On this episode of Building Great Sales Teams, Doug quits everything...but the podcast and consulting. Join us as Doug explains the his reasons for winding down the solar team. Enjoy!
Are you tired of seeing people ghost their jobs with no explanation? Well Doug is quitting but we aren't doing it quietly! On this episode, we're breaking down the best way to exit a company without burning bridges. Doug's sharing his personal experience of leaving his 12-year career as the head of great sales teams to become a coach and teach others how to play the game. He'll be adding footnotes on career transition. Don't miss out on the inside scoop as we detail why after 12 years of hustling, Doug's making the switch to coaching the game. Tune in now for some real talk and inspiration.
00:00:16:30 - 00:00:31:57
Speaker 1
Great experiences, build great leaders. Great leaders, build great teams. This is building great sales teams.
00:00:36:25 - 00:01:00:39
Speaker 2
All right, guys. I am quitting. I'm done. I'm tired of this shit. Now, I'm just kidding. I'm not quitting, but I am quitting something. Okay. And this is. This is difficult for me because, you know, I've never not succeeded in any campaign that I've done. You know, we've always been very successful energy into at any campaign that we've attacked.
00:01:01:17 - 00:01:27:07
Speaker 2
And so just to give you some context, understand how the company works. So our agenda Field Solutions was founded in 2011. So we've been in business for 13 years now. 12 years now. 2010. Sorry, January 2010. So we've been in business for 13 years now. And we've always been a outsource solution for sales. So our first client was AT&T.
00:01:27:19 - 00:01:58:35
Speaker 2
And then after that, it was Direct TV, ADT, Digital Life, Vivint E to be door to door. I mean, we've done everything within those realm of products, different security products, different communication products, different TV products. We've had campaigns for each. You know, energy B2B was another one that we did residential energy. But mainly mainly and probably over the years, 70 to 75% of our business came from AT&T.
00:01:59:18 - 00:02:23:06
Speaker 2
And so about 18 months ago, Wayne and I decided to get into solar. So Wayne's my minority partner in the company and our VP of sales in the company. And so at the time we had commercial AT&T, we had residential AT&T, and then we had what we call our MDU division. And since then we have winded down those other two divisions.
00:02:23:06 - 00:02:50:02
Speaker 2
Are the three divisions, I should say, to focus on solar. That's one of the things we did last year. And sorry about the noise in the background. I guess our neighbors have some construction going on over there. But going back to it, what we did over the last year and a half is focused on solar. You know, we did a door to door lead acquisition as well as digital CEO referral based.
00:02:50:15 - 00:03:12:54
Speaker 2
You know, we use products like get the referral. And so it's been a learning process. We over over our career, we've put together over our divisions history. We put together about 55 clients. So although we're not going to be acquiring new clients anymore, we are going to still be servicing our old ones. So let me get into it.
00:03:12:54 - 00:03:43:58
Speaker 2
What happened? Right. So Wayne and I have been running this division for about 18 months. Wayne is the point man for it, though. And I kind of deal with the operations and the marketing and fulfillment fulfillment side of it while he heads up the sales and the sales team. And so it it's no surprise that our big debate was on please overpaying the closers in the centers and taking that money and building a brand from it I guess you could say.
00:03:43:58 - 00:04:11:45
Speaker 2
So that that that was the impasse, basically. He wanted to maintain the commissions where they were. I wanted to build a brand by reducing those commissions and reducing the customer's overall price. You know, up until now, we've always been a sales or type company. This was the first time that we were going to become a real brand, a real business in terms of we sell the product and we sell the product.
00:04:12:25 - 00:04:34:17
Speaker 2
And so we were working towards that. I knew the costs that were going to be associated with that as well as I wanted to make sure that we were competitive in the marketplace. And and quite honestly, and I'll say this time and time again, a solar closer making 5 to 6 grand for selling a solar system to one residential consumer is unacceptable.
00:04:35:13 - 00:04:56:54
Speaker 2
You know, and I believe that even more now that I've been through all of this and I'm going to die on that sword and what you're going to see over the next couple of years, that's going to have that's going to reduce be reduced to two or three grand per customer where it should be. When you look at the closers, at least in our model, the closers actually time spent on that business was maybe 6 to 7 hours.
