Sales Strategy with Jordan Belfort and Grant Cardone

Sean Huckstep

If you’ve ever thought about what a sales strategy is and are looking for ways to become a better rep, now’s the time to discover the secrets to sales strategy with Jordan Belfort and Grant Cardone. These masters of sales share their insider secrets in this sales training heavyweight match.

“The rep that talks to 10 leads a day will always lose to the guy that talks to 200 leads a day.”

3 High-Level Sales Strategies Covered in the Video

1. Playing the Numbers Game

According to Grant Cardone, sales is all a numbers game. The more you contact and get out there, the more successful you’ll be. If you market or contact through the phone ahead of time so the client already knows you, that’s icing on the cake.

2. Overcoming Fear

Cardone and Belfort emphasize that you can prep and train as much as you want to be a good rep but without a lead to talk to no strategy will ever work. The problem is being scared to cold call or talk to people, but Cardone says don’t get nervous or upset about it.

3. Helping Others

If you’ve tried to improve as a rep but are struggling, Cardone recommends you take a step back from your sales approach and help a fellow rep. If you take some time away from focusing on your shortcomings, you can become motivated by helping improve sales for someone else. For Cardone, a 100% cure for the sales slump is helping someone else make deals.

Watch and Learn

Watch these hotheads debate what works in sales, what doesn’t, and what is sales strategy. Do you agree with one over the other? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional Sales Training from Belfort or Cardone

If you want more in-depth training with Grant Cardone, you can look into his Sales Training University.

If you’re interested in learning more about Jordan Belfort’s approach check out his YouTube channel.

What is a Sales Process + 3 Ways to Build One

Diana May-Jennings

We’ve worked with a lot of door-to-door, canvassing, and field sales companies to use our sales app to solve some specific problems they’re encountering. Unfortunately, most companies are approaching their business without any significant strategy or plan.

This is making your job harder. Instead, teams need to target the source of the problem, the best way to start doing that is to identify existing issues, then build an adaptive sales process accompanied with technology that can structure and guide that process. Learn more about how to build your ideal sales process now.

What is a Sales Process?

A sales process is the series of steps a prospect takes to become a customer.

More importantly, it’s the most defining characteristic of a mature company. Most major sales maturity models identify “lack of system or process” as the main reason that a company is “immature” or “chaotic.”

This process will be different for each company, but there are universal steps that every door-to-door or field salesperson goes through as they successfully convert a prospect to a customer: they go out and knock doors, make contact, and close the sale. By focusing on these basic steps of your sales process, you can start to measure your team’s performance in more specific ways, allowing you to adjust, strengthen, and personalize your process as you go along.

Why Do I Need a Sales Process?

There are several reasons why you should have a sales process, especially in the world of door-to-door and field sales:

  • A uniform system for your reps
  • Faster, more effective onboarding
  • Better vision of performance
  • Make productive improvements
  • Better customer experience

It doesn’t matter what sales industry you find yourself in, having a thought out sales process is going to be the best way to set you and your team up for long-term success. There’s a reason why all the major companies like to think of each step in their process; it eliminates a lot of the natural human error that can come from poor stat management, lack of communication, or difference in personal process.

3 Ways to Build or Fix Your Process

  1. Gather Data for a New Perspective
  2. Track Sales Rep Stats
  3. Create a Mobile Sales Process

In our experience, most door-to-door and field sales companies are in two camps:

  • Companies have put off building a sales process because they don’t know how or think they don’t need one.
  • Companies know they have a general sales process but they freely admit that they don’t really use it or it’s outdated.

Sales processes need continual optimization and improvement to encounter for changes that happen in the company or the market. Any business hoping to be successful needs to know that there is no replacement for a smart, evolving, scalable sales process. Let’s talk about crucial steps that have to take place as you build or update one.

#1 Gather Data for a New Perspective

You’re not going to start out with the perfect sales process, so just jump in to what you’re currently doing. Start by making everyone participate in data gathering. Reps need to be reporting what happens at every single interaction with a customer. This will give you a perspective of what’s happening in the field and a picture of what reps are currently accomplishing, succeeding at, and struggling with.

Work to build a company culture that demands this behavior. When you show your reps that they are also going to reap the benefits of an intelligent sales process, they’ll start doing it because they want to and they will come to expect the same behavior from each other.

