Solar Sales Uncensored
Solar Sales Uncensored
Solar's Top Closer: Wally's Secrets To Surpassing 1000 Installs Remotely
Real Talk: Want to know what it takes to crush it in solar sales from anywhere in the world? Get ready for an adrenaline-packed ride with the legend himself, Wally Arida, the mastermind behind Wally World's global solar dominance. Here's the raw, unfiltered blueprint: From pounding the pavement to ruling the online space. Overcome those classic objections, leverage cutting-edge tools, and seal the deal. Time to get an insider look at the strategies that made Wally a behemoth in the game. Dive in, get your playbook, and remember - success waits for no one. Hit that subscribe button and level up!
Boost Solar Sales! FREE 7-day Trial!Value-Add-Incentives: Boost solar sales, stand out, attract customers. FREE 7-day trial!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of Solar Sales Uncensored. I am your host, aaron Browning, and I know I say it every week how fired up I am, but I'm really, really excited about today's episode. This has been several weeks, and not months, into the making. I am bringing on the closing goat. That is literally what I call him. He doesn't know it, he's probably. I see him smiling now ear to ear.
Speaker 1:His name is Wally Areta. He is known as Wally World. He is the top solar closer really worldwide, for sure inside of the United States and I say worldwide because he now lives overseas and is closing deals daily for the US across I don't know 22, 24 states, just killing it, and I'm really excited to have him on. He is going to take a deep dive on everything closing. That is a topic I hear him train on a lot and I know for many people it's over their head. They just think closing is just taking an order. He does it so much better than that, so much more thorough than that. We're going to spend a lot of time on that. We're also going to talk about how he runs a virtual solar business Virtual, yes, I said that correctly.
Speaker 1:All of his appointments are either over Zoom or over the phone, many of them lately. He's running in a different country, so that applies to any of you. You retired of beating the streets. You're tired of knocking doors. You want to have control of your schedule. Tune in for today's episode because it promises to deliver without further ado. Wally World, how the heck are you, my friend?
Speaker 2:I'm better than most, Not as good as others, but it's a wonderful life man.
Speaker 1:I love that man. I love that, obviously, I've heard you train a lot. We just bumped shoulders a couple of days ago at our national convention. We both shared some stage time, which was awesome. What I love about you is your energy man. You are smiling from ear to ear. I think it is contagious, and so I want to lead with that man. Keep doing that, keep being you. But if you don't mind, for anyone that hasn't heard of you, which I know is probably a really small group, can you give us, like your 60-second background, just a little bit of tidbits more about you? If you don't mind, solar, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course I built businesses and I built five or six different successful businesses from scratch and then sold them Good exit strategy. I'm also a gourmet chef. I love cooking. I love wine. People that know me know I love wine and you probably see, if you go to a Jamaica La Winery, wilson Creek, you'll probably see me there every weekend when I'm in the US and I was just there two days ago. So I love cooking, I love good food, I love good wine and I've also been a lot of people don't know. I've also been in the shooting industry for a long time. For about 30-something years I've been a competitive pistol shooter. I do speed shooting and for people the rush of speed shooting is like the rush of closing a sale. That's the reason I'm in it. When that timer goes up, beep and you're trying to do everything to the best of your ability excellent, on demand that's the art of closing and you got to just deliver. So that's what I'm most passionate about.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I'm here just living the island life.
Speaker 1:I love it. So island life. Where is home now? I know you're in California right now because of convention, but where do you call home nowadays?
Speaker 2:Home right now is home today is in the Philippines. Love it. I'm from Southern California. I moved to LA in 1983. Young kid I moved to LA with $600 in my pocket. I was an immigrant $600. No job, no family, no place to stay. I started at the bottom rung. Most of you guys probably did the same thing. They're doing the same thing. So I built myself from scratch. And now here I am, 40 years later. Exactly 40 years later from 1983. I now live in the Philippines and from the Philippines I'm selling my selling solar to the US. I run a virtually 100% operation. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:It's different Time zone is 15 hours different, like right now it's four in the morning in the Philippines.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love it. And in the Philippines, I heard you say at convention, in one of the little side meetings we were in, that you're building a house there. I believe yes.
Speaker 2:So finally, because me and my wife are from the Philippines, we would come go every year just to go on vacation. So we'd go for three or four weeks and go back. And now we switched it. Now we live there and we go back here in like two or three weeks, every six or seven months or so. So we basically lived there and last year is when we decided it's really an interesting story I was at the beach last year Because prior to last year, the infrastructure in the Philippines was really bad.
Speaker 2:There's no internet. It got so bad in previous years that when I got back to the US my email exploded with 10,000 emails coming in. They never got in when I was in the Philippines. It's two years ago. So last year was the first time that we actually found out there's internet on the Philippines.
