Next Level Pros - #74: How to Find Your Purpose and Sell Yourself: An in-Depth Interview with Chris on the Solarpreneur Pod

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

In this episode, Chris is interviewed by Solar expert, Taylor Armstrong. He shares his journey from building solar companies to his current day podcast & mastermind success.Chris opens up about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, the art of selling, and the power of building a personal brand. Tune in for a conversation on entrepreneurship, personal growth, and the power of persistence. Highlights: "The hardest thing about sales is most people are not willing to get to a decision because they're scared of rejection." "I tried the whole retirement thing for about six weeks. And it's not all it's cracked up to be; actually, one of the most depressing moments of my life." "Building a personal brand is all about consistency. Being the same guy or gal, owning who you are, getting your message out to the world." Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction and Background01:27 - Chris Sells Solgen03:22 - Impact of Podcasting05:30 - Finding Purpose Post-Retirement07:10 - Decision to Sell the Business10:21 - Building a Network15:57 - Personal Branding22:39 - Recruiting Philosophy26:26 - Four Principles of Closing Sales44:10 - Future Plans and Networking Tips

Hey guys, so a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at Door-to-Door Con down in Utah. And at the same time I was interviewed by the solopreneur podcast, Taylor Armstrong. He's built this awesome platform in which he teaches sales reps how to go and sell solar. I think he's got something like 350 podcasts. But I wanted to share my interview with you because this actually dives deep into like some of the principles and, and, uh, in actual ways that I have sold. And so we actually in this, in this interview, we play, we do a little role play. We, we do some sales. And the interesting thing is like sales applies to every single entrepreneur, every single business

person. Ultimately, if you have a product or a service, you have to sell it to somebody, whether you're selling yourself in an interview or whatnot. So you're going to love this podcast. Dive into this guy. You're going to love it. All right. What's going on? We are here with the one, the only QB of life, not one, but this is the second time actually coming on the podcast. So we'll introduce him here a little bit more in a second, but thanks for joining us two times now, Chris. Excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's been fun. We're actually here at Door-to-Door Con. But Chris, he was actually, I think, one of the first guests that we ever had on the podcast. I believe so. That was a handful of years ago. Yeah, probably at least three years ago now, I think, one of the first guests that we ever had on the podcast. I believe so. It was a handful of years ago. Yeah, probably at least three years ago now, I think. So a lot has gone on, and we're excited to catch up with Chris, hear what he's up to, jam with him for a little bit.

But he's known as the QB of life. And you just recently sold your solar company, Solgen. Chris that's right okay so he's still pretty involved in solar but he's got his own podcast doing some cool things with that so we're gonna talk a little bit about that talk a little bit about branding of course some sales skills as always so yeah Chris you want to just I don't know maybe catch us up readers digest version what you've been up to since uh i don't know three years ago since we last yeah i mean so we uh launched my solar company out of my garage i can't remember when i was on here last if we were still operating out of the garage we operated there for for two and a half years

out of the garage and we started business end of 2017 um so it was like beginning of what year was that beginning of 2019 we moved out of the garage um so ended up uh selling uh a uh a good portion of our business to private equity 2022 so it was 2022. So approaching two years now. Um, and then, uh, continued on. I was the CEO of that business until April of this last year. Uh, in January of this last year, we acquired a, uh, a company for nine figures. We had a, we had a nine figure exit in 22. Then we acquired a company. Um, it was actually a company that had an equity piece in, um, that I had an equity piece in that I had helped consult or whatnot and then we took their their management team they got put in place I stepped down as the as the CEO in April of 2023 and so since then I've launched and done a bunch of other things so launched my podcast the founder

podcast had some really cool guests on there theosies, Grant Cardone, several other like billionaires. Just had a CEO of a multi-billion dollar organization out of Canada. Like all kinds of publicly traded company. And so that was fun. That was unique. But yeah, man, it's been a ride. And now we're doing uh you know back so i i run the podcast and then the back end i i consult and coach and really share you know i

tried the uh the whole retirement thing for about six weeks and uh it's not all it's uh yeah it was actually one of the most depressing moments of my life wow and so I decided that I needed to be actively creating. And the thing I'm most passionate about is educating and sharing with people, you know, my view on life. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. And I was joking with Chris saying, man, some of these guys, he sat on his podcast that he got like right off the bat. I mean, I've been doing this like four years consistently and I can't even get those types of people yet. So, but yeah, I know you got a crazy good network and, um, you've actually done some podcasts episodes on how you've been able to build your network and that have been really good. So definitely go check out his podcast. We'll put it in the show notes for guys wanting to

check it out here from some of the top guys he's getting on his show. But yeah, I want to hear a little bit, you said it was tough, like being retired and all that and i think you had told that story in your podcast but what were your feelings like you built this company up you guys had a ton of success in washington uh got it yeah sold it what was it like what were some of your feelings and why was that so difficult for you to yeah you know it's interesting i've always believed this but it's not until like you actually go through it then you're like oh yeah that is true um it's not until like you actually go through it. Then you're like, oh yeah, that is true. Is the fact that like as entrepreneurs, as salespeople, as anyone, like we find the most fulfillment in actively creating something, right.

