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107: Turning your FB Profile Into a Money Making Referral Machine
33 Plays5 years ago
How do you turn your Facebook profile into a money making referral machine to gain more leads? #solarpreneurs #integratedmarketing #sandiegocaliforniasolarpreneurs #solarsales #entrepreneur #solarclosing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taylor.armstrong.330 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-armstrong-3ba975139/ iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-solarpreneur-podcast/id1438556991 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5LDMDHyVB5iti1TwCrmMON Anchor: https://anchor.fm/solarpreneur/ If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast! In that way, you'll get fresh new episodes automatically and you'll gain more knowledge in solar entrepreneurship.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy, howdy, Taylor Armstrong, your host here.
00:00:03
Speaker
Just wanted to preface this episode real quick.
00:00:06
Speaker
We've got Chris Poulsen on.
00:00:07
Speaker
He is a marketing genius.
00:00:10
Speaker
He's been in the solar industry, the door-to-door game for a long time.
00:00:14
Speaker
But we did have a few technological issues, so I just wanted to give you a heads up.
00:00:19
Speaker
Have some patience on this one.
00:00:20
Speaker
We had a couple internet issues.
00:00:23
Speaker
So you're gonna get the message.
00:00:25
Speaker
There's a couple, probably blips in the audio.
00:00:28
Speaker
And then a few, we both got kids, so a few screaming kids moments, so forgive that.
00:00:34
Speaker
But no doubt you're going to get some awesome value from this episode.
00:00:37
Speaker
Share it, let us know what you think, and enjoy the show.
00:00:41
Speaker
So with that said, let's jump into the episode.
Mission of Solopreneurs
00:00:44
Speaker
What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
00:00:50
Speaker
We call ourselves solopreneurs.
00:00:53
Speaker
And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
00:01:02
Speaker
Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
00:01:15
Speaker
We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Chris Poulsen's Career Path
00:01:26
Speaker
What's going on solopreneurs?
00:01:28
Speaker
We're back in the studio here with another guest.
00:01:31
Speaker
I am stoked to have him on here with my good friend, Chris.
00:01:35
Speaker
What's up, Chris?
00:01:36
Speaker
Thanks for coming on the show.
00:01:37
Speaker
Glad to be here.
00:01:39
Speaker
Thank you for the invite.
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:01:42
Speaker
And we've known each other a while now.
00:01:44
Speaker
We met actually at Funnel Hacking Live, which is anyone that follows Russell Brunson, ClickFunnels, probably know what that is.
00:01:53
Speaker
But anyone that I find doing solar that comes to those conferences, I'm always like, oh, sweet.
00:01:58
Speaker
You probably know a lot about online marketing if you're coming to these things.
00:02:03
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, Chris kind of, you know, talk there and talk about what he's doing.
00:02:08
Speaker
And I think he embodies what we're trying to do with this solopreneur movement because he's, you know, he's getting online leads, got a cool kind of referral system set up that we're going to talk about.
00:02:19
Speaker
And he owns his own dealer.
00:02:22
Speaker
So he's doing it all.
00:02:23
Speaker
He's a mastermind with this stuff.
00:02:27
Speaker
So yeah, I'm excited to dig into it and hear about what you're doing, but do you wanna give us kinda your background, how you got into solar and everything as far as that goes, Chris?
Starting Smart Energy Solutions Made Simple
00:02:38
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:02:40
Speaker
I apologize in the beginning here if my daughter walks in, I've got a three or four year old that might join us off and on.
00:02:47
Speaker
All right.
00:02:49
Speaker
She just entered the office.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's the joy of being a father, I guess, is...
00:02:55
Speaker
Having kids interrupt you all the time.
00:02:58
Speaker
That my kids crying in the next room.
00:02:59
Speaker
So probably the same thing with me.
00:03:01
Speaker
So my journey, I mean, I'll, I'll give you a little bit of background.
00:03:06
Speaker
So I started knocking door to door about 15, 16 years ago, selling pest control.
00:03:13
Speaker
I did that for a couple of years and then got recruited over to the alarm world and knocked door to door selling home security for nine years.
00:03:21
Speaker
And during grad school, I just graduated with my MBA and had the solar recruiters reach out to me.
00:03:30
Speaker
And I first was recruited by a business solar and went out and explored their opportunity in California, Northern California for a week or two.
00:03:40
Speaker
And then when I returned back to Utah, Solar City reached out and they actually
00:03:45
Speaker
won the battle there in recruiting.
00:03:48
Speaker
And so I joined solar cities forces and, and got offered the position to go down to Southern California.
00:03:54
Speaker
And so after about six months of leading out a team in, in Riverside with solar city, um, I got the itch to, to get out of the corporate world and, and go start my own dealership.
00:04:05
Speaker
And so I left solar city on good terms and, and went and started my own dealership, um, smart energy solutions made simple where we were, uh,
00:04:16
Speaker
solely focused on solar, but then we expanded into all types of
Rebranding to Pure Energy
00:04:20
Speaker
offerings.
00:04:20
Speaker
We were doing roofing and whole house vans, quite cool whole house vans.
