Transcript
Speaker: Howdy, howdy, Taylor Armstrong, your host here.
Speaker: Just wanted to preface this episode real quick.
Speaker: We've got Chris Poulsen on.
Speaker: He is a marketing genius.
Speaker: He's been in the solar industry, the door-to-door game for a long time.
Speaker: But we did have a few technological issues, so I just wanted to give you a heads up.
Speaker: Have some patience on this one.
Speaker: We had a couple internet issues.
Speaker: So you're gonna get the message.
Speaker: There's a couple, probably blips in the audio.
Speaker: And then a few, we both got kids, so a few screaming kids moments, so forgive that.
Speaker: But no doubt you're going to get some awesome value from this episode.
Speaker: Share it, let us know what you think, and enjoy the show.
Speaker: So with that said, let's jump into the episode.
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
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.
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.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Speaker: What's going on solopreneurs?
Speaker: We're back in the studio here with another guest.
Speaker: I am stoked to have him on here with my good friend, Chris.
Speaker: What's up, Chris?
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: Glad to be here.
Speaker: Thank you for the invite.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And we've known each other a while now.
Speaker: We met actually at Funnel Hacking Live, which is anyone that follows Russell Brunson, ClickFunnels, probably know what that is.
Speaker: But anyone that I find doing solar that comes to those conferences, I'm always like, oh, sweet.
Speaker: You probably know a lot about online marketing if you're coming to these things.
Speaker: So yeah, I mean, Chris kind of, you know, talk there and talk about what he's doing.
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.
Speaker: And he owns his own dealer.
Speaker: So he's doing it all.
Speaker: He's a mastermind with this stuff.
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?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
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.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: She just entered the office.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the joy of being a father, I guess, is...
Speaker: Having kids interrupt you all the time.
Speaker: That my kids crying in the next room.
Speaker: So probably the same thing with me.
Speaker: So my journey, I mean, I'll, I'll give you a little bit of background.
Speaker: So I started knocking door to door about 15, 16 years ago, selling pest control.
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.
Speaker: And during grad school, I just graduated with my MBA and had the solar recruiters reach out to me.
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.
Speaker: And then when I returned back to Utah, Solar City reached out and they actually
Speaker: won the battle there in recruiting.
Speaker: And so I joined solar cities forces and, and got offered the position to go down to Southern California.
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.
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,
Speaker: solely focused on solar, but then we expanded into all types of offerings.
Speaker: We were doing roofing and whole house vans, quite cool whole house vans.
Speaker: We were doing doors and windows, HVAC systems, artificial turf.
Speaker: So we were becoming a one-stop shop for homeowners looking for energy solutions.
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.
Speaker: And so we resorted back to solar as our primary focus.
Speaker: It pays the best, as you all know.
Speaker: So that's why we settled, not settled, but that's why we went back to solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then about two years ago, I transitioned my name from Smart Energy to Pure Energy.
Speaker: And so we rebranded and went to Pure Energy.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Where did you get?
Speaker: Why did you guys decide to rebrand to Pure Energy?
Speaker: Competitor right next door in Corona, and they had a lot of bad reviews online.
Speaker: And so customers started thinking we were them and confusing us with them all the time.
Speaker: And so we didn't want that brand recognition in a negative way.
Speaker: And so we rebranded and that's why we switched the name over to Pure Energy.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then this Pure Energy out of Arizona, were they the ones that copied you guys?
Speaker: I think I asked you that once.
Speaker: Well, yeah, there's been a couple offshoots since we started Pure Energy's name.
Speaker: I think there's one in Utah and Texas somewhere now, and they're expanding into Arizona.
Speaker: Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker: Yeah, they liked our name, so they took it and ran with it.
Speaker: I know, sounds like it.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: But no, that's cool.
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.
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?
Speaker: Well, so the when I was at SolarCity, that was about seven years ago.
Speaker: And I was there for six months and then left and
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.
Speaker: So we became a Sunrun dealer, became a SunPower dealer, Sunova dealer.
Speaker: So we were able to offer any solution for the homeowner, whether it was a PPA, a lease or a loan.
Speaker: And that's what we wanted to have in our portfolio is an option to customize it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: So that's been how, how long have you had your dealer?
Speaker: Did you say, can't remember?
Speaker: About six and a half years.
