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FIRST SOLAR BLITZ! Hear my experience
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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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.
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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.
00:00:31
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What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
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A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Thanksgiving Recording and Gratitude
00:00:44
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Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.
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And if you are listening to this around Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving to you.
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I'm actually recording this on Thanksgiving Day.
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Just got done stuffing my face with pie and turkey.
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So if I sound a little, I don't know, bloated out of it, that's probably why.
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I definitely ate too much.
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But I hope you had a great one and we're going to be bringing you some fresh new content today.
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Excited to do an episode because I just got back from my first probably really ever solar blitz.
First Solar Blitz Experience in Dallas
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And it's something I've been interviewing a few people on here in the podcast.
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And a lot of teams are doing these little blitzes now.
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So naturally I had to try it out.
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see how it went.
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I'm going to tell you how it went on my first blitz.
00:01:26
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We did it in Dallas, Texas.
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And yeah, so let's jump into it.
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If you have not left us a review or shared the podcast, it would be much appreciated.
00:01:36
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Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am very grateful for all of our wonderful listeners.
00:01:41
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Grateful for those that have left reviews and shared the podcast because that's how we keep this boat moving.
00:01:47
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So my first blitz that we did it, like I said, Dallas, Texas.
00:01:52
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And I'm going to tell you the good, the bad things I wish we would have done a little bit differently and really just kind of my general experience.
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So let's get into it.
00:02:03
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um we planned this about i don't know two three months ago we're like hey um let's let's just try out a different market and it was actually from one of my buddies um he's been on the pod pack podcast dylan pancari he uh is the one that kind of approached me about it um he moved to idaho so i know he probably wasn't wanting to go knock doors in like negative 50 weather just kidding it's not that close it's not that cold yet
00:02:27
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But I think he was looking to be in a little warmer climate.
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So he said, OK, let's go try out Texas.
00:02:33
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I'm like, sweet.
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Brought some guys on.
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And next time, we'll probably open it up to the audience if any of y'all are interested in actually meeting up with myself and some other studs.
00:02:46
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Probably going to open it up.
00:02:47
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But this time, we just kept it a little bit smaller.
00:02:49
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I told some of my buddies about it, told some guys I work with.
00:02:53
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We had, I think, seven people out there.
00:02:55
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So not a huge team.
00:02:57
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And we get out there and the first thing that happened Monday, we go out, it starts pouring, just raining cats and dogs.
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And not to mention, it's super cold.
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I'm coming from San Diego.
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So our weather in San Diego was, I don't know, in the 50s to low 60s still.
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So still pretty warm.
00:03:17
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I got to Texas and it's low 40s, high 30s and just dumping.
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I'm like, man, what did I get myself into?
00:03:25
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It was raining super hard.
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Luckily, I brought an umbrella.
Team Camaraderie and Sales Focus
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So that's one thing that I did do good.
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Definitely.
00:03:30
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If you are planning to do a blitz, look at the weather, look at what you need to bring, because most our team, they didn't they didn't bring umbrellas.
00:03:38
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So I know a few guys went and got some, but it was like way too wet to be knocking without an umbrella.
00:03:43
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So that was how it started out.
00:03:45
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Raining, pouring, freezing, and the rest of the week was not much better.
00:03:49
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It didn't rain.
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I think this is the only day it rained, but it was freezing the whole week.
00:03:54
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I think the highest it got was like 50 maybe, but pretty cold, I thought.
00:03:59
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Um, so I'm going to tell you things that I liked about it.
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Hey, and then we'll get into some things that's, um, I think weren't so good.
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I think we could have done better with.
00:04:08
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So number one, um, what I liked about it was just really going as a team.
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I noticed that we had a lot more team camaraderie.
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I was able to get to know the guys that were there better than I ever had before.
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And even though we were working super hard out there, it was sun up to sun down cells, basically, it felt in a way like a vacation with the team.
00:04:27
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So my first thought was, hey, maybe if you're like a smaller team, maybe if you don't have, I don't know, budget to do like a big team vacation where your guys aren't cranking hard enough to justify that yet, do one of these blitzes because it felt like kind of a little vacation, even though we're working hard.
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That was one of my fears going out.
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I'm like, man, I've never really just worked sunup to sundown in solar.
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You know, I got my kids, got my wife.