00:04:26
Speaker
We were doing doors and windows, HVAC systems, artificial turf.
00:04:33
Speaker
So we were becoming a one-stop shop for homeowners looking for energy solutions.
00:04:38
Speaker
And it just got to the point it was overwhelming and my reps didn't want to learn all the different products and services.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so we resorted back to solar as our primary focus.
00:04:48
Speaker
It pays the best, as you all know.
00:04:49
Speaker
So that's why we settled, not settled, but that's why we went back to solar.
00:04:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:56
Speaker
And then about two years ago, I transitioned my name from Smart Energy to Pure Energy.
00:05:03
Speaker
And so we rebranded and went to Pure Energy.
00:05:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:09
Speaker
Where did you get?
00:05:13
Speaker
Why did you guys decide to rebrand to Pure Energy?
00:05:16
Speaker
Competitor right next door in Corona, and they had a lot of bad reviews online.
00:05:23
Speaker
And so customers started thinking we were them and confusing us with them all the time.
00:05:28
Speaker
And so we didn't want that brand recognition in a negative way.
00:05:34
Speaker
And so we rebranded and that's why we switched the name over to Pure Energy.
00:05:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:41
Speaker
And then this Pure Energy out of Arizona, were they the ones that copied you guys?
00:05:45
Speaker
I think I asked you that once.
00:05:47
Speaker
Well, yeah, there's been a couple offshoots since we started Pure Energy's name.
00:05:51
Speaker
I think there's one in Utah and Texas somewhere now, and they're expanding into Arizona.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's funny.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, they liked our name, so they took it and ran with it.
00:06:03
Speaker
I know, sounds like it.
00:06:05
Speaker
That's funny.
00:06:07
Speaker
But no, that's cool.
00:06:07
Speaker
And yeah, it's definitely cool hearing people that, you know, left their big cushy cushy positions and get the entrepreneurial itch and everything left.
00:06:20
Speaker
So how's it how long ago was that that you switched to pure energy and how long have you had your dealer going then?
Becoming an Authorized Dealer
00:06:25
Speaker
Well, so the when I was at SolarCity, that was about seven years ago.
00:06:29
Speaker
And I was there for six months and then left and
00:06:33
Speaker
The main reason I wanted to leave is the pay was better for sure as an authorized dealer, but I wanted to have customized solutions for the homeowner.
00:06:40
Speaker
So we became a Sunrun dealer, became a SunPower dealer, Sunova dealer.
00:06:45
Speaker
So we were able to offer any solution for the homeowner, whether it was a PPA, a lease or a loan.
00:06:51
Speaker
And that's what we wanted to have in our portfolio is an option to customize it.
00:06:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:58
Speaker
Cool.
Lead Generation and Customer Engagement
00:07:01
Speaker
Awesome.
00:07:01
Speaker
So that's been how, how long have you had your dealer?
00:07:04
Speaker
Did you say, can't remember?
00:07:05
Speaker
About six and a half years.
00:07:06
Speaker
All I did was just change the name from smart energy over to pure energy about three years ago, two and a half, three years ago.
00:07:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:13
Speaker
Six and a half years.
00:07:16
Speaker
Awesome.
00:07:18
Speaker
Cool.
00:07:18
Speaker
So six and a half years.
00:07:19
Speaker
And then how long were you selling the, you said you had all the options with the home efficiency things.
00:07:26
Speaker
Were you doing that for a while or is that just like,
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, the first three years of Smart Energy, we were offering all those products.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then when we rebranded to Pure Energy, we still do roofing and solar and whole house fans.
00:07:40
Speaker
The Quiet Cool brand is the one we lead with.
00:07:45
Speaker
So we mainly focus on solar now, but we do offer a few other things.
00:07:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, this was going to ask you too.
00:07:53
Speaker
We've had a few other people and I know we're talking...
00:07:56
Speaker
off the camera before.
00:07:58
Speaker
Like what makes them unique is they offer other home efficiency things.
00:08:02
Speaker
They're not really like selling it on.
00:08:05
Speaker
They're saying, hey, if we can get you on board, we're going to do the attic insulation.
00:08:10
Speaker
We're going to do like I know our company was doing the Nest thermostats, the smart thermostats.
00:08:17
Speaker
So do you still do stuff like that as you're selling in your dealer?
00:08:20
Speaker
Do you guys have options that you'll add on like every time or you just have like some options that you'll do some of the time or how does that work?
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean that's one of the hardest things nowadays now that it's becoming a more mature market is everyone's racing to the bottom on solar so you have to differentiate yourself and so we've always had that mindset that we need to have a closing tool or something like that and so the whole house fan has been a go-to for us, the quiet cool.
00:08:49
Speaker
We also now offer Generac generators as a backup solution when the power goes out or the grid goes down.
00:08:56
Speaker
So we're
00:08:57
Speaker
We're putting Generac standalone units next to people's homes.
00:09:02
Speaker
And then we also have this small EMF eliminator.
00:09:06
Speaker
It's a plug-in unit that helps eliminate EMFs throughout the home.
00:09:10
Speaker
And it works like a water filter, so it just filters out the dirty electricity.
