Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to 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.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on, Solarpreneurs?
Speaker: We are here, a special episode.
Speaker: We're actually live at Door2DoorCon right now.
Speaker: And I'm stoked because I'm here with my man Josue Phillips.
Speaker: Josue, thanks for coming on the show with us today.
Speaker: Thank you for having me, brother.
Speaker: I'm very excited.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm stoked getting your story.
Speaker: Josue has a super sweet story he's going to share with us.
Speaker: and hopefully there's not a ton of background noise.
Speaker: We're actually sitting in the hall here trying to get away from all those door-to-door maniacs.
Speaker: Those guys are loud and obnoxious.
Speaker: We're one of them.
Speaker: But we're excited to hear about his story and just kind of what he's done.
Speaker: So I guess just a little introduction to Jose.
Speaker: How long ago did you start your company?
Speaker: It's been three years since I went solo.
Speaker: Okay, three years and then how many offices and reps would you say?
Speaker: So yeah, we're in around five different markets and we have around 60 people and we're doubling those numbers by May 1st and expanding.
Speaker: Okay, so expanding like crazy father of three with one on the way.
Speaker: Yeah, finally having the baby girl.
Speaker: I have three boys.
Speaker: Yeah, I got a girl coming and just goes to show no excuses.
Speaker: I just had my second kid and I use that as an excuse sometimes to not get out there and hustle as much as I should.
Speaker: But Josue, he's out crushed and got...
Speaker: 60 reps and all that so you got my respect my man thank you it's awesome and so yeah let's get into your story a little bit jose do you want jose do you want to tell us a little bit like your um you know upbringing obviously from costa rica i know you had a interesting like you know family wasn't the wealthiest and all that so can you tell us a little bit of your story and all that 100 so yeah i'm costa rica pura vida para todos mis ticos out there so yeah i'm from costa rica born and raised and
Speaker: poor family we didn't have much and Man since I have memory I've been selling like all my life.
Speaker: I remember like collecting cards and selling them at school I remember being hungry with other kids when I was in in primary school and we would go and get some mangoes from trees and eat them with wood as salt and
Speaker: the kitchen because we were all hungry we didn't have much and it started to become like a little bit worse the economy it was it was not just me right it was pretty much everybody around it seemed like everybody in my my neighborhood my environment was was going through the same thing so when I was 12 I was kind of tired of just wanting things and
Speaker: and not be able to get them, right?
Speaker: And kids would make fun of me for using the same backpack three years straight, and the same run-down pants in my school uniform.
Speaker: So I was like, you know what, screw this, I'm gonna go work.
Speaker: So I went to the Department of Labor in my city,
Speaker: And I asked them, like, hey, I want to work.
Speaker: And they laughed at me.
Speaker: I was this little 12-year-old kid wanting to work.
Speaker: And they just laughed at me.
Speaker: And they said, all right, let's go home and make your mom make a letter for you, bring a copy of her ID.
Speaker: And we'll put the stamp that you can work.
Speaker: And I just paid like one hour on a cafe internet in Latin America, you know, in Costa Rica.
Speaker: Paid one hour and just made, typed the letter for my mom.
Speaker: She signed it.
Speaker: and I went and got the permit and I took like 50 different copies and walked probably like four different miles, four miles, just submitting my resume everywhere.
Speaker: People were laughing at me, they were being rude.
Speaker: I mean, who would take a 12 year old kid on a retail store, right?
Speaker: So finally one store took me in and customers, when they would come in, they couldn't believe that I was working there.
Speaker: But I was killing it.
Speaker: I was selling them all this stuff for their kids and stuff, and I was showing them clothing and tennis shoes.
Speaker: And one day I remember this, my boss came in and he said, if you sell these pairs of Nike shoes, they were super fake by the way, super fake.
Speaker: That's probably a lot cheaper.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And he was like, I'm going to give you five extra dollars per pair you sell.
Speaker: And I was making $10 a day.
Speaker: and i said okay this is this is where the money is so i would stay next to the pile of nikes and i was selling them all day long and making like three three times more than my co-workers and i loved it it was like the drug of having the the money that i needed to to get the few things that i needed and then help my family too like help my mom like getting my sister's uniform and things like that were
Speaker: very fulfilling so i sacrificed my vacations from that moment on until i was like 18 uh just working at retail after school and during vacations that's what i did okay that's sweet man um so yeah well i guess what i was gonna ask is i mean we're talking before we hit record i was in colombia for a couple years on the church mission yes and there you know it's a lot
Speaker: like poor environment everything so I've never been to Costa Rica is that pretty is extremely similar in fact I have a call center in Colombia by the way big shout out to my team there when I went there I was like this is the same thing as Costa Rica we have the same fruits the same fruit same beautiful women everything is so similar okay so when you say you were like poor growing up so that was like yeah next level yeah what we think of because like I think of Colombian like
Speaker: It seemed like almost everyone was poor there compared to what we think of.
Speaker: Costa Rica has progressed a lot.
Speaker: A lot.
Speaker: But back in the days, it was pretty similar to probably one of those Colombian provinces.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Back in the days, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: So this is, you know.
