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Lessons Learned From Blitzing With The Best - Jacob Murawski
232 Plays16 days ago
Jacob Murawski is on today's podcast to give us a peek at his mastery of the blitz model. Working closely with Melissa Romiza, who has been on the show before, they lead a team that knows and consistently iterates upon the fundamentals while maintaining a competitive edge. With this model, they create a team that thrives in a tightly-knit culture and abundance in growth.
CLICK HERE: https://apply.solarpreneurs.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Journey
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. I 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 fell.
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.
Meet Jacob Murawski and the Blitz Model
00:00:41
Speaker
Hi, what's up everybody? I'm excited for today's podcast. It's been a long time coming. We got a good friend, good buddy of mine coming on the show with today, Mr. Jacob Murawski. He is a manager over at at Glide, works with Melissa Ramiza and a bunch of killers over there. Absolutely um just killing it with the Blitz model. So ah yeah, man, thanks for coming on with us and excited to jam a little bit here with you today. Dude, it's an honor to be here. I've been listening to your podcast probably for the last five years. I think 90% of my morning meetings have been ran based on your podcast. So it's seriously, it's really cool to be here and do this with you.
00:01:23
Speaker
Love it. And no, I'm super grateful for you and because you're you're one guy that's probably out of all the listeners. You're one of the guys that sent me like encouragement and sent me takeaways from podcast episodes that you've listened to. So yeah, just big shout out to you for um you know helping me stay motivated, continue the podcast because it's cool because...
00:01:43
Speaker
You know, sometimes I get in my head and I'm like, oh, it's maybe it's just like brand new people that are listening to podcast or guys that don't know very much yet. But ah you're someone that I see is crushing it in sales and business and life and yet still listen to podcasts. So I love it, bro. And really grateful for you for, you know, cheering on the podcast and being a big supporter. One of my favorite quotes I always tell my guys is, i don't even remember where I read it, but it said, if you can learn from the past and apply it to your present, you'll look like a genius.
Learning from Industry Experts
00:02:14
Speaker
When in reality, all you are is just a clever borrower. I'm just a clever borrower. I've watched... hundreds of hours of Taylor McCarthy, Melissa Ramiza, Danny Pesci. I've listened to probably every single one of your podcasts. I'm just always trying to absorb and like take a little bit, and whatever zingers you have or whatever, like how can I get more referrals or how can I make my guys a better knocker? Like those things I think is the only way we get better as we continue to learn from people. No, so true. And that's definitely a principle that I try to live by too, is just not reinventing the wheel. Tony Robbins talks about that is, you know, success leaves clues, right? And you just need to go copy the person that already did it.
00:02:58
Speaker
Like we don't need to go invent this crazy word track or create our own presentation. It's just go, there's tons of resources and just go, yeah, get with a good company, get with some savages, people you can learn from. you know very likely that you're going have success too if you do those things. so yeah hundred percent yeah i I try to point out there's there's nothing special about me. There's probably been plenty of other overqualified people that have been on this podcast. I'm not the best sales rep or the best door-to-door rep. i just I'm a hard worker and I'm always trying to learn. Same, same. Well, I can definitely relate to that. That's why I started the podcast is to learn from people. Yeah. Learn from people that were maybe one step ahead of me. That's cool. But yeah, man, you've had a lot of success in your career too. So um we're here to talk about... um
00:03:46
Speaker
um a lot of the things you have done to have success in your career up
Jacob's Journey to Success
00:03:52
Speaker
to this point. So yeah do you want to give us just the, yeah you know, reader dig digest version, how you got into door to door, how you got into solar and what you've been up to up to this point?
00:04:02
Speaker
So this was post-COVID. Actually, fiancรฉ at the time, she was paying all of our bills. I think I had like just turned 30. i was kind of like, I started to feel like less of a man that I wasn't paying bills and I was just living off unemployment checks. My fiancรฉ, she's a hard worker. She's always doing something any way she can to make some extra money. So she on top of the job she already had, she would take Instacart orders.
00:04:30
Speaker
So we came up with this strategy where she would take two orders. I would do one. She would do the other. And then we'd go deliver them and we'd be able to make double the money.
00:04:41
Speaker
And one day we were walking up to this grocery store and I saw this guy that I knew from the gym. and he was walking out with flowers. And I just asked him, like, oh, what's up, man? Are you in the doghouse? And he was like, no, I just came back from a blitz. I miss Valentine's Day. that he proceeded to tell me he made $20,000 on this blitz. And my initial mindset was like, get out of here with your pyramid scheme. You know, like I was immediately in like fight or flight mode.
00:05:10
Speaker
ah But luckily, my fiance, one of the girls she worked with, her man worked in solar. They had just bought a house. They built it from ah from the ground up. And so to me, I was kind of like, well, worst case scenario, I go on this free trip to Orlando, Florida.
00:05:25
Speaker
The company I first started with, it was called Smart Energy Today. You actually had um a James Wood. James Wood did a podcast with you. Oh, yeah. man Yeah, he was i he was my first leader. What they had was special. It was honestly, it was it's what got me to this point. And my whole blitzing model that I have now, I just duplicated from what they showed me.
00:05:50
Speaker
ah But we started with Smart Energy Today. That was one of the five companies that merged to create Lumio. The sales team we had was cool, but you know we merged with an installer that wasn't delivering.
00:06:04
Speaker
And so little by little, I started to lose conviction about what it what it what it was that I was doing.
