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Speaker 1 (00:00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I 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 (00:00:41):

What's going on. I am excited for this episode. We've got someone that's been a long time coming with us on the show today. I've seen him speak probably three, four times. Now he's been on stages all across America and speaking of America, he loves America. He's got add a flag in the background here. So love that about our guests today. We've got, uh, Ian went on the show, Ian. Thanks for coming on with us.

Speaker 3 (00:01:05):

Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me, dude. Appreciate it. Glad we can make it happen. Finally, you chasing me around long enough.

Speaker 2 (00:01:11):

I know sometimes I got to bug people, but it gets, we're used to that knocking doors. Right. So, Hey, how you doing man persistence? Well, yeah, I know it's an honor to finally have you on. And um, I obviously heard you speak last at the door to door Fest event and I was in Dallas, um, a couple months ago now I think. And uh, so yeah, Ian, you do quite a bit of speaking now, is that right? Speak at a lot of sales conferences and stuff like that?

Speaker 3 (00:01:37):

Yeah, I mean, I do. I do, uh, you know, anytime, anytime I can, anytime I'm invited. So it's been, it's been cool. I've, I've had the opportunity to speak in it quite a few in the last, uh, in the recent months. So yeah, man, it's been, it's been, it's been a fun time. I love, I love speaking, so I love being able to teach in that environment. So it's been cool.

Speaker 2 (00:01:56):

Yeah, no, it's been awesome to hear for me. I think I first heard you probably door to door con I don't know, probably like four years ago now, so been a little bit. Um, but yeah, I know you've spoken all over and for, for our listeners that don't know Ian, he is a sales trainer and marketing expert. Um, I mean top door, uh, door to door for like dish satellite for years and years. And now I correct me if I'm wrong, Ian, but now mostly just consulting in them, building up your, uh, Patriot brands in speaking at events, stuff like that, right?

Speaker 3 (00:02:31):

Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was with, uh, I was with dish one or now they're known as caliber for my entire career in door to door, um, which I started in 2009 and I ended just barely like maybe, maybe a year ago, almost so, you know, 10 plus years. Um, and, uh, so I, I sold for them for, you know, four or five years, and then I, I trained a little bit. Um, and then there, I just, I realized that what I was doing was, was working on a big scale. And so they actually had me come in and, and run the training program for them. So I built the training, I built the different training programs or different training, um, courses and things like that, that they used throughout the company for leadership and reps. And, uh, and then eventually I also took over all the marketing when we rebranded to caliber.

Speaker 3 (00:03:19):

So, um, awesome, awesome, awesome time that, you know, that time that I had at caliber has, has very much shaped who I am and made it possible for me to have the opportunities that I have say. And so, yeah, to answer your question, um, I haven't been on the doors for a long time. I haven't been in the door to door space for a little, I think, I think it's about a year, maybe a little over a year. Um, and now I own my own clothing brands or my own brand in general, we do a lot of different things, um, official Patriot gear. And then, like you said, I, I can solve for marketing and sales on the side for individuals and businesses. So, yeah. Nice.

Speaker 2 (00:03:58):

Yeah. And if you're not following Ian on social media, we definitely would recommend it. Um, he's one of the most entertaining guys. I would say that I follow on social media. Love it when you get in a, you know, political debates and stuff like that. So appreciate your fights. Give me some good entertainment.

Speaker 3 (00:04:15):

If you do follow me on social media, be ready for it. It's very political and just know this. We may disagree on things and that's okay. Um, I welcome everybody. If you have a disagreement or something like that, reach out to me, let's talk about it. Like those are the conversations that I want to have with people. And so rather than just following, see something, you don't like an unfollow, like that's what we need more in the world now is people to understand and talk and, you know, figure out because I think at the end of the day, we all have a lot more in common than we think we do, but we're just so we're so reactionary and we're so triggered and we're so ready to just, oh, that person doesn't agree with me. And so, you know, cut them off. And it's like, that's, that's the reason why right now I believe that we're closer to being the divided states of America than we ever have been. And we need to be the United States. So if you follow me, yes, it's very political. If you may not agree with everything, but please reach out and I'd love to have the conversation. And at the end of the day, like we can agree to disagree or we can not agree at all. And trust me when I tell you we can still exist, harm me like it's possible.

Speaker 2 (00:05:17):

Yeah, no, I love that. And that's what I love about you. You're not afraid to open the can of worms and actually have discussions because I think that's the big problem. That's why we're so divided. As people don't want to talk about it. People just, you know, get all off on following, you know, don't want to talk about it instead of having healthy discussions. So, um, I know definitely important. Yeah. We just, I just got back from a family reunion. Matter of fact. And um, our family union theme was a unity is pretty funny because, you know, in my, in my family, a lot of my extended family have a lot of different political beliefs and stuff like that. So we kind of had some burned, some bridges, but yeah, it was nice getting everyone together and you know, what you got to do.

Speaker 2 (00:05:58):

Yeah. It's important. So yeah, follow lean for that. Um, he loves, you know, talking about the hard topics too, and it's, um, getting political and love that about him. So Ian, we're going to get into a couple of things. The reason why I wanted to bring you on so bad is because I heard you speak at door to door Fest. And I know you've never, I know you haven't specifically like sold solar, obviously done a ton of door to door, but he spoke to all the solar guys at Door to Door Fest in Dallas and talked about the buyer types, which I thought is super applicable. Probably even more so in solar than I think probably any other door to door type thing. Just because solar, as you probably know, Ian, we're like, you know, meeting in homes, it's more of like a long drawn out sell than just like, you know, right at the door like you're doing in satellite and a lot of these other other industries.

Speaker 2 (00:06:48):

So I think even more so in this industry, it's important to recognize your buyer types recognize, um, what's making people tick and just be able to have that advantage. Cause that's, what's, it's coming too. People heard about soar at this point. People have been through the spill and heard the pitch and everything. So it's important to give yourself as many tools as possible. And I think recognizing the buyer types is a huge thing. So yeah. I want to talk about that a little bit, but I guess before we get into that, do you want to give us the quick rundown, I guess, of how you got into door to door and how that all started in?

Speaker 3 (00:07:24):

Um, yeah, sure. So, like I said, I, I was with dish one since 2009. I actually, I got recruited out of the freaking school gym college gym by my, by my good friend, Teagan Judd. Um, which is funny. Cause when he recruited me, it was the, like, it was the textbook recruit. It was his first year and he recruited me textbook recruit like, Hey, do I know you from somewhere? And of course I had no idea what was going on and I was completely oblivious. And so just so you guys know the textbook stuff does work like it does. And uh, anyway, you just, do I know you from somewhere? No, I don't think so. Did you do alarms? No. I never did alarms. Have you ever knocked doors? No. Well, I have an opportunity. I want to talk to you about, you know, if it doesn't, if it's not something that suits you, whatever, like no big deal, but would you mind waiting?