00:09:14
Speaker
And so we can just plug that unit in.
00:09:16
Speaker
And that's helping as well.
00:09:20
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:21
Speaker
I'm a big fan of that because I've talked to some guys where they're getting just pure online leads and it's just people that are shoppers and
00:09:31
Speaker
Hey Solarpreneurs, real quick, if you've been in the solar industry any amount of time, you know that in order to take it to the next level, you need to always be recruiting.
00:09:40
Speaker
What is it, ABR?
00:09:41
Speaker
Always be recruiting.
00:09:44
Speaker
So if you need help with recruiting, I wanted to share with you something that helped me take my recruiting skills to the next level.
00:09:51
Speaker
We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
00:10:00
Speaker
and we did this with reps that continue to sell with us two or three of them went on to become managers several of them were top producers in our office and there are multiple reps that are still with us to this day more than a year later
00:10:17
Speaker
So what is it that helped me?
00:10:20
Speaker
I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Sells Recruiting University.
00:10:26
Speaker
He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
00:10:31
Speaker
And he really helped me follow up with the recruits, schedule group interviews with them, get a huge pool of applicants coming in day after day.
00:10:41
Speaker
I wanted to share with you guys his link.
00:10:43
Speaker
If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to Calendly.com slash SRU forward slash Solapreneur.
00:10:54
Speaker
Once again, that's Calendly.com slash SRU slash Solapreneur.
00:11:02
Speaker
SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
00:11:05
Speaker
Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
00:11:14
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, we're just talking about how it's always better to add more value rather than competing on price.
Referral Promotions and Incentives
00:11:21
Speaker
But is there anything else unique that you guys do in your sales process, Chris, that's maybe different from other dealers or just to kind of set you apart?
00:11:30
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, so one unique...
00:11:35
Speaker
One of the things that we've done in our sales process to help us generate more leads is we had an app developed on the smartphone, on the iPad, that all of our customers get the app and they can refer customers to us.
00:11:49
Speaker
It's kind of an all-in-one inclusive app where they can refer customers.
00:11:53
Speaker
We can go in and we can ping them incentives, promotions, so that they'll refer more customers.
00:11:59
Speaker
And then they can also use the app to monitor their solar system.
00:12:03
Speaker
And so we really use that as the closing tool and help train them on how to use that app so that they want to send us referrals and continually send us referrals.
00:12:13
Speaker
And it works really well for us.
00:12:16
Speaker
We get a lot of business through the referral app and there's an initial cost to get the app developed, obviously.
00:12:23
Speaker
And then there's also a maintenance fee annually that you pay to have the app.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:29
Speaker
but the app developer lets you customize it for your solar company or roofing company, whatever type of company you've got.
00:12:39
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:12:40
Speaker
That's cool.
00:12:41
Speaker
How long have you guys been using that app for?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, and we can...
00:12:47
Speaker
If you're interested in having that app for your company or have an app developed and customized to your company, your brand, you can go to this website.
00:12:57
Speaker
It's just bit.ly forward slash GTR now.
00:13:03
Speaker
And GTR stands for Get the Referral.
00:13:06
Speaker
So that website's bit.ly forward slash GTR now.
00:13:13
Speaker
okay awesome yeah that's something super unique and when you told me that i'm like wow that would be huge because you said they can go it's not only they can get notifications and hear about like different promos you're doing but they can also see like their system production and details like that correct yeah so they can monitor we have all the different monitoring inverters integrated into the app so whether it's solar edge or
00:13:40
Speaker
SunPower or whatever the monitoring they have, it's integrated in the app.
00:13:44
Speaker
They just click on their brand and then they can see their system real time.
00:13:49
Speaker
They can also communicate and message with the company directly through the app or with their individual sales rep.
00:13:54
Speaker
So if they lost their business card or their cell phone, they just go to their app and it's all in there.
00:13:59
Speaker
So it just kind of ties it all together for the homeowner.
00:14:04
Speaker
Wow.
00:14:04
Speaker
And we use it pretty loosely.
00:14:07
Speaker
Everywhere we go, we give people the app.
00:14:10
Speaker
You know, I've flown to Boston.
00:14:11
Speaker
I've flown to Chicago.
00:14:13
Speaker
And when I'm sitting on the plane next to someone, I'll tell them about the app and say, hey, download this free app and refer people to Pure Energy.
00:14:20
Speaker
You can become a solar advocate for our company and we'll pay you a $500 referral commission just for sending us your neighbor, your friend, your coworker.
00:14:29
Speaker
Wow.
00:14:30
Speaker
And so we give the app out freely to everybody.
00:14:33
Speaker
Wow, that's cool.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:35
Speaker
I was thinking you're just giving it to customers, but you're like, so you're like at the grocery store on the plane.
00:14:40
Speaker
Oh yeah, we've got hundreds of people that have the app downloaded.
00:14:44
Speaker
Wow.
00:14:45
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:14:47
Speaker
It's been a great tool for us.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
And then how often do you guys ping it out messages about referrals or promos that you do?
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, we try to ping out a message, you know, at least once a month or once a
00:15:03
Speaker
maybe twice a month.
