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How To 10x Your Solar Sales Using Data - Shadi Barhoumi
148 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction and SolarScout Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, I want to make a quick invitation before the start of this episode.
00:00:03
Speaker
We're going to be hearing from Shadi, who is the founder and CEO of SolarScout, which is the world's greatest prospecting and data platform you can have in your arsenal for solar cells.
00:00:15
Speaker
If you don't have access to this amazing tool already,
00:00:19
Speaker
There's two ways you can get it.
00:00:21
Speaker
You can click our link and run a demo with them, but maybe you've already checked it out.
00:00:26
Speaker
The other way you can get access is we have a few spots remaining on our team where everyone on our team actually has access to the tool.
00:00:35
Speaker
So if you would like to look into joining a world-class organization and be coached and trained online,
00:00:42
Speaker
by some of the world's best and have access to SolarScout.
00:00:46
Speaker
Go ahead and click the link down below.
00:00:48
Speaker
You can fill out an application and we'll reach out to you.
00:00:51
Speaker
Enjoy the episode and make sure you use that data to crush your solar cells.
Taylor Armstrong's Success Journey
00:00:59
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:01:05
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong, and 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.
00:01:15
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.
00:01:27
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask?
00:01:29
Speaker
A 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.
00:01:37
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, solarpreneurs?
00:01:39
Speaker
We're here with an exciting
Meet Shadi Barhumi, SolarScout's Visionary Leader
00:01:41
Speaker
episode.
00:01:41
Speaker
We've got someone that has been a huge supporter of the podcast and someone that I would recently say I've owed some of the recent success I've had to a lot of the contributions they've made in the solar industry.
00:01:55
Speaker
So I'm excited to have the one, the only Shadi Barhumi here on the podcast.
00:01:59
Speaker
He is a CEO and founder of SolarScout, which is actually one of our sponsors.
00:02:05
Speaker
So thanks for coming on with us today, Shadi.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, and thanks for such an awesome podcast.
00:02:10
Speaker
Many people have found us through your podcast, and you're doing a wonderful thing as well in the solar industry, Taylor.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, trying to, trying to contribute where we can.
00:02:20
Speaker
So, yeah, and, you know, we've been working together, I think, what, since, I don't know, three, four months, I think, now that we've been kind of partnered and you've been supporting the podcast.
00:02:33
Speaker
And it's funny, you actually came to my event back in, I think it was, yeah, it was in April.
00:02:39
Speaker
I've actually got the poster hanging up here on my wall.
00:02:41
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:02:42
Speaker
And it's funny because when I first met you, I was just like, this must be some new rookie sales rep.
00:02:50
Speaker
I don't know what he's doing here.
00:02:52
Speaker
And then you come and start talking all this data.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I was a little skeptical.
00:02:57
Speaker
I'm like, this is just some, I don't know, lead provider, someone doing some weird software.
00:03:03
Speaker
And then the more I started hearing about it and heard other people starting to use it, I'm like, wow, this is actually incredible what they're doing.
00:03:10
Speaker
So, um, yeah, and we've, we've, uh, you know, Mark done some marketing in the podcast, but maybe for those that aren't as familiar, do you want to give just like a quick, um, you know, explanation on what solar scout is and what it helps people
SolarScout's Impact on Solar Sales
00:03:24
Speaker
do?
00:03:24
Speaker
Sure.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:25
Speaker
So solar scout is a way to, um,
00:03:28
Speaker
take your door-to-door efforts or your virtual solar sales efforts and 2 to 10x depending on your input 2 to 10x your results so if you were knocking doors and generating one appointment per day knocking 100 doors now you could knock something more like 40 doors a day and get four to five appointments and obviously to produce different results like that you have to do something differently so we show you the different doors to knock to do that and we'll get into the actual data points behind it
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, and it's pretty mind-blowing all the different data points you have once you start using the app.
00:04:03
Speaker
But yeah, I guess before that, I want to hear just your... I've actually never even heard this myself, so I'm excited to ask you some of these questions.
00:04:09
Speaker
But for you, Shadi, what's your background?
00:04:12
Speaker
How did you guys end up creating SolarScout?
00:04:15
Speaker
I'm just curious how it came about, why you decided the solar industry.
00:04:19
Speaker
So yeah, let's hear your background and where this thing came about.
00:04:23
Speaker
Sure.
00:04:24
Speaker
My background is in computer science, actually.
00:04:26
Speaker
So I grew up in the Bay Area here in California.
00:04:28
Speaker
I'm in San Francisco right now.
00:04:30
Speaker
Studied at Stanford, did computer science there, worked at a bunch of tech companies in Silicon Valley.
00:04:35
Speaker
I was in crypto, actually, doing some crypto stuff in 2022.
00:04:40
Speaker
And then
00:04:42
Speaker
as crypto started crashing, right, you know, at the end of 2022, many of your people know crypto, crypto was kind of getting regulated almost out of existence.
00:04:50
Speaker
But the IRA was passed.
00:04:51
Speaker
And then, you know, there were a lot of tailwinds for the solar industry.
00:04:55
Speaker
And so I noticed that people were doing great in solar, solar companies are optimistic.
00:05:00
Speaker
So I thought, I'd love I'd love to learn how do people actually sell solar?
00:05:04
Speaker
Do they really make five to 10 grand per deal and commission?
00:05:07
Speaker
And if so, how do they find these homeowners?
00:05:09
Speaker
Are there any kinds of ways to actually
00:05:11
Speaker
find them more efficiently.
00:05:13
Speaker
How did you first hear about, so yeah, I guess, how did you hear that solar reps were making that much?
00:05:19
Speaker
And by solar, did you just hear it?
00:05:21
Speaker
Like, I don't know.
00:05:22
Speaker
It was so random.
00:05:23
Speaker
It was just, yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
So basically just a friend of mine, his, his friend's brother.
00:05:29
Speaker
So, okay.
00:05:30
Speaker
So this guy, he went to MIT and he's starting a tech company.
00:05:34
Speaker
And then his friend went to Harvard and was like,
00:05:37
Speaker
struggling with his startup, trying to make his startup work.
00:05:40
Speaker
So this Harvard guy from Utah, actually, it turns out that to make his startup work and to fund it, he would go and knock doors with his brother in Texas who was selling solar for Lumio.
00:05:51
Speaker
And so he would fly out there and then try to make 10 grand in a couple of weeks and then go back and keep working on his startup.
00:05:59
Speaker
And so I randomly got introduced to that guy's brother in North Texas.
00:06:02
Speaker
And then he was like, yeah, sure, just fly yourself out here.
00:06:05
Speaker
and we'll put you on the doors.
00:06:06
Speaker
And so I went through that experience for about two weeks of knocking doors and just getting the basic training.
00:06:13
Speaker
And that was the beginning of actually seeing, okay, I mean, basically what happened is I flew out there.
00:06:18
Speaker
The guy picked me up from the airport.
00:06:19
Speaker
He bought me a Chipotle and talked about our lives.
00:06:22
Speaker
And he was like, well, stay in this empty house.
00:06:26
Speaker
that we used for the summer for this blitz.
00:06:28
Speaker
And it was actually October.
00:06:29
Speaker
So it was like late, late in the year.
00:06:31
Speaker
And I said, tomorrow you're gonna be on the door.
00:06:32
Speaker
So I went on the doors the next day, pretty much without any training.
00:06:36
Speaker
And I really had my butt handed to me.
00:06:38
Speaker
So basically we were knocking in this little neighborhood in Texas, in McKinney, Texas,
00:06:44
Speaker
And they were like, we're going to throw you like, we're going to call the cops on you.
