Transcript
Speaker: What's up, Solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor here.
Speaker: I'm with a special guest today.
Speaker: His name is Earl Capule.
Speaker: He is a San Diegan here with me, so we invited him over to the home studio to talk about how he's leveraging social media to increase his referrals, to close more deals, and to become more of an expert in the solar industry.
Speaker: So enjoy this episode with Earl.
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Good morning, solarpreneurs.
Speaker: I am here with the one, the only Earl Kapule.
Speaker: Had to practice his name a couple of times.
Speaker: Earl, welcome to the show.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Glad to be here.
Speaker: Cool, man.
Speaker: So we're both San Diegans here, both hanging out in San Diego.
Speaker: Earl is a Hawaiian.
Speaker: He's from Oahu and then I'm from Utah.
Speaker: So we're here today excited to be on the show and Earl's been crushing it in social media.
Speaker: The reason why I wanted to invite him on the podcast, I saw him just post and post it on social media.
Speaker: Saw all the interaction he was getting, creating raving fans.
Speaker: He's got a Facebook group.
Speaker: So Earl, tell us a little bit about how you got started in the solar industry and why you chose it.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So it was about five years ago.
Speaker: And I was in the hospital at the time having surgery and an acquaintance came to visit me because he had heard that I was in the hospital.
Speaker: So he came by and we were talking for a while and he asked me what I did for a living or for work.
Speaker: And I told him I did construction in the past in Hawaii as a carpenter and he invited me to...
Speaker: work for a solar company as a site surveyor to survey the roof, take some measurements.
Speaker: He said I could make some money doing that.
Speaker: I said, sure, I just have to go to a mission trip first.
Speaker: When I get back, you know, well, if the position is still open, I'll take it.
Speaker: And when I got back, the position was already closed, but he told me, hey, we got sales open for solar.
Speaker: And he told me I would have to go door to door.
Speaker: And I said, I think I'm good on that.
Speaker: I'm not really good at talking to people or going door to door and trying to sell stuff.
Speaker: So I thought it wasn't for me.
Speaker: But he pushed me and he said, at least come to a meeting, check it out, see how we explain it to homeowners and how it doesn't cost them anything out of their pocket and they actually get to save money.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: That's how I started.
Speaker: I got into it.
Speaker: I ended up really liking it.
Speaker: I got really good at it very quickly just because solar pretty much sells itself.
Speaker: And so that's how I got into it about five years ago.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The accidental salesperson like most people, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, a similar thing for my story.
Speaker: I was doing door-to-door pest control, door-to-door, well, I guess, yeah, just pest control and had a friend that made way more money than I did.
Speaker: So I'm like, oh, I better check this solar thing out.
Speaker: But same thing.
Speaker: It's nice to have a product that actually saves people money instead of adding bills onto their budget, right?
Speaker: So yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Cool story about how he got into the solar industry.
Speaker: And so you've been here in San Diego doing it since then?
Speaker: Yeah, so almost five years now.
Speaker: Okay, right on, man.
Speaker: So Earl, he's been crushing it, especially using social media and other ways of doing it.
Speaker: So when did you get in the whole social media part of solar, Earl?
Speaker: I mean, as long as I've been doing solar, I've been trying to use it every now and then.
Speaker: But as far as doing it seriously and consistently, it's been about three or four months since I've been doing it pretty consistent.
Speaker: And when I say consistent, I mean on a daily basis.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I've been watching Gary Vee a lot more.
Speaker: Just this year, I kind of...
Speaker: came across him and I started watching it more and more.
Speaker: And I realized that social media is big and it's important if you're in sales or if you're trying to promote something, it's a very powerful platform.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So Gary Vee, he was the one that kind of got you into the social media aspect of it.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Huge influence.
Speaker: You know, I see him posting stuff every single day, and it's crazy that he posts his own stuff.
Speaker: And so it's pretty motivating that if he can do it, I mean, why can't I do it or anybody else?
Speaker: Whatever they do, why can't they do it?
Speaker: You know, everybody has the same amount of time every day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So let's, we're going to get into the social media piece of it.
Speaker: But for you, Earl, what does a typical day in solar cells look like?
Speaker: Are you, do you have a set schedule?
Speaker: Are you going out?
Speaker: Or what does your typical day look like?
Speaker: I mean, most of the time I do have a schedule.
Speaker: So I work five to six days a week.
Speaker: And I try to schedule it where I'm working two or three hours in the morning and two or three hours towards the evening before the sun goes down.
Speaker: And everything in between is I do some social media, some back office work, follow-ups, try to get some referrals.
Speaker: But I try to do that every single day.
Speaker: So on the doors, social media, on the doors, social media.
Speaker: Okay, good schedule.