Starting True South and Ethical Practices
00:06:10
Speaker
And so I ended up leaving. i went to a company in Vegas because i I live in Vegas. And I started working with a company called SunSource.com. I pretty much, I just came in and I created their Blitz model.
00:06:23
Speaker
So I was the regional. We didn't have a lot of local setters. I always had a tough time getting people to work. I tried to make the market work, but people wouldn't get out on the doors and actually put in the hours.
00:06:35
Speaker
And on Blitz, I knew i could say, hey, we have meeting at this time. ah Don't be late and don't be the first one home. And so it it gave me more the ability to send people out and hold them accountable.
00:06:49
Speaker
so I was with SunSource for a while. i eventually felt like I kind of outgrew my role there. I wanted more. And I left to work with a company and Austin that was very short lived. won't dive too far into it, but it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
00:07:09
Speaker
So I very quickly realized this is not for me. And at that point, I kind of felt like I just wanted to start my own thing. I knew that I had come across people in the industry that maybe didn't have the same code of ethics that I did, were just kind of sitting on the back burner and just like collecting money.
00:07:28
Speaker
And I didn't like that concept. You know, I wanted to be around people that everyone was contributing. making money from that. And so I started my own dealer. It was called True South. At that point, I really just believed like I will start my own dealer because anyone I work with, I'm going to I'm going vet them. I'm going to make sure that they have a moral compass. They do things with the code of ethics. They're hardworking. They're not negative. I blitzed a ton of different markets, but we were in Albuquerque at the time.
00:07:54
Speaker
And then we ran into some troubles out there as well. Just part of solar. Went to Door2DoorCon, and that's where I actually met you face to face. Went to Door2DoorCon.
00:08:06
Speaker
I kept hearing about these virtual power plants in Texas. Everyone was talking about virtual power plants and how solar and batteries was the new wave. I knew that my team was kind of burnt out in New Mexico. They needed new scenery. So I was like, let's go to Texas. While I was at Door2DoorCon, Melissa actually ran a workshop that was how to run the perfect blitz. I went to this workshop. It's funny because we had a leadership retreat and they were just talking about this.
00:08:33
Speaker
I sat in the very front row, like right in the dead center. All of the other leaders that work with Melissa, They when they got there, they're like, ah hey, these are our seats. And I was like, oh, OK, my bad. And I moved back to one row and I let them sit there. And so this year I was like, is it cool if I sit with you guys? it's funny Because last year I got the boot after I heard. You should have made them move to the back row.
00:08:58
Speaker
Should have been like getting the second row. It says Myron. Dude, yeah. It was hilarious. But after I heard Melissa speak, I realized that we ran very, very similar blitzes. Very similar. Like everything she said, I'm like, i do that. I do that. Everything she said. And so afterwards, I had been following her for a long time, too.
00:09:18
Speaker
I went and introduced myself. Super down to earth, just normal person. And so while I was in Houston, my first blitz of the year, I think this was like in March, February, March,
00:09:29
Speaker
We were struggling. I had tried to use, like over the last six years, I've used the same door pitch every market I've ever been to with a few adjustments, but the same framework.
00:09:40
Speaker
And it just wasn't working. In Houston, these people had already heard it. And so we weren't getting enough time to actually get through our full pitch and set appointments. So we had a terrible blitz, but while I was out there, Melissa posted on her story and said, have a few more spots for my blitz. Fill out the jot form them if you want to join.
00:10:00
Speaker
And so i i I shot her a DM. Hey, how would you feel about me coming on your blitz? Full transparency, not going to join your team. Just want to learn from you. Want to be able to take whatever I get from you guys and bring it back to my guys.
00:10:15
Speaker
And to my surprise, her response was like, yeah, let's do it. I was a little thrown off by that because I think in this industry, we tend to like, I don't want to share with you, you know, like i don't want to share my sauce, what's working for us. I don't want to share it with my competitors. But she was an open book and hindsight, I think she knew what she was doing.
00:10:34
Speaker
She knew that once she got me in the room and she saw like and and once I saw what they had operating that I wouldn't want to leave. Really, that's that's what happened. You know, i I have to say, like, Melissa has become like family to me.
00:10:51
Speaker
i think I lost hope in the industry. And that's why I started my own dealer because I didn't trust anybody and I felt like everyone was trying to use you, everyone was trying to sell you. And after I went on that blitz, I realized, okay, there are still good people in this industry.
Roles and Success at Glide
00:11:07
Speaker
There are still good teams. every one of the leaders on that team if they didn't have an appointment they were like hey drop me a pin uh like i'm going to come knock with you everyone was contributing i didn't feel like anyone was just sitting at the top collecting money after i blitzed with her i didn't at that point commit to joining took everything she gave me and i brought it to my guys we tripled our production so from one blitz where we did terrible to the next blitz after me blitzing with melissa we tripled our production
00:11:37
Speaker
And we started running into some hiccups with the installer we were working with. And so that's where I really started opening the door with Melissa where I was like, you know, hey, what would it look like if we worked together? i don't know if it's ego or what it is. i You know, I always try to check myself and check my train of thoughts. But I didn't really want to come in and work under somebody again, like feel like I had to work my way back up. When I talked to her, it was just like she was, ah you know, I kind of said, i was like, well, how would you feel about us being partners?
00:12:14
Speaker
And she was like, let's do it. And, you know, somebody that had followed for a long time, I just was realistically, I was confused. To this day, I'm like, what's the catch? I'm still waiting for there to be like something wrong, you know?