00:06:47
Speaker
Are you like, you're the eighth solar guy who's come here.
00:06:50
Speaker
I knocked, I actually tracked it on a clipboard.
00:06:52
Speaker
Like I was like, I'm going to be organized about this.
00:06:54
Speaker
Nobody, I didn't set a single appointment except for one nice couple from Arkansas that had moved in like three months earlier.
00:06:59
Speaker
And they're like, oh yeah, like the energy bills were actually really high.
00:07:02
Speaker
We're from Arkansas.
00:07:03
Speaker
And like, oh, you know, coming down on Saturday.
00:07:05
Speaker
And so that was the only appointment I set.
00:07:06
Speaker
And I was like, wow, I could be a lot more efficient with this.
00:07:09
Speaker
And there are other things that went into it too.
00:07:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:12
Speaker
Did that appointment end up closing?
00:07:14
Speaker
Did you get your first sale out there?
00:07:17
Speaker
I don't know.
00:07:17
Speaker
I was a little disorganized.
00:07:18
Speaker
The manager, he didn't really get back to me on whether they showed or not the closer.
00:07:22
Speaker
So I don't know whether they closed or not, actually.
00:07:26
Speaker
But I didn't hear about it later.
00:07:28
Speaker
But I mean, I spent most of that week, after that one day, I spent most of that week basically following around other guys in their cars and
00:07:35
Speaker
right just like sitting with them and seeing how they did it and the the interesting struggle that i saw was like these guys would be looking for a particular kind of utility company in the in the north texas market they're like i'm looking for these encore homes but then they would drive our drive out to the outskirts and end up in electric co-op territory with bad buyback programs and and i was like well do you guys have a map and we were like no we just kind of drive out and we look at the mailbox or sorry look at the um
00:08:01
Speaker
the meter on the side of the house.
00:08:02
Speaker
Like we walk up into their, to the side of their house to see if this actual neighborhood is serviced by Encore or some electric co-op.
00:08:10
Speaker
And then, then we decide, okay, should we knock this neighborhood?
00:08:12
Speaker
And they would spend like an hour to an hour and a half a day, like driving out
00:08:17
Speaker
oftentimes to the wrong territory and then they call their manager and be like, this area is not Encore and then they'd send them another Google Maps pin and they'd try again.
00:08:24
Speaker
And it turns out
Deep Dive into SolarScout's Features
00:08:25
Speaker
like the very first thing we built was a way to find those homes that were with the Encore utility company and that actually turned out to be our first step, right?
00:08:34
Speaker
And people were like, wow, this is crazy.
00:08:35
Speaker
This has solved a huge problem for us.
00:08:36
Speaker
Wow, okay.
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, that makes more sense now.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, you picked a tough market.
00:08:40
Speaker
I've done a few like blitzes out in Texas.
00:08:42
Speaker
And even me doing this eight years, I had just about the same experience you did.
00:08:48
Speaker
So I thought Texas was tough.
00:08:50
Speaker
And yeah, it is definitely challenging dealing with all those different utilities.
00:08:54
Speaker
But no, that's cool.
00:08:55
Speaker
And so sounds like right after that first week or whatever knocking, that's did you already kind of have the door, the idea before you went out there?
00:09:05
Speaker
or just like as you were out there that week that's when you started thinking about i wonder if it'd be useful to like have more data as you're knocking doors when yeah i have no idea whatsoever i didn't know anything about solar i wasn't thinking about starting a company i was just like um let's just explore this thing let me learn about this particular niche right um solar sales
00:09:25
Speaker
So I went out there and then realized, just realized how much opportunity there was.
00:09:29
Speaker
Like these guys really did make an average of like, I calculated they're like $500 an hour, right?
00:09:35
Speaker
For the, for the guys who are actually closing deals and stuff.
00:09:37
Speaker
I was like, wow, well, if we can save an hour and a half of your, of your time, that might be worth a lot.
00:09:41
Speaker
No kidding.
00:09:42
Speaker
Well, it's interesting hearing you're just way, way going about it because most people doing door to door, they don't come with like kind of that tech computer background like you do.
00:09:53
Speaker
And so I think that's useful just probably for everyone that's in door to door in general to understand.
00:09:59
Speaker
you know, have that at least a little bit of that type of mindset, because especially new guys coming in, they don't like track their numbers.
00:10:05
Speaker
They don't keep any data.
00:10:07
Speaker
They don't like, yeah, very few reps even that I see even know how much they're making per hour.
00:10:13
Speaker
And it's like, it's funny how many people like burnout or like, oh, this sucks.
00:10:16
Speaker
I'm barely making any money.
00:10:18
Speaker
But they don't even they don't even calculate that simple math to know, OK, I closed the deal.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't making money necessarily for like 20 hours before that.
00:10:28
Speaker
But it's like, yeah, if you add up what you actually make for your hourly rate, I think most solar guys, yeah, it's probably 500 bucks, thousands, sometimes a thousand bucks, even more.
00:10:38
Speaker
So, yeah, no, interesting and probably valuable for people to hear that.
00:10:43
Speaker
But that's a cool story, man.
00:10:45
Speaker
So did you start testing it with the team, just the guys you're out with?
00:10:49
Speaker
Did you like kind of come up with something, send them to test it?
00:10:53
Speaker
Or where did it go from there?
00:10:54
Speaker
How did you guys start the whole software from there?
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, basically, I mean, we built that feature.
00:10:59
Speaker
And then we showed it to I think I built like a very small prototype of it in like, maybe a week.
00:11:05
Speaker
or so I was still like there living in their like blitz house and then I put that thing together on my computer and then showed it to them they're like yeah wow this actually is going to be huge because they had been looking for all kinds of like workaround ways to figure out which homes or which utility company but once we built that it was it was very clear that that was helpful to them and then they invited me to go and talk to the manager and
00:11:25
Speaker
of this guy that I was kind of knocking for.
00:11:27
Speaker
And then he had these other ideas.
00:11:29
Speaker
He was like, well, okay, this is really cool.
00:11:31
Speaker
And I also want to know everybody who has solar already and all of their names.
00:11:35
Speaker
And when they got solar, like that would be super useful.
00:11:37
Speaker
And I also want to know which areas have electric heating and which areas have gas heating.
00:11:43
Speaker
because the electric heating, they actually have high bills in the winter.
00:11:47
Speaker
And then we just kept hearing more and more stuff about different things that different data points people could have access to that would give them an advantage.
00:11:54
Speaker
And then everybody kind of has these in their minds.
00:11:57
Speaker
And then just as we went, we started putting more and more into the app.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah, incredible.
00:12:01
Speaker
So yeah, I guess, do you want to tell people what are the main, I know you have a ton of crazy data points now, but what would you say are like the main data points that every user is going to have access to if they decide to use SolarScout?
00:12:14
Speaker
What are like the main data points that you've seen are most helpful and that pretty much everyone is using that uses SolarScout?
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good question.
00:12:21
Speaker
So there's the big three approaches, right?
00:12:23
Speaker
The first one we'll talk about is new move-ins.
00:12:26
Speaker
So these are people who have been in the home from anywhere from they just moved in to they've been in the home for 12 months.
00:12:33
Speaker
And then you can decide how to target.
00:12:35
Speaker
You can target the people who just moved in from like zero to six months, right?
00:12:38
Speaker
And so they haven't been knocked before.
00:12:41
Speaker
They may be new to the area, new to the weather system.
00:12:44
Speaker
That makes them a lot more open to setting an appointment, just like that couple from Arkansas that I knocked.
00:12:48
Speaker
And in fact, that's like a
00:12:49
Speaker
kind of niche within the new movement that we highlight.