00:15:04
Speaker
We'll just try to communicate and keep that dialogue open with our customers so that they're constantly getting notified on there.
00:15:13
Speaker
Hey, what's up, slowerpreneurs?
00:15:14
Speaker
Taylor here.
00:15:15
Speaker
I got to thinking we've had so many great guests on the episode.
00:15:18
Speaker
We've got some money tips, money advice, and wouldn't it be a shame if we weren't applying this?
00:15:23
Speaker
So what I went ahead and did was
00:15:26
Speaker
It's compiled a guide of our top 10 closing tips.
00:15:29
Speaker
Closing is the number one skill that you need in solar.
00:15:32
Speaker
Number one money-making skill.
00:15:34
Speaker
So I went through all the episodes, looked at the top closers, and compiled that into a guide.
00:15:39
Speaker
So that way you don't have to go through and do all the work of the latest needed episodes.
00:15:43
Speaker
So go grab that guide now at solarpreneurs.com forward slash closing guide.
00:15:48
Speaker
Once again, that's solarpreneurs.com forward slash closing guide.
00:15:53
Speaker
Get that straight to your inbox.
00:15:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:57
Speaker
Um, well, yeah.
00:15:58
Speaker
Can you give some examples of like different promos that you guys have done or maybe some that you can remember that worked better than others, um, that you've done in the past?
00:16:07
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
So, I mean the standard referral tell it tells them they get $500 for a referral.
00:16:15
Speaker
And so sometimes we'll say, Hey, this month we're going to double it.
00:16:19
Speaker
Or we'll say, you have two referrals and you, the third one doubles to a thousand.
00:16:26
Speaker
And so that's usually what we do.
00:16:28
Speaker
We just up the game a little bit to incentivize them to take action and refer more people.
00:16:35
Speaker
Sometimes we'll throw out an incentive where we'll give them one of those filters, those EMF filters for free if they refer someone this month or a thousand dollars off a quiet cool fan if they don't have one.
00:16:47
Speaker
So we just kind of tie in our different marketing into that app and then we shoot out notifications and blast the people that have the app.
00:16:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:56
Speaker
Wow.
00:16:57
Speaker
And does it give you any type of thing that you can see, like who's maybe opening the messages or who's interacting with it?
Referral App Functionality
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, it has all that on our back office and each of my reps have their own app demo and then they can also recruit or give the app to anyone as well and it links it to them so that it tracks everything.
00:17:18
Speaker
So if that rep signs up an advocate, then
00:17:21
Speaker
When they send in the referral, that rep gets the referral and it tracks all the communications throughout.
00:17:28
Speaker
Wow.
00:17:29
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:17:30
Speaker
So it's very thorough.
00:17:33
Speaker
Designed very well.
00:17:34
Speaker
And then when they have pending rewards, it'll show a big circle of earnings.
00:17:39
Speaker
It says $500 or $1,000 pending reward.
00:17:43
Speaker
And then we just pay them digitally through Venmo or PayPal, and it just shoots the money right to the app.
00:17:47
Speaker
And then they link their bank account through their advocator wallet to transfer the funds from the app to their bank account.
00:17:56
Speaker
Wow.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:17:58
Speaker
So it's all streamlined.
00:17:59
Speaker
It's pretty sweet.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:01
Speaker
You got that thing dialed in.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:18:04
Speaker
And would you say ever since you started using that, like is a lot of your business now referrals?
00:18:10
Speaker
Do you guys get like a ton of referrals?
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
I mean, we, we've got hundreds of referrals and I think the, yeah, we've got hundreds of referrals that have come through that and the closing ratio is very high.
00:18:25
Speaker
I think it's, you know, I don't want to give numbers because I haven't checked the back office, but it's higher than, because they're warm leads.
00:18:33
Speaker
They're people that refer people they know, coworkers, neighbors.
00:18:38
Speaker
So it's a warm lead that's coming in.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:18:41
Speaker
Cool.
00:18:42
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's huge.
00:18:44
Speaker
That's the first I've heard of people using an app like that.
00:18:47
Speaker
So I'm going to be checking that out and we will post that link in the show notes.
00:18:52
Speaker
So any of our listeners, I know Chris can hook you up with that.
00:18:56
Speaker
And like he said, you can get it branded to whatever company you're with or your specific offer.
00:19:03
Speaker
That's super powerful.
00:19:05
Speaker
Cool.
00:19:06
Speaker
Well, the other thing, and then, yeah, go ahead.
00:19:10
Speaker
Is there anything else you wanted to say with that, Chris?
00:19:12
Speaker
No, that's, that's pretty much all on get the referral.
00:19:15
Speaker
It's a great program and well worth the investment.
00:19:20
Speaker
For sure.
00:19:20
Speaker
For sure.
The Solar Pro Lead Machine
00:19:22
Speaker
Well, the other unique thing I know you're doing is just with the marketing, you have an offer right now where you help sales reps to basically generate leads through social media.
00:19:35
Speaker
And we were talking about this too off the camera, how you set up your Facebook profile to basically be a lead generating machine.
