The Solarpreneur

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Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask 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. What's up Solarpreneurs!

Speaker 2 (00:41):

We're back with another exciting episode and we have a special guest on today. Come on from the heat of Las Vegas, the summer heat. We got the man Mikey Lucas on Mikey. Thanks for coming on the show with us today.

Speaker 3 (00:56):

Yeah, dude. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (00:58):

It's my pleasure. And we were lucky enough to have him out in San Diego, hanging out with us live in the studio. He had normally he's in Vegas, but yeah, I don't know how you survive that heat man is a feeling good. The San Diego weather, like it. It's unbelievable

Speaker 3 (01:11):

Dude, on the beach like two days ago. And I was like, I miss this.

Speaker 2 (01:15):

I know, right? Yeah. Tough to leave here. Um, yeah. I don't know how you guys do it knocking in Vegas, but

Speaker 3 (01:22):

Stay hydrated.

Speaker 2 (01:24):

Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I got mad respect for you guys out there working in Vegas. I know you've been in this, uh, quite a long time. Mike, you're one of the vets for sure of the industry. Do you want to tell us a little bit how you got into solar and um, how you ended up in Vegas? All that good stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39):

Yeah. That's why I got recruited, um, by a, a alarm company, um, back in 2013, um, started out in Baltimore and then went to DC and then Fort Lauderdale, Miami, um, I wasn't really sold on the fact of like door to door. I didn't know it was this big of an industry. I had no really clue at that point. Um, they, the guys that recruited me originally and were like, yeah, like you can come out and make like, you know, 60, 70 grand, a hundred grand, whatever in a summer. And I was like, oh, well, the restaurant that I worked at was really slowed in the summer and school was out during the summer. So let me ask my restaurant to see if they'll let me go. And I did. And they were like, yeah, you can, you can leave and come back. And I was like done sweet.

Speaker 3 (02:21):

I was like, Hey, like, would it make sense for me to let them get more hours? I'm like the rookie at the restaurant, you know, 20 years old, 21 years old. And uh, they're like, yeah, that's totally fine. Like no big deal. Like you're going to go do your thing. And I was like, yeah, I'll come back for busy season for conventions at the restaurants in Vegas, on the strip. And, uh, yeah, went out. Um, absolutely got crushed my first, like three weeks, um, in, uh, in Baltimore walking those massive stairs, but uh, selling alarm systems and it was, you know, it was, there's some good crime out there. So like, you know, people were buying alarm systems, but then I knocked into, uh, two different ladies, uh, in DC at that time, which is just like just, you know, around the corner Baltimore. So, um, I saw, I saw a yard sign out and I was like, you know, our house is powered by the sun or installed for free or whatever, zero down kind of concept.

Speaker 3 (03:07):

And I was like, oh, that's really cool. Like I saw solar like once or twice back home in Vegas when I was growing up. And I was like, that's really cool, but it's really expensive. And then, uh, I asked, I was like, Hey, like, can you tell me a little bit about your, your solar system? And the lady was like, not having it. She had solar city and she was like, not having it something. And anyway, no, she liked to solar, but she's not having me asking her questions. Okay, gotcha. No, she loved her solar, but so yeah. It's like when you pay money for it and it's, it's cheaper. And I was like, okay, awesome, sweet. Yeah. Like, you know, I was like not having a good day selling alarms. I'd probably, that's like, you know, had one at the time, but I had to go get a second or third deal.

Speaker 3 (03:42):

So I just kept knocking. I was like, let me just talk to somebody. I haven't talked to them in a while. And then it was, I took over and they have an alarm system that had been solar on it in DC. And after I sold it, um, I was like, Hey, like, can you tell me a little bit about this like solar system and? They were like, oh yeah, it was this, this, this like helped out. We didn't, you know, it was like either a lease or PPA. So like, yeah, we didn't have to put any money in our pocket. And we're, you know, our rates only going up 2.9% and yeah. You know, and, uh, you know, we got a lower rate and you know, the rates were higher out there. So like they dropped it significantly. You'll see, you know, big savings or whatever.

Speaker 3 (04:13):

And it's like, wow, that's awesome. I asked my manager, George. And he was like, yeah, this is not what we're doing. Like we're doing alarm systems, solar take too long, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, like George, this is what it is like we're having people pay $70 a month. They're saving $70 a month without paying anything. So we should do this. And he's like, no, David, we're not, it takes too long. And I don't know, this is, you know, going on 20, not 20 years ago, this is almost 10 years ago now. And at that time, solar was not a big thing. So after that summer, I came home, got back in the restaurant, uh, Gordon Ramsay steak, and, um, wanted to sell, sell door to door. And at that point it was like, Hey, like, can I sell and see, you know, alarms and soul in, in, in Vegas. And they were like, yeah, we actually have an alarm solar office in Vegas. I was like, perfect. So I got into solar at that time. And, uh, I think it was 20. Got, I got 2013 or 2014 started selling then, and then moved in with solar city. After I lost a bunch of deals to solar city, I was at can't beat them, join them. So I went and got paid solar men and wages, solar city for like two and a half, three years.

Speaker 2 (05:15):

There you go. It's been a long time. Well, now you are, I guess, off the mic. We were talking about this. We had like a 30 minute conversation on every single origin of as a solar history. So we'll keep it, that can meant a little bit condensed version for the podcast, but you can go hit Mikey up for every last detail if you want. But yeah, I guess the, to cut this long story short, basically now you're in Vegas. You have your own a dealer with Titan that right? Yup. Okay. What 40, 47 reps you said? No, we're good.

Speaker 3 (05:46):

Yeah. So we, we actually just got acquired. So I sold the company, um, a couple of a couple companies actually split from it. So we sold a couple of them off. Um, got acquired by a larger company. That's like 10 times larger than this. Um, and now I'm consulting for the company. So I don't actually work for the company, but I, but now I'm a consultant for that company. So there's, there's not just not just me going out and just selling, but now I'm consulting because they don't just own one company. They own, it's like mark Cuban of the companies. Like they own all these smaller dealers like me, but I'm just, you know, peanuts, but they want, they thought that I was the best for, you know, how to teach and sell solar, you know, work for Sam tiger fell a little bit time that I was doing that and got some experience there. I was like, oh, coaching is what I do is what I like. I'm not Michael Jordan, but Phil Jackson. Yeah. I cannot be the best at hitting the three point at, you know, the law on the buzzer beater, but I can teach the team on how to get to that point. So I was like, okay, so that's what I'm doing now. Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:38):

So you can solve for the entire, like all their different areas. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:43):

Yeah. And then I've got a couple of clients that I still work with on the side. I'm not on the side of them with them, but you know, uh, aside from that, I would say within that contract, but, um, yeah, I'm going for going for a, to be at the largest solar consultant pay $2 million a year, which is what I'm actually like, that's what I'm going for right now. Like there's certain metrics I have to hit and that's, I'll be a consultant being paid $2 million a year. So I'm pretty excited about that. Let's do

Speaker 2 (07:08):

It. Yeah. That's awesome. And yeah, what's really cool about Mikey. Um, everyone needs to be following them on Instagram. You got, um, I get some great, you know, nuggets just from following you, so appreciate you all the content you share on that. Thank you. But, uh, yeah, I know guys learned a ton from you and, um, you've coached a lot of reps, like you said, you've, we're consulting with door to door experts, Sam Taggart, um, own multiple businesses. You have, it seems like you get your hands in. Almost every business you can think of. He does it all. And we'll talk more about that here in a minute. Um, but yeah, for solar reps, I guess, what is it that draws you to just the coaching side of it? What made you realize that you wanted to be more than just the coach instead of necessarily like, you know, selling a time? What, what draws you to the more of the coaching consulting Mickey?

Speaker 3 (07:52):

So at solar city, um, I was never in the top 20% and then the top 20%, then you had to be selling, you know, 18 deals or more at that time. Like if you're not selling that many deals, you're not in the top 20% of the whole company. So I was still selling an average of like 11 or 12 deals a month, but I wasn't in the top 20%, but the top 200% guys always got more attention. And so it was kind of cool. Cause I was like the college kid in high college football college baseball that had a fight for the, to get up, to get to pros. And to me that top 20% going to the trips or Hawaii and whatever. Right. Um, that was pros for me. I was like, Hey, I want to be around the John. Frampton's the Taylor McCarthy's I want to be around these top guys.

Speaker 3 (08:30):

I, um, you know, court Reynolds and guys like that. And Elon Musk, like I want to be around these guys. Um, I, I really never was. So I had to figure out how to get to that point. So I have a, I have a soft, I have a soft spot in my heart for the guys that are the 21 to 40% company. So we can get those guys, the ones that actually have the drive. Those are the ones that actually stay a lot longer in the, because they still have to fight to make it. And they don't, you know, that you can't just rely on, you know, their good looks like they have to actually get better at it. Like I wasn't a natural born salesman. I wasn't naturally like I'm an introverted extrovert. I'm not really, it's not my favorite thing to do is go speak on stage even though I do.

Speaker 3 (09:12):

It's not my favorite thing to do, to speak in front of a office of 120 people. I don't, I'm not like this is, I'm so excited. I'm like freaking out sweating, sweat and doing that. But, um, yeah, just, just to help the, the 40 to 21%, which then helps all companies in all offices, in all owners out. Because if you can get those guys there, they'll stick around and there'll be loyal. So yeah, the goal was really to help the 40 to 21%. And that was the guys that actually wanted it to be there. The other guys you see, like, for instance, like yourself, probably even like, you're not alone ranger, but like, you know, a lone Wolf, but like you, you almost, you don't want to put bumpers on guys like that. You gotta let them run. Right. And then helping them find out like through person development, I've been sober now from a synthetic heroin for it's like going on nine years now. So I've had to through personal development, find out how to get better. And then that rolls over into, you know, the person development side of like getting better at not just, you know, not just going out and making money, but being a person of value. So figuring out how to do that and helping guys find what their, why is, what their passion is and you know, how, how we're going to actually change the world. I'm that weird kid that thinks I'm going to change the world. And I actually like got it. Ones

Speaker 2 (10:25):

That are crazy enough to think that usually are the ones that change it

Speaker 3 (10:29):

Day. I was like, dude, that's Steve jobs. I, didn't no idea. I'm like, yeah. I'm like the guy that I really think I can change the world.

Speaker 2 (10:39):

That's awesome. But no, I love that because I can relate a ton. Cause I've never been like, you know, that top I've always been, you know, one of the top, but I know for sure there's guys slinging more deals than I am. And that was like, basically the reason I started the podcast is just to be around that. Like you said, a lot of times, if you're not the top guy, then it's tough to get around those guys. So that's what I'm trying to change in the industry. Like Cal can we get around these top producers and learn from them and help the guys that aren't like the natural born salesman? Like I know for sure. I'm not in, that's cool to hear. We can really on that. But yeah. Another big thing you mentioned that I love is just like, there's so many guys struggling with external factors in this industry.

Speaker 2 (11:16):

That's holding them back. He talked about overcoming like addiction, heroin, all that. I see it so many times where that's like guys are addicted to different things in the industry. There's guys, you know, drugs, pornography, all types of different things that guys are just seeing that holds them back from having success in sales, in different things in our industry. And I love hearing guys that have overcome those things because it's a huge problem. Any guy I think, um, I mean, I'm sure you've seen a lot of guys have like add and the industry ADHD, we all want to like change stuff for all, you know, in different business ventures and stuff. I know you're in 20 different things, so it's like, how can we help guys, um, get better, maintain the focus and really get rid of these distractions and things that are holding them back. So yeah, I really just respect that, that you're trying to help, um, guys out. And so, um, I know you're consulting training right now and I want to talk about kind of shift gears. You're in quite a few different masterminds yourself. Um, we're talking about that off the mic here or off the recording. Um, so right now, how many different masterminds are you in McGee?

Speaker 3 (12:22):

A four. Okay. Or 5, 5, 5.

Speaker 2 (12:28):

See, okay. Um, so how

Speaker 3 (12:31):

Plus I'm being coached by two different people right now. Oh yeah. Yeah. High performance coaches.

Speaker 2 (12:35):

Okay. So yeah. Yeah. That's about as many masterminds and coaches you can have at one time. Um, so how have you, I guess, how have you benefited from all these masterminds and I guess w what's the importance of those in your life? It was even gone through them.

Speaker 3 (12:49):

The main thing, the main, like the main, main thing that I needed was I'm not the type of person where I'm like, Hey, I want to, I, I get value. This is not me. I, I don't get value from being the smartest best looking most, uh, you know, wealthy person in the room have the nicest, I don't get value from people saying, wow, Mikey Lucas is here. Oh my God. Like, I'm like, no, like I'm just a normal person, dude. Like grew up in normal Las Vegas. Like my dad's still, my family still has our 91 RV. Like we're not special. Like we just, like, I don't get value from people being like, wow, Mikey, I mean, that happens. But like, I don't, that's not my thing. I'm not like, oh, wow, that's all I get. You know? Um, if I didn't have that and I'd think less of myself, right.

Speaker 3 (13:37):

I wanted to be, but I was, I was continuing to be in that position where I was always the largest fish in the room, the biggest fish in the pond. And I'm like, I gotta be uncomfortable and get into a bigger fish ponds, bigger rivers, bigger oceans. And the only way to do that was to be in a mastermind. So I got, um, invited into thrive with colehatter pass through the interview process. And it was the most uncomfortable thing in the world because I was like, these people are so much richer than I am and they're way better. And then come to find out sure. A lot of them had more money, but they're just like me and you they're just like me. And yeah. So it was, I needed, I needed personally for myself to be in an ocean that I wasn't the biggest fish anymore because I wouldn't, you know, show me your five best friends.

Speaker 3 (14:24):

We'll show you. We're going to be at in five years concept, like in all aspects of life. Um, but I've yeah, I've learned, I learned a ton, um, being coached by high-performance coaches, uh, Mike says next a high-performance coach of mine. Uh, they've been coached by my Michael Berg. Just got a, his program recently. Oh, cool. Um, like those, those types of, of like accountability, like nobody, everybody says they want to be held accountable if they don't really want to be held accountable. Um, for me, I get, I flourish when I'm actually being told, Hey, you're doing this really. But if you did this and this and this slightly different or somewhat better, you would get to the next level where you're gonna be able to help more people. And I'm like, okay, like that's what I need. I want to be, I don't want to be, I don't want it yet.

Speaker 3 (15:01):

I don't want to be yes, man. Like don't tell me, oh, you're so great at what you do. Like that's fine. I, I know that I'm not for self-sabotage. I don't want you to, I actually have to train my guys out of that. Most of them like, oh, door suck. I was terrible there. I'm like, I have to convince them to not do that. I'd say, Hey look, like, what are the three things you do right first? And then we go to one thing you did you think you messed up on the opposite round? Cause it were so pushing. Like I sucked here. I didn't do well there. I had my transition sock. My tonality was terrible. It's like relax buddy. But yeah, no masterminds. Um, yeah. I just, I know that. I don't know. And I know that I don't know everything and you know, I, I want to be around people like, you know, Henry Ford quote of like, I don't have to know everything I've got, uh, I think he said like a petroleum button, like a plastic button.

Speaker 3 (15:48):

Okay. And six plastic buttons in front of me with the, I can call anybody with any of the answers that I need. So just masterminds have helped me grow and see that there's so much more out there that people that actually have money that are in those types of masterminds are actually trying to give back a lot more than I thought. Cause most people think, oh, you've got money. You're uh, you know, your POS or, you know, you're just selfish. Like you drive a Ferrari. It's like, no dude, these dudes that have like nicer cars are like giving away hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year. Yeah. That's awesome. And philanthropy. So it's yeah. That's

Speaker 2 (16:24):

Cool. Yeah. And you can only grow if you're around people like that and yeah. Like, you know, off the recording, you're just saying how like guys know in the mastermind, if they screw over one person, then they're getting booted out of the group and they can't come back in. That's awesome to have that level of trust and that level, you know, accountability and all that. And it's like, you know, you're going to improve and take guys to the top with you. But yeah. My other question was like being in so many masterminds here in so much information from all different people, um, like how do you, how do you actually like decide what you're going to implement and how do you actually like, you know, get value from all of these and take it into one because I mean, I'm in one mastermind right now and I feel like there's a lot to like implement and, and improve on. But I can't imagine being in four and then having like two separate coaches and stuff like that. So how do you decide, okay, this, this is worth my time money. I'm gonna spend it. How have you decided to like be in that many different groups and not get overwhelmed and I guess pick and choose which one, you know, can benefit somebody.

Speaker 3 (17:22):

I was telling you earlier. I was like, there was one mastermind that I said I wasn't, I wanted to be in, had the money to be in, it could have got into it, but didn't remember. So I turned that one down, even though I would want it to be in that one. I'm still able to say no to certain of them, a certain masterminds. Um, luckily I haven't been in a mastermind that I didn't really appreciate and like, and learn from and grow from and also add value to. But, um, the things that I don't learn a lot about, but hold this in and I'm like trying to like, Hey, like I should probably know about this is like marketing. Yeah. Like, you know, marketing and things like that, where it's like, you know, for instance, like what you're doing now, it's like, you're building your personal brand up.

Speaker 3 (18:03):

And you know, I been, I was two, two years ago. I was like, I don't know why I want to build a personal brand, but I'm just a doorknocker that sells solar panels and teaches people how to, you know, develop and make money and invest money. But, um, things like that, I just archive them. I'll take notes on them and I have tons of notes and then four times a year I'll go back through and I have this ideas list. So assistants of mine, um, if I'm ever like, Hey, like that's an idea. They have a list of ideas that Mikey says, this is an idea. And it's usually something that pops up or I heard somebody saying something I'm like, Hey, that's an idea. Let's try to figure out how to do that. They have a whole list of that. I'm just archiving those, come back to Stephanie.

Speaker 3 (18:44):

Got them. Exactly. Exactly. Or if it's like, Hey, like, you know, I was with Dom, Dom Carney this weekend and he's, he's like a drop shipping gangster. And I'm like, I don't know how to do that. And I don't really think that has any applications to solar, but if I ever need to figure out, you know, supply and demand is like, like I can, I can go to him and ask him a question, stuff like that. So, yeah. Um, yeah, that's awesome. I'll archive them. And then, okay. So there's, there's like if you go to an event, I always teach guys this no matter what, if I ever see them at an event, I'm like, Hey dude, if you're going to be at an event like this, you know, 10 X growth con, there's going to be like three things I learned from Dave already.

Speaker 3 (19:21):

There's going to be like three things that you're gonna, that you're going to be able to tell me about what 2019 DOR con was about. Right. You're gonna remember like three things and that's it. So look for those three things, write everything else down and then focus on those for the next six months. And that's it. It's a good idea to just overwhelm ourselves. It's same thing in a book. Like if you told me, you know, three things you learned about pitching anything and you know what, what's the wait, what? Like, you know, they tailor what's, what's the what's what do you remember most about pitching anything? You're going to tell me two to four things. Right. And that's it. So it's the same thing. Whenever I go into a book, we try to retain everything because we're told to add like, and we're not going to be able to, then it's like reverse psychology.

Speaker 3 (19:58):

It's like, you're not going to remember everything. So now I got to try to remember everything. Yeah. But you're not going to, so you might as well go into it with the proper expectation of like, Hey, we're about to walk into a storm. Let's not have every, you know, let's not have the couches in the, in the, in the, you know, everything out let's, let's Batten down the hatches, go into the storm correctly and know how to navigate through this. So it's really just about being able to navigate, um, and just archiving and knowing that yes, it's exciting. Yes. It was awesome content, but you cannot apply it right now because if you do that, it's not, yeah. It's not gonna help your team. Yeah. I was going to say it's selfish, but I've learned more like you have to be more selfish to help your team out kind of, kind of thing, but it's selfish in a bad way. Yeah. Yeah. It's like using money for the wrong thing. It's selfish in a bad way because you end up going on this tangent that doesn't help your team out at all, or the people that you're around. So you just archive it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:46):

I love that. And yeah, I agree. A hundred percent just cause I've heard, um, you know, I've spent a lot of money in like personal development, the courses, the programs, the events, but that's one of my biggest issues is I go to these things then yeah. You asked me two months later, what I even got from that thing. And there's been times where I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I can't remember anything from that. Just spent two grand to go to that event, but I don't know what I took away, like why I went to it. So I think there's people out there like, you know, like me that go to these things that don't get stuff out of it that don't apply it and that's a big issue. So yeah. I appreciate that. That's something I'm going to start doing right down the street things. I will

Speaker 3 (21:25):

Add one thing to that. Yeah. Um, I learned it from Tony Robbins and you know how like he like helps people to jump up whatever. Yeah. So he talks about like your state, like if you're not in a super excited, like I'm here, I'm alive, you know, I'm alert. I'm well, like I'm in that type of a state, you know? Um, you're not, if you're not in an emotional state, it's not going to stick. So if you're kind of like slumping back, whatever, like I'm not really, I mean, I don't know what I'm gonna get out of this, but I'm gonna try to get something out of it. You know, if you don't set the proper expectation and then continue not just setting expectations that you can set all the, oh, I've got great intentions to go make a million dollars and buy a Ferrari, knock on doors, selling solar panels in Southern California.

Speaker 3 (22:00):

But you know, road, the good, you know, the, the road of good intentions leads to hell or whatever, you know, it's like, you don't just have to have good intentions. You don't set it right up. You can, you need to set the expectation. But if you're not continuing to stay at a high energy level of like, I'm here, like something that you have, I need for the very next level of chess, like the very next move. I need that at the, and I've, it's almost like an adventure, like a treasure hunt, like history and treasure hunts back in the day, you said it really excited me. So like, I'm always like, there's one thing I'm like, what's that the one thing was that the one thing, and then just try to emotionally with your teams after sit down and be like, how can we apply this?

Speaker 3 (22:39):

And what did we learn and why? And just like, dig, dig, dig, dig. Yeah. It will help your teams help. It'll help your teams get more out of it as well. Okay. And then just train on that for 2, 3, 4 months after that. Not every single time, but train on those so that they, so that you don't go spend a bunch of money on a team to go to a Tony Robbins event or Greco-Roman van or, you know, knock store, door, order van. And then all of a sudden it's like, you know, we have no idea why we did. Yeah. Sales went up. We could, but we can't duplicate it because we don't know why that's okay.

Speaker 2 (23:07):

Awesome. I love that nugget right there. Yeah. You're already seeing me this, that, um, what I thought was really cool is you have your reps. You're creating that culture of learning in your offices right now. And you're actually paying reps to, you know, read books. You give them like basically incentives to read a book and then train on the material they learn. Cause yeah. How many times will you just take it in? We have no idea what we remember. Think that's a big thing that will change that is go out and train someone, go out and teach someone. What you learned is grant Cardone says that to you don't truly know something until you can teach it to another person. That's some, yeah. So that's the money advice right there too. Um, but yeah, my second question with Mikey is like, with all your masterminds and coaches, all that you've joined, how do you decide, like not being in the mastermind?

Speaker 2 (23:51):

How do you set? Okay, this is going to be worth my time, my money and my investments. How do you decide that? Cause I know some people out there are thinking of maybe getting a coach, maybe you're thinking of joining a rockstar or I mean, we're launching coaching. There's all these coaches out there, all these programs you can go join, but how do you decide, okay, this is going to really move the needle in the direction that I need. This is going to get me the help and how, what what's helped you to, I guess, make that decision when you've tried to join these groups.

Speaker 3 (24:19):

What I trade places with where they're at right now. If I wouldn't trade places with Cole Hatter two years ago, I want to join his mastermind. Okay. I wouldn't trade places with ed Mylet or Andy Frisella. I wouldn't have joined the mastermind. I wouldn't, I wouldn't done it. Okay. So I, I'm not going to trade places with you right now where you're at currently, not where you're going to be. I won't join your mastermind. Hmm. Okay. Because I'm trying to get better. And I, and I, you know, you're not have to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect. And there are certain things that I don't know about with where your personal yet Cole Hatter, Andy Frisella ed mallet. But if the majority of it seems as if I would trade places with you, then I can one, I can add value to you because I'm a lot younger lung younger than ed Mylet.

Speaker 3 (25:08):

I can give him that spark again, that he felt at 29 years old, where I'm at and encourage him. So that's my main, that's like the main, main filter. If that doesn't pass that, then it's definitely not, but there's a significant of process after that. But that's the main thing. If I won't trade places with them and like whole life success, not just money ed, my life was a toll, you know, not a nice person. I wouldn't like any of his content. He's one of my, like, you know, idols who I look up to as an all star to me, dude. Love him. Nice. Yeah. I love that. That's great advice

Speaker 2 (25:44):

Right there. Yeah. Go see what they're doing. Um, cause he had a lot, a lot of talk for sure on social media. Um, guys seeing they're making money's driving Lamborghinis, but would you actually want to trade place with them? And a lot of guys they're super successful in business, but maybe they're going to their third doors. You know, it's like, if you don't want that, if you want all the money, go learn from them. But if you want to be successful in marriage and other stuff, don't go learn from them. Like Elon Musk. He's what launching all these coming Tesla taking rockets to Mars and all that stuff. But on his, I don't know, third gone through divorce and all that work in 80 hour weeks. Like maybe, maybe if you don't want to work 80 hour weeks and launch rockets, then go, go find a mentor that you do want to learn from.

Speaker 2 (26:27):

So yeah, that's a love that that's for sure. And nugget right there. Um, and yeah, I want to shift gears, Mikey. You've had obviously a ton of success in the solar industry, coaching reps, helping train. And I love what you're saying about training your reps, just creating that culture of them to learn and them to really themselves and make their own adjustments because that's another thing is like, you need a good coach, but also you need to train yourselves to, um, they really recognize things you can improve on. So can you talk about a few of the things I know we were talking off the recording here. Can you talk about few things that you've implemented in your training of reps in, in your offices that you've done to help create that culture just of learning and helping them make their own improvements?

Speaker 3 (27:07):

Yeah. So the main, the main thing is to create a self-sufficient golden door award-winning rep. Okay. The main thing is to create a self-sustainable golden door award-winning rep, which, you know, rep leader manager, regional manager like create the self-sustainable. So how do you get to that 0.1? It's they can, they don't, they don't need, they need, they can, they have the capability to make decisions, critical, critical thinking on their own. Most people that are in their twenties and even in their thirties, we're not taught that I don't care how many books you've read you. Weren't taught that. And if you didn't, the one thing I really like about door-to-door is that we are being challenged every single day to think critically, you know, police show up and you're like, I don't have a permit to knock your, what do I do? How do I get out of this?

Speaker 3 (27:57):

You know? So like you have to think critically. Right? Um, so yeah, the, the main thing is to create the self self-sustainable golden door award winner, um, in any industry that is how do you do that? There's a few ways that we do that, that I've, I've tried lots of things like, oh, it's not like a book club or like a mastermind style. But like, if you don't, if you don't take into consideration this one thing, um, it's likely going to fail, which is people only do what they're incentivized to do. So if we know that, you know, if you, if you're only going to do what you're incentivized to do, then you have to figure out what with you personally tailor how you can reward yourself, right. How you can have a specific amount of your finances put away to go and swipe a card and be like, oh, I just bought some $60 pair of Lulu shorts or whatever, right.

Speaker 3 (28:41):

Or a hundred dollars. I don't even know that they're a hundred. Okay. Um, I'm at the room at the Nordstrom's rack or whatever, you know, the Lulu rack or whatever, get them on sale. But, um, you know, uh, you know, find out what, what, what, what to do to incentivize you, to get to where you want to be. Um, in that we have two different things that we do that we were talking about earlier. The first one is that we pay for. So we call ourselves a personal development company that just so happens to sell smart home products. So that's when recruiting, it's a little recruiting nugget right there. Like, Hey, like, you know, oh yeah, come make a bunch of money. No. Like, Hey, come and learn how to personally develop, make a bunch of money and then invest it. So there's three parts towards not just making much money.

Speaker 3 (29:20):

Everyone's like, yeah, I'm making a bunch of money. Look, I've got my model three or whatever. Okay, cool. Like where are you going to charge your car out here in San Diego? Right. Then I kinda went anyways. So the money part's there, but the personal development and then also investing it is very important. So, um, what we do is we have a book club. Um, we incentivize our guys every, every, all everybody gets this, um, whether you're in or whatever. Um, and everybody has a Booklist everybody's virtually required to do this. Right. Um, but they're incentivized to do it so that it's not like, oh, I got a buck. So when, when, when I initially say test book, report, people go and start getting anxiety or freaking out. A lot of my guys, you know, they like straight a students and they're like, oh God, this is no big deal.

Speaker 3 (30:02):

But they're 24, 23, 29, 34 years old now. And they're like, you know, they don't want to take tests anymore, but if I can incentivize them and show them how they are going to become a better person when they do this and it's going to lead into better habits, which then gets them to what they want and the freedom that they want within their life, I can help them by paying them $50 for the book, for them to read the book or listen to the book they write, they write a two page front and back report on it. And I tell them like, look, dude, cheat. I don't care. Go online. You know, rich dad, poor dad quotes and write down all the quotes you see there. And obviously, you know, we can, we're going to tell, but I'm like, dude, like if you're loo, if you can only do one page of notes for yourself, am I asking for an essay?

Speaker 3 (30:47):

But if you can't write down all these two pages, I don't care writing 25, 50 font, doesn't matter, just write it out. And then they present it to a manager and they presented to a manager. It's like, it's a minimum of three minutes to the manager explaining what they got from the book. So the three things, two or three things they got from the book and then explain some of that through some of their notes. So you, you, you know, you retain roughly 10% of what you read or listen to, you know, 20 to 30% of what you read, listen to and write down. And then 60 to 80% of what you read, listened to and then go and teach. And so we've, we've kind of hacked it where we're getting people to actually teach us back to the books. So we're really helping them, reprogram their minds to understand it, think, and it's obviously, you know, they're not going to go and read, you know, I don't know Pilgrim's progress in our, in our sole office.

Speaker 3 (31:33):

It's, you know, they're going to read specific books, the survival guide, pitch, anything, um, how to win friends and influence people, rich dad, poor dad, um, you know, a compound effect, you know, mini habits, um, way of the Wolf that books like this month, Tony Robbins, money master. And they're gonna read books like that and they're going to come back and present it to us. Now, my managers are being taught it by somebody that just read it, that they might not have got that one nugget from that. They just got that. So they're being now taught by everybody else. It's a culture of now we're masterminding coaching and teaching everybody. So it's awesome. Then we buy the book back from them. So they, so we take a picture of the notes. We put it into a Google drive, that all their notes that they've ever written on all these books and they have access to it too.

Speaker 3 (32:09):

And then yeah, we're buying the back of the books. So if they bought on audible, you know, 1499 or whatever the book would cost, we, we give them back that and we give them 50 bucks for the report. So the second one we do that works out really well. We get a lot of it's, it's less, it's less like I've got to read a book and I got to write a report. Like it's people really, really want to do that. And then it also helps with the guys that are not in the top 20% of the company. They want to do that more so they can get more time with the managers. So that's another way to help guys fight, to get to the top. So they want to prove themselves by, Hey, I'm going to be reading all these books on my off time, instead of partying or going to the gym.

Speaker 3 (32:43):

A bunch of times, I'm actually doing personal development or while I'm at the gym, I'm listening to books or whatever. The second thing that we do, um, is that that's very important in the beginning of someone coming onto a door to door company, that they get money right away. That's one of the best ways we pay them. So we pay them off of merit, meritocracy bleed, a meritocracy Ray Dalio talks about when you pay them to personally develop, then you're making them, you know, you're making a monster at that point. That's awesome. If we want to, I want to make people that are like cold killers that are like, I can do anything, you know, pay mind to it. I can do it. Right. The second thing we do is we do that, um, uh, door knocking, critiquing sheet. So I've got a template that we go through, like body language, verbal nonverbal, um, tonality, uh, you have your pullbacks, your takeaways, your objections, and they're writing it out on paper.

Speaker 3 (33:31):

I just scripted it out. I'm like, Hey, like I was told, I think 2015 that this is what one of the top reps did. I was like, well, the top reps doing that, I gotta do that. I would write out, you know, what the, what the common objection I would get and then write out three ways to overcome it. And he showed me this like long book of like all these objections that he's come up with. And a lot of them are just the same over and over again. But he's just like learning and learning and learning. And, and eventually, you know, through the mysterious brain that you have, you come up with something that works and then boom, you just, you know, you're just, you're being on the craft. So, um, we did that. We got them in like a little spiral bound notebook.