00:12:52
Speaker
So there are new movements that moved in from out of state, and we'll show you that in the app.
00:12:56
Speaker
And if they moved in from out of state, they're quite likely to be more interested and more curious and more open to like, you know, let's say I moved from Arkansas to Florida, you'd say, Hey, well, you know,
00:13:05
Speaker
here in florida do you wonder why everyone has the panels on their roof it's like are you wondering why the rates are so high you have that natural curiosity because they're new to the area so there's that particular approach with new move-ins out of state move-ins there's also first-time homeowners so people we can show you that they moved from an apartment previously which means that they've literally never been knocked for solar before right it's not like oh this is my fifth house in florida and i hate solar like you're not going to run into that they're like oh i was in an apartment
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah, the rates are a lot higher and the usage is much more if I'm in a house now.
00:13:36
Speaker
So that's the new move ins approach.
00:13:38
Speaker
Just to interject real quick there, because I think most solar guys know that you can you can get new move ins, just Subzilla, Redfin, you can go see all that data.
00:13:47
Speaker
And even before I met you, Shadi, I was like going and I was having a virtual assistant, go make spreadsheets of all the new move ins.
00:13:55
Speaker
driving all over the place.
00:13:57
Speaker
So that's kind of like the way, even if you're not using SolarScout or maybe you're not going to, you can still do it that way.
00:14:03
Speaker
And I had a lot of success doing it that way.
00:14:05
Speaker
But the data you just talked about, like knowing those extra things, you know, maybe the
00:14:10
Speaker
ones from out of state, the first time buyers, that's just like, it's like doing Zill on steroids because now you have all these different people you can target.
00:14:19
Speaker
And yeah, it's just like you talked about from the beginning, being even more efficient with your time and adding that extra layer.
00:14:25
Speaker
So that's where I think it's, you know,
00:14:27
Speaker
really useful to use a tool like SolarScout.
00:14:29
Speaker
You can also see some other things like you can see their name and their email and stuff like that or their phone number.
00:14:35
Speaker
You can call them right if they're not at the door.
00:14:36
Speaker
I noticed the door to door guys actually now that their number the phone number is available in SolarScout they'll say hey like you know I knocked this door and they didn't open so I called them and I set the appointment on the phone which is actually really cool for someone in a door to door context to be able to do.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:52
Speaker
And it's really good to see that people had been previously looking for ways to access these people because that shows that, hey, it works, right?
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker
So we didn't invent that.
00:15:00
Speaker
We just made it... You can systematize it across your team.
00:15:03
Speaker
But I think probably one of the more interesting data points is the solar permits, right?
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:10
Speaker
And so solar permits are...
00:15:13
Speaker
basically you know when you apply to go solar you submit a permit to the city there's that whole history of everybody that's gone solar or tried to go solar that we're able to pull what we do is we show it to you in the map and you can highlight it in different ways and so you can highlight those people whose permits are marked by the city as expired those ones actually never got installed so you can see hey for example like sunpower pulled this permit
00:15:36
Speaker
in 2021 for an eight kilowatt system on this home.
00:15:40
Speaker
And I can see that the homeowner bought their house in 2020.
00:15:42
Speaker
So it's the same homeowner and the solar is not on the roof.
00:15:45
Speaker
And so we use up-to-date aerial imagery to that where you can look at the roof and you can say, Hey, like I'm looking at an up-to-date image of your home.
00:15:52
Speaker
You don't have solar on your roof, but I see that you tried to go solar with sun power in 2021.
00:15:56
Speaker
What happened?
00:15:57
Speaker
And then oftentimes, you know, those will convert to appointments.
00:16:00
Speaker
And when they convert to appointments, those appointments often close because this person knows exactly what they're getting into.
00:16:05
Speaker
They've been through the whole solar process before.
00:16:08
Speaker
That's kind of the expired solar permits approach.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, so good.
00:16:12
Speaker
So good.
00:16:13
Speaker
And yeah, it's yeah, I will say having that up to date imagery, that's especially in a market where I'm in California, where so many people have solar and so many people got solar recently with this whole NEM 2 to NEM 3 push.
00:16:27
Speaker
You look at basically any other map and there's so many people that just don't have the solar that's updated on the map.
00:16:34
Speaker
So even that alone is
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah, I wish I could count up all this time it saved.
00:16:38
Speaker
It's like, you know, just like going door to door and seeing who has it.
00:16:42
Speaker
So that thing is a game changer alone.
00:16:44
Speaker
But yeah, and something I know you guys have taken some heat for, Shadi, is you go on these Facebook groups and everything.
00:16:49
Speaker
I know people like to talk trash and everything.
00:16:52
Speaker
But there's always the complaints about, oh, these permanent poachers, this guy's permanent poaching.
00:16:57
Speaker
And then you see, I know you guys, you know, a lot of times are posting like your updates, new features and stuff like that.
00:17:04
Speaker
on SolarScout across these groups.
00:17:06
Speaker
And there's always like the trolls on there saying, oh, these guys are just like encouraging the permit poachers and stuff like that.
00:17:12
Speaker
So I know you've addressed that on the groups.
00:17:14
Speaker
But what do you say to those people?
00:17:16
Speaker
Like, how is it useful and maybe not like encouraging permit poaching?
00:17:21
Speaker
But what would you say you're doing to avoid that?
00:17:24
Speaker
Totally.
00:17:24
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:17:25
Speaker
So yes, anytime you post anything in a solar Facebook group that says the word permit in it, all the comments are about permit poaching, which is hilarious.
00:17:33
Speaker
But the thing I just described, an expired permit from 2021 that never got installed, it's like seeing somebody who wanted to go solar.
00:17:42
Speaker
That permit is gone.
00:17:43
Speaker
You can't do anything with it.
00:17:44
Speaker
It's never going to be reactivated again.
00:17:46
Speaker
You literally cannot install on it.
00:17:48
Speaker
And so that was an abandoned job.
00:17:51
Speaker
And we always have a delay of a certain number of months where, you know, from the time we pull the data to the time we show it on the app, there's a delay which should give jobs that are like, you know, going to be installed time to get installed.
00:18:04
Speaker
And so it's not the, you know, you can't go on to SolarScout thinking it's the ultimate tool for seeing real-time permits because we don't show real-time permits.
00:18:12
Speaker
We'll show kind of older permits that have either not been installed or just permits that got installed a couple months ago.
00:18:18
Speaker
So you can go and knock the neighbors.
00:18:19
Speaker
That's another thing you can do with permits.
00:18:22
Speaker
So the overall approach or the overall response to people who say, oh, you know, if you're looking at solar permit data, you have to be permit poaching.
00:18:30
Speaker
I would say that's incorrect, right?
00:18:32
Speaker
You can look at the expired permit data, right?
00:18:34
Speaker
And then 10% of the volume in these markets every year.
00:18:38
Speaker
10% of the solar permit volume in these markets are permits pulled on top of expired permits.
00:18:43
Speaker
So like people have previously tried to go solar and then now are going solar finally, for real this time, you know, 10% of the, let's say the permits in San Diego every month are actually pulled on top of expired permits.
00:18:54
Speaker
So that's kind of proof that, you know, people who previously pulled a permit
00:18:58
Speaker
are going to go solar again at some point.
00:19:00
Speaker
But then there's that approach.
00:19:02
Speaker
There's knocking the neighbors of these recent permits.
00:19:04
Speaker
And so you can talk to them and be like, hey, you got your solar installed a month ago.
00:19:08
Speaker
You can talk to the neighbors and say, hey, Deborah got her solar installed a month ago.
00:19:11
Speaker
You saw the trucks in the area.
