we just had like four good pitches in a
row
four solid pitches and nothing
absolutely
we got zero chance of getting a sale
today that's what we're trying to say
it's the mustache you're gonna film me
yeah
all right
okay derek with xl energy
here shut off the power let's see how
this goes i'm here to shut your power
should i acknowledge the camera should
we just see how it goes yeah just see
how it goes
[Music]
how you doing man how are you hey not
bad i'm derek we've just been uh
installing your neighbor right there
your next door neighbor today
ion solar we're just doing some training
you know you don't have to
authorize to to use this or not but
essentially we're just acting as
marketing today for that install
after talking to a few of your neighbors
i don't know if we've already talked to
you no
we're good we're not gonna do that thank
you though all right cool take care
so that interaction was kind of a little
bit awkward he went to grab the package
and being that that was my first
interaction on film i didn't really want
to push too hard
i might as well just kind of cut my
losses keep my state up so that i can
bring that state to the next one
utter defeat yeah
yeah you could get down on your knees i
think that'd be more professional
this is weird yeah get off your knees
bro it looks like we're
like maybe you should like stand over
there so they can't see you this makes
me nervous
it should
hey how's it going sir fine what can i
help you with hey we're just stopping by
we're not selling anything today i'm
derek this is shea
we're with ion i don't know what that is
it's it's a solar installation company i
have a no soliciting sign i understand
you're not selling me anything today but
given the fact that you've ignored this
sign
and rung my doorbell do you think i'll
ever do business with ion
uh maybe not okay so there is an arvada
city ordinance that requires that unless
i have an existing relationship with a
business
if they're not allowed to come to the
door if there's a no soliciting sign so
if you're my pest control company
or you're delivering a package or you're
my yard
maintenance people sure you're welcome
to come to the door i've never done
business with ion
okay you're violating this order what do
you want to do
move on yes so let me report this to the
city of our back we'll go ahead and take
it along
have a good day videoing oh training
purposes put me in your training video
yes sir have a great day
he authorized to be in the video it
would have been more funny if i was just
kneeling in the rocks next to you
we're just chatting with your neighbor
who's super friendly i think he's going
to sign up
be more funny you're just boring to
watch
you're right dude clown mode engaged
back hey how you doing sir starting off
your dog
i'm derek with ion this is shay uh we're
just filming for training purposes
today you don't have to uh authorize it
or anything but um
essentially we're just out here as
marketing we just finished a solar
install
so we're following up talking to people
about excel's net metering program i
don't know if you've heard anything
about that or read anything on that
no okay essentially it's just an energy
savings program
that excel united ira all the utility
companies are taking part in
to financially incentivize homeowners
like yourself in higher caliber
neighborhoods like this
to become producers of power through
putting solar panels on the roof
it's different than the program used to
be because in the past it was either
like a leasing program
where it made it kind of a nightmare to
sell or it was
a large down payment where it took five
10 20 years to see a return on that
investment
nowadays there's no down payment it's
totally free we actually cover the cost
of install
and so how you end up paying for it is
money that's already within the
parameter of your budget so to speak
money that you've already been paying to
excel we just redirect that money
so you're paying yourself you're keeping
it in the equity so for people who
qualify
essentially if you were to close your
eyes you wouldn't even be able to tell
that you had solar
because the same amount of money is
coming out of your your bank account
every month so that's sort of the
condensed pitch
okay and i'm not trying to sell you
solar today obviously there's no way i
could ever get a doorstep you know
decision
somehow you know solar sales works okay
um essentially
we're just trying to gauge interest out
here today and for homeowners who want
to look into this more who want more
information what we do is we actually
drop off customized
reports for people basically shows you
where the panels would go
shows you the numbers you know if it's
going to offset your bill
for some people it makes a lot of sense
and that's why they do it and for some
people it doesn't make a lot of sense
and unless they're really gung-ho about
the whole you know green earth type
thing
then they usually don't do it okay and
so essentially
it costs us pennies on the dollar to
actually create these reports
because it's all automated via software
that sort of thing
uh we just look at your roof the annual
annual usage that you're already paying