Speaker 3 (00:08:06):

I'm about to get off my shift and dude, that was, that was it like from then on 2009 until freaking 2020, you know? So it does work. Um, and the, you know, the, the simple things that you think don't work actually could, could make the biggest difference. The other thing too, this is kind of off topic and you're gonna, you're going to see me do this a lot. Cause I have just like a lot of you guys, I have literally the worst ADHD all time, but let me just tell you this guys. One thing that I feel like in the door industry, a lot of people forget the whole time I was there. I feel like no one really focused on the fourth quarter. And what I mean by the fourth quarter is you would be blown away if you knew how many of the, the biggest ballers in the top performers that I knew in the industry that I still know in the industry that are still there that were recruited in like April and may like or not April may, excuse me, March and April, March and April.

Speaker 3 (00:09:01):

Right? Especially April though, like I was recruited in April and all of my friends who are still in the industry that are absolute monsters on the doors were recruited in April. And it makes sense because, you know, in my case it was different. Cause I just didn't know anything. And it just happened to be the luck of the draw. But like these other guys, if you talk to them, they'll say I had, I had looked through all my other options. I've looked at different companies. I've been pitched by a bunch of different companies and I was trying to decide what to do and, and it was go time and I knew I was going to go sell. Right. But I just didn't know with who. And so guys, don't, don't like, don't discredit the idea that, that you can recruit somebody in the fourth quarter or like I said in March or even April.

Speaker 3 (00:09:45):

Um, and that they won't be one of your best reps you've ever had because they've already vetted the other companies. And they've already kind of like gotten to the point where if they jump on, if they jump in the ship with you, then they're solid. Like that's, it, they've already looked at the other ideas. They've already looked at the other options or whatever. So anyway, that's a ramp, but I just think it's super important because a lot of, I feel like a lot of people forget that and very, very few focus on recruiting in those months. Yeah. No, just from my experience, I've seen some of the best reps come out of those months.

Speaker 2 (00:10:18):

Yeah, no, I agree. A hundred percent, especially in solar because solar we're doing this year round, so we're getting recruits like Midsummer guys from pest control and all that that were selling pest control their industries.

Speaker 3 (00:10:32):

But anyway, so yeah, I got recruited. I sold for, I sold for, uh, four years just selling and um, and uh, I did really, really well. And then my fifth year I managed an office. And then after that, I just, I kinda got to a point where I realized, you know, Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm worth way more than just selling 300 accounts in a summer, which by the way back then when the ton, you know, I can teach, I can teach reps how to sell. I just, I realized that training was actually my passion in teaching because Teagan always empowered me to do correlations and train guys and things like that. And so I realized that was really my passion. And even though I was really, really good on the doors, it just, it wasn't my passion. And so I basically got to the point where I said, Hey, I'm going to figure out a way to make it so that I can do what I actually love doing and stay in the industry because this is, you know, like you guys know this is an opportunity unlike any other.

Speaker 3 (00:11:24):

And it opens a door to a life that people our age and your age dream of. And uh, and don't think it's real. Right. Anyway. So, so I did, I basically said, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to train. And um, I train the office for a little bit and then I trained a couple more offices and I, I started to realize that, Hey, this is actually, you know, we're, we're seeing some insane results with these guys. So I actually went to the, um, to the, the COO at the time for one of the, one of the owners, basically one of the, one of the Hammond brothers. And I said, it was Jeremy. I said, Hey, I want to run the training program. You know, I want to be, I want to be an executive. I want to, I want to actually build the training program and I want to roll it out.

Speaker 3 (00:12:04):

Company-wide and at the time there was nothing, there was, there was no training program. Like there was no training team or anything like that. Right. Like it was just there, just there wasn't a position for that. Yeah. And he told me, um, he told me, yeah, there's, I mean, we don't have a position like that. And so we're not going to just create it, but if you go out and prove that this works, like, it won't even be a matter of if it'll just be how and when. Right. And I said, okay, challenge accepted. So I, I took off and, uh, for that summer I traveled the nation and I trained all of Teagan's offices first and I kept a binder and I kept track of all the reps that I was training personally, on the doors I kept, I kept track of all the offices.

Speaker 3 (00:12:50):

So basically what I would do is I would say, okay, you know, I got here on this day, 30 days prior to this day, this is what the results look like for both the individuals and the office. Right. And then I would track those results. 30 days after I left. And every single time it was like double, triple, quadruple the amount of sales, the better metrics, um, for, for both individuals and for the entire office. And so I did that. And then all of a sudden, the other regionals, because Teagan was a regional at the time, um, the other regional started hearing about what was going on. And they were like, Hey, come to my office, come to my office. And so after, after, you know, a few office visits, all of a sudden now I was visiting almost every office in the company doing the exact same thing.

Speaker 3 (00:13:31):

And I'll tell you this though. Like, it didn't come without sacrifice. And I think a lot of people forget this because you know, they look at me and they're like, I'm kind of an anomaly in the door to door industry because I didn't have a network. I didn't bring on a lot of recruits, but I was able to reach executive level without doing any of that. And so it's kind of like, I feel like a lot of people look at it and they're like, oh, he just kind of like, you know, he's favored or whatever. And he just kind of out there, but they don't realize that that year that I decided to prove and add the value that I knew I needed to in order to negotiate the, the position and the, and the career that I wanted. I overdrafted my bank account seven times.

Speaker 3 (00:14:08):

Wow. And any of you that are in door to door sales right now, you know, that overdraft, if you're, if you're doing it the right way, right. If you're, if you're doing it the right way and you're not spending your money stupidly, and you're actually like, you know, doing well, then you know, that overdrafting, your bank account is like, what? That doesn't happen. Are you kidding me? Right. And, uh, I did it seven times because, because I was living, basically I had a, my car, I put almost 80,000 miles on my car that summer. And, um, I was, I was giving all the sales away because I was all I was doing was shadowing guys. That's it? Cause, cause I could knock and I could sell, but like they didn't, they didn't learn that way. So I was just shadowing guys. And so I was basically living off of like a few sales here and there.

Speaker 3 (00:14:57):

But the majority of it, I was giving the money away to the reps because I was just shadowing them the whole time. Right. But I could really, really get them to, to, to perform the way I need. I knew I needed to. Wow. Anyway, so towards the end of the summer, I, uh, so the other thing I started to do was I started to do surveys. So I would survey the leadership and the reps and I would, I created these like 10 questions. I still have the binder somewhere. I created these 10 questions surveys, and I would have an answer it based on like, whether I was knocking with them or whether I was just teaching their office or whatever, if they were a leader, if their rep, and then I could take those surveys and I slipped, I slipped them under the door to, to Jeremy and, and actually at the time to do the vice president of dish itself because we were, we were partnered with dish directly.

Speaker 3 (00:15:44):

And so we worked directly with them. So I was literally emailing them these surveys and, uh, and I just kept sending them all summer long. And finally, at the end of the summer, or towards the end of the summer, it was probably about a month. It was probably in like mid July. I want to say, um, Jeremy reached out and said, okay man, you did it come in. Nice. And, uh, he had heard from Amir, the VP of dish who, who also saw the results and wanted to talk about it and everything. And, and, uh, they invited me in and they said, create the pitch deck and tell us what you're going to do. And I did. And, um, that was it from that day on, I, I, at the time I joined the training team and I, I, uh, I created all the content.