00:19:13
Speaker
That kind of keeping up with the Jones effect is very strong for appointment setting.
00:19:18
Speaker
And then the last thing, are there two more things you can do with permits,
Strategies for Solar Sales Success
00:19:21
Speaker
right?
00:19:21
Speaker
You can, we have a filter that'll show you, Hey, these are the permits from now bankrupt installers.
00:19:26
Speaker
And so people who do service directly want to reach out to those people.
00:19:30
Speaker
And because those systems are installed, but now the company's out of business and people who do service say, yeah, I literally want to know where the sun power permits are.
00:19:39
Speaker
And I want to know where the Titan Titan permits are because I want to go help those homeowners with any issues they have.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, they might not make a ton of money doing the service, but down the line, they will be the kind of solar hero that's trusted.
00:19:51
Speaker
And then when it's time to make referrals or do add-ons, they're going to want to work with this person who reached out to me and said, hey, Titan's out of business.
00:19:58
Speaker
I know Titan installed your system, but we're here to help if you need anything.
00:20:02
Speaker
So that's the third way to use permits.
00:20:05
Speaker
There are so many, yeah.
00:20:06
Speaker
There's so many great, legitimate, helpful ways to use it.
00:20:09
Speaker
That's my response.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, and this could be probably a 10 hour podcast if we wanted to on all the different ways and ways to target.
00:20:17
Speaker
And I know you guys are doing trainings weekly and stuff like that.
00:20:20
Speaker
But how do you so someone that has all this data, because I'll say that's one thing for me is sometimes there's like so many different data points.
00:20:28
Speaker
You know, you go on SolarScout and you guys are always adding new points of data and all that.
00:20:32
Speaker
But I will say one thing for me, sometimes it can be almost overwhelming seeing all this different data.
00:20:37
Speaker
And it's like, oh, what should I target today?
00:20:39
Speaker
And it's almost paralysis by analysis sometimes for me because I'm like, maybe I'll try this today or, you know, I don't know.
00:20:45
Speaker
Maybe I'll just go back to this strategy.
00:20:47
Speaker
So what are you seeing and maybe what do you suggest for people that are using that or even if they're not using the app?
00:20:53
Speaker
Like what do you think is most effective or what have you seen?
00:20:56
Speaker
Is it people switching off on these strategies or how do you not get overwhelmed by all this data and just like, you know, get consistent results and not get overwhelmed?
00:21:05
Speaker
What would you say?
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question.
00:21:08
Speaker
The people who I see doing the best are always the ones who, of course, are the most consistent and who don't give up.
00:21:15
Speaker
So they pick a particular strategy, let's say in their first month, and they do just that strategy.
00:21:19
Speaker
Oftentimes, people will start with a new move-in strategy because
00:21:23
Speaker
you know, there's the data is plentiful.
00:21:25
Speaker
And then we also have scripts that we provide like scripts and slicks that we provide our users that have been proven out by our sales trainer, who's on staff, who actually goes out and uses this, you know, uses this information and then writes, writes these scripts for us.
00:21:38
Speaker
His name is Earl.
00:21:39
Speaker
And so basically we, you know, we give them the script, we show them how to filter it down in the app and they go out every day and they knock
00:21:47
Speaker
20 to 40 of these new move-ins and they don't get distracted by anything else like anyone with their garage open or their dogs out or it looks like a good house that's getting blasted by sun or whatever just don't do that just knock the new move-ins and the reason that that works is because you you start to hear the same set of objections and the same set of stories and the same set of concerns and the same set of buying questions and stuff like that and then you you master talking to one particular kind of homeowner
00:22:12
Speaker
with one particular set of concerns.
00:22:14
Speaker
And then it's like, you know, you can kind of enter this flow state.
00:22:17
Speaker
Not it's like, not like you're knocking one door and they're like, Oh, my, my brother hates solar.
00:22:20
Speaker
And the other one's like, Oh, like try to go solar.
00:22:22
Speaker
It didn't work.
00:22:23
Speaker
You're just honing in on one particular approach with one kind of prospect.
00:22:27
Speaker
Those people really do the best that they, they get one and they stick with it, not giving up immediately as well.
00:22:32
Speaker
It's like a kind of an underrated, uh, underrated like skill.
00:22:35
Speaker
Like,
00:22:35
Speaker
I notice sometimes if maybe it's just a solar thing, but like if people have issues like getting started, they're like, oh, I knocked five doors and they were all not home.
00:22:43
Speaker
Sometimes they'll give up immediately.
00:22:45
Speaker
And it's like it's kind of like that that meme of like the guy who's like digging for gold and like he gives up right before he hits the vein of like diamonds or whatever or gold.
00:22:53
Speaker
Like, um, oftentimes we'll say like, you know, the, the numbers will work out in your favor.
00:22:58
Speaker
You can knock 10 doors in a row and they all won't open, but the latter 10, you'll get like three, four appointments out of it.
00:23:03
Speaker
We see that happen all the time.
00:23:04
Speaker
So it's about trusting the process as well.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:23:07
Speaker
And that, I remember talking to Earl about that Earl's actually a good friend of mine, ran a team with him out here in San Diego.
00:23:14
Speaker
Um, but yeah, he, I was talking to him the other week and he was telling me a lot of the same stuff.
00:23:20
Speaker
And I didn't even think of that because for me, it's always been like, okay, I'll knock the new move ins.
00:23:25
Speaker
But yeah, if I see like garages open or people around it, then I'm always going to stop and talk to them.
00:23:32
Speaker
Just because it's like sometimes with the new move ins, you know, you're, you're driving five, 10 minutes to get to one.
00:23:39
Speaker
And then if they're not there, you felt like it's time wasted and all that.
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:44
Speaker
But what's really cool too, and maybe you were going to get into this, but Earl was just mentioning how also you can target within that, you know, like different demographics, different age groups.
00:23:55
Speaker
So not only new move-ins, but you can go look at maybe they're older, retired people.
00:24:00
Speaker
And you can make separate lists of those because I'm like, but Earl, what if what if I'm driving over the place, wasting my time midday going to these new move ins?
00:24:08
Speaker
No one's going to be home.
00:24:09
Speaker
And he's like, well, yeah, do new move ins, but set an extra layer to people that are like retired and are more likely to be there.
00:24:17
Speaker
So I thought that was a good idea, too.
00:24:19
Speaker
Just like targeting that because he was mentioning like even more likely is people that are retired and they move from out of state.
00:24:28
Speaker
that those are like some of the most likely people to go solar because they're probably not going to move again if they're older.
00:24:34
Speaker
They just moved here from out of state.
00:24:35
Speaker
That's probably their home until they're going to the grave, right?
00:24:39
Speaker
So I thought that was good.
00:24:42
Speaker
But yeah, no, it's good strategies.
Innovative Targeting Techniques in Solar Sales
00:24:44
Speaker
But anything else you're seeing?
00:24:46
Speaker
I guess anything you want to add to that or any other main targeting strategies on top of that?
00:24:53
Speaker
Sure, yeah.
00:24:53
Speaker
So we talked about the move-ins, we talked about the permits.
00:24:57
Speaker
I think that one really underutilized strategy actually with permits is filtering down to find all the people with older systems
00:25:05
Speaker
And then, you know, you can find people with like at least 10-year-old systems and you can filter that out of the app.
00:25:11
Speaker
And then you can see, hey, you have a 10-year-old system, you have a 10-year-old system.
00:25:14
Speaker
These people tend to need add-ons.
00:25:16
Speaker
And it's pretty, it's kind of an easy sale to sell an add-on system to somebody who already has solar but just needs more.
