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 bring in the top solar dogs, the industry, to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, following 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. What's up Solarpreneurs,

Speaker 2 (00:44):

Taylor Armstrong. Back with another episode here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals and leads and help you dominate in the solar industry. Hope you're doing well. If you didn't listen to the last episode you are missing out. We had the one, the only coach Michael Burt on the show and definitely a high profile guest. If you haven't heard of him, go check them out. He spoke at 10 XCon Grant Cardone's events. He's one of the top coaches, top sales trainers in the world, I would say. So go listen to the episode and share that. Give them a like in, let them know you appreciated him coming on. If you haven't already, um, besides that, what else do we have going on? Um, if you haven't heard the big announcement yet, we have our new learning platform that is opening up, um, to an exclusive group that's happening next week.

Speaker 2 (01:40):

It might already be out depending on when you're listening to this. By the time we have this recording here at the end of March, we are releasing to the first group of students. Um, the new learning platform, that's solciety.co. If you haven't gone and checked it out, I want to suggest that you hop on this. It's going to change the game and we're not going to dump all the details here yet. That's going to be pretty soon, but just to give you a little teaser, it's going to be something similar to, if you've heard of the masterclass, you maybe have seen ads for that, but masterclass, what they do, they go and find the best of each industry. Um, they, you can get Steph Curry to teach basketball. They get, um, you know, any difference, any of like skill you want to learn. They go and get the best person from there to teach it.

Speaker 2 (02:35):

So what we're doing with solciety, it's going to be something similar to that and ton, ton of other things I can't go into quite yet, but we're going to get the best of the industry. Bring them all together into one platform and create a community around it. So you're not going to want to miss out. And it is so cheap right now. I can't even believe we're releasing it for so cheap. So go get on. It's definitely going to go up in price. So hop on while you can. That's solciety.co. Um, if you want to go check it out and go get one on the wait list, we're gonna open it up, um, next week. Okay. But so let's jump into the episode today. Hope you're closing lots of deals. It's springtime here in San Diego. It's getting nice and warm outside, nice and toasty.

Speaker 2 (03:25):

Plenty of doors to knock. Now, people are in a better mood with that warm outside. So I want to tell a story about something that happened to me last week, some mistakes I made and, um, something that actually went really well. And then it's going to be something that you maybe haven't tried. So basically what I did is I was able to turn a customer, the, me to drop the price. I turned this customer into about eight referrals now. Okay. So crazy amount of referrals, but the bad news is, well, not bad, but I did drop the price. So I'm going to tell you what I did. And I'm going to tell you the mistakes I made first with this customer. And then I'm going to tell you how I got these eight referrals. It's not going to happen with everyone, but there's some key things that helped me yet.

Speaker 2 (04:18):

These referrals that basically pre committed the customer. So, and if you're not doing this, you got to try it. So here's what happens. Okay. I went to a deal. I'm working in, um, a community in San Diego that is predominantly, uh, Asians, um, Filipinos and Indians. K a lot of, you know, different, uh, kind of Eastern cultures. And if you know anything about these cultures, if you've been in sales for awhile, you know, by now that a lot of these cultures, especially Indians in particular, they are used to bartering. That's their whole culture. They like to barter for everything. Okay? I mean, I'm sure they're bartering for groceries. Anything they're buying back in India, the price is always negotiable. It's not like here, you don't, you know, you have a set price, you gotta pay it. So what happens is these Indians, they think that anything that they're presented here, the price is negotiable.

Speaker 2 (05:21):

And it's kind of funny. My dad, he's actually a dentist in Utah and he told me that he has an Indian patient that will have one for prices on dental services. He's pulling a tooth and you saying, uh, what's the lowest price you can give me on this. Okay. And I don't know too many people in there negotiating with their dentists, but these people they'll do it. Okay. They want the best deals. They want to feel like they're getting the top thing that no one knows about. They want the price that has never been given. And before it's super annoying, um, super frustrating, but you got to deal with it and you gotta know how to sell it. All of these types of people. And I've talked about it before, find your target customer, but then figure out how you need to sell to each different group of customers.