Speaker 2:I was in the beach and we were just ready to go and head out and go island hopping, because that's what you do in the Philippines you go to the beach, you get on the boat and then you island hop the whole day, just jump from one island to the other, jump in the water and just have a great time. I told my wife we got an hour and a half. Let me just do a quick zoom call See if this works. So I zoomed and I freaking closed the deal. Man, Of course you did. Man, I said, gosh, there's internet. So when my wife came, you done, I thought we were just checking emails. I said, no, honey, I closed the deal, we jumped in. And when you go on vacation on an island boat and it's an extra nice feeling when you just made $7,000 just two hours before so I go in. And then the next day I said let me try another one. And I kept doing this every day and by the end of the week I had five deals, so the one a day.
Speaker 2:And then that's when we know I've had a conversation. I said the reason we always try to get back to LA is I got to get back to work. I've been working. Do we really need to go back? Oh, I love it. And she said let's extend it. So our two week vacation got extended and extended. We ended up staying three months. Wow, and I was just doing this on vacation, selling Zoom on the phone.
Speaker 2:And then, when I got back after three months and it's time for the quarterly announcement who the top guys are in power and I'm with power, if you guys don't know, and our CEO's, jonathan Buds. So every three months he does this and we announced that the top guy, top seller for power for the last quarter is I can't believe, it's freaking. Well, you're from halfway around the world. I was number one selling from the Philippines, love it. And I said this is crazy. That's when we decided to buy land last year, so we bought 60 acres of land and he said we're going to live here. Now. We bought 60 acres of rainforest and the rainforest, the property is on a decent highway, but it's 60 acres of rainforest land with a river of waterfalls. This place is heaven. I'm so fortunate to have this.
Speaker 1:But that was last year.
Speaker 1:I love it and I know that many of our audience is going to be listening to the podcast. Make sure you go to YouTube and check it out, Because when he talks about this property, his smile got so big he was lit up. But it's very well deserved. I want to jump in because I know we have a lot of people who are going to be asking a ton of questions blowing up the chat on this. Wally, how did you get started at Solar? So I know you mentioned you went to the US. You've owned several businesses. Obviously you do very well for yourself, but why Solar?
Speaker 2:I was in between businesses. I just sold the last one. So after about six months of not doing anything, I just needed something to do and somebody sent me a message, a random message. Think from Lincoln, you want to look into Solar, there's something here, we have something going on. So I went in for an interview, not knowing what it is. I didn't know what Solar was, I was just curious. So I said, oh, oh, that's what Solar. I had zero idea what Solar was. I don't know what a Solar panel is. I don't even know what the Solar system of the roof looks like Because, frankly, I wasn't looking.
Speaker 2:So when they interviewed me, they said oh, you got good background, let's bring you in, we'll start your door knocking. They had me door knocking, me with a cabillion hours of experience in closing, and they had me door knocking. So I went in the drill just to learn what was going on. It was a couple hours a day, so I was door knocking, then getting leads and giving the leads out to whoever was going to close them. My job was a door knock, that's it. So I was walking maybe three, four hours a day and just door knocking. I made a little bit commission and then a percentage in everything that they sold.
Speaker 2:After about two weeks, three weeks of door knocking, I was saying none of my deals are closing. So they asked me to go with one of the guys just to see how he closes the deal. This closer and he was. We were in the table and he was trying to close the deal and I'm kicking him in the shin under the table. I said go close the freaking deal, man. This guy's ready to buy and you're not doing anything. And after that experience I went back to the company and said I can't do door knocking. If they're not going to close myself, let me just close the sale. So they got me closing sale and then I became the top rep in that company in the whole state of California. I was writing one deal a day.
Speaker 1:What company was that?
Speaker 2:I was with Freedom Forever, gotcha okay, and I was working with a sub dealer of Freedom Forever and I was their top rep and I was closing one deal a day, sometimes two deals, sometimes three deals a day. Branted. They were giving leads, which is great. I got two to four leads a day. I would close. I would say 56, 70% of my deals.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's awesome. What type of income was that at that place?
Speaker 2:Back in the day, not very much, man. On our plan we were making like $500. I'd be lucky to make $1,500 and a deal, and you're killing them closing everything, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you come home with two deals closed and made $1,000, well, that's not bad $1,000 a day. But I call it monopoly money. And if you guys are in solar, it's monopoly money because it's income that you think you commission, you think you'll be making, but they're not income until they actually install and get paid. So it's to me it's monopoly money. But still, when you make $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 in monopoly money every month, that's good monopoly money, right it's. Eventually they become sales. You just don't know what percentage should come sales.