00:04:57:45 - 00:05:19:03
Speaker 2
Now, I'm not talking about the ones that went really bad and had permit issues and insulation issues and and PTO issues. I'm talking about the ones, you know, the average solar deal, a closers going to spend like 6 to 7 hours on that deal versus a center is going to probably spend the same amount of time they get paid a third to half the money.
00:05:19:13 - 00:05:37:48
Speaker 2
Right. And so the the model's a little broken right now, and it's across the industry. And anybody that's doing well in solar, this is how they're paying out right now. And there's there's still enough meat on the bone, probably about 3 to 4 grand for the company and then maybe 2 to 3 grand for the center right. But still, the commission overall is too big.
00:05:37:48 - 00:05:57:43
Speaker 2
So I wanted to start taking a step in the other direction. That's just my opinion when I came to an impasse on that. So Wayne and I have been working together for 12 years. It's not like this just, you know, all of a sudden we're not friends anymore. We still maintain our friendship today. He texted me this morning and I'm going to support him 100%.
00:05:57:54 - 00:06:14:34
Speaker 2
All that being said, a lot of you guys come to me for all things solar. And so I'm going to give you basically a list of people that you can go to now which obviously the first is going to be Wayne. So Wayne Wayne's located in Corpus Christi. He can pretty much cover San Antonio and Houston as well.
00:06:14:58 - 00:06:44:51
Speaker 2
We got Jerry Mack, Jerry, Max based in Vegas. We got TJ in Vegas. Sorry. Reno, Nevada is where Jerry Mack's at. T.J. Nelson is in Vegas. And then Mo Dollar, he's in North Texas. Jerry Dee is now in north Texas as well. Go to Ivers. He's in Houston. Taylor Armstrong. Taylor's based in Cali, I believe, but he also has a podcast, Solopreneur.
00:06:44:52 - 00:07:08:15
Speaker 2
So you guys should check that out for sure. Neil Kiser, based in North Texas, and then Sean Wilson, he's based in the Northeast, US in the Maine, Maryland area. And so those guys pretty much cover my followin, I should say, or the the network that I have. Right. And if they don't, they are typically I have people that cover those areas.
00:07:08:40 - 00:07:28:26
Speaker 2
You know we have a Apex solar group that probably covers the whole nation and every city in it. Right. And so if you guys still need something around solar, then assume your message and I'll get you to those guys if you need know how the syllabus works, the margins, if you're a roofer and you want to understand, okay, how much money can I make here?
00:07:28:26 - 00:07:55:00
Speaker 2
You know, I'll I'll give you all of that. I've got documents supporting solar are take on packets are some of our training documents around that everything I am open book for you guys that listen to this podcast if if you need any of that just reach out to me and I'll share exactly what I know. And so going back to my story, Wayne decided he wanted to solo on his own.
00:07:55:00 - 00:08:13:22
Speaker 2
Completely understand. Do your thing, brother. And you know, I had a choice to make at that point. Do I try to step in in Corpus Christi and be the sales manager for Corpus Christi for our Corpus Christi team, because we had wind that down San Antonio in Houston already. You know, we didn't want to have office space there.
00:08:13:22 - 00:08:40:24
Speaker 2
And a management there for just one or two people. So we wanted those down. We were focused on Corpus Christi. We were going to make it happen there. So I had a team of four or five and in Corpus Christi and I did, I made the decision because over the past couple of months, you know, I've done anywhere from 50 to 70 grand in consulting, and there is something special with that.
00:08:41:06 - 00:09:09:28
Speaker 2
And that's because I haven't I've spent part time on it right in. So there's something happening on the consulting side that I need to really pursue. So that being said, I reached out to was like, Hey, I'm going to wind down the solar division. You can you can absolutely support the team that's there moving forward and transition them over to your team wherever you're going to be moving forward.
00:09:09:28 - 00:09:32:29
Speaker 2
So he's got access to a great installer in Corpus Christi now, and he's going to be doing his own thing in solar, which is exciting. You know, we both get to kind of do our own thing and and and follow what we're passionate about. Because if I look at the last year and a half, you know, I've probably done about seven or eight consulting gigs so far and in this podcast and starting to write my book.
