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 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 solopreneur, you might ask?
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.
Speaker: All right, what's going on?
Speaker: We are here in the studio with the one, the only, Mr. Scott Hyde.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the podcast with us today, Scott.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Happy to be here.
Speaker: Yeah, and I'm excited.
Speaker: We've been planning this for a little while now.
Speaker: It's taking a little bit to get our schedules aligned.
Speaker: But Scott, if you don't know him, this guy is doing incredible things.
Speaker: He is running Sunobi, which is, in my opinion, probably the best solar design software.
Speaker: It changed the game for me.
Speaker: I'm just being able to do same-day accounts, sign people, get a design right off the bat.
Speaker: And it's crazy because you think back like, I don't know, 10 years ago, Scott, like people were waiting days for designs and there's no way you're getting it.
Speaker: And you guys changed all this.
Speaker: So I'm excited to hear how that idea formed.
Speaker: And also you're running Coda Energy, Coda Energy, right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Coda Energy Group.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Coda Energy Group.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So, yeah, we're going to be diving into all that.
Speaker: And you're CEO of both Sonobi and CODA?
Speaker: CEO of Sonobi and CRO of CODA.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Pretty legit titles.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: I'm excited to jump into it here in the background.
Speaker: And, yeah, we'll see where this goes.
Speaker: And I know you've got experience just pretty much every aspect of solar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: So, yeah, do you want to give us kind of the background, Scott, of your solar journey, how long you've been in this industry and all that?
Speaker: Yeah, so 2013, 2014, I was working for Protection One, which at that time was a division really of Pinnacle.
Speaker: So I came from the Pinnacle Tree.
Speaker: All those door-to-door guys who were wondering what side of the fence he came on, I...
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I was on the pinnacle side and I was living in Seattle.
Speaker: I was never the guy to go do summer sales, mainly because I had kids.
Speaker: I didn't really want to go to some random luck of the draw city.
Speaker: So I was just stayed put and worked year round selling alarms.
Speaker: And then one day, you know, my regional manager came and said, Hey, do you know that they're, they're, they're thinking about doing solar in San Diego?
Speaker: And I was like, what's solar?
Speaker: And, but I was like, San Diego sounds great.
Speaker: I just was tired of being rained on all the time.
Speaker: So we went down to San Diego and I was one of the first 10 guys to start a company called bright energy, which was a protection one's initial entrance into the market.
Speaker: Then they later got purchased.
Speaker: in a in a roll up there with ADT and so bright energy kind of fell apart I well fell apart probably not the right word but bright energy definitely was purchased in that in that roll up with ADT but they disbanded the solar portion ironically you know years later just now about a year ago you know ADT bought SunPro and now they're back in in the same management group who was in charge of that is now in charge of SunPro which is interesting so
Speaker: So from there, I, you know, I, I never left California.
Speaker: Once I got down here, I moved my family down and opened a few offices for bright energy.
Speaker: We were selling sun Edison leases at the time is the only thing we could sell.
Speaker: And since you brought up like same day designs and proposals back then, um, we would have to sell a site survey before we could get a design.
Speaker: So we'd go to the house and we'd say,
Speaker: Hey, you know, we want to get you going for solar, but in order to get an accurate proposal, we need to do a site survey on your roof.
Speaker: We'd have to get them to sign off on this thing that essentially we do roof penetrations during the site survey.
Speaker: It was nuts.
Speaker: So we get the site survey done and then we'd schedule an appointment for the next week because the site survey have to come back.
Speaker: You know, they do the site survey and they have to come back and do a design proposal for us.
Speaker: And, you know, we sold same day site surveys.
Speaker: Which is a really kind of an interesting approach where we had all these fans just waiting around for us to go slam site surveys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then we'd go back and sell these leases.
Speaker: And that was the beginning.
Speaker: And then when that kind of fell apart and I was looking for a new place, I interviewed with a handful of companies, ended up with...
Speaker: uh, Vision Solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Who later became ION and I was the director of sales for all of California for there.
Speaker: And, um, I worked with a couple of really great people, Christian Rohde and Jeremy call were guys I was working with.
Speaker: They were fantastic.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: And they left California.
Speaker: And when they left, I had this decision to either follow them somewhere else and go to a new market, uproot my family again, and I just didn't wanna do that.
Speaker: Or I had to find something else.
Speaker: And so I started a dealer program.
Speaker: I was a sales org.
Speaker: And that's how CODA began.
Speaker: So it was, you know, we didn't start it because it was just this itch that we had to go create our own business.
Speaker: We started because we had to, it was out of necessity.
Speaker: More than anything else.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So when, how long ago was that?
Speaker: You started Kona?
Speaker: 2018.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Started.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And again, we were just a sales org to begin with.
Speaker: We were, we were sending deals all over California to lots of different EPCs.
Speaker: And at the time we were kind of just testing everybody out to find out who was good and who wasn't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we learned a lot of things about what kind of EPCs we wanted to partner with.
Speaker: And obviously that led to what kind of EPC we want to create our own.
Speaker: But at the time we didn't necessarily know that it wasn't necessarily our plan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, um, at one point we represented something like 70, 80% of the volume for a company called ESP energy service partners.
Speaker: And, um, when we, we went to, well, what's now called RE plus, but we went to, it was, um, I don't know why I'm spaced the name of it now, but now it's called RE plus.
Speaker: And we went to the show in 2017, I guess.
Speaker: And, uh, we had dinner with Hayes Barnard.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: It was in Salt Lake and we were having dinner and we were just going over kind of the way the industry was structured.
Speaker: And I remember he and I were having this kind of, what at the time felt like a really deep intellectual conversation.
Speaker: I'm sure it was just like surface level stuff for Hayes.
Speaker: But for me, it was like, yeah, I'm getting into the deep stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But we were talking about all, you know, the way the industry was going to go and how people would be successful, how it was going to change.
Speaker: And we realized in that conversation that, you know, for us, it made more sense for us to be an EPC, a fully integrated company.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so we made a decision that night that we were going to go pursue being an EPC.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So we announced it to, uh, to ESP.
Speaker: That's what we were going to do.
Speaker: And, uh, that breakup was challenging.
Speaker: Damn it.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then, you know, in 2020 is when we first started doing installs.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I don't know if anyone remembers what happened in 2020, but.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tough time to start.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the best part was we started in the Bay Area, which was...
Speaker: Not like the most profitable center.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And man, it was brutal.
Speaker: I mean, you know, COVID started right away and we were trying to make it work in the middle of that.
Speaker: So to kind of come out of 2020 and start an EPC that same time, it really tested a lot of what we believed we knew and found out how much we just didn't know.
Speaker: And it was, it was a challenge, but I'm really grateful for that because it helped us kind of tighten our belt a little bit and
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: How come you started in the Bay Area instead of down here in San Diego?
Speaker: We had a really, really powerful sales team up there that was doing a lot of volume for us.
Speaker: And so we felt like, you know, we wanted to be in a place where we had consistent installs.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And we just had a really strong team there.
Speaker: And, you know, I wish that we'd had stronger teams on their markets.
Speaker: You know, in hindsight, it would have been great if we had a strong team in Dallas or something, you know, that just has massive system sizes and all the economics seem to be better.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: So, yeah, do you have, well, were they still a strong sales team, like start of COVID?