Speaker 3 (34:07):

So they can, they're not like loose leaf anymore, a spiral bound notebook where it's like that template. We just printed out like office Depot or whatever. And then, uh, and then now they're now they're being coached and taught through that. So then we pay them $50 as well, $50 for if, if they record the door approach, if they write out the critique on it and the door closes. So if it closes on the spot, they're getting an incentive right in the beginning. And then that creates a culture of someone that's self sustainable, where they don't have to ask you for help in the future. They will ask you for help on bigger things, but they don't have to ask you for help for the little things. Yeah. And that takes a lot of your time up as a, as an owner, as a manager of an, of multiple offices. Like you can't, you don't have that as time like that. Right. And also your managers won't have enough time like that. So we're helping them become and help them find the answer instead of being like, oh, where did I put my keys? You know, it's like, not like you, you, you hung your keys on the door every single day. Cause that's your routine. Your routine is you come home and you work on your script. Right. So yeah, we pay them, we pay them to do that too. So it's awesome. That's sweet. I love

Speaker 2 (35:03):

That culture because yeah, I'm sure you've seen him. The best reps are the ones that go to the managers get the help. There's so many people that just wait to be helped and they're not the ones making the massive improvements. The guys who are going out there chasing it, taking that initiative. It's a powerful idea. Um, what about like for noggin? I'm just curious. Cause like Vegas man, it's like 120 degrees out there. Like how are you getting guys to create that culture of knocking, like getting out there? Cause I mean, I got lazy reps in San Diego and where we got like 75 degree weather out here. So if you can get guys to go out and 120 degree weather, I want to hear what's working for that. So anything you do to create that culture of knocking in that brutal heat,

Speaker 3 (35:44):

What's helped, um, is going in spurts. Okay. Going in sprints, um, having people around as well. So like team knocking, we do a lot of team knocking, um, where, you know, there'll be core groups of like five or 10 people going out to one specific part of the town and they're all spread out and they know that they're all out together. And then the, the car leaders, like the managers, the assistant area sales managers, there are like very in charge of making sure that the, the aura, the mindset is high listening to, you know, you know, I don't know what's that, uh, post Malone used to have friends now I've got Dan and he was like, we're not listening to that stuff. Going out to hood. We're listening to positive stuff, going out to hood like,

Speaker 2 (36:27):

Like the solar premier podcast.

Speaker 3 (36:29):

Exactly. Right. No joke, dude. Seriously. That's that's that type of stuff is what actually works is why it's, it's freaking door to door. Yeah. I need to know that I can make it that's all people want to know is that they can actually, they're going to make it through this and by hearing it from you, right. Oh yeah. Are, you know, they're gonna listen this podcast going out to it. And I'm like, oh, it was, uh, it was, uh, you know, it was a crap show out there and you know, I can still make it. So, um, yeah. So, uh, car groups works really well. Uh, keeps accountability there, um, incentivizing first or last or first store appointments, last two appointments and making that really, really hype, um, incentivizing, you know, paying for, you know, like gas cards, you know, a little, you know, if they like to go to Dutch bros or Starbucks or whatever, little gift cards here and there for like the person that's, you know, finishing the race, staying out there longer. Um, what else has worked? Uh, yeah, the spurts. So having, uh, we have somebody that drives around to each of our, each of our, um, like sections of where our guys are knocking at drop off snacks, got coolers, little drinks, you

Speaker 2 (37:32):

Know, care package, care

Speaker 3 (37:35):

Packages, awesome. Cold stuff. So it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (37:39):

Um, I'm just imagining call of duty, like care package dropping in the battlefield.

Speaker 3 (37:44):

What do you think? We got the idea though. Yeah, that's a, yeah. I mean, staying at staying super hydrated, um, one of the other things is I would mandate mandatory, make them stop in the middle of the day between one and like 2:00 PM and they would get their lunch. They'd go do crowd therapy, NormaTec and red light therapy. So they would be doing, yeah. So they were, the guys that were selling were being paid to go there. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. They'd go be paid to go do crowd therapy, NormaTec and go do rest and recovery. It's like going and being an ice bath and then going back out to work. So they were, they would eat together or in their CarGurus eat together and then wherever the cryotherapy places were at, they'd go and do that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:24):

Wow. That's cool. I'm going to try that. I'd have to try cryo cryotherapy. It's almost like an athlete recovering before the next game or something ice bath before the game. That's well awesome. Mike, you know, I love hearing the high level stuff you're doing and um, again, go follow them. And last thing I want to kind of learn from you is just maybe some specific stuff we can go out and implement out there. Um, for those that are knocking for those that are closing, I know when you're a big things to do and takeaways, and you've talked about that on Instagram. Um, so just do a guest, I guess, give some people some specific things they can do, um, takeaways, pun in standard, right? There are some specific takeaways they can go and implement today. Um, do you mind sharing just, I dunno, some takeaways you guys use maybe in the doors and closes things that are helping you guys, you know, book appointments and close deals out there in Vegas. Sure.

Speaker 3 (39:15):

Yeah. Um, some of that can make the mental right away. One is record yourself. Um, for one they're not recording themselves, I can almost guarantee you, they're not recording themselves. If you're not recording yourself to take it from me, bro, I don't have to work anymore. I've got enough passive income that I don't have to work ever again in my entire life, but I continue to do because I want to make a bigger impact with like global issue stuff. So, um, and that's from me getting better and because I was recording myself on the door and then I would go back and I did, I gave it up for free. Like, I don't know, like six months ago they can DM me or they can DM you that you'll have it as well. Is that critiquing tool. Okay. If you have, if you record yourself and then you go back and you use the tool, you will get better.

Speaker 3 (39:52):

So that alone will make somebody more money than me giving you one pullback, spoonful, one pullback that I do, or one takeaway that I do so different from that pull back and I take away a pullback is, is like a, like a, a time constraint. You know, the main thing that people are not realizing that on doors, um, especially if you're in like a Vegas, Arizona or San Diego or Southern California area where it's, we get knocked a lot. Um, our doors get knocked a lot, um, is you have to relieve the pressure. You have to relieve the pressure. So if you're not throwing in one-liners, um, like, Hey, you know, sorry to bug ya. I actually just wanted to drop off my business card. And I'm not sure if you guys saw the trucks and I just want to invite you over to an open house.

Speaker 3 (40:34):

Um, did, did you guys kind of hear about that or no. See us on nextdoor or Facebook or anything like that or seeing the flyers in the mail? Um, cool. No worries. Yeah, like I said, I actually got to get going here in a second, so I don't, I don't have much time. We're the last house houses here before I get to clock out and go home. Um, so I'll, I'll, I'll do my very best to really, um, alleviate pressure that they have to buy something right now. I'm not leaving until you sign up for solar panels right now, same day.

Speaker 3 (41:03):

So, you know, and that, that also goes back to, you know, burning doors, right. If you burn a door you're vulnerable and it burned a whole neighborhood concept. Um, but yeah, as far as like takeaways goes, um, yeah, so I don't, I don't, you know, there's so for me, um, I tell my guys, Hey, look, you've got 15 permits per month. You can do, um, there's guys that are selling over 15 deals a month, but you know, on average, you know, they're going to hit 15 deals. I go, look, you only have 15. So if you're at 12, you have three permits left in this neighborhood because that's how many deals I'm in this month. So this month I've only got three more permits. Um, I don't know if this is going to be a good fit or not. Um, but if it, if it works out, um, you're going to love it.

Speaker 3 (41:48):

But the catches that I don't know if they're going to select this house because of certain things, or I don't know if this is really going to be a good fit for you or not. Um, you've probably looked into this before. Um, so there's, there's like one there. That one good one there, but it's good. Um, another one, um, is, and I put this on Instagram the other day, cause I was like, can I use some whole time? Um, and I was like, I didn't realize I did it, but I listened to a video and I was like, wait, that's a one liner. That's a break pullback. It was, uh, it was, yeah. So basically really quick. What I'm gonna do is I'm going to go check to make sure you guys have the right meter. Okay. So this was like a little secret that we do. All right here. It is

Speaker 2 (42:24):

Drop that isn't secrets. I mean, I made this up. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:27):

Uh, most meters that I've seen have the symbol or the number sequence, um, 30 TA or it's TA 30. Um, and apartment buildings have like 25 or like 15 TA houses have 30 or 50 TA. So if they have a 15 TA it means they're an apartment. Can we put solar on an apartment? Okay. Yes we can. But no, we can't. Right. You're not going to knock an important apartment where they don't own the house. Right, right. They don't own the roof. They don't own it. So if they have a 15 TA it's not going to work. So I'm like, yeah. So if you have a 15 TA meter, like I'm not even gonna waste your time, you're not going to be good fit for this program. You have to pay like five, 10 grand or whatever to get the new meters. And it's just not going to make sense for you.

Speaker 3 (43:05):

Let me just go, make sure you have the right meter. I'm go ahead and grab utility bill. The utility usage looks like just like this. If you're not using enough usage, I, again, I'm not, I don't want to waste your time. It's very, they're really picky with who they allow into the program. I'm going to make sure you have the right meter. And if it, if it works, if you do have the right meter, I'll kind of show your options. And then we'll see whether or not, it's going to be a good fit for us to talk. Otherwise I'll just tell you, Hey, look, I'm not gonna waste your time. I'll just kind of take you off my list of sound fair, cool. Grabbing usage really quick. I'm gonna grab your, grab your meter and I walk away, boom, that, and then, and then when I get to the meter, if they come with me and there's another one, like I'll pull them out of the house and I get them to come look at the meter with me.

Speaker 3 (43:36):

And I'm like, look, obviously I know what I'm looking at. Yeah. I know what I'm looking at. Right. But I, I look as if I'm puzzled, you know, I'm kind of like just pointing out the here. All right. So I kind of like wipe my head, sweat off my head. And I went right back at the meter and I go, um, okay. It looks like you do the right meter. And I pause specifically, I'm not joking dramatic, positive. Cause you're like, oh my God, am I going to qualify? Cause my clients, not every time, but a lot of times, a lot more times than I have seen. And didn't even realize people that shout at me, they're like, they literally said, what's the next step? How do we get qualified? Where do we go from here? You know, what's how do we do the credit check?

Speaker 3 (44:22):

It is, you know, is, is, is there enough spots on this street left? And I'm like, like when you get to clients to do that, it's because they're making the, you're not like, so yeah, if you, if you, you know, if I lower the price of $3 a month and lose $3,000 in commission, you guys sign up today, um, or whatever it looks like, you know? Um, you know, so yeah, doing pullbacks and doing dramatic pause and stuff like that works, it's a lot. So it's like, you know, they want to get them to qualify. So I will pause dramatically and be like, okay, I'm good. Just in case some, some of them got them, some of them didn't

Speaker 2 (44:58):

That gets me stressed. You pause like that, man. I have to try that need like a drum roll going in the exec to pause. Oh yeah. But no, I think that, yeah, I can see that helping a ton and yeah. Any, I think any successful rep is doing that and the pull backs takeaways, because he has taken the pressure off of a yes or no decision. Like that's not the decision. Right. It's just, am I qualified or not? That's the question at that point. So yeah, I think that's a huge key, especially in saturated areas. That's basically, you know, I think the only way to sell in super saturated areas, just taking the pressure off of that decision. Um, well, cool, Mikey, I appreciate all the stuff you've shared with us today. Some golden nuggets you've dropped on us, a ton of takeaways we've gotten from, um, the content you've shared. And I know you're in a ton of different businesses. So guys go give Mikey a fall. If you're not already, he's at dropping some fire, some heat on Instagram every day. So Mikey, where can people find you on Instagram and all that and connect with you? I've got a,

Speaker 3 (45:56):

My Instagram, my Facebook and then YouTube. Um, so it's uh, Mikey Lucas on all three, all three platforms. Um, Twitter, I just got kinda back on in LinkedIn. I kind of just got back on too. Um, and then I've got a book that I'm writing. That's that's me being released here in just under 30 days now. So cool. And then writing for last, like two years to on entrepreneurship, uh, asking the struggles of an entrepreneur of a millennial entrepreneur and how to just encourage, you know, how to get you to stay in the fight instead of, you know, getting your Ferrari and checking out and clocking out and going home and being depressed. Yeah. So yeah, I've got to play something out and then I'll all three of my platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Mikey Lucas, am I K E Y L U C S O.

Speaker 2 (46:39):

All right, guys, go give him a follow, go buy his book when it comes out. Let's show our appreciation for Mikey, um, given us some secrets today. And so, uh, yeah, I appreciate you again, Mikey, thanks for everything you're doing to coach reps to change the industry and give us more success as we're out there knocking and closing deals. Um, so anything, any last, I dunno, tips or words of wisdom that you would share with, uh, any other solar reps or any of our solar preneurs before we say goodbye here, Mikey. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:05):

It's not about how much money you make. It's about how much money you keep and invest. No, the goal shouldn't be to have to knock forever. You know, I can't sit here and tell you, I love knocking on doors. I love knocking on doors because of what it gets me. Yeah. So it's not about how much money you make. It's about how much money you keep and then go and invest. That's why I'm in so many businesses and I don't run all of them. You know, the, the franchise is the ever bulls, the real estate, the Turo business, the Airbnb business. I don't run those, you know, the crypto, obviously I can run crypto, but I'm getting coached on crypto too. So it's like, yeah, make money to go and make money matter and then have passive income coming in to then pay for your lifestyle. Just yes. Make money. But it doesn't matter if you making 50 grand a year, 20 grand a year or 500 grand a year, a million dollars a year. I don't care how much money you make in one year. It's about long-term sustainability. I heard Pitbull say that years ago.

Speaker 2 (48:01):

Nice. Yep. Powerful, powerful. Remember guys, invest in yourself, Mike, he's doing that. I think probably more than anything with all the masterminds and everything, and they're teaching them how to invest in other things where he's getting passive income. So that's a whole new episode for another day, but again, go fall, Mikey, he's doing multiple businesses. You know, the Touro, the, the evitable, the real estate he's in it. Also follow him. And he's going to share stuff on that. So, Mikey, thanks again for coming on. Thanks for sharing with our audience today. And we'll go give you a follow and alike. We're going to go buy your book when it comes out. And so thanks for coming on today and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks Taylor. Appreciate,

Speaker 1 (48:38):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask 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. Boom! What's going on. Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here.

Speaker 2 (00:47):

Hope you're doing well. Hope you're closing deals. Hope you are surviving the heat of the summer. If not come on down to San Diego, we'll take care of you. Summer here is like 80 degrees, 75. So not too bad recently had, um, some people from Vegas down hanging out with us and I'm like, man, how do you guys knock in that summer heat? I don't know how you do it. So for those knocking in the desert heat, you got my respect, but speaking of heat, we're going to be bringing you the heat, the fire today on the podcast. So I hope you are ready. I hope you're buckled up. Let's dive into it before we get into some awesome content though. I wanted to thank those that have gone and left reviews. I appreciate it so much. And I appreciate those that share the podcasts that tag me on Instagram that, uh, send it to friends, send it to people who could benefit from the content we are dropping.

Speaker 2 (01:43):

That's truly how we're growing the podcast. And that's how people are up leveling themselves in the solar industry. Because the more you share it's good karma, right? When you share good things, good things are going to come back to you. So appreciate that. So why don't I give a couple shout outs, um, on their reviews, we're seeing, um, we got, uh, Sean Zappa. He left early view for us here in July. He says I was struggling with some things. So I searched for a podcast to see if anyone could offer some value. And wow, the guy has made a video about everything I needed highly recommended. I'm so not sure what video you're referring to Sean, but glad we could help you nonetheless, glad you were getting some good nuggets from the podcast. Uh, we got Jacob Lee of OTB productions. He says value, value, value.

Speaker 2 (02:35):

Been super helpful as a new member in the solar community loved the way that Taylor teaches. Very easy to understand and identify with. Appreciate that Jacob Lee guys love it, keep doing what you're doing. And that's all we ask. We're dropping free content every week. And all we ask is that you share it with people and you know, if you like the content, even if you don't like it, go leave a review and send me the feedback. Okay? Cause we love hearing feedback. Good, good or bad. So let's dive into the podcast today. We're going to be talking about a specific objection that I got actually pretty recently. And that objection is Taylor. What happens for moving soon? Solar doesn't make sense. We're going to be moving soon. So we don't really want to do this. And there's a lot of people have good responses to this objection.

Speaker 2 (03:28):

I'm going to tell you why I'm doing the show is because I heard a super good response or a super good way of overcoming this that I want to share with y'all. But the way I typically would overcome it before I heard about this cool secret technique is I would just say, look, um, they've done studies on homes with solar helps them sell. If you own the solar ads, uh, 4.1% onto the value of the home. I show them the Zillow article. If you guys don't have that bookmarked, you need to go bookmark all the articles, all the ammo, all of the good things you can find online that are pro solar, right? That show that solar does help home sell. Okay. So that's what I would typically do. I would show them things like that. Articles I would bring in stories from real estate agents.

Speaker 2 (04:19):

We worked with from other homeowners that had the same objection, but they moved and they were fine. They were just fine. That's how it was old crummy. And that it works. Yeah, those were good ways. And I know other people have good responses, but here's something that I heard that I thought wasn't money in full disclosure. I have a, I haven't actually done this yet because I just barely heard this. But just from hearing it, I know, I know it will work. Know, I know it's going to be good. And so I learned this from my friend, Mikey, Lucas, he's actually going to be on the next episode that you hear coming up and he shared some super cool stuff. And this guy, this guy is just so giving, go give him a fall on Instagram, um, friend him on Facebook. Cause you're not going to want to miss some of the things he shares about one of the show you this, because actually something we didn't talk about in the podcast we did together, he was kind enough to come do a training for our entire team.

Speaker 2 (05:23):

And this is something he actually shared in this training. So I'll talk about the second thing he shared that I got from it. But super giving guy, go give him a follow up. And that brings up another point. If you are not having guest speakers come in your training, I would highly recommended guys, go connect with other people in the industry. Spread the love, spread the knowledge. Okay guys like Mike, you Lucas. He's a spread and a ton of value. Um, I know other people, other managers, other company owners, um, they also do this. They have guest speakers come in, they have guest trainers. They bring in guys, just come share their experiences to keep things fresh. Okay. I know, um, Mo fall, another guy we've found on the podcast. He brings in guest speakers all the time and it doesn't have to be live.

Speaker 2 (06:14):

Right. You bring people on over zoom. Um, just keep things fresh. Keep your reps excited, keep them engaged and keep them just stoked to get out there. And that's one way you can do it is bringing guest speakers, bringing in people to come talk, okay. And you can hit me up. I'm in San Diego. I'd be happy to come and drop some content on your team or I'm going, you know, I'm going through different states. So let me know, love to come and do a training for your team and spread some knowledge. So what did Mikey tell me that it's so secret in overcoming this objection here. Here's what he does. And here's what I love. And here's what I'm going to start implementing immediately. Okay. Step one. You need to get some real estate friend. It's pretty easy to do. Just figure out a way to connect with a real estate agent or someone that has access to the MLS.

Speaker 2 (07:07):

Just the online, you know, website online database, where you can find all the homes that have sold and look into that. Which as far as I know, um, yeah, it's basically real estate agents that have access to this. I'm sure there's other ways find someone with access to the MLS. And then on this site, you can actually see all the data of the homes that have sold, but what's so powerful about it is you can see which homes sold with solar. So there you have it. So what Mike, he does, he's given us this training. He's holding up this sheet. He's saying guys, I have this sheet sitting in front of them. I don't let them see what's on it. And tell him, going through my prison presentation. Then I get to a point where I'm talking about what happens if they sell their home.

Speaker 2 (07:55):

Cause you want, this is a main concern that people have, right? What happens when they sell their homes with solar? Almost every single deal I go do out here in Southern California, they have this objection, right? They've heard friends and family that it's been a nightmare for selling their home, that they had to transfer a lease PPA. And it was just a huge hassle. This is people's concern in their objection. So you need to address it, address it beforehand, before they can bring it up to a possible. So Mikey does, he has a sheet. He's not showing them in the beginning, but what this sheet has is basically a spreadsheet and it's showing a hundred people or as many people as you can fit on this sheet, he had, I think two pages of people that have sold their homes. Eight people have sold their homes with solar rather.

Speaker 2 (08:49):

So when people go to bring this up, say Mr. Customer, Mr. Jones, um, yeah, this actually the people in your area, in your zip code, all of these people have actually just sold their home with solar on it. Um, as you can see, there's about a hundred people on this sheet. They sold their home with solar and they're still standing, went fine for them. What, what is this doing? It's giving them proof, giving them proof that things happened that way. Right? So it's really just another thing you can add into your arsenal. Number one, go befriend. Someone that has access to this MOS, this database of homes that have sold. Number two, go through it. You don't have to do this yourself. Okay. Get yourself a virtual assistant or someone can do this for you, but take that data, put it on the spreadsheet and then classify it by zip code, depending where you are slinging your solar app.

Speaker 2 (09:46):

Super powerful. You can show them this sheet. Then a objection is crushed. Okay. So I'm going to be trying this again. I haven't done this yet, but I thought it was genius. So go out and try this. Let Mikey know you appreciated it. Let him know that was money. That tip he shared. And we didn't, he didn't cover this in the podcast. So I hope he's okay with me sharing this. If not, Mike, am sorry for sharing all your secrets, but I learned this from him. I'm going to go out and implement it. And then the second thing that he did share in the training he did for our team real quick, that I want to touch on is just really doing self evaluation as much as possible. So what did he mean by that is just recording your deals. Okay. We've talked about this pretty recent in the podcast, but it's a vital importance recorded.

Speaker 2 (10:34):

Every interaction possible you have with customers. And this serves for two reasons. Number one, you're going to be able to use that as trainings for your reps. But number two, you're going to be able to self evaluate yourself or send it to a manager or send it someone. And they can give you an evaluation. If you have these things, if you keep jacking them, these things are worth gold, right? Gives you the tools to actually improve. It gives you the play by play of what actually happened. And Mikey, he shared with us a sheet to do an actual evaluation of your door approach. Okay? So go hit up. Mikey. I know he'll gladly share this with you or I can connect. You hit me up and we can get you this sheet, but have some type of rubric. When I was in, um, high school, middle school college, I studied music as I've talked about before, we would go to these competitions and be judged on all our music performances and these judges, they weren't just doing blind evaluations.

Speaker 2 (11:38):

They had a rubric. They had basically a score sheet with how our actual performance was. So when we got to the end, we'd be graded. They give us like a one was superior or two was like, excellent. The goal was to get a one, but we had the tools to do this because we could see the exact sheet, the exact rubric they're granting us on. It said, okay, how's this tonality, how's this tempo. How's this rhythm. How has this intonation, all these different geeky music terms that I was judged off of. It's the same thing we need to be doing for solar. Right? So get yourself a rubric. How was my body language? How was my tonality? How was my confidence? How was my posture? All these things you need to be thinking about as you're in your presentations and as you were hitting doors, it's, that's what we talked about.

Speaker 2 (12:30):

That's what we jammed on. Hope you got something from this episode. Again, I can't wait for you guys to hear it. The next show we did with Mikey, he dropped some serious wisdom on us. And if you thought this was good, wait until you hear his episode. He tells a story how he got in the industry and we go over a ton of just nuggets. They're going to help you and your team out tremendously. So don't miss the next episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for the reviews. And we will see you guys on the next one.

Speaker 3 (13:00):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 2 (00:45):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 3 (01:24):

What is going on Solarpreneurs. This is James Swiderski back with another train to win, where we are giving you the tools, strategies, techniques that you need to train world-class solar teams. And in this episode, I'm going to be talking about the lessons I've learned the hard way from training over a thousand reps, personally, in the same room with them through my own companies, through my clients and giving you some of these key tactics and mistakes to avoid so that you can build a world-class sales team yourself to scale your company to the moon. And if you like this type of content, stay tuned because I'm going to be coming back for more episodes. Um, right now you're going to be hearing a lot of me over the next couple of weeks, but after that, we'll dial it back to like a monthly visit I'll pop on and Taylor will be the primary guy as always the guys you liked, you liked the most, right?

Speaker 3 (02:16):

We all want to talk about Taylor. We all know he's the man, the myth, the legend, he's the guy, the head honcho. So I don't want to steal the light from him here. So here we go. Let's go ahead and talk about some lessons I've learned from training reps. And I want to give you my background on this too. So you see where I'm coming from and where some of these methodologies and strategies I've learned have come to pass. And the reality is my method of training reps is pretty different from what's happening, not only just in the solar industry, but any industry altogether. Um, I think that the solar industry is a little behind the times when it comes to training, developing, uh, teams marketing. So one of my core strategies and my, and how I adopt these philosophies and have gotten really great results with clients in the past is actually looking outside of solar, looking in more established industries, like real estate, um, and applying those methodologies to my team.

Speaker 3 (03:14):

Uh, and some of them are right, but some of them don't, and I'll be very Frank with you. What's working. What's not, um, we're only talking about what has worked well here on the show here. So, uh, how I really got into training here, which is the first important thing I want to talk about, um, is I actually was running daily meetings, right with the first company I ever worked with. This was, uh, five years ago, Evel our solar over in Utah. They are no longer in business, but, um, at the time, uh, we were doing, I would say about eight, 8 million per year, um, about a year into my career. And we were running daily sales meetings came out about 11 guys. And these sales meetings were a couple hours long. They were going really well. And our company was looking for additional sales training, right.

Speaker 3 (04:03):

My team. Um, and me, my time was running thin as a manager spending so much time with my reps. We didn't have a scalable system. We didn't have a, uh, course or anything like that. So our company was looking for something a little bit more scalable. So we went out and hired and bought, uh, the Sandler training. If you guys have heard of that before. Um, I think they're based out of Utah too, which is where we were added at the time and why we went with them. But anyway, we did this and they had a three day kickoff meeting. Okay. And we're sitting there and the group up, all of my guys and myself, uh, for these three day bootcamp style things, eight hours a day. And we're sitting there through these trainings and I kid you not, everybody's just bored out of their mind.

Speaker 3 (04:52):

You, you know exactly what I'm talking about too. If you've done anything of the sort with your team, half, the guys are messing around in the back. There's a couple of guys that are attentive. People are trying to take notes, but the stuff's just way too complicated. And the biggest overarching question, that's just hanging in the room, the elephant in the room is how the heck do we apply this to solar? Okay. Because we know that Sandler training guy, he was definitely not applying it to solar. We're just like, dude, how does this apply to solar? How's this going to actually get me to the next deal? Right? How's this going to get me the next lead? That's all my guys are thinking. It's all I'm thinking. And I'm just like, what the heck? And after we're done with this training, right? And they have a debrief with me and the other management of the team at the company here.

Speaker 3 (05:41):

And we're just like, what, what actually comes from this? We felt like we just wasted our cash on training that our guys are not even going to use. And that's exactly what freaking happened. Um, and this is absolutely crazy in my industry. Um, in, for enterprise sales is what I do with my company, epic. Um, there's a stat ed tech university did a study with this out of the $1.5 billion spent per year on sales training for companies. That's an average of $1,500 a year per rep, 87% of the content in sales training, live boot camps, courses, you name it, it's forgotten within 30 days. Think about that for a second, almost 90% of sales training or any it's any training as well, not just sales it's forgotten within 30 days yet we continue to do things the same way. Just simply putting our guys into courses and hoping some miracle is going to happen or doing one-on-one trainings with them where we know we just don't have time at the end of the day to do this with everybody at scale and expecting a miracle to happen.

Speaker 3 (06:50):

Again, miracles are not going to happen here with training guys. You need to have a proven system and process to really make things scale. And this is what I learned the hard way. So here's what happened after we invested in this training, I realized and had an epiphany moment during this training, as my guys were saying, well, Hey James, your training's way better. I knew my training was better. Right. But I couldn't be everywhere all the time with all of my reps. So this is where I decided, Hey, what if I were to go put together a process and a system like these guys did Sandler training for solar, for my guys and put it in a online learning platform. A course, I think I was doing like teachable or something at the time. And I'll just put some of my best teachings on there and make my reps go through it on a regular basis.

Speaker 3 (07:41):

Okay. So that's exactly what I did. And this was before, like everybody was blasting off a course on social media or anything like that. Um, I was a super early guy on this, especially in solar. I was the only guy in solar doing this. Um, so I pulled this out right? And the results just started flowing with my reps. All of a sudden I had guys that were doing a couple deals a month upwards of 12, 14 deals a month. Within 90 days, I had one guy like he starts closing big commercial contracts. All of a sudden him decides he's going to go into commercial sales, right. Just stuff started popping off with my team. Um, and this is when our company started to scale and I realized that I was onto something right. Systematizing training and having a way for reps to personally train on their own time, gave me the time to make critical decisions, update the training, lead my team, closed big contracts and make sure that I was making the most use of my skillset as a manager and a VP.

Speaker 3 (08:46):

Right? So some of the things I really stood out as I was scaling this team up is first. And I'm going to give you four tips. First reps needed to be engaged personally and taught at their own unique level. Okay. This is something we kind of intuitively know as we're training people that we want to tailor the training to them. But this is the problem with a third-party training ad Adam, uh, Adam Sandler with Sandler training system, Jordan Belfort, Kardon you write all great programs, great content, right? The only problem is it's not personalized to the rep. They're wondering how the heck does this apply to me? Or, Hey, I've got this problem or this limiting belief. I don't know if I could do that. And then they don't apply it. Right? So you need to be engaging your reps personally, um, making sure that your tailoring every single strategy to them and helping them on their individual levels.

Speaker 3 (09:49):

Right. If they're a super advanced top producer guy, like, uh, Taylor was just having a guy on the show. I can't remember. He was doing like 35 deals. It's a guy at Taylor's company. If you haven't heard yet. Um, he did like 37 deals in a month. Absolutely nuts. Right. That guy is at a whole different level than someone who's brand new. Okay. And he's going to require a totally different type of training than a brand new guy. So you've got to make sure that you have a way to personally engage and train those reps at their unique level. Just like a video game would, right. If you go and play a video game, super Mario brothers, first level, it's going to be easy. Second level, a little bit more challenging. We only learn as people when we're actually being challenged at our unique individual level.

Speaker 3 (10:33):

This is why, um, Taylor's, uh, platform that he's built Solciety in partnership with my, uh, company Epoch, um, is so unique because we actually use gamification and, uh, artificial intelligence to customize training difficulty for every single rep with solar specific content. Um, I'm going to do a huge promo on that, but guys go to solciety.co it's a freaking ridiculous revolutionary system. We built, um, we do a results guarantee. We guarantee you're going to sell 20% more solar or your money back within four months. So you really have nothing to lose. Go check it out. Solciety.co anyway off the soap box here. So you have to engage in personalized training. Second is having a system for reps to train on their own time. All right. People really learn best when it's behind closed doors. Okay. I know I personally do. That's my preference, but even extroverts, I've seen, like you need to have that alone time with your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (11:38):

If you're constantly just consuming information in the form of a personal training or boot camps or whatever, you have no time to process this and think how it applies to you. You need to give reps that alone time to do so without overwhelming them with three hour long videos, bite-sized content is key. So that's step number two, step number three, realization. Number three, here is reps need to be held accountable as many times as possible. And my goal was multiple times per day. Now you're probably thinking I'm freaking nuts right now, right? Because you're holding your reps accountable maybe twice a week. If you're really on top of the game once a day, if you're really on point, but multiple times a day, what the hell I'm telling you guys it's common sense. The more often you hold your reps accountable on their training and their results, the better outcomes they will produce.

Speaker 3 (12:35):

It's very simple. Okay. Reps, especially when they're beginning, usually are not driven enough, motivated enough to hold themselves accountable like this. Yeah. Your top producers, like the guy had talked about 37 deals in a month. He's holding himself accountable, right? Nobody gets those results without holding themselves accountable. But the majority of your reps are not at this level. They are not equipped with the mindset and tools yet to hold themselves accountable to high standards like this in order to get them there and develop leaders on your team that do that type of accountability. Self-accountability you've got to guide them. You gotta be their training wheels, right? So my suggestion is multiple times a day. And one way we do this with our clients and how Solciety helps is with what we call a pod check. So a pod check, and whether you sign up for Solciety or not, I don't care.

Speaker 3 (13:31):

I'll give you the tool here for pod Jack. Here's all it is, right? Execution is everything. The ideas don't matter. The pod check is dividing your reps, your team into individual groups and pods of five to seven members. Okay. So big problem companies have is their teams are too big. They're like 10, 15 reps, right? Um, that doesn't do well because it's just too many people at the end of the day. So you divide your pod into five to seven reps, preferably five. And you put in charge of that pot of pod leader. This could be the manager, but it could also just be another member of your team. I actually prefer that use members of your team because it builds culture and morale. And that's a real cool hack to actually develop. Your next set of leaders is start giving some of your regular reps more responsibility.

Speaker 3 (14:19):

Um, and in these pod checks, what you do is you have a quick five minute check-in with your pod multiple times throughout the day. And what you do is the first pod check in the morning. You do a quick check on your goals for the week, right? Where are your goals for the week on each individual rep, they give a report, Hey, I'm going to close two deals this week, I'm going to do 10 appointments. And I'm going to do five appointments a day, set, knocking doors, whatever it is, I'm going to knock three hours. They all have their individual goals. And they report those to the entire pod group. So everybody knows what everybody's numbers are. Right? And then the pod leader will actually check the CRM and the metrics and say, Hey, John's at two. He wants to get to 10. John, how are you going to get eight deals in two days, man?

Speaker 3 (15:05):

He's like, uh, right. John's gonna feel a little embarrassed. He's going to feel yeah. A little humiliated in front of his peers in the pod, right? This is why it works so well because extreme transparency is lacking in most sales teams. When everybody's numbers are just present and you could see who's slack on off you mark my words, what happens with your team? All of a sudden they start moving. They just start taking action because they are embarrassed. They're whatever they're uncomfortable and that's good. Your sales team should be uncomfortable every single day if you want them to grow. So that's the first part. And then they say what they're going to do for the day. What is the goal for the day? And they discuss any challenges, issues they need to overcome. And they do these little check-ins throughout the day and the pod leaders in charge of initiating these check-ins constantly in the morning.