Speaker: It was rough.
Speaker: So for those that are listening, if you're thinking U.S. poor, this is a different level because, I mean, those countries are already poor compared to what we're thinking of.
Speaker: You cannot compare it for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's crazy.
Speaker: And so how did it go from there?
Speaker: You sold shoes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Then when I was 18, I got my black belt in karate shotokan and I opened my little dojo.
Speaker: I asked permission, my blessing from my sensei, and opened my little dojo.
Speaker: And that was my first experience knocking on doors.
Speaker: I printed like hundreds of these little pamphlets and went door to door asking people if they wanted to join my dojo, if they had kids to join my dojo.
Speaker: It's like Cobra Kai.
Speaker: It's not your same Cobra Kai.
Speaker: Were they going door to door?
Speaker: In fact, I'm not even following this show, so I don't know.
Speaker: I think he does.
Speaker: Cool, cool, cool.
Speaker: You go to schools and stuff, you put the flyers on.
Speaker: I was literally from house to house is knocking all around the little dojo I was renting and it was super cheap I told me hey can I have the first month for free you know just to get some students and I convinced them they said yes so my first class I had 14 students yeah and I did that for you know a year and a half before I went on a mission you know I'm a member of the church and I serve on a mission in Chile
Speaker: But I had like a year and a half of having my own little dojo and it was really impactful and I loved it because many of these kids were on a bad environment, you know, they had drugs all around.
Speaker: I remember going like to play soccer outside and look at people doing coke, you know, and smoking marijuana everywhere and some crackheads shooting crack, you know, like right there when we were playing soccer.
Speaker: So, and taking them out of that environment and bringing them and teaching them martial arts changed their lives because they were going to the province karate team and they were getting like swag and we were traveling to different tournaments.
Speaker: It helped them a lot and it helped me all throughout my life for sure.
Speaker: So that was in Costa Rica still?
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: By the way, I've been in the States for four years only.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Just barely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just barely, for sure.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: So yeah, went on your mission.
Speaker: And so yeah, tell us about how did you end up coming to the States and transitioning to solar and all that.
Speaker: I guess I came following my dream because when I was in college, right after my mission, I started studying industrial engineering.
Speaker: and I was paying my school, working full time, and taking seven classes.
Speaker: And I was, I had to prioritize, you know, like some doing some homework and some others I couldn't, I just didn't have the time.
Speaker: So my physics two professor talked to me and he said, hey, you're gonna lose this class.
Speaker: but I have a solution.
Speaker: If you go to the science fair, you can save it because it's 15 points.
Speaker: And I was like, oh shoot, that's like the same points you would get on an exam, on a test.
Speaker: So I went home and started researching and I came back and I was like, I had no clue, what can I do?
Speaker: And he said, look into renewable energy.
Speaker: I mean that's kind of new and everybody's talking about it.
Speaker: And Costa Rica is really big on that.
Speaker: We produce 98% of our power from renewable sources.
Speaker: No kidding?
Speaker: Yeah, many people don't know.
Speaker: No, we have solar, we have wind and the biggest hydro.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's pretty cool.
Speaker: I think we're the number one.
Speaker: 98% of our power is from renewable sources.
Speaker: Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker: So yeah, I developed this little metal roof tile attached to a solar panel.
Speaker: And I literally bought a copper sheet and literally a very basic circuiting board.
Speaker: I welded a resistor and put a photo sensor so when the sun would come down, it would turn low consumption 5 watt LED.
Speaker: Because I watched this documentary of this indigenous communities where kids couldn't finish school because when they would come back home from walking two hours in the mountain, they had no power.
Speaker: So I was like, oh, I want to do something about this.
Speaker: So that was my science fair and they loved it.
Speaker: They loved it.
Speaker: They were like, hey, you know what?
Speaker: We can do something with this and bring it into, you know, like these indigenous communities.
Speaker: So I loved it.
Speaker: After that, I started...
Speaker: I did another project the next semester with, I don't know if I'm saying it right in English, perovskite, like creating a solar cell with perovskite.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or perovskite.
Speaker: I don't know, man.
Speaker: Peroxide?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: No, it's a semiconductor.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a semiconductor.
Speaker: So since then I started, I was fascinated with the technology and we got married and we decided to move to the U.S. after getting married.
Speaker: And I met a church, Jess Phillips, by the way, big shout out, Jess Phillips from Quattiva.
Speaker: He was in my same word, by the way.
Speaker: And he had a cool Tesla.
Speaker: and i i asked him like hey jess what do you do for a living he said i have a solar company and i was like oh no way i was doing solar projects when i was in college is there good money in solar and he said oh my friend you have no clue you have no clue and from that moment on i started researching and got into solar and um right after i you know like one year in i decided to start my own thing because i thought that i could
Speaker: do a better job, and I'm getting there, I'm getting there.
Speaker: The company that I started with, they're awesome.
Speaker: A lot of love to my guys there.
Speaker: The ones that know me.
Speaker: But yeah, it's been a very fulfilling, life-changing experience for sure.
Speaker: Sounds like it.
Speaker: No mad respect for you.