to excel
and then all we ask in return is that
you just give us 10 to 15 minutes
that way you're actually expecting us we
can walk through the report
with you and that way you're actually
you know can can uh
intake what we're saying instead of us
just ambushing you on the door so
uh fighting the uphill battle right
because you're probably doing something
before we knocked on the door
um so that is that something you might
be interested in can we put you down on
the list we're gonna
not this time i don't even know how i'm
gonna be here oh okay
i could be leaving six months from now
this area seems to be pretty uh
transitory it seems like
a lot of people go in and out of this
area corporations drop us off here
yeah gotcha gotcha gotcha okay i hate to
invest in it and not get my money out of
the investment
yeah gotcha gotcha so it depends on how
long
you're thinking about moving you think
it might be within six months could be
six months to a year yeah my company
moves me around a lot
gotcha gotcha the one thing you know if
you were to move in six months you would
probably still come out on top
just because right now there's a 22 tax
benefit
um so essentially if if the system costs
20 grand right
the government's gonna give you a check
for 4 400 bucks right off the bat
um and then it's actually your cash to
do whatever with you want to
so you could actually just take that
money and you can put it into the system
if you put it in the system
for every dollar you put into the system
you're getting about 90 cents to a
dollar back
because the average appraisal
i don't know if like if that logically
hit or if he was just like
i think it's gonna be easier just to get
this report it just gave up right there
yeah i think you did too just let me
write something up let's look at it and
evaluate it
sure yeah and it's obviously it's no
obligation too you know we're not
looking for a yes or no when we come
back with the report we just want to
put the putting you in the driver's seat
so to speak so sure yeah
um all we got to do is just take down a
few basic information details
and then we'll get out of your hair for
you okay what do you do for work by the
way
retail retail management retail
management yeah awesome
i'll give it a nap for 35 years wow
yeah long time got some experience then
oh yeah yeah
uh what was your name is that your
competitor there son
it is they are they're number two we're
number one actually the funny thing like
i'm saying to build a report we look at
your annual usage
so we gotta get that from excel
fortunately they don't put it on the
bill
every other electric utility actually
just puts the graph on the build we can
take a photo of yeah but excel actually
makes this call
i have the magic code it literally takes
30 seconds all you got to do is just say
your name
yeah and then i didn't even look at him
i just looked down at my phone and
started dialing
wow did you do the same thing with the
talking with
car sales just like basically just start
doing it
great all right so cool that's all we
need uh we'll stop by tomorrow at four
okay um and then yeah we'll drop that
off to you let you mull it over
okay sounds good yes sir we appreciate
it we appreciate your time yeah thank
you very much
to meet you take care okay
all right we're doing some suburban
axing right now
shae's about to climb on this suburb i
own excel energy
now i'm ending you
i'm with usa liberty firearm solar
i'm here to sell your guns guns and
butter
hell mike it's not it's going sir good
yourself
doing well it's actually been pleasant
out for a little while yeah um my name
is dan this is derek
hey how's it going i don't know if you
noticed a lot of your neighbors have
been getting power projects put on your
home
so essentially i'm just coming by just
to ask people if they kind of have any
information about excel's net metering
program
and just kind of update them on the
program i understand i'm not here to
sell you anything i'm just here to
actually bring information about the
program i'm good
thanks jeff what is the turkey from the
past if you mind when you ask i'm sorry
what's the turkey in the past for the
program for solar
yes uh my wife's in oil and gas oh well
that's awesome i have a lot of friends
in oil and gas too the nice part is
i'm done guys yeah have a great day
that's not an objection we're actually
putting oil rigs on the roofs
see our program is a little different
i'm gonna put a cold power plant
it's funny right this is comedy
we could yeah hi there how's it going
ma'am
hey i'm derek this is shea we're with
ion solar we're actually just doing some
work right across the street
um the reason we're filming today is
just training purposes so if you don't
want us to film just say no
okay hello hello
hey hey good to hear i'm derek this is
shea we're with ion solar
uh the reason we're filming today is
just for training purposes um
essentially we're just finishing up one
of the projects over there
okay they send us out as marketing to
kind of talk about excel energy's net
metering program
all right have you uh have you heard
about that have you read any literature
on that