#2 Track Sales Rep Stats

After you’ve started collecting data, you’re going to want to organize that data in stages to match your process. Let’s refer back to the basic sales steps mentioned earlier: doors knocked, contacts made, and overall sales.

The data from each of these steps tells you something unique about your salespeople:

  • Doors knocked: This number tells you how hard a rep is working in the field. It’s straightforward—if a rep isn’t knocking enough doors then they’re not going to be selling anything.
  • Contacts made: This stat tells you how strategically a rep is handling an area. You’ll know if they’re tracking their interactions and using that information to adjust routes so that they can get the most out of an area instead of simply knocking through it.
  • Sales: How many sales your rep makes a pretty straightforward measurement of their success overall and in certain areas. If you’re not tracking this stat already, you should be.

#3 Create a Mobile Sales Process

The top teams all know that they need to invest in a mobile CRM that will support their workflows and give them a data-supported vision of their company’s performance.

Salesforce’s “State of Sales” report showed that high-performing sales teams are implementing a “smarter, faster sales process,” and are 2.7x more likely than under-performing teams to be using process automation.

For most of them, this technology is mobile. There are a lot of benefits to following the example set by these top teams. Mobile CRMs are essential to your data gathering as you start to build out your sales process. They’ll help eliminate all the time you’re currently wasting on other inefficient processes.

The best mobile sales apps will sync with other services and CRMs that you’re currently using, bringing all your data to the same place. They’ll also help you better understand and cater to the customer experience. Not to toot our own horn, but SalesRabbit is designed to do this for you.

What Does Your Sales Process Look Like?

No matter how good or bad you think your current sales process is, you should always be measuring and reevaluating your approach. Keep an eye out for trends that you and your reps are discovering. Be willing to subject your process to experimentation and trial and error. These steps will get you on track, but the truth is that it’s hard to give general advice on developing a sales process.

We’d love to talk to you more about a process that fits your team and show you the tech we’ve built that directs you towards stable growth, demo with us today.

5 Ways to Improve Customer Experience

Mike Hilverda

A solid customer experience (CX) can make or break a business. It’s important to be proactive in how you think about and interact with your customers, starting from before they’ve even heard about your brand until they’re fully aware of who you are and are engaged with you.

Customer experience improvement can be handled in many ways, but the key is to always take a multifaceted approach. Below, you’ll find five ways to improve your customers’ experience now.

“Did you know, according to Garnter, Inc., customer experience drives more than two-thirds of customer loyalty, outperforming brand and price combined?”

How to Improve Customer Experience

  1. Map out the customer journey
  2. Shift your target from customers
  3. Identify all available touchpoints
  4. Personalize customer interactions
  5. Realize change must be a priority

#1 Map Out the Customer Journey

Mapping out the customer journey is a great way for any business to start improving customer experience. Knowing where your customers come from, how they find you, and what they do to interact with you, can help you discover what’s working and what isn’t.

Creating a map of your customers’ journey doesn’t need to be detailed and difficult (although, that’s an option). A basic map or outline can be simple and straightforward while giving you enough information to start improvements immediately.

Parts of a Customer Journey Map

  • Steps describing a general customer’s actions (e.g. see ad, click ad, view landing page, sign up for email marketing, etc.)
  • Steps describing a general customer’s thoughts or feelings (e.g. curiosity, “How will this help me?”, “How much does it cost?”, excitement, confusion, etc.)
  • A list of business touchpoints at each customer step (e.g. customer service rep interaction via homepage chat widget, in-store checkout process via self-checkout, etc.)
  • Actions you or others can take to change any aspect of the customer experience (e.g. create and implement pricing table on website, train reps on product features, etc.)

customer journey map

#2 Shift Your Target From Customers

Focusing on customers makes sense when trying to improve their experience, but that’s not the only thing you can do to improve CX. You can also shift your focus and target improving the representatives or software that your customers interact with on a regular basis.

Employee training, feedback, tools, and experience can go a long way toward improving how your customers interact with your business. Happier, more satisfied employees affect everything.

Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction

  • Review, replace, and upgrade equipment, technology, and tools used by employees (for digital customer experience, this may involve software bug fixes or further development)
  • Provide employees with an anonymous survey and schedule regular one-on-one meetings to get useful feedback
  • Look to your competitors to make sure your business offers similar or better incentives for your customers

#3 Identify All Available Touchpoints

Take the touchpoints from your customer journey map and flesh them out; include different departments and communication channels for each one. For example, you may find that there is overlapping or redundant communication happening between the marketing and sales steps.

