Welcome to a new episode of Next Level Pros! In this high-energy workshop, solar industry expert Chris Lee breaks down the critical strategies for building a profitable solar business. Designed for solar entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and installation company owners struggling with low margins and industry challenges, this episode provides a roadmap to transform your solar business from surviving to thriving.Highlights:"There's no such thing as lazy people. Only unclear people.""Competition is only the pain that you are solving.""Customers do not buy because of price, and reps do not work for you because of commission.""I would much rather recruit a C player and train them up to be a B player."Timestamps:00:00 Industry Introduction: Solar's Current Challenges09:50 Attracting Top Talent Through Clear Vision13:58 Why the "Red Line" Model Destroys Businesses20:30 The Importance of Prioritizing Company Health22:58 Breaking Down Revenue and Margin Structures25:22 W2 vs 1099: Building a Valuable Organization28:02 Motivating Sales Reps Beyond Commission29:01 The Fallacy of High Commission Rates30:16 Recruiting and Developing Sales Talent35:00 Leveraging AI and Technology in BusinessWant me to teach you how to grow your business? Text me! 509-374-7554Want access to more of my content? Click the link below for all of our latest updates and events!https://linktr.ee/nextlevelprosWant to be a guest on our show? Apply here!https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YlkVBSluEKMTg4gehyUOHYvBratcxHV5rt3kiWTXNC4/viewform?edit_requested=trueWatch my latest PodcastApple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-level-pros/id1687030281Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=95980cd4e55a437aYouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@NextLevelPros
Chapter 1: Why is the solar industry struggling and companies shutting down?
The last two years, the solar industry has been an absolute bloodbath. Companies like Titan, Lumio, Solstice, ADT Solar, SunPower, and now Sunova is threatening bankruptcy. They continue to shut their doors. Why? Because solar businesses keep running their solar companies like sales reps, allowing the tail to wag the dog and running the red line model.
in this episode i am speaking live to hundreds of solar business owners where i tell them their model is completely broken why the red line model is killing the industry and what you should do about it in this presentation i'm going to teach you exactly how to structure a budget that allows you to hit 25 net margins regardless of the industry that you're in you're also going to learn how to keep your sales reps motivated on a completely different compensation model
In addition, we're going to introduce you to the eight pillars for growth in which we teach God mode. So let's dive in.
Give me a round of applause. Come on, give me a round of applause. Let's go. Let's get some hoot in the hall. Let's go. Let's go. Okay, so here's what I know about you. So the solar industry is obviously in disarray. It's been a bloodbath. It's been a bloodbath for the last two years. And so you're here because you're committed to the solar industry.
There's a lot of guys that aren't committed to the solar industry that have gone through the grind and they are no longer at the table. OK, and so one, I just want to congratulate you because you are committed. You're not satisfied with mediocrity. You're here to learn, to grow, to develop. You're taking time out of your day to be here with me. So I appreciate that.
And hopefully you are tired of the status quo in solar. OK, so for those that do know me, know that I am not a status quo guy. All right. So everybody else built their solar businesses this way. I was completely this direction. Okay. I'm one of a handful of companies that was actually able to exit in this space. And it was because of the way that we built. It wasn't the status quo.
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Chapter 2: What is the 'red line' model and why is it harmful to solar businesses?
How many of you guys are currently involved either in the sales side or the installation side of the solar industry? Okay. And of those people, how many of you are not on a red line model? Okay, so first of all, congratulations to those that are not a part of the status quo. I love to call the red line the status quo, okay?
And I know that may hurt for some of you guys that are like, oh, but I'm a sales dealer, or I'm this or I'm the other. But guess what, there's a reason why it's called the red line, because that's what created the bloodbath, okay? It's red for a reason. It's not because it's profitable. I've never seen any profits in red. They come in black.
so you're tired of it hopefully so what we do is we teach what's called the eight pillars for growth so now i run a company called next level pros and my intention today is that i can provide some value to you that you're going to be able to go and take into your businesses that you're going to be able to apply and that hopefully you'll have a desire to have an additional conversation with me
So you'll see several different people wearing these shirts in the crowd and we're running a booth over here. My whole goal of this is that to give you value so much that you'll want to book a call and dive in and see if we're a good fit. So we run a training platform which I teach my exact model to be able to go and scale any company. I don't care if you're a solar company, any space.
