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Solar Installations and Strategic Networking with Dirk Neitzel
How can networking be the secret sauce for success in the solar industry? Join us as we uncover the strategies behind building powerful connections with Dirk Neitzel from think solar OKC. Dirk is a leading figure in the Oklahoma City solar scene, and he shares his insights on making your solar business thrive through relationship management and warm market referrals. Listen to Dirk's personal journey of moving his business from Oklahoma to Florida and back, gaining invaluable lessons that have refined his approach to solar installations. Learn how think solar OKC empowers homeowners with tailored solutions, tax credit guidance, and seamless financing options while navigating the complexities of local roofing regulations.
We dive into the nuts and bolts of the solar installation process, from municipal approvals to the final flip of the switch. Discover how generating excess energy can translate into significant power bill savings for homeowners. With Dirk, we explore the power of networking, reflecting on experiences with business groups like BNI and other local events that can propel your business forward. You'll walk away with insider tips on sourcing multiple quotes, leveraging tax credits, and finding the right networking fit for your business.
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You do business with people that you know, like and trust. But I really like giving back and that giver's game mentality that a lot of the groups have.
Speaker 2:Hey friends, it's Kasey Farmer here with the Build With BBB podcast. Welcome back Today on the podcast we have Dirk Neitzel with Think Solar OKC, a local BBB accredited business owner, community partner and our host for our October Ambassador Coffee coming up on October 23rd. Dirk, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the things that I think would interest a lot of our listeners, our viewers today is to know that a solar company does a lot of networking in Oklahoma and is really connected. Tell us a little bit about what you do and why.
Speaker 1:So you know we're just trying to serve the Oklahoma City community, get out there and really know people and their needs. Obviously, power bills are a struggle for a lot of Oklahoma City families or individuals, but also the tax credits that we can provide to give some people some relief on that front. So really just learning about people. The thing about networking is it helps us keep our costs down and we can pass those savings on to the customer by spending less and just doing more relationship management.
Speaker 2:When you say cost down for other business owners who might be listening to the podcast today, how does that help you offset costs in terms of your marketing strategy?
Speaker 1:So if I'm meeting someone in a warm marketing situation or in a organized market situation, there's no ad spend. You know, I just meet the person or get referred to a person and so you get a better relationship from the get-go. Also, the close rate for warm market referrals is higher because you know you've already got the testimonial on the front end, because they've been referred to you from a common connection. So referrals are great for close rate but to keep costs down. And then networking sometimes we do direct sales in certain situations as well.
Speaker 2:So rewinding a little bit, well.
Speaker 1:So, rewinding a little bit, what does Think Solar do? So? We are a solar broker, so our job is to navigate the solar industry for the homeowner. We always think of ourselves as representing the homeowner, but we want to make sure that people are getting educated on how the tax credits truly work, all the different financing options there's a lot of agriculture, small business grants available, correct ways to mount things onto a roof, whether it's shingle or metal or flat roof. The requirements of having an electrician on site the whole time. Making sure all the permits and the utility agreements are done ahead of time so that once something gets installed it gets turned on, rather than just sitting there and looking at the panels but they're not making any electricity.
Speaker 2:For a state like Oklahoma that has, I'll say, more roofing laws than most states, how does that work?
Speaker 1:So we definitely do a roof inspection on every customer. How does that work? So we definitely do a roof inspection on every customer. The wind rating for how we rack it actually improves the wind rating of a roof, so that's not an issue. You also have an 18-inch margin requirement around the panels in the roof, and so just making sure we're not just doing what's up to code but also what's industry best practices for each individual project. But everything that most of the solar companies are doing is already roof compliant.
Speaker 2:You came from. You were in-state, then you moved your solar company out of state and then you came back to Oklahoma. Why did you come back?
Speaker 1:So I followed my kids. My kids moved to Florida. So I moved my original Oklahoma company to Florida. Then they moved back. So here we are again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Back home amongst our family and friends and just trying to help everyone out. So I actually sold that company in Florida and so this is a restart, rebrand.