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And so I go out every day, but it's not like a sunup to sundown thing for me.
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So it gave me the chance to go all in 100% and really just see what I could do.
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And then also it helped the other guys were doing the same thing.
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We really rallied around that.
00:05:10
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We're really just able to set some goals around that and all know we're just working as hard as we could.
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So that's what I liked, the ability to focus 100% on the sales and just the team camaraderie that
Adapting Sales Approach to Texas
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it brought.
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Number two, I liked that we got to try out a new market and really sharpen my sales skills because what I realized pretty quick is that the same way I sell in California, where we're literally cutting bills in half typically,
00:05:36
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That's not going to happen in Texas.
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And I know a lot of the listeners on the podcast, that's probably not how it is for you either.
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And so it for me, it made me realize, man, I have to focus a lot more on the things outside of savings for solar.
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Got to focus way more on the equity ads, on the value it brings to people's homes, on the independence it gives people and just other things that's being in California.
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Sometimes I brush over.
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I don't really hit hard as much as I need to.
00:06:03
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So, yeah, really help with that and just focusing on those things.
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And I felt like that's something I'm going to take back to San Diego with me and really implementing those things, those other factors besides just the savings.
00:06:15
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I think it's going to help my sales being in California.
00:06:18
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So.
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all the people that are selling in markets like California, it's not a bad, bad idea.
00:06:22
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Go try out one of these other markets where you're not saving people money, then see how you do.
00:06:27
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Hey, and, and in all honesty, I thought Texas for me, it was harder than California.
00:06:32
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Okay.
00:06:32
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Some people say, Oh, California is super saturated.
00:06:35
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Everyone's gone there, but I disagree.
00:06:37
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I thought it was pretty hard to sell in Texas.
00:06:40
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And I did, um, we locked down three cells or I locked down three cells, um, had one canceled already.
00:06:47
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And, um, so I guess being upfront, it did not go as well as I was hoping super cold.
00:06:53
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Um, I was hoping to get at least six cells, you know, cause we're working sunup sundown.
00:06:58
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So at the end of the day, I didn't reach my goal, but, um, I'm not super disappointed about it because I felt like we left it all on the table.
00:07:06
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We were working sunup to sundown.
00:07:08
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Felt like I did the controllables.
00:07:10
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And there's things that I could have changed that I could have done differently that I'm going to talk about here in a second.
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But really, whatever your situation in sales, that's all you can control at the end of the day is what is your input?
00:07:20
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How many people did you talk to?
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How many doors did you hit?
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How many sales calls did you make?
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How many follow ups did you hit?
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So I'm pretty happy with my inputs.
00:07:29
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There's still there's always better.
00:07:31
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I probably could have been making, I don't know, follow up, a few more follow up calls at night, doing some more in the morning, hitting the doors, maybe a little bit hard, taking a little less lunch break, things like that.
00:07:42
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But I'm pretty happy overall with the input I put it in.
00:07:46
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And that's all I can control.
00:07:48
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So that being said, let's go into things I wish I would have done different, things I wish I would have maybe adjusted.
Challenges and Market Adaptation
00:07:55
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Okay, and here's the first one.
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I wish I would have researched the market more.
00:07:59
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I got out there and like I kind of mentioned, I was treating it like California basically in the beginning.
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I was going out and just expecting people to be like, oh yeah, we've seen rates go up a ton.
00:08:10
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Um, we've been thinking about solar, just have heard negative things about it, but I realized pretty quick that people weren't having the same objections as they are in California.
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They're not having the same problems.
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Um, overall, I think Texans were a little nicer than Californians.
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Got some Southern hospitality, but, um, I had to pivot.
00:08:29
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I had to adjust.
00:08:30
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And if I would have researched this more, if I would have talked to more people that were selling in that market that were in Texas, I probably could have been ahead of the curve.
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because I think that's what happened to me.
00:08:40
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By the time I adjusted, by the time I started cranking some sales, I think it was too late.
00:08:45
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I think it was too late to get more sales.
00:08:48
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And we were only out there a week.
00:08:50
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I guess that's another point is it is tough to get in a new market and expect to crank in seven days.
00:08:55
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So I don't know, maybe would have done like a 10 day blitz.
00:08:58
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But yeah, so that's my first thing I should have done different is research the market more.