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.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Six and a half years.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So six and a half years.
Speaker: And then how long were you selling the, you said you had all the options with the home efficiency things.
Speaker: Were you doing that for a while or is that just like,
Speaker: Yeah, the first three years of Smart Energy, we were offering all those products.
Speaker: And then when we rebranded to Pure Energy, we still do roofing and solar and whole house fans.
Speaker: The Quiet Cool brand is the one we lead with.
Speaker: So we mainly focus on solar now, but we do offer a few other things.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, this was going to ask you too.
Speaker: We've had a few other people and I know we're talking...
Speaker: off the camera before.
Speaker: Like what makes them unique is they offer other home efficiency things.
Speaker: They're not really like selling it on.
Speaker: They're saying, hey, if we can get you on board, we're going to do the attic insulation.
Speaker: We're going to do like I know our company was doing the Nest thermostats, the smart thermostats.
Speaker: So do you still do stuff like that as you're selling in your dealer?
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?
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.
Speaker: We also now offer Generac generators as a backup solution when the power goes out or the grid goes down.
Speaker: So we're
Speaker: We're putting Generac standalone units next to people's homes.
Speaker: And then we also have this small EMF eliminator.
Speaker: It's a plug-in unit that helps eliminate EMFs throughout the home.
Speaker: And it works like a water filter, so it just filters out the dirty electricity.
Speaker: And so we can just plug that unit in.
Speaker: And that's helping as well.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
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
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.
Speaker: What is it, ABR?
Speaker: Always be recruiting.
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.
Speaker: We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
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
Speaker: So what is it that helped me?
Speaker: I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Sells Recruiting University.
Speaker: He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
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.
Speaker: I wanted to share with you guys his link.
Speaker: If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to Calendly.com slash SRU forward slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: Once again, that's Calendly.com slash SRU slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
Speaker: Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
Speaker: Okay, so yeah, we're just talking about how it's always better to add more value rather than competing on price.
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?
Speaker: Okay, so yeah, so one unique...
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.
Speaker: It's kind of an all-in-one inclusive app where they can refer customers.
Speaker: We can go in and we can ping them incentives, promotions, so that they'll refer more customers.
Speaker: And then they can also use the app to monitor their solar system.
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.
Speaker: And it works really well for us.
Speaker: We get a lot of business through the referral app and there's an initial cost to get the app developed, obviously.
Speaker: And then there's also a maintenance fee annually that you pay to have the app.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: but the app developer lets you customize it for your solar company or roofing company, whatever type of company you've got.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: How long have you guys been using that app for?
Speaker: Yeah, and we can...
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.
Speaker: It's just bit.ly forward slash GTR now.
Speaker: And GTR stands for Get the Referral.
Speaker: So that website's bit.ly forward slash GTR now.
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
Speaker: SunPower or whatever the monitoring they have, it's integrated in the app.
Speaker: They just click on their brand and then they can see their system real time.
Speaker: They can also communicate and message with the company directly through the app or with their individual sales rep.
Speaker: So if they lost their business card or their cell phone, they just go to their app and it's all in there.
Speaker: So it just kind of ties it all together for the homeowner.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And we use it pretty loosely.
Speaker: Everywhere we go, we give people the app.
Speaker: You know, I've flown to Boston.
Speaker: I've flown to Chicago.
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.
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.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And so we give the app out freely to everybody.
Speaker: Wow, that's cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: Oh yeah, we've got hundreds of people that have the app downloaded.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: It's been a great tool for us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then how often do you guys ping it out messages about referrals or promos that you do?
Speaker: Yeah, we try to ping out a message, you know, at least once a month or once a
Speaker: maybe twice a month.
Speaker: We'll just try to communicate and keep that dialogue open with our customers so that they're constantly getting notified on there.
Speaker: Hey, what's up, slowerpreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor here.
Speaker: I got to thinking we've had so many great guests on the episode.
Speaker: We've got some money tips, money advice, and wouldn't it be a shame if we weren't applying this?
Speaker: So what I went ahead and did was
Speaker: It's compiled a guide of our top 10 closing tips.
Speaker: Closing is the number one skill that you need in solar.
Speaker: Number one money-making skill.
Speaker: So I went through all the episodes, looked at the top closers, and compiled that into a guide.