00:12:27
Speaker
um But honestly, like changed my life for the better. She cares more about her leaders and the people that work with her than she does her own self. And so, you know, this has become a home for me. We just came back from a leadership retreat retreat and I just feel very connected to all the other leaders like they're my family. You know, we have a very strong core group. we all butt heads but you know we're able to work through it so here i am now um melissa and i we we try to alternate alternate our blitzes so last year while she brought her team out uh i would be at home it was like a two weeks on two weeks off schedule but
00:13:05
Speaker
While she's here, I'm at home. When she's leaving, i would come in. you know She has a a crazy network of people that know her. So she's constantly recruiting and you know blitz states don't align for her. So they're like, well, hey, this is one of our other teams. You can go on his blitz. So she's been recruiting for me as well. Yeah, we try to operate the same on both sides. So here I am with Glide. This will be coming up on one year.
00:13:29
Speaker
i don't think I'm going anywhere. this is ah um I'm happy I finally found my home. It's awesome. And Melissa, she's always been um super abundant minded. That's one thing I love about her is, um you know, we did a podcast with her. i think it was two, three months back now. Just like you're saying, she didn't hold back. You know, I have some guests on the show where I can tell they're kind of They're kind of giving cookie cutter answers when I know that they could go way deeper, but it's just they don't want to that like kind of want to tease it. So people maybe go work with them. But Melissa, she's not like that at all. She'll tell you exactly what's working. She'll tell you exactly what you guys do on the Blitzes. And even after we ended the podcast, I remember she's like, hey, if you guys, if you want any of our systems, Taylor, like, you know, training materials, let me know. Happy to send it out. And I'm like, wow, not only she's telling me, she's literally like offering to share training materials and, and like specific, I don't know, yeah software. Yeah, specific things you guys are using. So yeah, it's really cool. And, um you know, I think it's come back and you guys have been more successful because of it. And I always believe that too, if you think abundantly. um Yeah, maybe there's some people out there that will go implement. But the truth is, most people won't even implement what you're saying.
00:14:42
Speaker
We were just talking about before this how you used to be a personal trainer and 99.9% wouldn't even follow the advice you're giving them on personal training. yeah So I think that's one thing a lot of people aren't even going to implement. But those that do, it's like it's it's going to help you increase your credibility. And then a lot of people, just like you've done, um I think by being in abundance, you'll attract people that want to come work with you instead of trying to go against you, which is exactly what happened with you, and Melissa. So it's really cool to see.
00:15:10
Speaker
No,
Industry Changes and Ethical Practices
00:15:11
Speaker
100%. And it's funny because i was just talking to Ashton about this, Ashton Bushwell. We actually were running our Mega Blitz almost in the same area as he was in Houston. I think Legacy was out there in Houston, kind of bumping into each other. And I was like, dude, it'd be so cool if you came and you ran a training. And he was like, well, I don't know. That's conflict of interest. But you know The reality is, i think things are getting more and more regulated. you know There's welcome calls that are required and like face videos that have to be done in order for a project to go through. We're starting to weave out some of the bad apples. I think it leaves the good people, the people who have done things with the code of ethics. And you and I both know there's plenty to go around. you know We should always sharpen each other's sword and you know not hide things because I think it's good for the industry as a whole.
00:16:04
Speaker
But yeah, man, I'm curious. So you said that, you know, a lot of the stuff that Melissa does on blitzes, a lot of the stuff she trains about, you were already doing in your
Understanding the Blitz Model
00:16:14
Speaker
blitzes. So I'm curious, what was it when you went and blitz with her um What did you see that was maybe different? Because, you know, you mentioned you already were doing a lot of the things. Was there anything specific? They're like, okay, I can see why she's having a a little bit more success on her blitzes or anything that kind of like led you to ultimately...
00:16:32
Speaker
go work with her instead of just taking it and going and applying it on your own team. One of the things that was really cool was like it's equal opportunity. So anybody who wants to come in and be a closer, they can. We have metrics for that where it's like You have to set to the close. You have to set to, and this is if you're like a veteran in solar, you're coming from another company. If you're new, the metrics are a little bit different, but you have to set to the close and then you have to set to that you sit in on in close. And then you have to self-gen two clean deals. And then we open up the calendar for you to be able to take setter leads. What I really like, like they have it set up to where the setter picks the closer.
00:17:15
Speaker
Because one of my bottlenecks that I had was I had to assign the calendar every night. And sometimes I would get a closer like, dude, come on, you're giving me all the the bad appointments. Or how come that person gets all the good appointments? And I always tried to...
00:17:32
Speaker
Even the playing field, I'd literally always, that you know, there's going to be some appointments that some people don't want to take, but someone has to take. You know, we got to go try and get ourselves in the door.
00:17:43
Speaker
um So I think, one, it was really cool to see that the setter picks the closer because then it holds the closer to a higher standard. You know, you better close at a high clip and you better have a low cancellation or that setter is going to stop picking you.
00:17:59
Speaker
And it also means that like, if you don't have appointments on the calendar, well, you better probably get out there and create some relationships with the setters, you know, get out there and work with them. And that way they'll start picking you. And so I really liked the way that they did the calendar. Like for myself, I came in and I'd been running my own dealer. i had been a leader for a long time. i hadn't been closing because I always try to prioritize my closers and then just go and help the setters. So I hadn't closed for a long time. But when Melissa allowed me to come on her blitz, she was like, hey, just so you know, you have to come in as a setter.