Speaker 3 (16:01):

First thing, obviously 11 and morning, right before lunch one o'clock two o'clock after lunch evening, right? Making sure everybody's updating their metrics. You're quite literally outsourcing that babysitting that managers hate doing you're outsourcing that to your team and creating an organized way for your team to get involved. It's kind of like a mini networking or a business networking group, like BNI, where it's member led. You want your team coaching and pushing each other to the next level. So that's a pod check. That's how you hold your reps accountable. So consistently. Um, and then the last part I want to give you here is about motivation. Okay. So how do you actually motivate reps consistently? There's a lot of ideas on this and I'll go more in depth on some other episodes. But the biggest thing I want to talk about is action led motivation. And if you listened to my first episode with Taylor, where we introduced this series, I kind of alluded to this, but the biggest mistake that companies make with contests and incentives is that only, uh, incentivize the deal, right?

Speaker 3 (17:06):

The problem with this is the only guys who are, we're really motivated for. The deals are already your five, five, top five to 10% of your reps, your top producers, the rest of the guys just say, ask Gruet Taylor, Johnny, James, they're just going to get it because they're on the top of their game. I'm not even going to try it, right? This is a mistake. And quite literally, if you perform this way, it was almost no reason to even hang on to the bottom of 90% of reps. You might as well get rid of them if you're not going to incentivize them and motivate them as well. So the solution to this actually comes down to tracking, right? Um, if you know how many appointments it takes to close deal on your average rep and you know, how many leads, how many doors need to be knocked to set an appointment.

Speaker 3 (17:55):

And you know, these metrics by heart and you actually know them, you're not just fudging them, right. Then you will have the confidence to place an incentive or a prize or whatever. On some of these actions that create a sale, like an appointment set or a door knocked, right? Some of the top companies I've worked with, they will create their own banking system. Quite literally they'll create like a Venmo card for their reps and reps are rewarded. Every time they set an appointment, they're literally paid out instantly 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, whatever it is into their company bank account, where they could pay, pay themselves, instantly withdraw it to their own bank. Right. And start using those funds that incentivizes the action. Okay. Um, Miko, Donald's been on the show, right? He talks about the mini habits. This is mini habits, right? Whatever you want to call it, incentivizing the actions that create the results.

Speaker 3 (18:50):

This is how we get ourselves to do uncomfortable and difficult things as rep CEOs, founders, whatever right? Human beings. You need to give yourself a reward in your reps or reward for the first step. The second step, the third step. The only way you could do this with confidence that you're not going to lose money. You need to have the systems in place. So guys, to review here, lessons I've learned from training. A thousand reps, reps need to be engaged personally and taught on their own unique level and challenged individually reps need to be able to train on their own time and have clear tracking and expectations in place. Third reps need to be held accountable multiple times a day. Pod check is one of my favorite way to do that. Favorite ways to do this. And then lastly, reps need to be motivated with action led results, right?

Speaker 3 (19:40):

So the last thing I want to leave you here is the core lessons I know today as someone who's coached a thousand reps scaled multiple solar companies past eight figures per year. Um, who's personally sold over 500 deals myself. Um, these are some truths that can not be faltered with. These are things that all of the sales greats, all of the sales gurus leaders top guys in any industry will tell you are a matter of fact. And if you adopt these four principles, I'm about to give you no matter what sales training process you have, what products you have, your reps will be ahead of nine out of 10 of your competition. So here they are. Number one, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Okay? You can not expect all of your reps to want to train. If you do not have the proper culture in place, this is a mistake that nearly every sales team I see makes they have a culture against training, right?

Speaker 3 (20:54):

They buy a training program. And the reason they buy a training program is because their sales are poor. That's a mistake, right? One of the worst times to buy sales training is when your sales are poor cam, second, the founder and CEO just doesn't want to train their reps and they buy a training thing. It's going to fix it, right? This is the wrong mindset. You've set the culture that we are a lazy organization, essentially. Now, whether you like that or not, I don't really care, but this is the culture and what it communicates to your reps. Um, your mindset personally, around training and self-development you as the founder VP director, that mindset will bleed down to your sales reps. Um, whether you want to or not, this is how people learn. This is how parents raise kids, right? They say one thing, Hey, don't do this.

Speaker 3 (21:47):

But if the kid sees you, the parent doing whatever, watching TV, playing video games, eating junk food, whatever it is, the kid's going to do exactly what you just did. Right? So if your reps don't know about you learning, they don't know you're reading books. They don't know you're taking courses training. Then they're not going to want to do this. This is not a culture of accountability, uh, when it comes to learning and training, right? And then the last part is you need to cut the fat. Okay? If you've got reps that refuse to log onto their training and you've held them accountable for it, you quite literally need to fire them off your team, even if they're producing revenue. And this is the part where it takes a lot of courage, takes a lot of balls to do this quite honestly. Um, and the way that I have found that's easiest to muster up that courage to fire somebody for not training is to know your metrics, um, and know that you've done all you can to create the culture of training.

Speaker 3 (22:50):

And quite literally, that conversation goes very upfront, very aggressive with your team. And you say, guys, we are making a radical change to a training environment and training, obsessed culture with our team. I want you guys to do the very best you can perform at your highest level. And I've invested in the tools, training, technology, mentors, to help you get there. And I put everything on the line for you guys. Okay. And what I'm asking you is that you jump ship with us and you cut off all options and you fully commit to training and developing yourselves. And we're going to hold you guys accountable on this. We're going to answer your questions. We're going to personalize the training for you, but we ask that you do this and those of you that do not comply with this, this is going to be a true Testament.

Speaker 3 (23:39):

If you're a right fit for our team or not. And that's okay if you're not, if this sounds too intense for you guys, you guys can leave. That's all right, we'll give you a recommendation for the next job. I'm just letting you know our culture. We're about to make some radical changes here. And I want you guys to be fully onboard and committed to this. And after you have this talk with the team and you rally the troops, right? You go and you talk to each one of them personally, and you say, is this a good fit for you, John? Right? Like, are you on board with this? Right? And you have these conversations and you get them to commit. And you're going to find that some of your reps are going to say, this is a little too much for me. I'm not in on this.

Speaker 3 (24:15):

This isn't what I signed up for. And you've gotta be willing to let that person go. Now, today, it might be scary to let that person go. But what you're not seeing is this second, third, fourth order consequences of this decision by deciding to be a training organization, a self-development led organization, you are building a new culture, a new mentality, a new energy around the office, a new dedication, motivation your reps will have. You're going to start attracting better talent. You're going to start seeing better results, but you will not be able to do this. If you have stragglers who are not on board, you have to cut those guys or get them on there's no in-between so that's step number one, you can't lead a horse to water, but you, uh, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it.

Speaker 3 (25:05):

Principle. Number two, mindset and personal beliefs are almost always the sales training problem for reps. Okay. It is like almost never is skill issue. Okay? Your reps don't have an issue with their script on the door. That's not why they suck on the door. Okay. You might be saying, well, what do you know, James? Like, listen, if your reps had zero fear of what anybody thought about them, they would have no issue knocking doors because after five, 10 attempts, 2050, a hundred reps, right. Of just going at it and learning from rejection, they would have the best script in the freaking world. Okay. Think of it like an artificial intelligence algorithm. Okay. The way AI learns, if you're not familiar with it is quite literally learning from failure. It's just like humans. AI learns by going out there implementing a algorithm is solution to a problem and it tests it and it bounces it.

Speaker 3 (26:08):

Right. It bounces it back and it usually fails. And it starts doing absolutely crazy things. When AI starts, uh, working in a system, okay. It starts just failing, doing dumb stuff. If a human was a algorithm, right. An artificial intelligence algorithm, it would be like a rep walking around and pitching like people's mail boxes instead of doors. K just doing stupid, stupid stuff. Right. But every single failure leads that algorithm to learn from its mistake. And it just looks at it as testing. It's not a personal failure, right? It's just testing. It's just another way not to do it. It's just like Thomas Edison and the light bulb a thousand ways not to do it right? If your reps didn't have fear or personal beliefs or mindset issues, they would do it just like this. They would just keep showing up and showing up refining, iterating their, their, their abilities.

Speaker 3 (27:03):

And boom, they'd make it happen. So that's my proof skills are not the issue. Okay. Personal development is the problem with almost all of your reps, right? They have too much baggage. They have fear over what others are thinking of them. They want to be liked more than they want to make a sale. Kay. There's quite a few of these objections. They have money, mindset issues. They have issues with following up. They don't believe they could close a one-leg or appointment because they wouldn't want their spouse. The list is endless, right? So 90% of your time and your training should really be spent in this area. That's what I'm trying to get across here. So principle number three, you need to be growth minded and developing your own skillset. As a leader, right? Culture is passed down. I talked about this already. I won't go into it any further, but if you're not consistently developing yourself as a leader, it is affecting your culture.

Speaker 3 (27:57):

Mark. My words, principle, number four, tracking is everything. All right? And this is a big one. I hated tracking. When I was selling full time, never wanted to use a CRM. My company was always telling me to use the CRM, but you know, they didn't tell me they didn't tell me why it was important. And that is not something I learned until I tried to start my own solar company three times before having a initial success. I realized that tracking was absolutely everything. I'm not even exaggerating with this tracking and numbers just equal results. At the end of the day, business is math. The company is I've seen that survive or go under it's the ones who understand their numbers and those who don't. Now, when I say tracking, what does this mean? Right? This is not just tracking sales. This is tracking everything you possibly can in the sales process.

Speaker 3 (28:54):

So exactly how many emails were sent. Follow-up emails are sent by each rep. How many calls were done? What was the length of each call on the appointment setting call? How long did it take to get to setting the appointment on each phone call? Right? How many leads are set? How many doors were knocked, right? How many appointments, how long was each appointment? How long was each appointment until the credit was checked? Like you can go really in depth here. And I can tell you that the big guys, the big companies, you see the 50 to a hundred million dollar companies, they are maniacal about tracking, absolutely obsessed about tracking. So how do you get your reps onboard with tracking? Right? Cause you're probably saying my reps won't even use the CRM. Same thing as the training culture, we are a CRM tracking culture. Now get on board or get out.

Speaker 3 (29:50):

You don't have to be that blunt obviously, but that's what this is. At the end of the day, you have to make some very critical decisions with leading your team. If you want to scale and grow past the seven figure to low eight figure range, that's kind of where most companies plateau after the figure out their leads and whatnot, they're hiring on reps and they're getting stuck there. And it's because of these two things that do not have a training culture, they do not track properly and they do not train properly tracking culture. Absolutely key. So guys, that is it. That is what I've learned. Training a thousand reps, pretty in-depth stuff. Um, again, I don't expect a ton of people to apply it, but for the few companies out there who are saying, like I am missing a couple of these things go and apply them.

Speaker 3 (30:36):

This is a hundred percent free stuff. Um, I used to pay, um, charge clients tens of thousands of dollars a month for this stuff. I don't do it anymore. I don't do consulting for solar companies anymore. I'm 100% in on just training and scaling a company is through Taylor's program Solciety and my company epic outside of solar. So I'm quite literally spilling the best of the best stuff on this podcast. You guys, please go apply it. Please go use it. Um, I don't just put it out for free. I'm doing these episodes 100% free of time because I care about you guys. And I want you guys to benefit from my knowledge and experience in the industry. So I'll see you guys in the next episode. Again, if you want to check out what it be like to scale your team past eight figures per year with results guaranteed, a 20% increase guarantee in four months or less with Solciety, go to Solciety.co S O L C I E T Y dot C O or hit up Taylor Armstrong on Facebook or me on LinkedIn. And we'll set you guys up. All right, guys, I'll see you soon.

Speaker 4 (31:42):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:42):

Yo, what's going on. Solarpreneurs. We are back with an amazing episode here and someone that I have been trying to get on the podcast for a little while here. We've got a Jory Sullivan in the house. Jory, Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 3 (00:57):

Hey man. I appreciate it. Thanks Taylor, for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:00):

Yeah, it's my pleasure. And we're excited to have Jory on, he is the VP of sales for at legacy. One of the VP of sales for legacy he's growing his teams like crazy. They're pushing tons of accounts and just doing some incredible things. Uh, met Jory actually at, uh, the last Knockstar events were hanging out there. Did you come to that? Uh, that, that sauna place, Jory? I can't remember.

Speaker 3 (01:25):

Yeah, we did. We connected in the sauna,

Speaker 2 (01:29):

So we were probably sitting naked together in a sauna, maybe. So God, I don't know if I talked to you in there, but got to know some guys on a personal level at that event at the end. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (01:39):

That was wild. Shout out to Danny Pessy for calling that one out. Yeah. Korean

Speaker 2 (01:43):

Bath house. You guys haven't been there. It's a good place to get to know people

Speaker 3 (01:48):

If you're ever in Dallas, Texas go to a King Spa. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54):

Yeah. You will not be disappointed. It was amazing experience. So yeah, it was fun hanging out with the jury there. And then also we realized after the fact that we're actually in North Carolina at the same, same place, same time, but unfortunately we couldn't connect there, but I made the realization later. Um, but yeah, so Jory, I'm excited to have you on here, your story. I know you're growing your teams at time. So first you want to kind of get into how you got into soar and just your background and all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:23):

Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, it probably goes even deeper than that. Um, and to, and the door to door sales, right. Uh, um, cause it all led to this like the, where we're at now and it's like, it's like the story, I don't believe in like omens, but like it all just happened, um, for a reason. So basically, um, I, I remember like I was washing dishes the summer before I'd ride my bike at 5:00 AM, three miles to go wash dishes to be treated like crap. And I was the worst employee ever. And so they told me I couldn't, I wasn't good enough to busboy. That's how bad I was. And I remember I worked my guts out some summer for, um, on my, um, in my 16th, uh, summer birthday. And I made like $2,000 and um, I got a small scholarship to go run track, um, many pounds ago and, uh, it's to Iowa.

Speaker 3 (03:18):

Right. And, uh, I couldn't afford a, a bus or plane tickets couldn't afford a bus ticket, but I could afford an Amtrak ticket. And I was 20 minutes late to the Amtrak. And then, gosh, track. Apple's about 30 minutes late because throughout the three days it took me to get to, um, I'll maybe four days. Um, I stopped in the city from Oregon born and raised in Oregon. Um, it stopped in the city called salt lake city. Utah didn't know much about it, heard about it in my history books. And some guy sat down next to me and he's like, Hey, in the middle of the night I was sleeping like 1:00 AM. And he's like, Hey, yeah, I sat down next to you. Cause you look inviting. And I'm like, okay. And he's like, Hey, I don't, I just got done knocking and Salt Lake, um, for a company called APX for all the old dogs out there that was 2007.

Speaker 3 (04:12):

So this next year, 2008. So our town seven is when I met him and I went out in 2008, but he's like, you know, I made $10,000. So in alarm systems you can probably make 12 to 13. And we could, I, I like, I was next to him for like a whole day, just like in and out trying to like figure out like, what is he talking about? I worked like crazy to make $2,000 the summer for that treated like crap. And, uh, and so we literally connected and, and when he gave me the number, I think it was the Facebook at that time Facebook or the guy that the manager, I literally just like begged him and pleaded with them and tried to blitz trips. And I was, I was barely, I was 17 years old. I was still, I was almost 18 at the time.

Speaker 3 (04:58):

And uh, and that's kind of how I got into the industry. I say, as long as I don't have to kill anybody like I'm in. Right. Because I mean, some of you guys know some of you guys don't know, you know, I, I kind of grew up a little bit differently. Um, so I wanted like preference the story because people always ask my story. Right. And so I want to preference a story. Do not take pity on me. This is, uh, this is something that has made me who I am and it's not actually a setback. It's, it's, uh, I call it living in comeback like mode and I think it's a step up in society. Uh, um, so I guess it all comes like, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna go deep. I don't really stress too much. A lot of people will go deep. So, um, yeah. So I guess we're going to look at it though. We're going to do it. You guys are going to know me a lot better.

Speaker 2 (05:51):

So take us back.

Speaker 3 (05:53):

So, um, man, it's both circles. We talk about this, but, um, I, I never met my dad. And, uh, I remember when I was six years old, the first day of first grade, I went to first grade all excited and I came back and, and uh, and my mom never came back. She never came back. And, uh, Joe, my brother and my sisters, we all had to go live with my grandma and golf, my grandma. And, um, and we moved from, uh, Springfield, Oregon down to COOs bay, north bend, Oregon. And, uh, that's where I was. I was at six years old and then, um, a lot of verbal, um, physical abuse. Um, and then I said, I saved that money. I was long washing dishes. Uh, this is like two summers before I was 15 years old and I saved up $800 to go to Nike running camp.

Speaker 3 (06:49):

Um, and, uh, when I was 15 going on 16 and my grandma was like, Hey, I need that money for rent. And I'm like, you know, I'm from 16 years old, like I want to go play sports. And she's like, that's fine. You can go. But if you come back, like you don't have a place here anymore. We can't afford you. And it, it was, it was rough. Like I remember I got caught stealing one time. Um, and I got caught. I was at like a at-risk teens thing and they asked me why I was stealing and I was broke. I don't cry very often, but I broke down and cried and said, uh, all we have is a block of cheese in the frigerator and I got into money, you know? And so, uh, it's crazy. So, yeah, so it, so like she kept her wording and, uh, and when I was 16 years old, I had to go file to be what the state.

Speaker 3 (07:44):

So I was an adult at 16 years old and I was going to my junior year, but I met somebody at Ryan camp and we got together, we rallied, we had culture and our culture has always been so deep in my mind. We had all these strangers from different parts of the world. We're really probably the United States come in and we weren't a team or anything. We're just a bunch of runners. And we got a massive culture. I mean, it waned the whole entire competition for champions. And he said, Hey, if you ever need anything, give me a call. Well, I did, I needed a place to live so I can finish, uh, I can finish high school. And, uh, just so happened that his family was not taken in a foreign exchange student that year. And so I was able to move over with him and, uh, and, and finish, um, finished high school.

Speaker 2 (08:40):

Yeah. So what happened to your, I guess, as you're telling this to your mom, what did she just like, never shut up

Speaker 3 (08:51):

Drugs, drugs are powerful. And, uh, and I was actually born addicted to drugs and I had to like re like they had to wean me off and she lost custody. She finally got us back and when she got us back, you know, I took her life again. Yeah. And so, um, but she did reach out when I was nine, uh, 19 years old. Um, but, um, but yeah, it, uh, it let's say this man, like six to 19 is a big gap. Um, thank you for birthing me, but you're not my mom or my mother at that point. Yeah. It's wild. What about your dad? Is he never met him? Never met him. I never met him. So there was, I think there was a defining moment. I don't love to talk about money. I love talking about impact and the more people you act you're going to, uh, acquire the capital from that human capital is what we call it.

Speaker 3 (09:51):

But I remember it was a funny moment when I was 16 years old sitting on a Nelson's Lyrics, Ruth Nelson. If you're listening to this, thank you. You literally saved my life. Um, but I remember saying, I remember thinking two thoughts. Why didn't my mom want me and too, I'm going to do whatever it takes to be a millionaire because I hated the way this felt. This moment felt I hated the pain, not having enough and asking people for help. And I absolutely hated it. Um, and so, and so I remember that moment. I think there's, there's two, there's two moments when a person realizes who they are, like their why, and when they're born, then that was my defining moment as I looked back, um, on, on my journey. And, uh, and so I, there were big sports family and they, um, they, you know, all their kids got Dijuan scholarships. I wasn't very good. I got an NAI scholarship. And, uh, and that's what I, I got on that train to Iowa. And, and that's how this, all this whole massive, like, from all the pain, the verbal abuse told you're not good enough. You'll never amount to anything. Um, it all comes down to like, it happened for a reason. It made me who I am. And so I've already been at the bottom, so I'm not afraid to go there again.

Speaker 2 (11:16):

Hmm. That's incredible. Yeah. That's pretty powerful stuff. And I love hearing guys that came from the bottom like that. Um, I mean, obviously super powerful being able to share your stories, especially in the position you're in now. But yeah, my question is like, how do you, in my case, I never grew up like that. Um, I mean, my parents were pretty well off. I grew up in a small town, so they're like one of the richer people in the town, um, 3000 people. Um, but even me growing up that way, that had money, um, not like super rich, but in my town where most were kind of poor, definitely better off. Um, but even I struggle with like quite a bit of self doubt, um, was told, I was like too shy was twice too Chevy stuff like that always growing up. So how does it feel for you coming from a situation like that? Was it super tough to like overcome kind of all these like self doubts and this heavy stuff, do you have to do therapy or like, what did that look like?

Speaker 3 (12:17):

So door knocking was my actual therapy, right? And I don't care if you came from the wealthiest family or the poorest family, you have a story of overcoming and you just have to learn how to tell that story. And what happens is you, uh, anybody that follows David Goggins, he calls it a cookie jar. And that's exactly what it is. And so whether it doesn't matter what kind of past you've had, we've all done something that we're, we have some that we're good at. It doesn't need to be a state championship chip. Doesn't need to go sell 500 solar accounts in a year, but we all have stuff that we're proud of. And when you get seeds of doubt, we have to be able to pull from that cookie jar to be able to move forward, but take like this with all due respect, you have a story and you need to remember the story of victory in order to be able to go to the next level, because I still have massive doubt. Um, and, and I have to pull from my cookie jar on a regular basis to be able to operate at a high frequency throughout the day and year.

Speaker 2 (13:23):

Hmm. That's awesome. Yeah. I think that's super powerful and that's the next size I've actually done is just kind of write down the things, you know, you are good at that kombucha moments you have achieved because I forget all the time. I mean, I've almost quit doing this podcast probably like 50 times now, just because I feel like, oh, there's people way burner and solar. Um, I'm not qualified, like shared by smell solar. I mean, I know I'm not the greatest, but got my golden door award closed, lots of deals. And so a lot of times it's just for me right now, the things I have accomplished, the things I have done well, and that's yeah, that is something super powerful than do sound like it's been a big thing for you. So how do you coach, um, like reps that are struggling, do you have, like, I mean, I know your story is super powerful, but the reps that have struggled on teams feeling like maybe they're not good enough needing confidence. Is there things you guys have done, uh, helping, you know, your reps at legacy, they're helping them to kind of overcome these feelings of self doubt, stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (14:22):

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, like, that's a phenomenal question. And so, um, whether it's legacy or solar or pest control or that you're listening to this right now, uh, make sure that you, you listen, you truly listen to, um, reps, um, or your friends or your battle buddies is what I call them. Like their battle buddies. You'll listen to them when they have the concern, get off your phone, look them in the eyes have human and let them know you care because you know, one of the laws of leadership by John Maxwell is when you touch their heart, you can touch their hand. And so, um, just knowing that you care and you're going to do everything you can to kind of hold them accountable in a way that's not offensive. Um, it's felt with love. They're going to be able to go that next level.

Speaker 3 (15:14):

And sometimes you have to, like, you have to like physically in-plant motivation inside them and, and like, awesome. This is, they've done. Like a lot of times when people have like, like bad months or weeks and they say, oh, this and that. I go, I go to our database and like, Hey, remember that week you sold four. How did that feel? Did it, does it feel like you feel right now if the answer is no, then we've got a lot of work to do, but the good news is you can acknowledge it. And so now we're going to actually move forward.

Speaker 2 (15:45):

That's awesome. Yeah, it reminds me of a, I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but, um, are you a basketball fan? Much? Yeah. Doc rivers. Yeah, the coach. Um, he's, uh, I know that's one of the big things he does with his players. In fact, this season, I was listening to like an interview and Joel and bead, he had one of his best seasons, you know, and VP caliber. And everyone's like, how does doc rivers get like these players to perform so much better? And it's because he like talks them up so much. He'll tell the media, like he has the best players. They're the best at doing this. It's like, you can get them down this deep belief in themselves. So that's like so similar in any industry, anything, I think that's what powerful coaches do, powerful leaders. So I love hearing that. Um, so for you, George, do you have, like, I know we kind of cut your story a little bit short, but when you first got into door to door, was there sort of like a defining moment for you? Was it like all sunshine and rainbows? Did you feel we'll start now

Speaker 3 (16:46):

Terrible. Terrible. So listen, if you're listening to this, you're not very good. There's still hope I was terrible. Um, I remember, I remember knocking on that first store and almost throwing up and I remember the Pomona correcting my sales pitch. Wow. Yeah, it doesn't get much worse than that, but the good news is I, I literally storm was coming. I didn't care. I was out out there till nine o'clock at night and I got my first sale and as I retired cop and he canceled, but yeah, but like, and then I had, I was just, I didn't, I didn't know how to control my emotions. Right. I don't know how, I didn't know how to think at a high level. I didn't know that really books were needed. Right. I didn't know that, um, you know, there's all the knowledge out there in the world.

Speaker 3 (17:38):

And just because your sales manager is not giving it to you, that you can't go out and get yourself. I didn't know. The undying confidence, this person that you see in front of, or you're listening to was I was terrible. I, I think I funded like 35 alarm deals my first summer and the next summer I funded like 45. I was absolutely terrible, but my third summer you get them over. This is like, I didn't know. I wasn't going back. I wasn't going back to washing dishes. There was nothing left for me in that town. Right. And so the third year when I got really serious, I started to, I decided to get serious about the opportunity. I started investing in myself, my thoughts, my beliefs, um, and I started to be able to be the best and win as much as I possibly can. Um, and then it just kept going from there.

Speaker 2 (18:31):

That's awesome. What, what, what type of things did you invest in? What was it that made the difference in your third year? Would you say?

Speaker 3 (18:37):

Yeah, so first of all, it was my belief system. So I was going to think it's really stupid, but, um, everyone's heard of the secret. I get it. Thoughts become things, but there needs to be action behind it. I understood that as I read this book called the secret, and I remember like, you guys are gonna laugh, like, but I remember putting a hundred thousand dollars, like on my wall when I woke up. Um, and I remember writing a hundred thousand dollars on my mirror while I was brushing my teeth. And I remember like two day, two a day, two a day, um, in alarms. And that was my, that was my belief system. And that at the end of that year, um, I had to make my 99,000 like 400 and some odd dollars. Um, and so I'm not saying that it didn't work or there's no validation behind the secret. Uh, but that was, that was the biggest thing. It's believing that I was capable of doing, and it's going to come to me before. So it's the same thing that you're talking about with the coach. Like I was believing it before it actually came true.

Speaker 2 (19:34):

Yeah. That's awesome. And I mean, I love hearing that you struggled at times because you get guys, other people we've had on like Sam tagger, you know, other guys in the industry, that's like they get on and just click they're instantly like instantly start slinging deals. But like, for me, it was super rough. I started off in pest control and same thing I did like, um, I did like 1 0 5, my first summer pest control. And then I had like 10 cancels. So I lost like my rent and bonus loss. Basically my whole back ends I'm like freak, should I even keep doing this? Um, so I mean, I think that's super powerful hearing guys that did struggling pushed through. So for you, what was it that like kept you going those first two summers, you said you struggled at ton. Was it just kind of a, not wanting to go back to that situation you were in or what kept you just like pushing, even though you're struggling so much.

Speaker 3 (20:25):

Yeah. You don't. I said, I said, um, I said, when I was 16 years old, I wanted to be a millionaire. And I believe that door to door was the fastest way to get there. Um, and, and I was going to do whatever it took to get there because all my friends were working dead-end jobs in that town. Um, and I assume I as was starting to be around people that were making a hundred to $300,000 back in 2008, nine and 10 back back in the golden years of alarms, um, I did not, I stopped thinking like they thought, and we didn't really get along. We didn't understand each other. Um, and so I decided to be around people that wanted the same things as me, the culture aspect of it. Um, and I was just committed to winning no matter what I wanted to win my race.

Speaker 2 (21:19):

Yeah. I love that. And that's another powerful point. I think you make is getting around the right people. I've struggled with that too. Having friends that are just, you know, working the nine to five, just doing their thing. And that was, I think was one of the big breakthroughs I had in solar is I had to, um, just pretty drastically changed the people that I was hanging out with, which sounds like you did do. Cause I mean, I think a lot of people for a year, the average of the five people you hang out with, and for me that even I thought I was safe. Once I got into door to door, I thought I was going to be okay, I'm hanging out with good people now, even starting out in door to door solar, I was still hanging out with people that guys drive out to an area. And then it's like, oh, let's sit in our car for three hours, watch game of Thrones and hang out. So that helped me back to that's. Um, yeah, I think a good point to make. So where does it go from there? Jory how did you transition from alarms to solar? And I guess,

Speaker 3 (22:22):

Yeah, I was my own, uh, dealer. It didn't, it didn't work out. Well, it always seems like I realized that I'm not a number one. I, don't not a CEO of a door to door company and I'm okay with that. And so my thought process is if I'm not number one, why can be a number of three and developed to a number two and still have an outstanding life? I remember, you know, like, oh, you make more money, right? It's similar to, you got the lowest red line, but there's no support and nothing, you do everything. And you're trying to, you're a swamp and next thing you know, your debts or eyeballs. And I was so sick of it. I was sick of the alarm industry. I remember sitting on a door on a curb, um, in Georgia and I was like sick to my stomach to knock another door for alarms.

Speaker 3 (23:11):

And I got a call on blaze, like, Hey, solar's happening? And I'm like, listen, I'll fly out and listen. Um, and one of the biggest one way to get me going is tell me I'm not wanted or good enough, because I've been told that my whole life, like, like I've been told that I've lived in that, in that, that freight like phase my whole life. And so one thing that tells me, like, I'm not good enough or like, Hey, listen, we're gonna do it without you. Um, Doug Robinson, the seal of legacy was like, Hey, Jory like, dude, I love you. Um, we're gonna, we're gonna grow this thing with, or without you, but we'd rather be with you. And I was like, oh man. Oh man. And so, um, yeah, so he's, so I sold my home in Kansas city. Um, I moved to South Carolina before the lease was there and I was one of the actual original people in South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (24:06):

I sold my first lease deal on South Carolina timber, first of 2015. Wow. So one of the original people and actually the person who just had on the podcast, Tim McCarthy, um, I reached out to him. I know he switched to solar before I did. And he gave me some crucial bias. He probably doesn't remember it, but he said, Jory, if you work this like summertime alarms, you around deal, destroy it. And that's the only advice. I didn't know what a kilowatt was. I didn't know how solar really works. All I knew is I can sell alarms. I can knock and I can train people. And I worked like summer alarm grind and I put it towards solar.

Speaker 2 (24:53):

That's awesome. Yeah. It's funny. Every, almost every alarm guy, I think that's the biggest reason they're successful. Um, I'm out here working with Jason newbie he's which you probably know him. He's top rabbit divot and everything. He's already grown his solar team in like less than six months. Um, he had a guy do 19 deals last week. They're consistently getting like nine to 10 deals a day and that's literally all he's doing. He's just having his solar team work alarm hours and just drive out like their alarms and then close them, like their alarms, like none of this next day stuff. It's just all same day. So that's awesome. Yeah. So that's pretty, pretty interesting, um, that all the alarm guys think that way and they think it's a huge reason for success. And so when, when was that? Was that 2017? You started in solar now

Speaker 3 (25:44):

2015, September 1st. 2015. Okay.

Speaker 2 (25:49):

So yeah, you're an old dog. I was thinking I was one of the older ones I started in 2016. So got me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:55):

Yeah. I'm old, man. I'm the oldest 31 year old you're ever going to know.

Speaker 2 (25:59):

That's crazy. It's been in this forever. Um, and so 2015. And then did you start it just like a regular rep or what, how did your progression go?

Speaker 3 (26:12):

So basically I, I, I went to this place called Greenville, South Carolina, and I was the only rep there and they're like, Hey, if you grow it, you can have it. And we ended up growing that thing, um, in, in two years to two and a half years to installing, you know, 150 to 200 deals a month. So yeah, we're, we're pumping out about 1500 kilowatts a month and installs, um, in this little town and unfortunately utilities, we met the net metering cap and they had some discussions. Um, so that's when, um, legacy wasn't doing really well in Florida. And so, um, they basically asked where I wanted to go next while they figured out utilities. And the good part is there was a regional Ari, a place in South Carolina that, that came from, um, from one of my teams. And so, um, you know, we next up, right? This is you, you finish out South Carolina and I'll go to Florida. Um, and I'll go, I'll go help rebuild legacy in Florida. There was a time like I see what it was not very good in Florida, but now it's, I, you know, I'm biased, but I'd say we're pretty good now.

Speaker 2 (27:21):

Yeah. That's amazing. You said you guys are on track to do what 500. This yeah,

Speaker 3 (27:27):

Yeah. Between, uh, Florida and, uh, and, and, uh, North Carolina, 500 sales this month, obviously there's going to be a lag. Right. Uh, but it, it takes a village, you know, you know, and I, I came down here to Florida. It was a, you know, it wasn't pretty, um, Sunrun. We were certified part at that time. So we only sell Sunrun, you know, they, weren't amazing, they're getting operations. And I met this guy named Peter Winston, um, and, and P literally helped it was a ying and yang mentality. And he helped row like this, this Florida to the absolute monster, um, where we're at today. So big shout out to Pete because I was struggling and I'll be okay with saying that. And I think one of the biggest things about me is that I'm okay with my faults and getting better. Um, the I'm also what I think I'm really good at is working with people. I believe that are better than me. Um, or, or we elevate each other to get to that next level to be able to grow together.