Speaker: Coming from another country to start your own thing.
Speaker: It's incredible.
Speaker: Love hearing stories like that.
Speaker: I didn't know that about Costa Rica, though.
Speaker: 98% renewable.
Speaker: 98%, brother.
Speaker: We're hearing, you know, I'm in California telling all the people that we're trying to hit 50% renewable.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I never really believed that we could.
Speaker: That's even possible to get that level.
Speaker: It's wild.
Speaker: I guess it is 98%.
Speaker: We did some good stuff there.
Speaker: Recycling is giant.
Speaker: I mean, to graduate from, to pass the school year, you had to recycle.
Speaker: So one year was 40 pounds of cardboard.
Speaker: You have to bring 40 pounds of cardboard to be able to pass to the next school year.
Speaker: And then the next year, it was like 100,
Speaker: um cans you have to recycle cans wash them and and squeeze them and bring them in so they can recycle them um so yeah we we did some good stuff down there for sure yeah saving the planet good stuff and so you um so it sounds like you're pretty much going to school to be an engineer and that was kind of your thing is more the engineering side yeah i one of the keys honestly is continuous education i just finished by the way my global
Speaker: energy leadership program with Rice University.
Speaker: I'm starting on the 18th, January 18th with MIT.
Speaker: I'm thinking of energy politics and economics.
Speaker: And right after I'm done with that one, I'm starting with Stanford University.
Speaker: They have, by the way, you can look it up.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: It's not that expensive.
Speaker: Pretty inexpensive, I have to say.
Speaker: And it's about
Speaker: energy storage so Stanford University has a really cool professional program for energy storage yeah yeah Wow so not only starts his own organization but you've got to be one of the most educated guys in solar most of us are just a bunch of meatheads there I want to get into R&D after for sure yeah research and development yeah I want to do that it's impressive and so what what was the main reason you came to like the US then in the first place
Speaker: Better opportunities, better opportunities.
Speaker: My ambition was way bigger than I could accomplish in my home country, unfortunately.
Speaker: And th is is the best country in the world, guys.
Speaker: You've got to believe it, man.
Speaker: That's why immigrants all over the world choose this country.
Speaker: I love Costa Rica like crazy.
Speaker: I want to be there, especially when it gets cold here.
Speaker: I want to live in Costa Rica during winter in the U.S. But the U.S. is the country of the opportunities, 100 percent.
Speaker: No doubt.
Speaker: Sure, got some wrestlers here running by.
Speaker: Apparently they scheduled door to door con the same time as a wrestling tournament.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We've got people wrestling in the halls.
Speaker: Extra wild.
Speaker: Extra noise.
Speaker: But no, so pretty incredible.
Speaker: So you came here without like having a job lined up, nothing.
Speaker: You're just like better opportunities on the head out there.
Speaker: Just better opportunities.
Speaker: And I had to do some rough jobs before I started full time in solar.
Speaker: It was rough, man.
Speaker: I was doing land mowing and then I was doing demos.
Speaker: I was doing demolitions.
Speaker: I was doing demolitions.
Speaker: My coworkers were getting caught and it was really rough.
Speaker: We were working like 15 hours a day.
Speaker: just to make ends meet, you know, and I have no paperwork.
Speaker: That's what I just have to do because the U.S. government told me, hey, you can go to the U.S. We're going to give you a residency.
Speaker: And once I got here, they said, by the way, the time frame is 12 months, 12 to 14 months.
Speaker: So I was there stuck in the limbo being in the U.S. legally, but not legally to work.
Speaker: So I had to...
Speaker: I had all of those months and I had to get creative, right?
Speaker: So I had to get those jobs just to survive and make it happen.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: Were you pretty nervous coming out?
Speaker: Because I'd be.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Well, did you even know English at that point?
Speaker: I spoke some English but not quite well.
Speaker: In fact, I have a huge thick accent right now.
Speaker: You sound good, better than my Spanish.
Speaker: I do have to say that I took my disadvantages and turned them into my advantages.
Speaker: I was mortified that, oh my gosh, I got to get rid of my accent.
Speaker: And then I started to notice that people would get closer to me and pay attention and look at me in the eyes when I was speaking so they could understand.
Speaker: So I was like, wow, you know what?
Speaker: That's an advantage, in fact.
Speaker: That's not a disadvantage.
Speaker: People have to get closer to me to understand what I'm saying.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: It's all in your mind at the end of the day.
Speaker: I know, I know I was, I'm the same way people think I'm from Canada and stuff like that.
Speaker: I don't know what happened to me.
Speaker: I grew up in Utah.
Speaker: But people say, are you from Canada?
Speaker: Are you from Wisconsin?
Speaker: I'm like, no, I'm from Utah.
Speaker: Utah.
Speaker: So probably not to that level.
Speaker: But no, I think there's a point to that for all those that are listening.
Speaker: A lot of us, I don't know, for me, I came out thinking certain things were a disadvantage.
Speaker: Oh, I grew up in a small town.
Speaker: Oh, this, that.
Speaker: And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners, too, that maybe they have an accent.
Speaker: Maybe they're, you know, different ethnicity, this, that.