Speaker: And have you always been that way?
Speaker: Or did you you kind of develop this process?
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: Yeah, it's funny because I never had experience with sales or door to door or any of that.
Speaker: So when I first came on board, most of the salespeople that were selling solar at the time, they would only work 20 hours a week, five days, five days a week, 20 hours.
Speaker: And then the rest they would just take time off, you know, they were making good money.
Speaker: So they would just relax.
Speaker: But at some point, I told myself, what if I did 40 hours like a regular person and treated this like an actual job?
Speaker: I wonder if I would make more money.
Speaker: And so I did that.
Speaker: I started applying it.
Speaker: I started making twice as much money.
Speaker: And all the other reps were like, what are you doing?
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm just working more.
Speaker: Just put in 20 more hours than you.
Speaker: And it's working.
Speaker: In this line of work, definitely having a schedule like that and treating it like an actual job can really do a lot.
Speaker: It's huge because we were just talking before this, the amount of reps that we see drop off.
Speaker: And I think that's one of the biggest things.
Speaker: Things that happen is they don't have a consistent schedule, they're not making the money they want to, and then they just give up because they're not willing to put in the work and the consistency.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's that accountability of, you know, when you have a job, you have a boss, you have to check in, you have to check out, you already have a schedule made for you.
Speaker: And so in this kind of work, you have to kind of hold yourself accountable or hold each other accountable by putting these schedules together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And funny story I have.
Speaker: So Earl, when he first started posting a little bit more, I think I saw him post a picture of the area he had been in and post.
Speaker: And I don't know if you remember that post, but something like how you book like, I don't know, six appointments in this certain area or whatever.
Speaker: One little dead end and I hit four houses.
Speaker: And that was the only four houses I talked to all in a row within 45 minutes or less.
Speaker: All of them signed up.
Speaker: to get an appointment nice and I decided I'm gonna post this I mean a lot of people spend hours just trying to get one appointment and I got four in less than an hour and so yeah that post got a lot of attention a lot of people started messaging me about that yeah the funniest part was is I started looking at those addresses and I'm like man those addresses sound really familiar
Speaker: So I zoomed in on it.
Speaker: I pulled up my area and I had just knocked that same area probably like a couple months ago before he had something.
Speaker: Oh my man, this guy just poaching my areas coming in, swooping in right after I go there.
Speaker: Yeah, I remember someone posted, hey, I'm going to go knock there now because they saw the addresses and everything.
Speaker: I'm like, sure, go ahead, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's funny, man.
Speaker: And did you end up closing any of those?
Speaker: I'm still following up with a couple of them.
Speaker: None of them did close yet, but I got their bills, and I have to set up the appointment still.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: Funny stuff.
Speaker: We're kind of battling out here in San Diego.
Speaker: Luckily, I've got plenty of area here in San Diego, right?
Speaker: A lot.
Speaker: Where the both of us.
Speaker: So cool.
Speaker: And so let's kind of get into the whole social media.
Speaker: That's going to be the focus of the episode here.
Speaker: So we're going to talk about why reps should be using social media, how they should be posting, consistency, how they should be posting, what results they should expect.
Speaker: And Earl's going to break it down for us here so we can kind of learn that because I think a lot of reps that I've seen, they don't know.
Speaker: They don't even post on social media maybe once a month or
Speaker: less a lot of them and I know I'm included in there I don't post much at all like I should be and so what kind of first of all what what results have you gotten from posting more in social media you see more referrals or tell us about your results
Speaker: Yeah, as far as the results, it's been surprising.
Speaker: I mean, within the last month, I've been receiving messages almost every single week in my messenger inbox.
Speaker: A lot of people are requesting more information about what I do.
Speaker: A lot of solo reps or even just reps in general that do door-to-door or in sales, they're wanting to know more about what I do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of that, but also some referrals from other people in the sales industry.
Speaker: They may know someone in California and they say, oh, my friend needs solar.
Speaker: People have been seeing me as an expert in the industry, and so they feel comfortable with reaching out to me as far as referring a job to me.
Speaker: For instance, last week, I received a message from someone in Arizona saying,
Speaker: that they needed a 200 kilowatt job installed 600 to 800 panels and they needed an installer for that and so i called one of my installers we said we set up an appointment they got on the phone the next day and right now it's still in the works and so that one seems pretty promising and that was just from posting stuff on social media look at that killer so yeah a realtor of mine he's a friend on my facebook
Speaker: He reached out to me last week and said, hey, I got a really close friend that we sold a house to years ago.
Speaker: They're looking into solar.
Speaker: And the first thing I thought of was you.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Probably because I'm posting almost every single day that I do solar or my install.