Speaker: Were they still going strong?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we had, you know, obviously we had to kind of change our tactics because you weren't, you know, California had the strictest laws or whatever around measures, I should say, around because they certainly weren't laws, but.
Speaker: measures around COVID.
Speaker: So a lot of our guys had to transition over to telesales type of things.
Speaker: And that was harder because our guys weren't used to doing that.
Speaker: We found success.
Speaker: And, you know, I think that like anything, once you find someone who does something that no one else has done yet, at least in your own company,
Speaker: All of a sudden, everyone's like, oh, I can do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's the Roger Maris four-minute mile kind of effect.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, that's cool.
Speaker: And, yeah, we heard, you know, Hayes Barnard talk at SolarCon, too, just barely.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, he has a visionary.
Speaker: Pretty crazy stuff he gets into.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I'm curious, so what did he tell us?
Speaker: Was it something that specifically he said that's like, oh, this is something like ClickDrag.
Speaker: Okay, I'm going to start it based off something he said.
Speaker: Are we already kind of leaning towards doing that before?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: I mean, we, you know, for us, it was more about what our long-term goals were as a company.
Speaker: And we wanted to create generational wealth and a company that we could have, if they so chose, our own kids could be involved in.
Speaker: And that it's not impossible to do with the sales org, but there's less intrinsic value in an organization that's just based on sales because it's really just a band of merry mercenaries together.
Speaker: And if you create a vertically integrated company, it allows you to have greater value.
Speaker: as a whole.
Speaker: So, you know, if we wanted to create more opportunities, more jobs, more, you know, just real value in a company, you needed something more than sales.
Speaker: And so that's, he wasn't saying to us, Hey, go be an EPC.
Speaker: We were just talking about when you view the industry,
Speaker: You know, who has the greatest impact on the industry?
Speaker: How does that happen?
Speaker: And we talked about how there's really four different kinds of key components in solar.
Speaker: There's the finance guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's the distribution on the other side.
Speaker: And then you have sales and install.
Speaker: And anytime any one of those four becomes vertically integrated, the kind of leverage and power they create to affect change, the industry grows.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you're a sales org, your ability to affect change in an industry as a whole is limited in your size.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, you look at these sales orgs that have the greatest influence and they're the largest, right?
Speaker: Like legacy certainly has an opportunity to create, before they were an EPC, they, you know, they could dictate a lot of moves and had power in the industry because of their sheer size.
Speaker: Same with Vivint Energy, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So then you look at like EPCs that are large.
Speaker: You know, you look at a Freedom or a Titan and some of those companies, they're large enough that they're just the wake behind them, the decisions they make and the ripples that those decisions create affects quite a bit of change in the industry.
Speaker: And they can really dictate where the industry kind of goes to an extent.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I remember watching Titan, you know, have large panel manufacturers white label their panels for Titan.
Speaker: That's a, you know, that's, that's someone who's thrown their weight around in a, in a pretty interesting way.
Speaker: So when we look at that and we're like, how do we actually affect change?
Speaker: You know, you have more ability to do that.
Speaker: The more things you control.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so vertical integration was and is a choice that we make.
Speaker: And then when you look at those, if those are like the four legs of a stool, for an example, you know,
Speaker: When we started looking at the things from an overall industry perspective, Hayes was like, you know, don't worry about the software piece.
Speaker: That's kind of in the middle that connects everything.
Speaker: Just let other people kind of figure that out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think we listened to every single thing he told us to do with the exception of that one.
Speaker: Yeah, I was going to say.
Speaker: That's the, that's the only one that we were like, I think we're going to do this.
Speaker: Cause we'd already made plans to do Sinobi and we're already starting.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But you know, you're listening to someone like Hayes and you have to, you know, you take everything he says with a lot of weight.
Speaker: And so to discard something like that, we had to feel pretty confident about what we were doing, but at the same time it definitely caused us to pause and go, are we doing the right thing?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: No, that's awesome.
Speaker: Got to go against the green sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that's interesting.
Speaker: And it's true.
Speaker: Like I just had Doug Robinson, you know, CEO legacy on the podcast too.
Speaker: And he was just telling me some of those same things.
Speaker: It's like when legacy does something, if they want something, they can go directly like a Sunnova or Gridleap and say, Hey, I want this changed.
Speaker: And they're going to do it because they're so big.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're so big.
Speaker: Like the change where like you smaller dealers, you never get that, you know, attention and everything.
Speaker: So, yeah, it is cool to see, you know, just the, I guess, more control you have, more power you have when you do go to that point.
Speaker: So it sounds like it's like you guys were trying to do that, have that similar effect, but by kind of like doing your own installs and everything and not trying to like beat a legacy or something like that.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, we just more things to have more control over what you guys are doing.
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think we just really felt the need to control our own destiny more than anything else.
Speaker: And you can be really, really good at sales.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And once it's closed, you hand it off to an installer and you hope that they take care of it and you get a referral.
Speaker: Because when we start analyzing this business, you know, what makes this business somewhat challenging from like an outside investment standpoint or a banking standpoint, it's that there isn't any reoccurring revenue.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's all transactional based.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And because of that, you know, every day you wake up as a sales rep and you start at zero.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like you wake up and you've got to go hunt that day to win.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And there's some really, really powerful and great things about that that affect what kind of salesman you are.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So on the same thread of legacy and some of those guys, like take a guy like Ashton Buswell, who, you know, that dude can close 20 deals in a day.
Speaker: It seems like because he, you know, but he's, he's mastered this ability to go out and close deals and start from zero every day and still win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the, and, and there's more guys like Ashton out there.
Speaker: I'm not suggesting that, but since we're in the legacy vein, I brought them up, but, um, without, without reoccurring revenue, it, you know, this business becomes a little bit more challenging in, in all the financial ways.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so when you're a sales sales engine or a sales rep and you're creating new jobs from nothing, your best chance at creating what this closest you can get to recurring revenue is called referrals.
Speaker: And once you hand that over to an installer and you're hoping that they take as much care of your customer as you care about them so that you get referrals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And if they don't, you know, starting from scratch every day is harder than starting from scratch with the potential referrals that are on your plate.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: We felt like if we could control that more than handing it off to someone else, then we had a better chance of creating the closest thing we'd get to to reoccurring revenue.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: No, it's so true.
Speaker: Like I'm dealing, unfortunately, with a customer.
Speaker: I had a little referral chain going.
Speaker: It was like the guy's brother or something gotten like four referrals from this one guy.
Speaker: But then now his brother is having a bad experience with the EPC we use and leaving names out of it.
Speaker: It wasn't code.
Speaker: I don't worry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: but I had a bad experience and so now that referral chain is going to stop because he like he's gone and telling his brother that he had a good experience so now his brother doesn't want to refer anymore all the people he was thinking of referring it stops at that so yeah I think it's so important and um that's what's being working like under a dealer for the past three four years now that I've been doing um sometimes you don't have as much control on the process and just like the communication maybe we can talk a little bit about that too but just like
Speaker: I think it goes both ways.
Speaker: Sometimes, you know, us as cell drops, we're setting unrealistic expectations.
Speaker: We're not saying the right things are going to happen with the EPC.
Speaker: And then, you know, sometimes there's issues to do with the EPC.
Speaker: So for you guys, I guess shifting gears a little bit, like what are some ways you guys, I guess, differentiate yourself and try to solve some of those issues of working with the
Speaker: so many different dealers communicating better and not just being another EPC where it's like pointing fingers and having different expectations.