Some of the most important touchpoints you’ll come across happen in your customer service or support department. Long-term customers are maintained at this level so make sure every interaction is as personalized and thought-through as possible.

What to Look For in Post-purchase Touchpoints

  • Automated or personalized follow-up messages (email, SMS, phone) about the quality and experience of your product or service (this will look different depending on company size and resources)
  • Re-marketing efforts for decreasing churn in SaaS business models and improving brand loyalty for other businesses (communicate product updates, launches, and events)
  • 24/7 support availability where possible, quick response times, and human interaction (be proactive and reach out on a regular basis to facilitate positive conversations)

how to personalize customer interactions

#4 Personalize Customer Interactions

Customers like to be treated like living, breathing human beings — not robots. One way to make sure the human element remains at each touchpoint of the customer journey is personalization.

For larger companies, personalization may be challenging to scale, but remember that the overall customer experience is made up of many interactions. The more personalized each interaction is for the customer, the more improvement you can see in the customer experience.

How to Personalize the Customer Experience

  • In pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, personalized ads have become the norm, and, in email marketing, list segmentation helps with personalized messaging (i.e. digital tools make personalization possible even at a large scale)
  • Having modern tools that communicate relevant customer information to the right people at the right times can help every conversation feel more personal (e.g. SalesRabbit can provide information about prospects before representatives make contact)
  • Giving welcome presents and recurring gifts (like swag) is a great way to market your brand while making customers feel noticed by you

#5 Realize Change Must be a Priority

One of the most important and potentially difficult aspects of improving customer experience is getting everybody from senior management to entry-level employees on the same page. However, there’s no effective one-size-fits-all approach for communicating changes and requiring adoption, so this can be challenging.

How to Get Everybody to Improve CX

  • Incentivizing change can be a great way to quickly get new policies and procedures adopted by customer service representatives (e.g. roll out a temporary bonus structure)
  • Start at the top and work your way down (i.e. if members of the executive team aren’t onboard, then it’ll be harder to get other employees in the company to buy in)
  • Depending on your size and resources, you may find it beneficial to create a specific customer experience role; their job responsibilities can revolve around CX improvement

“Did you know, according to 123FormBuilder, 90% of consumers worldwide will pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience? And, 81% percent of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase from a brand with good customer service.”

Other Quick Tips for Improving Customer Experience

  1. Set up multiple communication channels in high-visibility areas
  2. Utilize digital or in-person surveys to gather CX analytics
  3. Welcome new customers and re-engage existing ones with swag
  4. Identify where problems happen to proactively solve them
  5. Develop a process for collecting and acting on customer suggestions
  6. Feature customer success stories on social media and your website
  7. Train customer service representatives frequently for consistency
  8. Be quick and intentional when listening, responding, and following up

Found Success In Customer Experience? Let Us Know!

If you have thoughts about customer experience, let us know down below. Maybe you’ve worked in customer service, owned your own business, or you have a unique story to tell. We’d love to hear about CX ideas that work well or experiences you’ve had yourself.

3 Steps to Train Sales Reps for Mental Toughness

Chris Pierce

We’re back with another exciting round of mental toughness blogs, this time for managers! These tips will be applicable no matter your role in sales so check it out, share with your managers or peers, and start trying out the principles.

We all know that as a leader it is your responsibility to ensure that your reps have all the tools they need to succeed. This includes sales training, organizational skills, life skills and mental toughness. Mental toughness is something that can be taught and it is your responsibility to train your reps to be mentally tough. 

“You need to be in control of yourself before you can control your performance.” -Ken Ravizza

Your success is limited to the amount of control you have over yourself. If you want your reps to be successful, you must train them to maintain self control. This is mental toughness. 

So how do you build mentally tough reps?

If you want to build a mentally tough sales team, you must focus on actions over results. Results are only a byproduct of your actions. Yes results are important to track, but they don’t always lead to your reps taking action. 

It is very likely that you’re contributing to either building or breaking down their mental toughness. It begins with you and the way you speak to your reps. What you say to your reps shows them what is most important to you. 