We consult hundreds of companies throughout the nation, in fact, throughout the world on what we call our eight pillars for growth. I'm gonna briefly touch on these eight pillars and I'm gonna dive deep into a couple of them where we're gonna be able to help create profitable organizations. How many guys wanna make a profit? Woo, yeah. So how many of you guys are currently hitting 25% net margins?
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Chapter 3: How can solar businesses achieve 25% net margins and profitability?
Okay, how many are not hitting 25% net margins? And how many of you guys are lying because literally only six people raised their hand? Okay, so 25% net margin is very rare, especially in the solar industry. And this is the model that we built on, that we did this at hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue at 25% margins, okay? So we're gonna dive into that.
Chapter 4: What are the 'eight pillars for growth' and how do they help solar companies?
So my commitment to you today is to get clear help you get clear on exactly what your next move is to help you take one step closer to that 25% net margin. Everyone good with that? Hey guys, it's Chris. Hey, a lot of you leave comments asking for help. Do me a real quick favor. Shoot me a text at 509-374-7554. That's 509-374-7554. Shoot me a text. I'll answer and help you with whatever you need.
Don't worry, I got you back. Let's go back to the show, babe. So why should you listen to me? So family man built multiple businesses while raising a family of five kids. Love my wife, love my kids. Been in your shoes, taken very big risks, knocked on a lot of doors. I cut my teeth in the door-to-door industry, in the sales industry. I was one of the top performers.
I launched my first business when I was 24 years old. That was my Mercedes CLS 500 that I had re-put out of my driveway after my first failed business. And that happened in 2000, end of 2010, beginning of 2011, had everything ripped from me, less than $1,000 in my bank account, started completely over from scratch, it sucked.
Okay, so I've been there, I've taken big risks, I've lost big, I've been hustling for 20 plus years, I've knocked, I've ran the teams, I've done all the different things, but I'm not just another sales guy, I can promise you that. So I've invested over $1.3 million in my personal income. Just recently became a Harvard alumni, part of their owners, presidents, and management program.
It's an executive program, three-year program there. And again, I built an 1100 person organization, W2 employees, not 1099, W2 employees out of my garage. Okay, so these are just some of the behind the scene videos, things from there. Okay, again, we did 233 million a year in revenue in less than five years.
We were the sixth fastest growing company in the nation, did all kinds of cool stuff, two different nine figure exits. One was one that I built from scratch, the other one I consulted from scratch, got an equity play on that, and then I had an additional business that I consulted, didn't get equity, that I also exited for nine figures. Okay, so what we teach is what we call God Mode.
How many of you guys have ever heard the term God Mode? Little bit, so it comes from the gaming space. What does it mean to be in God Mode? Can't be defeated. You play outside of the rules, okay? Most of us are building our businesses in either player one status, right?
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Chapter 5: Why is having a clear design and five-year roadmap critical for solar businesses?
Like we're sitting there, we're inside the rules, we have a little bit of autonomy in different things, or sometimes we're even operating like a, my kids call it an NPC, the non-player character, right? Like we're just doing the same thing every single day. We hate our life and we freaking just show up and sell swords or whatever it is that you do in video games.
And so ultimately the goal is to work on your business, not in your business. And what I'm going to teach you is how we operate from God mode, get outside of the game, start working on it to be able to scale it up. Okay.
So first and foremost, the first pillar, again, I'm just going to briefly touch on a few of these things to give you an idea of what we teach and what it looks like to actually build a nine figure organization. So it's what we call design. So designing, is starting with a plan. How many of you guys have a five-year roadmap of how you're building your organizations? One person, okay?