Speaker: And so people are noticing that I'm someone to go to if they know anybody that needs solar.
Speaker: Yeah, that's huge, man.
Speaker: And I was just asking before this, we're messaging back and forth.
Speaker: And I'm like, Earl, but I don't have like barely any friends even in San Diego.
Speaker: How is social media going to help me if I don't have any friends?
Speaker: And he kind of was saying, no, I don't make up excuses and kind of tell me to just do it anyways.
Speaker: But what would your answer?
Speaker: I know you told me, but what's your answer for someone who doesn't have
Speaker: maybe friends or maybe people, homeowners that they think would even see their posts?
Speaker: What do you do with that?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I mean, if you don't have any friends locally, I mean, you can always get friends.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: Search the internet for friends and add them if they have things in common.
Speaker: What I've been doing is joining a lot of local groups or business pages or just hiking groups, all these different types of groups.
Speaker: And then I interact with people there.
Speaker: That way...
Speaker: People start adding me as friends.
Speaker: Oh, this person is providing value.
Speaker: This person knows what they're talking about.
Speaker: Oh, this person seems cool.
Speaker: And they add me.
Speaker: And now I have some local friends.
Speaker: Another way is networking with business people in your area.
Speaker: So I've been networking with realtors and construction people.
Speaker: All these different...
Speaker: businesses that have that are kind of related to solar that could provide referrals and i can provide referrals to them uh where we provide value to each other and so i'm just networking and growing my network constantly and so now i'm getting requests every week as well by these people as well so that's another way because they know a lot of people yeah so like joining groups you'd say just joining any
Speaker: Local area groups where homeowners would hang out.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: I mean, another thing is you can post stuff in the marketplace or there's like San Diego Craigslist.
Speaker: There's like five different ones of those or the swap meets in the area.
Speaker: All these different types of groups where you can post stuff for free.
Speaker: It's all free advertisement.
Speaker: So you don't need experience to do any of these things.
Speaker: It's just posting things of value, not selling things.
Speaker: It's mostly providing information and value that people need.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker: We were just talking before this about how, yeah, like exactly I said, just the basically free advertisement that you get just from posting these groups.
Speaker: Because people notice you.
Speaker: We're not out there trying to be spammy on groups and just spam people and say, I know some people do that.
Speaker: And then they get kicked out of the groups.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because the thing about that is, yeah, nobody's going to want to trust you and you just seem so salesy.
Speaker: This approach is more of a long-term approach.
Speaker: You definitely need patience.
Speaker: You're building a foundation.
Speaker: And until you're seen as an expert...
Speaker: no one is going to start adding you or want to refer anything to you.
Speaker: So it's been a few months, and now it's starting to pick up traction.
Speaker: But for the most part, it's just about providing free information, nothing to do with selling, but the information about what you do and why it benefits other people.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's part of why I had him on the show here because our co-host, James, I know he's all about joining groups and networking with realtors and other places where homeowners are going to hang out.
Speaker: So I started doing this maybe a month ago.
Speaker: I looked up any group that had to do with solar, joined every solar group that I saw.
Speaker: And then I looked up any like San Diego realtor swap meet group.
Speaker: And there's one thing in common that I found in all those groups.
Speaker: And that's that Earl was already there.
Speaker: He beat me to all of them.
Speaker: And I'm like, holy cow, this guy is like in all places in San Diego in social media.
Speaker: I'm like, I got to see what this guy's doing.
Speaker: And I saw him posting in most of them, already adding value.
Speaker: And that's exactly what we want to be doing here.
Speaker: And I think it's paid off for him because even if he doesn't have homeowners reaching out, like you said, he's having other friends that maybe know people.
Speaker: He's being seen by people adding value.
Speaker: So I think that's the key is adding the value first and then people are going to reach out.
Speaker: And I've seen that too, Justin.
Speaker: I've posted in the solar group, stuff like that.
Speaker: And as long as you're adding value, people are always going to reach out, I think.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Say, what are you doing?
Speaker: There's always opportunities to coach people.
Speaker: Even by giving your free advice, people are going to remember that and give you referrals later for little things you do.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So yeah, it's huge, man.
Speaker: And so how have you, as far as the sales go, have you seen a lot more sales?
Speaker: Have you gotten a lot more sales off these referrals and other opportunities you've had to come up?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So it has opened up a lot more opportunities for me to...
Speaker: engage with people and get more referrals.
Speaker: I've been also using with my customers.
Speaker: My customers have been posting pictures of their install.
Speaker: So I would go to the install, take a picture of it, send it to the homeowner because they don't climb on the roof.
Speaker: Take a picture of it and give it to the homeowner and let them know, hey, share this on your social media.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: One of my customers just did that a couple weeks ago.