And being, being engaged in, in doing hard things like that is where life fulfillment happens, right. Every once in a while, we want to go on a vacation. We want to take some time off. Like, that's cool. Yeah. I need that. you need to recharge but when it goes from like this is my life's purpose from an economic standpoint building this to i no longer have a life's purpose

economically um it becomes very saddening and like I said, it was, it was a point of depression. Like, um, my baby, uh, essentially had grown up and I had married her off and, you know, she's no longer there. And so, um, you know, that was, that was, that was tough. And, uh, I needed to have purpose. I needed to have the ability to create again. And so, um, you know, after a few weeks of doing that, I started thinking through what I wanted to do, how to, what my life's work is, uh, what my, what my mission is. And, and so just recreating new purpose. And, uh, you know, of course, one of the reasons I stepped away was I wanted to spend more time with my wife, my kids and whatnot. And so I've been very on purpose, like now, uh, making sure my life is designed with them first and foremost yeah january has been a little crazy i've i'm now in my fifth different city in 25 days

and i've been home i think a total of six days in january but very much on purpose because like i'm just kind of running a thing but now you know i'm gonna go home spend some good quality time with my family go and spend a couple weeks in india and dubai with my wife wow um but yeah so like uh what i'm creating now is very much by design yeah that's cool oh yeah and it caught me off guard i didn't know that like i didn't think you guys would be selling the company because you know i always saw your soul gem power soul gem power and i thought it was gonna be kind of soul gem power for life and right building this so was this something that you guys had been thinking about or was it a goal for you guys we always had a plan to sell the business stepping away from the business wasn't in the cards um

like i i sold off and then rolled forward some equity planning on being the ceo taking the thing public yeah uh march of last year i was coming home from a wrestling tournament with two of my sons um that they had been wrestling in my then uh 14 year old and my son who's now 10 my 15 and 10 year old uh they were in uh they were in the car and we had a drunk driver uh hit us head on he was coming at us 120 miles an hour yeah and it put things into like of a tailspin of like reflection like what am i doing with my life is this really what i want and you know meanwhile there's like some things going on with like a board of directors that i had like just some misalignment with and i'm just like you know i want to spend more time with my kids and um so i just and once again before this car wreck like it wasn't even on the radar and then like immediately after that

i really started contemplating on it and it was a few weeks later that i stepped down yeah so yeah yeah i remember seeing the photos car just absolutely destroyed yeah and uh yeah i imagine that'd be something that like really makes you think yeah i mean it was a miracle that that we uh walked away right like my son in the back is where the car got you know we veered off and it got the back part got destroyed he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and walked away with like a fat lip and like it just just total blessing and you know just reminder that uh i have a different purpose in life or i have a reason to keep living otherwise god wouldn't have preserved me yeah no kidding yeah and i know you've

probably told the story many times but have you talked to the people who hate you and stuff and like no never had a conversation with them they were uh you know 320 mid-20s guys they were completely plastered not wearing seat belts they actually walked away after rolling like four times um their car was even more destroyed than my mine and um but yeah i never never had a chance to to talk with them um you know i got some court documents the the state pressed charges against them felony charges but uh outside of that yeah no no conversation with them wow yeah crazy crazy well yeah so, and it's cool. And so once you did sell the company, was it like immediately you wanted, I knew you took six weeks or whatever, but, uh, when you were on that little six week mini retirement, were you thinking, okay, I'm

going to start this podcast up after I'm going to start doing the consulting or was that something just after six weeks you're like, okay is what i want to do um yeah i mean definitely six weeks of like self-reflection of what i wanted to do and um for me a podcast has always been a great avenue to be able to share the message with the world and and i knew if i was going to do it i was going to do it big and so i immediately invested a lot of money into equipment and marketing and everything else getting the best people on the show paid zero dollars for any of my guests but um i did invested a lot of relationships over time to be able to get those kind of guys out on there you know grant cardone was one of the first people i reached out to he immediately agreed to it same with same with alex um and you know my buddy that

started uh and sold his uh business tap out for 120 million dollars um oh yeah yeah it's cool yeah he's uh he was one of my initial contacts and then i've just kind of networked through it and been able to attract some really cool people on yeah that's so cool but yeah and so um as you know chris this podcast is mainly geared towards um a lot of probably majority sales reps listen this podcast um but i think we get company owners for solar, all that. Hopefully more than that, but that's kind of the target audience, right? So for you, it's been a while since you've been a sales rep, but I know you did that for a long, how many years were you selling?

