Transcript
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs, and this is our story.
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here, back with another episode.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Solopreneur podcast.
Speaker: If you're a new listener, thanks for checking the show out.
Speaker: If you are a loyal listener, much appreciated to you.
Speaker: So a couple announcements.
Speaker: We have been, we just finished up our giveaway for the 100th episode.
Speaker: And if you're listening to this, unfortunately you missed the giveaway, but there's going to be more in the future.
Speaker: So we want to thank everyone for coming back to the show where the goal is to provide you with the best information, tips, tricks, hacks to take your solar cells game to another level.
Speaker: That's the goal, we've done 100 episodes, let's make it 100 more.
Speaker: And the other announcement is, we need your suggestions for future guests on episodes.
Speaker: I know there's a lot of people out there who are doing crazy cool stuff in the industry.
Speaker: I don't know them all, so I need your help.
Speaker: Send me your suggestions.
Speaker: If you're not a member of the Solarpreneur Facebook group,
Speaker: We're gonna be making a post there asking for who you would like to hear on the podcast.
Speaker: So it'd be greatly appreciated if you could go post a suggestion, send me it, tell me why you think we should get them on the show.
Speaker: And then we will definitely reach out to them.
Speaker: So go and do that.
Speaker: So if you haven't noticed already, I am outside San Diego, California, walking around.
Speaker: It is a little bit of a windy day, so hopefully you're not getting a ton of wind feedback.
Speaker: But the goal is to get an episode every week to help you reach your goals.
Speaker: So I'm doing it outside, so I would take the kid on the walk here.
Speaker: Walking Stockton here, he is nine months old.
Speaker: So if you hear him screaming in the background, disregard that as well.
Speaker: But I just want to do a quick little tip today, quick little episode about how you can solidify your solar appointments.
Speaker: I've been getting really into knocking here as the summer months start.
Speaker: And lucky for me here in San Diego, it is only like 80 degrees here knocking.
Speaker: So it's actually not even bad, but it hits 80 degrees and I'm sweating my butt off.
Speaker: I complain out there.
Speaker: It is tough So definitely shouldn't be complaining, but I definitely feel for all those that are knocking in Texas Arizona Just heard from my buddy in Arizona.
Speaker: They got up to 110 degrees I did my first summer knocking in Texas Dallas and it was blazing hot there Tons of humidity.
Speaker: So you guys had the real knockers out there But I am getting back into my knocking game
Speaker: I've talked in past episodes, but I was previously more just going to appointments.
Speaker: Now I am knocking a bit more, which has been nice.
Speaker: And it's been nice to get out there.
Speaker: But what I've seen, a lot of the newer reps that I'm working with right now, what I've seen that's a big problem is just getting appointments to show up.
Speaker: So how do you get these appointments to stick?
Speaker: We're all trying to book solid solar appointments, solid solar consultations, but how do you actually get them to show up?
Speaker: How do you get all the decision makers there?
Speaker: How do you make sure you set yourself up in the best way to actually close them?
Speaker: That's what I want to talk about today.
Speaker: So I've got three little tips I'm going to share that have been helping me
Speaker: And at the end of the day, really, sometimes no matter what you do, there's going to be no shows.
Speaker: It's going to be people that, husband, wife that doesn't show up.
Speaker: It's going to be people rushing you.
Speaker: I think we all have those things happen.
Speaker: Happens to me, but I have found things that definitely increase your chances.
Speaker: Book a solid appointment, definitely help you so that both homeowners will be there.
Speaker: definitely help you solidify the appointment so I'm gonna share those things and then I'd like to hear from other people as well what are you doing helps you solidify appointments what are you doing that helps you confirm these appointments so let's jump into it number one it's probably a lot of important things but I think the most important thing is don't book these appointments out
Speaker: Whether you're setting appointments on the phone, whether you're setting them in person, try to set appointments as soon as possible.