00:18:34
Speaker
And there was no skipping the line. Like, it doesn't matter how good you are. doesn't matter what you've accomplished. You come in and, you know, you you prove yourself. And I love that mindset because, And there's a there's a clip with Sam Taggart. I forget the other guy's name, but, you know, I think we're in this time and place where people are like, I'm a closer, I'm a closer. And it's like, no, I'm not even going to say the word, but like, no, you're just he is a slander. He's like, you're just waiting around for leads. For Sam to say that really resonated with me. And it's in his book where he talks about eat what you kill. You know, you have your closers who roll out of bed. You got any leads for me?
00:19:14
Speaker
no Okay, I'm going to go back to bed. So the system that she had with just the appointments, I think was the best. Really, the biggest game changer was their door approach. It was just like nothing you had ever heard. It caught people's attention immediately.
00:19:28
Speaker
a new level of pain. They're really good at staying up to date with the pain and figuring out ways to talk about it. So between the script and the way they assign the calendar. And then the last one is um the incentives. Dude, I'm so bad at incentives. For me, I'm like, the $3,000 that you make from knocking the door, that's not an incentive enough. Yeah. But she's so good at coming up with incentives where she will she'll pick two captains and they have to draft their team in private.
00:20:00
Speaker
And then those teams go up against each other. And then there there's there's the point system, you know a same day sale. If you drop off a gift to one of the homeowners you signed up, you get a point. There's a ton of really cool things that it just keeps people in a constant competition. Yeah, no, incentives definitely a thing that's overlooked sometimes. But that's what I see in top managers, top leaders is their incentives. It's like an art form. They know when to drop them.
00:20:26
Speaker
They know how to get people bought into them. And yeah, it's definitely ah ah an art for sure. But yeah, you mentioned with ah signing... the appointment so the setters can pick their closers. Do you guys get any pushback on that? or like i don't Because I know they're in Blitzes, there's people that come. They're like, I'm bringing my setters and they're going to set for me. Just set that expectation for everybody or do you get any pushback from people that come with, I don't know, newer guys where they're expecting to be their setters or anything? How do you handle that? To be honest, I think we've we've possibly missed out on some people that could have a valuable asset to the team ah because we don't really let anyone skip the line. To me, it's kind of one of those things where it's like I kind of want to bring more people in who have that like
00:21:12
Speaker
I'm willing to prove myself mentality because after doing this for so long, and I'm sure you've seen it too, like people come from other companies and they tell you about all these, you know, accolades that they've accomplished. But then once they show up and they're on your team, they're not delivering like they said they did.
00:21:31
Speaker
You're like, wait, I thought you were this really good closer. You know, and so we don't want to chance any of the setters money. So we do keep the same metric in place. If you are the closer that you say you are, then you would have no problem going out and setting two that close and then you sit in on two more that close and then you have all the tools that you would need to close and have closed in Texas. It's it's a whole nother ballgame. You know, this is no longer a solo proposal that you get back in 10 minutes. A lot of the setters, ah they're like, well, i want to be a closer. We show them everything that's you know required to become a closer. And they're like, you know what? I'm cool with my 50 percent just setting appointments. Because yeah um it's ah it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of pressure. you know um So we may have lost out on some people last year, but we want people who have that mindset that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be a part of this team, go through and just just follow the systems and processes that we have in place. Not because we want to restrict anyone, but, you know, out of respect for the people who are here too.
00:22:40
Speaker
You know, we can't make, um we can't make exceptions because that's where people start to get upset and they leave. you guys, ah if people want to stay a setter, are they allowed to stay a setter? Because I know some companies are about, you know, promoting to closer as quick as possible.
00:22:55
Speaker
you guys have any like um progression like that? Or just like if they want to progress, they can. If not, they can stay a setter. Doesn't really matter. Dude, I love knocking doors. I'm still a setter at heart. I haven't closed a deal in Texas in probably a year. I'm going to start getting back in the home, but um i encourage people to stay setters. I've gotten four deals in a day just setting.
00:23:22
Speaker
I've never done four deals in a day as a closer because you can have a five to 10 minute interaction with somebody, set an appointment, go next door, have another five to 10 minute interaction.
00:23:33
Speaker
And you know you can have more interactions that you're able to set appointments, set it and forget it. You don't have to deal with all the back end stress, people calling you, you know upset, cancellations, all that. It's like, dude, right I'm just going to focus on what's in front of me. It's it's a little less ah stressful. So yeah, we have a ton of people who are just happy with setting.
00:23:54
Speaker
They have no interest in closing. And we always encourage that because to me, I think setters make this whole thing go round. Right. Yeah, no, setters for sure. um i'd say the most valuable because without the set appointments, closers doesn't have any job. And um yeah, um I think some companies put too much emphasis on progressing people to close too quick.
00:24:19
Speaker
um But you know I can see both sides of it. um you know My current company legacy, there's there's some people that maybe they should progress because they've been setting too long. And then you know they've got other people that need to start setting under them.
00:24:33
Speaker
and then I think sometimes it can cause maybe a bottleneck, um particularly in like a year-round program.
Challenges in Closing Sales Today
00:24:39
Speaker
and yeah i think sometimes maybe people should progress as setters. But at the end of the day, there's some people too that are just going to be better setters. and um And they'll make more money as a setter than they will as a closer. don't know. I've just seen maybe personality types or whatever.
00:24:57
Speaker
um I think everyone can learn the skill, but um at least out here, man, I've just been surprised with how much more difficult it's gotten to like organize things as a closer.