You know, I sold pest control for one summer. I was in the home security space for eight years. A couple of those years we were owning a business. Okay. Um, not knocking doors. And then I, and then I was in the solar space,

uh, knocking a couple, a couple of years in the solar space and then in management. So, you know, I, my, my whole career has been around the sales space,

whether that's door to door or virtual sales or whatnot, uh, which is, uh, this, uh, this fall will be 19 years Wow so yeah that's forever forever so yeah like you've been building this personal brand a long time mm-hmm and maybe some of the cells are listening this okay this guy just sold a massive company nine-figure exit and all that

but you just spoke on the marketing panel today so when you were actively selling all that did you have a personal brand built up or like what are some of these i think it's important no matter where you're at in your career that you build a personal brand now not necessarily uh investment of money like money can come later initially investment of time and consistent effort right like building a personal brand is all about consistency being the same guy like or gal like owning who you are getting the message out to the world um you know i've been doing live videos since whenever facebook started doing it like 2013 2014 right like sharing sharing my message and

um i never really started pumping money behind my personal brand until the last like year and a half before that it was all just pure organic um and i never did it like in a cheap way like from a like i wasn't like doing giveaways or different things to build my brand it was always just like naturally attracting people that agreed with my message and so as a salesperson or whatnot like i think it's very important that you are cognizant that you have to build a brand, whether you work for somebody else or you're building your own business, who you are, your name, like that is my brand that I've created. That's what I created in the door-to-door space or whatnot. Like always one that was always black and white, never shady in my sales, right? Like that's part of building a brand, especially if you're just building it as a sales career. And then realizing that, you know, the internet is out there and whatever is posted on there will be there forever.

And so, you know, your brand, whether you're selling solar or any other product, needs to be in alignment with what you're representing at the door. Right. And so making sure you have a good bio, good like, you know, and it doesn't all have to be like solar, solar, solar, solar. That should be a part of it. But like your brand is brand is your life right sharing what you're doing with the family like if if your brand they go on and they see you partying and at bars and like doing just crazy things or whatnot there's a good chance you're going to damage your brand with your end consumer whether that's your employer or whether that's actually the person that's buying solar from you and so very very important that like whatever's documented is in alignment with what you want to represent

to the world and so that's stories that's posts that's reels like that all needs to be in alignment but once again it doesn't have to be all for an economic value like for me my brand is like god family business fitness like that that whole aspect yeah love it love it and yeah i think it's something that maybe a lot of guys don't think of and i actually kind of had to learn it the hard way that like some of these customers there's people are smart right like they're googling us um some people actually research things these days as much as we think they don't um i actually did a podcast a while back where i took some you know like recorded footage of a cell i'd been in put it on my podcast and then long story short this customer he like googled me was researching

me after the cell he didn't sign the first time but he found that i had like recorded our whole um you know presentation with him and i hadn't like and uh so he texted me he's like hey man i see you posted this you didn't tell me we're recording and i didn't authorize this so don't come back i'm not going slower with you guys and we we talked more and he ended up being chill and i I think he, in a way, had kind of a respect that I did have. He saw that besides that, the rest of what I was doing was pretty authentic. And I was, you know, legit insular and all that. So that kind of, I think, calmed him down.

But it still was enough that he's like, I'm not going to go slower than you guys. Interesting. Yeah, so it's like stuff like that we don't really think about. And I know we've heard from guys that have built huge organizations recruiting helps in that um helps in your cells so yeah like for just maybe the cells are up and for you when now that you sold your your company that's what enabled you to go and start a podcast like have all these connections right right my brand yep yeah there's no way it would have been a lot harder to get like grant cardone and those guys for sure yeah so it's so cool so what are some maybe some

things someone that doesn't have a brand maybe they're like okay i'm just selling because that's how a lot of this door-to-door industry is yep a lot of solar guys what are some maybe like simple things that they could start doing right away if they're like so first and foremost clean up your social media right like uh once again make sure it's in alignment with what the message that you want the world to see not just customers not just sales reps right like and and i know like a lot of times in the solar space it's always like you know show the flashy cars watches those type of things because it's you're trying to attract sales reps but realize your consumers are looking at that as well and that that can be a very bad thing right and so for me my brand has never been cars hoes you know whatever else and so um just decide and if you're okay with consumers seeing

your lamborghini or ferrari or whatever else then then so be it yeah but just understand that it's got to be by design so one uh you know clean that up to get consistent like a brand is a recognizable is a recognizable image or recognizable feeling recognizable whatever right so like i know if i go into mcdonald's i'm gonna get the same experience over and over again and that that's what you need to be. And so whether that's like the same clothes that you wear all the time, whether it's the same haircut, you know, my buddy, Ryan Panetta, he runs a big podcast. He's known for his colorful hair, right? Like he's got this bright blue hair or bright red hair and that's him, right?

Like if you ever say to anyone like, oh, do you know the colored hair guy? They're like, oh yeah, Ryan Panetta. Yeah. You know, there's, so like create mental mental markers about so this goes back to being authentic like be who you are don't try and be ryan panetta don't try being danny pesci don't try being like just be you and consistently be you that's how you build a brand and uh the way you do consistently is it's got to always be out there right and so like stick your message, stick to your brand, stick to, you know, what you're sharing with the world.