Speaker: Because the reality of it is people forget, people have stuff come up, the longer interval of time you have between that first contact and the appointment, I think more than anything, homeowners forget the benefits.
Speaker: Why did they even set up an appointment with you in the first place?
Speaker: Why were they interested?
Speaker: Because once you step out off that porch, people have very short memories.
Speaker: They forget.
Speaker: They think the next day, oh yeah, I had an appointment for solar.
Speaker: Why did I even set that up?
Speaker: I thought I wasn't interested in solar.
Speaker: And they don't even remember what you told them.
Speaker: So one of the biggest keys is set up the appointment soon, as soon as you can.
Speaker: Because as you give them less time to have those thoughts spinning in their head,
Speaker: have them overthink it, paralysis by analysis, it's going to give you a higher chance to get back in and then they're not going to have to necessarily even put it on their calendar.
Speaker: So my suggestion is shoot for same day appointments as often as you can.
Speaker: This is something that honestly for the first couple years that I started in solar,
Speaker: I didn't think you should do same day appointments.
Speaker: I thought same day cells were for like pest control and alarms.
Speaker: No, solar is more of a, it's a big decision.
Speaker: It needs to be a long term thing.
Speaker: It needs to be something where you give them a couple days, go back for an appointment.
Speaker: But what I was finding is that so many of these people weren't even sitting.
Speaker: So many people wouldn't sit down with us.
Speaker: So many people canceled their appointments.
Speaker: A lot of no-shows, stuff like that.
Speaker: so about two years after i started our company started doing this experimenting with same-day appointments and i think i've mentioned a little bit but it literally took our appointment show ratio to just a whole nother level we went from having a couple sit in a day
Speaker: to probably took our appointment show ratio up by like 40% or so.
Speaker: So it's crazy results of it.
Speaker: And just that simple thing, just setting appointments for the same day.
Speaker: I'm gonna walk you through how we would do this, what the best way to do it, because a lot of people out there, they're saying, hey, Mr. Jones, what time works for you to come back?
Speaker: As you're saying this, the truth is people aren't going to say today.
Speaker: So what you have to do, you need to guide them towards that same day appointment.
Speaker: You need to make that suggestion, give them a gentle push, get them to sit the same day.
Speaker: So the way you do this, just like a lot of things in cell, you need to have that assumption, be super assumptive.
Speaker: Hey, Mr. Jones, we actually just wrapped up with...
Speaker: your neighbor Jim across the street.
Speaker: So our engineers, they're working on getting the info together for your home.
Speaker: They're actually looking at it as we speak.
Speaker: So when I come back, we'll have all that.
Speaker: And yeah, we'll be done with them in about 30 minutes.
Speaker: Our engineers will have it ready in about 30 minutes.
Speaker: So you guys will be here, right?
Speaker: So you're not asking them.
Speaker: You're getting a confirmation from them, but you're not even giving them an option.
Speaker: You're telling them that's what's going to happen.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs, real quick.
Speaker: If you've been in the solar industry any amount of time, you know that in order to take it to the next level, you need to always be recruiting.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: ABR, always be recruiting.
Speaker: So if you need help with recruiting, I wanted to share with you something that helped me take my recruiting skills to the next level.
Speaker: We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
Speaker: And we did this with reps that continue to sell with us.
Speaker: Two or three of them went on to become managers.
Speaker: Several of them were top producers in our office.
Speaker: And there are multiple reps that are still with us to this day, more than a year later.
Speaker: So what is it that helped me?
Speaker: I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Cells Recruiting University.
Speaker: He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
Speaker: And he really helped me follow up with the recruits, schedule group interviews with them, get a huge pool of applicants coming in day after day.
Speaker: I wanted to share with you guys his link.
Speaker: If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to Calendly.com slash SRU forward slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: Once again, that's Calendly.com slash SRU slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
Speaker: Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
Speaker: You'll find that as you have this high level of assumptiveness, people are just going to accept it.