Speaker: And as soon as she posted it, a neighbor from the street over called her right away.
Speaker: And I actually sat with them yesterday and signed them up.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: They got installed two weeks ago.
Speaker: The customer called a friend.
Speaker: I set up an appointment last week for yesterday, and yesterday I signed him up.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: And, I mean, it's powerful because...
Speaker: I didn't even have to go through my whole presentation yesterday.
Speaker: I was a quarter of the way through and she said, you don't have to sell us.
Speaker: We trust our friend and it's a good deal.
Speaker: And we've been wanting Solar for so long.
Speaker: And as soon as we saw her post, we reached out.
Speaker: And so that's the power of social media just right there.
Speaker: One person posting a picture of their install can create a lot more referrals.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: And I don't know about everyone else, but anything I can do to knock less doors and just have people come to me
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: I like that a lot better.
Speaker: Knocking doors is good, but if we can get off the doors and have people becoming us.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I mean, in the beginning, I was a little skeptical.
Speaker: I found myself spending quite a bit of time in the beginning trying to provide value in all these groups.
Speaker: Like you were saying, I'm part of many groups.
Speaker: And every time someone posts something that I can answer the question to, I was always answering the questions.
Speaker: Even when I was on the door, sometimes it would take time away from the door.
Speaker: But I kept reminding myself that this is going to pay off, it's going to pay off, it's going to pay off.
Speaker: And eventually it did.
Speaker: And so if you're thinking, I don't want to waste, it's a waste of time and it's time consuming, et cetera, you know, that's kind of the wrong mindset.
Speaker: You want to think of it as an investment.
Speaker: So you're investing your time in social media because once you build up that momentum,
Speaker: then you're going to be able to spend less time on it.
Speaker: And it's just going to run itself.
Speaker: So like I said, now people are just messaging me nonstop and I'm not even engaging as much as I used to in the beginning just because I've picked up some momentum.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So with a rep, let's say we have a newer rep, hasn't never posted on social media, doesn't have much experience.
Speaker: What would you tell them?
Speaker: How do you like start doing this?
Speaker: What's the baby steps that you can make towards first starting to post?
Speaker: So someone new and never posted on social media before?
Speaker: Definitely the first thing you wanna do is try to, as far as people that are looking on your personal page or your business page, you wanna let them know, definitely, I'm new at this, I'm still learning.
Speaker: I'd love to share with someone what I do and how I do it, part of my training.
Speaker: And then reach out to experts, experts in your field, joining all these groups just like Taylor did, and then asking a lot of questions, becoming more engaged with the groups.
Speaker: So then people will reach out to you.
Speaker: Then you start building a network from there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think what's interesting is, at least for me, what held me back for a long time is just having that fear of not being the best.
Speaker: I know there's people that make more money in solar than I do right now, and there probably always is going to be someone that's making a little bit more, having more installs, selling more.
Speaker: But the truth is we don't have to be the best at these things to still provide value, still push content out.
Speaker: I was just watching.
Speaker: We watched Catch Me If You Can last weekend.
Speaker: You seen that movie?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Good movie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And this guy's crazy.
Speaker: He's, what, less than under 21.
Speaker: He's already been a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, and he doesn't even know anything about all these things.
Speaker: If you haven't seen that movie, I would go watch it because it really shows that you don't have to be the best at these things.
Speaker: If you're good at selling, you can like, I mean, you can really fake anything you want to pretty much.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Obviously you're going to get caught if you're just like not pushing yourself and not learning new things, people are going to call you out.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: I think if you're just putting yourself out there, striving to post and everything, people are going to notice that and people are really going to appreciate the value you're giving.
Speaker: Yeah, you get those haters.
Speaker: Have you gotten any haters on social media yet?
Speaker: Not a whole lot, but on specific pages, I've gotten that, but that's because those pages are known for that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But on the more professional pages, I haven't really gotten anything.
Speaker: It's been all positive.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: That's a good point you bring up.
Speaker: The newer people, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there scared to post stuff just because they don't want to get trolled or someone's going to think it's not a good question or not a good tip.
Speaker: But you just do it anyway because the worst that's going to happen is nobody's going to like it or comment.
Speaker: Then you know what kind of post is not going to work.
Speaker: You have to try it and then...
Speaker: Then you keep posting, you'll find which ones people actually like.
Speaker: They like and comment on like the one that you found with the picture of the four homes that I got.
Speaker: I posted it with the bills on it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of people like that.
Speaker: So stuff like that.
Speaker: Post your results.
Speaker: You know, people always put out positive positivity when you post something like I got a sale today.
Speaker: So anything and everything you can think of, when you're going out there every day, just post something from your day.