00:09:32:29 - 00:09:54:52
Speaker 2
And when I am doing those things, whether it's the podcast, the book or consulting with the client, that's that's kind of when I'm in my flow state, I guess you could say. And solar for me, unfortunately, I just my heart wasn't in it. And every time I had to deal with it, you know, it took a lot to get me to work on it because I just I wasn't passionate about it and Wayne is.
00:09:55:37 - 00:10:14:56
Speaker 2
And so I believe in what he's doing and moving on from there. And he doesn't, you know, have to feel like he's building up the company. And not only in 100% of it, you know, I'm saying and those are the hard decisions we have to make sometimes. And, you know, we can all get in our feelings and everything and and get upset and make bad blood.
00:10:14:56 - 00:10:29:02
Speaker 2
Or we can just say, hey, it is what it is like, this is what I want to do. This is what you want to do. So let's make that happen for each other and support each other through it. And that's one of the most important things that I've gotten from this. And, you know, Wayne's had a lot of growth this past year and a half.
00:10:29:02 - 00:11:02:52
Speaker 2
He's been in Apex as well, and so have I. And I think it wouldn't have ended this way if we hadn't done that development over the past year and a half. We hadn't kind of grown our emotional capacity as well as our understanding of, you know, relationships. So I think I think it's all all for a reason and God's putting me in the right place where I should be, which is teaching, executing and helping others and their businesses and then, you know, growing my own, of course.
00:11:02:52 - 00:11:26:18
Speaker 2
So obviously my passion is consulting. So what now is the question right? So what's gotten me here will get will get me there. I'm just going to do more of it now. All right. So it's kind of unleashed me to focus 100% of my time on building this machine, you know, building great sales teams as well as Arch into consulting.
00:11:26:18 - 00:11:46:46
Speaker 2
So I do think consulting is the umbrella company Argenta Field Solutions, DBA, Argenti Consulting. And then of course, we're going to do a really great sales teams. I submitted the trademark for that a couple of weeks ago, so I'm excited to see that come back and we're going to start building that out. And what does that look like?
00:11:46:46 - 00:12:22:26
Speaker 2
Well, you know, I have a team behind me, of course, from the solar division, and we've got Shane and she's our systems director for the consulting division. So she's winding down all the solar projects, make sure that they get all done. We get paid, we get our people paid, and then moving forward, she's going to handle a lot of the systems integration, like softwares to metrics, reporting to to mainly the reporting that we do for our clients or the reports that we put together for them, and then develop Ops and Hannibal as clients.
00:12:22:26 - 00:12:43:33
Speaker 2
One of the things we love doing is kind of opening their eyes to what metrics should look like and then giving their people access to them through a Google drive or our backend consulting software. And so and then of course, you guys all know and love Brian, our producer here, the podcast would not be able to do it without him.
00:12:44:29 - 00:13:13:21
Speaker 2
Honestly, if I couldn't just record and walk away, then I would be miserable. Probably having to do all the technical stuff with the podcast. So and then of course, all the great content that Ryan is capturing whenever we go on road trips. And then we got the we're going to pick up the podcast trailer tomorrow, we're going to do a podcast from it, and then I'm going to do a sales training for my man Patrick Bolanos and his sales team tomorrow afternoon in Houston, and then Ryan and I will head back.
00:13:13:44 - 00:13:39:14
Speaker 2
So of course we'll be documenting that trip for you guys. All right. And then we got our social media director, Nico. So everything but my personal posts, Nico and and her social media assistant, which is the other the fourth person on my team handle. And so they do all the editing for the reals. The, the tiktoks, all that good stuff.
00:13:40:01 - 00:13:59:49
Speaker 2
And so they are our social media team put together and then aren't going to do some executive assistant stuff for me. My email is going crazy now and you guys have just kind of blown me up. Ever since I made that post, I've had about 10 to 11 different people reach out to me and say, Hey, I want to work with you in some aspect, you know?