Speaker: There's tons of excuses.
Speaker: But I think, like Kozue is saying,
Speaker: you look at the way that can be an advantage.
Speaker: And I don't know, was there anything else mental you would say that helped you just like, because you could come up with all the excuse in the world from a different country.
Speaker: Don't speak English.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: It was rough.
Speaker: I was knocking on doors in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No money at all.
Speaker: Knocking on doors in California with this thick accent and,
Speaker: It was rough, but you know what?
Speaker: It's all in your mind.
Speaker: It's all in your mind.
Speaker: At the end of the day, you can have the best pitch in the world.
Speaker: It's just a numbers game.
Speaker: So I just simplified my pitch, and I was just telling people, hey, do you know how much money you can save with solar?
Speaker: Let me show you a quote.
Speaker: And they were like, I'm not sure.
Speaker: Well, you know, it's going to be free.
Speaker: I'm not going to charge you for this one.
Speaker: Maybe the second one.
Speaker: But the first one is free.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So I would just throw a little joke there and they would accept an appointment and I would go and sell them.
Speaker: So, yeah, you just got to be sometimes pretty straightforward and bold.
Speaker: No matter if you have a thick accent, you can make it happen in solar.
Speaker: Yeah, 100% inspiring.
Speaker: So, Jose, you started, so let me get this straight, you sold a year of like solar for a company, and then after that you started your own company?
Speaker: Yes, my own sales work, and I decided to move the headquarters to Dallas, which was an amazing decision, one of the best decisions.
Speaker: I love the Texas market.
Speaker: Let me tell you this about Texas after knocking in California.
Speaker: The first door ever that I knocked in Texas
Speaker: They were like, hey, come in.
Speaker: And I was like, oh my gosh, what's happening?
Speaker: And they were eating.
Speaker: And I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I'm going to come back in like 30 minutes so you can finish eating.
Speaker: They were like, no, no, no, sit down.
Speaker: And do you want to eat?
Speaker: And I was like, it's so awkward.
Speaker: I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker: They don't even know what's my name.
Speaker: They haven't even asked.
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: And then I was just like, for some reason, I always say, I'm from Costa Rica.
Speaker: And people, oh, for real, Costa Rica.
Speaker: And then we started talking.
Speaker: It seems that everybody loves Costa Rica.
Speaker: So we started talking and they gave me, you know, like some food and it was some good 10 minutes at the table when they said, so are you selling alarms?
Speaker: And I was like, oh no, I'm selling solar.
Speaker: Am I the first solar guy here?
Speaker: And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we have been talking about solar.
Speaker: You know, like, awesome.
Speaker: Let me show you a quote.
Speaker: You know, like, this is heaven.
Speaker: This is absolute heaven.
Speaker: And in the other hand, I've seen people that come to Texas, they hate it.
Speaker: You know, we don't want to sell in Texas.
Speaker: Everybody's Republican.
Speaker: And you know, at the end of the day, you impose your own limitations in your mind.
Speaker: That's all there is.
Speaker: Because if you have this...
Speaker: positive attitude and you're calm and you transmit that to your customers they're gonna believe in you and no matter if you're from another country with an accent you can make it happen and and that's if if I made it happen everybody can right that's my message for everybody out there you gotta dream big you gotta fabricate that reality in your head and then bring it into existence
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, that point's like law of attraction, right?
Speaker: Whatever you think is going to happen.
Speaker: I see it all the time too in California, our reps.
Speaker: So I go, it's too saturated.
Speaker: There's way too many reps out here.
Speaker: And yeah, when you say stuff like that, I want to move out to Texas and just go sell it in Texas because I don't really get invited to eat food like that.
Speaker: Maybe I should just say I'm from Costa Rica.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: but no it's true though you know just whatever you think in your head i know grant cardone talks about that's your reality whatever your objections are it's going to come up in your clothes whatever your your objections are to the area or knocking those things are going to come up yeah i think it's that's 100 true and especially new reps need to remember that as you're starting your job remember that you know write down what objections you have and see if those are coming up and what you're doing sorry i'm still not
Speaker: Yeah, much talking.
Speaker: But yeah, and so in Texas, let me ask you this, I know there's some reps out there who maybe are thinking I'm starting their own company.
Speaker: Obviously, that's not for everybody.
Speaker: Definitely not.
Speaker: It's very challenging.
Speaker: You've got to sacrifice a lot of your time because when you start your own company, you've got to be selling and also training people and managing the business.
Speaker: Wait for some good 18 hour, 16 hour days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, what, I guess what led you to start your own company versus just continuing to sell and what could you tell people that maybe are thinking of starting their own or any tips you would have on that?
Speaker: You gotta have a passion to build something and to work for something that is yours, number one.
Speaker: And where I was, I didn't necessarily felt that sense of belonging.
Speaker: I wanted to build something for people
Speaker: that they would feel like home.
Speaker: And of course, saying it is way easier than doing it because now that I have my business, that's so extremely challenging.
Speaker: What's key is, first off, you have to differentiate yourself by doing something.
Speaker: For example, we do efficiency products.