Speaker: Today I went out, knocked on some doors, had a couple good conversations, whatever it might be.
Speaker: But keep it simple.
Speaker: You can also look at what other people are posting and which ones are getting a lot of likes and attention.
Speaker: And now you know what kind of posts are working.
Speaker: So try not to recreate, reinvent the wheel.
Speaker: Just see what's working and do a lot more of that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's huge because there's already, I mean, Earl talked about Gary V here.
Speaker: Earl talked about all these influencers.
Speaker: We already have all these people to pattern, other people in sales and everything.
Speaker: So really, we don't even have to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker: We can just put our own twist on it.
Speaker: Anything we say, we can twist.
Speaker: There's a lot of sales gurus.
Speaker: We got Grant Cardone.
Speaker: We got all these sales guys.
Speaker: But they're not talking specifically for solar.
Speaker: So what if we just take what we learned and then just talk about how we'd applied it to solar?
Speaker: A lot of that stuff we can do without having to be some genius or really recreate our own.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Just kind of recreate what they're already doing, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So yeah, I think that's huge.
Speaker: And as far as like posting with homeowners, so after every install you get, are you going back to your installs and taking pictures every time or what does that look like?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: I just posted a post on all these solar pages the other day that if you're in solar and you're not going to your installs, you need to, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're powerful instead of spending time knocking on the doors, you can knock on the doors near your install, but also be there for the customer take some pictures posted on social media.
Speaker: Because everybody you know is going to see it.
Speaker: And that just makes it more real to the people that are on your social media that you do solar.
Speaker: So people are seeing my installs week after week and they're like wow he must be serious about what he does it's not just something he does on the side.
Speaker: He's a full-time solar rep.
Speaker: And so it's really important.
Speaker: I tell my guys all the time.
Speaker: And I even go there, take some pictures with the customer.
Speaker: The other week, I did a testimonial with the customer.
Speaker: We did a Facebook Live.
Speaker: And so you're going to see a lot more of those.
Speaker: And I don't see enough of it.
Speaker: I'm friends with a lot of people in the solar industry.
Speaker: And I don't see enough of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: He's also a pizza delivery guy.
Speaker: See him out there delivering pizza to his installers or whatever.
Speaker: Also important, taking care of the installers.
Speaker: You want them to do a really good job, so get them some drinks, get them some food, and talk to them, get to know them, and treat them well because you take care of them, they'll take care of your customer.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: I thought that was funny.
Speaker: I'm like, wow, I never treated my installers that good.
Speaker: But it's true.
Speaker: I mean, imagine how good they're going to take care of your customers.
Speaker: If they see you showing up, they're like, wow, this guy is serious about this customer.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: I mean, Simon Sinek talks about that a lot, about taking care of your employees so your employees can take care of your customers.
Speaker: A lot of companies, they treat the customers better than their employees.
Speaker: And employees can't treat the customers well because they're not being treated well.
Speaker: Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker: And so from an install standpoint, let's go back to when you weren't posting at all to now that you're you've been posting a lot more consistently and everything.
Speaker: You've been seeing a lot more sales come in, a lot more installs.
Speaker: You're making like way more now that you've been posting on social media.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: It's been helping.
Speaker: It's been a supplement to what I've been already making.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: The referrals are coming in a lot more, definitely.
Speaker: So with my customers posting, with myself posting, a lot more referrals are coming in through social media.
Speaker: It's definitely working right now for me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And tell us about your kind of referral process.
Speaker: Are you giving some sort of incentive to people that refer or what's your referral process?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So what we offer is anywhere from $500 to $1,000, depending on the size of the system, and then depending on how many referrals they give.
Speaker: But right out the gate, it's about $500 to $1,000 per referral.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: And so, and then like each time you get a cell, how are you asking referrals after?
Speaker: Is it you're just posting with them?
Speaker: Or you ask them after each cell too?
Speaker: Or how does that what does that look like for you?
Speaker: Yeah, it's usually right in the presentation, even before the install.
Speaker: I hear a lot of people talking about waiting until the install, but it's a long period of time.
Speaker: When they're excited, when they signed up, I want to get them to start calling people, start letting people know, start posting on social media right away, letting them know that the referrals will help you pay for your system, you know, help pay for your first year of electricity.
Speaker: And I put it in many different ways, but I tell them it's important to really start reaching out to them because they're going to be looking into solar, and if they can get it through you, it's going to help you pay for your solar as well.
Speaker: And we sometimes give incentives that if you can reach out to a few people before the next 30 days, before your system is installed, we give bigger incentives.
Speaker: Just because if they don't give referrals within a month or two, it's most likely they're not going to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Forget about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I've been doing lately is I take their phone before I even leave and I say, look, I know you're probably going to forget my name when I step out of here.