00:19:44
Speaker
and then you're teaching other reps to do that.
00:19:47
Speaker
And you have kind of an offer with that.
00:19:49
Speaker
You're helping lots of people learn how to use the same method you're using.
00:19:53
Speaker
So I wanted to get into that too.
00:19:54
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit about what you use, how you've set up your Facebook profile and what it is that you're doing with that to generate leads through social media?
00:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:20:04
Speaker
So it's called the Solar Pro Lead Machine and I'll give you guys the URL here in a minute.
00:20:11
Speaker
But it's basically a way to, a lead magnet, a way to attract people that are online through Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever.
00:20:20
Speaker
And in our case, we're working on attracting homeowners that wanna go solar.
00:20:25
Speaker
And so it's a digital product that teaches you, there's first a blueprint.
00:20:31
Speaker
The blueprint gives you the set of plans and teaches you how to optimize your social media profiles.
00:20:37
Speaker
And when I say optimize them, I mean, position yourself in the marketplace as a solar or roofing professional.
00:20:44
Speaker
And that way, when you're interacting and communicating with people online on Facebook and groups, wherever they can see that you're the solar professional.
00:20:56
Speaker
And so your page is optimized that helps you attract that potential client, that potential solar customer.
00:21:04
Speaker
And then,
00:21:06
Speaker
it'll lead them to a funnel, a sales funnel that will take them through the process of booking a free consultation with you.
00:21:16
Speaker
And so,
00:21:18
Speaker
The digital product is well worth the investment just to get the blueprint at $7.
00:21:21
Speaker
And then there's a masterclass that will actually teach you step-by-step how to implement the blueprint.
00:21:29
Speaker
And, and so you can get it, get that by going to a solar pro lead machine.com forward slash 2020.
00:21:37
Speaker
And so Taylor and I are given a special offering to anyone that listens to this podcast and
00:21:43
Speaker
And you can go there today and download the blueprint for $7.
00:21:48
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, what I like about this, Chris was telling me it's a guy, his name is Blake Newbar.
00:21:54
Speaker
He's the one that kind of...
00:21:56
Speaker
You know, he's teaches this to a lot of people too, but Chris has tailored it specifically for the solar industry and roofing stuff like that, which is awesome.
00:22:05
Speaker
We need more of it in solar for sure.
00:22:07
Speaker
But if you think about it, like how many people are on social media right now?
00:22:10
Speaker
I mean, you break it down and there's more people on Facebook than the population of China, like
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's insane, right?
00:22:19
Speaker
And then think of all the businesses.
00:22:21
Speaker
So really all we're doing with this, it's just turning those people that are nosy.
00:22:27
Speaker
Because how many times have we clicked on people's profile and been like, oh, I'm snooping around.
00:22:32
Speaker
What am I doing?
00:22:33
Speaker
Like I catch myself all the time.
00:22:34
Speaker
Facebook stalking.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'll be on Facebooking.
00:22:37
Speaker
Like, I don't even know how I got on.
00:22:39
Speaker
You just go down a rabbit hole, you know, and I don't think I'm the only one to do that.
00:22:43
Speaker
I'm sure there's other people there.
00:22:45
Speaker
Facebook's talking.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:46
Speaker
So if you think about it, how many people are doing that?
00:22:49
Speaker
Like, people are curious just by nature and they're clicking on profiles.
00:22:53
Speaker
They're seeing what's going on.
00:22:55
Speaker
So it's like, have you optimized your Facebook profile to turn these curious, these nosy people into actual, like, appointments, right?
00:23:04
Speaker
Because if you're in the solar industry, everyone should be doing this.
00:23:07
Speaker
You got friends, family, people, wherever you're at, they're snooping around.
00:23:11
Speaker
They want to see what's in your life.
00:23:13
Speaker
And if you just have pictures of your dog, of your cat, yeah, that's good.
00:23:17
Speaker
But how about if you have a picture of saying I'm Taylor, the solar guy, click here to find out more about what I'm doing.
00:23:23
Speaker
So really, that's what I like about this.
00:23:25
Speaker
Chris is just teaching people how to turn their profiles into a lead machine.
00:23:30
Speaker
and turn those people that are snooping around, which is, I think most of Facebook into, you know, potential client clients.
00:23:37
Speaker
Is that, is that pretty much right?
00:23:39
Speaker
I hit the nail on the head with that, Chris.
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, you did.
00:23:41
Speaker
I mean, if you think about it, especially with COVID going on, everyone's online more than usual and they're home, they're, they're, you know, snooping around online, like you said, and I've been a professional door knocker for 16 years.
00:23:54
Speaker
I've knocked thousands of doors and I know it's, it's not an easy game.
00:23:59
Speaker
Um,
00:24:00
Speaker
for many.
00:24:02
Speaker
But it can become second nature.
00:24:04
Speaker
It can be one of the best strategies to generate leads, self-gen leads out in the neighborhoods, door to door.
00:24:11
Speaker
But the world's transitioning, it's changing.
00:24:14
Speaker
And the one-to-one like that is good, but online you can go one-to-many.