Speaker 3 (00:16:23):

I built the program from the ground up that they were using as far as how to teach reps, how to sell, whether they're are rookie or veteran. And then that just kind of evolved over the next couple of years or few years into me running the training program itself and, you know, doing all the live trainings and things like that. Um, and then, and then when they rebranded to caliber, um, I have always been very active on social media and I've always had kind of a creative bone and they knew that. And so, um, I actually ended up taking over the marketing as well when we ran into caliber. So I had a marketing team and I ran the marketing for a couple of years as well. So I was running all the training and all the marketing for a few years for caliber. And, um, yeah, dude, like I said, that's, you know, those years or those years have given me the mindset and the abilities and the skills I believe to do what I do today. And so I'm forever grateful and that's why I have, that's why I have a soft spot for the daughter ministry and I always will.

Speaker 2 (00:17:21):

Yeah. Wow. That's cool. I didn't know that story. That's powerful. And what I love about that is you went out and took the initiative and, you know, actually they created the training training programs. Cause I know tons of guys in the industry, it's like, they're just crossing their fingers, waiting for that opportunity to go on and I don't know, train or get told, okay, you're doing good. We're going to promote you to, I don't know, be a manager or whatever, but I think the best guys and the guys that are growing the quickest are the guys like you that went out and just was like, can I run this meeting? Can I do the training? Can I do the correlation? Can I go out to this team, train them? And that's actually how I first got into like my first management position. Do I, wasn't just going to wait around for them to be like, Hey, you're doing pretty good. Do you want to like, come be an assistant manager? I mean, I had to go and be like, Hey, can I run this training? Can I actually do a training this weekend? Or can I go out with these reps? And uh, you know, leaders recognize that. And I think that's how guys are going to get promoted and we'll get into those positions.

Speaker 3 (00:18:20):

Well, I think one of the most important principles that I've ever been taught and I've ever learned in, in one that I always try to teach everybody else is what you're saying. It's like too many people try to negotiate before they add value in this world in general, not only in the door to industry, but just in general, people always try to negotiate before they add value. And that's not how it goes. You add value and then you negotiate and you add so much value that the negotiation is just easy. Right. And if you think about it, that's exactly what sales is all about. It's adding enough value so that when it comes time to close, it's just like, duh, of course. Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah. So true.

Speaker 2 (00:18:59):

Yeah. And you, I mean, I guess you're the perfect example. I mean, you were overdrafting your bank account around it around, but in tons of miles on the car and no guarantee of anything. So yeah, that's a great example of what you're doing. Um, what was like the number before it gets to the next topic? What was like the number one thing would you say in that was like helping your teams out? Was there one thing that was like helping them double ourselves and all that? Or was it just going out and shadowing or what was like the general thing that helped your team so much? You think?

Speaker 3 (00:19:29):

Um, that's a great question. As far as the correlation and like the trainings go, um, the correlations themselves, I feel like 100%, it all came down to belief and energy. Um, as much I had so much belief in so much confidence in confidence in the product that we sold, like literally ask anybody what Ian thought about dish network and they will tell you, like, he thought it was godsend. Like it was, they they'll say he thought it was the greatest product on the planet and the truth. The truth is I did because I, I learned to believe in it so strongly that literally no one could tell me that there was anything better than it. And, and that confidence in that belief, in that product gave me a power. I feel like that most people didn't have. So, and, and I was able to project that onto other reps and other managers when I was in front of them training and teaching, because they could feel that confidence themselves.

Speaker 3 (00:20:22):

Right. So they didn't have it. It was like, how do I get that? Um, and then the energy, like this is, this is, you know, this is textbook stuff for, for correlation, but it was the energy that I was able to bring every time, because I was so excited about what I was doing because I love training. And I love teaching. I, I was, I was just always so excited and it, it was never, it was never like a downer, a negative moment when I was teaching and training people. And they could feel that they could, that energy was contagious. Right. I always tell managers, your first sale of the day is when you cross the threshold of your correlation room, like correlation is your first sale of the day, your reps, or the first sale of the day for you. And if you miss that sale, I promise you the rest of your day is going to be crap.

Speaker 3 (00:21:03):

And so is there, so, you know, it's, it's the, it was the intentional correlations and the energy. I feel like that made the difference for, for the office in general. And then for the reps, um, obviously the belief in the energy was, was big thing, right. But I would say the biggest thing with, with training reps on the doors was, um, was really teaching them not only how to be efficient and how to like prospect the right way, right? Like how to, how to find the right people and how to not waste time, but also allowing them to fail in front of me and then taking the time afterwards to tell them exactly why they failed a lot of trainers out there will train a rep and they won't let a sale go like in their mind, they're like, dude, I could save this so easy and they'll just jump in and they'll save the sale.

Speaker 3 (00:21:55):

And it's my belief. It's my opinion that the rep doesn't learn nearly as much if they, as if they'd lost the sale and then you take them to the side afterwards and say, Hey, do you know why you lost that sale? Well, no, not really. Or they might even say, yeah, I think it's this. And it's like, that is such a good teaching opportunity to say X, Y, and Z are the reasons why that sale was lost. And if we would have just done this, this and this, we would have saved that sale. And what's interesting to me is the reps always say, well, why didn't you save a sale dude? And it's like, because then what would you have learned? Right? Like, would you really learn anything from that? And maybe, but most of the time they're like, well, no, because when you get to a point where I was, especially if I'm, especially, if it's like a rookie that shadowing me, I mean to them and it's like, you know, it, it just looks easy, right?

Speaker 3 (00:22:47):

To them. It doesn't make sense at all. And to them, I can't tell you how many times I would always get people to say, Ian, how come you get all the lay downs? Right. Why, why is it that you get, why is it that all the lay downs that you get all the lay downs in the area? And it's like, what are you talking about? Well, I haven't, I haven't gotten anybody. That's, that's been that easy in my area and I'll be like, okay, let's go knock somewhere else. And then same exact thing, more lay downs. Right. Then I always told them the same thing. There's no such thing as a lay down, you create a lay down by, by doing it the right way and adding enough value. Right. That's so powerful. Um, so yeah, that's, I feel like that was the biggest thing was just giving them an actual learning experience by allowing them to fail and see that failure. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:23:29):

Awesome. So many, so many nuggets in there and yeah, but I love that belief in energy. I mean, that's super powerful. I was actually just listening to a training this morning. It's dude's name Alex or Mossi. I don't know if you've heard of them, but he does. He does consulting for gym companies. He has a hundred million dollar company and someone asked him, what's like the number one secret and training your reps. He said the exact same thing. He was just the belief and energy is as, is his new reps, outsells, experienced ones all the time, because they have more belief and energy in the product in the beginning. So, yeah, I think that's a huge secret and guys forget about after remind myself all the time, because I've been out here doing solar for five years, but we get new guys all the time that just came from alarms or something.