One person in this room, okay? We call that the next level plan where you actually design out five years and you work backwards from exactly the way you want your organization to look like and you build it from what we call an execution chart
The execution chart is top to bottom, how many sales people, how many management, how many operators, how many installers, how many fulfillment, how many in finance, what does that all look like? That's top to bottom and next level plan with the exact roadmap of how you're gonna be able to do it. One thing that I love to say is there's no such thing as lazy people.
Absolutely, there's no such thing as lazy people, only unclear people. When you do not have a clear plan of what you are building, That sucks, right? Like you're unmotivated to show up to work. You don't even know why you're taking the daily activity. Maybe it's the way that you feel in the solar industry right now. I'm just like, dude, I'm just grinding. Just trying to survive.
Just trying to make it to my next paycheck, next payroll, next whatever else. How many of you guys have ever felt that way? Okay. Everybody else that isn't raising their hand, you're lying. You're lying. So creating a plan is part of the design process.
You have to get crystal freaking clear to be able to know exactly what the next action is to take because otherwise you're sitting in a dark tunnel, no light, and you have no idea if I take a step forward even if it's in the right direction. The plan creates clarity, you see exactly where you're going, and so you know that every single step actually matters.
And when you're clear, again, you are motivated, you take the action, you're excited. Again, there's no such thing as lazy people, only unclear people. And so with this is all about designing the vision, the mission, the core values, the execution chart. Like this is absolutely vital where most people absolutely miss.
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Chapter 6: How can casting a big vision help attract top talent to your solar business?
Again, they don't even know, maybe they planned the next quarter or the next year, but most of them aren't even thinking big enough to be able to go on a five-year roadmap. So that's like one of the absolute imperative parts. That's one of our pillars. And the thing is, is when you get clear on vision, you're able to attract the biggest talent.
How many of you guys struggle with getting the right talent in the door? Okay. How many would love to just get unlimited talent in through the door? It literally starts with what we're talking about from a design standpoint. Because when I sit down with somebody in my garage and I've got three employees in there, and I say, yo, it may not look like it, But this is what we're gonna do.
So over the next five years, we're gonna have 500 employees. We are going to design. This is exactly what it's gonna look like. You're gonna be coming in at this part of the org structure, the execution chart, and then this is where we're gonna be able to go and scale. You cast a vision. You show them the roadmap of what it looks like to be able to go and obtain that.
OK, and he who casts the biggest vision with a clear path, not just a big vision. It's not just, hey, we're going to go do all these cool things. It's we're going to do all these cool things. And this is how we're going to get there. You're going to start attracting your ideal, ideal employee. And because the reality is.
Chris Lee has a very big vision, but if Elon Musk called me up today and he said, Chris, I want you to run operations to getting to Mars, I'd be like, ah, shiz, I'd just drop everything and I would go. Why? Because Elon Musk, Chris Lee has a very big vision, but Elon Musk is freaking going for Mars, right? Way bigger vision, and he has a clear direction on how he's going to get there.
So he would be able to recruit over whatever talent he wants. So that is the basis of the culture. How many guys run sales departments? So a lot of you guys are awesome at this. Culture is all about the human development, the recruiting, recognition, competition, environment of trust. We're not going to go super deep into that.
But just know that there is a whole lot more to why people are with you than pay. Just like customers don't buy from you because of price, reps and employees do not work for you because of compensation. This is absolutely vital. We don't have enough time to go super deep into it. And at the end of the day, people will bleed for two things and two things only.
It's not pay, it's culture, and it's a piece of the pie, a way to be able to share in the upside in some level or direction, or at least a vision on how they can go and share in that. Okay, so this is where we're going to dive a little bit deeper in and where most of you guys have things completely screwed up. It's the offer, okay?
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Chapter 7: What role does culture and company priorities play in business success?
And the offer is not just what am I charging, but what kind of value am I providing to my customer, both internal and external? What kind of value am I providing to my employee, to my client? to my residential solar customer, to what are the different services, everything like that, and going through and mapping out an experience.