00:24:19
Speaker
So you can get your message across to many and you can attract them, literally attract them to you as a person, to a character, as an individual.
00:24:27
Speaker
And then
00:24:28
Speaker
Show them what you do as a profession.
00:24:31
Speaker
Be the expert, like Taylor said, and point them to, hey, I'm a solar consultant, solar energy consultant.
00:24:38
Speaker
I can help you today.
00:24:39
Speaker
I can book a free webinar or a consultation, come out to your house, and then you can target it very specifically on Facebook to your neighborhood, to your state you're working in.
00:24:49
Speaker
I'm sure many of you are in several different markets across the United States selling solar right now that are listening to this.
00:24:56
Speaker
And the Solar Pro lead machine is a way to low cost investment to plug in and optimize your social media profiles and start attracting leads 24 seven that are organic.
00:25:07
Speaker
You don't have to spend a lot of budget, add budget.
00:25:10
Speaker
It just organically turns on this lead machine that brings leads to you.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:16
Speaker
And that's what I like best about it.
00:25:17
Speaker
Cause especially for anyone that's new in the industry, like I came into this with
00:25:22
Speaker
with not a nickel to my name.
Networking and Industry Insights
00:25:24
Speaker
All I had was money that I had from donating plasma.
00:25:27
Speaker
That was gone in about a week.
00:25:31
Speaker
And then everyone knows that in Solorion, I can, for most people, it takes a little bit to get paid because usually you have to wait until after install, right?
00:25:42
Speaker
And then that's what stopped me for so long doing ads on Facebook or doing ads.
00:25:47
Speaker
I'm like, I don't want to wait around for this to pay out.
00:25:51
Speaker
But the cool thing about this, you don't have to wait at all.
00:25:54
Speaker
I mean, it's free, just organic.
00:25:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you get the blueprint.
00:25:59
Speaker
It teaches you how to do it.
00:26:01
Speaker
Seven bucks invested.
00:26:03
Speaker
Take the master class, it's a couple hundred bucks.
00:26:06
Speaker
Nothing, you know, one lead that you buy in solar is going to be two to five hundred bucks anyway.
00:26:10
Speaker
But you learn the system, plug it in on your social media profiles, and now it's working day and night for you to generate leads that are organic.
00:26:19
Speaker
And organic means free.
00:26:20
Speaker
And we all like free.
00:26:22
Speaker
Knocking doors is free.
00:26:23
Speaker
We can go out and invest time and knock all day and get leads for free, but the time's gone.
00:26:29
Speaker
And so put this to work for you so that it's working day and night and generating solar leads on autopilot.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:26:36
Speaker
And yeah, it's cool because, I mean, it's good to do paid ads too.
00:26:41
Speaker
That's great.
00:26:41
Speaker
But especially for any new guys or guys that haven't taken the dive into paid ads, I would say start with something like this.
00:26:49
Speaker
And then, because that's only going to make your paid ads more effective too.
00:26:53
Speaker
If you're using paid ads, it's going to a specific page.
00:26:56
Speaker
Maybe they click on you from there and then it takes you through your Facebook profile, right?
00:27:00
Speaker
Yep.
00:27:01
Speaker
So yeah, I think stuff like that.
00:27:03
Speaker
And then I know there's guys that's going to just like local groups, wherever you're at is a good strategy.
00:27:08
Speaker
And if you have Chris's system set up, then it's going to make it 10 times more effective going into like maybe local groups, maybe up swap meets in your area or whatever.
00:27:18
Speaker
just, you know, any community group, you can go on and just make a general post about solar, and for sure there's going to be people snooping on there.
00:27:25
Speaker
If you have this system set up, if you have your profile set up, then it's going to make it way more effective to turn those people into customers.
00:27:35
Speaker
That's exactly right.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, you couldn't have said it better.
00:27:38
Speaker
I mean, it's fishing online, and when you're positioned correctly, you make comments in these groups, um,
00:27:45
Speaker
people are going to naturally hover over your profile.
00:27:47
Speaker
Who's this guy?
00:27:47
Speaker
Oh, what is that?
00:27:48
Speaker
He does solar.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
We're actually thinking about that.
00:27:51
Speaker
And then they click on your profile and it takes them right through to generating you a lead, a free lead.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:00
Speaker
So yeah, thanks for sharing that with us, Chris.
00:28:02
Speaker
And anyone, I mean, at the very least, I would, we're talking seven bucks here to get this set up and it's probably going to turn into
00:28:10
Speaker
a minimum of one cell, which would be, should be a couple grand for everyone.
00:28:14
Speaker
So turning seven bucks into a couple grand, I'd say that's a pretty good investment.
00:28:18
Speaker
So thanks for sharing with us, Chris.
00:28:22
Speaker
Um, well, yeah, those are the two main things I want to hit on.
00:28:24
Speaker
I know there's some really unique things you're doing in the industry, but I want to hear what's, um, any like challenges you've had as you've started your own dealer, what would you say is the biggest challenge you've had or any stories of things that you'd had to overcome to,
00:28:40
Speaker
get things rolling in your own dealer?