Yeah. Yeah. And we heard a great example just for guys in door to door. We heard in your panel earlier, one of the guys, Mosaic, I got to get them on the podcast, but just from building this brand, he's built up a massive team. Yeah. He's he gets recruits left and right and it's interesting because he has he has every excuse in the world like i came from mexico i don't have a good english like my i have a heavy mexican accent or spanish accent yeah like all the reasons why why it wouldn't work but he's just been consistent and like owned who he is being a one of one i like that's the goal you got to be

one of one nobody else like you in the world so be you and that's where you can really create a brand yeah yeah that's so cool were you seeing when you were selling were you seeing a lot of these things pay off like at the time maybe in recruiting in in selling or do you think it's been more of like a long term i mean it's always long-term but yeah it definitely is always paid off right like that's what's got me referrals that's what's got recruits right because like my name is consistent across the board and and people know that like when they get to know chris lee they know exactly what they're doing right it's a guy that loves his family loves god is very authentic not a straight shooter. Right.

And so if you're, you're outselling or like when I was building soul gen, it was always Chris, the solar guy, right. Yeah. Flat bill hat, a little lemon t-shirt.

And you know, my name was Chris, the solar guy and consistent across the board that, and then like, uh, recruiting, we'd always be putting out videos that were very high energy, very involved, right. Like, and that was a consistent message that we were sending to the recruits to come and be a part of it yeah

that's awesome yeah and something you mentioned in your panel earlier is just speaking of recruiting um i know you guys didn't like you didn't pay them most as a company um and i think you transitioned basically all over the phone right you guys were just doing we did about 75 percent virtually yeah okay um but yeah you have you you guys crushed in recruiting bought a lot of people almost recruited me at one point but uh yeah i didn't come over guess good thing i didn't because you would just left me not out to dry you still have a great opportunity um but yeah i want to speak to that and then maybe get in some sales stuff because a lot of guys maybe they're with companies don't have the lowest

red line like you hear that all the time what's the red line what's the red line how much you pay in and it's something i try to talk about hey it's not all about what uh what you're getting paid a lot of factors that go into that so how did you have any advice on like how you guys recruited and how you brought people into the culture and not just made it about the money so first and foremost money is never the way that it's preached right like i learned earlier in my career when i was in the home security space that it was never about the amount of money that you make per deal is about the total money that you make right like when i went from owning my own company in the alarm space being able to make twelve thirteen hundred dollars a deal and actually going back

and working for vivint and making six hundred dollars a deal right like you would say that they were paying me less than half the reality is under that pay structure that culture and everything that was created at then that competition i made more money as a sales rep and manager at vivid than i ever did running my own business and this is the thing that guys have to get down like like more low red line more money per deal does not mean more money i think a lot of solar guys are are experiencing this right now it's because they went after the lowest red line and now that installer can't afford to pay them yeah right like like duh yeah like if a understanding just the whole economic uh like way that a business works i want everybody to be extremely profitable on the whole end of

the value chain so if i'm in like a sales dealer i want my installer to actually be incentivized to install my stuff. Right? If I got the cheapest red line with them, guess what? They're going to put other jobs in front of me. And, and if they don't have enough to function and be profitable, guess what?

My customers are going to get terrible treatment and they're never going to be able to afford it. So I would much rather make less money, be mutually aligned with my installer, my company or whatnot, because that's ultimately where people make the most money. And that's just the financial aspect. On top of that, you get paid in culture, you get paid an opportunity, you get paid in education. And so like aligning with a company that, that creates that for me, where I could learn, I can grow, I can develop, I can become the best version of myself.

Like that is where the real opportunity lies. And this is a, you know, this, when we were building our business, we were very upfront, look, we won't pay you the most per deal. Like, and you may not even make the most money while working here, but you get compensated in so many other ways besides money. And we'd go through them, right. We're helping you be better physically, better economically. We're going to help you teach how you invest, economically. We're going to help you teach how you invest, right? We're going to help build your associations in the way that you get back to society and be a better father or brother or sister, mother, you know,

and better spiritual human being, right? And so that always attracted, that brings home for anybody, right? Because once you start making a lot of money, you quickly realize that it's never about money, right? We're all chasing a feeling. We're all chasing something. Money provides feelings, right? Like opportunities to travel or, or buy something that's really cool. Like that gives us a feeling, but you can get that feeling a whole lot more ways than just money. Right. And so realizing that that's where you are truly compensated is not just in your paycheck,

you're compensated across the board. So make sure you're facilitating yourself either as a recruiter, as a business owner, as a sales rep, that that whole value chain is a lot of value creation. Yeah, that's so good. And especially for maybe managers listening to this or company owners, it's something you got to think about because I know you're a big marketing guy and um it's like what do they say that's you shouldn't be the cheap but you should either be the highest price and add a ton of value or be like the cheapest something like that yeah yeah the essentially in the marketplace you should

be the most expensive or the cheapest never in in between. Yeah. If you're going to be the cheapest, you're playing the volume game. You're making a small fragment, small percentage on billions of dollars of sales. Or you're going to be the highest value creator in the fact that I'm going to charge the most, but I'm going to be able to pay, provide the most opportunity to my employees, to my end users, to everything like that. And so for me, I always love that model. I want to be the highest priced. I don't care where anybody else is in the market. You want to come and try to undercut me by 50%, go for it. You're going to soon be out of business. You're not going to be able to provide the experience that I can for my people.

