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 solarpreneur, you might ask?
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.
Speaker: Hey, what's going on, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Today, we're going to be talking about the recent Time Magazine article that just about destroyed the solar industry as we know it, or did it.
Speaker: We're going to be talking about that.
Speaker: I'm going to give you my thoughts, my reaction, and hopefully give you a little insight.
Speaker: So welcome to the show.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Whenever you're listening to this, hope you're doing awesome.
Speaker: I recently just got back from Thanksgiving, had a great time, got me a couple of deals on Black Friday.
Speaker: And good just recharging.
Speaker: Our team finished up a little competition, which I thought was genius doing a competition right before the holidays, get everyone grinding as hard as possible.
Speaker: And now I'm looking forward to just, you know, getting deals, but not having to stress about going all out like we were in this competition.
Speaker: But as I mentioned, today we're going to talk a little bit about this recent Time Magazine article.
Speaker: So you might see me if you're watching the video version, I'm going to be kind of looking back and forth at the screen here.
Speaker: Got some notes on it.
Speaker: But if you have not read it already, Time Magazine came out with this article.
Speaker: It's titled How Solar Sales Bros Threaten the Green Energy Transition.
Speaker: And it came out on November 23rd of 2023.
Speaker: Okay, so maybe you're listening to this way after then, but I think there's still some
Speaker: Interesting points for whenever you're listening to this.
Speaker: And a lot of people are freaking out if you're a member of any Facebook groups, any solar groups, which I definitely encourage.
Speaker: It's cool getting in on all the conversation there.
Speaker: A lot of people are freaking out and just saying that this article destroys the solar industry.
Speaker: And it does say some pretty harsh things about us.
Speaker: But a lot of it is true, unfortunately.
Speaker: So what I did, I broke down just kind of four main points that I had as I was reading this.
Speaker: Go read it if you haven't already.
Speaker: It's probably about a 10 minute read.
Speaker: But the author of it, her name's Alana Samuels, Samuels, something like that, Alina Samuels.
Speaker: however you pronounce it.
Speaker: She obviously did her research.
Speaker: She is a little bit biased.
Speaker: There's some things that I think she missed the mark on.
Speaker: A lot of things she did get right.
Speaker: But this article, it's obviously...
Speaker: you know, written with a little negative bias on it.
Speaker: It's just like anyone that's looking not to go solar, they're going to find reasons to not go solar.
Speaker: But anyone looking to go solar, they're going to find the reasons to go solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And Alana, in this case, she's looking for negative things about the solar industry.
Speaker: And yeah, she's going to find quite a few.
Speaker: But she is not she's not commenting at all on the flip side.
Speaker: It's obviously a very negative thing.
Speaker: Um, she doesn't really talk about anything positive that has come from solar, unfortunately.
Speaker: So just keep that in mind.
Speaker: And, um, I know some people have sent her an email might be a good thing to do.
Speaker: Um, you can see a wide range of reactions if you want to check out any of the Facebook groups.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But I'm going to give you my reactions and I divided it just in the four little thoughts I had and would love to hear your thoughts as well.
Speaker: You can hit me up on social media.
Speaker: Okay, but here's my first takeaway from it.
Speaker: Number one, especially with articles, with press, with things like this coming out, I think it's more important than ever to have social proof.
Speaker: And I talk about this a lot in the podcast.
Speaker: And if you follow me on social media, you see it.
Speaker: But things like videos, video testimonials, videos,
Speaker: references, nameless, lists of your references divided, divided up like that.
Speaker: And the reason is because as we get more publicity like this, the trust unfortunately goes down, especially for door to door folks like ourselves, like myself, maybe you're not door to door folk, but however you're prospecting.
Speaker: Articles like this do make it tougher because people hear these things and the trust goes down.
Speaker: So that's my first takeaway is more than ever, you need to be collecting this social proof.
Speaker: Nameless testimonials, videos, you've written testimonials.
Speaker: I prefer the videos.
Speaker: Just keep all this and use it in your presentations.
Speaker: because it just is getting harder and harder for people to trust guys coming up to their door or gals coming to their door.
Speaker: So that's number one.
Speaker: Number two, we all need to be careful about stretching the truth.
Speaker: And so I'm going to skip to a section.
Speaker: I think this was probably like
Speaker: paragraph known.
Speaker: So this part says the untruths salesman.
Speaker: I'm scrolling through it and there's like a bunch of ads that keep skipping my place here.
Speaker: It says the untruths salesman and they're mostly manpedal are often very similar.