Speaker: How do you like manage all that?
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's, that's obviously an important question and one that I think every dealer ends up asking at some point, right?
Speaker: Like what makes you different?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, you know, our, our ethos at Coda has always been to create the best rep and customer experience on the planet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so all of our decisions are based on that kind of guiding principle.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what does that look like for a rep to have the best customer experience?
Speaker: When we first started, we genuinely took the approach of if I was selling this to my grandma, what would I want to give her?
Speaker: And so from a product standpoint, we have made traditionally what has been an upgraded product as our standard.
Speaker: And so where we feel like most companies are saying, yeah, you can have that panel or you can have that inverter.
Speaker: It's usually an upgrade for us.
Speaker: It's the standard panel.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So from, you know, product wise, we want to make sure that we would give the very best we could get to our grandma and we'd give it to everybody.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: From a, then the next thing about that we feel like is important about the product itself or the project is to recognize this as a construction project.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which means there's a really good chance something's going to go wrong.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No one, I mean, I grew up in construction and I don't remember a single construction project that went perfect.
Speaker: there's always something that goes wrong.
Speaker: Sometimes it's really minor.
Speaker: It's not a big deal, but it's very rare.
Speaker: So we start looking at, well, how do you prepare someone for that?
Speaker: And how do you make sure that someone's taken care of?
Speaker: And so if you set proper expectations with a customer at the beginning, and so this goes back to how do we educate customers at the front end?
Speaker: And then how do we manage those as we go forward?
Speaker: But the way the communication is, is not that you're not going to have a problem, Mr. And Mrs. Customer.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: There's a strong likelihood that something's going to happen.
Speaker: We don't know what it's going to be.
Speaker: But the greatest indication of a responsive and careful company with you is how well they respond and react to those problems.
Speaker: We will always take care of them.
Speaker: We'll always make sure that you are treated north of fair and that we make things right if they go wrong.
Speaker: So then from a communication standpoint, it's really, really important that customers are kept in the loop.
Speaker: They know what's going on and that reps are kept in the loop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so everything that we've built from a tech platform allows some really, really good communication, really good integration.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: you know, Koda acts really as the sandbox for Sinobi.
Speaker: And so the things that we roll out with Sinobi have first kind of been battle tested to an extent inside of Koda.
Speaker: And so we find out things that we think are good ideas, maybe just really aren't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And other things that we think are good ideas turn out to be great ideas.
Speaker: And we get to test those inside there.
Speaker: So like one of the things that we have, they'll be coming out probably in a year or so with Sinobi is something that we internally call, I'll probably get in trouble if Titus ever hears this, but it's,
Speaker: We call it Project Kronos, but it's also, you know, just a part of what is going to be Synobi Ops.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So Project Kronos, you know, essentially is, allows, you know, the operation side as well as the customers to be able to see milestone statuses as they progress through in a very visually stimulating way, right?
Speaker: So I'm not going to give too much of that away, but it's...
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's pretty amazing.
Speaker: But the idea is that, you know, you should be able to, as a rep, to be able to log into Sonobi and see in real time where your project is and to communicate in real time to a project manager or whoever's responsible for the milestone at hand.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Instantly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And instead of sending emails or text messages and like that, you should be able to do it inside of Sonobi.
Speaker: So you can do that currently with Coda.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So, you know, here's an interesting thing that happens that I think a lot of times sales reps don't know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's, it's not, it has nothing to do with intelligence.
Speaker: It's just, they're not on that side of the fence.
Speaker: So the inexperienced part is hard to understand if you're not living it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We, you know, we expect project managers to move jobs forward to take, you know, you sell, you sell a job and it gets project acceptance and then it moves forward with all the milestones until it gets to PTO.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you expect that project manager to take that job through the stages.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But we also, because we don't have a way as an industry to showcase where the job is at in an easily digestible way, what ends up happening is reps call project managers for pipeline reviews.
Speaker: How many pipeline calls have you been on?
Speaker: Yeah, a lot.
Speaker: And how long do they take?
Speaker: I mean, depending on how many deals, but yeah, like half an hour, it doesn't take a while.
Speaker: Yeah, and so if you're doing that and then the project manager, let's say the project manager has a dozen dealers or sales orgs underneath them, right, that they're dealing with, and now they're doing a pipeline review call every day or multiple pipeline review calls a day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What it means is they're not moving the job forward.
Speaker: What they're doing is they're taking information that already exists in some CRM, hopefully, if it's not on a yellow pad of paper or Excel sheet.
Speaker: But they're taking that information and they're then giving it to you.
Speaker: Let me go through this really quick.
Speaker: And then they're walking through it.
Speaker: The worst case scenario is you're calling in and you hear the guy going like, hang on a second.
Speaker: Hey, Judy, Judy.
Speaker: Have you checked on that?
Speaker: Where's that job?
Speaker: And you're getting fined out.
Speaker: They're like, oh, that turns out we don't have that permit yet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and that, unfortunately that happens a lot, right?
Speaker: So because project managers spend an inordinate amount of time actually doing pipeline review calls, they don't move the jobs forward.
Speaker: So we have these lagging timelines and reps are like, man, you guys suck.
Speaker: They're, you know, the jobs take too long to get to roof.
Speaker: And you're like, well,
Speaker: Yes, they've taken longer than we wanted to.
Speaker: And in part, it's because I'm spending a lot of time as a project manager chatting with you to tell you where the job's at.
Speaker: And I already have it in CRM, but you can't find it because the CRM, the way it was built, doesn't give you access to easily find things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we have, as an industry, a really kind of difficult problem to solve.
Speaker: And there's a handful of different software solutions that have come out that have tried to solve that problem.
Speaker: We still don't think it's been done right, which is why we're pursuing this.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I'm bringing that up only to say, to answer the question of what makes CODA different to an extent, the focus is on how do we provide the best customer experience on the planet.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And so from a product standpoint, we want to give the best from a customer standpoint and a communication standpoint to the reps.
Speaker: We want to make sure that we're communicating all the time.
Speaker: We have some of those solved with tech, but still we have more to go.
Speaker: And so in the meantime, we try and be as proactive as we possibly can about communicating everything we possibly can communicate to both the rep and the customer.
Speaker: yeah that's awesome yeah because so many deals have been lost by just bad communication and then like yeah i've been through some installers where they don't even want to talk to you like um you call them they won't give you an update you have to go through like five different people to get an update and then they don't want to tell you as a sales rep they have to tell someone from your organization that was over the project and yeah by the time all said and done it's like five calls you had to make to get one update and
Speaker: Yeah, so it's going to be tough for sure.
Speaker: So I really like what you're saying, just one central place where guys can go.
Speaker: And then also it's like typically we as dealers, you have, you know, your CRM, you have the proposal software, you have all these different tools.
Speaker: You got to know logins, everything.
Speaker: And it's like, you know, five different places to figure out what you're doing.
Speaker: So it sounds like with Sonoba, you guys all have it like in one place, right?
Speaker: Like you can get your design.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Getting updates.
Speaker: You're kind of doing everything from there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, the goal there with Sinobi is to have everything in one ecosystem.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If, if the goal is to, you know, API to everything, you're, you're going to lose some efficiency and then you spend all your time as a company being an API integration company, which is not what our goal is.