Speaker 2:What would you say to a business owner that's considering doing that, maybe listening to the podcast today? How do you go from? You've got all of these connections and customers in one area, and then you're taking that and uplifting to another state and then you're starting all over again sure tips and tricks I would say it's actually easier to restart something that you've done before.
Speaker 1:Um, I think a lot of people wish they could go back and do it all over again, and so I've had that opportunity twice, and so we just do it a little bit better. The industry's changed in general anyway, with the different programs. The tax credit changes a little bit every year, the panel of the equipment gets a little bit better and, honestly, some of the installs in Oklahoma, I would say, over the last few years, got worse, and so being able to vet crews and know who's doing it right has been a new challenge that wasn't there before. Five years ago. I think we all installed it the right way, and I don't know if it was a labor shortage or what, but a lot of people went to a quick and easy not so good install, and so just you know, there's a new problem all the time. So everybody's changing. Whether it's a restart or not, you always have to stay cutting edge and see what's the next best thing out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unfortunately we see a better business bureau in lots of industries companies coming behind another company to fix things that maybe weren't done the right way. If you were going to talk to a customer before they ever did any kind of interaction with the company, what would you say to them, like, how do they pick the right company for their home or for their project?
Speaker 1:Sure, and, honestly, as a broker, we're looking at a lot of different companies. For them, one thing is making sure that they're using a licensed electrician, which is required by law, but not a lot of companies follow it, and so what happens is you get installed, but then it won't pass inspection if you don't have a licensed electrician doing the install and on site, especially when the inspector's there. Another thing is how we mount it to the roof. There's night and day difference between you know a little sticky foot that goes just onto your decking versus flashing under your shingles and finding the rafter, and so most customers don't know the difference. All they see is the.
Speaker 1:The panels look good or they don't, which is also important. The aesthetics are important, and there's some companies that don't. I've seen installs where some of the panels are landscape and some are portrait, or there's wires running across the roof, just all sorts of crazy things. You're like how? Or you know, panels just sitting in the shade or facing north, and it's just all sorts of crazy things. You're like how? Or you know, panels just sitting in the shade or facing north, and it's just. There's some crazy things out there that you wish the customer. Just done a little bit more research, and so you know, my job is to have all that knowledge for them and make sure that they're getting the best value for their purchase.
Speaker 2:When it comes to education. How do you help set the customer up for success?
Speaker 1:So we start every every time we talk to a customer we do. I have five slides that we talk about how net metering works with the utility, how the tax credit truly works, how a 25-year warranty works and how the monitoring system works, because we want them to have full ownership. And the other thing is you're competing against the internet and Facebook and door-to-door sales guys that are just misrepresenting the industry and so you have fun to just make sure you get ahead of all the misinformation that's out there. It's actually funny. There's a big push now in marketing for AI, but if you ask AI questions about solar, so many times comes back with misinformation, and so I'm sometimes yelling at my computer. So many times comes back with misinformation, sure, and so sometimes yelling at my computer no, no, jim, and I know that, chappie T, that's not how it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, the truth is good. The truth is fantastic. The federal tax credits and and the net metering through through different utilities is amazing. So I don't know why people misrepresent it when the truth is it's a good program. Yeah, but the other thing I was going to say is there's a lot companies out there that are price gouging and the banks know that, so then they put a lien on the house, which is not a good situation for the homeowner. But if you have the, the solar value, and so it's a secured loan against that, then you can avoid the lien on the house.
Speaker 2:So that's another another thing we're having to educate people about okay, I could see where oklahoma homeowners might be hesitant to sign a contract or work with the solar company because of the amount of extreme weather that we have here. Tell me why maybe that's not true. I love.
Speaker 1:I love getting the weather question. We purposely don't put it in our standard presentation because we want them to ask and tease us up, for you know there's different types of equipment out there.