Speaker 2:So that's how it started. I just started door knocking. So if you guys out there say door knocking good, yeah, door knocking is good, I did it I'm one of the top closest in the country when I joined solar and I did door knock and I was a king of door knocking, I was teaching people how to knock on doors in the two, two or three weeks I was doing that. By the second or third day, fourth day, I was teaching people how to door knock because I will always go home with three or four new leads for the day. It's incredible, man, three hours of door knocking.
Speaker 1:So from freedom did you transition to power? Were there any gaps in between?
Speaker 2:There was a gap in between. I moved around to different smaller solar companies just trying to see what I wanted to do. And then I was in the Philippines, again on vacation. I wasn't with power yet and COVID hit. I was in the Philippines and COVID hit. I almost wasn't not able to fly back because it was slowing down all the airports. And then, finally, when I was able to go back, I got in at the last flight out of Asia. It's, after that, the close off place for six months.
Speaker 2:And when I got here, everyone's freaking out, right the toilet paper thing. Everybody was freaking out and I'm the same. I didn't know what's going to happen, so I was not making any revenue, I wasn't going, I wasn't doing anything and there was no zoom yet or not yet. And then one of the companies that I worked for last, we had good conversation to see you know, and they kept telling me people are home now, they have a lot of electric bills and you're perfect. You've done solar selling, online selling, before that. I've done online selling before my other businesses. Just, this is like five or seven years before COVID and he said why don't you try it? Give it a shot. I gave it a shot. So I started selling for him.
Speaker 2:And then, as I was selling for that small solar company, alongcom's Freedom, the guys that I used to work for work with reach out to me and said we're all here now you guys should come and join us. And I couldn't get wrapped my mind around that red line model. I really can't. I can't say how come this is better than this red line. I know exactly what I'm making and finally I decided yes, I'll jump in. I jumped in and here I am, a little over two years later. I have never been in home since COVID. Everything's 100% sale. It's funny. One guy called me, one lady called me from close to where I live here in the US, in our house, and they live like a mile away and they wanted me to go in their home to explain solar to them. And I just made this really crazy excuse. It's COVID I don't want you to get sick, let's just do this on Zoom and we just zoom. And she signed anyway. So to me, closing on Zoom is actually gives me a higher close ratio.
Speaker 1:So I have 100% agree and we're going to talk about why. But I'm going to beat your story. It's the one thing I can beat you on. I'm looking at my office, my neighbor's house. I put solar on his house. If I'm going to stare at it from my office, we can talk across the deck, he goes come on over.
Speaker 1:I said, nope, it's going to be on Zoom, I'm a mile away and you're right. Yeah, but it's everything. You just said I can control the environment. Yes, I can control everything. I got all my charts if I need them. I just I feel more comfortable and so I'm so glad you said that you have a conversation like this, where you're looking at me and I'm looking at you.
Speaker 2:I got your full attention.
Speaker 1:Correct, correct. I 100% agree. I know some people get stuck in that. Oh, I don't know how to close online. I think you got to learn it. There's subtle changes, but once you do, it's game over. Let's talk about closing. So you mentioned that when you started door knocking, it was your first experience. You were already a closer. Where did you sharpen those closing skills before?
Speaker 2:First of all I want to make everybody understand that closers are not born. Totally agree, you have to learn the skill of closing. So I've been. First time I learned about closing was 1984. I was just brand new in the US and I didn't know how to sell. I just got into my buddy said let's go go watch this guy, he's amazing. So we went to the LA Convention Center I think it was like $150 to $200 to get in and it was full. It was over a thousand, two thousand people there and the guy's thing was Tom Hopkins. Tom Hopkins is to me the guru. He's older now. The Jeremy Miners, they're the up and coming, but they're all grandchildren of Tom Hopkins.
Speaker 2:Everything that you hear from the Jeremy Miners I've been hearing from Tom Hopkins for 40 years. I go there and he's talking about all this stuff and I said, oh man, oh, that's how you say it. I didn't have no idea, I was just fresh from the islands. And then finally, when he ended, he offered a class. I think it was $2,500 to join that small class of about 20 people who will sit with them and just be totally trained. I went to my wife then I said look, $2,500 is about just what we have in the bank. If you let me do this, I think it's going to be good. So we did. I bought in that $2,500, put everything in the bank and learned closing thoroughly. I even bought the tapes, the videotapes at that time, 25 videotapes and I memorized and watched those and just kept going and learning. And that's how I learned it. Tom Hopkins teaches you his mantra and I put this on all my stuff too Is that I hang on.
