think about four grand that had been clawed back on this deal. Okay, so I still paid a price on this and it still was frustrating.
00:06:56
Speaker
But the lesson is because I asked some questions, Because I went and didn't just accept a fee, I went and looked at different contractors. We found someone that could do the trenching.
00:07:09
Speaker
We found someone that could save us a little bit on the panel upgrade and saved myself about $4,000. So make sure you are asking questions like this. Make sure you're getting more details. Okay, and a couple of other examples. um This was just recently, last week actually. had another installer who we sold a battery-only job down here in San Diego. We're starting to do more and more just battery-onlys. So we sold a battery-only cost the customer...
00:07:42
Speaker
I think it was 24 grand for couple of Tesla Powerwalls. We're getting ready for install on this battery. And all of a sudden they hit me with travel adder.
00:07:54
Speaker
They hit me with an extra adder for it being for the customer requesting it to be installed in the garage. And I think there's one or two others. And this was actually my first battery only install. hadn't done this before.
00:08:07
Speaker
I kind of was just like, OK, well, whatever. I guess that's how it is. But then before this got installed, luckily, I thought, you know what? I might as well just send a text to my contact from this installer. Just double check on these because it was like, you know, three thousand dollars extra adders that got put in.
00:08:24
Speaker
And, you know, I could have just went to the customer, told him he was actually writing a check just paying for this cash. So i was just going to go to the customer, but I'm like, well, let me get some more clarification on this. Texted our rep from this installation company and turns out it was a mistake. There were like two of the adders that were totally wrong on there.
00:08:43
Speaker
And so it ended up being about 1500 less than the email we originally got. Okay. So again, another example of ask more questions. Hey, um if you feel that maybe something's wrong with the adders as you're getting charged, make sure you go to your reps at whatever installer you're using.
00:09:02
Speaker
Get some clarification on it. It could be wrong. There could be different things you can do to save yourself from some old adders. Okay, and then the last example I had here is um this is an account I'm still actively working on.
00:09:17
Speaker
But another and another installer we use, they called out 12000 again for trenching for real real relocating the gas line. And this particular account, the customer, it was a small system it's like a three kilowatt system. And this customer, she had discounts with the utility. She was on like the medical discount, which they have here in San Diego.
00:09:41
Speaker
and um And $12,000 worth of adders on that, not going to be possible really in the deal. check and already It already was pretty much breaking even with what she's paying monthly. So I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going have to go to the customer, just cancel the job. There's no way she's going to want to pay $12,000 her.
00:10:02
Speaker
monthly price by a lot to cover all these costs. um And this one, I guess it doesn't have a total resolution yet. But ah again, I asked for photos. I asked for all the evidence of why they're charging exactly what they're charging so we can get clarifications. We're in an email chain. yeah I've been going back and forth for weeks. Finally, I got some photos of exactly why they're saying we need to re relocateate relocate the gas line, exactly why they're charing charging for trenching.
00:10:30
Speaker
And just yesterday, i got another email from someone else on their panel. Like I guess they have a main MPU team, panel upgrade team. And they threw out some other solutions that we would have no idea of unless we dug into those photos a little bit more. Because what I did by asking them for photos, I'm really in a way asking them to think a little bit harder like, hey, what are some other solutions we have?
00:10:57
Speaker
Hey, and um keep in mind, i amm I'm not a super technical guy, right? I don't know all the ins and outs of ah panel upgrades of all the reasons. I know the basics, right? Here in San Diego, if the gas line's within three feet of the electric panel and the panel needs an upgrade,
00:11:16
Speaker
then you need relook at the gas line because it's not going to pass the inspection. And I know that if it's 100 amp panel, i actually, have a cheat sheet with this that I refer to. Hit me up if you want a copy of it.
00:11:28
Speaker
But if it's 100 amp panel down here in San Diego, you typically can only fit um small systems on. It depends on the panel type. And, ah you know, if it's bigger than like a four or five kilowatt system, then you're probably going to need a panel upgraded with that.
00:11:43
Speaker
and So know the basics, at least i think the more you more, you know, the better. But even if you just know the basics, get yourself some references, use chat GPT, right? um Use that for everything. i pretty much replace texting our support guys with just messaging chat GPT because I can literally tell you everything.
00:12:04
Speaker
um But know the basics and then ask for more evidence, ask for what's going on. Because what happened with this particular account is they're now offering other solutions.
00:12:14
Speaker
And the other thing I did with this is I said, okay, well, maybe if these guys don't have a solution, I'm going to least check with other installers with our other installers and see if maybe they have some solutions that this that these guys didn't think of or maybe they can do it far cheaper for what's the original installation companies quoting me for the adders and so I sent the photos that I got um and of course I'm not telling that install company that's I'm sending the photos to other installers right I'm just saying hey I need this for more clarification to explain to the customer
00:12:48
Speaker
I take the photo as I send it to some other install partners and they're now giving me different solutions. um One is talking about a Hawaiian tie where it's where you can essentially control how much power is getting exported to the grid.
00:13:07
Speaker
um You know, you can go look up some of these things, Google ChatGPT. But where we we're having more solutions than what we were originally aware of.
00:13:18
Speaker
And at the very least, just because I got the photo, just because I asked questions, at the very least, I'm going to save myself a couple thousand in adders. If not, have a totally different solution just because we got some more evidence.
00:13:33
Speaker
Hey, so, um you know, I know these aren't then the most entertaining stories. Sometimes this stuff gets a little technical. But the moral of all this is ask the questions, ask for evidence, be curious, right? um Whatever clawbacks you have, whatever happens. Sometimes we have deals where we thought we're going to make one thing. We didn't make it.
00:13:56
Speaker
i remember in the beginning of my career, I just being happy with whatever money came in. Hey, but now um as I've been in this for a while, I've learned to just question everything because lot times people make mistakes.
00:14:08
Speaker
Keep in mind, a lot of a lot of these people at the install companies are hourly employees making money probably minimum wage. right So people mess up. Commissions were sent out wrong. Even if they weren't, you need clarification on why things were changed.
00:14:22
Speaker
yeah If you didn't make exactly to the penny what you thought you were going make, ask a question. right Even if it's $5 less than you thought you were going to make, why ah Understand why.
00:14:33
Speaker
you want to make sure you're getting paid what you're worth. You want to make sure you're having clarity on what adders you're being charged. A lot of times, it's mistakes on their ends. You can get those things corrected and you can help.
00:14:44
Speaker
the install company or your commissions department, whatever it is, you can help them make improvements and be better.
Introducing Solciety for Solar Professionals
00:14:52
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. 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?
00:15:03
Speaker
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00:15:26
Speaker
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