3 Steps to create mentally tough sales reps

  1. Give insightful feedback
  2. Ask the right questions
  3. Encourage them to learn

#1 Give insightful feedback

The influence your feedback has on your reps has a much bigger impact than you know. Your feedback you give your reps is either putting them in a fixed or growth mindset. 

To build mental toughness, your feedback must focus on:

  • Specific strategies
  • Skills to develop
  • Having a good attitude
  • Work ethic
  • Amount of effort

This builds winning streaks, consistency, character and work ethic, which in turn yields results.

If your feedback is focused on results, outcomes, talents and abilities, you will break down your rep’s mental toughness and put them in a fixed mindset.

#2 Ask the right questions

As a leader it is your responsibility to give feedback to your reps that puts them in a growth mindset. Whenever giving criticism and praise to your reps, always include strategies, skills, attitude and effort. Avoid praising and criticizing outcomes, results, talents and abilities. 

Instead, ask yourself:

  1. What will I continue to do?
  2. What will I do differently?

These questions help reps stop focusing so much on the results and outcomes and instead helps them shift focus to their actions. Asking these questions at the end of everyday will help them to increase their consistency and help them adapt to necessary changes. 

#3 Encourage them to learn

Gaining knowledge is something that will help your sales reps in and out of the field. This is something you should always be encouraging them to do whether it’s reading books, listening to podcasts, or watching videos relating to mental toughness and control.

Here’s what we recommend if you don’t know where to start:

If your reps aren’t already looking into educational resources like this (that are usually free), try including it in their development or making it a fun part of the team culture!

Let’s keep in touch

This is the first blog in our Manager Series so there will be more to come (plus another webinar) so be looking out for that! If you like learning about mental toughness and want even more tips, let’s chat about it. Shoot me a DM on Instagram @chris_pierce and look out for the next exciting blog we’re releasing about mental toughness in sales to make you a better manager.

Top 4 Sales Books to Help You Take Control

Sean Huckstep

The more mental control you can gain, the more sales you can close. Interesting idea? In these four best books on sales, you can learn how industry experts recommend taking control throughout the selling process to ultimately win more deals. The suggestions in these books are proven, you just need to read to get started.

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

Best Sales Books

  1. “The Challenger Sale” by Mathew Dixon & Brent Adamson
  2. “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins
  3. “Door-to-Door Millionaire” by Lenny Gray
  4. “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins

#1 “The Challenger Sale” by Mathew Dixon & Brent Adamson

the challenger sale book cover

“The Challenger Sale” is well-researched and backed by strong science, and it exposes the weaknesses that prevent a lot of salespeople from being successful. It clearly instructs salespeople on how to change and reach trusted advisor status with their customers.

There is a huge difference between a sales rep that maintains a superficial relationship with a lead, rather than someone who becomes their trusted friend. It doesn’t take as much time as you’d expect to improve to this level of a relationship.

With this advice, you’ll become an overall better salesperson.

“‘The Challenger Sale’ shows you how to maintain control of the complex sale…you will know how to better differentiate your organization, your offering, and yourself in the mind of the customer.” —Adrian Norton, Vice President, Sales, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals

#2 “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins

awaken the giant within book cover

You’ve all heard of the #1 national bestseller, Tony Robbins, but have you taken the time to read one of his books? We highly suggest this one because it teaches you how to take immediate control of your mental, emotional, physical, and financial destiny.

Reading it can help you find power in your personal and professional life.

If you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom and you need advice on how to take control of your life, this book is the one for you. Personal and professional health are equally important, especially in the sales industry. If you’re not taking mental control of your personal life and finances it’ll be that much harder to excel in such a harsh role. It’s time you took full control of your sales destiny.

“Astonishing credibility…every page bursts with well-researched and immediately practical guidelines for concentrating your thoughts and emotions on the attainment of your goals.” —Scott DeGarmo, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, “Success” magazine

#3 “Door-to-Door Millionaire” by Lenny Gray

door-to-door millionaire book cover

Another sales-centered must-have is the 2014 bestseller “Door-to-Door Millionaire: Secrets of Making a Sale” by author Lenny Gray. Gray has years of experience in the sales industry, making him the perfect person to talk about the common mistakes sales professionals make all the time.

He shows how smart salespeople avoid critical mistakes.

When you’re aware of sales mistakes before you make them, it’ll save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Being a smart salesperson comes with being proactive and arming yourself with industry knowledge.