Speaker 1:I'm doing a drag at blank here, but you're talking about the mantra that he teaches you and you put it on all your marketing stuff.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he said I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep trying. Ooh, love that man. Think about that, love that. That's the mantra of the closer. You can knock on doors all the time you want, and then I call it the thank you for the dollar. You heard that. Thank you for a dollar, yep, yep. So it takes you 10 doors to get one appointment and the first door slam. That means you got to spend a dollar to get to that 10th door to make that one appointment. So if somebody slams a door on you, I just smile back and I say, oh love, thank you for the dollar. And then you move on to the next one and the next one. Thank you for the dollar, thank you for the dollar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's mindset, it's a mindset.
Speaker 2:It really is and I know it's not sexy.
Speaker 1:People want that magic pill and I wish Wally could give you one. But he's turning a negative, getting a door slam, getting a no, into a positive because he knows I know he made that number up on his 10th one it's going to be payday and so for him his mindset was wrapped around a ham one one closer, ham two closer, ham three closer. I love that. The other thing I heard you say, and I want to make sure our audience gets it $2,500 back then in the 80s is a lot of money, my friend. I want to make sure that's not lost or any of the youngins watching this or listening.
Speaker 1:If I had to guess the number, that could be 10 to $15,000, $12,000 that he invested and want to be clear. He invested it in himself and his business. That was his savings. So everyone sitting there was waiting for a coaching program. No, they know something they need to do and it's our last two grand, last three grand. This is what happens when you're with the right people and you invest in yourself and you're willing to invest in your business so that you can take it to the next level, and I love that. You shared that, man.
Speaker 2:I really really do. You have that knowledge and then you build into your personality and you start training yourself. Like today, you don't have to spend $2,500. You can go YouTube and start watching those three videos on different guys teaching you how to close, you just need to learn exactly what the techniques are, because it's universal, it's all the same.
Speaker 1:That's why the podcast is here. We're here to help entrepreneurs, man, you're here to. By the way, wally does this for free, just to pour in. That's his belief, that's his mantra, so you guys and gals are able to take notes and figure out exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 2:So I train people are, Aaron? Just just I asked them first how much do you know about sales? And they say I have a lot of sales experience. They say, wonderful, I don't need to teach out to sell, I just need to teach out to sell solar. So those are two different things. So somebody tells me I don't know how to sell yet. Okay, then you need to learn how to sell. I don't have the time or the time and to get you to get to that level, but if you educate yourself, I can teach out to sell solar.
Speaker 1:So let's run with that for a second. Do you believe selling solar is different than selling anything else?
Speaker 2:Selling solar is the easiest thing I've ever sold. Why I would sell solar to my grandmother, number one. There's no guilt in selling solar If you sell it honestly, with honor, and you put a good system, design system, on someone's roof. I would do it all the time. It's easier. When I do my presentation, people will say, oh, it's too good to be true. It's good and it's true, sir, let's get to qualifying.
Speaker 1:I love that line. It's a soft close in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good and it's true. Let's see if you qualify. So that's the thing about selling solar for me is that first of all you've got to make sure you're with. I'm selling myself, I work 85%, 90% referrals, and when I sell a product I've got to be behind it. So you make sure that you sell for a company that will be around the services thing for the next 25 or 30 years.
Speaker 2:Don't mess around with small mom and pop electricians working out of downtown, whether downtown in Smith City, because if five years from now, when that solar system stops working and that guy's retired, who are they calling, calling you? Is there something you can do because the guy that you sold is out of business? So that's the reason I this is why I tell my customers, okay, up front, I tell them Mr Browning, if I'm not fortunate enough to get your business, I would at least guide you in the direction that you only do solar with a national solar company who will be around for the next 30 years to fix your system, because when that system breaks and it will break in the next five or 10 years you do want someone to service that, don't you?
Speaker 1:That is so good man. Guys and gals, I hope you're taking notes. This is going to be a master class. Are you saying that in the intro, or is that one of your closing?
Speaker 2:I say that in the beginning, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, any other like one-liners like that that you find yourself constantly saying throughout presentations.
Speaker 2:My whole press. I've done a lot of training on closing, handling objections and all that. And I, when they threw up an objection and I just watched all the other guys saying, oh do some of our analytics how I handle that, and they come to me, I said I don't handle it Because when I do my presentation correctly, those things don't even come up.
Speaker 1:Totally agree. Oh my gosh, I said this from stage. Ed Gardo asked me for the number one objection. I said if I get an objection, I build it into my presentation so that I never hear it again. Exactly, I 1000% agree with you, man, wow. Well, yeah, I'm going to say it again. So my belief, and while you add your two cents, if you're getting an objection more than once, most likely it is something you're saying or not saying in your presentation that's causing them that you're giving that transfer of energy. So that's why I build it in. If I'm getting an objection about cost, I'm going to talk about cost, about how long the company's been around. I'm going to talk about how long the company's been around. The company's been around, I believe, and I think you'll like this Wally for an objection, to get power it needs oxygen. If I can take it away before it leaves their mouth, it's game over.