Yeah, so good. And yeah, I think it's important for us to think about that as we're recruiting guys too. Like how we create in the culture where they're being fed spiritually, mentally, physically, all these different things, becoming better people. Because if you can point to that and show like examples, hey, this rep, like he's making great money, but look, now he's like, you know, in a better place mentally,

maybe turn his life around in other ways. That's, yeah, you're creating a story around that. And that's way more powerful in recruiting rather than just saying hey this guy made half a million last year absolutely so i love that love that um so yeah um then with talking a little bit a little bit of sales here it's funny we're actually uh we're planning this podcast this morning but it's been like a five-hour journey to get up and actually do the podcast. Because Chris is down here selling. We just were on our way up. He's presenting his mastermind.

Got people interested in that. He's trying to lock down business in the hallway, uncovering their objections, not taking the maybe, all of the above. All the things, baby. Yeah. So, yeah, let's get in all the things, baby. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, what's, let's get in just as we start, uh,

wrapping up here. What are some cells skills that's maybe you, um, all right. We're like, I don't know the top things you train your guys in as far as cells. Yeah. So there's four,

there's four principles of closing and you know, I'll, I'll share with you a couple of them. And they're not rules, they're principles. And the difference between a rule and a principle is this. A principle is foundational and God-made, and a rule is man-made. And the thing with a rule, a principle will always have consequences. A rule may sometimes have consequences. I'll give you an example.

You're going six the speed limit 65 and you're going 80. what's the consequence of going 80 miles an hour um i guess not nothing until you could it could be good it could be bad right like you could get caught by the police you could get in a wreck because you're going too fast around the corner what that's it could be right so a rule is man-made and could potentially have a consequence could potentially not right so that's how you distinguish between the difference between a rule and a principle so when i teach my guys is there's four principles of closing and they are they will have consequences if you do not follow them you can't break them and not suffer the consequence. So that's the premise of this.

And so principle number one is yes, no, yes or no, no maybes. A decision must be made. And, you know, a lot of people will take this and they'll be like, well, you know, they'll push for a decision. The person's like, well, maybe, like, I need to know. Like, okay, I'll give you a no, but I still might call you back tomorrow. That's not a decision, right? Like a decision is that they're either moving forward or they are a hundred percent not moving forward. And the hardest thing about this is most people

are willing to get to a decision because they're scared of the no, right? They're scared of rejection. And so as a salesperson, you have to be comfortable. You have to be totally okay with getting the no on every single door, every single appointment.. You have to be totally okay with getting the note on every single door, every single appointment. You got to be totally fine in that realm, right? Because a no is more powerful than a maybe. A maybe, because what happens is if once we become okay with maybes, we begin taking maybes that should have been yeses, right? And the no's that were going to be no's, like they just didn't have the guts to tell you. And so you have to draw a line, right?

It's what I call the 10-80-10 rule. 10% of the population will say yes to anything. 10 will say no to anything. And 80% will say maybe, right? They're going to balance. And the goal as a salesperson is to cut the line right down the middle get rid of the maybes and get as many over and now here's the crazy thing is like even if all 80 of those said no right instead of saying maybe they just went no would you make more

money uh yeah probably because you get to the yeses quicker. Exactly. So the, the, so a lot of times when they look at this, like, no, like that same amount of yeses or whatever. But the reality is is like, maybe it's waste your time. The callbacks, the mental effort, the like, Oh, they're probably going to, you know, the follow up, like all these different things. And so I have a very, like, I know there's people that teach like two, three, four touch clothes, bull crap. Like I much rather be. And, and as long as you come from a point of authenticity that you are there to help the customer and you're totally fine with them

telling you, no customers will be totally fine. Getting to a decision. Like, look, I'm not here to pressure you. I'm not here to make you say yes. I'm totally fine if you give me a no. I just know that if you put this off, this decision, you're going to be wasting your time and you're going to be wasting mine. And I care about you too much to waste your time. And so, like, I am helping you by making a decision, even if the decision's no. And the example I always

give is like San Diego SDG&E one of the most expensive utilities in the nation right when I was selling there it was it ranged from like 10 cents up to 32 cents a kilowatt hour now I think it's in the 50s yeah yeah 50s or whatever and what percentage of San Diego has solar? I would say like 30%. So it's probably 25, 30 right now. So why doesn't the other 70% have solar? Probably because they're saying maybe. It's because a sales rep screwed that customer at one point.

Like you have to believe that by allowing somebody to say, maybe you are screwing that individual. Because what happens is that 70%, it's slowly getting eaten away, maybe 69, 68. But had people been committed to yes or no, no maybes, right? They would never spun these guys.