Speaker: So I'm going to put my name in your phone.
Speaker: So I put my name, I put Taylor, and then I put Solar after it.
Speaker: That way, if they forget my name, they just type in solar and I show up right under their name.
Speaker: That's a good idea.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: I can't say how many homes I've knocked on that already have solar.
Speaker: And when I ask them what company did they go with, they don't even remember the name of the company.
Speaker: Every time.
Speaker: I'm trying to be memorable to my customers by always going back to them, always reaching out, going to their homes.
Speaker: Even after the install is well over with, I still visit them and say, hi, how do you like everything?
Speaker: And it's more of a...
Speaker: concierge solar service.
Speaker: We're walking them through the whole process and then we're still there even after the system is installed.
Speaker: And so a lot of my customers text me right now and then and they're like, oh, they stay engaged.
Speaker: I have one customer from a couple years back.
Speaker: He still texts me like every other month.
Speaker: Hey, I'm still working on some more referrals.
Speaker: He's given me six referrals so far.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: So you want to really stay in touch with them.
Speaker: I don't see that enough as well.
Speaker: Solar reps stay in touch with their customers.
Speaker: They just get a sale and they move on.
Speaker: But it's really important to stay in touch.
Speaker: And I think that's one difference between like other door to door things we have.
Speaker: I mean, you got alarms, you got pest control there.
Speaker: That's kind of most of the time.
Speaker: It's, I think kind of a one and done.
Speaker: So you get this cell and then you're just out of there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But what I've been trying to do better at is just like Earl said, actually following up with these people, having the conversations with them, texting them back and forth.
Speaker: Because at first I thought solar be exact same, just sell them at the door and then never talk to them again.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But there's so much potential, and I know I have so much more room to get more referrals and follow up other people.
Speaker: Do you have any kind of schedule when you're following up with your past customers or talking to them?
Speaker: Is it a regular basis or whatever?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I try to follow up with them as we're going through the process weekly.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Even after they're done with the install, maybe once a month.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And every now and then I'll just go through my list of customers and make sure I've touched base with all of them at least once a month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If I'm in the neighborhood, I'll just stop by and say hi.
Speaker: You know, talk to the neighbors.
Speaker: Hey, do you know the Johnsons?
Speaker: You know, they got installed last month.
Speaker: And so it's just the difference between farming and mining.
Speaker: You know, mining, you're just going from one place to the next.
Speaker: And in the farming, you're just really farming a neighborhood and trying to get the whole neighborhood to go solar and not just get one sale and then jump to the next neighborhood.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: Thanks for sharing with us a little bit about your referral process.
Speaker: And with, I know you'd mentioned a little bit about how frequent you post on social media, but do you have any, like, is it set times during the day or do you have like a set time where you're saying, okay, I'm posting now, or you said it's just kind of like after you're done with your morning knocking or how does that work?
Speaker: So I have set an alarm on my phone at 3 o'clock.
Speaker: My alarm lets me know Facebook posts, Instagram posts.
Speaker: So I'm usually trying to post anywhere between 2 and 4 p.m.
Speaker: And if I do post again, it's later in the day around 6, and sometimes I'll even post in the morning.
Speaker: So I'm still testing which one gets the most engagement, but from what I found is around between 3 to 4, when people are getting off work and whatnot, a lot more people are seeing it.
Speaker: okay yeah cool and tell us a little bit about your content like that's one of the things that i think has held me back and other reps too is like i don't know what to post yeah i'll post once or twice but then how do you keep thinking up coming up with content what do you what are you gonna post each day sure i mean it's pretty difficult at first i was like man i'm not a content creator and you know i'm not a blogger or anything like that and so did a little research on google you know what kind of content do people
Speaker: want or what do they read, what do they like.
Speaker: When on YouTube search for solar videos, educational videos and so things like that.
Speaker: So I would post
Speaker: It goes from articles to videos to just me posting personally, but I try to stick with those three things.
Speaker: So I'll look for videos that can help homeowners get more educated about solar, but also maybe 10 different ways to make your home more energy efficient.
Speaker: So not just about solar, but ways to save them money and make their home more efficient.
Speaker: Anything to do with clean energy and not just specifically selling them solar.
Speaker: And so I really want to educate homeowners more about the clean energy industry.
Speaker: And so I would look for articles by National Geographic about solar.
Speaker: So you look for names that are well known.
Speaker: So when you use National Geographic, more people are more likely to watch it or to read it.
Speaker: And so I do things like that or just simple posts about solar.
Speaker: how to simplify, how I've simplified solar for people.
Speaker: You know, I, I, like I'll put here all the myths that people have and then I answer them, you know, simple things like that.