Speaker: So we don't downsize systems, we just do it as an add-on to bring more value.
Speaker: So when we step in the house, we review the breaker box and I train my guys what to look into the, you know, if it's a compatible breaker box so they can include already the MPU and tell the customers at the time of closing, by the way, this is also including a brand new breaker box for you.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: And they were like, oh, for real?
Speaker: Yeah, 100% included.
Speaker: And we're just going to cover all the upfront costs and everything.
Speaker: It's all in the project.
Speaker: And then we review insulation.
Speaker: We check the insulation on the home.
Speaker: We check the thermostat, LED lights.
Speaker: We check a bunch of other things that I train my guys to look into.
Speaker: It's just for...
Speaker: As I said, we don't downgrade system sizes.
Speaker: Undersize the system.
Speaker: Yeah, undersize the system, sorry.
Speaker: We just provide it as an extra value for our customers.
Speaker: And when the competition comes, we rarely lose customers like that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's awesome.
Speaker: You're creating an offer, including more than just the solar, because you know how it is, especially in California, people sometimes train, just fight over and over on price, but you're including all these other projects.
Speaker: I mean, they're going to have to include a lot of stuff to compete with you guys.
Speaker: I think that's super powerful, especially in saturated markets.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: And so you started the company, and what was, I guess, the toughest challenge you had to go through?
Speaker: I know you've had your company, what, three years now, you said?
Speaker: yeah and it was it was really the attachment to people okay and that's that's something that hurt me and still in a certain extent it hurts because you get attached to people and they leave you really wanted for them to work the same way it did for me and provide all the the possibilities and the wealth that it has created in my life but some people just don't want the same things you do and
Speaker: they're not willing to pay the price for it.
Speaker: Some people think they want to be millionaires and they don't know what it takes to become a millionaire.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: and they're not willing to pay the price for it.
Speaker: So to me, it was the attachment to people, just to get completely detached and just realize that yes, we have to have a strong culture, we have to train properly, have a really robust, a streamlined process to train these guys, but we gotta be prepared for them to leave also.
Speaker: And you gotta be emotionally detached from those things.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: Yeah, one of the Mo Fala that just spoke today, actually.
Speaker: Fire.
Speaker: It was great.
Speaker: Yeah, he was just talking about like if you're so attached to someone leaving your company, that probably means you don't have enough new recruits coming in the door.
Speaker: It's like, you know, for every person that leaves, you should have.
Speaker: Two or three people.
Speaker: More like three.
Speaker: More like three coming in.
Speaker: Abundance mindset.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And another thing we're talking to before we hit record is you also have a call center with your company.
Speaker: Very successful.
Speaker: Yeah, not a lot of people are running successful call centers.
Speaker: I've never really messed around with the call centers, so I wanted to pick your brain about that.
Speaker: How do you guys, well, first of all, how did you set it up?
Speaker: Why did you decide to set up a call center instead of just doing door-to-door?
Speaker: How's that been for you?
Speaker: So, you know, the capitalist mentality, I want to outsource some things.
Speaker: So overseas, right, mine is in Colombia, in Bogota.
Speaker: And I just literally reached out to a bunch of people that started my own project.
Speaker: It failed.
Speaker: I literally had three failed call centers.
Speaker: In this one, I have had people that have been with me for a year and a half.
Speaker: Wow, congrats.
Speaker: And that's amazing, you know, for a call center.
Speaker: With the attrition they have, if we think we have attrition, door to doors, like, you got to see the call centers.
Speaker: It's really bad.
Speaker: I don't know if it's worse, but it's really bad.
Speaker: So first off is that you have to have a structure.
Speaker: Many times you want to start a call center without...
Speaker: Just go ahead and read the script.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's all you got to do.
Speaker: I've heard people saying that.
Speaker: Just show them the script and give them the database.
Speaker: And that's not how it works.
Speaker: You got to take your time to train your guys.
Speaker: I think one of our biggest mistakes in our industry, overall, even in door-to-door, is not training properly.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right, so good quality training.
Speaker: You don't have to get ridiculous or too technical.
Speaker: It's just good, straightforward, honest training.
Speaker: Something I train my guys on even is like the contract, the financing contract.
Speaker: So they can know what's in there, right?
Speaker: If a customer asks, they know what to say.
Speaker: And we say, hey, by the way, let's make a stop here during our closing process.
Speaker: You have, by the way, these are your rights.
Speaker: We're going to go through with you.
Speaker: However, at the end of the day, you have rights as a consumer.
Speaker: And we point out the contract, like you have the right to cancel in three days.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: It's called Lemon Law.
Speaker: You can withdraw in three days.
Speaker: If anything happens, let me know.
Speaker: Let's say tonight you will be thinking about it.
Speaker: If you want to cancel tonight, what would be the reason for that?
Speaker: In our cancellation ratio right now is 8%.
Speaker: It's really, really low.
Speaker: I think, right, it's kind of low for solar.
Speaker: And we point at that and we say, hey, you have three days to cancel.
Speaker: After that, we have to reinforce some stuff because we're going to spend money, right?
Speaker: We're going to submit permits, electric stamps and everything.