Speaker: They'll say, oh, okay.
Speaker: You're not giving them an option.
Speaker: You're saying this is what we're doing.
Speaker: They're going to get, our engineers are going to get the info together, and then we'll be back in 30 minutes.
Speaker: You and your wife will still be here, right?
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: You'll find that 90% of the time if you say this,
Speaker: well I shouldn't say 90% but a lot of times if you just have that high level of symptom-ness just don't even get one option people are going to be okay with you coming back that same day in 30 minutes or whatever the time frame is so that's the big tip with it push for that same day appointment get it going as much as you can make happen
Speaker: and then after that they don't let you do a same day appointment next best thing is the next day appointment after that you c an do an appointment in two days but i would strongly recommend just don't book it more than two days out if at all possible you can go through you can track your numbers on this but i guarantee you after two days
Speaker: to be a very very very low percentage of people that show up for their appointments after two days so always make sure you book it within that time frame if you're not booking the same day then you can give them the option close right say okay mr jones i'm meeting with jim tomorrow at three o'clock
Speaker: And then I've got Judy right after that at four.
Speaker: Would five or seven work better for you guys, given the two options?
Speaker: We all know the option close.
Speaker: And again, just people are gonna have objections
Speaker: Occasionally with even booking next day appointments, they're going to say, oh, got a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker: It's a lot of newer reps.
Speaker: I see this all the time where they get one little kickback on having the appointment.
Speaker: They have the homeowner bring up, oh, actually be better next week.
Speaker: I'm more free next week.
Speaker: So newer reps, they're going to try and they're just going to be happy they got an appointment and accept that next week will work.
Speaker: But especially for managers, for owners, get your guys to realize that next week appointments aren't going to benefit you more often than not.
Speaker: You occasionally have some clothes, occasionally have some meat.
Speaker: But that's an objection.
Speaker: That's just smoke screen people are throwing out there.
Speaker: It's going to be very rare that people aren't available in the next two days.
Speaker: Everyone should have 30, 45 minutes.
Speaker: at some point in the day, the next two days.
Speaker: So figure out when they're free, work with them.
Speaker: Don't let them throw in the smoke screens at you.
Speaker: Just lock down a time.
Speaker: That's step number one.
Speaker: Don't set an appointment more than two days out.
Speaker: Okay, and then second step is make sure you have all the homeowners present.
Speaker: Another thing that a lot of newer reps struggle with is booking one-legger appointments.
Speaker: wife's not going to be there husband's not going to be there make sure you lock down a time where both of them are there and another key with this that teach a lot of our newer guys make sure you're getting in the home as you book appointments if you're setting them over the phone okay it's different but as you're out knocking doors get inside the home as much as possible so when you get inside the home
Speaker: Guess what, the husband's probably gonna be inside watching the game.
Speaker: Guess not right now, there's no games on right now.
Speaker: Watching golf maybe.
Speaker: Maybe the wife's in there cooking dinner.
Speaker: You're gonna talk to just one spouse at the door.
Speaker: So as you get inside the home, you're gonna meet the other homeowner and have a chance to talk to them.
Speaker: And then as you're inside the home,
Speaker: becomes way more of like a pest pest what's that word pesky situation I think it's your pest on the porch you're a guest in the kitchen something like I always butcher that saying but if you're getting this home reality is you're gonna buy yourself more time you're gonna be able to build some rapport with that homeowner
Speaker: you're going to be able to get their energy usage which everyone should be doing too as they set up appointments you're going to solidify it it's a lot of benefits with getting in the home i know right now with covid it is trickier but what we have been doing that's helped is just let me bring a mask around
Speaker: talked about it in last episode i don't necessarily wear a mask because i'm knocking i know some people probably disagree with that but what i do out here in san diego is i just have it in my pocket people are concerned about it then slip it right on okay it shouldn't be an excuse to not get in the home so as you're finishing your pitch your door approach
Speaker: your last word should be okay Mr. Jones so I just have to fill out a quick form to make sure you are the homeowner here and then make sure we can produce the amount of energy that you're using so it's really quick but it's okay if I borrow just the corner of the table there do you want me to take my shoes off that's our line so you're not asking them permission to come inside well first you are but you're asking them if you want
Speaker: for them to take, or if you want, if they would prefer you to take your shoes off.