00:25:23
Speaker
And I'd love to see more reps capitalizing on that.
00:25:26
Speaker
It can be tricky in California if NEM3 prevents adding on too many panels before you get kicked into a less favorable net metering regime.
00:25:34
Speaker
But in all the other markets, I'd love to see people doubling down on the people who need add-ons because that's one of those things where it wasn't possible previously to in five seconds be like, I want to see everybody in this town in Massachusetts that has had solar for at least 10 years, but now you can do that.
00:25:52
Speaker
so that's one thing the other thing is which i think is actually makes a lot of sense and earl's been proving it out it's a newer feature is like knocking people who have gone online and filled out solar ads right so we have some layer called ad respondents and it's people have gone online and filled out an ad and been like yeah my name is george my monthly bill is 500 bucks i'm with pg e and you know i want i want solar i have good credit so they go online respond to ads
00:26:18
Speaker
And we buy that data from third-party providers, load it into the app with the up-to-date imagery, and then a door knocker can spend their day knocking people who literally, like, you know, last year or six months ago said, yeah, I'm interested in solar.
00:26:32
Speaker
And it's a totally different world and different set of results from, like, I'm knocking everything, I'm just grinding out here, I'm knocking the renters, I'm knocking the, you know, the people who hate solar, like, you're just knocking people who want solar.
00:26:44
Speaker
That's kind of, that's the third of the big three approaches.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Like it.
00:26:51
Speaker
So yeah.
00:26:52
Speaker
How many, because I know you guys are launching the solar scout all over the country here in the U S. So what would you say, what's like your most successful market?
00:27:02
Speaker
Do you have a market where people are seeing more results than others or where you got more users or is it kind of spread across the board pretty good?
00:27:09
Speaker
Oh, that's such a good question.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:11
Speaker
This is all anecdotal evidence, right?
00:27:13
Speaker
But I noticed that we have teams, first of all, of course, in California that are doing super well, especially we have teams who are selling virtually in California that are doing really well as well.
00:27:23
Speaker
So people are doing digital door knocking or just calling where they'll call these expired permits and be like, they'll be very direct.
00:27:28
Speaker
They'll be like, hey, like you tried to go solar with Infinity in 2021.
00:27:31
Speaker
Like didn't work out, right?
00:27:33
Speaker
Did you still want solar?
00:27:33
Speaker
They literally say that on the phone.
00:27:34
Speaker
And like they were just on our mastermind group last Friday and that was doing super well.
00:27:39
Speaker
So we noticed that
00:27:40
Speaker
you know, the, the California market with the expired permits is doing well.
00:27:43
Speaker
And then in Massachusetts, I noticed people are doing super well too.
00:27:47
Speaker
Um, then they use the ad respondents and the move-ins.
00:27:49
Speaker
And I think, uh, Massachusetts is a great market for, for solar as part of it.
00:27:54
Speaker
Um,
00:27:55
Speaker
But then apart from that, you know, people with, you know, the more niche, the more niche their approach, the better.
00:28:01
Speaker
That's what I see.
00:28:02
Speaker
So if there are people in Texas who are like, I'm just targeting people who have, you know, high bills in the winter.
00:28:07
Speaker
When I hear some like kind of a weird approach like that, I'm like, this guy is definitely making money.
00:28:12
Speaker
Because like that's, you know, this term, the riches are in the niches.
00:28:15
Speaker
Like that's what the kind of the app is all about.
00:28:19
Speaker
all kinds of really interesting approaches.
00:28:21
Speaker
Let me ask you, Taylor, what is your niche?
00:28:23
Speaker
I know you have a niche, actually.
00:28:24
Speaker
I don't know if you'll say it on the podcast.
00:28:28
Speaker
Well, I don't know.
00:28:29
Speaker
I probably should niche it down even more.
00:28:31
Speaker
I'd probably have more success.
00:28:33
Speaker
But I do like the Spanish speakers because I speak Spanish.
00:28:40
Speaker
But no, I would say for me...
00:28:43
Speaker
It's like, I like a lot of the, you know, condos, townhomes, stuff like that.
00:28:49
Speaker
And then I don't know, lately, it has been a lot of seniors, maybe not necessarily on purpose, but for whatever reason, I'm coming across a lot of like senior families.
00:28:57
Speaker
And but I don't know, I'd probably say, yeah, condos, townhomes, Spanish speakers, older people.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, I probably can niche it down even more, but I don't know what it is.
00:29:07
Speaker
what would you say what's your no that's a good one no i mean from what i heard of your approach knocking the condos and the townhomes people like that's that's powerful right you know they have a particular set of constraints about their roof like you know there's a kind of an slightly unconventional sale but you're like hey i'm an expert at putting solar on condos in san diego and that gives them a lot of that that i mean that'll give them a lot of peace of mind right and confidence about it going with you so i think that's powerful yeah
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:34
Speaker
And another thing you showed me, I don't know if you, I don't know if you guys do the target.
00:29:39
Speaker
Is there a filter to target like condos townhomes for solar scout?
00:29:43
Speaker
Uh, I know there's one for like a mobile homes, right?
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:46
Speaker
There's one for manufactured homes.
00:29:48
Speaker
And that was, that was like a niche that people love in Texas.
00:29:50
Speaker
They're like, because these people, oftentimes the people who live in manufactured homes, they have high electricity bills because the installation is thin.
00:29:57
Speaker
And so the home isn't very efficient.
00:29:59
Speaker
And then they have these big rectangular roofs that can fit a lot of panels.
00:30:03
Speaker
And provided that, you know, your financing partner doesn't have an issue with these manufactured homes on fixed foundations, people are selling large systems to them successfully.
00:30:11
Speaker
And so that's kind of one layer that we built just because people were like, I love selling to these manufactured home communities.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, I was experiencing.
00:30:18
Speaker
It's gotten a little more complicated with that here in California.
00:30:21
Speaker
Getting them approved and finding lenders and financers and stuff that work with them.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one.
00:30:26
Speaker
Another thing I like a lot too is just because some people see it and SolarScout at first glance could be
00:30:33
Speaker
similar to some of these other door knocking apps that are out there.
00:30:36
Speaker
But I've compared the data because just with my company, we already have access to a regular door knocking app that has the basic data, like phone numbers here and there, the names, who's on the title.
00:30:48
Speaker
And so what I do, I'll actually compare it with the data we have in our other app.
00:30:52
Speaker
And SolarScout, it's just crazy the level of accuracy that there is.
00:30:57
Speaker
Um, compared to any other app I've seen out there or any other door knocking tool, just cause like, yeah, you see which ones are renting now.
00:31:04
Speaker
So even if you weren't going to use any of that other data, it's just like saves you so much time seeing, okay, this is a renter.
00:31:12
Speaker
This is like the correct name on the title.
00:31:14
Speaker
Because just so many times I'll be out there knocking with like newer reps with their company and they'll be going to like knock the door and I'll just be checking out like, nope, skip that home, skip that home, renter.
00:31:25
Speaker
So yeah, just that stuff alone is super valuable.
00:31:31
Speaker
You know, knowing the renters and just using it like that too.
00:31:34
Speaker
That's great.
00:31:34
Speaker
That's great to hear.
00:31:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:36
Speaker
I mean, I can, I can hint at some of the stuff that we're, um, that is coming out soon.
00:31:40
Speaker
Actually, one is actually, I want to, I want to see if you know, so what's the number one reason that people go solar?
00:31:45
Speaker
Do you know?
00:31:46
Speaker
That's such an, it's such an easy question.
00:31:48
Speaker
It's so easy.
00:31:49
Speaker
It might be hard to think of.