Speaker: Our goal is to be.
Speaker: you know, full ecosystem from the time you source a job, source a lead to the time it gets to PTO to all be in one app.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And you know, the other thing, the other thing I'd say just for the sake of saying it is I think as an industry, we can't be afraid to tell the truth about everything, even when it's bad news.
Speaker: And I think because just human beings, right?
Speaker: Like the first governing rule of human behavior is that people are self-interested in
Speaker: No one wants necessarily to disappoint somebody.
Speaker: And so instead of telling the truth, they try and find a way around it because they're afraid of disappointing a guy.
Speaker: When in reality, just being transparent, we're like, yeah, dude, look, this job went sideways because of this.
Speaker: Here's what our plan is to fix it.
Speaker: Here's what we have going forward.
Speaker: I've never found a rep to be unreasonable when we have a real honest conversation.
Speaker: And I'm saying that because code has had its plenty of problems.
Speaker: We've had our fair share of screw ups and messed up.
Speaker: And I think that as, and, and Senobi has too, but as a whole, our goal is to be, you know, part of the best experience you can give someone is at minimum to be honest and to be transparent.
Speaker: And so we're trying to make sure that we approach the business as a whole with some radical transparency.
Speaker: That's like, yeah, that's
Speaker: Here's where it is.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Yeah, the industry needs it for sure.
Speaker: It's been a big problem.
Speaker: But, yeah, what I love about Sunobi is just like we're talking about in the beginning, it just makes things so much quicker.
Speaker: It's funny, I was just talking with, you know, Mike Brand that I introduced you to before this, but he was selling, I think, in...
Speaker: Rhode Island or something somewhere back east and he was telling me that every job this is back in like I don't know 2013 2014 but every job had to get like notarized before you progress it you had to have like someone come notarize the account and so it's just like drag things out forever because imagine you sign them up and then they get a design back you'll get it yeah
Speaker: Customer has to get it notarized.
Speaker: And I know there's been like we haven't had to do that in California, but just like the improvements made since I've been out here since 2016, it's been like night and day.
Speaker: And I mean, I know it's just Sonobi's taking it to another level for sure.
Speaker: And so I guess just transitioning to that, for our listeners, do you want to maybe just give a little bit of background on that?
Speaker: I'm sure most people hopefully have heard of Sunobi at this point.
Speaker: But, yeah, why did you guys decide to start Sunobi?
Speaker: And what's the quick background with that?
Speaker: I mean, we started Synobi because we didn't feel like the existing tools solved all of our problems.
Speaker: And a lot of times we feel like the tools that we were using caused more problems than they solved.
Speaker: You know, we were, we used all the platforms that you've ever heard of.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Every one of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think had any of them solved the problem, we never would have built Sanobi.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But so philosophically, so why, you know, why do we go here?
Speaker: Here's an interesting kind of exercise that we go through sometimes.
Speaker: Why does someone go knock a door and set an appointment for another day?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause they need to get the purples already.
Speaker: Usually.
Speaker: Because we got to wait.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I mean, we have an entire ecosystem in solar that's based on the fact that we can't do a same day proposal or instantaneous proposal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right now, there's a couple of platforms that have tried to solve that, but we're still waiting 15, 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker: And sometimes if the backlog gets too big, you're waiting longer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, that's still too long.
Speaker: So I came from alarms and alarms.
Speaker: You could same day anything.
Speaker: And there was no such thing as a return appointment.
Speaker: It's like you go to a meeting and someone would say like, how many did you close?
Speaker: You're like, I closed too, but I've got a couple of callbacks and people would laugh at you and be like, dude, there's no such thing as a callback.
Speaker: And you were not closing a callback because it was, it was nonsense.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But in solar, all we have are appointments, right?
Speaker: Like we've created a business on how do you make, I mean, I'll go to some trainings and people be talking about how to create solid appointments.
Speaker: That's the training.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, as much as we may kind of chuckle about it, it exists because the platforms that are currently out there don't allow you to have same day closes.
Speaker: So if there was something that did exist that you could get accurate instant proposals.
Speaker: That's still just one part, right?
Speaker: So Sinobi is a platform.
Speaker: You're asking me like, what's the short background?
Speaker: Sinobi is currently what exists today is a sales enablement platform.
Speaker: It is not a design tool.
Speaker: It is not a proposal tool.
Speaker: It has a design tool in it and it also has a proposal tool in it.
Speaker: But it has those things because those things are necessary to close a deal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So if you go knock a door, why do you knock a door?
Speaker: Hopefully the answer is I knock a door because hopefully no one's saying I knock a door to get an appointment or get a utility bill for heaven's sakes.
Speaker: Of course you're getting utility bill and of course you're getting appointment.
Speaker: But the reason you knock the door is to close the deal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's why we knock the door.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So do we need it?
Speaker: Of course you need a proposal.
Speaker: Of course you need a design.
Speaker: But that's not, you're there to close a deal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Sinobi as a whole is a sales enablement platform.
Speaker: And if people use Sinobi the way it's intended to be used, then their close ratios jump dramatically.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So, here's some stats for you.
Speaker: We keep track of this stuff.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We'll do a little test here.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: For the last 10 years or so, the average per rep close per month, right?
Speaker: Meaning how many deals per month is a rep as a regular average rep closing?
Speaker: What do you think the number is?
Speaker: I'd say like 2.5.
Speaker: you're high.
Speaker: It's like 1.6, 1.7.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's because you got dudes like Ashton that are, you know, screwing up the mean, but then, but then you have a ton of people that are bageling every month.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We're talking about a full month, not at a week, a full month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: 1.6 or so, 1.7 deals per month, per rep, per average.
Speaker: That's as an industry, we should be pretty embarrassed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's our, that's our average.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When people have used Sinobi correctly, the average jumps to like five to nine deals per month on average.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So you start asking, well, what are you doing?
Speaker: It's the same guy.
Speaker: All he's doing is using Snowy the way it was meant to be used.
Speaker: And now you're taking people that were closing one or two.
Speaker: And here's the reason, excuse me, here's the reason why.
Speaker: If you hand someone as a proposal, a single sheet of paper that has some dynamic things to it, like, hey, here's a graph and some savings curves and things like that on a proposal...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's all you give that guy.
Speaker: Please tell me when you've closed deals, you've had to say more than just here's the number.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like what else do you have to do?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like build value, show them panels.
Speaker: I mean, it's like tons of things more than just like, Hey, here's the number.
Speaker: Do you like it?
Speaker: You're ready to sign?
Speaker: Like that doesn't happen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Even though we're saving people money.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And even though economically you put this thing on a chalkboard and it always makes sense, but still people need more than that.
Speaker: And so if all we're doing is saying, here's a proposal, here's your numbers.
Speaker: then we're no different than anybody else.
Speaker: And that means the per-up averages stay the same.
Speaker: The challenge with not doing anything in addition to that is you're asking all of the sales orgs to provide the training that's necessary to close a deal.
Speaker: So you end up having training.
Speaker: You guys are going through training all the time saying like, got to go through closers academy or go through these closers training.
Speaker: I'm going to teach someone how to close a deal because they got to learn all the other things to say besides, Hey, your bill was 200.
Speaker: Now it's 180.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, well, that's, I know for me personally, it like definitely made a difference.
Speaker: Just the amount of deals I get same day after that.
Speaker: And like, I'm sure you can agree.