00:09:04
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Um, just Wikipedia, the towns I was going to sell in and then figured out like the demographic, exactly who I'm dealing with.
00:09:11
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And then also, yeah.
00:09:12
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And things like which towns have faster permits, which towns are better for solar, because I realized in Texas it's deregulated.
00:09:19
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So everyone has different, uh, energy providers.
00:09:22
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Not all of them are the same.
00:09:23
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Some are on super cheap rates.
00:09:25
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They're all on different contracts.
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And I knew that to a degree, but just these things, I wish I would have researched more.
00:09:31
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And then probably pick some better areas too.
00:09:34
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Because, I mean, you should never blame area 100%.
00:09:38
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But I think area for us was a factor.
00:09:41
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Our team, we had probably, I would say, at least 25, maybe 30 appointments either fall through or cancel during the week.
00:09:48
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So it was, yeah, we realized that these guys, you really got to lock them down.
00:09:52
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We went to so many appointments that just no showed that showed up to the door.
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We showed up and they canceled at the door.
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Just so many things like that.
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And I thought Californians were flaky, but Texans are definitely flaky just as much, if not more than Californians.
00:10:08
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But yeah, cells is cells.
00:10:09
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You have to deal with these things everywhere.
00:10:12
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And it could have been we're getting close to the holidays.
00:10:14
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It was really cold that week.
00:10:16
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Could have been a lot of things, but stuff that I didn't necessarily think about.
00:10:20
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And then number two, I think I should have asked people in the market about their door presentation, about their closing presentations.
00:10:28
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I already mentioned that I didn't know the problems the Texans were facing as much as Californians, because in California, my door presentation was
00:10:35
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I can basically walk up the door and say, hey, I'm just checking in.
00:10:39
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You guys saw the rates go up about four or five months ago.
00:10:42
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There's a big increase in electricity.
00:10:44
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And then 99% of people will be like, oh yeah, it's been terrible.
00:10:48
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Rates have been increasing.
00:10:49
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Our electricity is through the roof.
00:10:51
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And even if their bill is lower, 99% of people in California agree with me that their rates have gone up, that they're paying more for electricity.
00:10:58
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In Texas, that was not the case.
00:10:59
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I remember the first door I went to, I went up, I did basically my California door presentation, say, hey, you guys were here about the net metering project.
00:11:08
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You deal with electricity.
00:11:09
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Yeah, okay.
00:11:10
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So what it deals with, there was like a rate increase four or five months back.
00:11:14
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I'm sure you saw that in the bill.
00:11:15
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Give them a little head nod.
00:11:16
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And the first door was like, no, we've never seen our rates go up.
00:11:20
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Our rate is actually really low.
00:11:21
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And I was like, I didn't know what to say because I don't get that in California.
00:11:28
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So if I would have talked to people, I should have reached out to more guys in Texas.
00:11:32
Speaker
What are you guys saying?
00:11:33
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And I adjusted.
00:11:34
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It was another thing that I adjusted throughout the week.
00:11:36
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And I changed and I felt like I had more success.
00:11:39
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Pull out some different tools in my toolbox, but I didn't hit the ground running.
00:11:43
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because I didn't take the time to ask other people and see what's really working out there.
00:11:48
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So I should have just created the pain in different ways.
00:11:52
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Because Texans, I mean, they had that big freeze that went in, that the power went out.
00:11:57
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So that's something I didn't really hit on that I should have been hitting on.
00:12:01
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They have increasing distribution charges that are in their bill just from transmission distribution.
00:12:08
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But I had no idea about these problems.
00:12:10
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really.
00:12:10
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And I was not using them in my presentations.
00:12:13
Speaker
So whatever market you're in, it's a lesson that I hope you guys will learn from.
00:12:17
Speaker
Figure out what are the problems of your specific market.
00:12:20
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If you are blitzing in a different area, what are the problems that they're going through?
00:12:24
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Even if it's not necessarily having to do with electricity, maybe everyone's seeing, I don't know, food prices go up for whatever reason.
00:12:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:33
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Any pain you can bring, even if it's not necessarily related to solar, bring it up.
00:12:37
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Something we use all the time is, oh, you guys have seen how gas is going up, food's going up, and then just, you know, creating pain about other things, inflating.
00:12:46
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And it definitely makes it easier tying it back to electricity.