Common Mistakes You Could Be Making

  • Using no tools or the wrong ones
  • Treating every customer the same
  • Focusing on your pitch over connection
  • Lacking integrity and mental toughness

“I’ve been in sales for five years and have seen that salesmen that follow these principles are successful and those that don’t usually end up quitting.” —Kelton Chapman

#4 “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins

the 5 second rule book cover

Having endured a lot of negative experiences, Mel Robbins decided to dedicate a book to what saved her: the 5 second rule. Simply put, her rule says to count down from five and then act on whatever we were too scared to do. No thinking, as soon as you hit one you’re up and moving before overthinking what could go wrong.

The 5 second rule is how Robbins got out of debt, saved her marriage, and became a motivational speaker.

This rule can be applied anywhere in your life, especially to sales. We all have those days when we struggle to just get out of bed or knock on that last door, but the advice in this book can help us find new leads and close more deals without overthinking it.

“‘​​The 5 Second Rule’ helps you build an excellent habit that will transform your life…Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their life.” —Niraj Kapur

Bonus: Door-to-Door Sales Books

While these four books are must-haves, there are plenty more sales and motivational books that can help you find the motivation you’ve been looking for:

Check out our Top 8 Books for Door-to-Door Sales for an even bigger list.

The Solar Setter/Closer Model: What it Means and Why it Matters

Danny Pessy

One thing that I started to notice more in the last few years is the mass adoption of a setter/closer model in Solar. When door to door first started, it was an eat what you kill kinda operation. College kids would flock to different parts of the country for a summer sales program in hopes to make as much money as they could in a short amount of time selling low value contract products to clients.

But now that solar has been taking huge market share in the door to door space, what we’re finding is that the industry is starting to innovate. More people are flooding into the solar industry because of the financial sense it makes for the client, the company, and the planet—so the model has changed.

What is the Setter/Closer Model?

When one rep (the setter) focuses entirely on setting appointments for the other sales rep, known as the closer, will follow up with set appointments to make the sale.

When I first started doing solar in 2016, I was part of the Vivint GM program. We would sell an alarm and a Vivint solar rep would come behind us and close the lead you generated, with solar.

Although that particular program didn’t pan out, the model did. Focus on one thing and do it great (i.e., have one person for setting up appointments and one for closing them). Since then, companies have transitioned their entire business model from self-generated leads to a setter/closer program. 

Setters vs. Closers

The Role of a Setter

Setters have to focus on just one thing in a setter/closer program. That’s getting a customer interested and setting a solid appointment or what I like to refer to as a “pop on by” approach. When trying to scale out a team, it’s much easier to break your program into two sections, and let them master those departments. 

With a setter, only focusing on setting good appointments and not learning the intricacies of solar and how to close deals, it allows them to shorten their learning curve and generate more deals for your company. Rather than trying to figure out how to deal with the emotional rejection that door to door has and figure out how to sell solar in a short time. It’s a perfect way for any organization to scale quickly and efficiently. 

That’s why I’m a firm believer that the seller/closer program is going to dominate the solar industry in years to come.

The Role of a Closer

After an appointment is set, the closer’s role is to come in and finalize the sale. The biggest reason that this new adopted model has become much more effective, is because the top-tier closer now spends less time sifting through uninterested people. They’re finding more customers that are already interested and want more information because of the setter role. If you’re running a business you want your best closers sitting down with as many potential clients as possible. This will give your closers higher closing percentages and in turn get more closed deals on the books. 

Get More Involved in the Future of Solar with me

Because of the success the solar industry has seen with this new model, i will be traveling to select markets and doing a 2 day workshop braking down how to run a setter closer model and closer more solar deals. 8 hours a day breaking down the vision, mindset, and techniques you need to thrive in the saturated solar market.

In addition, I’ll be featuring the top setters and closers in each market and you will get a chance to hear from the best in your locations. 

Are Setters the Future of the Solar Industry?

If you’re in solar you do not want to miss this training. Never before has there been a more detailed breakdown on how to be a successful solar-preneur. If your deals come from; self-generation, setter closer, virtual, or from leads, you don’t want to miss this. Find a city near you, and book your tickets now for the biggest setter/closer workshop ever!

