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. 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 what's up Solopreneurs Taylor

Speaker 2 (00:44):

Armstrong, back on the mic here to help you sling some more solar close, some more deals and be the top rep in the solar industry. Maybe second top rep. Cause I'm the top kidding. I'm not the top, but I am very good. So today we are going to dive into an episode. I just got back from a little company retreat up to big bear, California. All my Southern Californians probably know that's the mountain town of California. It's where people go skiing and hanging out. It's really cool about where we are at in San Diego. You can literally drive 20, 30 minutes to the beach and then you can drive like an hour, an hour and a half to the mountains. So great location. If you want to have that advantage, come out and sell some solar San Diego Southern California hit me up. If you're looking for an opportunity, great market out here, and it is expensive, but if you're selling solar, doesn't matter, you're going to be closing deals.

Speaker 2 (01:47):

You're going to be making top bucks in this great industry. Um, so go back with a great trip. Did some helicopter writing spent some time with our team? Um, so that's the first thing I wanted to see. If you are not doing team building activities, you're missing a huge opportunity to build and strengthen your team. If you miss the, one of the single biggest things you can do is just, um, get to know your team, spend time with them. It's going to help that you don't lose guys. And I've seen guys, um, you know, stay at companies that are paying way less than other company, just because they're doing these things. They're building culture, they're building up their reps and they're billing that good comradery, not to say that you shouldn't get paid, what you're worth, but that's why the culture is so important. And, um, hopefully you listened to Sam Taggart's previous episode, where we talked about culture and things you can do to build the culture in your company.

Speaker 2 (02:45):

So just a little side, tangent plan trips in your company, hire someone to help you do those things. Right now, we have, um, awesome Jeanette in our company. She's awesome. She helps us plan, things like that, and just kind of helps us be way more organized. So get someone like that. That's helping you do kind of little secretarial things, plan trips, plan events, and get your team hyped. That's what it's all about. Okay. So today I'm going to talk about just a few things that helped me last week. He closed three deals on the week, so decent week. Um, and before I get into that, I will say I'm getting over a little cold. So hopefully I don't sound too much like Squidward right now. I've got a stuffy nose, but doesn't matter going to get out, going to sell some more salt, we're going to close more deals.

Speaker 2 (03:34):

So here's what helped last week. And this is something that not a lot of people are doing came because it's kind of is annoying to do sometimes. And I'd be surprised. Let me know if you have done this already, but I know I wasn't. So here it is, I'm going to drop it on you, video testimonials. That's what we're talking about today. This thing is super powerful. If you're not getting video testimonials from your customers, you're missing a huge opportunity. I'm going to tell you a story of last week. I was in this neighborhood, a lot of Filipinos in this neighborhood, um, here down in San Diego. And, um, the deal that I closed, she was an older Filipino lady, had a low, a little bit lower bill, but she had never really talked to anyone too much. And number one, cause she lived alone.

Speaker 2 (04:28):

So she didn't really, um, she wasn't confident in your decision-making making abilities. Um, she didn't want to make a quick decision and it was a same day deal, which you talked about that same days are awesome. If you can get in the house, you can set the lead, get inside the house and start closing them. Um, it's way easier because you don't have to wait to come back in the home. You have to set the appointments and cross your fingers that they're going to be there the next day. So I go inside this house and she's telling me to hear the sounds good, but not making a decision. Matter of fact, she didn't even let me in the house before I basically promised her that I wasn't going to sign her up that day. So she was super skeptical and it's because single or ladies, they're not confident a lot of times in their decision-making abilities.

Speaker 2 (05:19):

So it's a blessing and a curse. The good thing is they don't have to go talk to their husband or they're the only one involved in the decision. But the bad thing is sometimes they're not competent at all. So they want to go talk to neighbors. They want to go talk to people who can help them with the decision. So she proceeded to bring all these things up, that she wasn't going to make a decision that it sounded good, but she wasn't saying anything. So I knew that I needed to build a ton of social proof to get her over the edge. Hey, and first thing I always do and tell them stories of other neighbors, stories of people that have had the same experience. But what I started doing recently is trying to get more video testimonials. I'm explaining how to do this here in a second.

Speaker 2 (06:07):

But I pulled out a video testimonial of an older couple about her same age, had similar concerns that she had. I pull this out and they can see me. She can see me in the video with these people. I'm doing it kind of interview style. And they cover a lot of the same questions, concerns that she was having right at that moment. I show her this and boom instantly her. Um, I could just see her almost soften. She was way, way less. Like I'm not going to sign up in more like, Oh, okay. Yeah, this does sound good. And of course I still proceeded to build a ton of value. I showed this video basically, first thing as I was getting into the details and the nitty gritty, I show her this and it just instantly softens the tone. It makes her way more trusting in me what I was telling her.

Speaker 2 (06:59):

And it made it so much easier. As I built, I started with that foundation of a video testimonial, seen other people talk about it. And then I told stories on top of that, this new year, this neighbor, this, uh, older lady had the same experience and it helped so much. So it's something I forgot about. And I got to give a shout out to my, uh, knock star guys, Danny PESI, who was on a few episodes back. He was, he sort of reminded me of this, how powerful it is. Cause I hadn't done one in awhile. So if you are not currently getting video testimonials, I'm going to explain to you how to get them. Hopefully that convinces you. They're powerful. They can help overcome objections. You can use them as ammo in deals and tough situations. Okay. So I'm going to explain to you how to get it though.