00:12:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:49
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So that's the second thing.
00:12:50
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Just really not researching what the problems were for that market.
00:12:54
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So those I say, I would say were really just the two things that I wish we would have improved more and that I would have passed on
Reflections and Personal Growth
00:13:02
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my team.
00:13:02
Speaker
And the last thing I'll say is we did have some people commit to come that backed out the last second.
00:13:09
Speaker
And so I wasn't the one that actually handled plane tickets, but we got plane tickets for all those that were committed to come.
00:13:15
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I think we had two or three people back out in the last couple of days before the trip, unfortunately.
00:13:21
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And I think we might have been able to get like credits for their plane tickets, but just, you know, unfortunate that not everyone can make it.
00:13:28
Speaker
So in this, I guess it's more for the people who actually booked the plane tickets.
00:13:32
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But I would say just lesson that I took from that is have people book their own plane tickets when you're doing these blitzes or, you know, reimburse them.
00:13:41
Speaker
If you're going to cover it, reimburse them instead of just paying for it.
00:13:44
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Because what it does, it gets them having skin in the game, right?
00:13:48
Speaker
You want them to have fill that
00:13:49
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commitment.
00:13:50
Speaker
And I don't know, these people, yeah, probably still would have, maybe they still would have bailed if they would have bought their plane tickets.
00:13:55
Speaker
But it just gives it a way higher chance that people aren't going to bail at the last second, right?
00:14:01
Speaker
And then, yeah, I mean, end of the day, I feel bad because my buddy Dallin, he booked everything, he kind of organized it, and we didn't hit our goals.
00:14:11
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We didn't do near as well as we were hoping.
00:14:13
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And because of that, he's, yeah, I mean, he's out on some of these plane tickets and Airbnb, rental cars, stuff like that.
00:14:19
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So overall, it was a great experience.
00:14:22
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Didn't get the result we wanted, but great learning experience, great camaraderie with the team, great experiencing at different markets and having to adjust my presentation, having to adjust the way I sell a little bit.
00:14:34
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And something I did too that I felt was helpful is just about midway through the week as I was realizing that I got to figure out what are the problems specific to that market.
00:14:43
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I went and just printed out a slick that had all these problems on it.
00:14:47
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Had, you know, the increasing distribution charges in Texas.
00:14:51
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And so that's a tip too that I felt was helpful for me is whatever market you're in, whatever blitz you're doing, look at those problems, look at where you're selling, print it out, put it on a slick, and then just try and utilize that in your presentations.
00:15:03
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So I definitely think I was able to create a problem better and draw more attention after I printed out some of these things and realized what the true problems were.
00:15:12
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So that's my experience.
00:15:13
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I hope you can learn from my mistakes.
00:15:16
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And I hope if you do a Blitz, it'll be an even better experience
Listener Engagement and Offers
00:15:19
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than I had.
00:15:19
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And you guys will crush lots of deals.
00:15:21
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Let me know any other feedback you have.
00:15:23
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Let me know if you've done a Blitz before.
00:15:25
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Would love to hear from you.
00:15:26
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Again, I'm at Instagram on at Taylor J. Armstrong over on Facebook.
00:15:31
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Haven't been as active there lately, but definitely shoot me a message.
00:15:34
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I get lots of them.
00:15:35
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So I apologize if I do take a day or two to respond, but I try to respond as quickly as I can.
00:15:40
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So I hope that helps.
00:15:41
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We got some exciting guests coming up soon that I was able to interview in Texas.
00:15:46
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Some heavy hitters, some of the top guys over at Pure Energy, which is actually the installer for the Blitz we did.
00:15:53
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They have some of the best sales people I've seen in the industry.
00:15:56
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for sure.
00:15:57
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So we got some of their talk top dogs coming up soon.
00:15:59
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Don't miss out.
00:16:00
Speaker
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and hope you continue to crush your goals before the end of the year or whenever you listen to this.
00:16:07
Speaker
Push hard, don't give up, and we'll see you on the next one.
00:16:12
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your cells increase?
00:16:18
Speaker
Well, so was I. And the truth is, I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
00:16:24
Speaker
So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free cells diagnostic.
00:16:29
Speaker
We'll break down your cells process.
00:16:32
Speaker
figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve so act 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