Speaker: Um, and try to just get people a better understanding of what solar is.
Speaker: Cause there's a lot of misconceptions out there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So from, as a sales reps, uh, standpoint, you want to try to think of what, what's stopping a lot of the homeowners you've met with to,
Speaker: From going solar, then post about that.
Speaker: Because if you're getting that in the doors or in the homes, then that means a lot more people are having that as well.
Speaker: But by posting it on social media, then you're trying to clear some of that up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's definitely true.
Speaker: You can go on YouTube, you can go on any of these sites and search what people are looking for when it has to do with solar.
Speaker: There's other sites.
Speaker: I know I've been on like buzzsumo.com.
Speaker: There's sites where you can go look up what people are searching for and key topics, things like that.
Speaker: I think for a beginning solar rep, I think a good place to start is just posting about your installs, sharing the pictures of your installs.
Speaker: Like Earl said, going back to these people, taking the pictures,
Speaker: It's something that I know I've just been like, oh, it's a huge hassle.
Speaker: I'd rather just go out and knock more doors or try and go get more new leads rather than go back to installs.
Speaker: But like you've seen, it's a small investment of time that can potentially be a huge payoff.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: You could have 10 referrals come from one person you go back to, right?
Speaker: It's always going to come back to patience again.
Speaker: With going door-to-door, you always want to get the next sale, get the next sale, and the next door.
Speaker: But what the social media are doing is what's offering –
Speaker: is long-term success, referrals, networking.
Speaker: That's something you won't really get on doors.
Speaker: And so it's just another way to create more revenue for you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And for a newer rep, Earl, how long would you expect it to take for them to start getting referrals or seeing any sort of result coming in?
Speaker: From social media?
Speaker: Yeah, social media.
Speaker: Start posting.
Speaker: I guess it's going to depend.
Speaker: But I've been seeing results within three months with the consistency I've been doing.
Speaker: And I think anybody can do that, even a newer rep, regardless of their experience.
Speaker: Even though I have five years experience, I haven't been doing anything specific or special that you need five years.
Speaker: You just go to install, take some pictures.
Speaker: Hey, this customer used to pay $300.
Speaker: Now they pay $150.
Speaker: Simple things like that.
Speaker: But consistency is going to be one of the main things.
Speaker: If you can post consistently,
Speaker: eventually people are going to notice you.
Speaker: At first they're not, but if they see you every single day, now they're going to start realizing this person is serious.
Speaker: They're an expert in this industry.
Speaker: They're getting a lot of sales, a lot of installs.
Speaker: Maybe I should give them a chance, give them a shot and reach out to them.
Speaker: Eventually they will because they've seen you so much.
Speaker: Yeah, I think anyone can start.
Speaker: And I don't think it's necessarily, I don't think you have to be posting like solar, solar, solar, solar every day.
Speaker: You can post about other things too.
Speaker: But I think the key is joining these solar groups, joining groups where homeowners would gather.
Speaker: contributing to those groups and then yeah posting about your solar maybe mixing that in with other things is that something you do is it kind of solar and then you throw in some personal things or definitely yeah a little bit of everything you know uh just personal things you know maybe at the beach or hanging out um
Speaker: But also, you mentioned realtors.
Speaker: You could even post a video about the different programs that are easier to transfer a sale of a home.
Speaker: Homeowners are worried about buying a home with solar or selling their home with solar.
Speaker: So you can educate people on that because that's a topic that needs to be talked about.
Speaker: So you research it and then you talk about it or leave a post or an article about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's true.
Speaker: My co-host, James, he talks about getting these realtor groups, adding value to them.
Speaker: Because the truth is most realtors don't know that much about solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: A lot of them heard terrible things about it and stairway.
Speaker: So if we're adding value, guess who they're going to come to?
Speaker: They're going to come to the person that's posting, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Come to the person that's adding value.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That's why it's huge to be posting.
Speaker: I mean, as you get more advanced, you could even put on webinars and even go to some of these realtors' offices, maybe do a free presentation.
Speaker: Yeah, if you're adding the value, I don't think they're going to deny you coming in and talking about solar with them, right?
Speaker: Go into these groups and let them know, hey, we can do a free educational presentation for you on the utility rates, on solar, all these things that could benefit your customers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And trust me, they will sense if you if they can sense that you're just trying to sell them or milk them for referrals.
Speaker: They're not going to like that, too.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because I've tried that a couple of times, just calling organizations.
Speaker: Hey, can I and I kind of presented it the wrong way.
Speaker: I'm just like, hey, I want to come talk about solar.
