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Not Knocking Homes With Solar? Think Again
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No, homes with glass on the roof doesn't mean someone else has already beat you to it. This episode reiterates the fact that there is still, sometimes even more, value in knocking people with solar, and some things you need to consider during prospecting and the actual presentation.
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Solarpreneur Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Sales Strategies: Knocking on Doors and Feedback
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, Solorpreneurs? Today we're gonna be talking about the importance of knocking on doors that already have solar. Something that I did not do for a long time in my career, but we're going to give you all the reasons why you might want to reconsider that. So welcome to the show. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more leads, close more deals rather, and generate more leads and referrals and have a much better time in the solar industry. Hope you're doing great. Hope you're gearing up for the summer. And as a reminder, we are free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts, you can find us. And ah feedback is always much appreciated. So if you have not left us a review yet, and you've been a longtime listener of the show, or listened to more than a few episodes, please be a good guy, be a good gal. Go leave us a review, leave us a comment on a YouTube or wherever you're watching the podcast.
The Challenges of Add-On Solar Systems
00:01:30
Speaker
And so today's topic, I was reminded this actually by watching one of my buddy's YouTube channels. If you guys haven't checked out, Carlos Morales, the guy over at Real Sales Dynamics, they got a great YouTube channel. Always cool seeing what they're doing over there. And you know guys like Taylor McCarthy, um something I listen to when I'm on the way out to turf
00:01:52
Speaker
way out the hood. So ah great to get some different perspective, hear what people are doing in different markets. So in this video, which we might play some clips of it in an episode next week, a little presentation breakdown. In the video, Carlos sees going to a guy that already has solar. Especially out here in California, if you are not going California, you know that's add-on systems in solar, which is selling someone a second solar system. It's gotten a little bit trickier and it used to be pretty straightforward, the same process, but now it's more of a headache. You got batteries involved. There's some complications with the whole net metering status when you add on panels to their existing system. So it's just gotten more complicated. But in this video, um he goes through multiple different questions with
Maximizing Solar Sales Through Positivity
00:02:37
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the homeowner. And it reminded me that whether the homeowner needs extra panels or not, it still can be extremely powerful knocking on these doors.
00:02:44
Speaker
So I'm going to give you a few different things to consider, different things to talk about. Hopefully, next time you're in in an area, you can go knock on some doors that already have panels. Okay, so the first one is this. Knocking on someone's house that has solar is one of the best ways to build belief in your products. So many times when I knock fresh doors that don't have solar, people are like, oh, no, I don't have solar because I've heard terrible things about it. I've heard it puts a lien on the home. I've heard it's harder to sell. They give you all the reasons they that solar could be terrible and all the horror stories they've heard. But the truth of matter is, at least for us out here in California, 90% of the time when we knock on someone's door that has solar, they're actually extremely happy with it. Just give me some different perspective because so many times when I'm knocking doors that don't have solar, it's all the negativity. It's all the horror stories, which there are horror stories, but they don't talk about the people that are having good experiences and they like to generalize that solar is evil. Solar is not good just because a few people had a bad experience with it.
00:03:42
Speaker
So especially when you're feeling beat down, when you're feeling like there's a lot of negativity around solar in the area you're knocking, to go knock some doors with solar. And I can almost guarantee that you'll find that most people are having great experience. Most people, it's working how they thought it was.
00:03:56
Speaker
Most people, it's lowered their bills substantially. It's overall a good thing and a positive experience for them. That's reason number one to go knock some doors that already
Identifying and Closing Add-On Sales
00:04:05
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have solar. Okay, the second one is, of course, for the potential for a add-on system sell, right? These people, they're already happy with their systems for the most part, as we mentioned. And so it becomes a lot of times a pretty easy sell to just get them some more panels. Here in California for us, and we look for, you know, unless someone's paying usually, you know, like 120, 150 a month, it's not going to make a ton of sense to add on system because you have to add on the batteries with the new panels. And um like I mentioned earlier, it's going to kick their old system into the new net meter program. which means they're not going to get as good of export credits if their system was in the old net meeting program. So different things to look out for. But if someone is paying, you know, still 120 to 150 a month, then great chance that you can potentially get them an add on system. And um depending on the area, you can get them a battery, which presents some other benefits.
00:05:02
Speaker
What's working for us well out here when people don't have, you know, or when people are getting a substantial bill on top of their solar, um you tend to find that those people, there's a higher chance they aren't as happy with their systems. have Just something to look out for because the people that they're paying low, those are the ones that are going to be extremely happy. But most people that are paying a bill where it makes sense to do an add-on system, a lot of those people aren't going to be maybe quite as happy.
Building Credibility with Customer References
00:05:28
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just because they're feeling like, oh, I still have a big bill that I'm paying to the utility. Maybe maybe they're feeling that the solar isn't working how it was expected to. So it's great if here we can tell them, hey, a reason that you're probably getting a bill is do you have a battery with the system? Okay. The new program, they actually add on a battery. It's fully funded. And then that's going to help you knock out your bill that you guys are still paying in the utility.
00:05:51
Speaker
So if you can print present some new information to them, present some reasons why it's different, that's going to be your best chance getting them sold on adding more panels and adding a battery. hey And then the third reason, just building the name list, building the authority in your area. If you've been a listener of the podcast, you know I'm big on building up a name list in your areas. If you can go to a fresh door and have a ah list of...