Speaker: We're going to spend money on this.
Speaker: But you have three.
Speaker: This is your right as a consumer.
Speaker: Many companies will avoid telling you this.
Speaker: We want to point it at and tell you.
Speaker: If you would cancel, what would be the reason?
Speaker: So, you know, we provide this type of training, like, in different tactics people are not doing really out there.
Speaker: And I think that's valuable because we have seen the results, right?
Speaker: Really low cancellation ratio.
Speaker: And with the call center was the same thing.
Speaker: You got to develop systems and manage those systems.
Speaker: not manage the people because you don't have enough time to manage all that people you've got to create the system first and that's when I became successful in my call center because I developed this whole system dialer database who's gonna pull the database for me I don't have the time to do that who's gonna scrub it right who's gonna provide it and we cannot give them like a huge database because
Speaker: they're gonna be super disorganized so we gotta be giving them X amount of leads per rep per week and then make them accountable what happened with those leads we provided to you and different sources for example not just calling text messages emails squeezing those leads as much as we can and we have noticed sometimes after calling a customer one month and sending them text messages and
Speaker: emails they of course not everything right we we make it spaced out we see them replying back you know what I looked like look you guys up on Facebook and I think I want to do this things like that you gotta squeeze those leads I mean they cost a lot of money you gotta you gotta make them work sure so how did you like come up with all these systems did you like
Speaker: I don't know, did you learn from someone or just trial and error?
Speaker: Because for me, if I was to go start a call center, I'd have no idea.
Speaker: Yeah, I had probably like 60 different demos with software companies.
Speaker: And I'm going to tell you my secrets.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: I mean, we can all benefit from this.
Speaker: You can have the most sophisticated subwares.
Speaker: At the end of the day, I just use high level.
Speaker: And I use some real estate software.
Speaker: listing services to append the information.
Speaker: So I have one software that provides amazing filters so I can filter by ethnicity because we target with the call center we target Hispanics.
Speaker: Because they only speak Spanish.
Speaker: Right, in Colombia it's kind of impossible to find somebody like with perfect English, right?
Speaker: So yeah, we target the Hispanic community with the call center and we scrub them, right?
Speaker: We append, which is the action of buying the phone number and email in that household.
Speaker: And then they call using high level because I love it because you can turn them into a lead and then opportunity.
Speaker: We have the pipeline right there.
Speaker: As we progress throughout the installation process after closing that deal, our goal high level is scheduled to send them automatic responses.
Speaker: So after it was installed, we sent an automatic email saying, these are your options.
Speaker: These are the companies that will buy back your kilowatt hours.
Speaker: Because in Texas, it's deregulated.
Speaker: It's different.
Speaker: So we...
Speaker: We can keep good communication.
Speaker: We also send them, like, please, if we did a good job, give us a review.
Speaker: And all of those automated processes.
Speaker: So it's pretty easy.
Speaker: Right now, I even use the Go High Level Dialer.
Speaker: You don't have to go with fancy tools, super expensive.
Speaker: We use the dialer that is integrated into Go High Level.
Speaker: for it so big shout out guys yeah I love go high level it's so awesome it's super handy yeah I think it's the best one yeah what I've heard people are using right now that's good and like so you're basically just getting these lists the Colombians are calling them
Speaker: And then are they setting up appointments with them and then you're sending out some of like in person or are they trying to do like virtual sales and get them closed up?
Speaker: As soon as we book the appointment, we send them like, thank you so much for booking an appointment with us.
Speaker: Here is the link of our company.
Speaker: And we send them the website and here's your confirmation code.
Speaker: And we just put in like a Sunstar.
Speaker: something like a confirmation code so when the when the rep comes like hey how you doing this from Sunstar we have a an appointment your confirmation code is this and oh yeah they feel safe somehow just because we we provide yeah it's more official for sure and the day of the appointment the call center calls they call them and the customers to confirm they're gonna be there because in Texas everything is far away pretty much
Speaker: we got to drive like 45 minutes to an hour to many appointments so we we we get those appointments confirmed uh the same day even we we always try like two three hours before to get the the customer a call and we send them a text so rule of thumb is if it's 40 minutes 45 minutes or less we just show up okay right if it's more than 45 minutes the call center confirms the appointment okay that's our our rule our standard
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And yeah, I think probably the biggest question I asked you a little bit before we started talking is how do you combine all this with door-to-door?
Speaker: Obviously, a lot of people listening to the podcast are doing just door-to-door.
Speaker: Some want to start their call centers, things like that.
Speaker: So what would you suggest maybe for companies that want to add on a call center or...
Speaker: I don't know, maybe reps that want to start fooling around with this.
Speaker: How do you suggest that you still keep door to door going strong, but also add this in and not have it be a distraction?
Speaker: Because you know how it is.
Speaker: Sometimes reps can just be like, oh, I'm just going to wait for these call center leads to come in or these online leads when they could be out knocking too.
Speaker: So how do you make it like supplemental and not as much a distraction?
Speaker: That has happened.
Speaker: In fact, that has happened a lot.