Speaker: How many times are we as reps, we like go to a door and in the past is like, man, these people are ready right now, but I have to go back later.
Speaker: I have to wait on the proposal, the design and even times where you could go in with and like, like if you had it right then you just go back next 10 minutes or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Even walk in the door, close them right there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But still, it's like some people, you go back in 45 minutes and then something came up.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Gone or whatever.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a reason why the phrase strike while the iron's hot exists, right?
Speaker: The longer we wait for that iron to get cool, the harder it is to make fire, right?
Speaker: Like, or spark.
Speaker: You want to be able to take advantage of the situation when it presents itself.
Speaker: And if you're waiting too long, then all you're waiting for is more and more opportunities to come up to make it harder for you to close.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, well, was that like, so was that the biggest problem you saw with all these different softwares?
Speaker: Was that the main thing you guys were thinking of when you started Sonobi?
Speaker: Or were there other things like, oh, I don't like this design.
Speaker: I don't like that.
Speaker: This doesn't explain as much.
Speaker: Or was it pretty much that one thing?
Speaker: Yeah, there's a few of them.
Speaker: I mean, definitely speed was one, right?
Speaker: So that we tackled that one.
Speaker: The other one was that, and you mentioned something kind of similar to this and that the amount of things you have to log into.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: To find information.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Training new reps, scaling your company.
Speaker: So one of our issues that we were trying to solve was I need to scale.
Speaker: I want to get bigger.
Speaker: I want to move into other markets.
Speaker: I want to go in Vegas and Texas and Florida and Colorado and Arizona.
Speaker: All these other places we wanted to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we realized that when we're doing that as a sales org, number one, you need to find an installer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So the, the largest installers that exist, they're really, really good in the places where they're from.
Speaker: And then it almost seems like the further they get away from their home base, the harder it is to be good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've heard that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It doesn't mean that's always the case, but it's possible.
Speaker: So what ends up happening is you're going, I'm probably going to find regional installers or someone close in this area.
Speaker: Who's, who's got a reputation for being good in that state or in that area.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Once you do that, all of the variables that are about selling for that installer change.
Speaker: You might have a different, certainly you're going to have a different login.
Speaker: Hopefully they use the same sales proposal tool.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But then you're going to have different lender choices, different panel types, all the adders change.
Speaker: So the scaling portion becomes as much academic training as it is solar training.
Speaker: So you go through this thing like, okay, I'm going to teach you how to sell solar.
Speaker: Here's power one-on-one versus solar one-on-one that you're going to have to learn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But then once you change states or change geographies, all the variables that surround that now change too.
Speaker: So it's like, well, I know I taught you how to do it over here in California, but in Texas, you got to use this installer and this installer has these panels are different and has this login and they use this other proposal tool with this up.
Speaker: Like it becomes, you know, complexity is the enemy of execution.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so the more complex something is, the harder it is to scale.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: And if we're trying to scale, Sinobi's other goal was how do I simplify something that's very complex?
Speaker: Yeah, that's fire.
Speaker: Because, yeah, I mean, different market.
Speaker: Well, that's another thing I was going to ask you because there's so many different variables, like in California versus Texas.
Speaker: So, like, I've only used Sunobi out here, but you guys have people nationwide now using Sunobi and you have to, like, make all these adjustments or how do you, like, simplify it based on different markets and everything?
Speaker: Yeah, so one of the things that we strongly delineate ourselves from other people and draw the line is, is that we do not do the negotiation of contracts between you and the installer.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we're not going to get in the middle of that.
Speaker: We feel like that's a really sacred relationship that you need to foster and care about.
Speaker: And we're not going to go in there and make a cut between those two things.
Speaker: We're just not going to do it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What we will do is simplify that process.
Speaker: So if you said, Hey Scott, I need to move to, I'm going to scale in Texas.
Speaker: Who do you have on the platform?
Speaker: I have no problem giving you all the people on the platform in Texas.
Speaker: You then create the relationship and structure your deal.
Speaker: And then when you're logging in to Sinobi and that person becomes part of your network of installers, for example, then everything that they have that's specific to them is at your fingertips and at your disposal.
Speaker: So once you choose them as an installer, it spins up all the variables you have to think about it.
Speaker: They're adders, they're panel type, they're loan products.
Speaker: Everything's already done for you.
Speaker: You're just now going to do the same thing that you're supposed to do, which is sell solar to a customer.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: You're not necessarily going through and going, well, I mean, in California, it's this way, but in Texas, it's like this.
Speaker: And you got to tell them because you're trying to work through the story in your head.
Speaker: You don't have to do that.
Speaker: It's just you're logging in.
Speaker: You choose.
Speaker: Once you put the address in, it pulls up the installers that are available for you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Once you've done that, you go through the process like you normally would.
Speaker: You choose your product that's available.
Speaker: Now you pitch it.
Speaker: You know, you do your design, you pitch it and you close it.
Speaker: Yeah, I like it.
Speaker: And as we've been using it too, something I noticed, I don't know if you guys have run into this more now, but some newer reps we had, because if you don't, if you haven't used Sunobi before, you can get on there, you can draw the design yourself.
Speaker: You know, you just pull out your Apple Pencil, put on the little pins and all that, and you draw the roof planes.
Speaker: Something I saw somewhere new reps doing is just like making the roof planes way bigger than they
Speaker: we're supposed to or just like slap on like 20 panels on there when it's like obvious like yeah there's no way that many panels up and then uh occasionally we did you know they close the deal that way and then it go back to our people in the bag after site survey like hey that doesn't work there's no way you can fit 20 panels on this like you have a design so do you guys have anything new or um i don't know if that's something you guys have gotten a lot of feedback on but or like any tips suggestions like what's the yeah what's the solution with that where you get some of these like
Speaker: Just knucklehead new reps trying to slap like 50 panels on a roof plane.
Speaker: I don't know if it's so many.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's a fantastic question.
Speaker: And I think that if we were to look back and go, what was the biggest knock on Sanobi?
Speaker: This was it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Is that because you, again, philosophically, we basically were saying we believe that reps are good and true and honest and smart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where the industry we feel like, because I've been the rep on the other side of that, who's had this experience where I've said, why don't you let me do the designs?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're like, nah, I mean, look, dude, why don't you do what you're good at and just keep your silver tongue going and then you just go sell.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Let the smart people do the designs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was always like, what?
Speaker: You mean you're telling me that intern you got who's still in college right now, that's the smarter person than me?
Speaker: Like it just means that person's been trained, but I always took offense to that.
Speaker: Like, what do you think?
Speaker: I'm not smart enough to do this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or the other thing that they'd say to me would be like, well, if I do give you the control of doing it, you're probably going to be doing something that's dishonest and screw the customer for your own commission.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was always like, so you think that I'm a liar and I'm stupid.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: That always really bothered me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So we tried to create Snobby in a way that, that enhanced those things and put some guardrails in place to allow people to still be good and true and honest because if they had the right framework, we feel like they could be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and the large majority of what's happened in Snobby is that's, that's proven to be true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: However, there's still this thing where people will say like, yeah, but the rep isn't actually trained.
Speaker: And there are people who are dishonest and they've done some things that have made it hard for us to use it.
Speaker: So we heard that and for the last two years we've been working on building this new app or this new version of the app and we were really happy to show this at Solarcon.
Speaker: And we call it Turbo Mode.