Speaker 1:The most solar companies in Oklahoma are using panels that are certified for four and a half inch hail. Solar companies in Oklahoma are using panels that are certified for four and a half inch hail, but the trick is to have safeguards in place for if it does get weather damaged, right. So we want to warranty the solar and also attach it to the house in a way where it can be covered by the insurance if the whole home got destroyed. But the trick is not to have an if this, if this, if this type of warranty. It's to have a, a catch-all, that says I've got to produce this much electricity or that piece of equipment gets replaced, so it doesn't matter what happened to it. It needs to be making the electricity that it was supposed to, which is you know what you expect from your power company, so you should expect it from your own power system yeah, we talked a little bit about this before when we were doing some other marketing things to get ready for the ambassador coffee.
Speaker 2:But tell me about client testimonials and what that looks like and what makes you excited about running a solar company I love client testimonials.
Speaker 1:I think that our average client and I mean this 100% I think our average client knows more about solar than the average solar salesman in Oklahoma. Because we do the education, we make sure that they've got accountants on their side and understand tax credits and we give them the monitoring so they can see every single panel and they know exactly what they're producing, how much money they're saving each month. They're understanding their power bill. So we do follow-ups with them to make sure that their utility company is billing them correctly, that they're getting the savings they want. And so keeping that education and keeping that touch points rather than hey, I sold you something, good luck. Keeping that.
Speaker 1:We're going to hold your hand through the whole process and past it to continue to work with the customers means that those testimonies we're getting are true and they have a lot more to testify to other than oh, we went solar and we love it. It's, we went solar with these specific people and we love it. And you know, even yesterday I got a call from a customer that's moving and she wants us to do solar on her new house. So there's not a lot of repeat business in the solar industry, especially for the companies that spin up and go out of business real quick, but we see repeat business because of the way we take care of our customers.
Speaker 2:For a customer who might be interested in solar. Tell me the process from beginning to end. What does that look like?
Speaker 1:Sure. So we normally do, you know, like a few minutes of education again on how the tax credits work, how the net metering works, how solar works in general in the state of Oklahoma and with their specific utility or municipality. Then we go into working with them to design a system that they like the way it would look on their house because aesthetics are important, or we can do a ground mount. Then we talk about the different programs that are going to help them get that, get that purchase funded. So you've got the 30% federal federal tax credit. How is that going to work with them? Are they w-2, 1099?
Speaker 1:Lots of different questions there. How's the net metering work for their specific utility? And when the panels are facing at that azimuth to the equator, at that tilt, with that amount of shade, how much can they expect to save on the power bill so that those savings can help fund the solar? And then there are certain clients that are in agricultural or small business zones, so there's some grants available. So really just the engineering piece, the financing piece and seeing how much are they going to save, how much is their incentive going to be, is the main two topics. I think everyone should go solar. I think it's the right thing to do for future generations or for the planet, but you still have to make it financially feasible where it's also a good financial investment for that family, and so that's really the focus.
Speaker 2:What does the install look like?
Speaker 1:So it takes about usually about a month, sometimes two it kind of depends on which municipality, time of year and which utility they're with to get all of that approved ahead of time so that once we've got the permit and the interconnection agreement with their utility, now we can have the equipment delivered within a day.
Speaker 1:We use a local distributor, so scheduling with our crew, they can do most houses in a day. I got the roofing crew doing the roofing part, the electrician do the electrical work all at the same time, so it's usually a one-day install process and then hoping we can get the inspector either. Sometimes we can get an inspector because they know our crew so well they can do it by FaceTime. But getting the inspection done with the municipality and then usually there's a second inspection from the utility to get their meter swapped over to go bidirectional, and so you know our thing is to advocate on behalf of the homeowner to get all those things done as quickly as possible, which we don't have control over everything, but we have control over how hard we push, and so at least we can do that.
Speaker 2:Squeaky wheel yeah, absolutely. And so at least we can do that. Squeaky wheel yeah, absolutely. For somebody who just got solar, the biggest incentive is savings, right or green? Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely saving on their power bill. From the day you turn it on, even before they switch over your meter, you can have some savings. But the whole point is, you know, when it's really sunny you're making extra and putting that back to your utility and getting extra credit so you're getting more savings. Depending on the time of year, they could wipe out their whole bill. There's, uh, sometimes in the summer we're just wiping out the high rate but you're still on that nighttime low rate, so still significant savings. And then you know, early next year getting those tax credits back and really really enjoying that.