How many of you guys have your customer experience completely mapped out? Again, we have three hands. Okay, so going through and actually understanding what differentiates you from every single other person on the block, because ultimately, This is one of my core principles of running business. There's no such thing as competition. No such thing as competition.
Competition is only the pain that you are solving. Just because ABC Solar down the street offers X, Y, and Z does not make them the same product or service that you offer. So mapping out and experiencing, identifying ways that you are going to be completely different to your customer is absolutely imperative.
From that, you're going to be able to go back and that goes back to the designs factor and be able to identify what employees you need in your organization, but then also really develop out the offer and exactly what you're going to do to separate. Then there comes the pricing. So again, how many of you guys are running on a Redline model? Why is Redline terrible?
Or, I mean, you guys all probably think it's fantastic. Okay, so we have a red line. Installer. Sales rep, whatever. This is what customer pays. Why is that terrible? Tell me, come on. You've thought about this. What's that? Oh, okay, so first of all, I think there's no morality in price. That's a bunch of bull crap. There's no such thing as a moral price.
I don't care who you talk to or whatever else, doesn't exist. There's only morality in the way that you offer something to a customer. If they know exactly what they're getting and exactly what they're paying, there is no morality in price, okay? So... Redline, the reason why a redline is absolutely death is that this is what it takes to deliver that customer.
This is the cost of goods sold, this is the experience, this is all the talent that's directly related to that customer getting it. So it doesn't matter where they pay, they get the same exact experience. So my plea to the solar industry, to any industry as a whole, is to stop letting the tail wag the dog.
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Chapter 8: Why should solar companies prioritize company health over customer or rep pay?
And what I mean by that is sales organization, sales people wagging the dog and determining what price the customer pays and the value that you're actually able to deliver to that customer. Because again, this customer could be paying $3 a watt, they could be paying $4.50 a watt, they could be paying $10 a watt, and still they get the $2.20 watt experience, okay?
That freaking destroys the industry. And I am going to be the, I'm gonna shout that from the rooftops. You're gonna disagree with me. You're like, but Chris, it's so great to make all these commissions and all these different things. But guess what? Why do you think we've been experiencing what we've been experiencing in the industry for the last two, three years? It's because of this crap, okay?
At the end of the day, if I as the company want to set the price, I should be able to have the additional benefit of charging more so that I can go and add additional to this experience. I can hire better people, I can provide a better product, I can go into my total customer experience mapping. Versus the sales rep charges more and I get nothing more to be able to deliver to that customer.
Hey guys, it's Chris. If you're finding value in what you're hearing, go ahead and like and subscribe. That way people just like you can find this content for free here on YouTube. Now let's dive back in the show.
So first of all, gotta stop running our sales companies, our businesses like a sales rep. I come from a background of being a sales rep, and this is the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur, is not to put myself back into the shoes of where I once was, okay? And think like, oh, I want the highest commission, or I want this, I want that, or whatever, right?
So priorities, in fact, I was having a discussion with a guy earlier, and he's on the install side, and he's like, yeah, you know, I make all my decisions based off of like, do they put the customer first? And he's like, don't you agree? And I was like, I was like, no, I don't. I don't agree. In fact, I think most people have their priorities completely jacked up.
So most guys, their priorities are customer, employees or reps, and then company. And what happens is It's like I either charge the customer more or less or whatever, do what I think to take care of the customer, then I take care of the reps. And if there's a little bit of money left over, then I take care of the company.
The reality is the only way that you're going to run a business that is worth anything and going to provide value to anyone, number one has to be company. And I tell you this from personal experience. My very first business, I made decisions on this model. I charged the customer less. I paid the rep more. So it was like, this is where I should have been charging. I charged here.
This is where I should have been paying. And I paid here. And just with that little leftover, I was trying to survive. Versus if I build a model that takes care of the company first, then... I can take care of those people that I employ, and I'm going to dictate. Again, I'm not going to let the tail wag the dog. I'm not going to pay on a red line model.
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