Reserve My Spot

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What is Outsides Sales? Definition + 2 Steps to be Successful

Sean Huckstep

Imagine this: it’s 11 AM. Your appointment with a prospect that is a 40-minute drive from your home office has canceled. They sent you a text when you were about 20 minutes away, telling you that they’ll have to reschedule for next week.

You’re only about ¼ of the way to quota and you need to hit your numbers this month. Otherwise, you have been warned that you will be put on a plan.

Historically this area hasn’t been worked very well by people in your office because of the long commute. You don’t have another appointment lined up until later in the afternoon because you knew how long of a drive this would be. You are now presented with a choice. Do you stay in that area that you are currently heading to, or do you turn around and spend more time in the car driving back to the office?

If you’re in field sales, you’re probably faced with choices like this on an almost daily basis. But in this line of work, “Time is Money” so you need to spend your time wisely in order to generate as much business as possible. Here’s how to avoid situations like this using great sales tech, but first we have to define it.

What is outside sales?

The difference between inside sales and outside sales is clear: Inside sales reps typically sell right from their office or home desk. Outside sales reps, on the other hand, travel and broker face-to-face deals. While outside sales reps likely have an employer with physical office space, these salespeople are meeting with prospects at trade shows, conferences, and industry events.

 

2 Tips to be a success in outside sales

  1. Invest in the right sales tech
  2. Stay optimistic

#1 Invest in the right sales tech

Of course, there’s a lot you can do without technology, but the quickest and most efficient way to manage your outside sales efforts is with the right tech. 

If you’re going to invest in working in this field, then fully work it. With the right technology you should be able to:

  • Map your territories. Plot 20-30 contacts in the surrounding area and take the quickest routes to them or contact those that are near current/new leads.
  • Help you clover leaf. After you approach your mapped territories, take the time to meet the neighboring businesses and the decision makers in those businesses. Create these leads in your CRM and plot them on a map. Take note of the interesting and important conversations that you have with the gatekeepers. Figure out how you could get business to progress with those companies.
  • Set appointments and plan days ahead of time.

There is really no excuse to take an off-day just because things aren’t going the way that you planned them to go. Sales tech provides you with options to adapt and thrive in any situation. You should always have a Plan B and C, or at least an optimistic attitude that’s willing to adapt on the fly. Not to brag about ourselves, but SalesRabbit is built to make that adaption easy and make sure reps and managers always have smart options in the field. 

#2 Stay optimistic

Outside sales can be an extremely challenging job. That’s no question. So staying optimistic has to be a choice you make. 

As Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Sometimes your appointments won’t out the way that you’d hoped, but there are still opportunities to get stuff done, as long as you’re determined enough to look for them. Often all it takes is a willingness to adapt, and that’s the first major step towards a successful day.

Are you in outside sales? Tell us about it!

If you’re in outside sales chances are this all resonated with you. If so, do you have any advice for other reps trying to make it in the outside sales world? Drop them down below! We’re always looking to adapt and learn as much as we can about the sales world. And even if you aren’t familiar with outside sales, were these tips helpful to you? We want to hear from you.

5 Key Steps for Selling Solar Panels

Sean Huckstep

Solar panels have become an increasingly popular solution to homeowners’ increasing energy bills. In 2020 alone, the U.S. installed enough solar panels to power 16.4 million homes. The demand for this renewable energy solution will only continue to grow so now’s the time to learn how to sell solar panels to become incredibly successful in the future of solar sales. 

Why sell solar panels?

“About 2.8% of the electricity generated in the U.S. is powered by solar energy. Solar accounted for 13.5% of electricity generated by renewable sources in 2021. Americans installed enough solar panels in 2022 to power 22 million homes.”

5 Steps to selling solar panels:

  1. Know the stages of the Buyer’s Journey
  2. Target customers with your information
  3. Focus on the customers pain points
  4. Get customer referrals
  5. Refine your sales process

#1 Know the stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Before we talk about what that looks like, we first need to think more about the way that people buy things. First, a problem arises that starts the stages a modern buyer goes through when considering a purchase:

  • Awareness Stage: The awareness stage is where you recognize a problem and assess it. Is the car worth getting repaired or is it time to get it replaced? Is it a priority? What will you miss out on if you don’t act now? 
  • Consideration Stage: Which model best meets your needs? Is it better to buy new or used? Which is a more reliable product? Is it time to get a hybrid or electric car? 
  • Decision Stage: You’ve decided on a car, but you want to evaluate your options and make the best purchase possible. In this stage, you’re essentially implementing your decision.