Speaker: So that way you don't have to go through and do all the work of the latest needed episodes.
Speaker: So go grab that guide now at solarpreneurs.com forward slash closing guide.
Speaker: Once again, that's solarpreneurs.com forward slash closing guide.
Speaker: Get that straight to your inbox.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, well, yeah.
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?
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean the standard referral tell it tells them they get $500 for a referral.
Speaker: And so sometimes we'll say, Hey, this month we're going to double it.
Speaker: Or we'll say, you have two referrals and you, the third one doubles to a thousand.
Speaker: And so that's usually what we do.
Speaker: We just up the game a little bit to incentivize them to take action and refer more people.
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.
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.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Wow.
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?
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.
Speaker: So if that rep signs up an advocate, then
Speaker: When they send in the referral, that rep gets the referral and it tracks all the communications throughout.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: So it's very thorough.
Speaker: Designed very well.
Speaker: And then when they have pending rewards, it'll show a big circle of earnings.
Speaker: It says $500 or $1,000 pending reward.
Speaker: And then we just pay them digitally through Venmo or PayPal, and it just shoots the money right to the app.
Speaker: And then they link their bank account through their advocator wallet to transfer the funds from the app to their bank account.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: So it's all streamlined.
Speaker: It's pretty sweet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You got that thing dialed in.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: And would you say ever since you started using that, like is a lot of your business now referrals?
Speaker: Do you guys get like a ton of referrals?
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
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.
Speaker: They're people that refer people they know, coworkers, neighbors.
Speaker: So it's a warm lead that's coming in.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, yeah, that's huge.
Speaker: That's the first I've heard of people using an app like that.
Speaker: So I'm going to be checking that out and we will post that link in the show notes.
Speaker: So any of our listeners, I know Chris can hook you up with that.
Speaker: And like he said, you can get it branded to whatever company you're with or your specific offer.
Speaker: That's super powerful.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, the other thing, and then, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker: Is there anything else you wanted to say with that, Chris?
Speaker: No, that's, that's pretty much all on get the referral.
Speaker: It's a great program and well worth the investment.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: For sure.
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.
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.
Speaker: and then you're teaching other reps to do that.
Speaker: And you have kind of an offer with that.
Speaker: You're helping lots of people learn how to use the same method you're using.
Speaker: So I wanted to get into that too.
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?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So it's called the Solar Pro Lead Machine and I'll give you guys the URL here in a minute.
Speaker: But it's basically a way to, a lead magnet, a way to attract people that are online through Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever.
Speaker: And in our case, we're working on attracting homeowners that wanna go solar.
Speaker: And so it's a digital product that teaches you, there's first a blueprint.
Speaker: The blueprint gives you the set of plans and teaches you how to optimize your social media profiles.
Speaker: And when I say optimize them, I mean, position yourself in the marketplace as a solar or roofing professional.
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.
Speaker: And so your page is optimized that helps you attract that potential client, that potential solar customer.
Speaker: And then,
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.
Speaker: And so,
Speaker: The digital product is well worth the investment just to get the blueprint at $7.
Speaker: And then there's a masterclass that will actually teach you step-by-step how to implement the blueprint.
Speaker: And, and so you can get it, get that by going to a solar pro lead machine.com forward slash 2020.
Speaker: And so Taylor and I are given a special offering to anyone that listens to this podcast and
Speaker: And you can go there today and download the blueprint for $7.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, what I like about this, Chris was telling me it's a guy, his name is Blake Newbar.
Speaker: He's the one that kind of...
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.
Speaker: We need more of it in solar for sure.
Speaker: But if you think about it, like how many people are on social media right now?
Speaker: I mean, you break it down and there's more people on Facebook than the population of China, like
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's insane, right?
Speaker: And then think of all the businesses.
Speaker: So really all we're doing with this, it's just turning those people that are nosy.
Speaker: Because how many times have we clicked on people's profile and been like, oh, I'm snooping around.
Speaker: What am I doing?
Speaker: Like I catch myself all the time.
Speaker: Facebook stalking.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll be on Facebooking.
Speaker: Like, I don't even know how I got on.
Speaker: You just go down a rabbit hole, you know, and I don't think I'm the only one to do that.
Speaker: I'm sure there's other people there.
Speaker: Facebook's talking.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So if you think about it, how many people are doing that?