Speaker: But essentially what happens in Turbo Mode and we're really, really excited about it, we're using NearMap as our aerial imagery.
Speaker: And all the LiDAR tech and everything else that comes with it.
Speaker: And what happens is, is a rep can literally just go click a house, touch it with their finger, and then it automatically detects roof shape, roof plane, azimuth and tilt, all the shade, everything.
Speaker: And then it does an auto panel placement mode, which means it fills the roof to its full max potential.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Now a rep can look at it and go, okay, this house can fit this much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now there's a couple options.
Speaker: You can say, well, and the, you know, the demo is pretty cool.
Speaker: You can see where you can drag a guy, like a little video game character and drag them anywhere around the house and turn on something called out of sight, out of mind, which is essentially a rep putting a homeowner on the street level view or somewhere else.
Speaker: So someone says, I don't want to see any panels in the front of my house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can drag that guy to the front and now anything that a six foot person could see from that vantage point will make those panels disappear.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: And then you can say, okay, give me optimal fit based on those criteria.
Speaker: And you can have multiple views on there.
Speaker: You can have like three or four people stay on the street at different angles.
Speaker: Then it will take off all the panels from those viewpoints and still do the most it can possibly fit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that question that you asked is a fantastic question because it's been, in our opinion, up until this point, one of the knocks on Sonobi.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so we feel like we've solved that and we've still addressed it in terms of speed.
Speaker: So when you think about if I could create the dream scenario where you get anything you want in a proposal tool and you start thinking about what is you'd want.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And most people are going to say, I want something to be really fast.
Speaker: I want it to be super accurate.
Speaker: That doesn't require change orders.
Speaker: I want it to be something set up where I can basically get it for free.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Um, and I want it, I want it to look rad.
Speaker: We've done all of those things in Snobie.
Speaker: So now if you just hit that, you touch the house, your finger inside of 10 seconds, the whole thing's done.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And it's accurate.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: A hundred percent accurate.
Speaker: I shouldn't say a hundred percent accurate.
Speaker: It's accurate as far as near maps is imagery is accurate, which is like 97% of the United States.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's really accurate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Shade and everything's all done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So all the things I'm talking about that make it hit those points are all done.
Speaker: And so now someone asked, well, is it free?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The answer is no, it's not free, but neither is something that's an adder.
Speaker: Like, you know, an MPU is not free either.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But how do you make an MPU not cost you as a rep?
Speaker: You put it in the loan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Same thing with Sinobi.
Speaker: Like, you build it in, and since you're not paying for this, we don't charge until the job is signed.
Speaker: It's a success-driven model.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: You should never be paying for it.
Speaker: It should just be a pass-through cost.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Still money in it, but the homeowner paid for it.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And that's huge because to be honest, that was like our company is not going to do it.
Speaker: They're like, because we had a lot of new reps.
Speaker: They're all slapping all these panels up.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, the EPC we're working with was come back and be like, you know, this is like way different than what we can actually do.
Speaker: And then it was just added more time, more headaches to it.
Speaker: So yeah, I mean now you can do that and can you is is that like standard with every Like every company just does that now just clicks on the roof and it comes up like that.
Speaker: You just get rid of the old option.
Speaker: Yeah, that comes out in In about 30 days we debuted it for solar common because not three days.
Speaker: So nice I think for us we some of the things that we heard with stuff like You know, cenobis for more experienced reps.
Speaker: Yeah, and I hated that
Speaker: Because I want every rep to have it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so as Titus and I and the group were all talking about, how do we make Sinobi so that it's the easiest tool to use in the plant, the most accessible, the simplest tool to use?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We knew that we had to make something where it was as non-athletic as it could be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: So if all you're asking your rep to do is touch a house with their finger and it automatically places the panel inside of 10 seconds and it's...
Speaker: And accurate?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's pretty easy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I hope the reps can do that.
Speaker: If they can't learn how to do that, then maybe fire that rep.
Speaker: I mean, they have to.
Speaker: So here's the thing is what other platform do you have that doesn't require a rep to put an address in?
Speaker: Every one.
Speaker: You have to have an address.
Speaker: So if they can't put an address in, that's not a proposal problem or that's a literacy problem.
Speaker: And we could talk about that another time.
Speaker: But all we're asking people to do here is say, here is the house.
Speaker: Confirm it.
Speaker: Click the button.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Builds it up.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And, yeah, if you're doing, like for me, I do a lot of condos, townhomes, things like that here around San Diego.
Speaker: So if you have something like that, does it just, it kind of like puts panels on the whole section, say it's a shared roof space or something, and then you as the rep just have to kind of like deselect and kind of recognize it's only that section.
Speaker: Yeah, because it can't recognize imaginary lines on a condo.
Speaker: And it's still like the manipulation you've had in the past where you've been able to manipulate an array, you still have the ability to do that.
Speaker: But you can't change it beyond what's available.
Speaker: If you're going to shrink it, it still allows you to turn panels on and off and constrict things like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The ease and feasibility of just clicking on something and having it auto-populate is like magic.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: That's way cool.
Speaker: Well, just to kind of start wrapping up here, Scott, I know a ton of features, and we probably talk all day about this stuff.
Speaker: Pretty incredible what you guys have done.
Speaker: But another big thing that I know you guys were talking a lot about at SolarCon.
Speaker: With just all the stuff coming out with the batteries, as we know, it's like, you know, NEM 3.0 out in California.
Speaker: Batteries is the big thing.
Speaker: And, yeah, I watched some of the videos you guys were doing with that.
Speaker: And I know you launched a bunch of features, cool things that were helping a lot of people out with that.
Speaker: So, and you can go watch a demo of this too, guys.
Speaker: Like, this stuff is super cool to see.
Speaker: So I'd suggest go checking out.
Speaker: It's, like, on your website.
Speaker: You guys have, like, demos and all that on your website?
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Okay, okay.
Speaker: But yeah, just for like people listening to our cell more batteries, what are some of the problems you recognize with that?
Speaker: And what are, yeah, what's like the solution you guys put together with Sanobi to help sell these batteries?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great question.
Speaker: And for the record, the battery tool is out currently and people are using it and it's fantastic.
Speaker: I think that we have to start to recognize there's kind of two different profiles of customers.
Speaker: There's the customers who want full home backup and customers who don't know anything about batteries but have to have a battery because of NEM 3.0.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Only 2% of all deals sold in the United States historically have had battery attachments.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Which means that only 2% of the people are actually asking about batteries because sales reps are not pitching batteries.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: But for the last 10 years, people haven't been going like, dude, let me hook you up with a battery.
Speaker: In fact, we've done everything we can to say like, ah, you don't need a battery right now.
Speaker: It's just...
Speaker: backwards compatible.
Speaker: You're going to use it in a couple of years.
Speaker: It'll be fine.
Speaker: Prices are going to come down.
Speaker: Like everything that we've ever said.
Speaker: So if you look at NEM 3.0 in the same light as I just need to replace the grid during the time when it used to be beneficial for me, which is really just from the hours of dawn to dusk when solar is no longer producing, then the only thing you need a battery for is to replace that portion of the usage.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So instead of people thinking I need to sell batteries as full home backup, like only 2% of people need that.
Speaker: Those are the people who are asking for it.
Speaker: What you need to be selling or what we all should be selling is how do I replace the usage at night?