Speaker: For example, one rep, I closed a deal personally because all of my closers were on appointments.
Speaker: So I was like, heck, I'm not going to lose these appointments just because one of my closers can't go.
Speaker: I'm going to go myself.
Speaker: So I went and closed it.
Speaker: And this rep called me super pissed.
Speaker: Like, why are you closing deals, bro?
Speaker: You got to send those appointments to us.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, my gosh, I created these monsters.
Speaker: I created these monsters.
Speaker: They're really telling me that I should send them.
Speaker: So I pulled a report.
Speaker: And I was like, bro, I have sent you 45 appointments this month.
Speaker: and you have closed four.
Speaker: I took three and I closed two.
Speaker: I took three appointments and I closed two.
Speaker: And I told him, like, you know what?
Speaker: I didn't realize your closing ratio was so low.
Speaker: So now you got to go and get your own appointments.
Speaker: And like, you know, after all of my experience and failures also, because you learn a lot from your failures, I don't send a closer more than two appointments a day.
Speaker: I try not to.
Speaker: I really try not to send more than two appointments a day.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because a good consultation should take two hours at least, right?
Speaker: And then let's say 45 to an hour driving to the next appointment, what they can manage properly is two a day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, and you also got to leave, you know, like at least one hour for them to knock.
Speaker: Because I make them also, like I encourage them, hey brother, you got to go and knock.
Speaker: And I encourage them to get to the area one hour before the appointment so they can go and meet the neighbors and try to get other appointments.
Speaker: And you got to, ultimately you got to delegate.
Speaker: So I got a general manager for the call center and I also have people running the door to door
Speaker: Side of the business.
Speaker: Yeah, so you got a delegate you got to trust people people are gonna betray you people are gonna leave Yeah, you just gotta be emotionally prepared for it.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: You got to be detached and have the systems ready So if somebody leaves you got the system going so you can just plug in another manager and nothing has happened, right?
Speaker: So that's what you got to do.
Speaker: You can never build, you know, like a side of your business around a person.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because if that person leaves, you lose part of your business.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: So you just got to build the systems for it.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: And yeah, what do you make it kind of like reward based?
Speaker: Like they have to close a certain number of self-gens or be getting their own leads or...
Speaker: I have a different model in terms of the call center guys.
Speaker: I pay them a base salary plus every time we close a deal, they get a commission.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And that's cool, you know, in Colombia.
Speaker: They have a great living, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I remember me telling my mom because my mom told me when I got here to the States, she was like, just get a job.
Speaker: Like, they pay good enough where you can come back and be at 5 p.m.
Speaker: with your family.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now I told my mom, like, Mom, look at all the families that are, like,
Speaker: Providing for their families from my ambition, you know from my dream just want to do things different Yeah, and so my my closers they got a red line model, right?
Speaker: And the setters they get paid well everything is by volume in fact I came up with this model is really different I have not seen it anywhere else that from one to four appointments they get paid X amount of money
Speaker: From five to nine, X plus Y. And then 10 plus, XYZ.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And every single month, it resets.
Speaker: It resets.
Speaker: And by quarter, if they hit the quarterly goal, they start at a lower red line.
Speaker: So it's kind of different.
Speaker: I have never seen it before.
Speaker: I really just came out with it because it keeps people engaged.
Speaker: It's resetting, but it's also rewarding them if they hit the quarterly wall.
Speaker: So it's very different.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: It works for us.
Speaker: Yeah, sounds like it's working.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, I mean, so you have a manager that's just for the call center that's in Columbia managing all these people.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then, yeah, I guess the next question is with all these different markets, because you're in what, four?
Speaker: Around five.
Speaker: Five, okay.
Speaker: Because I've seen, matter of fact, I've been with a company who tried to expand quickly before they had good processes set up to other markets.
Speaker: So all of a sudden we were in eight markets one year, but then we lost like six of them for the next year.
Speaker: It's so crazy because you've got to time it right.
Speaker: You've got to time it right.
Speaker: And yes, there is many great markets,
Speaker: but you gotta choose your market and learn that market really well before you even go and sell there.
Speaker: And what we do is that we have a two-to-one ratio.
Speaker: Two setters, no matter if it's virtual, you know, the call center, or if they're like door setters, it's two-to-one ratio.
Speaker: That's what we do.
Speaker: And it keeps everybody very accountable for things.
Speaker: Keeps everybody accountable because they had weekly meetings where...
Speaker: They meet with the setters, and okay, brother, I'm not getting enough appointments.
Speaker: We got to ramp that up.
Speaker: And the setters also tell them, what happened with my appointments?
Speaker: I send them to you.
Speaker: So what's going on with that, right?
Speaker: So it's not like a confrontation, but keeps them accountable, and it works.
Speaker: As I said, I mean, I'm an industrial engineer.
Speaker: I have a black belt, not only in karate, but also in Six Sigma, in Six Sigma, which is, you know,
Speaker: quality control and lean manufacturing and improving, simplifying everything.
Speaker: So I have that mentality.
Speaker: How can I simplify processes and develop systems that will manage the people?
Speaker: I'm constantly thinking about that.