Speaker: Like, people are curious just by nature and they're clicking on profiles.
Speaker: They're seeing what's going on.
Speaker: So it's like, have you optimized your Facebook profile to turn these curious, these nosy people into actual, like, appointments, right?
Speaker: Because if you're in the solar industry, everyone should be doing this.
Speaker: You got friends, family, people, wherever you're at, they're snooping around.
Speaker: They want to see what's in your life.
Speaker: And if you just have pictures of your dog, of your cat, yeah, that's good.
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.
Speaker: So really, that's what I like about this.
Speaker: Chris is just teaching people how to turn their profiles into a lead machine.
Speaker: and turn those people that are snooping around, which is, I think most of Facebook into, you know, potential client clients.
Speaker: Is that, is that pretty much right?
Speaker: I hit the nail on the head with that, Chris.
Speaker: Yeah, you did.
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.
Speaker: I've knocked thousands of doors and I know it's, it's not an easy game.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: for many.
Speaker: But it can become second nature.
Speaker: It can be one of the best strategies to generate leads, self-gen leads out in the neighborhoods, door to door.
Speaker: But the world's transitioning, it's changing.
Speaker: And the one-to-one like that is good, but online you can go one-to-many.
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.
Speaker: And then
Speaker: Show them what you do as a profession.
Speaker: Be the expert, like Taylor said, and point them to, hey, I'm a solar consultant, solar energy consultant.
Speaker: I can help you today.
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.
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.
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.
Speaker: You don't have to spend a lot of budget, add budget.
Speaker: It just organically turns on this lead machine that brings leads to you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's what I like best about it.
Speaker: Cause especially for anyone that's new in the industry, like I came into this with
Speaker: with not a nickel to my name.
Speaker: All I had was money that I had from donating plasma.
Speaker: That was gone in about a week.
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?
Speaker: And then that's what stopped me for so long doing ads on Facebook or doing ads.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't want to wait around for this to pay out.
Speaker: But the cool thing about this, you don't have to wait at all.
Speaker: I mean, it's free, just organic.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you get the blueprint.
Speaker: It teaches you how to do it.
Speaker: Seven bucks invested.
Speaker: Take the master class, it's a couple hundred bucks.
Speaker: Nothing, you know, one lead that you buy in solar is going to be two to five hundred bucks anyway.
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.
Speaker: And organic means free.
Speaker: And we all like free.
Speaker: Knocking doors is free.
Speaker: We can go out and invest time and knock all day and get leads for free, but the time's gone.
Speaker: And so put this to work for you so that it's working day and night and generating solar leads on autopilot.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And yeah, it's cool because, I mean, it's good to do paid ads too.
Speaker: That's great.
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.
Speaker: And then, because that's only going to make your paid ads more effective too.
Speaker: If you're using paid ads, it's going to a specific page.
Speaker: Maybe they click on you from there and then it takes you through your Facebook profile, right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So yeah, I think stuff like that.
Speaker: And then I know there's guys that's going to just like local groups, wherever you're at is a good strategy.
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.
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.
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.
Speaker: That's exactly right.
Speaker: Yeah, you couldn't have said it better.
Speaker: I mean, it's fishing online, and when you're positioned correctly, you make comments in these groups, um,
Speaker: people are going to naturally hover over your profile.
Speaker: Who's this guy?
Speaker: Oh, what is that?
Speaker: He does solar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're actually thinking about that.
Speaker: And then they click on your profile and it takes them right through to generating you a lead, a free lead.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, thanks for sharing that with us, Chris.
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
Speaker: a minimum of one cell, which would be, should be a couple grand for everyone.
Speaker: So turning seven bucks into a couple grand, I'd say that's a pretty good investment.
Speaker: So thanks for sharing with us, Chris.
Speaker: Um, well, yeah, those are the two main things I want to hit on.
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,
Speaker: get things rolling in your own dealer?
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.
Speaker: And then getting the proper installation partnerships.
Speaker: So in the beginning, that was the hardest part is just the relationships with installers.
Speaker: I mean, all installers want good sales teams and sales dealerships.
Speaker: But in the beginning, I was screwed over several times by install companies that
Speaker: we wouldn't, we'd go out and sell, hand off the baton to them to install and fulfill for us.