00:13:59:49 - 00:14:21:25
Speaker 2
So how are we going to continue to grow that, right? Because I'm one person, you know, And the beautiful thing about this is I've already built a business out over 12 years, so I understand the ideas behind leverage. That's why I have a four person team and not just me by myself doing everything. But I also understand that we're going to max out, you know, in a traditional consulting model.
00:14:21:32 - 00:14:41:20
Speaker 2
You know, there's only so many hours that I can charge for in a week, right? And so some of the things we're going to do is we're going to focus on value first, just like we always have, whether you follow me personally or the Building Associates podcast or group, we're going to focus on value first, right? More content will be coming out with more products.
00:14:41:29 - 00:15:08:38
Speaker 2
So into the second chapter of my book right now, and they're building great sales teams book that's going to come out probably Q2 for you guys to order and or get the e-book. So hopefully I'll be able to get the audio book done by Q3. Definitely want to do that and probably by Q2, I'm going to come out with a course.
00:15:08:56 - 00:15:28:04
Speaker 2
So it's more of the executable stuff as well as the documents supporting Kodak, which is my building great sales team strategy. Let's see, Odo, see if you guys have been listening to this more than four episodes, you know what that is? And so more products will be coming out around that. And then, of course, we want to do an event in Q3.
00:15:29:02 - 00:15:51:39
Speaker 2
So I'm very excited about that. And what I what I love about the idea behind the event is it'll run just like the podcast in the sense that I'm going to be bringing in experts in their niches in order to support you building great sales teams. And so that's the additional products that we're going to have. And then one of the things we're going to focus on with the podcast is bringing in bigger names.
00:15:53:11 - 00:16:18:25
Speaker 2
Not that the names we brought in haven't been big already, but some of the names that you see centered around sales like Jeremy Minor, like what are some of your Bradley You know, we want to go after those type names to bring more exposure to the podcast that have these big followings and and can get us more eyeballs on the podcast and see the amazing content that we've been putting out for you guys.
00:16:19:17 - 00:16:47:51
Speaker 2
And of course, we're because we are doing this insane pace at three episodes a week, we're going to continue to bring in the people that got us here. You know, I'm saying the the Truby Wilsons, you know, the Scott Simons and the John Haley's, you know, Mike Claudio's, you know, these guys that came into our episodes and gave us some amazing content, amazing value, and we're going to bring them back in for repeat episodes.
00:16:48:23 - 00:16:52:15
Speaker 2
And so we can continue to kind of pay homage to the people that got us here, right?
00:16:54:16 - 00:17:13:12
Speaker 2
So, you know, that's kind of the timeline we'll continue to do in our three episodes. We come out with the book soon, come out with the course and then the events. And so one of the things I've noticed is, you know, the the clients that I've had so far, I start out consulting them on building their sales team.
00:17:13:12 - 00:17:45:12
Speaker 2
So that's the sales program. You know, we put the we get the sales program in place, we get it built out, as I'm doing that, I'm realizing, hey, you'll have some inconsistencies happening in your operations. You're having some issues with communication between operations and sales and fulfillment and payroll. Right. And so what I'm doing is kind of working backwards and spending time on their communication between departments, which you guys hear me talk about it all the time.
00:17:45:12 - 00:18:09:09
Speaker 2
One of the great greatest tools for that is iOS, the entrepreneur operating system. And so what I'm doing is introducing them to 98 IO, which is the software that I use to operate my businesses and, and then helping them get set up with that. And so what I realize is, hey, I'm already doing this. Why don't I go ahead and get the certification?
00:18:09:09 - 00:18:30:36
Speaker 2
So another thing I'm doing this month is I'm going to start the training for the iOS Implementers certification. Very excited about that because that will open up what I can do for businesses. And I'm already doing it anyways, right? But now I'll be certified to do it and I can use a lot more of their tools and brands and I can go out to their trainings and get educated on a lot of that stuff.
00:18:31:46 - 00:18:57:50
Speaker 2
And so what that's going to do is it's also going to set me up to also become a certified value builder. So Value Builder is a a platform and training and the author escapes me right now, but we'll we'll include it in the show notes as well as his book. And I think the book is built to sell or build to sell.