Speaker 2 (28:29):

Yeah. I love hearing, um, just to focus on the strengths, cause like you were saying before, so many people are just focused on a what's my best red line. What's like the most I can get paid what's this, this, this, and even just recently in my office, we've had reps just like quick go chase, better red lines and everything. And it's like, dude, you can get that. But, um, you've found like three installs don't even know what you're doing yet. So don't you think it'd better be better to have the support and like grow with the team, especially in solar. So many people make that mistake. Could you agree

Speaker 3 (29:02):

If we, if we race to the bottom, it's not the, do any, is that going to do anything for the rep, their family, their family's family, everything that's gotta be, um, depend on them because at that level services, not there, um, it doesn't matter how many cells you can't get it to install. If you don't have the back office, if you don't have the culture, if you don't have, um, the systems in place, if you don't have videos, if you don't have a way to onboard people, it's not gonna work. And I've seen, I've probably seen about 30 to 40 solar companies come and go almost last year and half that's COVID. Um, and so it just, it just, it's in Florida alone through that. I of, and so it's not, it's not, uh, we can't raise the bottom. You have to raise the quality

Speaker 2 (29:46):

Yeah. A hundred percent. And so for all those listening, consider that if you guys are considered switching your whatever situation you're in, just look at the value, how much value are you getting from it, your company, are you getting back end support? Are you getting training in? Those are things that should be heavily considered, um, along with how much you're getting paid and red lines, things like that. So

Speaker 3 (30:09):

I learned my lesson in alarms trying to chase those multiples. So I won't do it again. I, I, I enjoy being able to make time for my family. And I don't want to say there's a work-life balance. A lot of us don't believe in that. Um, I believe you have to make time for work-life balance. Um, but I'm able to do that now more because of the systems that I'm in now, don't get me wrong just because I have a nice title next to my name doesn't mean I don't get out and get after it like anyone else. I think that's one thing that will separate legacy from a lot of different companies is our VPs. Um, still go out and create, you know, I've never hit golden door. I've never hit it. There was a time our, our backlog, the one I had 96 1 year and I've almost hit it, but we're average like three and a half to four month installs in South Carolina just did not fly. They're not lining up in December, but the good news is I was able to install megawatts and megawatts and megawatts. And I think now we're closer to 60, 65 plus megawatts between, um, you know, me and everyone that I brought into the legacy family or it's part of it that, um, I get to me to work with.

Speaker 2 (31:22):

Yeah, that's incredible. And so you had just kind of transitioned into something that I respect a ton about legacy. It just like the culture you guys have. Um, it seems like everyone's bought in really well there. And I know that's one of your big strengths Jory. So how, how do you get people to like buy in so much on this culture and like vision that, that legacy is trying to chase after, on your teams?

Speaker 3 (31:43):

Are you going to laugh? But, um, Tony Robbins. So, um, so I, I, I was pretty much, I think I was more of a military leader in the start. I was like, Hey, why aren't we doing this? Why are we doing this? And it wasn't effective. Like, why are we not selling? Cause I, I had a shift that everyone did not think like me, right? We just go out and get it done. And so I went to a Tony Robbins event and then I came back from the van. I felt like a big weight slips off my shoulders. And I'm like, no, I, my shoulders I'm like no more. Am I going to be a military leader? There'll be times where I can be militant with other leaders, but can't be militant with the normal rep. Cause it just, sometimes it does not flow. And so what I decided to do was create culture through fun, excitement, motivation, like getting people to bump their chest, stick, chest out, make their move.

Speaker 3 (32:40):

Right. Tell him, I say, I'm the best. I'm the greatest and sounds so cheesy, but they're smiling ear to ear. And through that, it is, I, what I noticed is it was allowed allowing me to get instant motivation, get instant results, but then I can work on it to be able to create, um, go for motivation to discipline if it's fun and exciting. There's nothing that gets me more when I go travel around the country or I see other people's meetings, if you're not pumped up and excited and I'm not saying don't Chubb, like Ben's right. What I'm saying is we're not pumped up excited if you don't have a little five foot girl that's really never done before, like pumping their chest and saying, oh look greatest. Like that's what these moments are for, because what it's doing is getting people to see the end result, right. The confidence before it actually happens. And I love it. There's nothing more that love is somebody making a mental shift to be like, you know what? That crazy dude that keeps telling me that I'm the greatest. And it keeps making me say it out loud. Maybe I am, maybe there's something more I can dig a little deeper.

Speaker 2 (33:46):

I love that. And yeah, I mean, speaking to Tony Robbins, that's basically his entire event is like jumping up and down screaming and you know, every couple minutes you got to do some second chance type thing.

Speaker 3 (33:57):

Well, I mean, especially in solar, there's so much moving parts and there's so much like, uh, uh, not in this like, like things you have to do, it's not always pretty or sexy and solar, um, like pushing through accounts and things like that. So if we can switch it up and we can operate from a peak state, like, man, you're going to win.

Speaker 2 (34:17):

Yeah. Love that. So do you have any like specific things you guys do in your meetings to get people in that peak state is like, you know, screaming as you're shouting your goals or anything specific you guys do?

Speaker 3 (34:31):

Um, so I would probably say the number one thing that we do is we do, uh, that we actually make our move. Right. And, and, uh, and I don't know if anybody knows what that is, but I'll kind of explain it. So basically we stand up and we operate from a position of power. I mean, just feed her about, uh, just shoulders with the part your chest is sticking out and you're, you're standing direct. And then what, I don't want to sound, let's say, let's go, let's go. Where to clap. We're to clap, good, play some music. Right. And then we'll say, make your move. And everyone's got to do some kind of power move. Like they're powerful Batman, Superman move. And they're black right at the right word at that clever SIM right. Two doors. I want them heading toward to the area, pumped up, listen to the music, ready that opened that first car door and then start moving from there. Nice. That's awesome. It's not for everybody. Right. But I find that those that don't like, it we'll eventually like, like, okay, fine. And then, then like, all right. And everyone's smiling and having a good time. I need them to leave the meetings on a high and smiling.

Speaker 2 (35:39):

Yeah. That's awesome. Get me pumped right now. I want to do one right now, but it's super powerful and some guys bashed on it, but I mean, it changes the states like Tony Robbins says you got to change your state. Um, and I think that's huge for developing competence, things like that too, for the ones

Speaker 3 (35:58):

That bash on it. Listen, I get it. Um, you'll offer it like that, but it's not for you. It's if you're a top producer or trying to be top producer, it's for the people that, that, that you lead it's for the people that trust you.

Speaker 2 (36:14):

Yeah, for sure. And what about like reps that are struggling? I mean, something that you've seen it in solar, they're always the upstate just, you know, want to go work like two, three hours, get a deal here and there. And they're fine with that. How do you get people to like, just want more and set higher goals from themselves? And I don't know, push themselves more. What have you seen that works?

Speaker 3 (36:39):

So I, you know, I was actually on a recruiting call today and, and the guy was like, Hey, there's 20 people in my company. I'm number one. And, and, and I'm like, dude, that's phenomenal. So you're a big fish in a small pond. So why don't we utilize that same mentality, that same confidence and have you be a big fish in a bigger pond. And what's going to happen is you will see yourself, rise to the level that you need to go to when you have other people doing outstanding numbers around you, you're gonna look at the, the, the, um, CRM and be like, I can do more. I can do more. And, um, and at the end of the conversation, he's like, whoa, I never really thought about if I like some people don't think about it. If I, if I'm not the best, I strive to be the best that's going to push me to do more.

Speaker 3 (37:34):

Because that mentality that you just talked about. So if you're working two hours a day and everyone's praising you for that, you to leave your company, because they're not, they're not doing the best service for you or your family. Yeah. You have to stay relevant. And it's, it's been hard for me to stay relevant over the last six years and solar. And I still question my relevancy a lot of times, but then I remember these moments, these cookie jar moments, and then I'm like more, I can do more. I can impact more people. I can sell more. I can recruit more. I can give more. I can give more love more.

Speaker 2 (38:14):

Yeah. I love that. And I would say for guys that are maybe at smaller companies, or if you're the top guy go get in like some type of mastermind group, get around people that are doing more. That's what I think is so cool about what knocks these knock star guys are doing. And what we're trying to do here with the podcast is just connect with people that are at a much higher level, because the second you feel like you're at, you're the best in the room. Like you're just saying a minute ago. Um, I think you stopped growing sapping to me. Yeah. If you're

Speaker 3 (38:44):

The best in your room and if you're a 2020 man company, I'm not saying there's anything against it, but go give your nuggets and show somebody how to go compete and go recruit higher level people to bring that company up.

Speaker 2 (38:56):

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, for our Solarpreneur, make sure you take a good look at that. Don't be the best one in the room. Go join some mastermind groups, get around people that are achieving at a high level. And I'm so Jory, I love hearing what you guys are doing to build culture. Um, and yeah, for guys that, like, I dunno if you have someone on the team that just isn't producing week after week, do you guys just let them go? Or what, what does it look like?

Speaker 3 (39:24):

Wait, we never want to let anybody go. Right. Um, we believe our culture is all inclusive. Um, but what we would do is we would, we would have a conversation like let's and maybe there's wrong with your closing. So let's go back to setting and help you close in order to be able to kind of re energize and get that confidence back. Gotcha. Okay.

Speaker 2 (39:49):

So you guys start, uh, all new reps off just sending the deals. And then is there a point of transition to closing?

Speaker 3 (39:56):

Yeah. Unless they have experience from other companies. Um, but there's a lot in solar, right? There's a lot of moving parts and you start dealing with loans and, and, uh, ID approvals and everything else. And so I've seen so many reps come in, not have that, that, that setting. So it's not just setting here's, I here's the difference. I love about what we do here. At least in the Southeast for legacy, we bring on setters, but they're really mentees. We, our job is to pair them with somebody that's going to mentor them, coach them along the ways. And so, and they're going to be part of every single close. And I hope everyone's doing this in the industry. They're a part of every single close and we want to train them.

Speaker 3 (40:40):

I want to coach them to go to closing their own deals. I think I'm probably gonna be like ostracized for this. But I think one of the black balls in the industry, um, is our black eyes and history is people just having setters and never given them an opportunity to be more right. And so unless, unless they want to do that then great. But we should never ever keep someone as a setter and never give them the value. And the love that I think every person coming in the space deserves initially. And then you can make that adjustment from there.

Speaker 2 (41:12):

Yeah. No, that's a huge wall. I see for companies, matter of fact, one of the first companies I was with that was the whole plan. It was just like bringing people on as setters and try to keep them there permanently have no leg vision for him. It's, I mean, we recruit a lot of setters, but then once they saw that they couldn't grow past a certain point going to start closing, go somewhere else I'm of here. It's actually a ton of them went to legacy. So with

Speaker 3 (41:38):

No vision people perish.

Speaker 2 (41:41):

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a huge key to recruiting is you're not just saying, Hey, come join our company. I'm sure you guys are doing it too. It's more like, Hey, we weren't, we're looking for people that can lead teams. We want to open up this office. We want people, they can do this, this and transitioned into, you know, growing this area, managing this team. And yeah, I found that that worked way more effective than just saying, Hey, we're high in for solar, but it's like, no, we want leaders that can help open up, you know, our north office, ourselves office grow into this role and then people get way better vision. So, um, yes. Super powerful stuff. Jory. Um, I know we gotta wrap up kind of quick here, but any, any, uh, I guess final words of wisdom, final things you would say that's helped with your culture recruiting or anything else that you guys

Speaker 3 (42:30):

Yeah. So, um, I'd probably say this. You don't have to have like a story like mine. Like my story is not, I won't say definitely not normal. Um, but my story is different, right? It's, it's a very raw and real hard story. Um, but your story, you have a story and you have to be good at telling your story. Cause I did not want to tell I, I was embarrassed that I was homeless and I had 20 bucks in two trash bags. I was embarrassed. I had literally no food in the frigerator. And, and I had, I only had like a couple of pairs of jeans. I was embarrassed. Um, and, but eventually people like, and you start sharing that story. It's very motivational. I read it in a book. And so here's my advice to go create award-winning culture. You need to go create a story and build a, tell your story to inspire others.

Speaker 3 (43:25):

Matter of fact, if you were to create a autobiography right now and you were to give it to a random stranger on the train and they didn't read that again, inspired, then you got work to do right. You got a lot of work to do. And I don't care where you come from. Everybody has a story. Everybody adds value and you have to go find your story, your value, and have to go share a vision with people around you and more important. If you want to create a massive winning culture, if you feel somebody that that has, we've talked about it, a leader, a lot of people want leaders. Um, but they don't want them to be like at the same level, the same title they be, you know, beneath them. If you find somebody of that caliber never, never be scared to share. Right. Never be scared to share because once you go through that wall and you're like, we're here, we're sharing. That's when it starts getting really, really good. And that's when limits start being broken and lids start being removed and everybody starts winning.

Speaker 2 (44:31):

Yeah. So powerful. And yeah, it just goes to anyone that shares a story like this. Like just for an example, I've had people on the show or, you know, seeing people, social media and all that, where it's all about posting the next picture with the Lamborghini, next cars are driving just all the money they're making, showing the big checks, but they never shared any like story or anything. People that are sharing, like the raw truth stories like this. I mean, they're the ones getting the intention to, so people that do have those shares, it gets the attention. And that's what people are going to be attracted to is when you're raw, when you're real. And when you can get vulnerable with people, um, I can test that cause I've seen it over and over just in the podcasts, all our episodes that always get the most lessons are where people are like raw and real like this. So, well,

Speaker 3 (45:18):

I don't want to take you over, but I want to say that there was a moment where I was like doing my fridge is full. I have no struggles. Right? Like what am I struggled? Somebody cancels. Right. So what happened was this guy named David Goggins first came to the scene. He's on Tim Ballou or whoever's is his YouTube. And I'm like, this guy ran a hundred miles in 24 hours. I'm like, I didn't train for them. Let me see what I can do. And I went to a 24 hour event and I literally ran a one mile, um, four, I ran a one mile lap and I ended up getting 52 miles in that lap. I didn't train. I was dead. I was hurt. My knee was broken. I was actually at the whitewater center that I was running over and over and over and over.

Speaker 3 (46:02):

And I felt I had to redefine who I was like the rawness, the realness. Somebody came from the comeback kid. Right. I lived in that mode. And so I, I remember laying down at 42 miles and then getting back up hobbling 10 more miles before the end of it. I didn't run as much as I want. I didn't know what Intel, but I needed to find my pain, my tolerance level. And there was something beautiful in the struggle. And so now I have that, that cookie jar moment. Now I can, I can overcome and do anything.

Speaker 2 (46:32):

Wow. That's incredible. I didn't know that. How, when did you do that? Is that reasonable?

Speaker 3 (46:37):

No. 2017. It's 2017. It was, it was terrible. It was not great because everyone was there doing it, but they're running the teams of six and there's a few of us just running. I got second place that, not that, but we're just running like just over and over and over and over again. And it was brutal, but I need to figure out who I was. I need to step out of my shell, go to my new shop.

Speaker 2 (47:02):

Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. No, that's awesome. Yeah. I think we all need to do stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (47:08):

So go run 50 miles in 24 hours or two marathons a day that will help create culture.

Speaker 2 (47:18):

I know, dang. I need to do something like that and felt like a whistle here, but that's awesome. Um, my cold showers are feeling like nothing compared to that. Like, I'm just going to do a cold shower. That's pushing it for me.

Speaker 3 (47:30):

This, this life is too short. Not to go do something crazy. Right. And people around you respect it. Whether you hit your goal or not, they attempt

Speaker 2 (47:39):

Yeah. A hundred percent. Well Jory, we appreciate you sharing the story. Um, I definitely resonate. It resonated with that. I know our listeners are going to love it too. So where can people reach out to you on social media and all that, um, connect with you want to share your social media contacts? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:56):

So if you want, yeah. If you wanna like see my culture and who I am live, um, check out my Instagram handle. It's at jewelry, won't lose and actually trying to gain more followers. I feel like I don't have enough compared to what everyone's doing now. Um, or a Facebook, majority Solomon, and I don't hide the culture. I don't hide what we're doing. So if you want sneak, peeks into legacy and what we're creating, so you can either recreate retrade that in your own companies or reach out to me, um, go to Jory Sullivan. It's a lot easier to send me a DM that I'll be more happy to respond to you.

Speaker 2 (48:32):

Awesome. Well, Jory, thanks again for coming on the show for a member for Solarpreneurs, just be real on everything. You do get vulnerable with people, and then that's going to help you in your recruiting. That's going to help you in your culture and get people fired up to go out and work and help your teams out. So thanks again. Jory I'm sure we'll get you hopefully a few new followers on Instagram there, and we'll look forward to connecting with you more and more. Appreciate you coming on the show. Let's grow, baby. Let's grow. Let's grow. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (49:00):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:41):

What's going on top in the morning to all our Solarpreneurs out there. We are back with another exciting episode and we've got a familiar face on, he's been on a couple episodes previously, and we're going to be starting up sort of a new, um, kind of interview series we're doing so familiar faces James Swiderski. What's up, James. Thanks for coming

Speaker 3 (01:02):

By Taylor. Thank you, Matt. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:05):

My pleasure. My pleasure. And so James we're, we're talking off camera just about this new kind of calm set concept of training we're doing, which is sorta like on the company level issues we see. So you were on kind of introduced this, um, I dunno, series we were talking about kind of what the thinking was behind it.

Speaker 3 (01:29):

Yeah, for sure. So the new series we want to do is called train to win. And more specifically, we want to give company owners and I guess more ambitious reps that are looking to really scale their sales, some tools and strategies on how to actually develop out their sales skills. Um, this is not just specific to solar, as far as, um, people struggling with training in general, it's a epidemic in multiple industries. And, um, for those of you who are not familiar, I am the founder and CEO of a trained in global training company called epic. And what we do is we help multi seven figure companies scale past eight figures with their teams, hire reps, develop systems and processes around that. So what I'm going to do is pop on once in a while, do a solo episode about some of my experience with having trips and over a thousand reps with my company as well. So that'll be for you business owners out there, um, train to win tune in, listen to that for some specific tactics on how to train and scale your sales team. So yeah,

Speaker 2 (02:38):

It's a stuff that we should all be talking more about for sure. A hundred percent. And the reason I thought it was a good idea is just because there's such a disconnect in the training, in the industry, on the company and the rep level. Um, I remember starting out, I struggled with it a ton of just getting good, getting and finding good training and then actually implementing it because how companies do you know, James? I'm sure you've seen it, where they bought the card on use. They bought these trading platforms and what do they do? They didn't even hop on it. So that's a huge problem. I mean, I don't come me as a boss, thousands and thousands. Um, I mean my, my previous company I was with, we spent, I know a ton of money to get the card on you and yeah. And on it, and then it didn't increase ourselves.

Speaker 3 (03:22):

So solar either. That's the thing. Uh, um, I would say solar is even a little behind the eight ball on it, but the, the statistic on that actually there's over $1.5 billion a year spent on enterprise training for sales teams. Okay. And this is crazy. This stat was done by ed tech, um, their conference in 2017 and they found that 87% of sales training that was purchased for their sales team was forgotten within 30 days. So if that's not the equivalent of lighting cash on fire as a CEO, I don't know what it is. Right. Um, so yeah, that's what my company solves. I want to kind of talk about why that's the case and more specifically what you guys can do about it. Um, solar specifically.

Speaker 2 (04:09):

Yeah. Well, let's jump into it. And so for our listeners, our Solarpreneurs that don't know James helped us through his, um, epic platform. He helped us build out society, which we've been talking about here and there on the, on the, uh, episodes, which is the new training platform that we just released. And we're already seeing people get results with it and training it's. Um, we think it's going to revolutionize the, uh, solar training game just because it combines, you know, the learning with games you can take with a separate accountability. So we're going to talk kind of the specific things that's, um, James is doing to help, you know, just sells training in general with that system. Yeah. Dwelt within epic. But yeah, I guess, um, why did you decide to start, you know, this whole epic thing? And I, I thought it was epoch so, um, just, just for the record, it's spelled E P O C H. So James gets sick, sick of correcting people. It's not epoch, epic. Right,

Speaker 3 (05:07):

Right, right. Whatever you want to call it epoch the CA all right. I mean, the biggest thing I've tried to, if any of you guys know my background, right. So I got into sales consulting and training, like after I left my first solar company job, a startup I worked with and I found out, um, scaling this company up from a couple of million, upwards of eight figures. Here's what their sales team, that sales training was just fundamentally broken altogether. Um, the most common training mistakes we see actually, and I even have a few of the listed here that I discovered through training my own reps was they didn't have a predictable system to do it. Right. That's very common. And that's why guys will go by like Cardone university, Jordan Belfort, straight line persuasion, stuff like that, all great programs, the way I've taken all of these programs.

Speaker 3 (05:59):

I spent over a half, a million dollars in my own money on sales training programs. That's how I got good at sales. And I recommend people do that. Right. The problem was this most companies in solar and my company in particular, um, we did not have a way to measure training success. Okay. We were spending all this cash on training, but we didn't know if it was actually producing a real ROI. Right. So that was the first problem companies have. So they don't measure training outcomes and how to actually get an ROI. Um, if you are generating leads, buying Facebook ads, anything like that, right. For your business, you need to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, what's happening on the calls. And if you don't measure these things, um, we can't improve them. What gets measured gets improved. Right? So that's the biggest thing. If you own a company right now, and you're looking for a better way to train your apps, or you're a rep, um, looking to improve your skillset, the first thing you should do is establish a baseline with your skills and where you're currently at by tracking everything, um, from activities to what skills you're working on, um, your current sales pipeline, you need to make sure you're tracking. So that's, I'd say that's the first mistake I've seen, um, working with, I'd say probably a little over 45, 50 different solar companies at this point in my career.

Speaker 2 (07:24):

Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah. Tracking is huge. And like, my question is, how do you know? Um, I don't know, what are some specific things you track? I know you talked about it a little bit. It just barely, but like when I've gotten coaching and training, sometimes it's tough to tell what the reps it's like, oh, are they just more motivated to work? Or they like putting in a few more hours or is this like actual information helping them? So what are things that I don't know, is there anything specific you're saying, it's like, you check this thing and that's how, you know, if the training's actually working or how accurate are you seeing?

Speaker 3 (07:58):

Yeah. Yeah. So the biggest, um, before we get to that, I want to kind of give the big idea of this. So the big idea is to adopt what I call conscious skill development. So most reps kind of use the spray and pray method with training and companies. And that method is the most familiar with anybody. And it's proven, right? You will learn that method is to just go out there, do the craft, repeat, put in the work and you'll learn as a by-product through experience. Right. And that is effective to a degree, but you're wasting a lot of time in there is what I've found, working with teams and myself. Um, we're able to really cut the learning time by a drastic amount. And I can't give you an exact percentage or anything, but, um, I've been able to learn everything from marketing to sales, to recruiting, to basically every skill within business. Um, it's kind a running joke. Taylor and I have with things, um, I just have like a ridiculous set of skills, whether it's from producing sales videos, promo videos, marketing, email, whatever it is. Right. It's because I use this process. Um, what was your question again? Mine

Speaker 2 (09:12):

Was just like, are there specific things? Yeah. Are there specific things that you're like, I dunno, companies that you've been working with, it's like, okay, that's how you're going to know if it actually had an ROA or ROI or pay it off. Um, cause yeah, I know that's a big problem is like, guys can't see that it's they don't necessarily know if they improved from this training or maybe your reps were working more hours. So yeah. What are the things you're telling them? We

Speaker 3 (09:35):

Measure. Yep. So five key things specifically for solar one, it's going to be most of you guys, that's going to be knocking doors, right? A second. We have appointment setting for skillsets. We have presenting for number three, closings number four, and then five is emotional intelligence. ETQ right. There's a kind of like the five core skillsets that you need to master to really successfully sell solar. Um, how you measure these is you define a clear outcome for each activity. In other words, like what do we want to produce when we're prospecting for most guys it's we want to get a new lead, right. A new opportunity. So we define what we want to accomplish with each skill. So for prospecting, maybe it's a new lead. Okay. For some door knocking companies, it may be time spent on doors is the most valuable, uh, metric. So these metrics will be different company to company.

Speaker 3 (10:35):

And the way you determine what is the most valuable metric to measure is the one that produces the majority or do you have the outcomes? And you can only do this if you track. Right. That's the thing, that's why nobody does. This is because their tracking is not in place to begin with. Um, you need to be tracking, not just like leads and appointments set it's actual activities. So how much time are you spending per rep on the doors? Right? How many doors are you knocking to get a conversation? Right? These are things that you need to track if you want to have a successful training system. So go through each activity within your sales process, if you're a rapper, a company owner, and define what you want to accomplish with each particular skillset. So yeah,

Speaker 2 (11:22):

Yeah, yeah. That's better. Yeah. And I think a big thing that companies struggle with is just the actual tracking. Um, because I've seen, you know, I've worked for multiple companies now where it's like, they're tracking is just, um, you know, whatever's posted in like the group, me, the group chat, it's like, oh, I got a lead. We're going to put that up count as a lead. But it's like, they don't know was that leads was that qualified was actually booked with a homeowner. Uh, were they using enough energy to even count as a solar lead? Like all these things and they don't, they don't even know how to figure this out. Em, chock it. Yeah. Start majoring it. Good. So what's really cool about, um, what we've been able to do within solciety too, is we're helping companies set up just systems for actually tracking this because the truth is most people know how to know how to set up good systems to track and measure and report all these different KPIs. It's like, they're just arbitrary numbers thrown up on a scoreboard on a group chat and they may or may not be true. I mean, I've worked for all us companies where reps are just throwing up. I got six leads today where, you know, four of them were booked with people that didn't even own the home and the other two, they just put just to make them make themselves look good. So it's like, come on. You're not going to be able to know, happens all the time

Speaker 3 (12:38):

So much. Yeah. Yeah. So it's yeah, suicide. It, would've done it. It's done for you tracking. So, oh, I'm going to be secret sauce right now. I kind of had to do this as a rep or a company owner, but basically the first thing we accomplished with our enterprise setup is like, we literally will track your reps on over 45 different skillset points that we found in the industry, whether it's from door knocking specifically tailored to your business. And then we generate reports for your entire team on a weekly basis down to the rep. So you'll know exactly what's going on, um, what insights you need to make good decisions. So again, that's a, that's what we do there, but let's, let's keep moving and give them kind of the, uh, get back on track, give them the process on how to actually train and develop your skills. Um, let's do cool.

Speaker 2 (13:28):

Yeah. Um, so like, yeah, like we're talking about, I mean, you know, you set up a lot of these processes so you can get into the specifics, but I think the cool thing for me was just seeing the, um, interactive stuff that quizzes, um, I don't know about you, but I've gone through tons of video, you know, courses, trainings, things like that, just online courses where it's just a random video and then you're expected to remember all this to implement it. And half the time you don't even remember what you just watched. Um, so I think a big key in any training course is just actually getting tested on the material, getting quizzed and remembering it. So that's a big key that I thought was super impressive about what we've been able to develop within solciety. But yeah. What are some other things, James? Um, do you want to talk about that? And just other specific, I guess, training processes that were set up within that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:18):

Yep. So, um, back to the conscious training thing, the way you combat this and really just accelerate your learning time, ridiculously is set a time, a minimum, I would say one hour is what I recommend with clients have each rep, or if you're listening as a rep set aside one hour where you dedicate all of your time, focusing attention to developing a skill, right? Um, best skill can be anything door-knocking presenting, whatever it is. Now, there are a couple of rules with skill development time I have for myself and our clients. We do this one. This needs to be private time. Okay. Zero distractions, nothing getting in your way. Like if you want to be really hyper effective here, it's gotta be all in. Laser-focus turn off the Facebook, turn off the notifications all in skill development, time. Second, this is not sales activities. Okay.

Speaker 3 (15:09):

So knocking doors doesn't count as your skill development time, right? Going on, presentations does not count. This is not actually talking to customers. That's where I don't see a lot of guys do this where they don't actually dedicate time to think about this way. If you're talking to a homeowner, right. Stuff's changing constantly, right? Something shows up, you've got to build rapport here. You're dynamically shifting you can't work on your skill set. In that case, you need to have a fixed variable. So sales activities don't count. And then third binge-watching courses and videos is not training time. This is what throws a lot of people off. Um, it's basically just entertainment, right? Just watching a bunch of videos back to back. And that's why we do things very differently with solciety to where it's just like 20 minute bite sized videos. It's not designed for you to binge watch all the videos in a weekend.

Speaker 3 (16:06):

It's to just choose one skill-based video, watch that implement it. Right. So that's what you want to do to set yourself up for success. Um, there's another tool with this. I like to use what I call a practice log. Okay. So this could be a digital version. This could be a paper version, whatever you want to do. I've been using this long before solar. It happens to work fantastic in sales. I actually learned this process, um, as a musician growing up as well. Um, so what you do is you document what you're training your specific outcomes, what you're working on specifically within each skillset on a daily basis during this hour. So you're productive. Um, the way I like to do it is simply just define my skill goal. So let's do it. You tailor, what's a skill that you'd like to work on and further develop right now with your sales.

Speaker 2 (17:01):

Um, I would say increasing my closing percentage. Yeah. Getting it up probably at about 40% right now. I want to get it up to more like 60 something.

Speaker 3 (17:14):

Okay, cool. So we want to set the clear outcome. We want to increase your close rate by 20%, right? Yeah. Perfect. So how do we know if we increase Taylor's close rate by 20%, we need to define that metric. So let's say that you go on 10 appointments. Right? We know that you're going to close four of them about right now on average. Right. So we know he needs to close two extra appointments. Right. Per what month week we define what we want to set. Right. If it's month, we say month, right? So you want to write these down, you got to get really granular, like how we do actually know the inquiry based it, make sure you're tracking those numbers right now to the training specifically. Right. What makes up a close, because closing is kind of a broad skill, right? I don't actually think closing is a skillset closing is handling rebuttals, handling objections and smoke screens. It's how your presentation works. Right. Right. So we need to identify like, what is the root cause that's causing Taylor's close rate to be 40% and not 60%. So let me ask you that Taylor, do you know or have a suspicion of what that root cause would be?

Speaker 2 (18:37):

Yeah. Um, I mean, I would say just based off of what I knew without tracking is super good. It's just getting in front of more qualified people because right now, I mean, I'll go to closes sometimes where it's like, there's a good chance. They're not even going to qualify. Um, so I guess stuff like that. And also if, um, you know, if the spouse isn't there, um, so I don't know. It just getting in front of more qualified people because my closing ratio can't increase. I'm not getting in front of, you know, like obviously my closing ratio is going to be less. If it's just talking to one spouse, it's not going to people that are lower credits. Um, if it's talking to people that have energy bills that are super low, those are all things that decrease it. So I don't know. I think for me, it's like also tracking most things like how many of these appointments are actually super qualified to even close. Um, yeah. That's just one thing I would think of that.

Speaker 3 (19:39):

Yeah, exactly. You answered it perfectly. So what's interesting here is Taylor thought he had a closed, a closing problem. He doesn't have a closing skill problem. This is where reps would make the mistake with this. And they go start working on like fancy closing lines and stuff like that. He doesn't have a problem with those lines. Right. He has an appointment setting skill issue at this point. So now we know, all right, the root causes appointment setting. That's what we need to spend our time on. Right. See how that works. Yeah. It's interesting. Cool. So we want to work backwards at this point. Okay. Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (20:16):

I was just going to say, that's probably a lot of, um, a lot of companies once they start actually tracking and getting deep into this data, it's probably like, what they'll realize is companies think they have one problem, but really it's another problem. Every day, prospecting, maybe it's getting more qualified leads. So that is interesting.

Speaker 3 (20:34):

Like, uh, so I used to own a marketing agency, right? Um, all the time we here in solar, I have lead problems. Right? I need more leads. I could tell you like seven to eight out of 10. It's not a lead issue. It's a offer issue. It's a branding issue. It's a training issue with their reps. They're not training the reps, how to self-generate even when they get the leads, they don't actually use them effectively. They waste 90 out of a hundred leads. Right? Um, boiling things down to its first principles is like a fundamental skill here. So how do we actually practice your appointment setting? That's what I want to talk about here. So we've got our practice log. We've set aside an hour to practice. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to divide our 60 minutes skill session into three more main parts.

Speaker 3 (21:27):

Okay. The first 20 minutes, we're going to work on what we call fundamental techniques, right? What are the like basic technical mechanics of setting an appointment? So in this case, this would be like how long the call should be when you're sending appointment, how long you should take on the door to set an appointment. Right. Um, what you're saying, the script itself, that's technical, that's fundamental the objections and FAQ's, that's technical and fundamental. So in this first 20 minutes, we're going to practice really just going through all of those processes. So like knowing your FAQ's just right off the bat, right? Somebody says, what if the solar panels get dirty? Boom, you can handle it without even thinking. Right? So in this 20 minute period, I'm going to go through my weak points. My FAQ's my, whatever it is, my scripts. And I'm just going to practice them. I'm going to say them out loud. I'm going to turn myself on camera right now. I'm going to practicing it that way. I'm going to record myself. I'm going to get my tonality. Right. I'm going to break down specifically what parts in there I'm missing. Whether it's tone, whether it's script, whether it's FAQ's right. We're getting very nitty gritty details for 20 minutes and just repeating that process. Right.