Speaker: They say you can get free solar panels from the government.
Speaker: You can't.
Speaker: There are tax credits available.
Speaker: I'm quoting it right.
Speaker: Tax credits available, but they only take off about one third of the price.
Speaker: They say you can eliminate your energy bills and become independent from the power company.
Speaker: They say panels will be hooked up in a matter of weeks and they work and the sales reps work for the local utility and that they are not even actually selling anything, but are instead that they're not selling anything, but instead energy consultants whose job is to look at customer utility bills and see if solar is a good fit for their home.
Speaker: Okay, so let's break that down a little bit.
Speaker: So she just mentions four
Speaker: kind of stretches that people say.
Speaker: And I think probably if, if we haven't said this ourselves, we've all heard people who have made these statements.
Speaker: It's the first one you can get free solar panels from the government.
Speaker: Hey, I used to say this all the time.
Speaker: So this is something that we need to eliminate from our vocabulary.
Speaker: Solar is never free.
Speaker: So she, I think she hit the nail on the head right there.
Speaker: We need to watch it when we're saying free.
Speaker: And I've noticed over the years, I think that used to work more in the beginning out here in California where I'm at.
Speaker: But over the years, I see free almost like triggering people that they listen less because they start to think of it's free.
Speaker: It's a scam.
Speaker: Nothing's free.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So how about changing that with like no out of pocket costs?
Speaker: You don't pay anything to put them up there.
Speaker: Just eliminating the word free.
Speaker: Hey, cause we never, yeah, it's not free, right?
Speaker: Whether we're selling it, whether we're doing loans, leases, PPAs, it's not free.
Speaker: Hey, and then the second one, she says they, they say you can eliminate your energy bills and become independent from the power company.
Speaker: And so this one, I think, um, you know, it kind of depends on the market right here.
Speaker: So I think for the author, Alina, um,
Speaker: because she goes on to say it's unlikely without a solar battery.
Speaker: It's like every utility is a little bit different.
Speaker: So I think this kind of depends on the utility, right?
Speaker: So it's a good reminder for us, research the net metering laws, whatever utility you're in, like what are you actually going to eliminate when people go solar and make sure you're making accurate statements about this.
Speaker: So I think she left a little bit out when it comes to that.
Speaker: It's going to kind of depend on the market.
Speaker: The third one, she says, they say the panels will be hooked up in a matter of weeks.
Speaker: Okay, and here again, I think Elena, like, in some cases, they can be hooked up in a matter of weeks.
Speaker: I've had installs as quick as 10 days before.
Speaker: So yeah, you shouldn't say they're gonna be installed and turned on and everything, because that's probably very unlikely.
Speaker: But Elena, she leaves out a little bit of details on this.
Speaker: And then she says that they work for the local utility.
Speaker: I've never heard of solar guys working for the utility.
Speaker: So that's another thing I've heard guys say, no, we work in conjunction with the utility.
Speaker: Just be careful.
Speaker: Like I've noticed, yeah, you can say words that aren't lying, but like the closer you're saying, if you're saying we're working in conjunction with the local utility, you just need to be careful, especially with older folks, because a lot of times they aren't listening and they perceive that you are actually working for the utility.
Speaker: And then when they found out you're not, guess what?
Speaker: They feel like you lied to them.
Speaker: because that's what they perceive.
Speaker: Even though he didn't come say, hey, I work with your utility, right?
Speaker: So hopefully none of us are saying we work for the local utility, but that is a good point.
Speaker: We need to be careful about, you know, being perceived as that.
Speaker: And then the last one she mentions is that we're not actually selling anything, but are instead energy consultants whose job is to look at customers' utility bills to see if solar is a good fit for their home.
Speaker: So yeah, this is one.
Speaker: Like, yeah, it's kind of a gray area.
Speaker: I get I get what she's, you know, concerned about here.
Speaker: But for me, like our job at the door, we shouldn't be selling solar at all.
Speaker: And so, yeah, should they know that we are there, that that is our job?
Speaker: We are, you know, solar salespeople.
Speaker: Hopefully they understand that.
Speaker: But at the same time, I think this is a bit of a gray area because, you
Speaker: I'm not selling anything at a door.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm selling an appointment to help them learn more about solar.
Speaker: But they should never think that we are there to sell them solar at the door.
Speaker: It's going to create pressure.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, yeah, I understand Elena here, but I think there is more to the story than what she's brought up.
Speaker: And this is where, you know, that negative bias comes in.