00:31:50
Speaker
Well, I think the reason they think they're going to solar is save money.
00:31:53
Speaker
Exactly.
00:31:55
Speaker
That's a true question.
00:31:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:56
Speaker
It's not a true question.
00:31:57
Speaker
No.
00:31:58
Speaker
Number one.
00:31:58
Speaker
So we were looking at, because we look at studies of this, right?
00:32:00
Speaker
So number one is, of course, they'll go solar if it saves them money.
00:32:03
Speaker
But number two, the number two reason is,
00:32:06
Speaker
It's not like, oh, my friends went solar or I love the environment.
00:32:08
Speaker
Number two reason is actually for like resilience against power outages and like storms.
00:32:13
Speaker
And so, you know, the next thing we're doing is pulling power outage info like, hey, because you can often pinpoint which homes are losing power, which areas have lost power.
00:32:21
Speaker
And then, you know, you can go there.
00:32:23
Speaker
and say, hey, you know, that was a bad power outage last week, right?
00:32:26
Speaker
Like, okay, yeah, well, solar is, you know, one of the top reasons people go solar is to prevent that, right?
00:32:32
Speaker
Even, you know, even if nothing else happens to prevent that, those power outages is worth a lot.
00:32:37
Speaker
So that's kind of the next one of the next things we're working on.
00:32:40
Speaker
Is that right?
00:32:41
Speaker
Some of this, because I know some markets, it's a little bit easier to pull data than others on certain things.
00:32:46
Speaker
Like you were telling me, for example, I think you said that the data in Texas with what they're using is a lot more accurate than a place like California.
00:32:57
Speaker
So do you find a lot of like variants in that where like you have more specific data in one market or one state versus another state or it's all?
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
00:33:06
Speaker
So I mean, that's right.
00:33:08
Speaker
The data that different utilities and like grid operators make public is different in
00:33:13
Speaker
different markets.
00:33:14
Speaker
And so, you know, sometimes you'll have a lot of really detailed data that's made public, and then you can, we can run our machine learning algorithm on it, and then get really accurate inferences.
00:33:22
Speaker
Sometimes the data is a little bit less granular.
00:33:26
Speaker
So the, you know, the, it's more of like a ballpark estimate.
00:33:31
Speaker
But then, you know, the data we like the most are stuff that you can be totally exact about, like,
00:33:35
Speaker
you know, this person definitely responded to a solar ad or definitely moved in or definitely tried to go solar.
00:33:40
Speaker
Most of the data we do is not a guess.
00:33:42
Speaker
It's like the literal data, kind of data from the source itself.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's fire.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
And so another thing.
00:33:52
Speaker
So how many because I know you're all over the country, but you guys put a cap on like how many people per market because I know some people they might be listening to this and be like, OK, well, I want to use it in, say, San Diego, for example, or I want to use it here.
Overcoming Market Challenges with SolarScout
00:34:08
Speaker
But what if there's already like 10 other companies using it?
00:34:11
Speaker
So what do you, what's, what's your solution for that?
00:34:14
Speaker
Do you guys put on, do you guys let people know, Hey, we've already got this many users in this market or is it just kind of free for all?
00:34:21
Speaker
Do you guys do anything about that?
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's such a good question and we get it all the time.
00:34:25
Speaker
I think people in solar are very competitive and very aware of the competition, which is good.
00:34:29
Speaker
And that's been obviously getting a leg up over the competition as part of what people come to us for.
00:34:34
Speaker
One thing I will say is I've never heard a team getting on board in a market and being like, oh, these expired permits or these movements have all been hit up by other SolarScout users already.
00:34:45
Speaker
I think it's just not saturated enough and these markets are so big that it's never been an issue.
00:34:50
Speaker
The other way to think about it is like, if you're in San Diego and you want to sell to new movements, or you want to sell to, you know, people have tried to go solar, there's no like other data source.
00:34:58
Speaker
This is like the data source.
00:34:59
Speaker
And so in some sense, it doesn't matter how many people are looking at it, like it's still going to be an advantage.
00:35:04
Speaker
But but you know, the truth at the end of the day is,
00:35:08
Speaker
Most people do quite well with it, but there are people who don't necessarily apply themselves.
00:35:13
Speaker
And it's not like everybody is going crazy on the data all the time.
00:35:17
Speaker
It's like the best teams are going crazy on it.
00:35:20
Speaker
But you won't find this saturation effect, at least not at this point.
00:35:23
Speaker
I agree.
00:35:24
Speaker
Yeah, there's like San Diego where I'm at.
00:35:26
Speaker
It's just, you know, you could spend.
00:35:29
Speaker
I feel like it'd take me like 10 years to get to, you know, all the people I want to see with this.
00:35:34
Speaker
There's like so many different data points.
00:35:37
Speaker
And especially if people are like targeting different things, because, you know, you probably get some users that they're going to target, maybe the permits, some users, maybe they're targeting the new move ins.
00:35:48
Speaker
So between that, yeah, I imagine it'd be.
00:35:51
Speaker
pretty tough to like you know overwhelm a market or have a lot of people using it so um yeah a lot of it refreshes too right like if your strategy is i'm gonna knock the neighbors of people who are going solar recently like it's my that can be your whole strategy well obviously every month that data is changing and then same with new movements every month you know new permits are expiring new people are moving in so a lot of it refreshes that's another way to think about it
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:36:18
Speaker
Cool.
00:36:18
Speaker
Well, as we start wrapping up here, Shadi, like I know I think in the beginning, correct me if I'm wrong, but as mostly just you had team accounts.
00:36:29
Speaker
I think now you guys have some options for just like individual reps that want to use SolarScout.
00:36:35
Speaker
And so for those that are running teams that we were trying to get their whole team onboarded on this, what have you seen that's most effective to like get whole teams using it?
00:36:45
Speaker
Because we just had a call the other week and I think you asked me, hey, how much success have you seen with your team?
00:36:53
Speaker
And I told you, well, a lot of our team hasn't even used it.
00:36:56
Speaker
And a lot of people haven't logged on.
00:36:58
Speaker
And a lot of that is my fault because I haven't like, you know, had some login issues and haven't trained them a ton.
00:37:05
Speaker
So I guess this is kind of a question for me.
00:37:07
Speaker
And you already shared a few things with me.
00:37:09
Speaker
But if someone wants to sign their team up, what would you say is like, how do you get people to actually use it?
00:37:13
Speaker
And I don't know, get them to have success with it if you're trying to roll it out for a whole team.
00:37:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question.
00:37:23
Speaker
You know, I hear this sometimes from managers, which is like, oh, if I buy a piece of software for my guys, like getting them to use it as a whole nother animal.
00:37:32
Speaker
And I think it just comes down to management, right?
00:37:34
Speaker
Like why?
00:37:34
Speaker
And like, if this thing is going to make your guys twice as much money, they naturally should use it.
00:37:41
Speaker
However,
00:37:43
Speaker
uh, you probably have to organize them and get them to sit down in a meeting.
00:37:47
Speaker
Uh, they can join our trainings right on, on Wednesdays and Fridays.
00:37:51
Speaker
And then hear from our other users on like, you know, people who are systematically doing these strategies, how much more are they producing?
00:37:57
Speaker
There's just some level where it needs to be introduced to them kind of formally.
00:38:01
Speaker
So they get a sense of like, Oh, this is what this thing is.
00:38:04
Speaker
Um, it's not some alternate door knocking tool, but like it'll literally show me who to knock and I can generate twice as much, twice as many appointments.
00:38:11
Speaker
Um,
00:38:12
Speaker
So given that they have that introduction and that training, like they join one of our training calls and ask questions, pretty much you can't pry it out of their hands after that.