Speaker 2:If an objection comes up. There's two things that read that objection came up. One they don't trust your company Number two, they don't trust you no-transcript. Because if you take care of those things, if they like you, they will get it from you, especially if you give them all the information they want to hear. But if they don't like you, no matter what you do, you will come up with one objection after the other.
Speaker 2:And the key to liking you is you got to come out really nice and amiable, neat, clean. I mean, I don't go normally like this. On my Zoom call I have my nice power hat and my nice power shirt. Look really nice, you know, because I want them to respect me right from the get go. If I'm knocking on doors, I'm the same way. Don't go there with put mint in your mouth. You know you are knockers. You know what I'm talking about. When they open the door, do you want them to talk to someone and say, oh, it's not scary? But if they peek in the door, oh God, this Luke, he's going to mug me. You're not going to make a sale. So that's what it is. They have to like the company Number one, like I explained earlier, and they have to like you. They don't like you. You're not going anywhere, totally agree.
Speaker 1:That's just the number one thing. So two questions for you. One is how long is a typical Zoom presentation that you're running, that you close? And then two, how are you building rapport over Zoom? I know someone's thinking, oh, it's easy at the kitchen table, but over a computer, how do you do it? So how long and how do you?
Speaker 2:build rapport. It's going to be around 90 minutes. That's a start, to end with contract sign. To me a lot of people say, oh, I got a deal. Did you sign a contract? No, then that's not a deal, that's a wishful thinking kind of thing. But to me it's got to be signed. The deal's a sign, that's a contract. That's to me about 90 minutes. And when I set up my meetings they would say how long do you think it's going to take? I said I want to make sure I answer all your questions. So if you give me about an hour I can probably answer all your questions. But actually it's with the signing and everything. Once you're in you can have that extra 30 minutes to make sure that all the contracts are signed correctly. So that's how it takes me about 90 minutes.
Speaker 1:But let's touch on that too. So far I've been with Power about a year. I have a vast sales experience from real estate and everything else. You're the only closer I know that actually takes the full order on the Zoom, and so I want to make sure the audience is not lost and correct me if I'm wrong. So he is not only getting the verbal yet. Wally, let's do it. Most closers they're then. Ok, awesome, I'll send you the documents. They hang up the Zoom and they're sitting by the computer refreshing, praying for it to go through. You actually walk them through it, is that correct?
Speaker 2:Lock through it, get some of the docs. I teach them how to actually sign the docs on screen. God bless DocuSign. Thank you, covid, for DocuSign and Zoom. I should have bought stocks in these two companies Me too but we actually signed them. When I joined Power and I was talking about the one sale close, I was getting a little flack from other people oh, don't do one sale close, you need about three or four to do it. I said why? Totally agree. If they're ready, they want it, they're good to go Sign them now. Because if they don't sign now, guess what happens, aaron, when you call them tomorrow, there's a 50% chance you're signing them tomorrow. Then, if they don't sign tomorrow, it's another callback again. That's another 50% less. It goes exponentially smaller. Get the job done now. If you got them done, they want it. What's the point? You're helping them.
Speaker 1:Bobby, I can see why Bobby Smith wanted us to connect. I feel like you and I are wired the same way. This is my jam, my language. For those listening again, I want to make sure this is mindset, this is mindset 101, and we were talking about closing. I used to. In the beginning of my career, I had a post-it note near my computer. I used to carry a briefcase believe it or not when it said if I don't get the close right now, I'm 50% less likely to ever get paid. Exactly, I use that as a hot button. It allowed me to close often, close more frequently, to get out of my comfort zone and to get the deal, because if I didn't, I'd let my wife and beautiful kids know I didn't get paid today 100%.
Speaker 2:This is how anal am about that. I love it. I used to go door to door. I would go into a when I used to sell house to house, got going to an apartment and I knew this guy is ready to close. I can feel it. You know how it is, you have this connection. You know he's ready to close. For some reason he just kept. He said no, I'm not ready, but he come back tomorrow when things like that happen and I'm not able to close that one deal. I remember I went out from my car to my car, frustrated. I sat in my car and I just sat there and said what the heck did I do wrong? Where did I screw that thing up? And then I say, oh God, that's point when he said this. I should have said this just according to the plan script. I should have handled it that way and this thing would have closed.
