The starting point
I joined the company in April 2015 as a Field Energy Specialist—my first sales job. Our job was to generate appointments in retail stores for outside sales representatives, who visited customers at home and signed contracts.
After becoming a channel account manager, I led teams in Connecticut and New Hampshire/Vermont. On a later Connecticut assignment, I took over an eight-person team ranked last nationally. Its close rate was below 10% of scheduled in-home appointments.
I saw a demoralized team that lacked a shared vision, clear direction and the support it needed. I started by building relationships with each person, understanding what they needed from me and giving them a vision they could contribute to.
Make the work visible, then ask better questions
Activity volume and conversation quality both mattered. We needed reps to see where their sales process was losing momentum and learn how to improve it.
I required every rep to download and use a counter app to make sales-process tracking possible. We set up a separate counter for each step, from greetings and value propositions to appointments and sales. Reps shared their totals at the end of each day. This gave us transparency into the sales process so we could identify the biggest drop-offs and decide what needed attention.
I used the largest drops as a starting point for questions about what was happening. Through Socratic questioning, I helped reps work out causes and possible changes themselves. As one gap improved and the pattern changed, we looked at what needed attention next. Over time, the team also helped one another solve those gaps.
Build the team and the habits around it
I took an active role in finding candidates with sales-management experience in industries such as fitness, mobile phones and car dealerships. They joined us as frontline Field Energy Specialists. I wanted people who could take responsibility for their own work, and I recruited around the ambition of building an exceptional solar lead-generation team.
We held group training in the office to get technology set up, teach the system and cover basic sales skills. New hires then worked alongside a top performer in the store. I also designated team leaders so people knew whom to approach for technology questions, sales questions and other support.
I worked in stores with reps, demonstrated the approach, reviewed their numbers and kept asking what they needed from me. I supported their individual goals as well as their performance at work. The team became a close-knit group that learned from and supported one another.
Make follow-up useful to the customer
One approach to starting conversations was simply helping shoppers find what they needed, having a good conversation and then transitioning to the solar value proposition.
We asked customers whether they were ready for an in-home appointment and let them decide. If they were not ready, we asked whether they wanted to stay connected and receive useful updates about solar and industry changes.
Outlook supported customer information, notes and follow-up reminders. We recorded contact attempts, kept a future follow-up scheduled and shared useful information along the way. These reminders were separate from booked in-home sales appointments.
One coaching example
A leading rep was already generating roughly 60–80 scheduled appointments a month. He disliked technology, struggled with follow-up and did not see why he needed to change a method that was already producing results.
During the turnaround, I spent a day helping him learn the Outlook workflow. He began using quieter store hours to follow up with prospective customers.
His scheduled appointments increased to around 100–140 per month, and average signed deals from his appointments rose from about 20 to about 35 a month. The before figures cover roughly three months; the after figures cover more than a year. I also saw his earnings increase, and learning the technology became important to him once he understood its practical value.
The results
Within three months, the Connecticut team’s reported results changed as follows:
- National team ranking: 89th of 89 to the top 10.
- Signed contracts per scheduled in-home appointment: below 10% to above 30%.
- Team size: 8 people to 25.
The national ranking combined several measures, including leads, signed deals, opportunities per rep and closes per rep. It was a broader performance ranking, distinct from close rate.
The stronger close rates and rankings continued until I left the team. The work involved our lead generators, peer leaders and the outside sales representatives who completed the in-home sales.
The effort behind the change
This required substantial management time. Outlook was already available. I worked around 60–80 hours a week throughout my time with the company, moving between developing the system, training teams and scaling them.
As performance improved, scaling the team became the next priority. Group training, peer support and clear places to ask for help were part of how we supported that growth.
What I bring to business owners today
The lesson I carry into O(1) Solutions is to make the work visible, ask useful questions and help people take ownership of the improvement. Numbers give us a place to investigate; relationships, skills and practical support help people act on what they learn.
As one problem improves, we review what now needs attention. That is the approach I bring to helping business owners work through what is limiting their progress.