Speaker: I try to integrate my knowledge in industrial engineering into sales.
Speaker: It makes it kind of different.
Speaker: Yeah, no, you've got an awesome background.
Speaker: How many people that have engineer knowledge and stuff like that?
Speaker: Love physics.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I bet you're really good at selling engineers.
Speaker: Those are like my worst customers.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I explain them like in-depth because that's what they like.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: And you take a page out of that playbook.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Super good stuff.
Speaker: And I know we've got to get back to a few of the speakers here at Door to DoorCon.
Speaker: So just before we kind of wrap up here,
Speaker: Josue, before I forget, where can people connect with you more on social media and maybe ask you more questions if they want to get in touch?
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: They can reach out on Instagram.
Speaker: It's the best place.
Speaker: You can find me at solarenergyceo, Josue, J-O-S-U-E, Phillips.
Speaker: And, yeah, you can reach out to me.
Speaker: Just DM me.
Speaker: I'll reply.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: You can laugh at my content.
Speaker: I make some stupid, funny, mean comments in videos.
Speaker: And I'm just genuine.
Speaker: You know, I don't pretend to be somebody that I'm not.
Speaker: I just like to have fun too, you know.
Speaker: I love it, keeping it real.
Speaker: That's when we need more of that stuff.
Speaker: So, yeah, definitely reach out to Josue.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show today.
Speaker: And as usual, we'll post all those links and his Instagram in the show notes.
Speaker: Go shoot him a follow, give him a comment and a like.
Speaker: And then last question here, Josue.
Speaker: I knew we were talking before we started the podcast just about how one of the biggest problems –
Speaker: I think we probably both see, especially in solar, there's so much mediocrity, so many people that are not reaching their potential because let's be honest, I mean, one or two deals a month in solar, you're still making decent income.
Speaker: Six figures.
Speaker: Yeah, especially.
Speaker: In Texas, two deals a month is six figures anyways.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Same in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so how can solar guys, I know it's a problem you're really trying to solve in everything you do.
Speaker: So what would you suggest?
Speaker: How can guys,
Speaker: like forget about that and focus more on the cells instead of just being complacent with hitting one or two deals a month.
Speaker: I think you have to, something I learned from my mission, and I always go back to that, the basics.
Speaker: You got to,
Speaker: be accountable with yourself, with your goals, with your dreams at the end of the day.
Speaker: You gotta be accountable with your dreams.
Speaker: Sometimes we get detached from the reality because we make so much money in solar.
Speaker: It's easy to get detached from that reality, right?
Speaker: And we just gotta take advantage of every single day we have
Speaker: And make the most out of it something I preach a lot to my reps is that you got to be continuously dissatisfied with your circumstances That that's what made me leave my country paradise freaking Costa Rica to come to the States Following my dreams just because of that ambition just because you have to be continuously dissatisfied with your circumstances
Speaker: and dream bigger.
Speaker: If your dreams are not scaring you, you gotta find better dreams I guess.
Speaker: It's awesome coming from you because I mean close way of old people you could I mean you know you could close one day a month and
Speaker: That would probably be living like a king in Costa Rica, right?
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's like coming from, you know, of all people that never be satisfied.
Speaker: And you jumped in head first to something that I can't even imagine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In financial education, Taylor, before we end, it's so key because we make so much money.
Speaker: Remember this.
Speaker: You don't know how longer it's going to last.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: We always got to be optimistic, but we got to play our cards right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and be able to secure our money working for us.
Speaker: At the end of the day, that's what you got to do.
Speaker: Solar is the vehicle for your financial freedom.
Speaker: Play your cards right.
Speaker: Educate yourself because it's not how much money you make, it's how you spend that money at the end of the day.
Speaker: So true.
Speaker: And on that note, shout out to our sponsors, Pi Syndicate, who can help you more with the financial piece of it if you do need help with that.
Speaker: But love what you said, Josue, and follow your dreams.
Speaker: Go chase after, you know, what you deserve.
Speaker: Don't be complacent.
Speaker: And yeah, I think that's a good way to end it.
Speaker: Anything you want to share before we wrap up here, Josue?
Speaker: Yeah, I want to say that you have to follow your dreams.
Speaker: You got to be sure that that's what you want, because if that's not what you want, you're going to drop it really quick.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: but you gotta wish it with all your heart and then go work for it.
Speaker: Sometimes we just talk too much and do little.
Speaker: So action is better than a bunch of planning.
Speaker: And that also applies in engineering.
Speaker: It's like, how can I just plan simple, quick, smart, and then engage into actions and into things that are gonna bring me closer to actually making that happen.
Speaker: So don't spend too much time on planning.
Speaker: It got to be 5% and then executing 95%.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And a lot of people, they can say what they want to do, but they're not prepared to execute and do what it needs to actually happen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great point.
Speaker: Well, Josue, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: Again, go shoot Josue a comment, a like.
Speaker: Let him know he appreciated him coming on.
Speaker: And hopefully we'll have you on someday for a follow-up and keep crushing out there.
Speaker: Thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: Let's do it, brother.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker: I really appreciate it.
Speaker: Appreciate it, dude.
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