Speaker 2 (06:09):

You're going to sell to a grandma different than you're going to sell to a 30 year old businessman. Right? And then with each call, you're going to sell them differently. That's what you, I gotta figure out. If you're selling, doing an Indian, you gotta be prepared for them to ask for the best deal. You gotta be prepared for them to say, they want to shop around, get a better price. And that's just what you gotta do. So what happened was I sold, I knocked into this Indian, um, and it was funny this first Indian that, um, I got the sell with. He was actually super easy. He was like, Oh, I've never checked in this order. This sounds great. Didn't question the price at all. He was like, where do I sign? But, um, alas, it didn't turn out quite that easy. Definitely ran into some hiccups along the way.

Speaker 2 (06:57):

Okay. And that's what you'll find too. Any deal that you think is super easy. There's a lay down. There's usually going to be something that comes up that makes it not a lay down. At least in my experience out here in San Diego, especially there's very few deals that go through smoothly. Yeah. The work for these installs out here. So what happened is I asked for referrals at the end, like we all should be doing okay. And I didn't ask, just ask. I say, that's what we do. We work by referrals and I handed them the sheet of paper. I was assumptive and I got three referrals out of them. And as I was contacting these referrals, I booked an appointment with a few of them. But when I went to the actual appointments, I figured out pretty quickly that this customer, um, had told all his friends, the exact price he was getting, um, the exact deal.

Speaker 2 (07:55):

And guess what a few of us friends had already been shopping around for solar. They had already gotten, you know, multiple quotes. They booked into Tesla, solar, which, um, Tesla, as we know, they are cutting out everything. They're giving the rock bottom prices, which I can't stay. And, and so what happened to these friends? His went and told my customer, Hey man, have you checked out Tesla? They have the best deal on soar. They're making it so cheap. And Tesla, you can go and get, you know, this dirt cheap price, it'll show you on the website. So he went and looked this up and of course he calls me, he says, Taylor, you're charging me way more than what I get from like tests. I need to cancel. And that's where I'm like, come on, man. Of course I get the referrals and his friends, they tell him instantly that he needs to cancel it.

Speaker 2 (08:54):

So at point I'm, I'm almost second. Guess myself, I'm like, man, should I just not ask for referrals until they get installed? Because I mean, I don't want them talking to people. And then these friends talking them out of the deal. So long story short, I go back, I have to build more value. Okay. And probably should have done a better job about building more value in the beginning, but I'm build more value in what we're offering in. What's different between us and Tesla. Okay. Build up our warranties or service customer service. Okay. That's which is kind of what you gotta do when you're competing with Tesla really hit on the customer, service reviews, things like that. And then I did have to drop my price. Okay. I mean, Tesla is like cheaper than cheap. So I dropped it still going to be higher than them, but built the value and then dropped it through in some ACEs. And then luckily kept them on board. And then I thought, okay, sweet. Now he can go to his friends. I can sign them up, do the same thing, build more value. And I'm good to go. Right.

Speaker 2 (10:01):

Well wrong. What he did from there is he, he told all his referrals. Now at this point I only met with one of them and he's the one that kinda screwed me on the deal. He goes and tells all his referrals. Now that I gave him this price. I gave him, you know, this price is this much monthly, super good deal. Um, which for him is only at the, after we got done with everything, he was only paying like 39 bucks a month for solar 25 year Sonova loan. So he's getting a really good deal. He goes and tells all his friends, the price he gets and what he's paying monthly. And that's the second mistake I made. So when you're asking referrals, when you're getting these people, make sure you bring up the customer to not tell them the price they got, because number one, that's going to make them feel special that he got a great deal.

Speaker 2 (10:57):

And number two, you don't want, especially if you're like, you know, drop prices, you want to be as profitable as possible on these other deals. Okay. And you don't necessarily want to give the same price to everyone you're meeting with. And what it did along with that is he was, he was, this was an eight panel system. Okay. The easy, easy is next to no energy, which is another thing that's typical of these Eastern cultures. These Indians are really used to using not much energy. I guess it's really hot in India. So they're used to the heat. Don't need to use too much AC he tells all his friends, the price he's getting on eight panels. Hey, and what do they do? They think that they should get the exact same deal, even though they're using way more energy. So just makes things complicated. Now I explained to him, well, Sean, Sean, Mugham, he was using way less energy.