00:25:09
Speaker
i don't know if you'd relate to this, but I remember five years ago in Seoul, you could just close a deal and then... you know kind of forget about it it would get installed three four weeks later and that was that yeah but for us california man it's like let's say you can't just sign it and forget about it you got to be like yeah you know following up with the installer you got to make sure all the docs are in place um you got to be giving updates to the customers it's just gotten um to be a lot more work to uh get the things installed than it was in the past would you would you say it's the same in texas do you think it's more work than it used to be
00:25:42
Speaker
Oh yeah. Especially, um you know, when the project has a discrepancy in production and we have to get change orders signed, um, and really just communicating with homeowners, because if you don't talk to them for, you know, a period of time, sometimes they get cold feet and that's where you lose deals. So, um, and we, we have our pay set up to where we have our standard pay and then we have our vet pay, um,
00:26:10
Speaker
we have metrics you have to hit in order to be on vet pay. It's a 50-50 split on vet pay. you know So you get paid the same amount of money that the closer does to go out and knock a door. So that's kind of why people stay there. I think if you're in a system where maybe the pay is more for a closer than it is for a setter, then it's like, okay, well, yeah, you want to progress, but I'm more in the mindset that the setter should make more than the closer, you know, like a 60-40 split, because I would argue the setters have it harder than the closers, you know, and i'd I would rather incentivize setters to stay setters and the elite level closers just have a full calendar every day. Like I would take 40% commission if I had an appointment at nine, appointment at 11, appointment at one, appointment at three, appointment at five appointment at seven they're all qualified they're all expecting me like you would make crazy money if your calendar looked like that so i've been in that mindset but at the same time you know what do the other leaders agree on and so i just i was like okay whatever you guys do let's let's do that but let's get paid 50 50 here yeah yeah i like that
00:27:21
Speaker
What about ah do you guys have the setters and participate quite a bit in like, you know, post sell stuff? Because I know some teams, they get their setters pretty involved with the customer after the sale. But there's some teams where it's like the closer is just going to do all the post work, communicate with the customer.
00:27:37
Speaker
um i think Melissa mentioned you guys have some, ah you know, like assistants or people that help communicate with customers and everything. But yeah, what does that look like for you guys? We have, do you know Jens? He's ah like a mindset mentor.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. i'm actually so Actually, it's funny. I was on a call with him this morning. funny Oh, dude. Jens is awesome. He came and spoke at our our leadership a retreat, but his his wife, London, she oversees and helps us with all of our projects. We try not to have the setters worry about it too much. you know I think one of the perks of being a setter is that you can set it and forget it.
00:28:17
Speaker
you know like I think people like having less stress in their life, so we try not to involve them unless they want to be. um and We try to make sure that the closer, that's their responsibility and they're staying on top of it.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. That's good. Yeah, man. Well, so I know you're ah sounds like pretty involved in, um you know, training the setters and everything, Jacob. So what are most Melissa, she talked about some of this in her podcast. so we'll definitely link to her podcast as well. So guys can listen to it if you haven't already. But yeah, what what does it look like for you? Are you training?
00:28:53
Speaker
lot of the new setters. um I know you said sometimes you're given similar trainings over and over a lot because you guys are getting a lot of new setters through the door. But yeah, what is your role look like? And maybe what's some of the best training tips you have for training new setters and and new guys coming in the doors for these blitzes?
Training and Team Culture
00:29:12
Speaker
I think what's really cool is that like we all work collectively on everything that we do. So anytime we're going to go on Blitz, we run pre-Blitz trainings um and we have leaders who are more targeted towards working with the setters. And then we have leaders who are more targeted towards working with the closers. So we all step in. It's not like one does more than the other.
00:29:36
Speaker
um And then we actually have a training calendar that gets organized before each blitz. So um last year we ran two mega blitzes and we were just alternating on who was going to take care of you know each day's training.
00:29:52
Speaker
um But when I'm running my half of the blitz, um and to clarify, we ran mega blitzes last year because of Christmas and Thanksgiving. So Melissa and I just joined our teams and we ran big blitzes. Now we're kind of back in our alternating blitz mode.
00:30:08
Speaker
When I'm running my blitz, I pretty much run most of the trainings. I have ah two other people that we've brought in. One of my guys, he's been with me for a long time and we move them up to leaders. I will have them run at least one or two trainings every blitz. Just to kind of hold them accountable and make sure that they're ah working on self-development, they have fresh content, and ideally, hopefully they run their own team someday.
00:30:37
Speaker
But um the reason I'm so engaged in all this content is because it's hard to come up with a new training every single day. you know Something that's really going to resonate with people and get them excited to go out there and knock the doors and help sharpen their sword and check their mental state. And so I'm always i'm always ah deep into um some sort of audible or some podcast. But um I have trained hundreds of reps to this point. And as you know, people come and go.
00:31:10
Speaker
And over the years, I've started to notice there is... eight things that I think are most important. And I just randomly came up with them. I call them the eight knocking principles. Again, I'm a clever borrower. Most of this stuff you might have read in another book or you might have heard from Sam Taggart even from from you and your podcast. But um even with my top reps, I've seen my top reps. Like I have one of my guys who's been one of my best setters for a long time. His name's Tyler. It's so funny how i come out, I'll go out with him and I'll knock with him and I'll be like, hey, did you notice that you're using uptones? Or did you notice that you forgot to try to build rapport there?
00:31:54
Speaker
Or did you notice that you're talking too fast? And then he's like, oh, shoot, you're right. I'll fix him. And then the very next blitz, he'll be like, dude, can you come knock with me again? And I'll go out and I'll be like, dude, hey, did you forget that you're using uptones? Hey, did you forget your rapport? So it's always one of these eight things when I've gone out and knocked with people because I'm always in the field. I try to get out and knock with every setter on the team.