Speaker: And so if you're sitting there with a customer and you're like, dude, help me understand this just so I have a better understanding of your usage profile.
Speaker: What things do you have on at nighttime?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the customer is going to go through it and they're all going to be fairly basic things.
Speaker: Like the only anomaly you're going to have, or that's going to cause you to have multiple use batteries is stuff like this.
Speaker: Sounds like I'm charging my car or if I'm cranking my AC all night, those are probably more than likely going to require you to have more than one battery or a bigger size battery.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But otherwise your night usage typically isn't that high.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so one battery sometimes can do it.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: The tool in Sinobi allows you to go through there and showcase that in a really, really simple, easy way.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And I'm happy to report that we've had the battery manufacturers that everyone's ever heard of and some of the other ones that people haven't all been through Sinobi and looked at it and given their stamp of approval on it.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So it's not like we just made some stuff up.
Speaker: Like we created a story to help you sell it, but it's accurate.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And I don't think that there's another tool on the planet that even comes close.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Because batteries are like, as we know, complicated stuff to explain.
Speaker: A lot of reps out in California are freaking out right now.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: And they don't need to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And let's think about this.
Speaker: Like I've gone through and done some modeling of this.
Speaker: We got people saying, I'm going to leave California to go to another place.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: What are they telling you right now?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're scared.
Speaker: They're like, Oh, it's not going to save people money.
Speaker: And they're going to go to which state?
Speaker: Every other state that doesn't really save people.
Speaker: It doesn't save anybody money.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like it's the, it's the silliest thing to be like, I'm leaving California.
Speaker: That's been just this gold mine.
Speaker: I'm going to go to Texas or Florida and no share in those States because they're crushing it.
Speaker: But those sales reps are not selling savings the same way, right?
Speaker: They're selling value in a different thing.
Speaker: They're selling, you know, self-preservation and prestige and things like that.
Speaker: They're not selling profit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you do in California.
Speaker: And so now if you're saying to someone worst case scenario with the battery, it's a bill swap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That still has more value than the systems you're selling.
Speaker: Like, would you rather sell a system with a battery or that one for the same price?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: With the battery all day.
Speaker: All day.
Speaker: So like, it's not, you're not leaving California for a better place.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're leaving it because you don't know how to sell a battery.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: And if you do know how to sell a battery and it's not as complicated as you think it is, it's actually easier and you're still providing savings.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, how's this a hard thing?
Speaker: Like we can do this.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I've never been more excited about solar than I am right now.
Speaker: I think, I think after any M 3.0, I am so stoked about it.
Speaker: I haven't been this excited since I started solar.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Well, all the people getting out, I'm like, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker: You can leave the market.
Speaker: Like, maybe I should edit this part out because like, yeah, I'll take all your customers.
Speaker: So think about this.
Speaker: There's already way too much market for everyone in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so now you have people that are going to leave.
Speaker: Companies will go out of business, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because sales reps are going to leave and things like that.
Speaker: That means that all the customers that they would have got are now up for grabs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In addition, the ones that you would have gotten and the sales reps who don't want to leave that are forced to go because their whole team's leaving or their company's leaving are now ready to be recruited because they need a new home.
Speaker: Like NEM 3.0 will be the great divider of when people are going to stop being adolescents and start being adults.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we are finally in that place where we're going to see adult companies come to the forefront.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: As opposed to a bunch of adolescents.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm stoked for it.
Speaker: Like, I'm so here for it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, let's get all the crybabies out of here and, you know, run with the big boys now.
Speaker: And it's like, and some of it isn't necessary that they're like, if a rep wants to leave, in my opinion, it's largely because they don't know that they can still do it.
Speaker: It's not that they're, you know, people, people will leave if something feels complicated.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But if it's simplified and they can still sell and they can, they can still harvest the market they've been in and it doesn't have to be as hard as they think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: then there's no reason to leave.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I guess I'm, I'm saying this as a voice to all of the competitors and all the people who are out there selling solar that are afraid you don't have to be like, you can still sell the same amount of accounts, the same amount of deals you've ever sold and provide even better value to your customer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And on top of that, like you're talking about homeowners that will actually have an extra benefit of like when the power does go out, they will have some backup and,
Speaker: Instead of that, that's a question that comes up all the time when you're selling.
Speaker: So my power goes out, I'm going to go back.
Speaker: Well, no, because it's tied to the grid and you got to tell them all that unless someone lied to them.
Speaker: But now you can actually tell them that, yes, you are going to have some backup.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Everyone wants that.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: Like so many people, I get hit up from customers, you know, all the time that I sold four or five years ago that want a battery now.
Speaker: where I just convinced them so hard they didn't need a battery.
Speaker: So I'm almost thinking, go and save all these texts I'm getting from past customers.
Speaker: It's like social proof.
Speaker: Be like, look, even if you don't want a battery, look how many people want a battery now.
Speaker: I mean, I've modeled it out.
Speaker: You can still show people savings with like, and I've, you know, for the record, it's I'm, I'm modeling out $4 a watt as your base price, right?
Speaker: With the reps.
Speaker: So whatever your Delta is between four bucks, whenever you're getting paid, four bucks before dealer fees, before adders, everything else.
Speaker: And you're still saving money in PG and E and STG and E. It's a bill swap in SCE.
Speaker: Like, yeah.
Speaker: This is not impossible.
Speaker: And let's also not forget that homeowners don't know the difference.
Speaker: It's not like they're comparing quotes from before.
Speaker: Like what existed before isn't available.
Speaker: And so now you're saying to them, this is what it is.
Speaker: The only thing a customer understands is your confidence.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So if you show up at the door and you're in the house and you feel unsure about what you're selling, the customer is going to feed off that all day long and be like, oh, this is...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Probably not what we should do, honey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But if you're like, yeah, this is a no brainer.
Speaker: You get this and this and this and this, and it's all these benefits one after another.
Speaker: The customer won't think twice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This sounds great.
Speaker: Well, let's do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: And I agree.
Speaker: I think it's more of the sales reps, us that have been out here.
Speaker: It's more like what we believe about it and confusion around it.
Speaker: We're telling ourselves it's harder, that people don't want to do anymore.
Speaker: And so it's like what you think is what's going to happen typically.
Speaker: It's like the objections we have ourselves as sales reps, they're going to be reflected in what we're telling these customers.
Speaker: It's the six inches of real estate between your ears that need the only changing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Well, so important.
Speaker: So anyone listening to this for our solopreneurs, guys, make sure, and even if you're not in California, all this stuff, you know, you can apply this to any markets.
Speaker: Like, I think that's probably where things are headed.
Speaker: You probably have more insight in this, Scott, but you think things are going to change like this in other markets?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like Texas, Florida.
Speaker: I think that the entire United States will go towards battery-operated.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, and I think that the pivotal thing that we'll be selling the most is batteries and that, that the conversation will be less about, Hey, these are the panels I'm using.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Although it will still come up.
Speaker: I think it'll be more about what are my batteries and how many am I getting?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think that if we're moving towards this, as I mentioned this at solar con, this industrial revolution that's happening, we're moving away from a grid tied home to an autonomous home, right?
Speaker: And to decouple from the grid requires batteries.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: we'll get to a point where sadly for the utility companies that exist, but not for all the homeowners, we will, we will start to unplug and decouple from those and we will have an autonomous grid.
Speaker: And that only happens with the batteries.