Speaker: your group and in san diego you mentioned the word solar puts an instant trigger in people's bad word so you got to be careful with how you're and that's why it's so important i think to be adding value first right and then these people seeing your name and knowing what you're all about right and then you can go in and ask stuff from them or ask to do a free presentation because if you just come like a cold call like i did and call an organization and say
Speaker: anything about solar most likely is they're gonna be like no you're trying to you're trying to sell a solar especially in san diego right right so yeah i think that's huge well cool so we are about getting close to wrapping up here um so i want to ask you earl where can people find more about you or tell us about some of these maybe solar groups i know you have a group so talk to us about how people can find you on social media and what you're up to
Speaker: Yeah, so I started a solar group just for solar reps.
Speaker: It's called D, the number two D, D2D Energy Experts.
Speaker: And so there I've been posting content about door knocking when it comes to solar, but a lot more than just door-to-door.
Speaker: Also the closing and the installs and social media.
Speaker: So a lot of free content there just for the solar reps.
Speaker: I wanted to make something specific for people that are in solar and also do door-to-door or maybe they want to get into door-to-door.
Speaker: So D2D Energy Experts.
Speaker: And I also have a page that it's my business page as a solar rep for anyone to see.
Speaker: So it's Earl, the energy expert.
Speaker: And this is where I post installs and pictures and videos and free content for just anyone to see customers.
Speaker: And it's just a business page.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's another question I was going to ask you.
Speaker: So I know everyone has their personal page, but what's the benefit of creating this business page or how do you leverage that?
Speaker: Yeah, so I mean, it's just to separate personal from business.
Speaker: But at the same time, I still use my personal page to do all the installs and everything because I have way more friends on that page.
Speaker: But eventually, I'm trying to filter people into the energy expert page.
Speaker: That way, when customers or anyone is trying to look me up, I can let them know that.
Speaker: Here's my business page where you'll find a lot more about what I do and what I talk about, any webinars or anything.
Speaker: It'll be there.
Speaker: And it'll be easier for customers or anyone to find more information about what I do on that page rather than my personal page.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I do suggest starting a business page for your solar business.
Speaker: It'll be beneficial in the long run.
Speaker: So a lot of people use Facebook.
Speaker: They're starting to use Facebook like a Yelp.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they're looking if you have a page and they look, they go through your page, you know, so if you have a business one, they can go through there and just, if they're just looking for business rather than seeing all your personal posts.
Speaker: yeah that's cool that's huge awesome and so yeah we've learned quite a few things from earl here today um i think the actionable steps we can take is just starting starting to your first post if you haven't done anything like that i think posting the installs the pictures of that and then number two just joining those groups where homeowners are contributing in those and adding value and then really becoming an expert
Speaker: Like I see Earl as the expert, as an expert on solar just because he's been everywhere.
Speaker: Can't get this guy out of my feed, man.
Speaker: So just becoming that expert, people look for you.
Speaker: And I mean, Earl, for I know maybe he doesn't even know that much about solar, but just because he's posting and just because I see him in my feed, in my head, he's an expert.
Speaker: And so that's what I think all of us can have that opportunity, whether we're day one in solar cells or whether we're five years like Earl here.
Speaker: And so that's kind of the actionable steps that I'm getting.
Speaker: And so if you can give one advice to a newer solar rep, Earl, or to the solar industry, what would it be to kind of wrap things up here?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I mean, again, I'm just going to hit on patience.
Speaker: Patience is huge.
Speaker: When you're trying to do something new, and especially when it comes to social media, these things don't happen overnight.
Speaker: No one saw me as an expert at first, but as I posted more and more, they began to, like you just said, in your head, you see me as an expert.
Speaker: And so because of all these posts, as long as it makes sense, I mean, the value is there.
Speaker: and it's helping someone improve their game, then that's going to really help you in the long run.
Speaker: So be patient, start posting.
Speaker: And like we said earlier, you know, don't reinvent the wheel.
Speaker: Look at what's working.
Speaker: You can look at some of my posts and do something similar.
Speaker: But just take your time and be patient with it.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: There you have it.
Speaker: Well, Earl, we want to thank you for being on the show.
Speaker: Thanks for rocking it in the solar industry.
Speaker: And we're going to post in the show notes where you can find more about him.
Speaker: But again, his page is D2D Energy Experts.
Speaker: So go check out his page and check out what he's doing.
Speaker: And yeah, you can begin to start doing similar things and come up with your own posts.
Speaker: And I know Earl, I'm sure if you send him a message or anything, he'll be happy to help as well, right?
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right on.
Speaker: Well, thanks, Earl.
Speaker: And we'll post these notes and keep rocking it in the solar industry.
Speaker: Let's go close some deals.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah, take care.
Speaker: Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the Solarpreneur Movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
Speaker: And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the Solarpreneur Group for more daily content,
Speaker: going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