Speaker: And then whether they answer yes or no, they didn't say no, don't come in.
Speaker: They said no, don't worry about taking your shoes off.
Speaker: So again, the key with this, just having that high level of sumptiveness, you're doing it with everyone.
Speaker: In the previous episode, we talked about dropping names to your advantage.
Speaker: So you're going to want to do a lot of this.
Speaker: have a high level of assumptiveness and that's gonna help you get inside these homes.
Speaker: Okay, and then as you're inside the home, as you're setting up the time, as you're setting up the same day appointment, get the other homeowner involved.
Speaker: If you can, re-pitch him.
Speaker: I had an appointment like this yesterday where I did talk to the husband and he shut it down.
Speaker: And yeah, it sucks, I didn't book the appointment.
Speaker: But really it saved me time in the end because what would have happened, I would have set up the appointment with the wife, then I would have got there, it would have been the same result with the husband.
Speaker: So in a way I was actually happy because I'm like sweet, I just saved myself a trip to this home.
Speaker: I would have spent minimum 15-20 minutes getting ready for this appointment, having everything set up.
Speaker: So now I know I didn't need to worry about it.
Speaker: So even if you have spouses that cancel it, that are mad that their wives set it up, if you can find that out when you're in the home before you go back for the actual appointment, it's going to be much better.
Speaker: Okay, that's number two.
Speaker: Get all decision makers there.
Speaker: Okay, and the last tip I have with this, book and solid appointments.
Speaker: Don't be afraid to send some reminders.
Speaker: This is another thing, when I started in the industry, guys were so afraid, and I was actually even taught this by a lot of my past managers, is, oh, don't send out reminders.
Speaker: Don't call them, don't do anything, because if you're doing that, that just gives them an easy out to cancel the appointment.
Speaker: So don't ever remind them, just show up.
Speaker: And yeah, I can see the thinking behind that.
Speaker: Because some people, yeah, if they're going to cancel over the phone, sometimes you'll get to the house and you can talk them into still making the appointment happen.
Speaker: So I do understand the thinking behind that.
Speaker: But I also see...
Speaker: I also see that just kind of the fear-based mentality, like it's kind of the scarcity mindset, is you're just planning for appointments to happen.
Speaker: But really you should be keeping so many appointments in the pipeline, so many leads in the pipeline, that if one cancels, it doesn't matter, you got two more to replace them.
Speaker: Grant Cardone talks about this all the time too.
Speaker: Have so many leads, create yourself new problems.
Speaker: Make it the problem that you're so busy that you don't have time to go to all your appointments.
Speaker: Then you're going to be stoked when one falls through because sweet, that means you can go to the other two you had set up.
Speaker: So that's the key with it.
Speaker: And I bring that up because I think you should remind people of appointments.
Speaker: Okay, for those reasons, it's going to clear up your schedule for other appointments that maybe you needed to go to.
Speaker: and then also with this as i started when i did this over and over and over i would get such a low amount of appointments that actually sit down with me just kind of going back to their home crossing my fingers that they would show up that's it would just really demotivate me like i knew i should go back out knocking but i had an appointment no show and i'd be like oh well this was already blocked off of my calendar
Speaker: I drove to it, took the time.
Speaker: Nah, I'm just going to hang out for a little bit.
Speaker: So it was laziness on my part, but if I could have confirmed these appointments beforehand, if I could have had them canceled beforehand and not showed up, then it would have made it a lot easier to go out and do some more prospecting, make some more phone calls, knock on doors.
Speaker: So that's my opinion of it.