Nowadays there is so much information available to buyers that they feel they can learn everything they need to without having to rely on a rep and without having to experience a lot of pressure. This means it’s going to be difficult to conduct an accelerated buyer’s journey when the modern consumer is used to having time and resources to make a well-researched decision. But there are still ways that your approach can acknowledge that and even use it to your benefit.

#2 Target customers with your information

In order to take advantage of the new buyer’s journey, you’ll need to find a way to tell people about your service and get them interested in your offering early on. Everybody’s heard of solar. The problem is whether or not they’ve actually considered it a viable option for their situation. Some solar companies are getting their name and solution in people’s minds by either creating leads through digital marketing or buying lead lists full of people who have already done their research and expressed interest.

#3 Focus on the customers pain points

Remember, the first step in the buyer’s journey is recognizing a problem. Nobody is immune from the problems that lead most people to investing in solar panels in the first place, whether they’re rising energy costs, environmental concerns, or desires for self-sustainability. You’re selling a product with nearly universal appeal, so focus on those reasons. The more you can help a prospect recognize and resonate with the problems that your product solves, the more effective you’ll be.

It’s also important to address the benefits of investing in solar panels now. Remember, a big part of the awareness stage is deciding whether or not a problem is a priority or not. Solar acts a lot like a compounding investment—the longer you have it, the more power it has to save you money (no pun intended). Even if they don’t see themselves staying in a house long, solar will help them save money on energy bills in the short run and increase the value of the home should they choose to sell.

#4 Get customer referrals

What “referral” means is: when you as a sales rep or rep for your company asks a current customer if they know of any friends, family, or neighbors that would be interested in talking to you or wanting to know more about your service. This lead generation method is overlooked sometimes because reps either don’t think to ask customers for referrals or they’re scared to ask.

Customer referrals are incredibly important because they are warm leads based on customer experience. If you give the customer a great experience and their friend is also looking for solar panels, you’ll be the first person they think of. There are a ton of ways to get started with customer referrals, but if you need a script we’ve got you covered.

#5 Refine your sales process

As you know, the solar sales cycle is a long buyer’s journey. In our example, buying a car can reasonably be accomplished in one afternoon, once the decision has been made. With solar, chances are it’ll take at least a few weeks or months before install.

This leaves a lot of time for losing customers and making mistakes, so here’s what you should focus on doing:

  • Demonstrate professionalism throughout the process, but especially in the way you manage the deal. Digital forms and contracts, e-signing, and on-the-spot credit checks are all great ways to do this.
  • Eliminate errors as much as possible. Digital forms and contracts are a great way to ensure you’re collecting the right information and prevent any chance of it being lost.
  • Be unified in all your interactions with the customer. Nothing is more frustrating than having a rep say something that contradicts something that was said by another employee or project manager. If you’re all taking notes on a client in the same platform, this will eliminate a lot of embarrassment.
  • Be quick to resolve concerns and questions that may arise. It would be smart to develop a resource for those who have decided on a plan but are waiting for estimates or installation. This resource should resolve FAQs, build confidence in the company, and increase excitement for the product/service.

Start selling more solar panels now

The main message here is that solar panels are here to stay and will only increase in popularity. If you’re really paying attention, collecting data on customer behavior, and creatively finding ways to get their attention, you’ll manage to stay ahead of the game no matter what changes come along and dominate your corner of the market.

For more info on implementing these strategies and other best practice tips for your company, schedule a demo with us and we can help you out! 

D2DCon 6: Biggest Sales Event of 2023

Zac Kerr

Have you registered for D2DCon yet?! The biggest door to door conference of the year is coming up this weekend, Jan 19-21st in Salt Lake City, and you won’t want to miss it. The biggest names in sales will be there along with top software platforms like us. This is the best networking event of this year—check out the keynote speakers, schedule, and everything d2dcon-related here.

Speakers, Workshops & More

There is an especially exciting line-up of the main stage speakers this year. From door to door pros, to social media stars and world-renowned psychologists to teach us about maximizing sales techniques and leadership skills in the industry, d2dcon is stacked this year.  

Keynote Speakers:

Panel Topics:

All of these panels have several leaders from that industry to give information, golden tips, and thought-provoking questions to the sales community.