00:32:20
Speaker
It's always one of these eight things. And so I put them down. And the goal here is that even if you're a veteran, you would listen to these eight knocking principles and you would grade yourself on a scale of one to 10. If you're struggling, if you're on the doors and you're not getting the success you were two weeks ago, well, now I need to go and check what is it? It's almost always one small thing that you're missing.
00:32:44
Speaker
It's one small thing that you forgot. And the problem is, is that reps tend to abort their process completely and start a new one versus realizing it was one small tweak. You know, like you're just you're just messing up on this one step. So eight knocking principles is number one is your presentation.
00:33:05
Speaker
I live and die by scripts. And I've probably listened to The Way of the Wolf 30 different times. I think that it's probably one of the most important books you could read when you're first getting into door to door sales.
00:33:18
Speaker
Because it really makes you understand the psychology of why you should follow a process. You want to know the words that are coming out of your mouth before you even say them, because then you're able to control the conversation and you're able to ensure that the best possible words come out of your mouth every single time. Yeah. um So know your script word for word.
00:33:42
Speaker
ah My first Blitz, I didn't get a script. And ah so I went out there and I was free i was freestyling. And yeah really, I struggled. Yeah.
00:33:52
Speaker
And ideally, the goal is to learn from others so that you don't have to struggle through it. Right. And I had to struggle through it. So it was the best possible way that I could learn because there was a lot of trial and error.
00:34:07
Speaker
But for new reps, the goal is they don't have to go through that and then we can speed up their learning curve. And the way that we do that is we hand them a script. And we're at the point where it's like, hey, if you don't know this script come day one, we're buying you a bus ticket home.
00:34:20
Speaker
Oh, wow. and yes That's good. it's It's aggressive, right? But if they don't know their script, then I have to pour into them even more. And it takes away from me being able to go out and help the people who actually took the time to memorize the script.
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah. If you don't know your words and you show up on Blitz, you're going to feel paralyzed because you're just like, oh, my God, like there's so much more to learn. And I don't even know my words. I'm freestyling, you know, so. Yeah.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, well, and so... Go ahead. and Yeah, I know you sent me some slides. Maybe, ah yeah, i don't i don't know if you're willing, but maybe if people want to, and you know, get a copy of some of your slides, we get a we could share those in the notes too, Jacob. I'm happy to share this with everyone.
00:35:10
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. I know you guys are abundant. But yeah, another question I had, and then yeah, we can get into a few more of the eight tips do you had. But um you talked about how yeah um you guys get a lot of people coming through the door. how do you I'm curious, how do you guys keep trainings fresh and you know get people excited? Because that's a struggle for me too. I feel like, man, I got to come up with new content every time.
00:35:31
Speaker
where I got to like repurpose it. Like I don't want to be given this exact same training over and over. So do you have any advice for maybe guys that are trying to prepare their trainings or run like a good correlation? Anything you guys do to keep it fresh and get people stoked to get out there?
00:35:46
Speaker
Or maybe advice in like pur preparing new trainings? I do think that although it can be repetitive, it is one of the things where it's like, you got to keep it simple. I think we try to overcomplicate it too often. a lot of times I think the people who find the most success are the new ones and they don't have all the answers because when the homeowner asks them, they're like, dude, if I knew that I wouldn't be out here knocking doors. Seems like you have some questions. The more we train, the more we know, the more we answer, the more we sell on the door, the more we get people like, hey, do you have a business card? That sounds pretty good, do you have a business card.
00:36:19
Speaker
Versus being like, well fine, get somebody over here that can answer my questions. you know So even though it can be repetitive, you do have to go back to the basics.
00:36:30
Speaker
and And one of the differences that you have than us is that We run blitz models. So people take two weeks off. So when we come back, usually that first week is like reminding people about some of the basic stuff and getting them back into a groove.
00:36:48
Speaker
So it is like we do run some of the same trainings. But one of the things Melissa does really well is she gets people like you to come and run a training. You know, she has guest speakers. I had ah Sully run a training training.
00:37:03
Speaker
I got to meet Sully at a door to door con this year. And dude, she is a gem. Like she's awesome. And so I got it. I got her to run a training for us, but getting people from outside to run zoom trainings is usually pretty cool.
00:37:19
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah, no, you guys. Yeah, that's awesome. And yeah, and most people don't think like that. Because like, you know, it's like you said, a lot of people are surprised to be like, Oh, wait, you want me to run a training, but I'm not your at your company. And it's like, Yeah, why can't we collaborate? So I thought that was awesome. and I was like, Oh, let's let's do it.
00:37:37
Speaker
And yeah um yeah, I need to get you guys to come run a training for ah for our team too. Dude, let's do it. I'm down. But no, that's cool. Love that collaboration. And then one other question I had too is with with the Blitz model, I imagine you guys are probably hoping that a lot of these reps will come back for another Blitz.
00:37:55
Speaker
Because it's like, you know, then they're more experienced, they're probably gonna have more success, um the more Blitz as they come on. So how do you like incentivize people to come back? And how do you i don't know what systems do you have in place to get people back for another Blitz instead of just coming once and then you never heard from them again?
00:38:11
Speaker
Um, you know, really, i don't think we have to bribe any anyone. ah Like I said, like, I'm here because I went on Melissa's Blitz, and I saw the leadership, I saw the culture.