00:06:13
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seven, eight, nine, 10 people you're helping in the neighborhood or people that you've set appointments with. It gives you that much more authority, gives you that much more credibility. It's extremely powerful to have the list included people that already have panels on it, whether you helped them out or not. If you have someone that has the system, then you can point to, hey, people are actually have the panels on the roof. They're extremely
Referral Strategies for Solar Sales
00:06:35
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happy. And then the best way to do this bonus points are is if you can get picture or even a video with them, builds credibility through the roof. You can literally go to a door and say, hey, I don't know. do you guys know this neighbor? He lives just four doors down. He has the big husky out front.
00:06:50
Speaker
Here's the picture of him. No? Okay. Well, we just got ah done chatting with him. And the reason I'm here is because there's a new program in the area that's helping people with the solar. It's quite a bit different though, because before you had to spend all this money out of pocket. But what this homeward what what Jim did here is he actually was able to get the setup on his house without paying anything out of pocket.
00:07:12
Speaker
and it's just cutting his bill pretty drastically compared to what he was paying to the utility. You don't ever have to mention that you weren't the guy that directly set him up, but ah if they can see that you're there standing with them, just so much trust builds. And that leads us right into the next points, and that is number four, gives you a great opportunity to get referrals from these people that already have solar.
00:07:34
Speaker
And I can tell you just yesterday, At the time I'm recording this podcast yesterday, we we went to someone's house that had solar. It didn't make sense to do an add-on with them. And so we started asking them, hey, have you talked to neighbors about solar? Do you know anyone that could benefit from this? And he pointed us out to his neighbor um two doors down across the street. He said, I know this guy, Ignacio, across the street. He actually had been thinking about it. I know he looked into it a couple of times. He's got some pretty big bills. So you guys can stop by there. And he gave us, there even though he didn't give us, you know, like phone number and all that, we were right there. We went directly across the street, two doors down, set an appointment right off the bat. And it was so easy because we could point to, hey, do you know ah Jim out front ah across the street, two doors down? Yeah. Okay. Well, he has he's actually the one that told us to come talk to you. I don't know if he'd given you heads up. No. Okay. So it's about this. He has the panels on his house.
00:08:29
Speaker
His bill is actually only $50 a year now that he pays. And so um I think he actually said like $200 a year or so, but he had a good setup to where it didn't make sense to have more panels. And then that led us straight into transitioning, setting the appointments, All because we had a name to drop and all because they knew neighbor we were talking about. And the lady was a little skeptical. I do not think we would have set that appointment if we didn't have the credibility and the reference from that neighbor. So those are all... solid reasons that you should be knocking some
Effective Approaches to Homes with Solar Panels
00:09:03
Speaker
doors with solar. And just a disclaimer, I'm not saying you should knock every door with solar. hey For me, the rule is if I see systems that are older, or if I see someone that's just out front, they have panels up there, it's a great chance to just go roll up on them, chat with them. But if you're in a neighborhood out here in California, we get in neighborhoods where it's literally three out of four homes sometimes that have panels. And so I'm not going to knock every single door that has solar, obviously, in those neighborhoods. I would say try to knock, depending on how many homes have solar, maybe there's only one on the street. So you definitely should knock that one on the street that has panels. Just remember all those reasons. And if you get a video with them, the way the best way I get homeowners to agree to take a little video or photo is you tell them about the referral program. So you say, hey, Jim, by the way, before I leave, wanted to tell you we actually have a referral program out here. And I know we didn't set up your system, but ah just a lot of people, they're skeptical because they've heard bad things about solar. it' So all we do for people out here is if you're willing to let us use you as a reference, just tell people that you had a good experience and they can come chat with you. We actually give $100 per referral that we get from it. If you're okay if we use you as a reference,
00:10:15
Speaker
Okay, great. Then only other part of it is we just shoot a quick, short video and just ask if you have if you had a good experience. You can just say yes. A couple quick kind questions. And then yeah, we just use that. And then that helps us just um spread the word that solar is actually helping people. And then you'll be surprised. Most people will agree to it because you tell them $100. You can say set whatever number you want. But for me, I find it works well. It's just set $100. You're not giving them a ton of money, but you're saying, hey, Anyone that sees the video, anyone that goes slower because of seeing what we talked about with you, or if they come talk to you, give you $100 just for 30 seconds your time here. And then most people, especially if they're happy, are more than willing to go ahead and shoot that with you. Hey, so um so yeah, just a couple
Promoting Solar Tools and Communities
00:10:59
Speaker
of things about it. Again, next episode or in the next few episodes, we will go into the little bit of a breakdown and you can hear some word tracks on this that ah Carlos moralli Morales was using on YouTube. And then we can go into a little more of the um a tactical, what to say at the door when you are talking to someone that has panels. But I hope this gave you some things to think about. and use as you were out there knocking some doors in the neighborhood today or wherever you you are working. Okay, so I hope this helps. Send this to someone that could use a boost today and ah continue to send us if you have suggestions for guests or topics that you'd like us to cover on the show.
00:11:38
Speaker
um Please send us a email over at support at solopreneurs.com or you can also send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. So we'll see you out on the field. go crush it this week. Grab some sales and we'll see you on the next one. Some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:12:02
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:12:16
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal. who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:12:41
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:12:53
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day.
00:13:07
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called Solcitee.
00:13:33
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45
00:13:52
Speaker
Currently SolCity is open, launched and ready to be enrolled. So go to SolCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners. So be sure to go to SolCity.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.