Speaker 2 (22:43):

That's you. Yeah. And this is another huge thing. I think companies, miss is just the recording aspect. Actually seeing what their reps are saying. Um, I just had another Laney, gray. I didn't, uh, he was on the episode. I think, I dunno, two episodes ago, he wrote the two door to door millionaire books. Um, but they add something. He talks about a lot in his trainings. You just actually having your reps record what they're saying on their doors, record their objection, handling and send it into their managers, sending it into the company owner, send it into the VP of sales and all that, because then they can actually diagnose and fix the problem. So that's something that I think is super powerful. What we're doing within solcieties. We're helping also companies set up that these systems bands, you know, get recordings from their reps, have them actually train effectively because how many people think they're out there, um, fall on the script, fall on how they were taught to handle the objections. And then you get out there, you listen. [inaudible] you saying? That's accountability.

Speaker 3 (23:42):

Accountability is a big problem with that, for sure. Yeah. So after we've, uh, worked on our fundamental techniques, right? The technical skills, that's only got to get us so far. Right next. We want to do modeling and reviewing. Okay. So the next 20 minutes, this is where your rep should be watching what your managers are doing. Hopping on a quick call with them, listening to recordings of themselves or managers or other people in S looks like specifically for the skill they're working on. This is where you review the game tape too. Right? They'll listen to their recordings. Hey, I don't like how I did this, the next practice session. They're going to work on that specific skill that identified, right. Um, the last 20 minutes is role play in implementation. So we want to make sure that we're practicing the new skills that we just learned in modeling.

Speaker 3 (24:38):

Right? And we're role-playing with somebody and accountability partner, right? So managers, other reps, people online and groups, whoever it is, you gotta be role-playing on a daily basis. Like this is another, just fundamental. Everybody misses, right? Sales is a predictability game, a consistency game, right? For every one day, two days, you miss selling, right? It's going to take you three to four days to make that skill up. If you go a year now, sell, watch what happens. Right. I've done the same thing too, where I go like six months, 12 months without like hopping on closing calls regularly, that skillset is almost shot, man. Like it goes down considerably and I have to get back in the ring. Right. Role playing actually going out there in the field more to get that skill place up. So that's kind of my skill session divided up into 60 minutes. Tech technique, 20 minutes modeling 20 minutes. Role-play 20 minutes.

Speaker 2 (25:41):

Yeah. That's awesome. It's funny how much it, yeah. I mean, James and I were both F from the music world, so I know your trumpet and stuff, but yeah, it just reminds me, it's so funny. You know, that's how practice sessions were divided up. It's like 20 minutes of technique. 20 minutes of, I dunno, improv, whatever 20 minutes of, um, whatever repertory you're working on. Yeah. It's the same stuff. And people forget about all these things in solar, but I think this is what separates truly the best from the people that are just staying where they're at is they're always working on these things. And you mentioned like, um, you know, even guys that are experienced, getting out and doing, taking cells calls, still doing role-plays. That reminds me of a story where I had my previous company. I had one of like, he was a VP of sales.

Speaker 2 (26:26):

He came out with me to a deal and I'm thinking, okay, this guy is going to close him. Like, no problem, 20 minutes we'll be in and out of the house, close them. And he hadn't gone to a close for probably, I don't know, maybe at least a couple months at that time. And he came to this close and he just, I mean, it was, it was okay, but he forgot a couple of crucial things. Number one, the husband was in the other room. He forgot to even invite the husband into the presentation. And, and then he, and then at the close you could tell he's just super uncomfortable. So I'm like, man, I thought this was going to be a 20 minute close. And what, at the time I was a newer rep. So I'm like, okay, he's probably doing this for a reason.

Speaker 2 (27:05):

He probably just knows. He's so good at closing that he didn't have to invite the spouse into the room. He's that good? So he didn't even need to invite them to get to the end. Like, no, I need to talk to my spouse. You get all the same objections. And I'm like, well, okay. That's what happens. Even guys that are, you know, at the top of their game, if they're not doing these things, they're going to be, there's no staying neutral. You're either getting better. You're getting worse. So that's, what's going to happen. Perfectly said. Yep. So yeah, I think that's a big thing we're trying to solve, but yeah. James, anything else that we're doing? I don't know, in the epic processes in solciety, uh, what, w what else are we missing? Anything else we're implementing to help, um, companies and reps improve their craft?

Speaker 3 (27:48):

So, I mean, I'll, I'll talk about a lot more on the specific company stuff, but the biggest benefit, um, in our program we've put together and what my company provides for Taylor as well as a content partner is the tracking, as I talked about accountability is second piece that most companies miss, you need to be holding your reps accountable for training, not on a monthly basis or a weekly, a daily basis. Okay? If you need, if we're asking and showing you right now, that training 60 minutes a day, right? You can plainly see on here, whether you take anything, what we're saying for real, or with a grain of salt, it doesn't matter. You can admit that if your reps were to train specifically on their weak points and their skills for 60 minutes a day, following this process, do you think they would get better at selling?

Speaker 3 (28:38):

That's an obvious answer. Yes. Right? The problem is most company owners don't believe their reps will actually put in the work with this and they don't want to babysit their reps with that. So that's where we actually come into play in our partnership. Me and Taylor here is we actually hold your reps accountable through what we call a pod check system, where they're actually holding each other accountable with quick five minute check-ins with each member of their team on a daily, consistent basis to make sure they're training and they're reaching their goals. Uh, the other part of this is just incentives at the end of the day, what are you actually rewarding and incentivizing as a business owner? And the biggest mistake, again, that not anybody, right? I'm not just picking on solar here, but it's for sure. And solar that's where I've learned this process.

Speaker 3 (29:29):

We're incentivizing only one outcome. Most of the time and that's sales, right? Most companies say, Hey, Taylor, go sell 10 deals. We'll buy you a Rolex or whatever. Well, Brent, you a Tesla for a year. The problem is that only incentivizes who like your top producers that know they're going to be able to do the action. The rest of your team is just like, screw it. Taylor's a rock star. I'm not going to even try. Right. This happens like every freaking time a sales contest. Um, and when I was a VP of sales, right? Um, a few years back, I was just like, dude, no matter how awesome the prizes cash, we did like a 25 grand in cash for like a month competition. One time, guess what? It's the same crap. Three reps out of the lot are actually motivated by it. Right? And what I realized is it's because we're incentivizing only results and results are so overwhelming and big to go and accomplish.

Speaker 3 (30:31):

Right? Our rep sees, he's got to go close 10, 15 deals to go on the company retreat. He's like, dude, I haven't even closed more than three deals. I'm not even going to have a freak. Am I going to make this happen? Right? This is why your numbers are so key, because guess what happens when you know your numbers? You can track activities and incentivize activities, not results. If you know, for a fact that going on 10 appointments as a rep is going to yield three, four closes, right? You can now place rewards right on appointment set. And not those deals where companies get scared with this is because they don't know their metrics. They don't have any trust in the system that an appointment is not just going to get fudged to get a quick reward. If you have accountability with your reps and you know, they can't be asked you all right, you can incentivize whatever you want to do, right. Make the barrier super low. So that's the final piece. We do the same thing. Um, with society, we help you craft really unique and specific incentives to your team that will actually motivate them and use action motivations and incentives rather than just results. So yeah,

Speaker 2 (31:42):

So powerful guys. So this is key whether you get on society or not, it's something that every company needs to be thinking about is just how can we better develop these systems? How can we better, better develop our reps to get the maximum efficiency out of them? Because if you're not doing these things, that's a big reason. You're losing reps. Companies are losing reps. It's like pouring water into a basket. You have 10 holes in the basket. If you don't have these processes and systems set up, set up, the water's just leaking out the ends of it. I mean, right now, or a matter of fact, our company's doing this exact thing. We have a, uh, Conor McGregor tickets set up for the weekend. Um, but you have to close six deals. So that's great. And yet it's going to motivate the top guys. But how about the guys that have never closed more than two deals in a week, or that have only closed one deal a week?

Speaker 2 (32:28):

It's like, you need to have these top incentives, but you also need to be rewarding. These little things, these mini habits as guys like Michael Donald stuff, like he's come on and talked about these things. But what are these little actions that you can reward that are going to lead to the big actions? Because not everyone's going to go out and hit six deals in their first, first week. So how can you also give them incentives? How can you motivate them? And then how can you track and set all the systems in place? Because most companies that I've seen just, I mean, they don't even know how to check their incentives. And it happens there at every company I've been with. It's like, you could talk to any rep there they've been, oh yeah, I won this incentive, but I didn't get paid out on it. Um, no keeping Jack

Speaker 3 (33:09):

I've personally owed a lot of prizes from back when I was selling full time.

Speaker 2 (33:17):

No, and I know perhaps that's the worst thing you want to do is have to go, you know, beg gear, your manager, credibility

Speaker 3 (33:21):

As a sales leader, just tanks, man. Culture just goes down. Like, why would you even want to participate in the next contest? I know. And it's not that they don't

Speaker 2 (33:31):

Want to, but it's just, they don't. Yeah, they don't, they probably don't need to know who won it. They don't have a system set in a place to track that. And then they just forget. So it's important to have someone in charge of this. And then if not, I mean, yeah. I consider her and getting on society. That's what we're trying to help companies do is really set up these systems and then track up for them. So you don't have to worry about all this. You don't have to remember it. And then we're going to help you put these systems in place and actually get reps rewarded for these little actions that they're taking. So super powerful stuff. Um, go set it up, figure out a way to do it. And James, I think we've covered quite a bit. Are there any, anything else that, um, I don't know you wanted to cover that I didn't think of. No.

Speaker 3 (34:12):

Well, I think, uh, I'm looking forward to putting out some solo episodes, um, to really dive deep on some of these concepts. So. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (34:20):

Yeah. So we're looking for it. Let us know what you thought of this guys, especially for, uh, you know, company owners. Um, let us know if there's things that you struggle with. Cause that's what James is going to be doing. Um, you know, specific episodes on is things that companies struggle with and things that we can help them improve as far as systems and processes. So at James, thanks for coming on. Um, guys, we'll be hearing more of you and we had a few, uh, sorry. We had some wifi issues. So apologize if there was some, a blitz blips in the audio, but we will get that figured out for next time. Um, so set that up and James, any final words you wanted to share before we talk next time? Okay. I guys, well, we will see you on the next show. Thanks for tuning in. And then if you are a rep, that's listening to this, make sure to send it to your company owners so they can also work on these things. Cause I know that's another problem is company owners. Aren't listening to this podcast, I'll send it to your company. Owners, send it to the guys that do need help setting up these systems. And that's it guys. So James, can we talk some more and we'll see you guys on the next one.

Speaker 1 (35:24):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here to change your life as a soar sales professional, we are back with another show today, got an exciting topic, and we're going to jump right into it. I hope you enjoyed the previous episode. We have Lenny Gray the master of door to door on. So if you didn't go listen to that, go check it out. He's written two books, amazing episode have gotten great feedback. So thanks again, Lenny, for coming on the show with us in this episode, we're going to do something that I don't think I've actually done before. And that is actually take a topic suggestion from our audience, from our Solarpreneurs. So guys, if you have a topic suggestions, people you want to bring on things you want to talk about things you want to jam on. Hit me up. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook trying to be more active on there.

Speaker 2 (01:37):

So I'm send me a message. Let me know if you have suggestions, feedback, just anything really appreciate the comments and tips that you guys give me. And it's nice to be able to interact with, with my crew, with my solar peeps. So this tip actually comes from, um, someone that doesn't actually have their name on Instagram and talk to him. So I apologize that I never got to your name on here, but Instagram is WVRRVN. Give them a shout out if you want to go follow them. One of our solar friends and he sends me a message. Um, so it was about three weeks ago. He says, Hey brother, been listening to your podcast over the past few months, getting tons of value, have an idea for a topic, no one discusses too much on overcoming negative online reviews. Is this something you can help the community discuss?

Speaker 2 (02:34):

Well, my man WVRVN I hope that's not your real name unless you're some kind of droid. Okay. But, um, that's his Instagram handle. That's what we're going to cover today. We're going to jump into it. And it's something that has at times come back to bite me negative reviews. I know a lot of people, especially guys with our bigger companies. Sometimes they struggle with these and it's something that, um, guys have to learn how to overcome. Guys, have to learn how to really turn in a strength. How can we overcome this objection? So I've got three tips. I want to share with you going to be quicker episode. We're going to jump right into it. Share three tips. Things that I do that have helped me and things that I've also heard from guys at larger companies specifically, specifically at Vivint Solar. I know that's a huge company.

Speaker 2 (03:27):

I have a lot of friends that are managers over there. Um, I guess I should say Sunrun now because they are now Sunrun direct, but they're a large company. Um, had some pretty terrible reviews. I know that I looked him up and one time I was considering going in selling with them and this was something I always came back to is like, how do you guys sell with so many negative reviews? Like I lose deals myself with negative reviews, but how are guys over a Vivint Solar, some of these larger companies they're selling dozens and dozens of deals every quarter. And I mean, they, they seem to be just fine with the negative reviews. So I'm gonna tell you a few things that I heard from these guys, a few things that have helped me and hopefully they help. Okay. So let's get into it.

Speaker 2 (04:16):

Tip number one is bring it up before they do. Okay. A lot of, a lot of guys have heard this. Hopefully you've had training in your sales organization that something we all should be doing is bringing up objections before our customers. Our clients can, if you have a great book on this, go read Sam Taggart's ABC's at closing. He has a whole section on this. He calls it eight. Milling your customers, right? It comes from the eight mile movie where a M and Eminem is, you know, bringing up all the objections. The rappers can throw out them that you grew up in a trailer park. They use white trash, all this stuff. So we need to do the same thing. And this is something specific specifically for this objection that I think works great. Bring up the negatives before they can. Cause if you bring it up and if you bring it up while you're in the home, they can't go look it up.

Speaker 2 (05:12):

Matter of fact, pull it up on your computer right there while you're in the home with them. Mr. Customer, I know we don't have the greatest review. Here's here's why. Um, and then you can explain to them what's going on. A lot of the reviews you see anyways, are just completely false. Like things that never happened. So, okay. It's that's another point is know your online presence. You should always know exactly what is written about them. You should always know exactly what potential negatives your clients, your customers could find about you. You should know what dirt they can dig up on you. So go look that up. I'm constantly Googling my companies, my installers I'm Googling. Cause I want to know exactly what people could possibly find negative. Okay. You gotta be in the know because if you don't know it, then it's going to be surprised to you when they bring up a negative and then that's when you're screwed.

Speaker 2 (06:07):

Okay. So bring it up. No, your views. A good example of this. I know a lot of guys, myself included are so on. Um, so Noah, right? So Noah as the financer, as the lender. So if you go look up Sunnova they don't have great reviews. Okay. And so you've got to know this people. When I sell a deal through some Nova PP, we are alone. I almost always will bring it up. Hey, so nowhere they're the lender for this, just so you know, you can look them up. Um, but yeah, unfortunately they've done, um, they've done their own installs. They've done deals all over the country. So they have a huge client base, but they are just the ones financing this case. You're not working with them and really stress that they're working with the installation company, they said no is simply the lender.

Speaker 2 (07:00):

Hey, and then focus it on the installation company on the installers. And so that's something I do when I deal with Sunnova specifically. Okay. So tip number two is bring up how many customers you have. Okay. This is something that comes from again. I mentioned my Vivint Solar guys, my, my buddies that sold with Vivint Solar, while these larger organizations they're going to have tons of negatives. Okay. Sunnova is a no way as an example of that. That's just the fact of the matter. When you get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of customers of clients, you're always going to have names. So what do you do? Bring up examples, do math with them right on the spot. Okay. So you can go. Um, I mean, in the Sunnova example, they have thousands and thousands of customers across the country, right? So if you look on there, you're going to see what maybe a couple hundred reviews, negative reviews.

Speaker 2 (07:56):

So for example, let's say there are a hundred negative reviews. Maybe you've done 5,000 installs. You have 5,000 customers. You do the math on that, a hundred divided by 5,000. What is that? That's only 2% of your customers, right? So, I mean, do the math, show them on the calculator? You look, Mr. Customer, this, um, represents about 2% of the people we've done. See, I understand there's going to be mistakes. Um, fortunately there's, um, issues that happened, but let me ask you, Mr. Customer, how many times have you had a positive experience and not written? Yeah. About it. Like you probably went to Starbucks yesterday. Got your coffee. Just fine. Did you write them a good review? Probably not. Right. So how many people are out there that had a fantastic experience, that everything went super smooth. Write about it. And guess what those, those people were working with, I'm going to take care of you.

Speaker 2 (08:57):

We're going to make sure everything goes smoothly. I can pinky promise you if you want you on pig. You want me to pinky promise you. Okay, great. So we'll make sure everything goes good. So right now we're just going to get a few documents submitted. Boom. That's how you do it. Okay. So bring up the math, bring up, um, ask them, ask them how many times they've written positive reviews and that's going to, that's going to call them out on the spot. I mean 99.9% of people do not go right in positive reviews about every interaction they've had. That's just the fact of the matter. So if you can do the math with them, if you can get them to realize that people do not just, you know, write pure positives, that it's a business, then that's going to help. Okay. So that's the second tip.

Speaker 2 (09:41):

Bring up how many customers you have do some math with them and then get them to realize that there's going to be negatives, but we're going to get it figured out. Okay. And then the third and final tip I have is tell stories of neighbors close by. And this is where testimonials come in. If you haven't listened to the episode from a couple of weeks back about video testimonials, go listen to that and that's going to change the way you sell. Okay? And that's going to probably prevent you from even having, having to overcome objections like this, because if you can solve, um, show them solid video, testimonials of neighbors, of especially people in the neighborhood they're in, then they're not even going to bring up these things because they're going to trust people in their neighborhood a way more than anything they can find online.

Speaker 2 (10:27):

Right? That's why I suggest getting a video testimonial with every everyone that you can. Hey, and then another thing I learned from a lot of my guys over at these bigger companies, Vivint Solar is pull up maps. If you can get your start tracking, have your company start keeping a spreadsheet or keeping track on a map of all your installs, okay? A reference sheet sheet, utilize them, make sure you have pins on a map, something where you can pull up, pay this, how many people we've done in the area. Do you think this many people would have gone with us? If things were terrible? Probably not. And that's, what's so powerful about some of the software that's Vivint Solar, or some of these other companies have access to Sunrun is on their proposals or in their knocking apps. They can see every past customer. Right?

Speaker 2 (11:19):

How powerful is that? If you're in a home mean, say, um, Mr. Homeowner, this is all your neighbors that actually are already on the program. So yeah, there is, uh, negatives, but look, there are six people just in your neighborhood that are already on the program. So rather than trusting all these online shenanigans that may or may not be true, why don't we drive by? We can go look at the people that are installed in your neighborhood and we can go off of that. Okay. Obviously, if you're a smaller company company, you don't have installs, then you're not going to say that, but I mean, still can use references in the neighborhood though. Even if it's from another company, you can say, Mr. Homeowner, do you think your neighbor across the street would have solar? If things were all terrible? Okay. You can talk to these people beforehand.

Speaker 2 (12:10):

I've gotten lots of times, people that aren't, even with my company that just have solar on the roof. Hey, would you recommend your solar to your neighbors? Great. Do you mind if I use your name as a reference? There you go. You got a name, you got a person you can use as a reference right there, and that's going to help out a ton. So make sure you're just collecting as much social proof as possible. Get pictures out as a last resort. Um, something I heard from, um, my friend river Skinner. If he's listening to this, uh, my referencing him from one of his, uh, Instagram stories, but what's really cool is he will send out a thank you card with his picture in the customer's in it. And this is kind of off topic, but that's something super powerful. You can do get pictures with your customers.

Speaker 2 (12:59):

Send out cards.com I think is a website where you can actually just create online cards. You can throw your picture in there, send your customers so sort of off topic, but make sure you're collecting all the social proof as possible. This is going to help reduce cancellations and help you continue to dominate out there. So thanks again for the topic recommendation. Let me know what you guys thought. Let me know if you guys have any other, uh, ideas on, um, overcoming negative reviews, things you have done and love to hear your feedback again, shoot me your topic suggestions. Let me know what you thought and send me your guest suggestions as well. If you guys know of anyone that is absolutely dominating that we need to have on the show, let's get them on. So hope that helped hope you'll tune in for the next show. And we will see you on the flip side.

Speaker 3 (13:53):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Ok What's going on Solarpreneurs. We're back with another show and we've got at legend in the door to door industry. He's written multiple books now, and I'm super excited to have him on the show. We've got the one, the only Lenny Gray. So thanks for coming on the show with us today, Lenny. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks Taylor. Yeah, I'm super excited. And we were talking just, um, before the recording here, how I just finished your new book that came out and, um, I had been posting just a little, like, you know, highlights of it on my Instagram every few days. And it's crazy. We've been getting just message after message. What is that book? I've never seen a book like that, but it's sent off probably 50 messages and, um, should have put it in the title. Cause I kinda got sick of sending out the same message. It's the next door to door or door to door a millionaire.

Speaker 2 (01:34):

But yeah, so people loved it. So congrats on the book. Plenty. It's huge accomplishment right in a book like that. So no, thank you. I appreciate it. So I, uh, it's kinda funny when I wrote the first one, it was really to kind of get out of the door to door sales industry. I was kind of doing some other things and I thought that was kind of my stamp on the industry and it threw me back in, uh, more violently than ever. So I, uh, I jumped back in and again, the first book I wrote was eight years ago. So this is uh, eight years in the making and the second book. And it's definitely, as it says in the title, it kind of takes things to the next level. So a lot more experienced, uh well-versed door to door reps seem to appreciate the second book a lot better even than the first one.

Speaker 2 (02:16):

Yeah. Yeah. That's how I felt for sure. So yeah, I mean, it's gotta be a ton of work right. In a book like that. I mean, I've thought about random book, but I'm like, man, it seems like so much work. So where you always well, at what point did you decide that you needed to write even a second book? So I, you know, I was an English minor in college, so I figured I'd put that to good use maybe. I don't know, but uh, didn't really have, uh, you know, a desire to write a book necessarily, but boy, I just had so much experience in so many things and it kind of another motivation for me was when I first got into the door to door sales, like late nineties, right. Forever ago, I'm a dinosaur. But when I got into these, uh, into this industry, I mean literally the company I worked for handed me a training manual that was, you know, 10, 15 pages long.

Speaker 2 (03:04):

And I was like, that's it? And, and I felt so unequipped to go out and knock any doors. And so I, I just felt with that as my background and then also what I heard and what we still hear in the industry unfortunately, is kind of the lie cheat and steal your way to the top. Like I just, I didn't love that at all. And I, and I I'm just so anti that, that I thought, you know, what if I just put out what I did and just put it right there on paper and let people know that, Hey, you can sleep really good at night knowing you've, you've done door to door the right way. That was kind of my motivation for writing the books. Yeah. I love that. And for those that haven't, haven't checked out Lenny as much. Um, I mean we'll post this bio and everything in the show notes, but he sold, you know, thousands and thousands of pest control accounts.

Speaker 2 (03:51):

Um, been one of the top reps of all time. What's your record? Like 1300 pest accounts. Yeah. About 1200, something like that in the summer. Yeah. So primarily past, but I've now I run a consulting D 2d millionaire are kind of our consulting arm and I'll tell you, I I've consulted for just about anything and everything you can imagine, uh, to, to knock on somebody's door and sale. So it's, uh, yeah, there's a lot of similarities within industries. There's some nuances that, that are a little unique. Um, solar being one of them, you know, there's some uniqueness with solar, but, uh, but yeah, obviously been around the block a couple of times. Yeah. That's huge. And I came from pest control. Um, I wish I could have done better and pest control because I was, that was one of the guys that, uh, kinda sucked a pest control.

Speaker 2 (04:40):

I wish I would've had you train on me. I only did, like, I don't know, 150 accounts in pest control. So luckily it's gotten a lot better in solar for me, but one of the things I love about pest is, um, if you can come from pest, I feel like you can be successful in pretty much any door to door thing. Cause solar it's. Um, I mean, we're just setting up appointments typically when we're out knocking doors. So I was used to getting full, signed pest contracts out there. So I'm like, man, all I have to do is set up an appointment. This is easy. I don't have to have them sign anything today. I don't, I collect payment information sweet. So I just went out there and, you know, um, book, the ton of appointments, getting them to actually sit down and sign up, sign up for solar.

Speaker 2 (05:18):

That was kind of a different skill, but uh, for you money and all your consulting that you've done now with like solar, what are, um, I dunno, maybe some similarities, some differences that you notice, things that apply across the board, what are some things you've noticed with these consultants, different solar companies. Yeah. So, you know, I think the first thing is that the concepts that I teach in my books are, you know, for the most part universal, right? Like there's nothing about body language or meta-verbal, non-verbals, there's nothing that is out there that isn't applicable, not even just in door to door, but just in regular life experience. Right? Like there's just that, that you can do. And the ways you can frame your questioning and your, your, uh, your not just your questioning, but your value building and how you build up the service that you're selling is really universal in, in any kind of communication setting.

Speaker 2 (06:11):

And I think with my, my solar, uh, my solar consulting that I've done for reps and for companies, it's, it's, it's a lot of, it's kinda more of the same, honestly, that, you know, I don't try to stray too far from the principles that I teach in any industry. In fact, I consulted for a company years ago, um, that actually is valued right now at over a billion dollars. It's a, a no credit check finance company. And I consulted for them and wrote all their training materials and manuals and, and kinda got on board early. I think I was one of the first six people in the room at that company. And, uh, yeah, they started from, from just an idea back in 2000. It was just right after I wrote my books, my first book. So it must've been like 2012, 2013. I kind of jumped on board and, uh, for about a year and a half, I kind of put all their processes together.

Speaker 2 (07:02):

And it was very similar, even though it was B2B, it wasn't even door to door. It was business to business. And again, this company is an absolute rocket ship and now they're, they're valued at over a billion dollars. They sold like a third of their company for 330, some odd million, uh, back in 2019. And, and it's just fun to see that, to help companies to get to that point, regardless of their solar, their past their finance. It it's a lot of the concepts and principles are very similar. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, I know you've, uh, you know, done it all. You've sold past, you started your own companies. Um, do you still have your, your pest company or are you just doing primarily the consulting now? No, I've got my own pest company, still a Rove pest control. Uh, we've built that in some areas we've sold it we've started again.

Speaker 2 (07:52):

We built, we've sold, we're kind of back in growth mode right now. We're in five states about six offices, uh, in those states. And so we're yeah, we're, we're back running, which I think it gives me a unique, uh, you know, as far as my consulting goes that there's some uniqueness with that because when I consult for people, I'm running a business day to day, I'm not just saying, Hey, this is, this worked, you know, 10 years ago, or this worked whenever, like I'm literally running a business day-to-day right now knocking doors with sales reps going out in the field, like nothing. Nothing's too big for me, I guess. Yeah. That's awesome. And I love, yeah, I think it's so much more powerful being trained from that perspective being like, no guys, I was literally out last weekend and this thing works for me and I'm not just saying this 10 years ago.

Speaker 2 (08:41):

Um, so I mean, it's super power on something I try to do on my podcast is share. What's currently working as I go out on the doors, myself and close deals. Um, but that being said, I mean, you've been in this forever since 1998, right. When you first started. So I didn't even know door-to-door existed. Then I was like five years old at that point there weren't cell phones either crazy enough. Like the technology nowadays is probably what what's the most different of anything in the, in the industry to me like talking to people is kind of talking to people and you kind of have your, your skillset for communicating with people that hasn't changed as much as just the technology. I mean, it's just awesome. I mean, I literally remember logging my area on the back of a flyer. You know, I'd write the addresses of the homes and check it if I sold them or exit out.

Speaker 2 (09:27):

If I, you know, didn't sell them, they told me no. Or if I had a call back, I, I flipped their number and I literally was handwriting everything. It wasn't until I think my third year selling door to door that I even had a cell phone. And it wasn't a smartphone, obviously it was just a, a regular dial up cell phone. So yeah, I think technology has made the door to door industry even a little bit, a little bit. It facilitates even more sales. I mean, that's why you see these guys nowadays just killing it. And I think a lot of it has to do with, well, there's more material out there to be trained on. But then secondly is I think technology is just a huge piece and helping people to maximize their, their daily skin. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's crazy all the different tools and softwares we have, like, you know, the rep cards, the sells rabbit, all these different types of things then screw, you probably didn't have the segues and all that back when you first started.

Speaker 2 (10:18):

Right. I just had sneakers. That was it. Yeah. That was my, um, graffitis. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I started in 2012 and even then, um, they were just starting to come out with a few things, but they handed us, you know, our chunk of chalk and we were out there just chalking the neighborhood. Um, John X on big X's in front of the house is it said no everything. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it has changed a ton and definitely made it easier, I think. Um, but yeah, so Laney, I want to jump into kind of maybe a few specific things. I'm sure a lot of guys will go read your book, but, um, I want to share, maybe jump into a few things that I thought were super cool in your book that I learned. And then maybe you can like elaborate on a few of them and tell your experiences and kind of how you even thought of these things.

Speaker 2 (11:07):

Um, so I'm just going through a few of the sections of your book. And, um, one of the things in the first part you talked about like earning time and just being more time efficient, basically on the doors and something that I had never really thought of, um, was this whole three door rule where you're, you know, only if you don't talk to someone in three doors, you go, you, you know, you know, you look for someone that's for sure going to be there in the next 10. So I, that was really cool and something I didn't like, you know, talking about training about. Cause I had never really specifically thought of that. How, how did you come up with that for your guys? Was that just like, based on your experience and thought, oh, I'm going to, for sure get someone on the fourth door, how how'd you come up with these time efficiency things?

Speaker 2 (11:53):

I think that door to door sales to me is insanely boring. If I don't have somebody standing in front of me and you don't make any money, right? Like the only way you make money in door to door sales is you're actually talking to a homeowner. And so when I was out knocking doors early in my career and I just knock on door after door and nobody was home or I was just not getting a good response, like to me, it's like, I just, it was like I said, just insanely boring for me. And I just, I've always gotta be doing something. I'm just kind of one of those guys, that's always gotta be busy. And I just, I just hated that. So I just kind of decided, okay, if I knocked three doors and nobody answers, then I don't care if I have to walk a block or two blocks, I'm going to see kids playing out in the yard or a garage door open or somebody's out doing yard work.

Speaker 2 (12:38):

Just some, I got to just talk to a human being because I can only have conversations in my head for so long to where I just bore myself. So that that's kinda what it grew from. My three door rule is just, you know what, just go out and talk to people like, cause again, really you're only being effective. You're only making money. You're only having fun with this job if you're actually talking to another human being. Yeah. I think that's huge. And yeah. How many, how many people waste so much time just going door after door. And I think even with new reps, you've probably seen this too, any, but you get these new reps that are still like scared to go knock a door. And some of these guys, I can't believe it. They're like crossing their fingers. Sometimes that people don't answer the door.

Speaker 2 (13:19):

It's like, they feel like they're out working, but they're like, oh yeah, I'm just not having sex. They didn't talk to anyone, but I was still working. Yeah. Fire guy. Right. If I can just throw a bunch of flyers, then I'll feel like I'm, I'm being productive. So probably the wrong, probably the wrong industry, like come on guys. But yeah. So that's something that's been helping. Um, and just kinda like more specific for our guys because I always thought of that, but we never had like a set rule in place for our teams. Like, come on guys, go talk to someone for sure. After three doors. And I know you have some other sections, but anything else? Um, I guess as far as like managing time on the doors, anything else that have helped your teams and your guys out a lot for people you've consulted?

Speaker 2 (14:03):

Yeah. For me, a lot of it too is, is a big thing I preach on is what are you thinking about in between the doors, right? Like where does your mind go? I think the best reps that I've been around are the reps that in-between the doors they're looking for ways to improve their actually having those conversations with themselves about what happened on that last door. What could I have done better? You know, could, could I have maybe if I asked this question or man, I totally blew it when I asked that question, I asked that, yes, no question. That was horrible. Um, I gotta, you know, I gotta eliminate that. And so I think what's going on in your head space, in between doors is such a crucial steel because nowadays with our cell phones, right. Which I didn't have to bother me, uh, that being and beep and buzz and do all these things and you can have so many notifications from whatever social media platform you use or emails, text messages, you can just get bothered so much out knocking doors.

Speaker 2 (14:55):

It's how do you stay focused going door to door? How do you keep your head in the game? Cause all of us know that that have done this before, like door to door sales is 90% mental, right? Like 10%. Yeah. You're out knocking doors or you're out in the heat. I get that. It can be hard. That can be difficult. But the reality of it is the hardest thing is, is just having in your, in your head space, you know, making sure your, your heads in the game heads. Right. I got a guy pulling a lot out here. I think he's gone the other way though. Maybe I don't know. He might be coming towards us. Might have to run from the lawnmower. Yeah. This is real life. Now he's going to, he's going to hold right behind me and I think he's going to be out of here. So maybe we just give him a sec. All the Solarpreneurs could say hi to the lawnmower man. Yeah. It's not bad. Yeah. Lenny Lenny's out in the hood as we speak. So he might just go hit some doors after this. Why not?

Speaker 3 (15:53):

Why not? Actually, he's going to keep rolling.