Speaker 2:Rewinding a little bit. We talked about networking just a touch in the beginning, but you do a lot of networking. Do you want to talk to me about the group that you meet with on Fridays? And how anybody can attend that? And then what's coming up? I guess it's next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my thing is, and just like I run my solar company, it's all about listening and seeing what people need. So I'm in a B&I Business Networking International group. So that's a paid, exclusive group. You trade referrals, you meet weekly, very professional setting. We meet I'm in two because we're launching a new chapter, so I have one by Zoom on Tuesdays at 8.30 and on Wednesdays at 7.30 am.
Speaker 1:In person I host a free, non-exclusive, no required membership for free on Fridays at my office at nine o'clock, which is very personal, not very sales pitchy, more, just hey, what's your wins this week? What do you need help with personally or professionally in solving those problems? We do Munch and Learns on Fridays at noon at our office as well. So always looking for guest keynote speakers, but it's still more of a networking event and just friends just trying to learn and grow together, and that one's free of cost as well. There's the Mix and Mingle business networking group.
Speaker 1:I think there's 15 chapters of that in Oklahoma right now and they meet a different day of the month and then it repeats the next month at a different local restaurant. So that's a great low-cost way for people to get out and network. And then the BBB Coffee, so, like the one we're hosting on the 23rd at our office, is from 9 to 10 am, so that's another great one, and not everybody has time to go to all of them. There's also, you know, the northwest chamber, the south chamber, the yukon chamber, the asian chamber, the hispanic chamber. They're great and not everybody has the full staff to at all of them. But everybody should try them all and go when you can and see which ones fit your schedule the best and which ones you know obviously boost your business the best. But there's a lot of fantastic networking opportunities in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we talked a lot about this when we did some other filming for the coffee. But really, maybe not every networking event is for you. Maybe you'll go and you'll say, oh, these aren't really the type of business I need to meet, or maybe you didn't like where they hosted it or whatever. That's okay, but give them all a try and then decide which path that you want to take, and then maybe send a coworker or a teammate to the other one and maybe they'll like it just as much, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just have a whole separate Google calendar of all the networking events. Then they're there. So if an appointment cancels, that's okay. It's a positive I have now I got an hour to go to mix and mingle or different things like that, and it's also the I don't want to have to reach out to everyone all the time about you should buy solar. It's better to be like hey, come with me to this coffee group, right, and then you know, obviously they get to know me and you do business with people that you know and trust. Um, but I, I really like giving back and that givers gain mentality that a lot of the groups have yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:What else should our listeners, business owners, consumers know about think solar?
Speaker 1:oh um, there are a lot of of tax credits right now for for businesses and and homeowners, and grants, and if you've got a quote from one company, that doesn't mean that you necessarily saw what there actually is out there for solar and for your needs. And so we just always tell people like, hey, get to know us, we might be able to help your business in some random way that has nothing to do with solar. You know, I've been an entrepreneur for a while now, so always love to hear about other people's businesses and how we can support them. But then also, you know, everyone should see their solar numbers for sure and see if it makes sense for them or not and make an informed decision rather than making a judgment call without the knowledge.
Speaker 2:For anybody listening today who wants to connect with you offline where can they? Or online, where can they connect with you offline?
Speaker 1:where can they? Or online, where can they connect with you? Cool. So my, my website is ran by someone that I met at networking. It's think solar, ok, see calm. And then my phone number is ran with someone I met through networking. It is lightning communications does a great job. Our phone numbers 405 345 1 2 Okay, great.
Speaker 2:So there's a form on your website, right for somebody who might be interested in getting a quote.
Speaker 1:Yes, there is a contact form there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for our listeners today, make sure to check out ThinkSolarOKCcom. Is that what you said? Yes, thinksolarokccom. They are also very active on social media, so make sure to follow there and give them a like and share. Otherwise, check out the description box below for this episode for notes, resources, links, all the things that you might need to know about solar, about bbb, and we will catch you in the next episode. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you, bye friends, thank you.