00:38:22
Speaker
If they never get onboarded though, and they're like, oh, I heard about this thing, there's this login.
00:38:27
Speaker
If they don't know what it is, they probably won't log it.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:32
Speaker
And I think especially where guys are getting it because I think anyone paying for a tool is going to use it.
00:38:38
Speaker
At least that's how I am.
00:38:40
Speaker
If I'm like putting money into it, I'm way more likely to use it.
00:38:43
Speaker
That's right.
00:38:44
Speaker
That's right.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:38:45
Speaker
They have to pay as well.
00:38:46
Speaker
Having them pay helps so much.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:38:49
Speaker
So that's what I'm thinking.
00:38:50
Speaker
It's like, if you're giving it to your guys, have some sort of like, because it's the same thing.
00:38:54
Speaker
I'm sure you've heard of people like giving their team leads and they don't knock doors and they're like, oh, these leads suck.
00:39:00
Speaker
I'm not having success.
00:39:02
Speaker
And it's just like, they get lazy.
00:39:04
Speaker
So I think a similar thing can happen with tools like this.
00:39:07
Speaker
If guys are just getting it and there's no money on the line for them, they're just like, hey, go out and use it.
00:39:12
Speaker
Yeah, some guys take advantage of it and...
00:39:16
Speaker
I don't know, maybe they don't use it or are lazy with it.
00:39:19
Speaker
So I think it's figuring out either have them put money on the line or just if they're not actually using it consistently, take away their logins, stuff like that.
00:39:28
Speaker
Because yeah, I think anything I've seen, especially running teams, guys need to have like their money where their mouth is.
00:39:35
Speaker
Totally.
00:39:38
Speaker
I guess punishment for not using it.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah, I see people who pay.
00:39:42
Speaker
I mean, anyone who actually sits down and looks at it, they're like, oh, yeah, I would 100% pay for this.
00:39:46
Speaker
And they do, right?
00:39:47
Speaker
Oftentimes, sometimes teams will charge their people with an adder to use it.
00:39:53
Speaker
And then we have whole teams that are happily paying like a...
00:39:56
Speaker
15 cent adder on their deals, like seven to 15 cent adder on their deals split between the closer and the setter just to use solar scout.
00:40:03
Speaker
And, um, and they're happy with it.
00:40:05
Speaker
They're like, yeah, this produces a lot and it's worth it.
00:40:08
Speaker
Um, but it also changes the psychology.
00:40:09
Speaker
It's like, oh yeah, I, this is part of an investment and I, I need to make the most of it.
00:40:14
Speaker
Um, so there's, there's that aspect of it.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's so good.
00:40:19
Speaker
That's good.
00:40:20
Speaker
Cool.
00:40:20
Speaker
Well, I hope whoever's listening to this, whether you're using Solar Scout or not, I think the main thing for me, Shadi, it's just been like, you know, create a system around knocking doors and don't just...
00:40:32
Speaker
I go out sporadically because I think so many guys, they just get maybe burned out or like it's just like the same thing over and over and over.
00:40:41
Speaker
But for me, Solar Scout, it just kind of kept it more fresh because I'm like, OK, I can go target these people.
00:40:48
Speaker
And maybe I switched too fast.
00:40:50
Speaker
But for me, sometimes like, okay, I'm getting bored with this strategy and I'm going to go try out this strategy.
00:40:55
Speaker
And just kind of makes it more exciting for me that I know that I can have all these different layers and just kind of geek out on out there and have access to.
00:41:03
Speaker
So hopefully whoever's listening to this, if you haven't done a demo with these guys, I would definitely recommend going and doing a demo because even if you don't end up using SolarScout, I think it'll just like open your mind to, you know, possibilities.
00:41:16
Speaker
And like we were talking about before, you can, to a certain degree, you can go find a lot of this data.
00:41:21
Speaker
It's definitely going to be more of a long process.
00:41:25
Speaker
And
00:41:27
Speaker
a pain in the butt to get all these things together.
00:41:29
Speaker
That's what's, that's the beauty of solar scouts.
00:41:31
Speaker
You have all simple safety, tons of time, just get it all in one place.
00:41:35
Speaker
But guys can definitely go out and get a lot of this data and dig through stuff to get it themselves.
00:41:41
Speaker
But yeah, last, last question or two, Shadi, like solar, it's pretty niche industry.
00:41:47
Speaker
And I know we said riches are in the niches, but yeah,
00:41:51
Speaker
Like, I wonder, do you guys have plans to roll this out to other like door-to-door industries, like past alarms or yeah, what's like the future for SolarScout?
Expanding Horizons: SolarScout's Future Plans
00:42:00
Speaker
What's your future plans?
00:42:02
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:42:03
Speaker
We're actually already expanding to roofing.
00:42:05
Speaker
It's a recent development, but it turns out with roofing, it's even...
00:42:09
Speaker
It's kind of even more of a slam dunk.
00:42:11
Speaker
So, you know, for one example of what we do in roofing, we pull all the roofing permit data of like, let's say Davis, California, all the way back to 1990.
00:42:20
Speaker
And so from there, you can see who had their last roof replacement like 30 years ago.
00:42:25
Speaker
And you know that roofs only last 30 years.
00:42:27
Speaker
So you can drag the slider down, hone in on all the super old roofs that need replacement.
00:42:32
Speaker
And it's not a question of if, but when.
00:42:35
Speaker
These people have to replace their roofs.
00:42:37
Speaker
So you can laser in on those.
00:42:38
Speaker
So it's kind of extending the permit data idea to other industries.
00:42:42
Speaker
So roofing is one, HVAC is another, right?
00:42:44
Speaker
Seeing super old HVAC systems and replacing those.
00:42:47
Speaker
But also what's interesting is that there is crossover.
00:42:50
Speaker
Like if you want to talk about niches, right?
00:42:52
Speaker
You can use roofing permit data to figure out who's recently replaced their roofs.
00:42:56
Speaker
And then if you're selling solar, you can go to them and say, well, you just got your roof replaced.
00:43:00
Speaker
That means for the past five years, you weren't a solar candidate because your roof was too old.
00:43:05
Speaker
And now you're a solar candidate.
00:43:06
Speaker
So that's like a really good niche that actually has just opened up because we started expanding to roofing.
00:43:11
Speaker
So yeah, I think we're doing roofing and HVAC next.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:14
Speaker
Wow.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
I think I did see that you guys posted about that.
00:43:17
Speaker
The Rupert.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:20
Speaker
That's genius.
00:43:20
Speaker
That's really good.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:21
Speaker
That's cool.
00:43:23
Speaker
What about, do you guys have, well, I guess maybe that'd be new move-ins, but I'm just, it's just going off my head, like old people that, because a common objection that I'm getting with all of these old people is like, oh, I don't want to go solar because I'm going to be dead in the next five years.
00:43:37
Speaker
And it's kind of a grim objection that we get a lot with older people.
00:43:42
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:43:42
Speaker
Do you think that would just fall in like the new move ins or like is it possible to see people that have just passed away or something?
00:43:50
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:43:51
Speaker
I've never even thought about that.
00:43:52
Speaker
I don't know what the good thing about people recently passed away.
00:43:55
Speaker
And you can definitely see super old people because their ages come through.
00:43:59
Speaker
But in terms of other niches, like other niches that we're like brainstorming about, like there are some that we already just show, but we haven't talked about yet, which are like electric vehicle owners.
00:44:08
Speaker
Right.
00:44:08
Speaker
We show those.
00:44:09
Speaker
The stats show that they're four times more likely.