Speaker 2 (15:58):

Um, it's not too loud. I can't, I can't hear it too, too much. It's probably fine. Okay. Um, but yeah. And then another, another thing as, uh, sorry, were you finished? Yeah, I was just going to say just one other thing that I talk about the book is the importance of, in my sense, worth lawn mowing and cutting lawns, you know, that section of my book and I've got a little bit of flack for that, honestly on like, uh, the DGD millionaire, YouTube channel and that kind of stuff like people, like how can you cut across lines? And I kind of share an experience that I had, you know, my only really bad experience cutting lawns, but that's another thing is just efficiencies in between doors. That's how I save a lot of time and I actually have a, a little equation I put in the book there, you know, if you're walking across somebody's driveway and down the sidewalk and up on the porch and you know, going that routine versus just cutting across the lawn, like how much time you could say in a three or four month period, it's mind boggling.

Speaker 2 (16:54):

Just how those seconds add up day to day. Yeah, that's crazy. And that's something that I know a lot of pests companies train in that, but when I got in solar, um, I told people, oh, you guys like none of the guys I worked with cut lawns and I was like, wait a second. You guys don't like cut across the lines. Like, no, you're going to make people mad. I'm like, like, come on guys. It's going to save tons of time that, especially for solar, I don't know. I don't know what it is about solar, but most solar guys aren't trained on that, I guess probably just cause we knock less doors then, you know, pest control and alarms where he used to be in, or probably the lazier sales reps and just knocking fewer doors. So I think that is a good thing that our solar guys need to hear.

Speaker 2 (17:36):

It's got to cross line, you know what I do if I, if I was selling solar and I was, um, cutting across lawns, I'd make sure when I'm cutting across lawns, that what I'm doing is I'm actually looking at the rooftop. Like I'm kind of doing a little bit of an inspection, right. And I'm seeing, you know, maybe where the sun's hitting the roof. Um, so I think, and then if you approach that home and somebody calls you out on it, like, oh, you were cutting across my lawn. It's really easy to say, you know what? I was just doing a quick inspection of your roof, you know, just kind of looking, uh, you know, at the sun angle or the, the roof angles and seeing if the solar panels would be really good for your roof, for something along those lines, to where again, I mean with the past, right, you're looking at the lawn and the grass and the ground, and you're trying to observe bugs.

Speaker 2 (18:27):

I think the same concept could apply in solar and it might help your pitch to somebody if you actually have some data on yeah. As I was kind of coming across your yard, I kind of noticed up here this, that or the other, um, I think it could, it could be used to your advantage during kind of that initial conversation. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. Something we do is look at their electric panels. So that's almost the same concept because the electric panels, you can tell if someone has a red sticker on their panel, that means they have solar. And um, a lot of times, you know, you're not necessarily trying to knock, uh, most of the homes that do have solar. Um, so yeah, same concept, but I think anytime you can save some time and then point out that we have a tool we use to, that I've been talking about in the podcast app.

Speaker 2 (19:14):

So that's a sun seeker app. So you can show them basically the angles where the sun is hitting their roof. So yeah. I liked best strategy or cutting across the lawn. Yeah. If you do that, have someone approach, you pull up the sun seeker app and say, Hey, no, I was just looking at your roof. Here's actually how the angles are hitting it. Have you heard what's going on in the neighborhood? Did Cathy cross the street tell you? Um, so yeah, I love that part of your book and um, saving time. And then the thing that I thought was really good that you, uh, mentioned, I think in a later chapter is just like on training your reps is you have them send you like recordings. I know you're talking a little bit about that. Just kind of analyzing door after door. I know you talk about having your reps send recordings of their interactions.

Speaker 2 (19:56):

And um, that's been one of the number one ways you mentioned to, uh, help your reps. So do you have like with companies you're consulting, do you have, um, is that something you like have them do have all the new reps do is send recordings or is that like guys are struggling, you say, okay, you got a donut, this you bagel this day, you need to send a recording or what's your, uh, philosophy with that? Okay. So I think this is one of the most key points of how you, as a manager or as an owner of a company who can influence the most amount of reps in the, in the most efficient way possible. Right? When we talk about saving time, it could even be off the doors. And so for me, when I started requiring that of my sales reps to where you have to send me so much audio per day per week, whatever, I mean, I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2 (20:46):

So I was in Boston last week, uh, with my office, got, I don't know, a dozen or so reps there. And in the matter of probably six, seven hours while they were on the doors, I reviewed over 40 audio recordings from that group of reps. And I've had reps that since I've kind of tweaked a few things that they were doing, that you can only hear on the doors, you can hear in a role-play, right. You can only hear some things on the doors. Once I heard him, we've had these reps that were struggling to sell, you know, daily, they have sold every day since I was out there last week. And not that I credit the ads myself, but realistically, like you can do your reps a lot of favors by going on the doors with them. That's, that's a good thing. But I think even a more efficient, depending on how many reps you have to, the better approach would be how many of these reps can I influence today?

Speaker 2 (21:36):

And, and that could be done in higher volumes by actually requiring them to send you audio or video of them actually interacting with real, real people on the doors. Mm yeah. That's money though. When you're training new reps, is it like a set schedule where you say, okay, you're new, you have to send X amount of recordings or is it just kind of like based on the week, or do you have anything specific set up in your company where it's, um, they have to send a certain number? Or how does that work? Yeah, when they're, when they're new out, um, you know, they have to send their manager at least weekly and we try to get the manager that's there with them, day-to-day to, to knock with them. Um, Ben kind of more of the upper level training would be, you know, you've gone a couple of weeks, your managers kind of critique you that he's kind of given you everything that you could give you as far as advice and ways to improve.

Speaker 2 (22:24):

Well then if we need some higher, you know, higher guns to step in, or just a different point of view, then we'll ask the manager to go ahead and sand. Either me or some of my sales department heads, just some more experienced reps, then there'll be required to send audio to them, just to make sure again, to me how one person sales can be very different than how another person sales. So how a manager, what that manager hears versus what I may hear could be different and I might connect, or my manager might connect differently than, than another rep. So I think, you know, it's kind of that concept of, you know, you, you just surround people with goodness and greatness and then it's gonna rub off on them, uh, eventually one way in one regard or another. Yeah. Okay. I like that. Yeah. Something that are, um, I mean, companies I've been with, um, struggled to kind of figure out it's just like the schedule of how much should you have a near reps shadow?

Speaker 2 (23:21):

Like if there's a struggling, what do you do with them? Do you just say, try something else. So for you, as you've had your pest company, like, what does it look like for a new rep that's coming on first year or they don't have much experience? Do you have them shadow like X amount of times or how do you like onboard these new reps, um, to have success? And then I guess, what have you seen other successful solar companies that maybe you've consulted do that that's been working? So what we do is we actually have, I I've developed an online training program. Um, and my online training program is probably 40 plus hours of training. Plus I have three preseason events that we do training as well, that are probably another 12 hours. And so before anybody's knocked at the door, they've gotten, uh, at least they have the opportunity to a lot of it is up to them, right?

Speaker 2 (24:07):

The in-person stuff is, is pretty much a given everybody attends that, um, the online stuff is kind of at their pacing. Um, but yeah, you can have up to 50 hours of just, you know, training before you knock a door. And I I've written a training manual for my own company. That's, you know, another 170 pages long or something crazy. It's like book three. Um, so again, I, I wanted my experience with my reps to be very different than what I had as a rep when I first started, you know, back in the day in the late nineties, like I just want it to be totally different. So we have 50 plus hours that our rep could get in pre-season training. Then when they get out, they're really, I'm, I'm kind of more of the mindset that, yeah, shadowing is good and you know, a manager should get out with his reps that, that, that first couple of days, first three days, at least one time and probably weekly their first month on the doors, uh, second month, probably at least every other week, unless a rep struggling, then you go back to weekly.

Speaker 2 (25:06):

But I mean, again, for me, we just, we gotta put the time into each rep because every rep learns differently and trains differently. So they might do a little bit of shadowing, but for the most part, all the pre-season training has like videos and audio. And it's basically like they've been on the doors even without knocking the door. Gotcha. And then say, they're coming to shadow. They're still struggling. Um, w what do you have, do you have a system in place where it's like, okay, this isn't working for you, um, like, come show you shadowed, you know, X amount of times it's not working. What do you do with the reps that are struggling in just, you know, aren't getting, yeah. So I, you know, I think of one experience I had a few years ago with a rep who in all honesty probably shouldn't have probably most companies wouldn't have hired him.

Speaker 2 (25:53):

We hired him because he had a friend of a friend, right. It's kind of one of those guys. And I actually personally wrote a script out for him that he could just memorize because he just wasn't getting the concepts of like the initial approach and how to qualify people, those things I write about. So he just, he wasn't an understanding of it. So I literally just wrote him a script to fit his personality and who he was and what his strengths and weaknesses are. And that script worked. You know, he stuck it out. The whole summary didn't kill it by any means, but he made money more than he would have made, you know, working fast food, uh, you know, during the summer. So sometimes it just takes that customization to, and, and not that it's easy and especially for, you know, companies that hire hundreds and thousands of reps, it's probably an impossibility, but if your company's on the relatively smaller size, like my company, we don't hire more than, I mean, we'll be in the, of probably 40 to 80 hires a summer.

Speaker 2 (26:46):

Like that's all like door to door is an important part of our company, but it's certainly not the only way we grow. So the reason we've kept it at that number, one of the reasons is it's just, it's easier to manage and make sure every rep has a good experience. So I know a lot of solar companies are in that ballpark probably they're, they're not hiring, you know, hundreds of reps. It's tens of reps like I am. And so I think you have a chance to connect and, and train specifically to each rep. So, yeah. I love that. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. I ask you these questions just because, um, I mean, this benefits me, this is a lot of stuff we're going through currently. So that's one of my favorite parts of doing the podcast. So I'm like, man, what are we struggling with with our reps right now?

Speaker 2 (27:27):

I'm going to ask, uh, you know, an expert about it. Yeah. Well, I love it. And that's, you know, that's the thing, that's what I love about this industry right now is for the most part, not like a hundred percent, but for the most part, most companies and most people are pretty open and want to help each other. Like we want to preserve the industry and give it a good name. And now there's people that are just proud that they knocked doors. Right. When, before when I started, it was kind, kinda like this, uh, I knocked doors, I know it's kind of greasy and grimy and I just, I'm kind of a loser because I just knocked doors. But now it's like, there's this pride like that I've seen in the last two decades take over now. It's like, yeah, I knocked doors. Like, I'm proud of that.

Speaker 2 (28:02):

And I think the more that sharing that's done and the more integrity in the industry, I think just the better, I mean, for me, if, whether it's my kids or grandkids or whatever, like I'd love for them to be able to knock doors. I think door knocking is like a microcosm of life. And there's so many lessons to be learned that help, uh, reps beyond when they're knocking doors. I'm more about building the individual than just making sure they have a, you know, a successful summer where they made money, but they had a light sheet and still to do it. I'd much rather just develop somebody to make them a better human being so that they can go off in life. When they're done knocking doors, heaven forbid they knocked doors as long as I have. Like, I don't wish that on anybody, but, um, but you know, if they go on and they become an attorney or they become a business owner themselves, or they become, you know, uh, uh, you know, they work at a business in the, in the sales department, whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (28:52):

Like, I just want them to be awesome. I'm going to give you one quick experience too, before the next question, if that's okay. So, um, a couple of Sundays ago, I was just at my church and somebody who had knocked doors for me happened to be visiting his family who was there. And he comes up to me and he, you know, he, you know, give a hug. Like he worked for me for a couple summers. I love the kid. He's like, listen, he's working at a software company, um, right now. And he's in the sales department at a software company. And he's like, listen, I just got to tell you, he's like, man, I'm going to make six figures this year in software sales. And he's like, I owe it all to you. Like, I credit you for teaching me the right way to do it.

Speaker 2 (29:29):

Cause I'm doing everything you taught me in software sales and I'm absolutely killing it. And I tell you, I mean, as I got to hold back the tears a little bit, I'm like, I'm just so proud. He's like, it's like another son of mine. I'm just proud of him. And that to me is what it's all about. Like, I couldn't care less if somebody works for me and it's one, one and done, right? Like to me, I'm going to put as much effort and energy into that one person. That's one year as I am somebody that's been with me for eight years, you know, I just, I want to develop individuals and people because beyond the doors, there's just so much more that you can learn and take from the door to door experience, uh, just into your life for personal growth and, and just betterment of, of you as a human being. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. You got to feel good about that. Um, yeah. I mean, it's happened too. It's one of the only reasons that kept this podcast going is just from guys saying, Hey, this, this helped me a lot. I love your podcasts because I've, you know, it's hard work to keep content like that going. I'm sure with your books do with like, if you, if you hadn't had so many people buy your first book, do you think you would have written a second?

Speaker 2 (30:34):

What that's like nobody's ever asked me that question, Taylor, that's a great question. I don't, I don't know if my motivation, let me think about that for a second. I don't know if my motivation to write. My second book book was based on the success of my first book. I, I think I felt like I left a lot out and I, you know, I'd get a lot of feedback from people that have said, man, you should have, I want you to write more inspirational stuff. Like I, I get all the tactical things. I didn't feel inspired or, you know, how do you deal with competition since door to door, still popular? Now it's like, I have a whole chapter devoted to competition. How do you get better? Or how do you make yourself better than the competition? How do you beat your competitors so to speak?

Speaker 2 (31:11):

Um, so I just felt like there was a lot left to be written. And honestly, what did it for me was, was COVID like I was in a homebound and I was stuck and I'm like, oh, I need to fill my time with something I'm going insane. So that's really, when I started writing that book, the second book was just kind of when I was kind of quarantined, I guess, at home with my family. So nice. Well, we're glad for COVID that, you know, sped up the process. Hopefully I have the outline written for awhile, but I, yeah, I didn't have any goals as far as when to actually put it out there. And I was just like, dude, I can, I can crank this now. Cause I got a lot more time at home than I used to. So that's awesome. But no, I love what you're saying just about, you know, how all the people that are sharing way more abundantly, because I mean, as you probably know, when it first started or even, you know, five, 10 years ago, there was nowhere near this amount of like information, you only learn from your managers now you got, you know, podcasts, you got books like yours, you got, you know, Sam tagger doing a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:13):

All these guys sharing their content. So it makes it so much easier to just learn and I'll have kind of more pride in the industry. Um, I mean I was buying shoes, just, I think it was two weeks ago and I was with my wife and she was like saying, she's like, she's like telling the shoe Solomon, Hey, he just needs some good shoes for knocking doors for going out in doors. And when she said that, I'm like, I like, come on Dave. He's not gonna know what that like don't embarrass me, but then, but then he was like, oh, that's cool knocking doors. Yeah. I got some perfect shoes there that I'm like, all right. I don't need to be embarrassed about knocking doors and take more pride in it. It's true. All this contents, you know, helping us give ourselves a good name, I think, um, definitely more positivity.

Speaker 2 (33:01):

Um, so Lenny was kind of section, the last thing you just mentioned is just the competition and um, for our Solarpreneurs or solar guys that listen, this, I think that is a huge thing in the solar industry, because as you probably seen, um, there's been tons and tons of alarm guys, pest control guys. A lot of them are switching to solar. We have huge commissions, so it's a great industry. Um, but that, especially I'm in San Diego, which is probably the most competitive solar. Margaret's definitely one of the most. So it's something we struggle with here, a ton and just like, oh, you're the fifth guy. Um, to the point where it's like, if we mentioned solar at a doorstep, we're getting the door shut instantly. So we've had to kinda, you know, change the way we approach things. Um, so for you, like as you've consulted solar companies, and I know it applies in pest control as well, what are some strategies?

Speaker 2 (33:52):

What are some things you do when you are getting, um, more competitive areas when you're getting no, you're the fifth guy at my door. Can you talk about some little strategies you've helped your guys with? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I think the first thing is you just call it what it is, right? Like don't wait for the person to say, you're the fifth company to come on my door today or this week or this month or whatever, like just call it what it is. Like somebody answers the door and it's, you know, it's, Hey, they're just the solar guy. I know you've been hit up by, you know, 20 other companies in the last few weeks or whatever. Like don't, don't wait. And this, this is a principle that I teach. And, and a technique that I think is important is you don't wait for a concern for the customer to actually save extern.

Speaker 2 (34:33):

You, you bring it up first, right? If you can address the concern first, it just adds to your credibility. And I think your, the respect factor goes up for you as a, as a door to door sales rep, if you can already bring that to their attention. So we talk about name dropping, right? If he knows my name dropping principle from the first book. So if you name drop and if you can actually address their concern for them before they bring it up, like that's huge because you know, if I'm, if I'm the person answering my door and I opened my door and I see solar, then I I'm already looking for the reason why I'm, I'm going to turn that person down. And, and if it's somebody just had already come out or I already have, you know, solar panels, which obviously you can see on like pest control, which I love about the solar industry is you can see if somebody is already a customer.

Speaker 2 (35:15):

You don't have to find that out by having them tell you that, you know, you're the 20th guy to come knocking on my door, just call that like you see it like right out the gate and don't wait for that to come up. And then depending on your company and how your company different differentiates from the others, that's how you start to, you know, to build your case for your company versus the, that have come by and that have already approached them and have knocked on their door and talked to them about solar before. What, what is different about you and your company versus versus the other 20 people and consider this? Like, I just think an overarching principle for door to door sales is if I go to a door and it's, you know, in a 20 year old neighborhood, and I know for 20 years sales reps have been knocking on that door five to 10 a year.

Speaker 2 (36:02):

So we're talking to hundreds of sales reps and I, I kind of envisioned like the, the carcasses of the dead door to door sales reps that have been, you know, just shunned off the doorstep, just laying there, you know, by the side of the door. And I'm like, how can I be different? How can I bring a different energy, a different approach that these other hundred to 200 have been turned away for? How can I connect with this person and actually make it a better opportunity for them, for what I'm selling versus what everybody else has in the past. And I will tell you this strangely enough, and some people are surprised to hear this when I knocked doors, my goal isn't to sell everybody. I talk to my goal is to get people further along in the sale than I think anybody else has that has knocked on that door.

Speaker 2 (36:44):

So I don't care if I end up with a sale. What I like is even when I hear the, oh, you almost got me on this, I was so close. Like I I've said no to everybody, but I almost said yes to you like that to me is a win I'm like, cause I know nobody else would have got you that far. That means that I actually succeeded on that door. So sometimes you take those little victories when, you know, you connected with somebody on a different level than the other hundreds of reps that, that, uh, that have not like that's when you know, you're actually improving and getting better at doing this. Yeah. I love that. Reminds me of the guy in the Bible king, a gripper or something he's like almost converted me to Christianity. You almost converted me to solar quite we'll get there, but you almost got me.

Speaker 2 (37:26):

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's huge. And yeah, I mean, you talk about some of the strategies in your book and also just like, what I love too is you talk about like, you know, the demographics, um, just some different strategies you can utilize to, um, you know, talk to different types of people. That's something that's helped us out in solar with our teams a lot is just identifying the demographics you're good with. And then, um, like for example, we have quite a few Mexican guys on our team. They'll go hit up the Mexican neighborhoods and it's like, they're celebrities out there. They're speaking the language, they're having success with that. And then you talk about just like the ways you would sell the different demographic demographics of people, um, depending on who they are, you're going to treat them different white collar versus, um, yeah. What was that color?

Speaker 2 (38:13):

Yeah. Yeah. So things like that. And how do, and um, I mean, pest control, how can you talk about that a little bit with your strategy's demographics? Another thing we recognized in sores, like new move-ins Boulder homes that we're going to target differently and use that data to our advantage. So how are you, um, having your guys kind of utilize that different customer data? Um, how have you seen it and maybe solar companies you've consulted too. So yeah, in the book I break down, uh, three demographics that I think would encompass any person you're going to talk to not saying they're the only demographics we can kind of make those a little bit more granular if you, if you really want to dial it down for specific industry. But we talk about in the second book, I talk about, you know, blue collar, white collar, like you said, somebody who goes into the office every day, whereas a white collar is kind of more of a business person versus maybe the person that is, you know, a works blue collar.

Speaker 2 (39:07):

Maybe they clean houses like my mom did when I was growing up, my dad's a policeman. Um, you know, he's, he was more blue collar. Maybe that's what it is. Um, there's different ways to approach those types of people based on their, the economics and, and you know, how they live and, and those types of things. We talk about older people versus younger people. And I kind of break down the different generations, you know, and now we've got millennials that are owning homes are buying more homes than, than, uh, you know, boomers and generation X and in my generation and, and, and those types of things. So, um, I kind of break that down a little bit about how to approach those types of people. Cause somebody who is a first-time humble homeowner or home buyer, uh, you're going to treat them very differently than somebody who's been in their house for 20, 30 years or who has his own multiple homes.

Speaker 2 (39:54):

Right. Um, and then we talk about males versus females, which I think is a fun one too, because there's just different ways to approach men than there are women. Um, and I think it's it, you know, even just in the questioning, uh, the things that you ask, the assumptions that you make, you can take people a lot farther, male and female, just based on doing it, you know, doing the questions or asking the questions just a little bit differently. And so that's, that's kind of a fun one for me too, that chapter, that kind of goes into those, those demographic breakdowns. But I, you know, and I think for solar, like I said, you know, for me, sometimes you, you could go more. I would think that the blue collar white collar one would probably be the most applicable than at least I've taught in, in consulting with solar companies of how, how to approach those people when you're talking about a large ticket item, um, like a solar system.

Speaker 2 (40:43):

Yeah, yeah, no, that's great stuff. And then with, you know, the older folks, something we utilize in, or that I've learned from a lot of successful guys is just going on with the time management. If you notice people are, you know, older guests, guess what they're probably going to be home in the afternoon. So you're seeing the handicap stickers, stuff like that go to those homes in the afternoon. Cause, um, John and Julie that are, you know, in their thirties working class, they're probably not going to be home. Um, in the afternoons, that's something we've been, um, teaching our teams and our listeners too, is just utilizing that all the different information. And it's super nice. Now I'm going along with the technology. I mean, go on the Zillow app, you can see the new homes, um, you know, you have like the sells rabbit and the knocking apps they're showing you, most of these demographics found what, what their estimated income level is. Um, how many people are probably in the household, things like that. So I think that's another huge advantage we have compared to probably when both west started is, makes it so much more easier. If you can approach a house, be like, oh, you guys have what seven people in the house. Um, yeah. And you know, all this data and it just creates so much more trust. A lot of times you have a name, you have their income, you have all this different stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:58):

Yeah. And I think, you know, I, I think in ways that COVID has kind of changed the world a little bit too, is, you know, the different strategy of knocking afternoons versus evenings. I talk a little bit about that in the book that's, that's changed, right? I mean, COVID actually changed that for us to where more and more people are working from home and they can live whenever, wherever they want and work, however they want to work. And so I don't think, you know, back in the day and I shared this experience in the book about the company that I worked for that just let experienced reps just work prime time, you know, after five, one year. And it just, it was a complete disaster. And, um, nowadays, I mean, we're seeing sales numbers before five, o'clock being better than they've ever been. And a lot of that is just due to, I think reps are getting smarter and if they follow the three door rule, like we talked about and those types of things, but I just think there's more opportunities in the day now because people are working from home and have a little bit more flexibility in their schedule.

Speaker 2 (42:54):

So it's not just the older, the older folks that, that you necessarily need to target, even though that's a great demographic to target target during the day they're home most of the day. But I, I even think just that, you know, you're going to run into more just, you know, nine to five type people who now work from home and have a different schedule than they used to have. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's a good point. Yeah. Speaking of COVID, I mean, with your company, how did you guys change your strategy? What was it like knocking pest control with COVID last year? Did it affect your guys a ton or, oh yeah, it was a challenge. I mean, here, here's the interesting thing. So we got a late start because, um, you know, we, we wanted to make sure we sent a few guys out to different markets in some markets.

Speaker 2 (43:34):

Honestly, we didn't knock any doors because, you know, they're governors or whatever, you know, it was kind of putting the state's hands on what to do. And so some of our markets that, you know, the governors were just a little bit more, um, leery to have people out and about, uh, you know, maybe, maybe more, more blue states, you know, don't get into politics. But, um, so we, we couldn't knock in those offices. So, so we had to put people where we could knock. And then when we did knock again, we started probably a month later than we were used to, but our numbers, like our averages were off just off the charts crazy last year. Um, we lost a lot of reps though, because a lot of reps, you know, it's a pandemic. My parents don't want me knocking, you know, this, that and the other.

Speaker 2 (44:16):

So we did lose a lot of reps. We didn't have a ton of reps, like we would have liked, but the reps that stuck around and actually did it, we, we got them in the right state to knock. It was an awesome summer. Um, it was just shortened and, and like I said, it was just, it was different, but, but we made it through it, you know, just like everybody else. That's still out knocking this year. Like we did it and that's, that's an accomplishment, but it was, it was definitely different. No doubt. Yeah. Luckily things are getting a lot better, but that's what I noticed. I mean, with solar, um, some guys let them affect it more than others, but even in California, which obviously is one of the, um, you know, most strict states for COVID and everything, even here, it's like most areas after a couple months, people really just kind of like sick of being stuck inside.

Speaker 2 (44:59):

So, you know, I noticed that guys actually came to the door. It's like, they're like, oh cool. There's actually people that exists. Yeah. I'll talk to you. So it's like, almost like they're a nicer in, in, you know, some people freaked out, but, um, I was surprised with, even in a state like California, it was, you know, after a few months, most people just got kinda over it and sick of it. So I agree. Big thing. Yeah. Well, Lenny, last thing I wanted to ask you just before we wrap up here is, um, you've been in this forever. I'm, I'm sure experienced some huge highs and some lows. So what's been like your big, uh, I dunno, toughest thing you've had to go through maybe your biggest failure or something. Like, what have you learned from that to kind of keep you going and all this?

Speaker 2 (45:43):

Um, I don't, I think you're probably out of all the guys I've had on the show, you've probably been in this, uh, you know, door to door for the longest of anyone in my head. So you've gone through a lot. So can you tell our listeners what's a, I dunno, that biggest, low that you experienced and how you got through it, what you learned from it? Yeah, no, I love that question. So, uh, for me, it was probably my third year knocking. Uh, I was knocking in, uh, Jacksonville, Florida, and I had, I mean, that was my best summer, you know, at the time it was, I think I sold about 700 accounts that, that summer in Jacksonville actually got kicked out of the Jacksonville office, had to go up to Macon, Georgia for a month. Cause we sold too many accounts. Me and the other guy that we're selling in Jacksonville.

Speaker 2 (46:23):

It's kind of funny. Um, anyway, so, uh, so we were selling there and I had that summer, I had four zeros, so, and here's, you know, for somebody that's averaging seven plus a day to get a zero, you know, it's hard to do actually. Um, but I had four of them. And at that point when I started getting these zeros, I kind of told myself. And I think I read about this maybe in my first book a little bit, but I kind of told myself that, you know what, when I wake up every morning, I have the same number of sales as everybody else and that zero. And so I can let that negative momentum of yesterday, uh, carry over with me today, or I can just start fresh and I can pretend that every day or, I mean, that's the reality. I don't need to pretend, but every day I start out with the same number of sales as everybody else.

Speaker 2 (47:12):

And I'm constrained, I'm in control of my own destiny every single day. And so for me, it was just that perspective of going okay, can I have bad days? Could I have bad doors? Could I have bad hours or two hours? Can I have a bad week? Sure. You know, but at the end of the, I have a new opportunity at every door and every day to start fresh, to start over again. And I don't have to carry any negative baggage with me. I think in fact, in the second book I hit on that a little bit too, is just that the difference between carrying negative momentum and positive momentum. Because the funny thing to me is I'd have reps literally, um, I'd have reps that they're doing. Um, I'd have reps that were doing great. Like they'd have three or four sales pest sales, you know, before five o'clock and then they'd say, I'm good, Mike.

Speaker 2 (48:00):

I kind of hit my goal for the day. So I'm done. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? Like you got this positive momentum going, like, keep it going. Cause I will tell you this, the fourth and fifth sale of the day, they're a lot easier than the first sale of every day. And, and that's the hardest sale to me. So if you're, you know, negative momentum can carry over if you let it. But the other side of that coin is the positive momentum. Like if you're selling, if you're in a group and it's kind of like, you know, can you imagine a basketball player in a, in a game if they're just on fire and they're just lightened it up, you know, three quarters into the game, they've got 35 points and they're hitting threes and they're finishing and they're hitting their free throws.

Speaker 2 (48:36):

And then they're like, all right, coach, I'm good. Like, I'll just play the next game. Like I don't need to play the fourth quarter. I'm good. Like that that's ridiculous. Right. Nobody would ever do that. Um, so I think door to door sales reps take themselves out of the game when they've actually got some good positive momentum. And so that's, that's like the worst thing you can do if you're knocking doors, even if you're getting people far, you're setting a lot of appointments and you just got things going. Like we all kind of get in that zone. Sometimes knocking doors, like never give up. I mean, I tell the story about my 4th of July, you know, back in 2000, I sold 23 pest accounts in one day. That was my personal record. And it was, and I had plans my wife, I was going to take her out to dinner on the beach and we were going to do all this.

Speaker 2 (49:15):

We had reservations and all that went out the window because I had sold 15 by five o'clock and I was just like, honey, I'm so sorry, but I got to keep going. And I just went till, you know, till after dark to hit this record and guess what? We went to dinner the next night, no big deal. Like it was still there. The restaurant didn't go away or, you know, sell out to the ocean, whatever. So, yeah. So anyway, I just think making those little sacrifices when things are going good is so important because you never know you could have 23, 1 day in that same year, I had zeros four times. And again, it was just, that's the nature of sales, right? It's mercurial and moves around. You never know what you're going to get. The weather is going to be bad. One day, it's going to be a little tougher, whatever it is, you just make the most of when it's going good.

Speaker 2 (50:01):

And when it's going bad, just don't carry that negativity over with you day to day or even door to door. Yeah. That's so powerful. And that chapter in the book was super cool. You talked about, you know, the basketball players. Um, and uh, I think that applies more than pest control probably to solar is because people can go out and sell a single solar deal. They make 10 grand in a single solar deal. So we got so many reps that go out, they sell one for the month. They're like, oh, I'm good. I just made 10 grand in a month. I don't need to do anything. It's like, it's like, imagine how much better. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's a chop that so many guys fall on TV, especially in the solar industry. Um, so I think that's, um, something super powerful you talk about in the book for our listeners.

Speaker 2 (50:46):

If you can get in that momentum, don't be satisfied with one, especially if you're out there getting appointments, closing deals never be satisfied and make it a competition. I know is another thing you talk about in your books. So many, um, we appreciate all you're doing for the industry, your books, um, changed a lot of lives and yeah, there's going to be more and more people hitting us up asking them what book is that? So spread the word as much as we can. Um, so for guys that want to go buy it, I've got it here. People are watching the video. Um, can you tell people where to find out more about you and buy the book and maybe connect with you more? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, my books, uh, I've got any kind of version you'd want, I actually narrated the audio versions of both books.

Speaker 2 (51:29):

Those seem to do better than even the paperback now forever. It was, you know, the paperback out, sold everything, but right now it's odd. Everybody's likes audio and I get it. If you're driving from area to area, you can just pop me on in your car and you'll, he'll hear my voice. I recorded them. Um, in some vein, I think the audio book just recording, it was, you know, for eight hours or 10 hours, whatever they were, it was harder than writing it in some respects, it was kind of brutal. But, um, I just felt like my, my voice and the way I hit certain things and talk about certain things. I just thought it was more powerful. So anyway, I got the audio Kindle. Um, you can get the paperback, got a hard cover. Uh, all of it can be found on Amazon. That's really my, my main place, uh, where all the books are sold.

Speaker 2 (52:13):

Uh, my website is another place to connect with me. Um, Lenny gray.com. I've got a blog that I keep up very regularly, probably I don't know, 10 plus years of blog content that some of which is not found in my book. So if you want to hit up, I think that's just money, grade.com/blog. Um, I've got some additional training for purchase for people, probably more on the management ownership of the business that want to, you know, teach their reps what, to, what to learn in the pre-season before they actually start, start knocking doors. I've got some videos of my reps and me doing critiques of them on the doors that kind of stuff's on my, on my website as well. Um, I really, I mean, I'm on Twitter @LennyGray. I think Lenny B Gray Navy. Somebody got me first, I guess there's another one out there.

Speaker 2 (53:02):

Um, and then, uh, LinkedIn is another one, probably I'm most active, but as far as social media goes on on LinkedIn. So those are some of the ways to connect with them. Awesome. Well guys, go by the book. Um, it's helped me a lot. Hilltop helps help their teams and um, yeah, hit Lenny up, let them know you appreciate it and we'll come out on the show. We'd definitely appreciate it. And we look forward to seeing what you do, any, uh, any, you got three in the, in the plans, Lenny or in any future plans, you got more books or anything like that? I think so. I think so actually, somebody asked me that not too long ago and I, I, I've got some ideas with book three and actually what it'll be just, I'll just kinda throw it out a T and this is a big tease.