Speaker 1:You got me jacked, man, hold on. I got to dissect this audience please. This is something I'm passionate about. So he left a house in that example. This is pre-power, pre-covid. He didn't get the deal. He was not mad at the client so many salespeople. The client wasn't serious. They get in victim mode. He got in his car and said what did I miss? What did I miss? Where was the buying sign? What objection did I not handle? That's the only way you get better. The fact he didn't get the deal was his fault His fault, no one else's. And that is why he's a true leader. That's why he's the top closer and all of solar. I freaking love that man.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it. If you don't close a deal, it's your fault, 100% man.
Speaker 1:Someone needed to say it. Man, Totally agree, Totally agree. What so talk to me about and the thing I've heard you say a lot in some smaller trainings we've done is you go into every deal expecting them to sign with you, expecting them to hire. Can you talk about that? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:You go in and the expectation is they will sign, and because the mindset is I need to help these people. If I don't help them they're going to pay a whole lot of money to the utility. I need to help them today. So I want to put them and their family in a place where I can help them. So the goal is to sign.
Speaker 2:But when I go to an appointment, especially Zoom call, my Zoom calls are well curated. I know this guy. I know how I met him. I know he's been shopping, if he's talked to two or three guys already, so I know everything about this guy. I know if it's a hard ass. And all this is done in the discovery call before I set the appointment.
Speaker 2:So when I go in, I have a psychological plan in my mind how I'm going to attack this person, because when doing a Zoom call it's just him and me like this. All this is my smile and I see if he's frowning. I pick it up. It's so close. I pick up on your face, right. I said, oh, I said something that made him think or, oh God, I think a true objection. So that's how I handle that. Presentation is everything. Has to be a mindset that I know he needs me, already analyzed them, so I got to help him. I need to help him save money by going solar. No guilt in this. Like I told him, I'm going to sell this to my grandmother. That's how she's qualified. This is right for her.
Speaker 1:I'm selling I love it. I love it. You just mentioned a discovery call. I didn't have any plans of going here, but I know someone listening is like what is that? How does that look? Can you spend a couple minutes talking about what that is?
Speaker 2:and why you do it. Number one rule of thumb in the discovery call, Get a piece of paper and write this you don't sell solar in the discovery call. You can't anyway. To me, selling is signing a deal. When you sign a deal contract on a discovery call that I just met two minutes ago, you can't the discovery calls just make them feel comfortable about you.
Speaker 1:Get information, get an electric Do you have certain questions that you're asking. Is it just your wing in it? Is it a formula?
Speaker 2:You just got it, Just like any solar prime. This is not anything I'm sharing. When you do your discovery calls you just build the payment. Aaron, how much was he like?
Speaker 1:It was $500 a month. He said $200 a month. You see, oh well, how long you been in that house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 10 years, 10 years. Oh wow, so you've been paying this utility for the last 10 years and they keep increasing the rates, aren't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been crazy man. It has me worried.
Speaker 2:They're pretty bad. These guys are bandits, man Right, I love that. And we haven't even talked about equipment and panels. It's a mantra of selling. You sell the benefits and it's making it an emotional sale instead of a logical sale. A lot of people can't get a handle on that. You build the emotion Like.
Speaker 2:I remember that when first time I ran into a professional salesperson 1984, I just got into the US, bought my first car, but an 84 red trans-sat. It was sitting on spinning like this in the display room, yeah. And the salesperson came out to me and said that's beautiful car. Huh, I said yeah, it is. And he said you want to take it for a spin? I said huh, I can't. So he pulled it out and we drove and we were driving instead of him. I remember I didn't know what he was doing there, but I know now. And he said, instead of saying this is 250 horses power, steering power, whatever power, whatever, teatops open. We were driving by the Santa Monica and when a stoplight he said look at the two ladies on the other side. They're looking at your car, they're looking at you man.
Speaker 2:Sold. I said oh shit 100%.
Speaker 1:You did. I said what the car?
Speaker 2:But now, on the hindsight, I knew what he was doing. He was selling it to me emotionally. You buy things logically, you make the decision to buy logically, but it's the emotional sale that pushes it over the edge. So you don't sell logic. Because when you sell logic and you're talking logic with this guy and the guy doesn't agree with you and you're logical and you think you're right. But if you think you're right and he doesn't agree with you, what does that make him? It's him wrong, exactly. And who wants to buy from somebody's head? No one. We're adults.
Speaker 1:No one wants to be told they did something wrong. Man, you're preaching, brother, 100%.
Speaker 2:And that's your logic.
Speaker 1:I'm saying and so that is every call you say call, are you doing it over the phone and not a zoom?
Speaker 2:Over the phone. No, I don't do this. Is that five minutes?