Speaker 2 (00:24:13):

And they're like super stoked about solar. Like no way we're saving people money. We don't have to charge them anything extra than what they're paying already. And they're so excited about it. They go out and hustle eight hours a day. And um, some of these guys come out and sell circles around me just because I forget how good of a product we have in solar. Um, oops. Yep. Um, so yeah, I think that's super important. And then, I mean, a lot of other stuff you mentioned there, but just being efficient and um, yeah. I mean the leaders, I think that's a big problem though. Just in general is so many like door to door leaders are just focused on, um, you know, like the money and like you were saying, just them making money, not going out and shadowing reps. So is that something that you're big on too, is just training your leaders to actually go out and like shadow the reps and things like that? No,

Speaker 3 (00:24:59):

No, because here's the thing too. I don't, I'm not about giving sales away either. I mean, that's the point, right? Like when I say, when I like, I don't, I don't just give sales away either because then they don't learn anything either. Right? Like that, it's the same exact thing. If I'm just giving sales away, then all that's doing is teaching them to be, you know? Yeah. I don't know. It's just, I'm not about that. I'm not about like people getting anything for nothing, right. For not putting any effort in, so no, not that's not at all what I'm saying, but, and, and those leaders when they're, when they're training and when they're selling day shift, for sure take the sales that they make. Right. No question about it. But all I'm saying is that there's power to shadowing the rep and allowing them to fail and not saving the sale.

Speaker 3 (00:25:44):

And then using that opportunity to actually teach them why and what they could have done differently. What we always did at caliber was we did a three, a three tier or a three-step system, I guess, is when we took a rep on the doors. We shadowed them or, sorry, we knocked and we got a sale and then we shadowed them and we help them get a sale. And then we shadow them and we don't say anything and they get the sale on their own. I like that. Oh, if the sale help get the sale and then they get the sale by themselves. Right. And that was kind of the, and obviously it's never perfect and it never works out perfectly and there's different situations and things like that. But like that was the ideal situation. Um, but no, I don't think you should give sales away ever. I think the rep should always have to work for that sale. Um, but it's finding that fine finding that balance right. Of you're a leader. And so you make more money than they do, so allow them to have that opportunity, but don't just give it to them, you know? Right. Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:26:45):

No, yeah. I love that. Super powerful. Um, yeah. And I think that's missing in a lot of organizations is just actually going on shadow. Cause I know when I started, I never really had the opportunity is more just them letting me shadow, you know, the leader, the manager, seeing them get herself and then just kind of off on my own. So I think that's something that's forgotten is actually the leader actually going out and shadowing and letting them struggle through SL because yeah, that's another thing that I don't think I've ever really experienced is anytime I've been shadowed, it's usually by people that want to jump in and save cells. So I don't even think about that, letting them experience the failure. And then, um, yeah, I think recording is a big thing to recording the guys and just kind of doing a play by play with them, see what, see what goes wrong.

Speaker 2 (00:27:29):

So yeah. Good stuff in there, Ian. Um, so yeah. I want to shift gears a little bit, talk about some of these buyer types. And I know that's like a, probably a four hour training you could give, so we're not going to go like super in depth on it, but I did want to, you know, touch on at least a few of them and hear kind of why you thought that was important. So I guess, first of all, why did you decide to give that training yet add or Fest and what's what, how did you, I guess, come across all this and think it's so important?

Speaker 3 (00:27:58):

So I think the reason why I did is because I, I think that the single most important thing that someone can learn being a door-to-door salesman is how to relate to every type of person. Because it's not about the product. It's not about the pitch. It's not about the service. It's literally about how you interact with customers, the best salesman, the reason why they're the best is because, I mean, I, I always say this when I do this training, but I always say, what does it really mean to be talented? And I'll get, I'll get a bunch of answers. Always get people to say, oh, it means that you can, you know, you can prospect, right? Or you're, you're very good with your clothes or, you know, whatever. But very few people ever say the, the most talented reps are the ones that can sell everyone, anything anywhere.

Speaker 3 (00:28:43):

And that's true. Talent to me, true talent is you can sell anyone, anything anywhere, right? No matter what the area is, no matter what the state is, no matter what the product is, no matter who it is, you're talking to, you can sell them lights out. Right? And, and what that comes down to is knowing who the person is that you're talking to because every single person has a certain way. They want to be pitched. They want to be, you know, every person wants to be, they want their handshake shook differently. They want to be presented to differently. They want to be closed differently. Every person has a certain behavior style. And when you learn to adapt your behavior style, your selling style to their buying style. Now you have the, you literally have the perfect, um, the perfect marriage when it comes to, to, to, uh, a customer client or, uh, sorry, a customer, um, sales and relationship.

Speaker 3 (00:29:41):

And the, you know, we always talk about how we, we teach our reps, how to mirror customers. Well, cool. But like if I'm teaching my rep to mirror a customer and that customer isn't that type of person, like for example, let's say the customer he's talking to is a much more aggressive person, right? Just by nearing that person, it doesn't mean that they're going to actually get to them. It doesn't mean that they're actually selling them the way that this person likes to buy. It just means that they're like creating a little bit more comfortability, but people don't buy based off comfort. They buy based off trust and people trust those who they feel like actually care about them and actually have their best interest in mind. And the best way to show somebody that you have their best interest in mind, and that you actually care about them as a person.

Speaker 3 (00:30:29):

And you actually want to put them in a better situation than you than they were in before they got you got there is by treating them the way they want to be treated, selling them the way they want to buy. And every person has a different, a different way. And I think a lot of salesmen forget that the fact that sales is, is it's all about people. It's not about the product. It's not about the sales process. It's not about the pitch. Those things are important, but if you don't know how to actually talk to people, then you will never be able to sell. I don't care who you are. You have to understand how to communicate and how to talk to people. But not just like we always talk about, oh, communication skills and persuasion and things like that. It's, it's not just that. It's, it's literally understanding how to adapt your personality to the person you're talking to so that they can relate to you on a much, much higher and much deeper level. That's what personality selling is all about. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:31:25):

I totally agree. And, um, I think that's one of the reasons I liked your training so much is because, um, in the past I've just been like, okay, well I know I'm not good at selling engineers. I'm not, I know I'm not good at selling, uh, super rich people. So I'm just going to avoid those people at all costs. And I think a lot of guys get in that mindset, but then when I heard your training, I was reminded. I'm like, okay, even though that's not like my ideal person that I like to sell to, I mean, I need to get good at selling all these people. And that's, what's going to take me to the next level. I think a lot of people forget that I was just trying to double down so much on the guys I am selling to, which is great. But like, I mean, I think everyone agrees. How about you should talk to your neighbors when they're getting their solar installed? What if their neighbors and engineer, I mean, you gotta be able to sell all these different types. Well, so

Speaker 3 (00:32:11):

I would actually, I would actually disagree with that. I'll actually, so what you said when I teach reps, how to sell person, how to do personality selling, I actually teach them exactly the opposite that you just said, if they're a rookie or if they feel like they don't have their buyer type nailed down. So let's say, so there's four main buyer types, right? There's aggressive, there's social, there's analytical and there's thoughtful. Okay. Now no person is like exactly type. They might be a hybrid of two, or they might be a few different ones. Most people though have one dominant type. Right? And so when you're selling somebody, you're focusing on, like, when you, when you pitch somebody you're focusing on their dominant personality, because if you can pitch their dominant personality, then you'll be able to get past their sales wall. Their true sales wall is really just getting past that dominant personality is getting somebody to feel like, okay, this guy actually is like different than any other salesman I've ever met.