Speaker 2 (11:50):

So that's why he got this price. Yeah. And just turned into a whole headache, having to explain and break down the price way more than I want to because you know, he like to keep it simple in the clothes. So that's what happened. He went and compared, he went and told his friends the price and just created a headache. And then I thought the first cell I got, I gave him a great price. And then, you know, usually your referrals, you have the rapport built. The trust is already there since were a referral, but I closed the next referral. He sends me. And then what do they do? Even after signing the documents, getting them ready to go, they go on and get, I think two more quotes still. I'm like, come on guys, are you kidding me? What? Anyone knows. Anytime they go out and get quotes.

Speaker 2 (12:40):

It's like, Hey, can you beat this price? First thing they're telling you, the next company they meet with. So I get a call from his friend now saying, Hey, I still got a better price. And at this point, I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, man. I already gave you the same price as your friend, which was super low. Now you're telling me you're at a beat, another price. So at this point I'm like, all right, I'm going to make next to nothing on the deal, which next to nothing out here. I mean, still like, you know, maybe a thousand bucks, but not as much as, um, I like to be profitable on everything and how the good margins something and all right, what do I do? Do I just let this one go? Um, cause he's haggling me. He's being a pain. He wants to meet again and says, I already, if you can't give me this, then we're done.

Speaker 2 (13:33):

Okay. So here's what I did. And here's what helped me get the extra, like five referrals from this other Indian customer. I went back and I said, all right, first of all, I did the manager close, which I need to talk to my manager. See if we can get you this. Um, this is like, you know, best price we're given everyone. Don't tell your other friends this time, they made it clear to not tell any anyone else the price he's getting. So I go and call my manager, which my manager is my wife. I just call my wife and, you know, ask her for permission to drop the price. And I come back and I say, all right, man, we can do this on two conditions. Number one, we need you willing to, um, have a sign, go out in front of your, um, yard.

Speaker 2 (14:27):

Can, you know, spread the word more in your community about what we're doing. Tell people out here. And number two, we need at least four referrals. Um, for people that would be willing to meet about this, they don't have to sign up, but we need at least four people. Okay. And he's like, Ooh, he didn't want to give me. And I'm like, we need them. We need them like today though. That's the only way I can do it. Um, otherwise they're not letting us do it. So what I did, I pre-committed this customer. Um, and I had already tried to get a few referrals from this customer originally when I signed him. But he was one of those people that was a little more hesitant. He was like, Oh, we'll give you even a being assumptive. He's a little more hesitant to give me the referrals.

Speaker 2 (15:18):

So I committed them. I made them commit to giving me referrals. And at this point it gave me leverage to actually get names from them. So I walk out of there with four names. Okay. And then he's, um, actually post it in his community, uh, um, next door app. So that's another good golden tip right there. Get people to post about you in the next door app or better yet do it for them, which we'll have another episode on that. Okay. So that's the lesson of this story. If you ever have customers that are haggling on price or that you need a job at four, or that you're doing that manager, call union, talk to the manager, make it conditional. Hey man, we can get you this, but only if you let us put a sign in front of your home, you give me four names right now.

Speaker 2 (16:12):

Okay. Don't, you know, don't make him stressed about it. So don't worry. We're not going to contact him until after you talked to him first and then see if you know, best case scenario, CV and contact them together right in that moment. And then what I felt to do, but what should be another condition that you add on to this and be creative to have them do a video testimonial. Can you get them right there? Get a selfie video and do a little testimonial. So that's something that helped me get an awesome amount of referrals. Okay. You're not going to get, um, so far I've gotten, like I said, I think six referrals from that one and then three from the other one. Okay. So some people are more hesitant than others to give referrals, but that's the tip. Make it conditional. If you need to drop price, okay.

Speaker 2 (17:06):

You build more value. First of all, you shouldn't have to drop price. But if people are haggling, you make it conditional. Okay. Make them pay, make them, give you something in order to drop the price. And then when I did, I said, look, the only way we're able to do this is where we're hoping that one of these people sign up. So the money that we would usually give you as a referral, um, that's going to go towards the good deal you're getting. Okay. Cause in this case I was getting an insanely good deal. Um, cut, you know, into my, into my profits, big time. And it was already a smaller system. So that's what I did in that case as well. So just a few things ok, try it. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you have any other tips that have helped you in dropping price or ways to just not drop price.

Speaker 2 (17:58):

Okay. But something that helped me last week. Hope it helps you go out and try it, share it with your team and keep crushing out there. See you on the next show. 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.