Speaker 1:15, 30 minutes. What is that typically?
Speaker 2:Not even five with the most, maybe 10 at the most. All I do is just build that thing and then build the expectation that there's so much information I need to share with you. But let me just share it with you. On one side, this did this, this sign that we talked about. Let me see for a solar's right for you or not. It's not right for you, I won't even bother you. If it's right for you, I'll make the recommendation. You just have what you want to do Now. I'm available to zoom with you. Today it's Tuesday. I got Thursday and Friday open, which they were Love it.
Speaker 2:They said, one day morning or afternoon morning, how's 10? Am that work?
Speaker 1:High level. I'm not gonna check that again. So he did a little takeaway. I don't even know if it's a fit for you, but if it is, I'll point you in the right direction. You make that call. He gave them the ownership. The other thing he said in the very beginning of this and it's so important I teach this a lot as well you must know the goal of every step of the process, and so this is clear. It sounds like it's easy, but it's not. So many people are trying to close the deal on the discovery. I totally agree with him. That's not the step. His only step there is to get the appointment for the actual zoom. That's all he's focused on.
Speaker 2:Look at the ledger building, get the appointment. He's got the book.
Speaker 1:He's not closing, he doesn't even know if there are fit yet, and I think so many people skip those steps Exactly Dude masterclass, like really, yeah, no pressure, I love it. No pressure, I'm really good, I'm like goosebumps man Blown away. Talk to me about closing percentage. Do you track? I'm sure you track some of this, but what do you track If you run 100 deals, how many are you?
Speaker 2:closing one step. That's for it. This way, I'm where I am. I'm one of the top earners in power. I'm also a million member of the. Just got inducted to the power million dollar club.
Speaker 2:That's two things. I got there because two things. One, I'm a very skillful closer, and we've been talking about this. The second reason is I work smart. 80, 90% of my business I work from referrals and when you work referrals you're looking at people comfortable with you, want the product, have a need and are ready to go. Now they are the easiest to close. That's why my closing ratio is high. My closing ratio is between 60 and 80%.
Speaker 2:When I was going door to door, four appointments a day. Sometimes if four points a day, I'll close two deals. If it's two or three appointments a day, I close one or two. There were times in our closing three deals a day. Going house to house, three deals in one day, man, perfect that. I didn't do it only once. I would do it several times, maybe once every month or two. It's because of that closing ratio and the closing ratio is something that it starts with the will that you're doing this today. You're signing with me, brother, you're going with me, and it's somebody told me when I do closing presentations with mentors and we're on the Zoom call at the end, after the call customer goes up and then the mentor would talk to me on Zoom and say what just happened. I said you're in the fourth now.
Speaker 2:Remember, the students seem to be Star Wars junkie. The Star Wars were. Han Solo brought the two droids with them to the camp looking for them and they were stopping him. Who are these droids? Really the idea. And Han Solo got this. They said not the droids you're looking for. I love it. And that's exactly what it is in Zoom calling I love it. You're signing today. It goes back to mindset.
Speaker 1:You have the mindset that the deal is closed, that you're doing them a huge favor If you don't close it. You're doing them a disservice, and I think that allows you to push even further.
Speaker 2:Well, that energy is so rich, you're full. No, I agree.
Speaker 1:But, by the way, for those of you listening either watching on YouTube or the podcast, let us know in the comments. He doesn't know this. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and ink it right now. If you want him to come back to talk about how he runs a 90% referral based business, I have heard him train on this and it is sexy. It is so sexy. Does not spend money on leads. These are warm leads. I call them leads. They're laydowns, if there's such a thing, because they're expecting him. They're expecting his call. They know the person that referred him. He's already been edified. When he gets on the call, they're like is this really, wally? I've heard the training. If you want that, you want him to come back, let us know, either on YouTube or on the podcast. Sorry, wally, if they speak, you got to come back, brother, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:Talk about? Is there a? I know you build most of your objections into it, but for someone newer to this, struggling, do you think there's an objection or two that they should really focus on? That are like the biggest ones that come up for most people.
Speaker 2:The best number one thing that you need to know how to handle and there's a lot of books that will teach how to do this is let me think it over. That's basic. That is the number one. If they want to think it over, then you probably didn't do it correctly. They're not comfortable. The wife wasn't there. So there's things you handle.
Speaker 2:The different top sellers, like Tom Hopkins and the Jerminers they have exact specific things you do that. You say well, I want to think it over. Comes, it's not, let me think it over. And then you start scrambling and you start going all over doing. There's a series of pattern that you do and educated with handling it and that's what you guys need to learn. It's not enough time to go over that and this is called. But go zoom, google it and find it. You find a YouTube video on that. Let me think it over. How do you handle it? And look for three or four or five guys. Learn all of it and find the best one that works for you.