Speaker 2 (07:50):

Okay. Obviously you have your iPhone, your, your camera on there. Hey, so tip number one is after the deal, you gotta be super assumptive, just like everything you do. Okay. And then, um, tell them what you're doing and it's not going to work with everyone. Some people don't want to be in video testimonials, but you make it no big deal. Okay. For people that you think needle, extra motivation to do it, you can tell them, you'll send them a gift card or you can tell them if a neighbor, um, a neighbor signs up, um, because they saw the testimonial. You'll give them a hundred bucks, whatever. So you can throw stuff like that in. Okay. But look for the chill people that hopefully won't care, just like Mr. Jones. So, Hey, we're actually talking with a lot of your neighbors out here and what's really helping is just, um, we do these little videos with people.

Speaker 2 (08:44):

So the neighborhood, that way the neighborhood hood can see who we're working with. So what I do with you, if you don't mind, just a quick like video with both of us and don't worry, you don't have to, you don't have to say too much, but I'm just going to ask you like a few questions of kind of what your concerns were and why you decided to participate in the program. And then, uh, that's it. And then don't worry. It's not going on social media. We're not sharing it to a bunch of people. We're just going to show it with a few people we're working with. Just things. See that it's you. And um, if anyone does sign up because of it, then yeah, we're going to send you a gift card or we're going to send you a hundred bucks for helping us. So it'll be real quick.

Speaker 2 (09:28):

Okay. And key with that. You're not asking them yesterday. You know, again, you're being assumptive, just like everything you're doing in the cell. Super assumptive. Hey, so you pull out your camera and here's tip number two, instead of doing the selfie style, getting it on the front camera, any phone camera you have, it's going to be better on the front camera. So with the screen facing away from you. So that's the second key. Try to get that. It's going to be a little bit better quality. And then what you do is just get both of you in the video. So that way your customers can see that you're actually talking with these people, you're interacting with them. And then you're just going to ask them why they decided to go solar. What was their pain? What were they seeing with their bill? Hey, so I have a set list of questions and think about what are the concerns that your homeowners are having when they go, when they have doubts about solar, right?

Speaker 2 (10:22):

So maybe it's they thought there was a lien on the home, maybe it's they thought, um, it required a bunch of money up front, maybe it's they thought, um, the home was going to be tough to sell. So all of those objections that people usually throw out common concerns, try to cover those. You're not going to hit all of them with every single person. Okay. But cover that so same. So you're on video. You're on camera. You're pointing the phone on the front camera. You're saying, Hey, um, I'm Taylor, I'm here with Mr. Jones. Um, and we just helped them save money on solar. Um, so Mr. Jones, what was your, what were you guys seeing with your bill that made you decide to look into solar and participate in the program? So then they list off the things. Oh, we saw our bills were getting super high.

Speaker 2 (11:13):

We were paying more than ever for electricity. We saw 8% increase last year or whatever. So try and get them to throw out some of those things and then say, great. And then what, what did you guys like about the program? Um, what were the benefits for you guys in going solar with the program? Uh, we really liked that it gave us a set bill. We know exactly what we're going to pay. Oh, we really like that. We're helping them. They are mint or we were like, so whatever. See if you can get them to help them out. Yeah. You can help them out even in the video. What about, did you like that? There's no liens on the old, Oh yeah. That was really awesome. Um, so get those things, obviously you're not really trained to ask yes or no questions. You're trying to get them to tell their story, try and get them to hit those emotional pain points.

Speaker 2 (11:59):

Okay. So hope we can get someone that really hated their utility. That was sick of all these increasing rates, increasing bills, and then try to get those senses. Those emotions involves. So it's simple as that. So try it with every deal you're in. You're not going to get everyone I recently. And I should say you don't have to do a testimony with every single customer, but the truth is you're probably going to get one out of, I dunno, maybe three or four that just refuse to be on a camera video. Okay. So you don't want to like be a jerk and force people to do it, but you want to encourage people to, so I would just make it a step at the end of every cell, try to get a testimonial, K, make an attempt. And it's going to help you. Cause especially if you are working in a neighborhood, how powerful is it?

Speaker 2 (12:46):

If they see Mr. Jones with the big white Husky, they recognize him, maybe get his dog in the video too. Right. You can get those things. And then Judy, um, four doors down says, Oh, Hey, I've seen that guy walking his dog by my house. Yeah. That's Mr. Jones. We've been working with him and he loved this. Here's a video. Here's what he liked. So tempted to attempt it with every customer, get those testimonials and then store it, go in your iPhone. Hope we have an iPhone because the better phone, but go in there and create a testimonial folder and store it all in there. That's another common error. That's what I was doing is I would get these videos, but then I was forgetting where they were and I was having to drag go dig through, you know, 50, a hundred photos before I felt in this video.

Speaker 2 (13:33):

So go create an album, a folder in your phone, put all the testimonials in it. And then I also like to put them on Google drive, just have it all in one place. And then you can use it for potentially making marketing videos. You do, obviously you make sure people are okay with that, but create a folder that way they're not getting lost in there. Super powerful. Use it as you're meeting with other neighbors, other people in the neighborhood. And then worst case, if you can't get a testimonial video, at least get, get a selfie photo with these people. At least that's another thing that's powerful. Even if you don't have a video and say, Oh yeah, here's the photo of, um, the Joneses five doors down. We just met with him. Yeah, look, there's this dog. And you've probably seen him. And then it's making your stories more credible, making your stories more believable because hopefully you're incorporating stories into your presentation and using that, using the power of these stories and these testimonials.

Speaker 2 (14:31):

Okay. So that's the tip. Go out, make it a common thing. Get these video testimonials. I promise you, it's going to help you. Especially people that are skeptical with older folks that think there's scams going around, it's going to help you build that social proof, add that element and it's going to help you close more deals. So get out there, let me know if you have any helpful tips as you're doing video testimonials or stories that have helped you love to hear them love to hear what our peeps have got, what our Solarpreneurs are doing. So hit me up. Let me know what you thought of this and we will see you on the next one.

Speaker 1 (15:09):

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.

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.