00:28:42
Speaker
So the hardest part of becoming a dealer is just knowing all the ins and outs of what's necessary to make it tick.
00:28:50
Speaker
And then getting the proper installation partnerships.
00:28:54
Speaker
So in the beginning, that was the hardest part is just the relationships with installers.
00:28:58
Speaker
I mean, all installers want good sales teams and sales dealerships.
00:29:04
Speaker
But in the beginning, I was screwed over several times by install companies that
00:29:08
Speaker
we wouldn't, we'd go out and sell, hand off the baton to them to install and fulfill for us.
00:29:12
Speaker
And then we wouldn't get paid out on the deals.
00:29:15
Speaker
And so those are some of the hard knocks in the beginning of setting up my dealership was going through the roller coaster of, okay, I'm going to sell these deals here, give them to this installer, and hopefully we can trust them enough to pay us out on the commissions.
00:29:31
Speaker
And so over, over time it's gotten better and we've got some really solid dealer, um,
00:29:36
Speaker
excuse me, install partners now that we are an authorized dealer for and they pay us on time and they do great work.
00:29:44
Speaker
And so, yeah, that's awesome.
00:29:47
Speaker
And how have you found, I knew you have a couple of different markets that you're in right now.
00:29:53
Speaker
How have you been able to find those different installers and like, how do you go about starting it in different markets?
00:29:59
Speaker
Cause for me, like I'm in California, San Diego, I know this market, but yeah,
00:30:04
Speaker
it seems like a huge task to me to like go somewhere out east where I have no idea about the market.
00:30:08
Speaker
So what have you done to get those set up and anything you've learned in doing that?
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
So I've learned a lot and just, you know, with my experience of door to door for 10 plus years prior to solar, I, I traveled to big cities and big markets all over the U S so it was nothing new to me to jump on a plane and fly into a city and go explore the territory.
00:30:29
Speaker
And so when we've expanded out of Southern California, that's exactly what we did.
00:30:33
Speaker
We just,
00:30:34
Speaker
get on a plane, go to New England, go to Chicago, some of these different markets and just test out the market for a couple of weeks, knock doors, talk to homeowners, see what the response is.
00:30:46
Speaker
But to answer your question on the install partnerships, it's really about just who you know and building relationships over time.
00:30:56
Speaker
And so, you know, the install partners I have, these are guys I've worked with in the alarm industry, in the alarm world, I worked with them
00:31:03
Speaker
in solar city and then i'm still working with them now and so it's just something you build over time that relationship of trust and then you just take that leap of faith and start selling for them um yeah i like that if they don't pay you out i mean then you got to find another install partner you had to do that several times in the beginning yeah that's tough is there any red flag like
00:31:28
Speaker
stuff you've learned of installers that don't pay out versus the ones that do, or is it pretty much just like try on air?
00:31:33
Speaker
You just have to.
00:31:34
Speaker
It's kind of trial and error because, you know, I had a really trusted partner in Southern California, I thought, and, um, after we started selling jobs, he just wouldn't pay me out.
00:31:45
Speaker
And, uh, another guy, I mean, he was kind of sketchy.
00:31:48
Speaker
I probably should have never partnered with him in the beginning, but I went through three or four installers before I found two solid ones that we have today.
00:31:58
Speaker
Yeah, it is pretty much trial and error.
00:32:00
Speaker
You have to kind of work your way through all of that.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:04
Speaker
I guess that's business.
00:32:06
Speaker
I know it's cool.
00:32:06
Speaker
And just come in full circle, like the networking, I think like they're saying, it's just as you do that networking, I mean, you, you start to tell.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:17
Speaker
Networking is key.
00:32:17
Speaker
I mean, they say, you know, the people you hang out with and the people you network with, your network can determine your net worth.
00:32:26
Speaker
And I think that's true.
00:32:28
Speaker
You know, if you're hanging out and trying to partner with people that are visionary, that are scaling and growing, you can kind of partner with them and grow and expand together.
00:32:38
Speaker
As you help their ship rise, your ship rises naturally.
00:32:41
Speaker
You know, instead of hanging out with small-minded people that don't have a vision.
00:32:44
Speaker
For sure.
00:32:47
Speaker
Where there's no vision, the people perish, right?
00:32:48
Speaker
So you want to have a vision and you want to align yourself with good partners that have a vision and try to scale and grow together.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
Definitely.
00:32:56
Speaker
And that's why I think it's so important going to, you know, like Funnel Hacking Live, these conferences, because I mean, more than just the stuff you learn, you'll find that the really high level people there, they spend the most so they can get around the people that are making the most their high level.
00:33:13
Speaker
Like, it's funny because we're at Funnel Hacking Live last year and most of the guys that won the awards that are the top earners and everything, they're not in there listening to the speakers, really.
00:33:23
Speaker
They're like out in the halls talking with other people that are high earners.
00:33:28
Speaker
So it's almost like more so you go to these things to form the connections, do the networking.
00:33:34
Speaker
I mean, that's how I met Chris.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's, you know, repetitive learning is good.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:43
Speaker
So yeah, definitely do that networking.
00:33:46
Speaker
That's going to help you grow, whatever, especially in solar too.