Speaker 2:But you got to learn how to handle that. That way it doesn't become a freak out objection. Let me think oh my God, what do I do now? Because you've been practicing like when I do my competition shooting. I've been practicing so much in shooting because I'm a class A shooter in the whole United States. Speed shooting that means I'm at about 15%. To get there I practiced a lot. So when I'm on stage and the time of go beep, I'm just performing the same thing. With closing, everything comes up exactly what you're going to say and it's not something that you're scrambling with. It's all automatic. Just follow the process. It's a systematic way of close learning.
Speaker 1:The problem with most people listening. I'm going to be honest, so I apologize now to the audience. Most people are practicing for a $10,000 check on that zoom. That's the only time they practice. They get there and they do it. It's a mistake. It's a huge mistake. It's a costly mistake. You practice before you get on the zoom so that when you occasionally get that objection, you're skilled enough to handle it. Not only that, if I were monitoring your blood pressure, your heart rate, it wouldn't even change Like, oh easy, I'll walk you right through it, versus being like to Wally's point oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm not going to get this deal. It's too late. Don't practice for 10 grand. Yeah, it drives me nuts. We're getting close to the end. Sir, is there a tip that you would give somebody who is in the solar game? They're not having the results, they're not earning the millions that you're using. I know you mentioned go to YouTube. Is there anything else you would recommend for them to do to have a big impact on their business?
Speaker 2:Yes, in fact, I told them I'm a Star Wars junkie man. Remember when Empire Strikes Back, when Luke Skywalker had his Star Wars fighter stuck in the mud and Yoda was teaching him how to lift it out of the mud using the force in his hand only, and he kept going up, going up like this and failing. And Yoda kept doing this and Luke Skywalker's I'm trying. And then you know what Yoda said. Yoda said this Write this down, guys. He said do or do not. There is no try. If you do the solar business, don't jump in half your foot in the dark. You got to do this and make it work because it's the most profitable business I have ever entered and I built several multimillion dollar businesses. This is the easy one, most profitable. You do it or you don't, because if you jump in, there's no such thing as half wet. You jump in the pool. You got wet. It's not okay. I'm half wet. No, you do it. You do it and do this correctly Learn, study, work with mentors, work with the leaders, work and watch videos, but you've got to do it 100%. That's one way to do it. So the other thing I would advise is I know a lot of you are thinking of building your own teams and hiring people. I mentioned this at the art convention.
Speaker 2:When I got that million dollar jacket I said if you're in the solar business, you've got to run it like a regular business. You've got to run it like a business. The only measure of true success in a business is how much money is in your bank account. You could be busy, you could be very busy, but if you're only making $2, $3, $5 a day, you're only $2, $3,000 at the end of the day. That's not good Because that's not working your time correctly. So run it like a business efficiently. Measure how much money you're making and, yes, you can measure how many sales. People will tell you I got 10 deals in the pipeline but then I asked how many actually installed out of your deals. So it's always money back installed.
Speaker 2:And then if you're training people to do this, like when you're I was in flight to the Philippines and remember they always say oh, the doors here and put the mask on. And the lady said see what I said? When that oxygen drops down, we want you to take it and put it on yourself first before you assist your little kid. Same thing with solar. When you're building a team, you make it work. First. Make the money, because if you have the money, then you can spend time working the others. Because if you're spending your time with non-revenue thing and then you end up hiring people, spending all of them, then you're not making money yourself. You'll be the guy in the airplane who put it on the child first and when the plane crashed she drowned. Right, make the money first, help yourself and then you help others. So do both hire but keep selling. Don't just say I'm just going to be hiring because that's not going to work in the end.
Speaker 2:That's how you make it.
Speaker 1:Masterclass. My friend, we are bringing you back for the referral side. I know that chat's going to blow up. Wally, with your permission, I'd like to post your Facebook on the description so that people can reach out and can follow you. Anyone at power could tag you and some mentor deals to have an expert closer reach out. That's cool with you, my way of saying thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it For those of you listening. Hopefully you enjoy this as much as I did. I have four post-it notes of note and I was hosting. I say every week that's how you have the right guest on. You're always learning. You're associating yourself with top talent. As they say, iron sharpens iron. Wally did this for free. I do it for free every week. The best thing you can do to repay us is to like, share and subscribe to this. We bring new content every single week. I hope everyone has a great week, wally. Thank you so much from the bottom of our heart. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Everyone be safe, be good and God bless. We'll talk soon, my friends.
Speaker 2:Thanks guys Do the right thing, always okay.