00:44:11
Speaker
to actually buy solar because they can charge their car with with the solar panel so it makes a lot more sense are there other uh niches what about like pools people with pools but don't have solar is there we actually have that i forgot yeah we do have that we use pool permit data right when people dig like dig pools in their backyards and stick pools in right they pull permits to do that so we can figure out who those people are and we do show those to you so you'll see hey this guy just got a pool like last year
00:44:39
Speaker
you know, their energy bill is spiking because they have, they have a pool.
00:44:41
Speaker
I think another interesting one, and this is kind of niche, but we haven't even done it yet, but it's people who do, who are installing ADUs, right?
00:44:49
Speaker
Like additional dwelling units.
00:44:51
Speaker
You're actually required in California to get solar if you get an ADU.
00:44:55
Speaker
And then that comes through the permit history.
00:44:57
Speaker
So these are all like all niche ways to get solar, you know, to find solar leads and, and it totally works, right?
00:45:03
Speaker
People, people succeed with this all the time.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's fire.
00:45:08
Speaker
Can you target people that maybe they're not like getting a new pool, but they've had a pool and they just don't have solar yet?
00:45:14
Speaker
Is there a filter to just target those people that have pools, but no solar?
00:45:17
Speaker
You can actually filter it down.
00:45:19
Speaker
Like, you know, look at people who've had pools for three years and then use the aerial imagery to find those people who just don't have solar yet.
00:45:26
Speaker
I think that's one.
00:45:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:28
Speaker
That's one way to do it.
00:45:29
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:29
Speaker
So you'd have to kind of do it roundabout.
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's good though.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:35
Speaker
Yeah, good stuff.
00:45:36
Speaker
Well, I know we'd be here all day, Shadi, but possibilities are endless.
00:45:40
Speaker
So we'll be respectful of your time.
00:45:44
Speaker
And if people want to hear more, definitely go book a demo.
00:45:47
Speaker
So they've probably heard some of our little call to actions here in the podcast.
00:45:54
Speaker
But in case they haven't, what's the best way to book a demo and connect more with you guys, Shadi?
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:46:00
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app and then click book a demo and then you'll meet with someone on our sales team or sometimes you meet with me.
00:46:08
Speaker
But whether you end up buying or not, once you've booked a demo through us, you start to get invited to our trainings.
00:46:14
Speaker
And there we tell you about all the cutting edge stuff we're building.
00:46:18
Speaker
We interact with you directly.
00:46:19
Speaker
We can talk about all kinds of different approaches.
00:46:22
Speaker
And then we also provide scripts of like, hey, you know, once you're in front of this homeowner who's a new move in, what do you say to them?
00:46:28
Speaker
And then you could just be part of the community that way as well.
00:46:32
Speaker
That's great.
00:46:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:34
Speaker
So love it.
00:46:35
Speaker
And I think that's a great idea doing that because even if even if you're not going to use SolarScout or maybe it's out of the budget or whatever right now, like how valuable is it to have those scripts and you could start just experimenting yourself, right?
00:46:49
Speaker
You could get some of those new move in scripts, go start targeting, you know, just new move ins yourself.
00:46:56
Speaker
So love that.
00:46:57
Speaker
So, Shadi, thanks again for coming on the podcast.
00:47:00
Speaker
We can't wait to see what's next.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like every other week it's like Christmas morning or something, waiting to see what new features rolled out.
00:47:09
Speaker
Thanks for saying that.
00:47:11
Speaker
That's nice.
00:47:12
Speaker
Yeah, you guys are rolling out so many features.
00:47:14
Speaker
It's really cool.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah, it makes it really exciting to follow these guys on Facebook and everything.
00:47:19
Speaker
So go shoot him a follow and anyone listening, go shoot Shadi a comment or a DM.
00:47:26
Speaker
Let him know you appreciate him coming on the show.
00:47:28
Speaker
And last question, Shadi.
00:47:30
Speaker
If people, I guess speaking outside of SolarScout for a minute,
00:47:36
Speaker
Maybe what are some things you've seen on like a mindset level or you're obviously a successful entrepreneur yourself?
Final Thoughts and Advice for Entrepreneurs
00:47:43
Speaker
What are some just, I guess, general things that you've seen maybe separate like top level sales reps, top level entrepreneurs from guys that are struggling and not having as much success?
00:47:53
Speaker
Just to wrap up the podcast here, what would you say?
00:47:55
Speaker
Oh, that's great.
00:47:56
Speaker
um well uh i wonder what what is there new to say on this topic i mean i can definitely repeat some things that work for me and that i know work for a lot of people the first one is focus right so um you know we have like at solar scout right or just in my life i've had the opportunity to like you know you can do a bunch of different stuff for the data like sell the data directly do this do that we're like no we're just going to build this one thing in this software for this for door-to-door people and virtual door knocking people
00:48:22
Speaker
So focusing on that has helped this thing succeed.
00:48:24
Speaker
Right.
00:48:24
Speaker
So in general, focus is huge.
00:48:28
Speaker
I meet, I meet a number of people in solar who are like doing a bunch of things at once.
00:48:31
Speaker
They're like, yeah, I like, I did real estate.
00:48:32
Speaker
I do real estate.
00:48:33
Speaker
And I also do this.
00:48:34
Speaker
And so there's my part-time thing.
00:48:35
Speaker
And immediately that's kind of a red flag to me.
00:48:37
Speaker
It's like, you know, the people who do the best with solar scout or just the best in general, they're like focused on solar 100%.
00:48:45
Speaker
So I think focus, if I have to pick one thing, that's the number one thing.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:49
Speaker
Love it.
00:48:50
Speaker
Love it.
00:48:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:51
Speaker
Focus.
00:48:51
Speaker
So important.
00:48:52
Speaker
And yeah, I think you've probably seen it.
00:48:55
Speaker
So many guys in solar have ADD.
00:48:56
Speaker
They're onto the next thing.
00:48:58
Speaker
They're onto real estate.
00:48:59
Speaker
They're trying to, yeah.
00:49:01
Speaker
Matter of fact, talked to one of our reps just last week.
00:49:03
Speaker
She was like, oh, I found this new way we can save people on their gas bill too.
00:49:08
Speaker
And then she spent like...
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah, I spent like three weeks trying to do that and ended up like not working out, didn't make a dime doing it.
00:49:17
Speaker
I'm like, you just got to put your head down, just, you know, solar works.
00:49:20
Speaker
So why not just go on in that?
00:49:22
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's so important.
00:49:24
Speaker
And I think that a lot of people struggle with and, you know, distractions come up.
00:49:29
Speaker
So thanks for bringing that up.
00:49:32
Speaker
So Shadi, thanks for coming on the show.
00:49:34
Speaker
I'm sure we'll have you on in the future to talk about more features.
00:49:37
Speaker
But in the meantime, guys, go give them a follow.
00:49:39
Speaker
And thanks again for your support of the show, Shadi.
00:49:42
Speaker
And let us know how we can continue to support you.
00:49:44
Speaker
But appreciate you.
00:49:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:46
Speaker
Well, thanks so much.
00:49:47
Speaker
Thanks so much, Taylor.
00:49:47
Speaker
And thanks for doing what you do, encouraging everybody in solar.
00:49:50
Speaker
I think it's a really wonderful thing you're doing.
00:49:53
Speaker
So keep it up.
00:49:54
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:49:56
Speaker
Of course, brother.
00:49:56
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:49:58
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:49:59
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:50:01
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:50:12
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:50:19
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:50:22
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:50:26
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solrepreneur.
00:50:40
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:50:49
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:50:50
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:50:54
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:50:59
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:51:02
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:51:03
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:51:05
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:51:11
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:51:12
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.