00:33:50
Speaker
I mean, know the right people, get on the people that are going to help you grow because the guys that aren't having success, I think a lot of times that's because they're not with the right opportunity.
00:34:01
Speaker
They're not on the right ship that's going to get them there.
00:34:04
Speaker
Maybe they're working hard, but if you're not in the right space,
00:34:08
Speaker
you're not with the right people, if you're not surrounded by people with that improvement mindset, it's going to be tough to grow, especially in the beginning.
00:34:15
Speaker
For sure.
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, cool, Chris.
Connecting with Chris Poulsen
00:34:18
Speaker
So thanks for sharing some tips with us.
00:34:20
Speaker
And again, we'll post those links about what you're doing in there.
00:34:24
Speaker
And then can you tell us for guys that want to connect with you?
00:34:27
Speaker
We're going to put it in the show notes and everything, but where can guys find you on social media and anywhere else that you're online?
00:34:35
Speaker
So it's pretty easy to find me.
00:34:37
Speaker
Just go to Facebook,
00:34:39
Speaker
type in Christopher Polson, you'll find me.
00:34:41
Speaker
I'm on Twitter.
00:34:42
Speaker
I'm on LinkedIn.
00:34:44
Speaker
Those are probably my main three, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
00:34:48
Speaker
And yeah, connect with me on social.
00:34:53
Speaker
Awesome.
00:34:53
Speaker
And yeah, if you want to see just an example of this kind of lead machine Chris is talking about, just go look at his profile and you'll see what he's talking about.
00:35:02
Speaker
It's a
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's different than looking at just a regular old Facebook profile.
00:35:08
Speaker
Like, dang, this guy's got things going.
00:35:12
Speaker
It changes it for sure.
00:35:13
Speaker
I mean, instead of having a sunset picture for your cover photo and a bunch of photos down the side and political posting on your feed and stuff, like, you just optimize that whole profile on all your social media networks.
00:35:26
Speaker
So it'll change things for you.
00:35:29
Speaker
Definitely, definitely.
00:35:30
Speaker
So guys, go out and check out his offer he's got going on.
00:35:33
Speaker
Go look at his profile, if anything, and give him a shout out for coming on.
00:35:37
Speaker
And then, Chris, any final words you want to share with our solarpreneurs or any tips that we didn't go over?
00:35:45
Speaker
No, just to recap, if you like that idea of getting the referral app developed for your company, just, again, go to bit.ly forward slash GTR now.
00:35:57
Speaker
And then for the Solar Pro Lead Machine, it's just solarproleadmachine.com.
00:36:02
Speaker
forward slash 2020 so that we know you heard about it on this show.
00:36:08
Speaker
We want to kind of track and see how many people heard about it on Taylor's show so we know moving forward where you learned about the Soil Pro Lead Machine.
Passion for Solar Industry and Motivational Advice
00:36:15
Speaker
But you're in a great industry.
00:36:17
Speaker
I love solar.
00:36:19
Speaker
I anticipate being in it for many years to come and hope to continue to add value to the industry and inspire others to take action and make a whole lot of green.
00:36:28
Speaker
Heck yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
and help more importantly, help a lot of homeowners save green.
00:36:33
Speaker
You know, my philosophy in sales is always put the customer first and be honest, be full of integrity when you talk to customers.
00:36:43
Speaker
And I guess my closing thoughts are just in sales, you know, you have the ABCs of closing and always be closing.
00:36:50
Speaker
You have a lot of different tactics, but you always have to sell yourself first.
00:36:55
Speaker
And that's by being honest and straightforward with people.
00:36:59
Speaker
Then sell.
00:37:00
Speaker
The company you represent, represent the company well.
00:37:03
Speaker
And then number three is just sell the product well.
00:37:07
Speaker
Create the value around the products.
00:37:09
Speaker
We have one of the best value propositions in our marketing and sales, in my opinion.
00:37:17
Speaker
We're offering solar at no cost and helping them save thousands of dollars over several years.
00:37:22
Speaker
That's one of the best opportunities out there right now.
00:37:24
Speaker
And it pays handsomely as we know.
00:37:26
Speaker
Oh yeah, definitely.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yep.
00:37:29
Speaker
So appreciate that.
00:37:30
Speaker
And remember, if you help enough people get what they want, you'll get what they're, you will get what you want, as Zig Ziglar says.
00:37:38
Speaker
So keep that in mind, guys.
00:37:39
Speaker
Scott and Crush It.
00:37:41
Speaker
And Chris, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:37:43
Speaker
And with that, we'll say goodbye.
00:37:45
Speaker
And I'm sure people will be hitting me up.
00:37:47
Speaker
Thanks for inviting me.
00:37:48
Speaker
Okay, we'll talk soon.
00:37:51
Speaker
Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
00:37:55
Speaker
Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
00:38:05
Speaker
And we do it all for free.
00:38:07
Speaker
And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes.
00:38:16
Speaker
so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
00:38:20
Speaker
And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
00:38:29
Speaker
Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
00:38:33
Speaker
So take care of that now, and we'll see you on the next episode.