Speaker: Do the reminders.
Speaker: Give them a phone call.
Speaker: I'm a big fan of phone calls.
Speaker: And with same day appointments, that's the other reason for same day appointments.
Speaker: You don't have to do any of this.
Speaker: You don't have to worry about spending time confirming them, spending time sending out texts, emails.
Speaker: You can just show up.
Speaker: But if you are booking next day appointments or two days later, I think it is important.
Speaker: Send them a reminder text.
Speaker: And like I mentioned in the beginning, a big reason that people cancel, it's not because they forgot a lot of times about the appointment time.
Speaker: It's more they forgot what are the benefits.
Speaker: So that's a key with it.
Speaker: As you're sending reminders, as you're sending emails, don't just remind them about the appointment time, remind them of the benefits too.
Speaker: Why did they want to book an appointment with you in the first place?
Speaker: Why are other neighbors doing it?
Speaker: So my recommendation is keep a tab in your notes if you're using an iPhone, which you all should be.
Speaker: That's what the true salespeople use, iPhones.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: they're the best but keep a notes tab keep some sort of saved template of reminder text of reminder emails because you don't want to be sending out a new text every time so if you're not already doing this just keep them they're called canned responses just keep them saved somewhere so easy accessible so you're not typing out a new reminder you're not sending out a new email it's gonna save you tons of time and all you have to do is copy and paste it over
Speaker: update the name and shoot it out.
Speaker: I'm also a big fan of selfie videos.
Speaker: These are something we used to do a ton.
Speaker: Need to try to incorporate it again, but then record a quick selfie video of what you're doing.
Speaker: People love that.
Speaker: So experiment with those two things and we're all about helping people save time.
Speaker: So don't be afraid to automate things too.
Speaker: If you're using, there's a lot of different CRMs out there, but I've mentioned before I use one called High Level.
Speaker: And it's great because you can set up templates in there, set up triggers.
Speaker: So it's a touch of a button that all these automations are going out.
Speaker: You can set up a reminder text sequence to go out and set up reminder emails.
Speaker: If someone no-shows an appointment, you can set up an automated sequence that will go out and try and get them to reschedule the appointment.
Speaker: Hey, I don't have time to do all this stuff myself.
Speaker: So set up something like this.
Speaker: Get all those sequences set up.
Speaker: If you have emails you send out, hey, we missed you.
Speaker: This is what's going on.
Speaker: We can get you in the schedule while we're out here.
Speaker: We're going to give you a free Nest Thermostat.
Speaker: We're going to, I don't know, maybe you got a promo going on in the neighborhood.
Speaker: So have all these things set up beforehand.
Speaker: So that way it's going to save you time.
Speaker: It's going to get these things automated for you.
Speaker: Okay, so that's my suggestions.
Speaker: Don't forget to send reminders.
Speaker: Don't be afraid of it.
Speaker: Embrace it.
Speaker: If you do these three things, don't set up an appointment more than two days out.
Speaker: Be sure all the decision makers are there.
Speaker: don't be afraid to send reminders and call I promise you it's gonna help your appointments be much more solid and the last thing in closing make sure you set the expectations what's gonna happen in that next appointment what are you gonna go over are they gonna be signing up then hey it shouldn't should never be a surprise when you ask them to fill out an application when you ask them to sign documents so if they know this beforehand
Speaker: If you've already told them what's going to happen, you're going to set up the likelihood of you closing the deal that much more.
Speaker: Make sure you're doing those things, okay?
Speaker: And let me know what you thought of the episode.
Speaker: Again, go in the Solar Preneur Facebook group and let me know who you want to see on the show, who you know that's crushing it right now.
Speaker: And as always, we're looking to bring the best content to you.
Speaker: Apologize for some of the wind and cars we had driving by.
Speaker: But hopefully you got the message.
Speaker: And we will see you all next week.
Speaker: Keep crushing in these summer months and stay cool.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
Speaker: And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.