Speaker: All right, so that's takeaway number two.
Speaker: Just be careful about stretching the truth.
Speaker: All right, and number three, she talks about how people, like at all costs, are trying to get the cell.
Speaker: See if I can remember where she put that.
Speaker: Okay, so this is the next section down.
Speaker: But she says the gurus online don't talk much about the benefits of renewable energy.
Speaker: Instead, they highlight how much money salespeople can make.
Speaker: They also advertise a flat frat like atmosphere where a community of peers will cheer you on and fist bump you as they sell solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, yeah, guess what?
Speaker: That's that atmosphere is what hypes people up.
Speaker: You got to have some excitement, right?
Speaker: But yeah, I think here we need to care about the benefits people are getting by going solar.
Speaker: It's not all about the money.
Speaker: right?
Speaker: And unfortunately, there are people that they care more about their paycheck than actually helping someone.
Speaker: And I feel it's a little bit different for me out here in Southern California.
Speaker: We have the highest rates in the country.
Speaker: And so out here, there are very few people that won't save money by going solar and that won't greatly benefit.
Speaker: But I understand, especially in other markets I've been in, recently I did a blitz to Idaho and
Speaker: I've sold systems in Utah.
Speaker: I've been out in Texas a little bit.
Speaker: And out there, you get these homes where there's a lot more trees than California.
Speaker: Um, and the rates are way lower.
Speaker: There's people, they're mostly all loans out there.
Speaker: I think they're starting to be more leases, PPAs.
Speaker: Um, but for a long time, there were only loans.
Speaker: So that prevents a few more issues compared to California, right?
Speaker: Some people are not going to get these tax credits.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Some people have way too much shading.
Speaker: They're bigger systems.
Speaker: So sometimes you need to stack panels on north facing roof.
Speaker: So I think we just need to be trained and train our people that sometimes we should walk away from a cell and
Speaker: If you got grandma Betty there, she's 85 years old.
Speaker: She's not going to get a tax credit and her average bill is only $80 in Texas.
Speaker: And yeah, maybe that's someone you should walk away from, right?
Speaker: That'd be a stretch even in California, but Texas, probably not.
Speaker: You're probably not going to sell that person, right?
Speaker: So care more about the person you
Speaker: than your paycheck, right?
Speaker: Know when to walk away from a cell.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And last but not least, the final just takeaway that I got, there's probably a lot more takeaways we could go through, but just to not keep this going all day is I think we should all be listening to our team and listening to ourselves.
Speaker: That's why I'm a big fan of recording myself at the door in presentations and
Speaker: And having others on my team do so as well and coach them.
Speaker: Because I know I've been guilty of saying things that I didn't think was misrepresenting.
Speaker: I thought I was being completely upfront.
Speaker: But then I've shown recordings.
Speaker: I've had other people listen through.
Speaker: And they're like, you probably should be careful saying this.
Speaker: That's not exactly true.
Speaker: Hey, a lot of times we're saying things that's in our head.
Speaker: It's 100% the truth.
Speaker: We're not stretching anything.
Speaker: But I think it benefits everyone when we all hold each other accountable to having ethics as much as possible.
Speaker: So these are just a few of the takeaways I had from this article.
Speaker: I don't think it's going to destroy the solar industry, but it should be a good reminder for us that we need to be as ethical as possible.
Speaker: We need to hold ourselves to a high standard in this industry.
Speaker: Last thing we want is just extreme regulations coming.
Speaker: It probably is coming.
Speaker: Hey, but we don't want to accelerate this.
Speaker: We want to keep as much honor as possible in solar.
Speaker: We're going to be as ethical as possible.
Speaker: And we want to help others do the same.
Speaker: If I know if if we do that, I know we're all going to make more money.
Speaker: We're all going to be perceived much better as an industry as a whole.
Speaker: And it's going to be a lot easier to knock doors and not have people freak out, make our lives a lot harder.
Speaker: Okay, so let me know your thoughts.
Speaker: Let me know your takeaways.
Speaker: And next episode, you're not going to want to miss out on.
Speaker: We've got one of the OGs, one of the greats of the door knocking industry, Jeff Mendes, Poppy Mendes, himself coming on.
Speaker: Incredible episode that we shot last week over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Speaker: So make sure you tune into that.
Speaker: He's going to tell his secrets, how he grew Vivint to be a massive organization that eventually sold for
Speaker: tons of money as we know and he's just gonna share like his secrets to success keep killing it go out and get some sales today and we'll see you on the next one peace out
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
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