Now, they forever have been looking into solar. They're forever like, oh, I'm waiting for the best deal to come across the board when it finally starts making sense or right now. so they've wasted the time of so many sales reps they've wasted the time and dude this isn't a market where solar is so extremely like black or white and now people are kicking themselves because nem3 yeah it's like dude they totally the sales rep screwed those people right and that And that's what I genuinely believe. Like when I align with a product, I believe that whenever I allow a customer to take a,

maybe I screwed them. That's my fault. I take total ownership over that. And so like that is principle. Number one has to be followed, cannot be broken. And if you can really figure that one out, you will make millions and millions of dollars over your career.

And that is what I attribute to being as successful as I am. That's so good. Because yeah, I didn't really, yeah, I haven't really thought about it that way as a principle. Because we, I don't know, I probably thought of it more as like a rule. Like, okay, I'm going to try two, three, four times maybe. But if it's still maybe then.

So the issue with this is like, when you break that principle, right? And you allow them maybe to slip through yeah and then you do that 30 times and then you have that one person that calls back and says yeah taylor i want to do this yeah it's what it's what it does brain it creates a justification to always allow a customer into the maybe realm right and so you when you're you're pushing hard for yes or no, no maybes, you're like, wait, but that one time the Smiths did call me back. Right. So it's going to totally screw me. And I'm gonna allow more and more people to go maybe rather, rather than if I were to just push them to make a decision, they actually would have gone. Yes. I will get way more yeses than losing out on that occasional maybe that would have called me back yeah well that's so good i didn't think about that way yeah um well and so how do you think because sometimes you get these people like they like you're saying they don't want the pressure they want to feel like they're not having to make a for sure decision so like what what do

you do to get them to think so first and foremost yeah yeah so you have to you have to set an expectation up front right um if i'm going to slap you the worst thing i can do is just slap you out of the blue yeah right and so like for example i'm gonna go to taylor say taylor guess what dude uh i'm gonna slap you and it's not gonna it's not gonna be fun it's going to hurt a little bit but i am i just i just slapped taylor right yeah it wasn't so but here's the thing if i would have just slapped you out of uh like out of of the blue, you had no idea it was going to, how would you feel towards me? Yeah, and I'm like, bro. Dude, what the freak?

So this is what we do in sales. We don't set proper expectations. We don't let them know that we are going to be closing them by the end of the presentation. Right? And so when we slap them, it's a jolt. It's like, where was this? Why are you trying to qualify me? Why are you trying to, why are you get my income? Why are you asking for my social, right? Like it's because like you didn't properly set expectations and this

expectation starts like when you collect the bill. So usually we do like a collect the bill and then you have a second touch where you go and actually close it with a proposal. Right. Um, so at the beginning of that proposal, you have to say, hey, look, so this is the plan today. We're going to go through the eight steps and then step number eight is we're going to move forward and you talk and you use very substantive language. You let them know, this is what's going to happen.

We're going to get you qualified. We're going to check your credit. We're going to send you a couple of documents. You're going to sign them, right? Like I'm outlining exactly what's going to happen so that when I go to slap them it's not out of the blue so that's that's step number one is you got to set proper expectations and when you get down there it's not like chris why are you trying to get me to make a decision it's like no

we talked about this like i'm totally fine if you give me a no but like if you're ready to move forward well chris and i really need to think about it. And then I just bro down with people. And I always, if I'm going to shoot somebody straight, I always ask for permission. I'd say, I'd be like, you say, hey, I need to think about it. I'd be like, Taylor, is it all right if I shoot you straight? Sure. You good? You totally fine if I just like kind of hit you right where it hurts.

Yeah, I guess so. You're good with it? Yeah, dude, I've been doing this for a long time. I've been in customers homes whatnot somebody tells me i want to think about it it's a bullcrap excuse like this is how i talk to customers this is literally and i say look it's a bullcrap excuse like you said you're okay with me shooting you straight right yeah okay so i'm gonna continue to hit you straight like literally when somebody says that it's just their way to get tell me to kick rocks taylor if you want me to kick rocks please just let me know

right now but if there is an inkling of actually wanting to go solar you just don't have the guts to make the decision right now let's let's talk through that like let's talk about what is actually holding you back because dude i'm here for you and if and if here for you means you tell me no and solar's not for you, I'm fine with that. You know, I'm going to go home. I'm going to drive the same car, eat the same food and sleep next to the same woman tonight. You ain't going to change my life. But guess what? By you making a decision to go, yes. Guess whose life's going to change?

Mine. Yeah, dude. It won't change my life. Like I will go to your neighbors. I will, I will set them up. They're going to decide to go. Yes. They're going to take advantage of this thing right but like i will not allow you to waste your time by telling me maybe because then we're just gonna play this tango and you're anxiety when i call you back you're not going to answer the phone and you're going to be like dude why is this guy still calling me it's because you told me maybe yeah i don't want you to do you put you in that position taylor like i really i'm here for you so what is it that would help you feel comfortable making a decision today uh well i need to check my quotes

i need to okay so you guys are the best deal hey perfect so are you looking for the best price or you're looking looking for the best quality best quality so best quality it's not it's not about price uh well yeah I guess both. Yeah, good quality. I'm assuming you want a good balance of both, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Look, you can go and do all your shopping and whatnot, but you're going to waste time.