Speaker 3 (00:33:07):

And he's, I can relate to this guy because he's basically me. Right? And, and it's just like, if you walk into a best buy and you want to buy a TV and all you want to know is what is the bottom line? What's the price. And why is this CD better than all the other ones? If that rep walks up to you and starts talking about how your day has been and you know, do you have a dog and, and, oh, what's your dog's name? And, oh, Hey, by the way, we have this new TV that does this and this and this, like, you're not going to buy from them. You're going to walk away because they didn't sell you the way you wanted to buy. But if that rep knew that all you wanted to know was the bottom line and you wanted to know which TV was the best and why.

Speaker 3 (00:33:43):

And all he did was walk up and say, Hey man, how's it going? How's your day going? Cool. So check it out. Um, I'm assuming you probably just want to know exactly which TV is the best and like, why it's the best. Right. Well, let me take you over here and let me give you exactly what I think is going to be best for you. And then I'll tell you the price and then you can make a decision. Oh, boom. All of a sudden, now he's selling you exactly how you want to buy. There's no BS, it's straight bottom line. Right. You're going to be much more likely to buy from that guy. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, so again, it comes down to understanding those types and, and realizing that each of them want to want to be sold a different way. Um, before I got to remind me where we were before.

Speaker 2 (00:34:31):

Yeah. I was just, I was just saying, you know, like, I think it's important for guys to be able to like, you know, learn all different types. So you're saying your disputes. So you're saying you agree with being able to sell, sell to all different types? Or what

Speaker 3 (00:34:44):

Do you mean by that? No. So what I'm saying is when I teach reps, the reason why I just said all that is because the reason when I teach reps, how to do personality selling, if they're a rookie or if they're a veteran, but they haven't quite nailed down their buyer types. So let's say, let's say this guy, just his buyer type a hundred percent is the aggressive buyer, but he's still losing sales when he talks to aggressive buyers. Okay. I'm not going to tell that guy, Hey, learn how to sell this type and this type and this type and this type until he gets to the point where it's like clockwork, he hits an aggressive buyer, boom sold every single time or 90% of the time, 95% of the time. Right? So, same thing with rookies. I'm not going to teach a rookie how to sell four different types of people.

Speaker 3 (00:35:28):

I'm going to find out based on what that rookie seller type is like, what, how they like to sell. That's going to tell me what their buyer type is. And then I'm going to teach them exactly how to sell that buyer type so that they can crush it every single time. And then once that rookie is selling that type every single time. And once that veteran is knocking down those types every single time, then it's like, okay, now let's go to the type. That's most like that type. And now all you have to do is a few different things. And now you're adding two buyers to your arsenal. And then eventually when you get past those two, it's like, okay, now we're going to go to this one and you have to understand that you have to do this and this and this and this.

Speaker 3 (00:36:06):

And now all of a sudden there's three buyers to the arsenal. Right? Okay. And, and the reason why I always tell people again, to go back and answer the question of why did I decide to train on that at knock star? It's because I believe that that is the difference between talent and hard work. Everybody always says, artwork, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but they forget that the second part to that is hard work, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but when talent works hard, it's game over. Because if you can find somebody that knows how to sell every single type of person they ever meet, and they work really, really hard, I promise you that person is going to run circles around any salesman that ever comes across that ever comes. Right. Okay. But the problem is, at least I haven't seen it yet.

Speaker 3 (00:36:54):

I haven't seen a rep that has that much talent, that doesn't only rely on the talent and get complacent and not work as hard, which is why you always hear the top performers. The number one rep say, Hey, I'm not that talented. I just work really hard. I work harder than everybody else. Well, why? Because most of the time that rep is only going to be selling one or two types of people. And so they have to work harder than the talented rep. Not, not saying that the, the number one rep is not talented. They're both talented, but there's a very big gap in talent. If one can only sell one or two types of people and they have to search for those one or two types of people all day, every day, and one can sell every type of person and they don't really have to search.

Speaker 3 (00:37:35):

And they, those are the guys that go out and knock one street and sell six or seven accounts or whatever. And everybody's like, how the freak did you do that? And it's like, well, I know how to sell everyone. And so where you have to sell five streets to find the six types of people that you know, how to sell, or the six people that are the type that you know how to sell. I mean, I just have to knock one street and I can sell six people that are totally different types. Hmm. Does that make

Speaker 2 (00:38:01):

Sense? Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Let me ask you this. Well, yeah, in this year still going, but I was just going to ask,

Speaker 3 (00:38:08):

I was just going to say, I think, I think the reason why I decided to teach this all the time is because I think it's literally the key to unlocking like the absolute best in a, in a door to door salesman. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I would agree with that.

Speaker 2 (00:38:23):

Um, I was going to ask you, would you say, um, like for the sales reps, you train, would you say their buying type matches up with their selling type? Like the type of buyer there is that always the type of that they like to sell to

Speaker 3 (00:38:36):

Every single time. So for example, what kind of, I'll just do you, for example, what kind of person do you feel most comfortable selling?

Speaker 2 (00:38:46):

Um, I would say the people that like to talk a lot that let me build rapport with them. Okay.

Speaker 3 (00:38:54):

You like the social buyers more, right? Yeah. So social buyers. Okay. They are, they are extremely talkative, right? Sometimes they'll appear to have they'll look like they have like add, right? They like to gossip. They like to talk a ton. They like to be complimented. Their greatest need in life is social acceptance. And their greatest fear is being rejected. Right. They dress, they dress like fancy or they wear bright clothes. They care a lot about their outward appearance. Right. So now I don't know you super well tailored, but I, and the other thing too is I'll, let's just talk about facial features. A facial feature for a social buyer is they have puffy cheeks, like round puffy cheeks. That, that basically signify. They laugh a lot. Right? Laugh lines from the nose to their mouth. Okay. Around her face. Okay. Now I'm looking at you right now and you have those features.