00:18:58:39 - 00:19:19:03
Speaker 2
I just downloaded on Audible. I was talking to Clinton Fiore, and I'm going to have him on the podcast here in like a week or so. I was talking to him last night or the night before last and Apex dinner, local dinner here in San Antonio, and he was walking me through that certification and how it helps businesses get ready to sell.
00:19:19:03 - 00:19:45:19
Speaker 2
So it's kind of an evolution right now. I help them working on their sales teams. I'm going to help them work on their organizational process and then I'm going to help them get ready. So the beautiful thing about getting ready to sell is that makes you profitable. So even if you're never going to sell, being ready to sell is a great place to be because that means you're highly profitable and companies are going to throw ridiculous amounts of money at you to buy your business or individuals that are doing that right.
00:19:45:55 - 00:20:11:07
Speaker 2
So that's kind of the long term structure of the consulting that I want to do at every different level. And I feel like my experience around building sales teams as well as running a business for 12 years and being partners in different businesses as well as being part of the masterminds that I'm in qualifies me for that. And so one of the things I looked at too, is because, okay, we can't exactly.
00:20:12:48 - 00:20:32:20
Speaker 2
Again, there's only so many hours in a week, we can only take on so many clients per month, Right? We're going to have to limit that to a certain degree. So one of the things I'm going to be looking at doing is once I work with you or a client for 90 days and the client still has things that they want to do, they they're still growing their sales team.
00:20:32:20 - 00:20:57:46
Speaker 2
They still have reasons that they want to keep me in the business. Then at that point, I'm going to be looking at a rough share model, right? So it's a flat fee for those 90 days and then it's rent share after that. And so that will create some re-occurring residual income to the business. Stuck with anything crazy. It's it's not going to be like a partnership situation or anything like that, but it's going to create recurring income in businesses that I've impacted so much that they want to tie me to the bottom line, right?
00:20:58:15 - 00:21:38:24
Speaker 2
To the gross revenue coming into the business. And so that'll that'll allow us to grow without having to spend, you know, maxing out the hours every week on different businesses, getting paid one time for the work that we're doing. We'll continue to get paid residuals for that work. So that's the idea behind that. And then, yeah, long term, I'm going to be looking to partner in other businesses that I think have a rapidly scalable model that I can bring enough value to justify the partnership, you know, And so those are kind of the opportunities that that I'm looking for everything from from that to speaking as well.
00:21:38:24 - 00:22:05:13
Speaker 2
Speaking on stages is a big initiative that I'm going to have in Q2 and Q3. I'm excited. I'm going to be speaking at Chi Luke's wholesaling event in San Antonio, so we'll include that in the show notes as well. He's a very experienced wholesaler and he's bringing in some heavyweights in that business. So if you guys are in Texas, I would definitely recommend that you make it out to his wholesaling event in San Antonio.
00:22:05:13 - 00:22:27:28
Speaker 2
So check that out for sure. But yeah, that's so that's the update. That's the plan. You know, this is the first, you know. Yeah, every you know, there's so much mindset stuff around quitting in general, you know, and when your heart's not in it, it's 100% the thing that you should do. You know, obviously you don't want to put your family in the poorhouse.
00:22:27:28 - 00:22:45:39
Speaker 2
And luckily I've built up this brand as the podcast with my team and the consulting division too, where we know that we can go into it 100% and make a living at it. So we're excited about it. We're excited for you guys to continue supporting us, listening to us, and we want to thank you so much for that.
00:22:46:28 - 00:22:57:28
Speaker 2
And of course, as always, let's get building.
00:22:57:28 - 00:23:21:12
Speaker 1
Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Building Great Sales Teams podcast. We really do appreciate it. As you know, we believe that great leaders build great teams. How do you become a great leader? You learn from the greats. Join us at the Million Dollar Mastermind put on by Ryan Stillman in Frisco, Texas, and learn everything that you need to learn to be that great leader.
00:23:21:41 - 00:23:41:51
Speaker 1
The link will be in the description below. As always, we ask that you like, share and subscribe wherever you consume podcasts so you can stay up to date with the building Great Sales Teams Podcast. Let's get building.