How did you juggle multiple roles? I’ve been wanting to ask you these questions it’s fun to get you on a podcast and ask these questions. How do you juggle personal sales, recruiting, and like running a company?
So, in the beginning, obviously in 2020, I was wearing multiple hats at the time. In the daytime, I was the office manager in the office running the team. In the evening, I was running around helping out with the permitting department and the installation team. We basically started delegating a lot of our time to hiring more people to help us out with the installation side. We had an ops guide permitting utility, so we started maximizing our time at the right spot on what needed us the most. Obviously, mornings were there just to pump up the installers, because we treated our installers like our sales teams. We kind of motivate them to install more. We had incentives. The more they installed, the more they got paid.
We kept the same strategy as we had in alarms. You know, we come from the alarm industry. You put them on the wall and put a hole in the wall we start panicking when our technician’s not at the house. Within 30 minutes we start calling the technicians asking how long until they get here. Obviously, we want to make sure they show up, punch the hole in the roof, then ask questions about where they want sensors.
It’s the same mentality. We want to bring our technology to our installers ASAP. We noticed that was one of the missing links with solar here in Texas. That time frame of waiting will kill a sale. People will sell 100 accounts as a team but only 40 to 50 percent of them will be getting installed within two to three minutes later. So, we figured out hey, let’s focus on our fast install. We keep everything in-house stock our inventory and our warehouses. Four to five million dollars with equipment all the time. This keeps install times quick and our customers happy.
Accountability
My accountability was knocking doors with somebody else every day. You know? Cause, you need to show off. You don’t want to look bad. They’re going to make you get out there. You’re not going to be like, let’s hang out here and chat. No, I came here to get trained. I didn’t come here to sit on your couch. It’s a huge hack. That’s one of the reasons I tell people to recruit. Recruit to recruit themselves to the doors. Even if that guy sucks, it’s like at least you got to get out there and the money you made, because you went out, is much greater than even the override you might make on the guy that you’re taking out there. That’s one of the things I tell even all my managers. The best way to leap from the front is by taking one or two guys with you every day on the doors. That way as you’re closing, you’re teaching the new person how to close like you.Â
Cross Selling
I think a lot of people are trying so hard. They’re like, I do pest and I sell alarms with roofs and solar. Right? They’re trying to couple products and things like that. So, we’ll get into that, but the other one is just like how can you condense it down to 30 minutes. The thing is, I learned this from Chance, it’s like he did a thousand alarms in a year. His set was 10-15 minutes. You’re just like, how do you talk about something that quick be that efficient? Like, how do you speed that sales process up? Honestly, I believe it is all about keeping it simple. Even with alarms, back when I was training our guys, this was a simple and effective way to sell.Â
Keep It Simple
How to sell. The less information to give out that you know, like the less important information you give out, the better. That way you’re obviously going straight to what the customer cares about. Things like- What’s the monthly rate? What’s the contract term? What am I getting with all this cost? So, when you’re able to get everything all in one presentation at the beginning of the door, you’re basically able to assume the sale and continue on because they have all the basic information and that is what they want. A lot of people think they should hold off on price until the very very end and then it’s like, all right. now let’s talk about price. And then you get into another boxing match in the sales conversation. It is much easier to say the monthly cost or whatever the cost is at the beginning of the conversation.
Price
As the numbers make sense, there’s value. We’re going to do this. Especially the market we’re in, a lot of our competition were charging $120 a month or $130 a month. so for us, we weren’t charging our max. Our charge was $64.99. Right away we knew our price was half the cost of our competition. When we pitched, our guys would be like hey, this is what this package comes with for this price or you can add two more cameras for three dollars more a month, it’s up to you. Then they could ask what was more important to them, have more cameras or fewer cameras with the rake? Basically, would say yes questions to what they wanted to hear. We made it straight to the point and then went into solar. Once I went in the house pitching security culture, I could then say, hey, by the way, since you’re one of our elite customers from alarms, you also qualify for a year for your home security. That’s how we base it. We attach the solar to the security so you qualify for a year free of security. That’s $600 and you can wrap that into the solar loan or you pay upfront, whatever. But, we make sure to wrap them together nicely so it is easy to bring up and it’s not another thing to pitch them.Â
Building A Proposal
You want to sell them right then and there and build a proposal. Build that proposal before the technician gets there they can take care of everything. My technicians coming out for the alarm can also take care of the solar. The technicians coming out to us were already within 20-30 minutes away, so one technician is showing up, or at this point, is already in the house and here I am already pitching them solar, okay? So, I’m showing the transition and what the bill is right now, what bill is going to be going solar, and building that emotion. While everyone’s taking care of it, I’m telling them why, it’s important to do it now with the bundle deal rather than doing it later. You saved the $600. Most times they figure they better do it now rather than later. It is a win win. This benefits you and the customer.
Solar Pitch
If you’re not selling an alarm, what would you pitch selling solar? Do you have a pitch? It’s more of a solar pitch, basically just creating urgency. The best part is we have a good relationship with Good League. Because of that, we’re allowed to give a thousand customers $1,000 without affecting the reps commission. So, what I like to do when we’re at the door pitching to customers I offer this deal with a time stamp. Like, hey, by the way, we have this black Friday special where as long as you sign up before this Sunday, our company is going to pay for your entire bill in July of next year. So, when their payments are $150 a month and $1,000 we’re giving them it’s going to break exactly. But, when you break it up into small pieces for longer months, it sounds more appealing to the customer. Like, okay, so you’re like you’re going to get a free year of power? You’re selling them on that short term. I want to save money now instead of like oh, over 25 years you’re going to save 30,000 because sometimes it’s hard to conceptualize that for a homeowner. Some homeowners, obviously we like to pitch them both like you know, this is what your build will be in five years and then this is what you’ll be in 10 years. But, they understand it is still just the alarms like when you have a technician. Like hey, I am texting the area already, and if I can have my tech here in the next 10 minutes to get your system started, I’ll waive your activation fee. yeah this is actually the mentality, but we trained our reps the same way where we say, hey, since our reps our installers already doing all the neighbors, we’ll set it up where you all refer to each other so we’ll get it up where you guys get no payment until July of next year oh because you’re already on this
referral game exactly