Speaker 3 (00:39:51):

You have the puffy cheeks right now. You're smiling and you have the line through your nose, through your mouth. You have a rounder face. Okay. You probably care what people think about you and that's okay. You probably care what you're wearing and how you look and how you appear. You obviously like to talk a lot. And you're very social because you're running a podcast and, and I guarantee you without even knowing you, I can tell you right now that one of your greatest fears is probably being rejected. Now, maybe because it's door to door sales, you've kind of like, you know, you kind of taught yourself to not be so afraid of that, but I promise you before the doors, that was probably one of your biggest, like, you probably took a long time to sign on because you were so afraid of, of rejection and of, of getting into a place where it was like impossible.

Speaker 3 (00:40:38):

Right? The other thing too is your greatest need is to be socially accepted. So I can tell that right now you have the golden door behind you right now, right? The golden door. Okay. You have the golden door award behind you on your podcast because you want people to see what you've accomplished because you care about that social recognition. Right? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I don't know you very well, but I just sized you up in what, 30 seconds. So, because of that, I would know as your manager or as your trainer, that the best place to put you as somewhere where there's a lot of people, just like you, because you'll sell them much easier than you would sell someone say that cares more about data and numbers and is very monotone and doesn't want to talk. And doesn't like to be happy and always seems like a freaking judge in a courtroom. Right? Someone very rich, someone, very skeptical. That's probably one of your hardest sales ever because that's the opposite of your personality. Yeah, no doubt. And,

Speaker 2 (00:41:33):

Um, I don't know. I might be like a hybrid too, because I don't know if you remember this, but at a door knock star, you called me up. And I was dressed like basically in sweats and

Speaker 3 (00:41:42):

Just like thoughtful,

Speaker 2 (00:41:45):

Like thoughtful. And, uh, Ian calls me out. He's like, all right, this guy, a hundred percent is thoughtful. Look, because look what he's dressed in at Justin, like this baggy shirt, like some sweat dance and everything. I'm like, dang, maybe I should have showed up to the podcast and like a tux or something. So I can't read

Speaker 3 (00:42:02):

That's okay though, because again, the thing about salesmen too, is it's kind of hard to size up salesmen as much as it is, as it is to size up just regular individuals. Because as a salesman, you kind of have to become a hybrid of everything anyway. Right. Just naturally. Um, but I would for sure, say like, you're, you're going to be a social thoughtful hybrid for sure. Yeah. So the question is when you get into a group of people, like, let's say, you don't know anybody in a room and you walk into the room, are you the type of person that's going to go strike up a conversation and be, and be the life of the party? Or are you the type of person that's going to kind of wait until somebody comes to you? And then once they, once they get to meet you, that's when the life of the party comes out. And like that's when the energetic Taylor comes out. Which, which one of those is more of

Speaker 2 (00:42:49):

What would happen? Um, I mean, I would say a combination because I don't like to be the guy that, again, like the recognition part, I know that if I'm like sitting at a party by myself, just like standing there awkward, then I'm going to be like recognized, oh, what's this guy. Like, it doesn't like talking to people or whatever. So it's all, it's not that I like have a huge desire to go talk to people, but I don't want to be recognized as someone that's just like a loner standing there. So all like forced myself to go like initiate something, just so I'm not recognized as like, you know, the guy that doesn't want to go talk to people and present himself. So I don't know if that would be like a hybrid or,

Speaker 3 (00:43:23):

Yeah. So let me ask you one more, let me ask you another question. We'll try to dig down. So would you say that your greatest need is social recognition or your greatest need is guarantees? Which one of those would you say is the greatest need for you in life? Um,

Speaker 2 (00:43:41):

I would say guarantees, I think

Speaker 3 (00:43:44):

So you'd rather have a guarantee than be liked.

Speaker 2 (00:43:49):

Um, I don't know. Like, are we talking to my guarantee of success guarantee and money guarantee of happiness, stuff like that,

Speaker 3 (00:43:56):

Or, or even let's put it this way. Do you care more about your own personal success or do you care more about the success of those around you?

Speaker 2 (00:44:05):

Um, I think I would say it's success of those around me. Um, okay,

Speaker 3 (00:44:11):

So you, so you, so I might've nailed it at door to door, honestly, dude, you might be the thoughtful slash um, social rather than the social slash thoughtful. And the only reason I'm saying that, because I'm facing you right now and I can see your facial features and those are more on the social side. Right. Okay. But the fact that you want others to succeed and the, that you care more about guarantees and the fact that you, you would go talk to people, but you wouldn't be like super energetic about it and stuff. And just kind of more doing it because you like have to, and you are more of the thoughtful person first and the social person is the in dominant. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:44:47):

I would agree with that because I was always super shy growing up as like the shyest kid in school type thing for a long time. And then, but I was sick of being like recognized that way. So I would again like force myself to try to not be shy, to try to like go out and talk to people just because I was sick of being like, oh, Hey, this is Taylor. He doesn't talk very much. So that's how I got presented, like by my own parents and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (00:45:12):

And that's a perfect hybrid because you can see like, you didn't like being, you didn't like them saying that about you because you didn't want people to think badly about you, you, you cared about what people thought about you, right? Yeah. And, and so all of that kind of just grows into the same thing. And, and again, you know, at Knox star, I called you out and I said, Hey, you're thoughtful right away. Right. Because of the way you're addressing, because of the way you're carrying yourself. And I believe you put your hands in your pocket. When I told you we were going to write that things like here, here, we're conversing and we're being social and I see your facial features. And so now I'm seeing the social side of you. So, so it's different. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So, so you kind of have to, you kind of have to just know those personalities, but realize that people are going to be a hybrid.

Speaker 3 (00:45:53):

And you're a perfect example of it. But knowing that I would know to put you in places where you're going to find people who are social or people who are thoughtful, and I'm not going to put you in places that are just like crazy aggressive and very skeptical. And like data driven will fall flat on your face. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So now think about how powerful that is for a manager. Let's say. And I, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened. That I'll go to an office and the manager will say, dude, this guy, he is the most outgoing, like super confident. He knows how to talk. He knows the pitch. He knows the product, but he keeps on battling or he goes out and he only gets a couple sales and it doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 3 (00:46:36):

And then I have this guy and, and, and he should also be selling a ton as well, but he's not doing very well or whatever. Right. And my first question is always, okay, where are you putting the guy that's super outgoing and confident and social and, and should be selling a lot. Where are you putting him? And I'm telling you, I cannot tell you how many times this has happened, where they're like, yeah, he's in this neighborhood. And it's like a retirement community or where people are constantly going to be thoughtful and analytical, right. Because they're skeptical and they care about their community and they want guarantees and they hate change. And it's like, of course, that guy's going to suck there. He doesn't know how to sell those types of people. So then it's like, okay, put him where that other guy was, put them in the city where people are more aggressive and social. And every single time that rep comes back and all of a sudden he's selling 5, 6, 7, consistently every single. And then all of a sudden he's reaching his potential simply because he's selling the people that he knows how to sell. Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:47:36):

Yeah. That's awesome. That's crazy. Yeah. This stuff makes you, like, I dunno, you could almost be a psychologist. Well, with all this stuff, Ian saying these things and I'm like, dang, this, guy's like, tell him my life story. Some of these things he's able to identify. I think it's a super power, but yeah, that's actually kind of what I was going to ask you next is like, say you're a manager, you know, these things, you know, you need to put this sells wrap in like a social area. How do you recognize in these areas? It was like for you as it just kind of like city?