00:38:26
Speaker
And i was just like, dude, this is awesome. Like, I haven't seen anything like this in the industry since I've been here. And so it was just kind of one of those things where once I was exposed to it, I'm like, this is my home. You know, so we don't necessarily want to ah like kind of have that mindset where it's like we're we need reps.
00:38:48
Speaker
You know, obviously we always want to grow, but at the same time, we do want to maintain some exclusivity to what it is we're doing. And so, you know, we'll send people home or we'll let them know, hey, it's not a good fit. You know, we're not going to make exceptions for people if they're not living up to the standards and the systems and processes we have. But People, once they're once they see what it is we have, we have a really tight-knit group of people. Everyone's, you know, they got their groups where they hang out and just, it's like a family where they want to come back because they've been exposed to it. So I don't think there's anything necessarily we have to do to keep people coming back. If they make money, they're coming back.
00:39:28
Speaker
And they act right, they're they're coming back. Yeah. Okay. Love that. Yeah. And I think more people need to have that attitude. It's like, you know, instead of setting up a system and trying to follow up with people to get them come back, how about just make the blitz so awesome that people are hitting you up to come because they want to come back. It's not like you don't have to follow up with them. So, yeah um, you know, I think there's a time and a place for both, but, um,
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's something you you guys have that's super unique is you don't you don't really need to follow up with people because they you you make them money, help them have a good experience, and they're yeah coming back organically. So that's awesome.
00:40:06
Speaker
Love that. Um, well, and then one other thing I wanted to hit on and then, um, and yeah, if we have time, we can go back to couple these eight, eight knocking tips. If not, I know we can ah share those in the notes too, but, um, we were talking before just about the fitness and, um, I'll admit one of the toughest times for me to like stay consistent, go into the gym, eating right. Um, training, all this kind of stuff is when I'm on blitzes. Cause it's just like, you know, I'm away from home.
00:40:34
Speaker
um I'm eating more fast food and stuff like that. And I know you used to be a personal trainer. Maybe you still are a little bit, but you're a super fit guy. You're also always posting the gym videos.
00:40:46
Speaker
um And so, yeah, and you guys got the couple, about you and um your ah fiance, right? Yeah. Okay. Ari's, right? is that a new okay Her name's Ares. Yeah.
00:40:58
Speaker
There is. Okay. Yeah. And so you guys are like, you know, the ultimate fitness couple, always in the gym, just crushing it there. So how do you stay consistent with um like staying fit and, um you know, like still hitting the gym on all these blitzes? you have any advice for that? for For those of us that can't stay as consistent?
00:41:18
Speaker
ah I kind of just feel like it's it's who I am as a person. ah For like the last 15 years, I just became very obsessed with like the food that I was taking into my body for for health reasons, you know, not necessarily a diet, but more so like being educated on Just what is available to us. And the more I learned about processed food and refined oil and stuff, the more I just felt like it was a scam. And it like kind of scared me to where i I really, truly believe like your your body is a temple. You know, you want to take care of it. It's a direct reflection of who you are as a person. it shows it it To me, it shows um that you have discipline and it's your first like form of self-respect. um and so I don't mean that in a way to shame anyone ah because trust me, I love In-N-Out. I love you know my Chipotle, my pizza. Converted to Whataburger yet?
00:42:20
Speaker
Whataburger being in Texas? Oh, a dude, I don't know about Whataburger. I don't know about that one. But better we... I'm a big believer in everyone who runs a blitz model.
00:42:34
Speaker
They still need to maintain the things that fill their cup. And if you're like... it it Like for me personally, I've been blitzing my entire solar career. Two weeks on, two weeks off. Two weeks on, two weeks off.
00:42:47
Speaker
If I sacrifice for two weeks, then... I'm really sacrificing my health and the things that fill me up for money. And so um when I run blitzes, you know, luckily I have a fiance who's very, very helpful. i I was making my meals before she came around, but she makes my life very easy now. We actually Instacart.
00:43:11
Speaker
So I encourage anybody, if you're blitzing, as soon as you get off the plane, like you can build your cart, you could build your order. in Instacart while you're on on the plane in the sky and once you land, hit send.
00:43:24
Speaker
So once you get to your Airbnb, the groceries are there. So you have no excuse why you have to go grab you know some burger or something. And then if I know I'm traveling, i i take my meals with me. We don't go anywhere without our meals being planned in advance. We always have our meals. I've never in and the last 15 years left my home without my lunch pail. I'm a little bit OCD and I'm a little bit more of an extremist, but um I take my lunch pail with me because my brain doesn't function thinking about like, oh, I'll just figure out my food later. It's like, no, I figure out my food before I leave my house. I plan my meals in advance, you know? So um Instacart helps a lot.
00:44:08
Speaker
And my fiance, she's a IFBB pro. She's trying to ah compete in the the Miss Bikini Olympia. So she's very, very health and fitness oriented.
00:44:22
Speaker
She's more about like the the biohacking than she is about like body composition. She's more about the ingredients that are being used in longevity and stuff. So She helps me out a lot. But um I just think if you're going to be blitzing on a consistent basis and, you know, if health was one of your ah one of your New Year's resolutions or it's a priority to you, don't make excuses. If you're going to go on blitz, then you still need to figure out a way to maintain those goals that you set in place for yourself.
00:44:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. I've been on Blitzes, you know, in the past, previous companies where you show up and they're like, oh, yeah, food's provided on the Blitzes. And then you get there and it's just like they got like six frozen pizzas in the freezer and then just like cinnamon toast crunch in the pantry. And that's that's that's the food that was provided. I'm no, no. We tried salmon toast crunch for the next six days.