Speaker: And I think that's probably the next five, 10 years of the industry.
Speaker: And so again, when we're looking at, is this a gold rush or not?
Speaker: I would tell you that if it is a gold rush, the gold rush lasts for decades and we're just at the beginning.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: We are here to have careers and retirements and create generational wealth, not something that's just a short-term gig.
Speaker: And if that is our mindset and our view, then we make decisions that are based on long-term views as opposed to get in and get out.
Speaker: The get in, get out creates shortcuts.
Speaker: It creates dishonesty.
Speaker: It creates problems, right?
Speaker: If we look at this and say, I'm here for the long run, I want to be here during the whole thing.
Speaker: We make decisions that reflect that.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: And I mean, yeah, what I'm hearing is what's going to separate the contenders from the pretenders, right?
Speaker: It's like people are here to contend.
Speaker: They're going to stick it with the long run.
Speaker: They're going to treat it as the careers.
Speaker: And I think that's just what separates really like, you know, the anyone that has success in this job versus anyone that doesn't.
Speaker: I got look at guys that have quit this career.
Speaker: It's like they just they start driving uber on the side They go do other things.
Speaker: They just treat this like a side gig So I think that goes yeah, it goes without saying again a lot of different aspects of solar So Scott's been awesome having you on and you just to kind of wrap up here I think the last pressing thing on my mind was I'm just like man.
Speaker: How does this guy run?
Speaker: So no we how does he have time to also have his own EPC?
Speaker: And then on top of that, he's coming and doing a podcast, which has been awesome.
Speaker: And so I know I asked you a little bit before you hit record, but just for people maybe that are like feeling overwhelmed and solar, like for me personally, I've run teams and I'm trying to grow a podcast.
Speaker: I also have a little coaching program with this.
Speaker: And sometimes it's like, man, it's impossible to, you know, grow both.
Speaker: And just on top of that, focus on my personal selves.
Speaker: So do you have any advice from someone that's like, you know, leading so many organizations, companies,
Speaker: And maybe stuff you've seen with your own like sales managers, things like that.
Speaker: How do you like manage all this time and focus and be able to grow all these different things and keep it going all at once?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: That's a that's a tough one.
Speaker: I mean, I've thought a lot about, you know, work life balance and thought a lot about what leadership looks like and.
Speaker: You know, work-life balance, I think sometimes is, is misinterpreted in that I don't think you have to have work-life balance every day.
Speaker: I think that maybe it's a balance of your life and that sometimes you're, you're in the grind and that grind may be a decade.
Speaker: It may be two, but because of that, it gives you balance where you're not in the grind after.
Speaker: And so the work-life balance may just be periods of time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It doesn't always have to be like, well, I've allocated this amount of time to this and this amount, but you know, that, that only can really work if you have a family or a support system that believes that too.
Speaker: And they're in it for the long haul.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So don't take that as gospel truth.
Speaker: Cause I have no idea if it works other than that's what I'm doing.
Speaker: And I'm telling myself cause I believe that the other thing that I would say just from a leadership standpoint and how you run your organizations or how you run your life, the thing that I find that I value the most is
Speaker: over and over and over again is effort.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, when I'm looking at the organization that we have and I'm looking at the leaders that we're growing and things like that, I don't even care how many mistakes the guy makes or how bad the mistakes are.
Speaker: I really don't.
Speaker: What I care about is the amount of effort they put in and how consistent the effort is.
Speaker: The only thing that you can ever really give is your effort.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: And if as an organization or you as an individual and you're trying to grow something and you look at the way you want to measure success, if success is measured based on simply a metric, right?
Speaker: Like you're leading a team and you say, well, what I care about most is I want to hit this number.
Speaker: How many sales we're going to get?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, then you're probably going to find a way to hit the number.
Speaker: But if instead the goal is, I want everyone I work with to be better and to give as much effort as they can, then the natural consequence and result of the effort given is the number and.
Speaker: Something else.
Speaker: The end part is always the more fulfilling part because someone's become something better.
Speaker: They've become greater.
Speaker: If the only goal is to hit a number, then we'll only get the number.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But if the goal is I want your very best all the time, then the failure part doesn't matter.
Speaker: And if you don't hit the number right away, it doesn't matter because along the way that transformation that happens on the journey, the person becomes better.
Speaker: And that's so much more rewarding than just hitting the damn metric.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I would say effort.
Speaker: Never, ever quit.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, and I agree.
Speaker: I think it's about the seasons.
Speaker: You know, like sometimes you're going to be pushing harder than others.
Speaker: I got two kids now, and, you know, sometimes I'm comparing myself to guys with, you know, no kids and just going.
Speaker: So, yeah, I've just learned that, like, if you start comparing yourself to others, then that's just downhill.
Speaker: Comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, just don't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The only thing you should be thinking about more than, you know, is, is if you're going to compare as you to you, right.
Speaker: Which you've heard this before, but if you give a hundred percent effort every day, like at the end of it, you know, you did your best, you know, and you learn how to win.
Speaker: It's like your failures over and over and over again, just teach you what to do differently so that you win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No one comes out of the gates and wins every time without failing.
Speaker: Like everybody has failed.
Speaker: And the difference is recognizing that no one who's successful is any better than you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They just failed more than you have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Like if they failed more than you and they kept trying, it just means that they found less things to fail at because they've learned all the things not to do.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: Was it Thomas Edison said he found 700 ways not to create a light bulb or something like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: We'll love it.
Speaker: And, guys, if you're listening to this, yeah, live by that.
Speaker: Don't compare yourself to others.
Speaker: focus on the seasons at a time that you can make improvements and always, you know, give max effort, like Scott said.
Speaker: And so if people want to hear more, you know, about Sunobi, connect more with you, Scott, just to wrap up, what's the best way to do that and to be able to reach out to you?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you can go to the website, sunobi.com.
Speaker: I'm pretty excited about the website.
Speaker: I think it looks rad.
Speaker: We just had a little facelift to it.
Speaker: I think it's awesome.
Speaker: Then you can email me.
Speaker: It's scottatsunobi.com.
Speaker: Okay, perfect.
Speaker: So go give him a shot.
Speaker: Are you on like social media or anything?
Speaker: Yeah, Instagram?
Speaker: Yeah, but I'm private.
Speaker: So that's a harder one.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Okay, well, shoot him an email or go check out the websites.
Speaker: And Sun Noby's changing the game.
Speaker: So if you haven't checked it out, go get a demo.
Speaker: And I mean, I guess last question, if it's just like a sales rep that wants to like get, I mean, Sun Noby, you just have it basically for like dealers and kind of organizations, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, a sales rep can do it, but it's just more challenging because they have to have the relationships with the installers and things, but we can walk them through it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So guys, at least definitely go check it out.
Speaker: And even if you don't use it, I mean, there's still a lot of things that can be taken away from it that you can implement in your own sales process.
Speaker: And, you know, just things you can see pass on to possibly your leaders or other people.
Speaker: So thanks again for coming on the podcast with us today, Scott.
Speaker: And yeah, can't wait to see what you guys do next with Koda and Sanobian.
Speaker: Thanks for changing the game for us.
Speaker: Thank you very much for having me on.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I, and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: so at now we have six bucks for this month so book a call now don't miss out what you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com that's taylor at solarpreneurs with an s.com i'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best so shoot that email and let's increase your sales