Speaker 3 (00:48:05):

No, no, not at all. So think about it this way. Right? So prospecting a lot of people, especially everyone in the door industry, I feel like, think that prospecting comes down to, you know, oh, uh, signs of life, like, oh, the doors open or the mailbox or, or the, the freaking oil marks on the thing or whatever. Right. We're just looking for signs of life. And that's all the prospecting is that couldn't be farther from the truth. Real prospecting comes down to prospecting based on the people. So for example, if I know that I know how to sell really aggressive people, if that's my buyer type, when I get to my area, the first thing I'm looking for is a signs of an aggressive buyer. So what are signs of an aggressive buyer? Well, aggressive people are very, um, confident, right? Their greatest fear is, is, uh, is, is losing control.

Speaker 3 (00:48:57):

And their greatest need is being in control, right? Is meaning control and always like being right. That's their, that's their greatest need. Right? They're also the type of people that don't want any BS. They're the type of person that, like I said before, where you walk into the TV store and this is that type of person they want the bottom line. That's all they want is the bottom line. All they care about is here's my problem. Here's the solution. Why does it make sense? Why is it the best? Why is it the best solution? And what's going to make it so that I'm not wrong about what I'm doing. Right. And so that I can control that situation. So those types of people are usually very, um, very like outspoken and loud, right? They're going to wear solid colors. They're going to look and walk.

Speaker 3 (00:49:43):

Like, they're very confident. So you have, you know, military people, you have athletes, you have, um, uh, you know, just like if I'm walking on the street and I see a huge lifted truck that has, uh, uh, a freaking American flag on the back and like a bunch of stickers about guns, chances are that person's probably pretty aggressive period. Right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. If I am, I'm an aggressive person. You came to my house, you would be finding an aggressive person. I am a hundred percent aggressive. Right. So then let's say I'm walking on the same street. And I see, you know, a bunch of, a bunch of sports memorabilia and a bunch of, a bunch of stuff like that in the garage and a motorcycle. And then on the door, there's a sign says, solicitors will be shot or there's like an aggressive, no soliciting sign.

Speaker 3 (00:50:31):

The chances are that person's also probably pretty aggressive, right? Yeah. But let's say I'm walking down that same street. And instead, now I see a really, really nice Escalade and their house is super nice. And there's like, like really cool or really like pretty flowers all over the place. And it just looks like it's meant to stand out and how, you know, whoever lives there, once everyone that drives down that road to say, see that house and be like, whoa, chances are, that's probably a really social person because they care a lot about recognition. Right. Okay. See what I'm saying? So you can prospect based on, based on just the outward appearances of houses, but the other thing about that is understanding personalities and understanding what kind of environments those personalities live in. So for example, cities, why is it that a lot of people struggle to sell in cities?

Speaker 3 (00:51:25):

Well, because cities are full of people that are super fast. Like their, their lives are fast paced. They don't want any BS. They don't want to bother with anybody. If they're gonna make decisions, they're probably gonna make it themselves. Right. They're the kind of people that don't want to just sit around and talk and small talk and be friendly. Right. There's also a lot of people that are very analytical in cities, right. They have a lot of, you know, whatever. So what does that tell me if I have a rep that sucks at selling aggressive people and it's the type of rep that is very much more inclined to selling people that are going to sit down on their porch and offer them a lemonade. Right. And talk about Joe, Bob down the street and, and like talk about their family and, and just, you know, they want to know about the features and they want to, they want to have a friendly conversation.

Speaker 3 (00:52:13):

There's no way in this world or the next that I'm going to put that rep in the city. Right. I'm going to take my, yeah. I'm going to take my freaking soldiers of reps, the ones that are super aggressive, very fast, very smart. Very, to the point they don't want to BS. They don't want to waste time with everybody. I'm going to put them in the city. Right. Gotcha. Okay. So, so city aggressive, analytical, right? Um, also social you'll find a lot of social people there too. But when you put people in like smaller towns, what do you think you're finding in smaller towns? Mostly social, right. Thoughtful. Yeah. Every rep likes to sell in small towns because you're meeting tons of people that are just happy and like very slow paced. And, you know, they like to give referrals because they're friends with everybody, right. People in the city, most people in the city don't even know their neighbor. True. Because again, they're just aggressive. They just, the type of people that don't care. They don't like just get to the point of life in general. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:53:14):

I see. Now, um, yeah. What about like, cause there's lots of companies that might listen to this that have huge teams, like they're just sending out armies of reps too. I mean, they're not spending the time to go through all this and recognize, you know, their selves rep buying type, selling type, all these things. So what do you say to those teams, like say a team of like 70 reps and I mean, they, don't got time to recognize all these things and give out specific areas. So, um, I don't know. Is there anything you suggest?

Speaker 3 (00:53:43):

Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great question. So, so I mean, obviously this that's a perfect scenario where you can put your, you know, you can put your, your reps that are this type in that perfect area and you know, that's not always going to happen. So what I would, what I would say is anytime I would go out to an office to train them, the first thing I would try to realize with a big office is, or I would try to figure out is what are they running into the most? Right. So I'll give you a perfect example. One office that I trained, um, this is years and years back. And they actually ended up being the number one office. What I realized was the people they were selling, um, in this state were very, very, um, thoughtful because their biggest concern, as I listened to their reps and their managers, I'm like, what is it?

Speaker 3 (00:54:28):

You guys are running into like, why are you having so much? Why are you struggling so much? Will do everybody just wants to think about it. Everyone wants to think about it. They all want cards that nobody wants to make a decision. Well, what does that tell me? That tells me that they're selling nothing but thoughtful people because thoughtful people hate change. Right. And they want guarantee and consistency. So those are the type of people that are always going to say, I want to think about it, right. Or I want more time or whatever. So what did I do? That's the situation where you have to say, okay, you have 50 reps. And every single one of them is probably a different type of, of, of seller, but we're going to teach every single one of you, how to be a thoughtful seller. Okay. So, so when everybody comes to me and says, Hey, you know, I hate it. When people make the excuse of bad area, there is no such thing as bad area area. There's just a such thing as different area. Yeah. There's no bad area. It's just different. The people are different. The pace is different. The way you need to sell them is different. Everything is different. Right. Um, but that's, again why I said at the very beginning of this, that I believe that truly talented reps are the ones that know how to sell anyone, anything, anywhere. And that all comes down to the fact that they just know people. Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:55:41):

A hundred percent. So yeah. For our Solarpreneurs listening, I think that's a great point. The reason I asked that Ian is because, I mean, our, our company just merged with another team. So we're sitting at like 50 reps right now. And I know our team's not taking the time out and recognize these things. So yeah. I like that answer. I mean, for people listening, if you are getting a specific objection, go out and train on that. Recognize these buyer types. Yeah. Anything else you want to say to that?