Speaker: And then we wouldn't get paid out on the deals.
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.
Speaker: And so over, over time it's gotten better and we've got some really solid dealer, um,
Speaker: excuse me, install partners now that we are an authorized dealer for and they pay us on time and they do great work.
Speaker: And so, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And how have you found, I knew you have a couple of different markets that you're in right now.
Speaker: How have you been able to find those different installers and like, how do you go about starting it in different markets?
Speaker: Cause for me, like I'm in California, San Diego, I know this market, but yeah,
Speaker: it seems like a huge task to me to like go somewhere out east where I have no idea about the market.
Speaker: So what have you done to get those set up and anything you've learned in doing that?
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: And so when we've expanded out of Southern California, that's exactly what we did.
Speaker: We just,
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.
Speaker: But to answer your question on the install partnerships, it's really about just who you know and building relationships over time.
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
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
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?
Speaker: You just have to.
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.
Speaker: And, uh, another guy, I mean, he was kind of sketchy.
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.
Speaker: Yeah, it is pretty much trial and error.
Speaker: You have to kind of work your way through all of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I guess that's business.
Speaker: I know it's cool.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Networking is key.
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.
Speaker: And I think that's true.
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.
Speaker: As you help their ship rise, your ship rises naturally.
Speaker: You know, instead of hanging out with small-minded people that don't have a vision.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Where there's no vision, the people perish, right?
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Definitely.
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.
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.
Speaker: They're like out in the halls talking with other people that are high earners.
Speaker: So it's almost like more so you go to these things to form the connections, do the networking.
Speaker: I mean, that's how I met Chris.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: It's, you know, repetitive learning is good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely do that networking.
Speaker: That's going to help you grow, whatever, especially in solar too.
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.
Speaker: They're not on the right ship that's going to get them there.
Speaker: Maybe they're working hard, but if you're not in the right space,
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.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Well, cool, Chris.
Speaker: So thanks for sharing some tips with us.
Speaker: And again, we'll post those links about what you're doing in there.
Speaker: And then can you tell us for guys that want to connect with you?
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?
Speaker: So it's pretty easy to find me.
Speaker: Just go to Facebook,
Speaker: type in Christopher Polson, you'll find me.
Speaker: I'm on Twitter.
Speaker: I'm on LinkedIn.
Speaker: Those are probably my main three, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Speaker: And yeah, connect with me on social.
Speaker: Awesome.
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.
Speaker: It's a
Speaker: Yeah, it's different than looking at just a regular old Facebook profile.
Speaker: Like, dang, this guy's got things going.
Speaker: It changes it for sure.
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.
Speaker: So it'll change things for you.
Speaker: Definitely, definitely.
Speaker: So guys, go out and check out his offer he's got going on.
Speaker: Go look at his profile, if anything, and give him a shout out for coming on.
Speaker: And then, Chris, any final words you want to share with our solarpreneurs or any tips that we didn't go over?
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.
Speaker: And then for the Solar Pro Lead Machine, it's just solarproleadmachine.com.
Speaker: forward slash 2020 so that we know you heard about it on this show.
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.
Speaker: But you're in a great industry.
Speaker: I love solar.
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.
Speaker: Heck yeah.
Speaker: and help more importantly, help a lot of homeowners save green.
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.
Speaker: And I guess my closing thoughts are just in sales, you know, you have the ABCs of closing and always be closing.
Speaker: You have a lot of different tactics, but you always have to sell yourself first.
Speaker: And that's by being honest and straightforward with people.
Speaker: Then sell.
Speaker: The company you represent, represent the company well.
Speaker: And then number three is just sell the product well.
Speaker: Create the value around the products.
Speaker: We have one of the best value propositions in our marketing and sales, in my opinion.
Speaker: We're offering solar at no cost and helping them save thousands of dollars over several years.
Speaker: That's one of the best opportunities out there right now.
Speaker: And it pays handsomely as we know.
Speaker: Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So appreciate that.
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.
Speaker: So keep that in mind, guys.
Speaker: Scott and Crush It.
Speaker: And Chris, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: And with that, we'll say goodbye.
Speaker: And I'm sure people will be hitting me up.
Speaker: Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker: Okay, we'll talk soon.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
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.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
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.
Speaker: so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now, and we'll see you on the next episode.