My job in helping you is to help you save the three main resources, time, energy, and money, right? So time, energy, and money, i'm here to help you save it by you going to get more quotes you're going to spend money would you agree that you don't want to spend the rest of your life shopping for this thing yeah okay because otherwise you're going to end up like fred down the street he's been looking at solar for the last 10 years guess how much that cost him well yeah 10 years of paying his bill at 10 years and guess how many sales reps he's wasted their time and wasted his probably a lot and i refuse to screw my customers that way i like i like you're cool

with me shooting you straight right taylor yeah okay dude i will not screw you over i'm gonna help you get to a decision but what when i leave this table the decisions no i never want you to look into solar ever again like it will be it will be a waste of your time. But if the decisions, yes. And I'm going to help you get there. I'm gonna help you feel comfortable, dude. If it means us calling up competitors right now and showing quotes, let's do it. I'm here to spend whatever time right now to hope you feel comfortable in the decision-making process. We're not the cheapest. We're not the most expensive. In fact, I'll show you like, if you want the most expensive, go to a, we're not,

we're not the cheapest. If you want that most expensive, go to A. We're not the cheapest. If you want them, I got their phone number right now. I'll give it to you. But I'm assuming you're not in this just to be the cheapest. Yeah. Both. Okay. So, dude, let me help you get to a point of comfortable.

What else do you need to know to be comfortable in moving forward? Oh, well, I guess that's the main thing. But I don't know. We usually just kind of like think about things before we sign and all that okay cool is it right if i shoot you straight again yeah i guess sweet man what happened in your life that made you be that way well just one time we got a car and we found out we we bought it pretty quick and then we found out that it had a bunch of problems like a used one cool so we just felt

like we made a too quick of a decision didn't do our due diligence dude i agree that sucks yeah like dude if i'm sitting with you and got a got a lemon of vehicle that i'd be pissed yeah right because i mean the reality is is like you never know what you're going to get with with a car yeah like and i'm not asking you taylor to take my word for it like dude let's let's go look at like thousands of customers that have said dude not only is chris but solgen is taking care of me like let's let's go read read through that like if i can help you feel feel comfortable that this is not going to be like a poor decision that you're not going to regret it later is that something that you'd feel comfortable moving forward today yeah i, I guess so. Okay, let's go.

And then, and then I would do that. And so, you know, there's, there's two reasons why people do not make a decision to go solar. And it all comes down to trust and enough information. And the key word is enough. Most guys give too much information and so that they confuse their customer, right? Like they show up, they throw up, they, they sell features like equipment, you know, three, 400 watt panels, this micro inverter, whatever else, right? It's all, it's all about features. But what happens is the customer, you give them too much information,

too much information leads to confusion and confused buyer never buys. Right. So your goal is you have to have just enough information you got to ask the questions to give them enough that makes them feel comfortable and as long as they trust you and they have to trust you in both there's two different types of trust you know what they are uh just the person just the company so no it's actually trusting trusting character and trust and ability okay okay so like and the difference is like, do you trust your grandma? Yeah.

Okay. Do you trust your grandma operating open heart surgery on you? No. Those are the difference. Right. So trust and character. Yeah. I love grandma.

She's got great character. Trust and ability. No, I do not trust her cutting open my chest. Right. And so you're as a sales rep, you have to have both of those. You got to be a straight shooter, right?

You got to, they have to trust your character and then they have to trust you as the professional. You actually know what you're doing. You know what you're talking about. The way that you become a professional is you answer the questions they have, not the ones that you think that they have. Right. And then that leads us to enough information. Right. And someone with enough information will always make a decision

always yeah and it and so what a customer is telling you that when they want to think about you uh think about it is they're telling either one you gave me too much information or not enough or two i don't trust you that's it yeah yeah no i can i believe it um i actually had that last week I didn't close the guy and just yeah I could tell he just didn't trust everything I was saying and like if you get to the end of the clothes is it like and you know they don't trust you is it too late at that never too late okay never too late spend more time get vulnerable ask them for permission to hit him in the nuts okay yeah just like hey Taylor is is there ever shoot you straight?

Look, dude, I'm not trying to make a buck or two today, but I, dude, I feel like you don't trust me. What is it that I did in this presentation that lost your trust? That's what I would ask.

That's good. Like I would, I would hit them. And, and, but you only can, if you ask those types of questions without first asking permission, you will question their intelligence and they will feel like it's a battle.