Speaker 3 (00:56:07):

Well, I would just say, but at the same time, if you have, you know, if your team of 50, you have four or five guys that are just absolute monsters on the doors and you want to put them in the best situation possible, we'll then focus on putting them in the best situation possible. Okay. Does that make sense? Because with a rookie you can whitewash them to learn how to sell whoever you need to teach them how to sell. If you bring in 20 brand new reps and they don't even know how to sell period. Well, it's easier to teach a puppy how to be a different [inaudible], you know, it's easy to teach to a calm puppy to be more aggressive or aggressive puppy, to be more calm at the very beginning. Right. But if you have veteran reps that are just absolute monsters and it's because they sell a certain type of way, put them where they're going to be the most successful and focus on getting them in the best situation possible and then teach all the other guys how to sell where they are. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. I love that.

Speaker 2 (00:56:58):

It makes sense. So yeah. Huge key there. And yeah, I'm going to take that back to my team because I'm definitely, we're not doing that on our teams right now, thinking that's a great solution. Um, so yeah, I know we're running short on time here, Ian, we barely scratched the surface and all these things. So I know for guys that haven't really heard much about these buying types. Definitely go look more into it. Do you have any books or where did you first hear about all these buying types and things seen?

Speaker 3 (00:57:23):

So, um, the F the number one book I would suggest is called navigate 2.0, it's literally exactly what, what I'm teaching, but this book was geared more towards like phone sales and business to business sales. So basically Fridays, I just took all the parents apples out of that book, and I made it, I tailored it to, to door to door. Okay. Um, and, uh, and so that would, that's where I would start. And then there's, there's tons of other books that you can get out there, tons of other programs and things. You've just got to kind of dive into Google and look for that stuff. Um, yeah, but I would also say what you said about psychology. Like a lot of this has to do with psychology. I actually read a lot of books on psychology, understanding how people's brains work and how their minds work and, you know, what makes them tick and what, what they want and how to give it to them. Like that's sales is the study of people. And if you're not studying people, you are missing the boat. And I promise you, you're not being nearly as effective as you could be. Yes. I agree

Speaker 2 (00:58:20):

For sure. For sure. So yeah, guys, go dive more into that super important. And like Ian said, you're not going to get it all at one time, but first of all, I think most important recognize what type of, um, you know, buyer you are, um, figure out how you can get in touch with morals, people, and then take it one step at a time. I mean, I'm still just barely figuring out what type of buyer I am. So been doing this five years. So I think a lot of people, it's probably the first time they're hearing about all these things. So go check out the book. I know you had some slides in, um, I don't know if you stopped those slides, but maybe people might hit you up if they want to see you, like, you know, a few of these slides. So

Speaker 3 (00:58:56):

The slide I do have the slides and I, I basically, I turned them into a course. So I do have courses available if they want to, um, buy the course. And then I also do consulting, like I said, I do consulting for individuals and for, for, um, offices or companies or whatever. So if you guys want to do that, just hit me up and I'll tell you, I'll tell you what we're looking at, based on whatever your needs are. Um, and then, you know, we can, we can, we can dive into for sure.

Speaker 2 (00:59:21):

Awesome. Cool. Well, listen, this, this one of these podcasts listened to on repeat and then go, you know, taking the information. Don't apply it all at one time, but figure it out one step at a time, the buyer buying types, and it's already been helping me. So we appreciate you being all the fire you've dropped for audience and wisdom that you've shared with us. So before we let you go in, I know we've, uh, you know, dropped you a couple of times, but social media is Instagram best place to find your where's the best place.

Speaker 3 (00:59:49):

Yeah. Instagram's where I'm the most active. So it's, I it's, I Winster, I w E N D T S T E R. Um, you're going to have to type in my full name cause I'm crazy shadow banned right now. So it'll probably pop up my backup account, which is, I went straight to, that's not my account. It's, it's just, I went to her, I w E N D T S T E R. Um, that's my Instagram. And then my company, Instagram is official Patriot gear, the official Patriot gear, excuse me, our website is official Patriot gear.com. Um, and then yeah, if you want to do any kind of consulting or anything like that, just, just hit me up, um, DME and, uh, and we can talk about it. You know, first I want to find out what it is you actually need. And based on those needs, we'll figure out what we, what we need to do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):

Perfect. Love it. So reach out to Ian, if anything, let him know you appreciated the wisdom he dropped with us today. And, uh, before we let you go in, do you have any, I don't know, final words of wisdom or final advice that you would share with, uh, sore reps in specific, or I guess, I mean, door to door, any last tips?

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):

I would just say, yeah, I'll leave you with one last thing. Okay. Um, any of you guys that are out there that are feeling like, you know, I know that it's common to feel like, Hey, I'm never going to be as good as that guy, or I'm never going to get to the top or whatever. You know, I know a lot of reps struggle with having that feeling. I'll just tell you this. If you played sports in school, you know, let's say, let's say you played football, right? When you first started playing football as a freshmen, did it ever cross your mind that, oh, I'll never make varsity. Probably not. It was probably more like I'm going to make varsity. And in order to make varsity, I need to figure this and this and this out. And I need to pay my dues over the next three years or two years or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):

Right? Yeah. I think there's a common misconception in sales that sales is any different than any other skill that you can develop and that you just won't ever reach a certain point. And that's just not true. The fact is you just have to work. If you feel like learning to sell is harder for you than other people. All that means is that you have to work harder than the guys that are working hard. It just means you have to put more into it, but it doesn't mean you can't be great. You can be, you just need to actually put the effort in and, and, and do any like, just like anything else. If you're going to learn how to play the guitar, you need to have the bloody callouses on your fingers to be able to play the guitar really, really well. It's no different in sales.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):

So when everybody else is partying or hanging out or whatever, you should be studying and diving in and learning and constantly making this, just everything you focus on, because I promise you that if you're just starting out here, if you only knew what actually lies behind the door, that you have the ability to open in the door to door industry metaphorically or whatever, like you would never stop pushing for that. For that goal, you would never stop pushing to open that door ever because it's, it's a life that people dream about. It's, it's, it's freedom and opportunity that most people will never have in their life. And if you only knew what that really was, you would never make an excuse of, oh, I can't do this. Or, ah, I'll just, I'll just slack off today. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):

A hundred percent and yeah. Um, I mean, yeah, just to finish up here, it's like, guys think they can get in this and we're making doctor's money without, uh, without a degree. Right. So why should we not to work hard? I mean, to make this amount of money, a lot of guys come in thinking it's easy, but to that point, yeah, you gotta push, you gotta push super hard, harder than you'd think. Especially the guys that struggle coming out. So love that. And so with that said, we'll wrap it up here in, um, but guys remember hit Ian up, let them know you're appreciated that sod shared. And thanks again for coming on the podcast podcast with us today. I know you're super busy, but we'll be in touch and appreciate everything you shared again. No problem. Thanks Taylor. Talk soon.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):

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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.