Speaker 2 (53:40):

Cause like I said, it was eight years between first and second book. Second book just came out this year. So, um, but it's going to be with these companies that I'm consulting for when I'm literally working with billionaires and how to make a billion dollar company. And so it's not just going to be based on door to door. I don't think you make billion dollar companies just on door to door. There's a lot of other facets of growing a business. And I want to include some of these entrepreneurs and business owners that I'm working with, that that are running billion dollar companies. That, that to me would probably be the next book that might be door to door. Billionaire is where we might need to go for book three. But anyway, that's kind of my thesis for it or kind of my, uh, my thoughts on it at least initially. Right? You heard it here first. So guys go Paul, any, he's doing awesome stuff for all of us knocking doors and changing the world. So thanks again for coming on the show any and we hope we have lots of guys connecting with you and we'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thanks Taylor. So you guys,

Speaker 1 (54:38):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask 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. Come on. Y'all let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:46):

Taylor Armstrong here back with another episode, decided to switch up the intro a little bit, um, for those that have done that workout program, insanity, maybe that sounded familiar. Um, I, I do that intro because, um, during 75 Hard, the workouts, I was doing twice a day, decided to do some insanity for old time's sake. So for all my Shaun T fans, my workout friends, hope you like that intro for those that don't know what I'm talking about. Let's jump into some solar knowledge. We're going to be bringing some heat today, talking about the number one way you can train your reps. So this can be specifically talking to managers, team leaders, anyone that's trained to help grow their office, but guess what, if you are a regular sales rep, if you are trained to improve your abilities and learn as quick as possible, then this episode is also for you.

Speaker 2 (01:48):

So we're going to get into it. But before I jump into that to have a couple exciting announcements that wanted to share with my peeps, with my Solarpreneurs. And so, um, recently our team, we did a merger with, um, those of you that follow sells. Um, legends sells legends in the industry. Jason Newby may have heard of him. He was the top rep at Vivid for years, um, top alarm rep, and he started a solar company here in San Diego. So we did a merger actually with his team. Um, so I was working for a company called Switch to Solar. Now we are all combining we are future home. So if anyone is looking to make a switch and come join the revolution here, but future home and bring that up because Jason, his team, they are dropping a ton of value in things.

Speaker 2 (02:47):

They share things they post about. So definitely go shoot them a follow Jason Newby. And then, um, their Instagram is Future Home, go follow them. We're going to be posting and we're going to be changing the industry. Um, we're helping the team grow a lot. So that's the first exciting thing. And then the second is, um, just wanting to think or Solarpreneurs all our listeners for checking out the Taylor McCarthy episode on those two episodes today. And I really appreciate all the people that have shared it that have sent it to friends, sent it to people, trying to grow in the industry. Um, it has gotten away more downloads than a lot of other episodes. And matter of fact, he passed up. Um, yeah, he passed up a lot, a lot of past episodes that we had in such a short amount of time, just because of you great people that have been shared it that have been spreading the word, um, he's passed up, Danny Pessy actually, who is, um, you know, the other Knock Star guy, Taylor already passed them up.

Speaker 2 (03:52):

So I don't know if Danny's going to be happy about that, but we're all about spreading the wisdom, spreading the knowledge and helping each other grow. So go check that out and guys, please continue to share, continue to leave ratings. Been loving it. So it keep me going and really appreciate the comments that I get. So with that being said, let's hop right into the show today. Okay. And if you haven't caught the kind of the schedule of it's the way we're typically rolling out these episodes is I do too, where I share, um, things that things that are helping me and just kind of tell my experiences, um, things that are going on in my soul's journey. And then we have a guest. So that's kind of the formats is too with just me jamming on it and jam and the mic rocking the mic.

Speaker 2 (04:39):

And then we bring in a guest to share their wisdom, their knowledge. So, um, and I try to do sort of a preview for what the guest talks about just to kind of get people stoked for what they're going to share. So the next guest, um, is a legend in the door to door industry. And you probably have heard of them. If you've been in door to door for any amount of time, his name is Lenny Gray. He's written two books. Now I'm the first one is called a Door-to-Door Millionaire: Secrets of Making the Sale. And the second one is called more Door-to-Door Millionaire: Next Level Training. So if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, you probably see me share just a little snippets of his book, a little, uh, things. I underlined things I liked about it. So I would highly recommend go check out his books if you haven't already.

Speaker 2 (05:32):

But one section, I just got done reading his more door-to-door millionaire book. And there's one section in particular that just reminded me of something that managers consistently fell to do. I see a lot of times, and even I, myself managing a team, I would, I forgot to do this with my reps for a long amount of time as well. So what is this thing? You might, what it is, it's recording your sales reps. It's having them send you recordings of their interactions on the door, but why is this so important? It's because a lot of times we think we're seeing something, right? We think we're phrasing our words a certain way. We think we're just crushing it and everything we're doing, but the mic never lies. And I'll be, I honest, I haven't gone back and listened to some of my, um, podcast recordings where I thought I was, you know, saying some super cool stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:30):

I thought I made perfect sense. And I thought what I've seen was on point, I've gone back to a few of my episodes and I'm like, man, what am I trying to say here? I sounded like an idiot. I apologize. There's been a few times where I probably sounded like an idiot gone off on tangents. Haven't made sense. But the point of that is when you go back and you re-listen to what you were saying, it helps you really learn what you need to improve, what you need to change. Same thing. I would go to Toastmasters. Um, I've talked about that in past episodes, but I will go to Toastmasters, which is public speaking training just to improve my speaking skills and to learn more about that. And I would go up present in front of all these people. I would think I had this presentation just nailed down and I would get comments that would just, just baffle me.

Speaker 2 (07:25):

I'm like, wow. I was actually doing that in something I've tried to improve, but I still struggle with these things. Sometimes it's just repeating words, repeating phrases. There's filler words that we all throw in as we speak that we don't even notice for me. Um, I'm trying to improve. But so, so sometimes I say, so this so that, so this, so that that's been a struggle. I've been trying to cut that from repeating way too many times. I say, um, sometimes way too many times. So I apologize if you've heard that way too much for me, but I am conscious. I am more conscious of it than I was before. I'm trying to improve those things. So this is something you need to have your especially newer reps. They need to be sending you recordings consistently. And it's going to amaze you. You're going to get recording sent to you that they're, maybe they're presenting, um, they're doing role plays in team meetings.

Speaker 2 (08:22):

You're going to get recordings that sometimes are complete 180 than what they, from what they did in role-play in front of the team. Cause that's just how it is, is when we get under pressure. When we get to the stage, a lot of times we can't handle the heat, we can't handle the pressure and we need outside eyes to see what's going on, or I should say outside ears in this case. So I actually did this with my team once I read this section. So for those that have the book, it's actually on page 208, Lenny Gray. He talks about this. And just to summarize a little bit of what he says, he says, every sales rep has weaknesses and these weaknesses can be exposed and corrected more quickly. When a rep has customized sales training, then he goes on to say, his company row pest control sales reps are required to send me audio and or video clips of them interacting with potential customers.

Speaker 2 (09:19):

So I can analyze their techniques and provide instant feedback to help them in areas they need to improve. Sometimes the timeline timeliness of the feedback is just as important as the feedback itself because it prevents sales reps from developing bad habits. So I can attest to this for sure. I actually did this with my team. Um, a couple of weeks back now, we had a newer rep on our team. Um, she went out and she was confident. She seemed like she should be having tons of success. And she'd booked a few appointments initially. Um, I think had a couple of deals closed, was doing all right. Then she started slowing down. So I said, okay, can you go after this? I'm like, all right, go record today and send me your courting of your door, approach of your presentation. Let's see what's going on. So she sent me this recording.

Speaker 2 (10:15):

I pull it up and to my surprise, she, he was saying nothing from the actual, um, door pitch that we given her. We give them to the script, not one word was from our script. And so everyone thought she had the stripped down. Everyone thought she was saying what she needed to, not one word was from it. Yeah, I know no this, she went on say the Surfer's door. So, um, if she's listening to this right now, nothing against you, we're going to help you improve it. But it just goes to show that a lot of times we think our reps are saying what they need to, we think we're improving. But when we get that recording, when we see what's actually going on, it makes it so much easier to help these people. It makes it so much easier to really break down their freezing breakdown and even better.

Speaker 2 (11:08):

If we can get, you know, a video, then you're getting them, you see body language, then you can see, um, posture, all those types of things, how they're actually positioning themselves in relation to the door, but at a minimum, just get some audio going, figure out what they're saying. And you can tell from the tonality of the voice, are they coming across confidence that they actually have the pitch down? So this is a must. We need to have our teams do this. And again, this is more for managers, but if you are just, um, say you just started, maybe you're new to the area, send this in. Okay. Most managers probably aren't requiring this of their reps, but especially if you are in a down period, even if you're, even if you've been doing this for awhile, maybe you've your production has gone down a little bit and send in a recording of what's going on to people that are crushing it out of your company.

Speaker 2 (12:03):

To guys that more are more experienced. See what they can tell you, see what they notice about your presentation. And that's why it's important to even for people that are experienced, continue to do, role-plays continue to get recordings of yourself, continue to get the outside analysis. Because even myself, I've been doing this five plus years. Now, there's still times where I record myself where I'm like, man, I made no sense at all. There's still times where I get up in front of my team. I do role-plays and sometimes even to this day, sometimes I make a fool of myself. It's important to practice and it's important to continually be improving your craft. I remember when I first started in door-to-door pest control, the number one thing that helped me improve is just drilling, practicing and rehearsing. Every single night, I would go to one of the top guys on our team.

Speaker 2 (12:53):

I'd say, Hey man, can you help me? Luckily, I had a cool guy, Micah, my boy, Micah, you're listening to the game. He would drill with me every night for an hour. We'd just repeat after, repeat it, repeat and go over it. So this is the number one thing that we need to be doing with our teams, get them to drill, get them to practice, get them to rehearse. And then most importantly, get them to record those door presentations. And if you're in a slump record it, send it to your manager. Even if they're not asking you take the initiative, you get a recording of yourself and send it in. And even just, if you listen to it yourself, like I said, it's going to expose is coming. You're going to hear the truth of what you're saying. Even without getting outside feedback. It's something that you can go back and listen to and make a huge improvements even without hearing from a manager or other people.

Speaker 2 (13:46):

So that's the tip. And we're going to hear more about that. When my friend Lenny gray, he's going to be on the next episode. So don't miss it. Let's blow it up. Just like we do with Taylor McCarthy. Uh, send it to people that need it, um, share this. And then anyone that's managing. If you're a rep, send this to your manager, send this to anyone that you think could use it when you think that needs to be recording themselves, because that is a huge key to success in this industry. That's what we got today, guys. I hope you liked it. Um, let me know what you think and we will see you next time for Lenny Gray. You're not going to want to miss out. It's a huge privilege having him on the show. And then let me know if you guys have any other guests you'd like to bring on the podcast. We'll talk to you soon. Peace.

Speaker 1 (14:33):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:42):

What's up. So we're preneurs. Welcome to another episode and I'll be honest. This is the second time I am recording this episode right now. I had some fire money content that I was spitting, and I don't know what happened cause they didn't press record, but I go and replay the recording and dead silence crickets. So I'm back for another one. So hopefully it's even better than the first time I recorded it. Um, but I am currently in lake Powell, Utah right now. So just to preface this, if you heard some waves hitting the shorter that's, what's going on standing on top of the top of a houseboat right now, recording some content for my solar preneur peeps. So I'm dedicated. I want to show you guys that I am committed to helping you improve your lives as solar cells, professionals. So let's jump into it this episode today.

Speaker 2 (01:37):

I want to talk about gratitude. We've talked, had a lot of guests on that have talked about the importance of gratitude. Earl capuli was one probably about a month ago. He is known as Mr. Gratitude. So go listen to his, if you haven't already. But the reason I'm thinking so much about this is because I went to a conference a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, Texas. Um, you guys probably heard me talk about it was the knock star conference, Danny PESI Tanner McCarthy that had been on the show. They run the knock star movement. They did an awesome event to definitely check out, going to their next one. Bat this event, they brought a guest. His name is John Israel. And if you haven't heard of him, he is known as Mr. Thank you a little bit different than Mr. Gratitude, but Mr. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:24):

And what he did was he wrote, uh, um, five, thank you cards a day for 365 day streets every day. And it took him about an hour and a half a day on average to write these cards. So these weren't just little, you know, little notes. These were full-blown thought out, thank you cards. And he couldn't write them, write them to more than three people. Hey, so we're cutting. Just keep writing. Thank you cards to his wife. He could only do a max limit of three per person throughout the course of a year. Pretty incredible what he did. So he wrote a book on it. He's spoken to all types of, and he's really created a movement and change people's lives in the process. So super inspiring dude. And the reason I got thinking about him so much is because I am on this boat, reading his book, it's called the Mr.

Speaker 2 (03:17):

Thank you project. And then the book, he just documents the journey, what he did and talks about it. And so the reason I'm thinking about it so much, because I hadn't experienced actually, before I left on this little trip that went hand in hand with some of the things he talks about. So I'll get that, get to that in a second. And actually I shared this experience on Instagram. So if you're not falling already go shoot me a fall at Taylor J Armstrong. And I shared kind of a crazy story that happens, got some feedback from some listeners here, but there isn't that remind to me is Mr. Thank you. He talks about this thing called the gratitude loop. And what happened was he was at an event eight years ago and he speaking at it after he gets done speaking, one of the ladies at the event comes up and says, Hey John, I appreciate your message.

Speaker 2 (04:09):

This is exactly what I came to the conference to learn. He tells him, thank you. And his response was, yeah, well I missed a couple of big parts that were really important to the whole message. I was running short on time. I'm sorry about that could have been. So he basically shot down the appreciation that this lady showed and the lady's like, okay, well, I thought it was great. Then she turned and walked away. And has he went on to think about this? He's like, what was I doing? Did I just respond to someone's? Thank you with an apology. What is wrong with me? Hey, and so I got thinking about this. How many times do we do this? It sells people. How many times do we do this in our lives? Where someone is trained to give us thanks. We shut it down. We say, no, it's nothing.

Speaker 2 (05:01):

We got to change these things. And I've done it time after time. Even a lot of our listeners here, you all shot me messages like, Hey Taylor, thanks for the podcast. Thanks for what you shared today. That's exactly what I needed. This helped me close the deal, things like that. And I want to apologize to those that I have shot down that things at times. Cause I know for sure I've responded with people out is nothing. Uh, yeah, well that episode wasn't that good, but glad you got something from it. I've sent out messages like that and response. So this was kind of a slap in the face to me as I was reading. This is, and that's this point with it is we need to accept compliments and reflect gratitude. Okay. So was point is if someone takes the time to give you a gift, pay you a compliment or acknowledge the great work you do.

Speaker 2 (05:52):

Pause, soak it in and say, thank you for your welcome there's to be said for being humble. And there's another thing to be said for allowing others to contribute to your life. It's not as much about horrifying you as it is honoring the vulnerability in generosity of another person, bold enough to take the time to appreciate you. So it's, you're someone that struggles accepting. Thanks from other people. Let that be a lesson to you. We all need to practice this thing. He calls it the gratitude loop. What it is is when you open a gratitude loop, that's you expressing gratitude saying thank you. And if that loop is left open, how do you feel? He gives an example. If you went up to a crowd that says, Hey, thank you for, I don't know. Thank you for being my friends today. They just stare at you say nothing.

Speaker 2 (06:45):

What's that's going to feel like it's going to feel awkward. I'm going to feel weird. You go say thank you to the crowd. They do nothing don't even acknowledge. It feels like a slap in the face, right? It's an uncomfortable, it's weird. Almost seems offensive. So that's his point with the gratitude loop is when we go around, we say, you're welcome. That's closing the loop, right? So don't leave God two loops open. And then the second piece that I learned from his book, as I'm reading here is give up the need to be appreciated for your generosity. Hey, and the story that goes along with this, the reason I'm thinking about so much about this right now is because on my Instagram, I actually talked a little bit about what happened, but the experience was is that before I left on this little trip, I'm on, I made it a personal goal.

Speaker 2 (07:41):

I said, okay, I want to close three deals before I leave. I got Monday and Tuesday of all is all this week. I want to close three deals can be pretty good. Right? Two days of work in closed three deals. And the reason I set the goal too, is because I knew I had, I had a handful of solid appointments set up, given my I'd given myself a good shot to actually attain the goal. Okay. And so I go out some of this neighborhood they're condos and here in California, the good news is with condos. Townhomes, H ways can't restrict homeowners from putting solar up there. They can make it super difficult, but they can't restrict it. So I use this to my advantage. This area didn't have any solar yet. So I said, okay, I'm going to go off. I'm going to cause everyone in the neighborhood, they don't even know they can have solar.

Speaker 2 (08:33):

First thing I do, I talked to the HOA president. Okay. And I'll make this a short story since I already chaired the majority of it on my Instagram. But I, um, talked to her actually at several appointments, but then she canceled the appointment because of some confusion. She thought it was like a government program or she was getting free software. It wasn't. So she said, okay, yeah, you lied to me. I'm not going to meet with you. Canceled the appointment. My Mike, okay. I got three other appointments set up. No problem. I'm still gonna close some deals. These people are stoked. They're like no way. Yeah. We want to go solar. We didn't even know we could have Sawyer go to them as I'm about to close the first one on the week, the guy says, okay, Taylor, whoa, this sounds awesome. But you know what?

Speaker 2 (09:21):

Let us talk real quick to the HOA president. Just because I don't know, we don't want to be the first ones. The neighbors are doing this and we want to make sure it's all good. So what happened? They go and talk this HOA president and she just slams the door on him. She says this kid, he lied to our community. He told me it was a free government program. This isn't it. She just completely shuts them down, talks them out of the cell. And I lose a cell. And then the other ones cancel appointments, turns into a disaster. So it went from being this golden area. I was going to close all these deals there. Now this HOA president just completely, it throws a wrench in my plans and just ends my hopes hitting my goal on the week. So I was devastated. I come up with this plan.

Speaker 2 (10:10):

I said, okay, this area, there's guaranteed. There's going to be deals. And I can even probably go back and close these deals that they had. I just need to get back in the good graces of this HOA president. Okay. So her name's Carol. I go, I come up with this idea. I say, I'm going to go give Carol I thank you card. And to be like Mr. Greg, Mr. Thank you like John is, you'll give her a thank you note and even better. I'm going to give her a box of cookies to go with it. That's something we do for our customers. We send them little gifts, cookies, um, treats stuff to kind of stand out, help them remember us. Let's say how many she didn't buy it, but I'm going to send her some cookies. So I go, I pick up these cookies, um, box of four cookies from a dirty dough here in California.

Speaker 2 (10:57):

That's a Bennett Maxwell has company. They make some giant cookies that have all these crazy flavors. She's a single lady. I'm going to give her a box of 40, these giant cookies and a thank you card. So I go right to thank you card dropping on the porch. And then I'm just like, okay, she gets home at five. I'm going to get a thank you wife. I'm going to get a text from her, a call saying, Hey Taylor, I'm so sorry. You're the best? Come close my whole neighborhood on solar. So I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm working. I'll look at my clock at five. Dave, no texts, no calls Mike. Okay. Maybe she was running late. I wait, wait, wait. Six o'clock comes. Nothing. No texts. Seven o'clock eight o'clock nine o'clock 10. O'clock no calls, no texts, nothing. I'm like, what is going on? The Carolyn, I get this. Hey. And actually deliver it to another neighbor is the one that I had almost closed, but that's, you know, camp blow to them. Got a thank you. Text from them. So I'm like, okay. I know, I know they got him. What's going on? I wait two more days, Mr. Courtney. It's been about a week now. And guess what? Still? No, thank you. Texts. No acknowledgements. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (12:17):

A N S yeah, it was, it was a little sad. I was hoping I'd get something, but I didn't. And that's the reality of it. They actually used to write, thank you cards to my customers. But this experience with Carol reminded me of why he got discouraged writing. Thank you cards because sometimes I would write dozens and dozens of thank you. Cards, get nothing in return. People wouldn't even acknowledge it. And I did get results from it. I did get an extra referral here and there. People remember him, but it was the scourging that sometimes people wouldn't say anything. So John's point with this is we need to give up the need to be appreciated for generosity. How many times have we given something then been discouraged when people don't say thank you. So John's point is now this may sound counterintuitive after explaining the whole gratitude loop.

Speaker 2 (13:11):

Yes. When people don't reflect back that they received or valued our gifts, compliments or acknowledgements, and the natural reaction is that something is missing. The loop feels open. True gratitude is, is expressed with nothing expected in return. When you feel the frustration that someone didn't appreciate what you did for them, just remember, you never know what other people are going through in their lives, except that you did a good thing, pat yourself on the back and move on. Hey, so this is reminding me. I go like, okay, well, I sent this good thing to Carol thought. I was going to change, change my success in the area, but it didn't. And that's okay. So I'm trying to be okay with that. Hey, and John goes on to talk about how, when he was on day, I think 50 of sending out all these thank you cards.

Speaker 2 (13:59):

He got really discouraged because after 220, thank you cards. Only 20 people responded to thank him for the cards or even acknowledged acknowledged that they got it. And he ended up talking to, um, one of his friends later they'd send a hardtail and they said, John, I got your card a few months back. But the reason I didn't even say thank you or respond to it is because I was going through so much pain in my life. I was going through a really tough breakup. I just couldn't be present to anything positive in my life. So thank you now. But that's why I couldn't. I just was in just, was in some pretty heavy stuff to be able to respond. So think about that next time. You're expressing gratitude, trying to say, thank you. Don't expect anything in return in return. Okay. Be happy with what people respond, whether they respond or don't respond in the challenges.

Speaker 2 (15:04):

First solar preneurs, go out and write. Thank you cards to your customers, right? Thank you. Cards to your managers. Write, thank you cards to those that have helped you get to this point of success in your sales career. Okay? And that's how we're going to change the industry. How many, how many sales people are out there? They're just focusing on the money. Don't care about their clients. This is how we show that we care about our clients. And guess what the side effect is going to be. You are going to get more referrals. You are going to get those people that send cards back. They express appreciation. Hey, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world. How about after you send a hundred? Thank you cards. You don't get one extra referral. You don't get one person saying thanks for the card back.

Speaker 2 (15:49):

Can you live with that? So that's the challenge. I'm going to get John Israel on the podcast. Soon. He's lined up. Um, we're waiting for him to lock down the time with him. So if you know, John Israel go out and shoot him a message say, Hey man, we need you on the solar prenuer podcast. Yeah, we're going to get them on. But in the meantime, he was actually on Sam Tagard store or podcast. You can go listen to his experience there. Do you want to search that episode? Hey, but let's elevate ourselves to that mindset of gratitude. That's how we're going to change this industry. And that's how we're going to really have a better attitude ourselves to go out and close more deals and be grateful for the things that are happening, happening to us. Even in times like this, when you're getting shut down by each way, presence.

Speaker 2 (16:37):

And when deals are canceling, when everything seems like it's going to crap, these are how these are. That's how you're going to get through these tough times is expressing your gratitude and elevating your level of gratefulness to something like John Israel. Okay. So I hope you enjoyed the episode and send it to someone who's going through a tough time. Go and write a thank you card today. Let me know your experience with it. And yeah, I hope this turned out better than the first time again, second time recording it, but appreciate our listeners. And I'm grateful for all you listening to the show and sharing this content in implementing the strategy we talk about. So go out and close some deals and we'll see you on the next one.

Speaker 3 (17:22):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!

Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

We are back in the studio today, got back from a trip to Dallas last weekend, actually with the man of the hour who is here with us today, I'm excited to finally get him on the show because we have got the legends and the myths Taylor McCarthy. So thanks for finally coming on the show with us Taylor. Hey bro. I'm really happy to be here. I'm excited. We're going to get this to drop some drops. Some of the heat for everybody right now. Oh yeah. And everybody knows anyone with a name like Taylor, they're going to be bringing the heat. They're going to be bringing the value tips in the solar industry. So Taylor's in the room. Let's go. Good stuff. So, uh, yeah, we just got back from your events, Taylor, the Knockstar, um, the, uh, Knock Fest, I should say, or sorry, a Door to Door Fest, get all these events confused.

Speaker 2 (01:35):

Um, so it was great events. You guys put a ton of time into it. So tell me, how was it? You, you recovered from the events, you guys put a lot of work into that. Yeah, man, definitely a lot of stress going into that, like being able to prepare that big of an event and you know, wanting to deliver and have it come from a genuine place, you know, um, you know, when we first started north starting university, it was really just a project to say like, Hey, like let's get it back to the next generation. We'll do a six week bootcamp. We'll design a competition around the bootcamp where we can train, hold people accountable and really help them get results. And then it transformed into, you know, us wanting to do this event and, you know, putting together people that really had validity that we're walking the walk and making the plays right now.

Speaker 2 (02:20):

And you know, it turned out really good. You know, the best part about it was the relationships. I feel like I've formed and you know, just to be able to really give back and hold nothing back because you know, it's something that genuinely bothers me. Like why is there so much mediocrity in our space? Why isn't there everybody's a millionaire, right? Because we get the chance to write our own paycheck. Every single day, we get the ability to tell somebody what we're worth and go improve that on a day-to-day basis. You know, that was one thing that I wanted to deliver for people was to be able to not only give them motivation and teach them things, but to really give them something that they can take, you know, like specific one-liners or, you know, reasons why people say yes or reasons why people say no or understanding what to say when somebody says, I want to think about it.

Speaker 2 (03:09):

You know, that's why we designed the actual Solar Knock Cards, which has all the common objections and all the nasty words that people have to eliminate from their vocabulary. And then the slicks specifically, you know, to be able to engage people while they're on the doors and to give the door to door sales and in the best percentage and the certainty that they want to be successful. Yeah. I love that. And I tell this story all the time, but when I first started in solar, there was so much like hidden stuff that people didn't want to say. It's like outside of my company, I going get any coaching at all. Um, I literally go to top guys at other companies. So I was with a pretty small company. So I hit up the top dudes, other companies, they'd be like, no, we're not telling you anything.

Speaker 2 (03:50):

Like, come on, man, I'll buy you dinner. Let's go. Just like, tell me a few lines that are working for you and nothing, no one say anything. So what I love about you is you hold nothing back. And like you're saying in this event, you literally gave us, I think every line that's working for you, everything you say out there, and I've never heard someone just break it down into the exact words they're saying, which you can have vines even a couple of years ago. Um, so yeah, that's was a money events and definitely worth the money for that, for your stuff alone that we heard. Um, but yeah, what I want to ask you, Taylor, when you guys first started this whole Knox star thing, were you planning on doing live events or was it just going to be the original coaching thing is sort of evolved since you yeah, I mean, you know, just to be very blunt, like Dan was the one that took the lead on saying, Hey, we have to do this event starting to put the pieces together.

Speaker 2 (04:43):

And you know that wasn't initially my idea. I'm not the type of guy that's going to say, Hey, I'm throwing this huge event. You know, it's kind of like first comes to the action then comes the motivation, right. You know, we started to put one foot in front of each other and we started to kind of make the plays that we needed to make. And you know, the next thing you know is we have a full event with 400 people in it. And you know, when you're around and surrounded around all those people, you know, I really don't know what I'm going to say when I go up on stage, because I don't speak from my brain and speak from my heart the same way that I don't know what I'm about to say over the next 30 to 45 minutes, it's just, I have this intention to say, Hey, like I'm being selfish.

Speaker 2 (05:22):

If I don't give everything that I have back to the industry and to help other people. And that's just what it comes down to because you really think about it. How many people get into door to door sales that just straight up never make it, like they only wait make it two, three weeks because they don't know this information. And they go two to three weeks without getting paid. And then they say, Hey, um, I'm going to go back to my job at seven 11 or I'm going to go back to my hourly job. See the problem is, is there's two zones. There's the, the comfort zone and the danger zone. We all strive to achieve things like money. The greatest motivator of all is the need to be comfortable. But what happens is we get, we get frustrated. And when that frustration dwells, the average person will withdraw or they will quit, right?

Speaker 2 (06:10):

Because they start to self doubt themselves. They don't have that certainty. And when you're armed and you have the ammunition to say, Hey, I've got nine or 10 different ways to handle this. You know, we did a play. Somebody had a specific, you know, objection. And, you know, I handled it and everyone was like, oh, that was nasty. You handled it like four or five different ways. Well, I know nine or 10 different ways to handle that. What came out came out. But if you only have one way to end the one objection or concern, you know, then you, you really put yourself into a corner rather than learning new ways and different ways to say different things. And you know, I'd probably say that the two most important things within my presentation is repetition and clarity. I'm very clear with what I explained to people.

Speaker 2 (06:55):

And I repeat things over and over multiple different ways, multiple, you know, uh, multiple different ways. And I say it different, uh, in different tonalities because you know, a lot of times you say something to somebody and they don't understand. It's not what I say. It's not how I say it. It's how I can make them feel. And it's some things will just go in one ear and out the other one. So, you know, I really need them to retain this information. I do that through repetition and clarity. Yeah. And that's huge. And something you're talking about at the events is how many times have we all heard it and have a presentation we're getting ready to close. I'm like, wait, but I still don't have money for this. It's like, are you kidding me? We just went over like 30 minutes saying, it's not going to cost you anything out of your pocket.

Speaker 2 (07:36):

Um, so that was huge. And you gave us some solid lines to just sorta like, repeat it. Cause you don't want to repeat the same things over and over. But it's like what you're saying, if you can repeat it, approach it in a different way. And then you talked about activating the senses, getting them to write it down, things like that, which I loved bowls at points you had. So, um, so if you didn't, if you didn't go to the events, I know some people are probably itching to hear somebody of lines and everything, but do you want to give us some of the ways Taylor, that you sorta like free explain these things to not just like repeat the same, uh, you know, same stuff over and yeah, definitely. So w what you have to realize is right now, you guys are hearing, right.

Speaker 2 (08:16):

That's what you're doing. You're listening to what we're saying, right? And that's the first way that you learned something, but you have to realize the way that the people that we serve, these families that we serve, the way that they're going to learn solar is by hearing reading, saying, in writing these techniques, and you need to hear something, read something, write something and say something six times to retain 62% of that information. Okay. If I say things one time too, that's good. But if I tell you something and I say, Hey, it's easier by show you and I'm handing them something. Now they're starting to read and hear me, right? And then if I ask them a question and get them to talk, now they're hearing reading and saying, buying is not a spectator sport. It's an involvement sport. I am an assistant buyer, and the process is not to the customer, it's for the customer.

Speaker 2 (09:14):

And I need to take their hand and I need to lead them through the process. So the same way that we have a formula or a roadmap for a homeowner, when we get inside of the home, we also have a formula or a roadmap, um, for the actual, uh, door presentation, which unfortunately I just haven't seen anybody really break it down to the ridiculous of what it's going to take to be able to actually go through the process of selling somebody. And, you know, it starts with you, it starts with mentality. It starts with affirmation, right? The things that I think about are going to lead to an emotion, and that will make me feel a certain way. That feeling will make me judge myself and make a decision about the way that I'm going to approach my debt. Right? But it's the same thing.

Speaker 2 (09:57):

When I approach a homeowner that first three seconds, there's going to be thoughts that go into their head. Those thoughts will create an emotion. Those, that emotion will make them feel a certain way about me, my product and my service when I knock on their door. And that feeling that they have will lead to them, judging me, which will lead to their end. That decision people rarely buy up people. They don't like trust or no. So that's the first thing that I focus on. Also have like a demeanor, like, I really don't care if you do this or not like this is going to happen with, or without you. And that's the first part of where I sit and stand. Right? Um, it starts with me affirming what I want to do. I need to have affirmation, right? Affirmation. Like this is a done deal. These guys were already talking about it. You know, the next thing I'm going into is who I am and why I'm there. Oh, Hey sir.

Speaker 2 (10:49):

Actually, the reason I'm confident, I'll pretty much just cut to the chase. You know how you have FPL here for the electricity, right? So that's typically how I'll start my presentation. I'm telling them who I am. I'm telling them why I'm there. The reason I'm coming by is like a little bit different. I'll pretty much cut to the chase. You know how you have blank for your electricity, right? That's a very cut and dry, quick process. They're going to say, yes, I'm giving myself the best percentages and I'm taking what maybe has five or seven seconds like 20 or 30, because I've created a little bit of curiosity. Right? And that's what I want to focus on to create curiosity. I then need to tell a story. So if you break it down, affirmation who you are, why you're there. Then I need to tell a story.

Speaker 2 (11:34):

And I need to do that by asking a question. Typically, once I say, Hey, do you know how you have FPL here for the electricity? They say, yes. I say, Hey, I don't know if you know, right. And I might spin that to, Hey, I don't know if you know what's going on in the state. Hey, I don't know if you know what's going on here in Cape coral. Hey, I don't know if you guys remember last year, the ballot, right? You guys might've remembered. You guys voted on something called grid pardoning. That's why all the polls, the wooden poles have been switched out for metal on us. 41. We have a little bit of an issue. It is serious. We're not trying to come down on anybody. However, it is important, right? I need to tell a story to create curiosity and through creating curiosity on painting a picture in their head, also known as imagery, right?

Speaker 2 (12:17):

Because that's how I'm going to get them interested. Um, by telling that story, asking a question and then creating a really big problem, right? I need to create pain within the process. If there's no pain, they will not change. Right. And that's one thing. The two things that I noticed most solar professionals don't do good enough job at is really telling a story on why this is a big deal, right? We maintain a grid. That's 135 years old, right? They have to constantly maintain this grid. That's why they have all these fees and surcharges here in Florida. We get all of our power from out of state. One out of every $4 exits the Florida economy. It goes into the Georgia economy because the power goes through something. You can call the trans mission. Substation goes through a distribution substation, and then eventually gets to the house.