As soon as I ask for your permission, it removes barriers. And all of a sudden I can do whatever the heck I want. Yeah, that's money. Well, yeah, I think it goes back to just saying following the principle because like I don't I don't I don't think that's a principle for me. And so many other people, they just yeah, yeah they get a couple no's and give up but like for you you just know for sure you're gonna do it so you keep walking them through it yeah i like it and i never give up like i will spend whatever time that is necessary for them to make a decision whatever if it's 30 minutes three hours 30 hours i will not leave i'll sleep on

their couch until they make a decision yeah yeah well Well, yeah. And most people don't have, you know, the cojones. They call people out and get vulnerable with them. Once again, it goes all back to, am I willing to take a no? Yeah. Yeah. I just want a decision. That is your one and only job as a salesperson is to get a decision. Nothing else.

Yeah. I know it's funny because so many people do that. Like example I see all the time is when we're setting up these appointments, knocking doors, we're supposed to try to get a bill, right? Their utility bill. Yeah. But all these new reps that train, they're like, just so scared to get a bill. Cause like, Oh, if I try to push and have them get a bill, they're going to cancel appointment. And they say, nah, forget about it. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, and that goes, that goes goes to that goes to one of my other principles which is not is quit lying to yourself most guys don't follow the rules because they want

they would rather lie to themselves like about having an appointment and doing the required to get there so but uh but yeah we can we can talk about some of the principles at another yeah no that's good how many principles are there's four principles okay all right well we didn't want to make this an all-day podcast um but no it's uh it's cool before i forget chris if people do want to uh follow you um listen to your podcast hopefully they're already where's the best place to like follow you yeah so instagram at chrisley qb like quarterback um and then i'm chris Lee QB on all major platforms. Um, I kind of suck at Tik TOK and Twitter, but, uh, you know, I'm there, um, the, the founder podcast, and that's a singular, the founder podcast. Uh, you can find me on all major

platforms, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. I'm just starting to build my YouTube following, but my Spotify, you can see the visual and stuff i had like close to 200 000 uh watch hours last month so yeah pretty pretty sweet that's cool and where do you see this going you got your podcast and you're in some mastermind groups yeah yeah so for me like i'm just passionate about changing people's lives and educating them um and i and i believe that the number one way to change the world is through the entrepreneur that the entrepreneur has the most influence in the world. And a sales rep, I would put in that same category is they're interacting, they're changing lives.

They're, um, and, and, and you see it, they either do it for the good or the worse, right? Like money empowers, uh, it magnifies who you really are. And so I'm all about magnifying. And, and, um, so it's, it's, it's partnering with businesses, consulting, coaching, and changing the world through entrepreneurship. Yeah, that's so good. Well, last question. I know you recently did a podcast on this,

but like we mentioned before, your network is just one of the best networks I've seen for sure. And not too many people can be in the room with Alex or most of these, the grant card owns all these massive influencers. So, um, guys can listen to your podcast, but what are some,

maybe some quick tips on just like being able to build a network and get in the room with some of these. So quick, uh, quick thing on, on networking one, um, you've got to consist.

It takes a lot longer than you realize, right? But to got to always ask it takes a lot longer than you realize, right? But two, you've got to always ask, like ask to be in the room, ask to be for the introduction, ask for those different types of things. But more importantly than asking is the most important thing, which you have to start with giving

and don't make it transactional. Don't give, ask, give, ask, give, ask. My ratio is I have to give five times before I ask for something. And so whenever I meet somebody new, my ratio is I have to give five times before I'm asked, asked for something. Right. And so, um,

I, whenever I meet somebody new, I'm always trying to connect them. Like if I know what you're looking for, Hey, what are you, what's important to you? What are you, what are you trying to do?

Yeah. And if I can serve and be a value to somebody that I see has a lot of value or really anyone, I don't care where they're at on the value chain, whether they're just starting out or whatnot, I want to serve them and without expectation of, of getting anything back. Like that is the number one key to building, but also being okay to ask every once in a while, like, Hey, is it all right if I come with you? Or is it all right to hang out or whatever?

And then last but not least spend money. Like I've spent a million dollars or close to a million dollars on my personal education, being in the the right room i'm in the right room at harvard business school with the owner's presence management program i'm in the right room with masterminds like i spend the money to be with the right people and you know i pay to play and you pay you pay to play in one of two ways you either pay with with resources which is money yeah or you pay with time and energy yeah right both way both all three are forms of payment as going back to the sales thing right mr customer i'm here to help you save because you pay for things with time energy and money i'm helping you save that that's how you earn anything too

yeah so it doesn't have to be just cash out, serve people, give energy, right? Like put in the time. That's how you're going to build a sweet network. Love it. Love it. Yep. So there you have it. That's how you get in the room with the big dogs and guys go shoot Chris a follow.

If you're not already listening to his podcast. I know you talk about all aspects of things. I mean, you just had a guy that came and talked about relationships. So it's not just about necessarily like selling the business. Yeah. Talking a lot about different things. I mean, you just had a guy that came and talked about relationships. So it's not just about necessarily like selling the business. Yeah. Talking a lot about

different things, right? So go shoot it a follow and it's always a good time having you on. We'll see where you go next. So hopefully we can do one before three years next time

and see what's going on next. But thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Thanks, my man. All right.