00:45:20
Speaker
I mean, realistically, you know, like what you put into your body is going to be going to determine your energy levels. And, you know, when you're on blitz. You're sleeping in a room that has probably two or three other people, so it's already hard to sleep. If you're putting crap into your body, you're going to crash. you know so yeah we On our Blitzes, we try to buy a big Costco order of like eggs and bacon and spinach and bananas. and Grass or ground beef and ground turkey, you know, and some white rice. We try to put healthy options.
00:45:57
Speaker
And of course, we still get some pizzas, too, but we do put the healthy options. So everyone has that option, you know, because not everyone's into their taking care of themselves or worried about what they're eating.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah so That's awesome. Well, yeah, no, love that. and um just something I've struggled with personally on Blitzes. But like you said, it's way easier these days. Just Instacart. ah We do like the Walmart delivery thing, which I think is basically the same thing. Just pick your food. and And yeah, it's nice because you can just have everything like pre-saved on there. So every week, which is like, you know, make a couple adjustments, but pretty much just repeat the same order. And then you don't have to like think about it and change the stores and everything. So yeah, think that's super important for people. Blitzen is... because yeah worst thing is feeling like crap on the blitz and then um not being able to go at the at the speed you want to feeling like crap on the doors and think that reflects in your presentation too because if you feel like crap then um people are going to notice that and probably going to show up in your results on the blitz so i think that's a good yeah man good things believe in that yeah yeah yeah
00:47:06
Speaker
Well, dude, it's been an awesome jamming today. And before we ah wrap up here, Jacob, if people want to connect more with you, maybe talk about fitness, blitzing, all that all this good stuff, and then then reach out for those slides too. What's the best way you want to drop your Instagram or best way to get in touch with you?
00:47:25
Speaker
ah my My Instagram is Jacob, and then my last name is M-U-R-A-W-S-K-I. um i do post. I try to post pretty frequently to the Glide page, and then I have my dealer True South page.
00:47:42
Speaker
um Really, I'm with Glide, but I still manage that page. it was it's a It's funny because I'm True South and Melissa's the collective, so we came together. We even created a logo with our installer where it says Dawn to Dusk, the collective plus true South.
00:48:00
Speaker
But I post a lot of my stuff on the true South page, always just trying to give snippets from our trainings or like, um or like things from the door, like actual footage while we're on the door. So.
00:48:12
Speaker
yeah I love to connect with people. I'm i'm all ears. Yeah. Love it, bro. Well, thank you so much for being abundance and ah you know not holding back. um Love that about you guys.
00:48:24
Speaker
And ah just to wrap up, I mean, if you had to offer one piece piece of advice, maybe you've probably had some situations um where you've had to do this, but maybe your rep didn't have the blitz they wanted to. Maybe like, god Jake, I don't know if I should come back.
00:48:38
Speaker
I only got one cell or I didn't get any cells. Like, what what do you tell those reps or what would you tell a struggling rep? Maybe they're they don't know if they should come back. What do you tell those people?
00:48:50
Speaker
I actually did a training this morning on in 1997, Kobe played a game five against the Utah Jazz and he airballed a potential game winning shot and then he airballed three more shots and in overtime.
00:49:09
Speaker
And to me, I just try to put myself in that position. And I wonder, you know, like, would I have the mental capacity to bounce back from something like that? Because it's a lot of pressure, you're on the biggest stage in the world.
00:49:24
Speaker
And now you're supposed to come out and overcome that. And, um you know, the career he had, i think it was more of a tone setter at the beginning of his career to basically say like, I have to reflect on why did I airbo airball those shots and how can I get better?
00:49:44
Speaker
And so to me, I think if you don't find success right away, you know, attach yourself to the hip of the top performers and, you know, don't be so caught up in what are the results. Just focus on the outputs, focus on the outputs, have some, uh,
00:50:04
Speaker
extreme ownership. you know Why is it your fault? Don't try to find, it he didn't teach me right, or you know this it's this guy's fault, it's this guy's fault. It's nobody's fault but your own. The tools are out there.
00:50:16
Speaker
you know So ah take the time to work on your craft, get better, work on your self-development, and the results will come. Maybe not as fast as you like them, but they will come.
00:50:27
Speaker
Love that. So good. And um yeah, Utah Jazz is my team. So spoiler alert, they always lost to Kobe. So it's a sore subject. Wish you wouldn't have brought up the Utah Jazz, but you gotta respect Kobe.
00:50:43
Speaker
Dude, norow forever that's that's That's always the mentality. Yeah. Yeah. Rest in peace. Yeah. God love Kobe. Well, bro, thank you again for coming on today. And guys, go hit up Jacob. He'll send you a copy of one of his trainings that he's helped train hundreds of reps with to have success on the doors.
Promoting Resources for Solar Professionals
00:51:06
Speaker
And um yeah, man, I'm going to be hitting you up about some fitness stuff later. So appreciate that as well. And yeah, we'll have to do this again. Thank you so much for coming on with us today, Jake. Thank you. it's It's been a blessing, man. It's been a blessing. Thank you so much.
00:51:20
Speaker
Okay, keep crushing brother. Yes, sir. So some of you already know that I run my own door door sales team here in San Diego. 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. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
00:51:41
Speaker
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.
00:51:57
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too. 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.
00:52:12
Speaker
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00:52:25
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Hey Solarpreneurs, 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?
00:52:39
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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