  • Solar CEO
  • Women’s Sales
  • Recruiting
  • Marketing
  • Pest CEO
  • Roofing CEO
  • Golden Door
  • Solar Sales
  • Alarm CEO
  • Alarm Sales

Along with these awesome speakers, you also attend incredibly informative workshops like: “How to sell your customer within 10 seconds”,  “Get More from Every Door: 5 Commonly Missed Strategies you can Implement Today”, and our personal workshop “Game on!—Level up your Field Sales with SalesRabbit” that are all on Friday and Saturday. 

What you missed last year:

Check out this quick snapshot from D2DCon 5!

Buy your tickets now

If you haven’t bought your tickets already, now is the time because prices start going up in less than 24 hours! As a gift, we have a promo for 10% off your ticket purchase when you enter code: SalesRabbit10 at checkout. We want to see you there! Be sure to stop by our booth, race RC cars with (and against) us, and chat about all things sales. 

6 Proven Methods for Closing a Sale

Sean Huckstep

There’s nothing more frustrating than working a lead all the way to the point of closing the deal, and having it not go through. Every salesperson has been there and has developed fool-proof closing techniques because of it. If you have experienced this and don’t know how to save the deal, we have 6 actual closing techniques that we know work below—check them out.

6 Unique closing techniques proven to work:

  1. The Assumptive Close
  2. Offering an alternative option
  3. Creating a sense of urgency
  4. Giving a professional suggestion
  5. Selling ownership of my solution
  6. Using testimonials and case studies

#1 The Assumptive Close

The Assumptive Close is a sales technique focused on a salesperson making the assumption that the customer has already agreed to the product so they proceed to write up the order, wrap the merchandise, or close the deal. This is the perfect technique for customers that are eager for the service you’re offering but slow to move through the pipeline. Sometimes all a customer needs is a stern push to the end of the deal.

#2 Offering an alternative option

While you may want to sell your customer on a more expensive (or better) package/service, it’s helpful to have an alternative game plan prepared for them when the time comes to discuss price and budget because they might get cold feet. 

Price is the biggest reason a customer is not ready to sign is because of price or their budget so put their mind at ease with a cheaper back-up option that shows you’re sensitive to their financial situation and still want them to have their problems solved. 

#3 Creating a sense of urgency

Have you dealt with a customer that’s dragging their feet to close a deal? They like your service, want to sign the contract, but keep finding reasons not to? Yeah, we have too. That’s why you have to learn to create a sense of urgency in the customer that pushes them to sign. Some examples of this would be:

  • Offer a discount on closing costs if they sign within 24-48 hours
  • Give them a free gift or bonus trial of a product if they sign today
  • Be proactive with follow-up meetings and schedule them while on the call
  • Remind customers the price won’t always stay the same
  • Get to the bottom line and ask for their business

#4 Giving a professional suggestion

If you’ve done your job as a rep, you’ve become a trusted advisor for your customer, when you’re in that position they will trust you to give them a suggestion on their situation. This is where you have to maintain your professional credibility and tell them honestly what package, deal, or service will solve their pain points best. 

#5 Selling ownership of my solution

The best rep is confident in what they’re selling. If you don’t believe in your solution, why should they? Customers want authenticity and if you aren’t real with them then you’ll just be another slimy, pushy salesman that didn’t leave them alone. To step away from the negative image that door to door sales can have, you need to know that your solution works and believe that it actually is the answer to their problem instead of hoping to earn a good commission by getting them to sign. It’s time to take ownership!

#6 Using testimonials and case studies

You may say all the right things about your company but prospects want to see it for themselves. This is where testimonials and case studies of proven results come in. Within your website you need to have customer reviews, videos of testimonials, and examples of real-people that are believers of your brand. Have these positive customer experiences ready to share or easy to find for new customers considering your service. 

Start improving your skills now

If you feel like your closing skills need some refinement but you don’t know where to start, here are some basic tips that we give to any salesperson hoping to boost their closing numbers:

  • Be a student of the game
  • Play The Sales Game
  • Study and learn from the best in your industry
  • Remember that closing starts with the first touch
  • If you don’t “ASK” you will never “GET”

Which closing techniques do you use?

These are some of our best closing techniques, but we want to know what you use and what has worked for you that might help others facing the same situation. Leave a comment below and help another rep out!