Speaker 2 (13:05):

So if I can show them something, as I'm telling it to them, and I can create that really good story on why I'm there, which is a hundred percent true. Every single time, there's no like gimmicks or anything. It's just, unmaking it very serious because it is a huge problem. Right? And if you don't feel like it's a big problem, then you're going to get transitioned off of the doorstep. One or two things is going to happen. My belief is going to teleport out of my body, into you, and you're going to feel, Hey, this kid says the part. It makes sense. Okay. Maybe we should go to step two, right? Because I'm a firm believer that no matter what situation I go in, they're in a much better situation to own their power. Then be at the mercy of the power company, right. They, instead of them taking that money every month and throwing it into a dumpster, they're now redirecting it to their piggy bank where they're writing the checks to themselves every month, because they're the owner of their power.

Speaker 2 (13:55):

Right. And I use a lot of glamor words, a glamor word is a commonly known word. That's uncommonly used. And I use different words like, you know, unparalleled, you know, fantastic, robust redirection. You know, there's a new program. That's gonna allow you to redirect your payment towards owning your power. It's called the redirection program. You would literally divert what you would've paid to the utility company into a piggy bank. And that would eventually end. So you own your electricity, right? So I'm utilizing these words to really pick up their senses and realize it's not just what I'm saying. It's not how I say it. It's how I make them feel. And if I can make them feel like, Hey, what he's saying is right, and this makes sense, right? They're going to move to the next step with me. They might not necessarily say I want to do this, but they're going to sit there and listen to me for those extra 20 or 30 seconds.

Speaker 2 (14:46):

And then there's extra 20 or 30 seconds is going to lead into an extra 20 or 30 seconds. And eventually I'm going to break them down. It's like Yukon, Cornelius, the guy from, you know, back in the day on the, on the old movies. And he's, you know, he's chipping away. Right. And you have to chip away and eventually get to the process where it makes sense for these homeowners boom nuggets right there. And I'll be your, uh, I'll be your testimony because I mean, I went through your program, just started implementing some of these lines. You're saying, um, I, I hadn't done, I hadn't gotten over 10 cells for probably the last eight, nine months granted COVID and everything. But just from him implementing these lines and going through this stuff that you and Danny taught, it was like hit 12 cells that month had my best month in the past year with COVID and everything.

Speaker 2 (15:33):

So guys, if you haven't what I would do, just put this whole section on, repeat, listen to the lines that Taylor saying. Cause literally just by doing those things in implementing some of these lines, it's like crazy how much of a difference that you make. Um, so versus getting them through it, whereas getting into the psychology of why people say yes, but then also realize there's a psychology behind why people are going to tell note to tell you no. And the reason people are going to say yes, right? And in, in, in door to door sales, direct sales, it isn't easy, right? 99% of people couldn't handle what we do. That's why 99% of people don't do it. Right. And you look at the, the real psychology. If you really want to understand why somebody is going to say yes to you, right? You are the product or service, right.

Speaker 2 (16:20):

They're going to believe more about the conviction that you have and why this makes sense for their situation and your technical skills. Right. Um, E excited and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the spirit you have within you. When I was 18 years old, I started selling Verizon file store door. I used to skip my last class, a high school and, uh, had a 1.8 GPA in high school. And I would work for $86 a sale. And, um, I remember hearing the guy with the most energy makes the most money, right? So like your energy and your enthusiasm, and then the way that you decide to serve customers, yes, you are the product or service, your energy and enthusiasm and the way that you generally try to serve people. You know, I have to build that authentic communication, that authentic connection with people when I meet them for them to feel that way.

Speaker 2 (17:07):

Like I am genuinely helping you. Like if I go through this process with you, you'll do it a hundred percent. You would say, yes, it's just the hardest part of my job is timing. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you apples to apples, your current situation, compared to how it would be, if you redirected towards owning your electricity and like, I'll show you the fast and then you'll make the decision. But at the end of it, and the biggest problem is if I don't understand this, like the back of my hand, you're not going to be able to understand that, to make a decision, right? And then the reasons why people will say no, because you might get to the end of your presentation. And they said, Hey, I want to think about it. Um, there's something called the circle of persuasion that you have to go through and loop back and forth and go right through this multiple times, because get the, I want to think about it.

Speaker 2 (17:50):

I get the, I'm not making a decision today, but I keep looping through this formula to be able to get myself to that final. Yes, because at the end of the day, they're going to commit to one of three things. They're either going to commit to the utility company and say, Hey, powering my home from the power company. And the utility company is my best option. And if they are a firm believer at the end of my presentation, that paying the fees and surcharges and being at the mercy of the power companies, their best options, cool. I'll shake their hand and I'll say, Hey, if that's the way you'd feel after I've told you everything, I need to tell you that I'm cool with that, right. Option two is they're redirecting into a piggy bank where they own their power. They're turning a liability into an asset or option three is we go to submit your application and they deny you.

Speaker 2 (18:33):

And then in that case, you're stuck. I mean, you could go to the seven 11, go buy a $20 scraps to get one a million dollars, say, yes, I'm buying a brand new solar system and you can't get it because the system is grid grid dependent. It's gonna inter connect to the grid, right? So utilizing takeaways and, um, the reasons why people aren't going to move forward. Number one is lingering questions, right? People have lingering questions and sometimes they don't tell you. And that's the benefit of the slicks is like the five main questions I like to go on offense and show them this before man, like people always have five main questions. What happens to my roof? What happens if I move? What is the bottom line cost of doing this? Who's going to serve as a system. And when do I start saving money?

Speaker 2 (19:13):

And I want to bring up all those five lingering questions beforehand. I also want to bring up, it sounds way too good to be true. Bottom line started. If you're going to fall into one or two categories, category one, everything that I just said made complete and total sense. You know, somebody that's benefited from going solar or categories here just sounds way too good to be true. And you're probably sitting there like, wait a second. What's the catch. The catch is simple. When I say that I have your full attention, right. It catches simple. What's the main reason you picked it. You know, the utility company as your provider in the first place. Exactly. You never had a second option right now. You see these lines are a natural part of me because I've internalized them. Right. And that's how you learn something is by utilizing it and then internalizing it and then you reinforce it.

Speaker 2 (19:55):

Right? Um, the other reason why people aren't going to move forward as an inadequate explanation of benefits, right? Different buyers require different amounts of information to be soul, right? No, nobody wants to be sold. Nobody wants to buy something. They want to own it. Right? So I need to really explain to them the benefits. And you know, what I like to do is when I go in for my clothes and even on the door, I say, Hey, there's an agenda because it gives them a roadmap. I go over four questions. They're called. Can we pay the questions that I'm going to go over your costs of doing nothing really show you apples to apples. What you're going to end up spending a month on power a year for power and how much you're going to have to actually give to the landlord. Um, next, we're going to explain to you what we believe are MCSS will try those five main buttons, remove costs, service, savings, recap, design, and I'll say the numbers.

Speaker 2 (20:42):

And then we'll actually submit your application. Um, with the questions are pretty basic. We want to make sure that are both, how many years have you literally it was called word of mouth advertising. And if you've lived here for six years, we want the credibility, but also the visibility from using a roof because people will see the panels. Um, peace of mind is something that people want out of this because the rates are just going to consistently go up. You know, there is one program that allows you to have a 0% escalator, meaning that your price on month one, your cost, your investment for your system would never, ever go up. We want you to understand the difference between renting and owning. That's a critical part. People are going to cancel. If they are just saving 50 bucks a month and they take out a loan, they realize it's after.

Speaker 2 (21:24):

I need them really to understand the difference between resting versus owning. And I want to pull a hypothetical like, Hey, what am I going to do to convince you to go back to renting your house? And I use a checkbook analogy, right? So Taylor, if you were my, if you were the customer right now, I'd say, you know, like, um, Taylor, I have a hypothetical situation for you. You know, hypothetically, if I pulled the checkbook out of my pocket right now, and I was willing to write you a check and hand it to you. Um, so I could be the owner of your home, um, because I wanted the title and I wanted ownership of the home. I would continue to live here. I would let you continue to live here, but you would just have to write me a check every single month so I could pay off the mortgage.

Speaker 2 (22:05):

Is that something you would do? Would you go back to renting your house? If I was willing to buy it from you and you just had to write me a check every single month, would you do that? Would you go back to rent? No way. No. Why wouldn't you do that? Because I've already been paying towards own and owning the house. It'd be like taking a step back right now. Why would I want to do that? Because you would get my house basically, and then you would get my paycheck or you would get the same concept with your electricity. Right? See, the problem is solar has been very, very, very expensive. And all these neighbors like Judy, she lives right here in the home right here on the corner. She was really smart about it, but she did not win the lottery. She did not take money out of her checking account, nor did she pivot from her stock portfolio.

Speaker 2 (22:52):

She just realized that if she was paying the electricity for rent or a liability, that she wanted to turn that into an asset where she now had the control. Right? And that's where I want to explain the difference between renting versus owning. And I want you to really verbalize because I can go through my, can we pay process? I'm actually writing down all the answers, right? Because when I get to the very end of the process, I want the value to be as high as possible. That when I show you what your fixed monthly payment is, that I can assume in transition and go right into, you know, the clothes and how this would make sense. Um, and then I have the 10 pillars of reasons why people want to go solar. There's $0 out of pocket. You add equity to your home. You own your power source.

Speaker 2 (23:34):

You eliminate fees and surcharges. People do this, that are tech savvy. You get a fixed payment twenty-five year warranty, production guarantee, the better environment, the cost into an investment. And then you get the 20% federal tax credit, crazy golden nuggets spread there. And for, for everyone, that's listening to audio, Taylor's been holding up these, um, these slicks. Um, so we're going to release the video version. I would definitely suggest listening to that. And then we'll ask them at the end where you guys can get a hold of these things, because these things are game changers too. Um, but no, I think it's super valuable stuff. So again, just re if you anyone that's listening, if you hear these lines on repeat, start to implement them, it's gonna increase yourselves for sure. I mean, I know you guys already have dozens of success, stories of people implementing these things, increasing their sales.

Speaker 2 (24:25):

Um, but what about Dale or for people that, um, are hitting highly saturated area? It's been knocked the ton. Oh, you're the fifth solar guy here. Cause I'm in San Diego. One of the most competitive markets done on people here, um, slinging solar. So what do you do? What are your, some of your lines for those neighborhoods where you get no, you're the fifth solar guy here and what are you doing to differentiate, differentiate yourself from all those other guys that came. So first is how you envision yourself, right? Like I do not care if they've been talked to by four other solar guys that dead, they just haven't talked to me about it, right? Because what I'm going to be telling them is completely different. You know? So like this is completely, totally different. This is completely different. So, you know, before all these companies come out and say, we want to sell you this, or we want to sell you that were utilizing you guys as reference points or what we call model homes.

Speaker 2 (25:16):

How many years have you guys even lived here? Right. And I want to take it away from them right now. If you've been approached about solar, you have to understand what their misconception is and you need to tell them, Hey, the biggest problem in solar is if I don't understand this, like the back of my hand, you're not going to be able to understand it. A lot of the people are telling me a lot of people say, they're not interested without actually seeing a proposal and understanding, you know, what their house would look like with the panels. And actually somebody showing them apples to apples, what their current situation is compared to their new situation. You know? So I try to get really real about their situation. I pull up their house with an application called Sunseeker where I can show them the hours that are hitting their house.

Speaker 2 (25:58):

And I want to actually personalize their situation right off the bat. Now, if somebody has already been talked to about going solar, you know, I want to figure out the reasons why, you know, what they were told and you know, really why they didn't move forward. But I also want to be convicted and say like, if I go through this process with you, you'll do it. You know? Like, what was the main reason you picked, you know, Edison as your power provider in the first place. Okay. You, weren't thinking about closing out the account. Right. You know, how many years have you lived here? Okay. So seven years, hypothetically, if the power company called you on the phone right now and said, you guys have been super loyal for the last seven years, we've been taking all the payments and we put them into a piggy bank for you.

Speaker 2 (26:36):

And on your 20 or your 25, you just don't have to pay a power bill because you own your electricity. Right? Like, um, I use specific lines, like, you know, like, um, we'll go through a quick role-play here. So like, um, like, like Taylor, um, how many years ago was it that you moved into the hall? Uh, it's been like six years now. A little bit. Okay. So six years ago when you moved into the house, I don't know if you move the furniture on yourself, you had a moving company, but that first day that you moved in, I know you didn't hesitate to call the power company. Typically what happens is you call them, you tell them your name. They said, okay, where's the B address? And then your, your, your lights is turned on and like 30, 45 minutes or whatever. But at that time, six years ago, if you would've called the power company and they said, Hey, before we turn the lights on, we need to send a representative out to your house.

Speaker 2 (27:24):

Kind of like I'm here right now. And you were to have two options. You are not just forced to have that one option where you had to rent the power, pay the fees, pay the surcharges, and always have to maintain this hundred and 35 year old infrastructure. They said, we have a second option because we're here right now. When we proposed the idea to actually use your roof as a power plant, where you're producing power onsite, you own that electricity. You have the ability to have a fixed payment that nine out of 10 times is going to be lower than what you currently pay. You will not pay any fees and surcharges. And then you'll have an end game with that because you're producing clean energy, right? You're also going to be incentivized, kind of like, if you go speeding 110 miles per hour down the highway, you're going to get a ticket.

Speaker 2 (28:09):

But when the government and they want you to do some thing, right, they're incentivizing you. And they said, Hey, we're going to actually pay you 26% of the federal tax credit to actually do this. If given that option, when six years ago, when you moved into the home, would you have at least have the representative come out to your house? Yeah, no doubt. So it was the only, the only difference is I just don't have an Edison logo on my shirt. Right? You want to paint imagery into their head to be able to show them, Hey, there's multiple options. And you know, a lot of the time when, when people are getting combative with me, you know, sometimes I'll just say, I'll just stop. And I'll say like, sorry, this is not a sales process. You're actually starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (28:52):

Right? I'm not a dentist. I've never performed a root canal in my life, nor am I looking to pull any teeth to that, right? Like, like I'm going to help you genuinely help you go into a better situation. It's just the hardest part of my job is timing. Right? That's the hardest part of my job. That's a reason why somebody is not going to move forward. Right. And then have that presentation down, pat. So we started with the affirmation who you are, why you're there creating a story and asking a question, right? Then I want to create the pain. Then I want to go into a problem. Then I want to go into the solution that I want to tell them how they're involved. Then I want to tell them how they're awarded that. I want to tell them why it makes sense. And then I want to transition it.

Speaker 2 (29:34):

And I want to assume, assume, assume, right? I always want to take the sales presentation as far as I possibly can. I don't want to be pushy. I'm not a used car salesman. But if I go through this process with you, you'll do it a hundred percent. You would say yes. And you have to have that conviction. The same that you're hearing my voice. If I'm like military, dude, you might not do this. Or like, Hey, this doesn't make sense for you. Like, no, like you're going to do it. It says, I have to explain it to you. Right? That's the biggest problem in the solar industry is people don't fully understand it and they try to explain it to you. And you get confused when you say no. And I would expect you to say no, right? But my job is very cut and dry.

Speaker 2 (30:09):

Right? I want to show you what your bill last month would have been. If you would have already had solar. And then I want to show you the actual design of the system. Do you know roughly, just roughly what you guys spend a month on the electricity, like 1 50, 1 50. Okay. So $150 is what you spend every single month to the utility company. You turn your lights on. You don't get any equity. Your power's not your house. Isn't worth more. It's not like, Hey, I've paid for power for 25 years. Now I'm going to go sell my house. And my home is going to be worth X amount more because you don't get anything in return. But if it's $150 that you spend a month fair to say over the course of a year, it's eight, $1,800, $1,800 comes out of your pocket to maintain a grid.

Speaker 2 (30:54):

That's over 130 years old. And it put this into perspective for you. If it's $1,800 in a year, what does 18,000 represent to you? In one year, you're giving the utility company. If you're donating $1,800 to the utility company in 10 years, what is $18,000 to you? I guess what I would have spent what I would have paid the utility company. It's 10 years of paying for power. If the rates never went up next 10 years, the rates could potentially double. They're not going to go down 50% because we use our natural resources, right? And that's why we have this problem. It is serious. We're not trying to come down on anybody. However, it is important, right? If you break down the last seven years that you've lived here, you've almost invested. Or I shouldn't say invested, I should really use the word donate because that utility company took all this money that you gave them.

Speaker 2 (31:48):

And I believe that these CEOs of these power companies should not be making millions of dollars a year. I believe that if we have 135 year infrastructure, we should all be paying for it. Not just the consumers. You see, I'm a consumer myself. And whenever I put myself in these types of situations, I want to find somebody with expert product knowledge. Because if I get confused anywhere along this process, I'm going to say no, right? And I use this to help the homeowner relax because your greatest enemy is the client's fear, right? And if they're scared, they don't want to make the wrong decision. So as an assistant buyer, that's the first thing on the top of my food champions. I need to really help them relax. Then I need to go into a really good, intense statement. Then I need to go through the, can we pay questions and get them to talk about why I should pick their home.

Speaker 2 (32:36):

Then I want them to circle the reasons why they like that. They should go solar. Then I want to explain to them what we believe. I want to show them apples to apples. Hey, this is what your average monthly bill comes to. This is what you pay average per year. This is how many kilowatts you consume per month. This is how many kilowatts consumed per year. This is what you're going to pay for power over the course of X amount of time. This is what you're getting for a tax credit. If you don't do anything. So I'm showing them apples to apples, almost like a Ben Franklin closed, Hey, if you could stay with your current situation, this is how it's going to be. If you move to a new situation, this is what it's going to be. I do not care if you do it, this this is going to happen with, or without you.

Speaker 2 (33:14):

I've got about 11 and more of these to do today. Um, but if you want to take a part of the project, the next step is actually getting the utility company to process the redirection. If they denied the application, then you're stuck. Right. And I take it away at that point, right? So I'm not going to sound needy, right? The same way that if the customer starts to, you know, give me a hard time. Like, I just have a demeanor. I don't care if you do it or not. It's your bill. You know, like the TVs, aren't going to look any different. They're not going to flicker the lights. Aren't going to look any different. And I almost have a demeanor, Hey, if, if you don't do this, like you, you might as well just keep the lights on. And the TV's on all day when you go to work, you know, like, it's, it, it doesn't make sense to me because I have the Zite belief that it does not make sense to them to continue to waste money.

Speaker 2 (34:01):

Right. I definitely feel as if people hesitate to pay full price on things they don't need to. Right. That's a jab. Right? I use that when I'm in the field, right. I definitely feel as if people hesitate to pay full price on things they don't need to. What was the main reason you picked the Edison in the first place? Okay. You guys, weren't thinking about canceling the account, right? So all these little jabs are kind of making them feel like, Hey, am I making the right decision? I want to avoid the wrong decision. Well, guess what? Through my conviction and through my passion and my product and my service, they're going to start to doubt their current situation and say, dude, we're getting screwed, right? Why would we pay all these fees and surcharges? Hey, this kid looks, the party sounds apart. He's showing me stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:39):

He's backing up. What he's saying. When I go to the field, I have like 14 different slicks. If they ask me about a hurricane, if they asked me the difference between the old Stouffer's the new stuff, where the sun direction comes, you know, I have all this different ammunition that I can show them something, as I say something right. And my dad has always told me documentation beats conversation. That's another thing that I say to them, like, no, everything that I'm saying is good, but, uh, documentation beats conversation, you know, this is the hardest part of my job is time. And if I go through this process with the old, do it a hundred percent, you'll do it. And then I assume transition, Hey, I'll pop back by around five. Or Hey, if there's a small place, we can sit. I go through these questions.

Speaker 2 (35:20):

And, uh, you know, I just have that belief that they're going to do it. You know, I don't say anything special. I don't have a complicated presentation, you know, but what I do have is I have a lot of belief in my product and service and people are going to be more persuaded by that than my technical skills, powerful stuff. And I love that. And it's true. There's so much confusion in this. Especially out here in Southern California, I think that's basically the number one reason people don't have solar. So they got confused by loss guy that was pitching like a PPA. We used program. It's a big thing out here, but we come in, we can show them different options, give them that knowledge. And then people are way more confident. I had a lady just two weeks ago. That's an older lady canceled.

Speaker 2 (36:01):

Cause she was confused on like one tiny thing in the documents. Didn't tell me, just call up the company in canceled. I'm like, what? Then you go back, just clarify things to her, helped her gain an understanding. And she was back on board. So yeah, I see that all the time. I'm sure you do. People don't understand it. So they just cancel. They're confused. They don't want to do it. That's what I try to say, Hey, there's a new program. That's going to allow you to redirect your payment. It's called the redirection program. So if you noticed all these people that put up the wind turbines behind their houses, or like the solar panels on the roof, they did not win the lottery. They did not take money out of their checking account, nor did they pivot from their stock portfolios. What they realized was they were at the mercy of the power company.

Speaker 2 (36:43):

But if they could divert that payment towards a piggy bank or they owned their electricity rather than paying for rent every month, that's something that they wanted to do. Right. See, the hardest part of my job is that timing aspect and being able to explain it so they understand it because I need them to fully understand it for them to have the confidence and certainty that they're making the right decision. I love that. That's super powerful. Okay, guys, implement those lines again. Repeat these. It's going to change the way you sell. Um, and I know another thing you do just like reducing the cancellations is those hypothetical questions. That's something that I'd been trying to implement a lot is just asking the hypothetical's like you're saying, Hey, what would you do? If, if SDG, if Edison came back, they said, we're going to switch you onto the old program, getting them to agree with that.

Speaker 2 (37:29):

Um, so that's super powerful. What other geometry, other things that are helping you, um, reduce cancellations and things that have helped the guys you're coaching. Yep. So there's one specific question that I asked right before I walked out of the house. Understand practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect. So you're going to need to stick this line word for word, if you want to utilize it. But if you can learn this one last line, it's going to completely eliminate your cancellations. Um, so Taylor, give me an example of your last one of your last homes. What was their average payment to the utility company and then what was their payment for solar? And give me a hundred percent offset just to make it easy on this one. Yeah. Um, I think my last one is, uh, probably one 70 was their average to the utility company.

Speaker 2 (38:22):

I think one about one 40 was their payments for the solar. Okay, great. So great example. All right, Taylor. So I really appreciate the time that we shared. Um, I have one question before I leave. Hypothetically, if you were to close your eyes right now and you already have the solar panels installed in the roof and you knew that you own your electricity and you knew you had a fixed payment that went into a piggy bank every month and it was $140. And you knew that rate would never go up because you owned your electricity. You had the panels installed. Um, your payment was one 40. It would never go up. And then you've heard somebody ringing your doorbell. You were cooking dinner or whatnot. And you went to go look who it was. You peeked out, you open your door and it was Edison and Edison tried to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (39:10):

And they said, Hey, we want you to rip off the panels. We want you to go back to renting your electricity. We want to put you into a variable rate where the rate can go up, but we're going to start you off at an average of $170, right? If that situation were to happen, you already had the panels installed in the roof. You had the $140 fixed payment that we talked about. And then Edison came and knocked on the door, try to convince you to rip those panels off. And they told you that your new rate would be one 70 and every time you made one of those payments, they would take the money and put it back into the infrastructure. And you would not have any sort of asset. You would not get the tax credit. If that situation were to happen, what would you say?

Speaker 2 (39:53):

Yeah, that would, that would suck no way. Would I go back onto that? No way you would never do it. And what I'm telling them at that point is their current situation. Right? I'm telling them their same situation that you're in. Right? So I've went through the process. I've signed all my documents. I've went through the final process in the night, reaffirmed that post-close closed that by asking that question. And if you really did the sales process the right way, they're going to say I would never do that. I would never do it. And then sometimes I'll, I'll take a subtle takeaway. Like keep in mind, like the utility company denies you. Then you are stuck. He better not do that. No. Well, what if they deny me? Can I call them? Is there any, can I go into the office? And I have felt that if you sell the process the right way, right?

Speaker 2 (40:37):

You want to take it away and you want to build that pain because understand if you don't build enough pain, if there isn't a problem, if there isn't pain, they won't change. Right. The pain, the problem, the solution, how they're involved, all the transition process works fire. Yeah. That is a game changer. I still need to memorize that because I think I've, I've tried that a few times. Uh, butchered it a little bit when I tried to do it. So definitely go back re listen to this, get it word for word and yeah, it's for sure. Going to change your cancellations. And last thing I wanted to ask you before we start wrapping up here, um, a big thing that I've learned from you is just vocabulary. Dale eliminates from your presentation. I know pitch is one of the words you don't eliminate. Taylor's making us do pushups and stuff like that when we said pitch at the conference.

Speaker 2 (41:34):

But, uh, can you go through for our listeners, some words that, uh, you teach you coach guys on to eliminate from their sales vocab. Yeah. There's actually a lot of the words that I completely eliminated from my vocabulary. Nasty words are words that will remind a buyer of a bad path selling experience. Right. And the pitch is one of the nastiest words, right? Let me just hear your pitch. Like you want to hear all these different pitches you should refer to pitch as an angle of a roof or a baseball throw that we'd replace pitch with the word present or presentation. Um, other words are like cheaper. I don't use the word cheaper. I use more economical, most economical or more efficient, most efficient. I don't use the word. I don't use the word appointment. Like, Hey, I'm going to set an appointment at six o'clock.

Speaker 2 (42:21):

I'll just pop by and visit. Right. Hey, so I'm going to actually be with the Gonzalez family at five. I'll just pop by, uh, like right at like 5 45. And I'll show you guys exactly what the panels will look like on the roof and what your bill locksmith would have been. Right? Cause people cancel an appointment, but they won't cancel a few pop by and visit. Right. Um, over the summer I had a lady that said, I am not signing any sort of contracts whatsoever today. So that's perfectly fine. This, um, you don't have to sign the contract, but what we are going to do is okay, these three forms and that's, what's going to allow us to get to the next step. And she was okay to okay. The form, but she didn't want to sign the contract because when somebody wants to sign something, they think of bad things.

Speaker 2 (43:01):

I just used the word. Okay, approve, authorize, or endorse. If they say contract, I really liked to use the word forms, paperwork, you know, um, agreement. But I really liked the worst forms in that situation. Um, so there, there's a lot of words that you just want to eliminate that, you know, might not help the process or, you know, they might think like, to be honest, I'd never say that I say to be blunt, right, right. To cut to the chase. I don't want to say, to be honest as I'm insinuates, like, oh, wait a second. Was he, was he honest? You know, so I say to be blunt, I try to add all, but I don't say the word free. Right? I say no costs. Right. And to be able to learn these words, eliminate them. And the opposite of a nasty word is a glamour word.

Speaker 2 (43:47):

And those are words like redirect or unparalleled are really getting them excited. And you also don't want to use those same word over and over and over again, if I said fantastic, nine times in my presentation, you know, then it becomes, and then it just becomes a redundant. Right. And it doesn't actually help the process. Right. The other thing that people want to eliminate is something called seal talk, seal talk is, uh, uh, and, um, um, uh, uh, or words that will take away certainty from your presentation. So when you're arming and eyeing the whole time, you know, that's called seal talk and you want to eliminate that from your, from your vocabulary as well. Yeah. Super important. Yeah. That's, that's been a game changer for sure. I was saying all of these things without realizing them. So something might've been trying to do is just record yourself because a lot of these, a lot of people don't are seeing these things, especially ums, AHS, buts.

Speaker 2 (44:42):

We don't even know we're saying it. So for our Solarpreneurs, go and record yourselves at guarantee, you're probably using a lot of these words without knowing it, especially because whatever everybody does, you just have to be conscious about it, right? Like in work on it, you might get 1% better every day or every week. And that's all it is, is getting really good with your vocabulary and your certainty. Because at the end of the day, the families that we serve, which I also don't use the word customers, right. I don't refer it to customers. They use the families we serve when they start to hear every other word that comes out of your mouth is odd. They're going to say, does this kid really know what he's talking about? I'm a consumer myself. Whenever I put myself in this sort of situation, I'm looking for somebody with expert product knowledge.

Speaker 2 (45:31):

That's part of my intent statement. Right. And if I can stick that during my intent statement and let them know, Hey, my goal is to have you commit to one of these three things, you know, that I'm really laying out the roadmap with how my presentation should go. Whether I'm on the door, whether I'm in the home. I love that super powerful stuff. So yeah, again, record yourselves. See if you are saying any of these trigger words. I know when I first got in the, in solar, I was taught to say all these things like a lot of, a lot of companies don't even teach these things. A lot of guys are saying free appointments. I had never heard that before you taught me that. And once I started replacing appointments with pop by our whole team, we've seen our cancellations go down. We've seen same day appointments, go up clear up for same day, pop bys.

Speaker 2 (46:18):

As we're not doing an appointment, we're just popping by later in the day. And that's when we're getting results. So, um, super powerful stuff, appreciate you for not holding anything back. Um, and that's what I love about what you and Danny are doing. Guys are changing the industry, for sure. So we're used to it being just the opposite of that. Um, so before we let you go, Taylor, can you, so I've told our podcast listeners, I was in your guys' bootcamp and helped me out, uh, just a ton in the way I sell and definitely got me results. So can you tell our listeners where they can find out more about you guys and maybe tell a little bit about your upcoming bootcamp and everything, if you guys got any spots left in that? Yeah. So it's filling up pretty fast. We just had our event, I believe.

Speaker 2 (47:02):

Uh, we're getting pretty close there because we want to really have that personalized touch over six weeks with every individual. Um, you can find information on www.knockstar.university or you can find all the products information about the six week bootcamp. The way we design the six week bootcamp is not just, uh, you know, a call every week and going over a specific stuff. But what we did was we designed the competition around it really hold you accountable and allows me to be your performance performance, manage you and kind of be your outside director of sales. And my job is to get the most out of you during that six weeks and really to push you, hold you accountable. Not only give you more information, but to get you to produce over that six weeks. And you know, the cool thing about it, like tell her you were within the program, you had, you know, w you had your best, uh, best month in a long time.

Speaker 2 (47:54):

And it was because you pushed yourself when you're up. And your proximity is around some of the top door to door salesmen all around the United States. You know, the coolest part about what we do is we get the opportunity to go prove what we're worth on a day-to-day basis. You can enter a bootcamp against some of the top solar professionals all across the United States. And, you know, there may be somebody that's listening to this podcast right now that not too many people know who you are, but you have that deep down belief in yourself, and you say, Hey, I'm going to go into this and I'm going to take out everybody. I'm going to be number one within this entire bootcamp. I'm going to be one of the guys that goes up on stage. I'm going to be somebody that's recognized, because I understand people strive to get these things that motivate them like money, achievement recognition.

Speaker 2 (48:39):

And when you get out of that motivator stage and you go to demotivators motivators, that's when you're going to be like, Hey, you know, I'm self-doubting myself, but you know, it starts with you affirming having a tunnel, vision, being myopic, believing what you're going to do. I remember when I was first, you know, 18 years old, 14, 15 years in the game, I heard something that said, decisions, decide your wealth. And when I stood in at a company called Platinum Protection with over a thousand sales reps, I looked at everybody in a crowd. I had long hair down to my shoulders, and I had an absolute certainty that I was going to be number one in that company, there was this no s ends about it. I didn't know anything about selling security alarms at all. I just knew that I had that absolute certainty of what I needed to accomplish.

Speaker 2 (49:24):

I put on my blinders and I made plays. You know, I grew up very poor. I watched my parents struggle when I guess that would be my message to everybody is, you know, whether you decide to level up and be a part of our bootcamp or your long program called United, um, or just decide to say, Hey, I'm going to do it on my own a hundred percent, but just put your head down and make the plays because you don't want to procrastinate and wait and wait and wait. You have to eventually make those plays on 31 years old. If I didn't make all the plays in my twenties, I would not be in the position that I'm in right now. And at the same time, I need to keep my foot on the pedal, right? What has got me here to this position is not going to help me get to where I want to go and I have to keep on keeping on.

Speaker 2 (50:05):

And that would be my advice to everybody. That's go. I love that. And I can attest to what Taylor is saying. This guy is one of the most competitive people you will meet. We did a soccer game, and I know you got a soccer game tonight, Taylor, but this guy was more one of the most, uh, rad competitors I've seen on the field and soccer him and a Moe Falah. I thought I was going to have to hold you guys back for a second. You guys were the two top guys tour. And then solar were the two top guys in a soccer team as though all this stuff correlates feed that have that desire, light that fire on yourself, and you're going to go achieve. And that's what I think has been a huge part of your success. Taylor definitely admire you for that. So thanks for dropping some nuggets with us and guys, he just dropped all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (50:48):

A lot of this stuff was from the boot camp. So imagine the value you're going to get from the bootcamp. So if you want additional training, go check that out. And then they also have the Knock Cards, the slicks he's talking about what you can use those on doors in your trainings. Um, working guys find those things out there is that just a knockstar.university to not start out university. You guys can find me on Instagram, Taylor MCC solar, and don't hesitate to reach out because, you know, I've watched my parents struggle. I live week to week, we always got down to our last $20. And you know, like this thing is bigger than myself. You know, God gave me a gift to be able to help others. And I want to be able to help as many people as I can. Well, we appreciate you, Taylor, thanks for all the value you're spreading in this industry. And guys go out and shoot Taylor. And also Danny, that was on the podcast. If you a few weeks back, probably when this releases go tell them you appreciate them, follow them on Instagram and thanks for changing the world. So thanks for coming on the show, Taylor, and we'll have guys sitting up and we'll talk soon. Peace.

Speaker 1 (51:49):

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