uh not really okay so essentially it's
just a new
energy savings program that um
that excel united ira all the electric
utilities in the state are participating
in
to basically incentivize homeowners like
yourself in higher caliber areas like
this to become producers of their power
instead of consumers by putting solar
panels on their house
it's a little different than it was in
the past in the past used to either
lease them
or there was a down payment that took 5
10 20 years to see a return on
investment
essentially now there's no down payment
we take we we do the installation costs
all for free
and so how you pay for it well you use
money that you're already
paying to excel and instead of paying
that money to excel
essentially you're just redirecting that
into the panels and so for people who
qualify
what we do is just take a 12 month
average and
lock you in at what you're already
paying to excel so instead of just
you know it's like the metaphor of
renting your power versus owning your
power
you know it's the same principle as a
mortgage where you're actually getting
principal pay down
with every electric bill instead of just
throwing it away right um so that's kind
of
the pitch in a nutshell we're not here
to sell anything today unfortunately we
can
sell you solar if we try today but
essentially we're just gauging interest
we're
trying to see if people have any
interest at all and looking at a
customized report
which would basically tell you if you
qualify um the reason we're knocking on
this street today is a lot of houses do
qualify because you've got a nice south
slope
so essentially we have a lot of space
but solar panels
but the other variable would be how much
energy usage you have you know if it's
through the roof or if it's not enough
then it's not going to offset it's
really not going to make sense for you
financially
right so essentially all the report
would be
would just it cost us you know a few
cents we just look at the
satellite images in the roof we put
together a report see if we're gonna be
able to offset it for you
all we ask in return is that you just
give us 10 15 minutes to kind of walk
through the report with you
that way you can actually be expecting
us instead of us kind of doing the
uphill battle of trying to um you know
steal your attention away from whatever
you're doing before
so um and essentially we're not trying
to get a yes or no when we do come back
with the report
we know that if we put reports in front
of enough people roughly 30
of people are gonna convert into sales
without us having to do anything
so essentially we just explain
everything to you uh we would email it
to you
and then get out of your hair um you
know we wouldn't be looking for a
decision that day
either we just want to arm homeowners
with information okay so
is that something we could put you down
for we're actually going to be dropping
off one for
was it this one
right there yeah what are your name
joseph smith
joseph smith the guy who works for
walmart right across the street we're
going to be dropping it off for them
tomorrow at four
um so you know we can either do three or
five if you're gonna be around i don't
know what your schedule's like
yeah i think this week and next week are
gonna be pretty tight
pretty tight okay maybe the following
week if that's possible yeah sure yeah
i mean of course next week it's gonna be
tight with the holidays and everything
so
yeah that's why next week's not gonna
work yeah so
the week of the first we could do um the
first is tuesday
so i don't know what time you get off
work but we could swing by
after around four or five well anytime
i think after like between five and
six thirty seven is fine okay yeah we
can shoot for five
okay um and then just playing for 10 15
minutes
if you just want the peer information if
uh you know if you have any more
questions we're gonna block off a whole
hour just in case you know you have a
ton of questions
um obviously you know we've probably
been talking for 10 minutes so time kind
of flies when you're talking about
interesting things
so perfect we should need to take down a
few basic details and then we'll get out
of your hair
okay so the last thing we need is just
the annual usage from excel
unfortunately they don't put it on the
bill all the other utility companies
make it super simple for us
so they basically make us have to call
and then they just read off the kilowatt
usage to us we have the magic code since
we're partnered with them
so i can just give them a quick call it
takes about 30 seconds you just gotta
say your name and then they'll read
everything off
oh okay it's really simple sure
thank you goodbye great well it was good
talking to you tim do you have any
questions for us at all
um not at this time i've kind of been
through this a couple times in arizona
oh really but they're the problem is ac
is so high
so high um perfect well we'll plan to
stop by december 1st at 5 pm
but uh yeah we appreciate your time
today thank you tim have a good night
all right i've gotten two now you gotta
get one i'm just lucky cuz i got a
mustache
sales 101. grow a mustache
just say i'm i'm with the county sheriff
i'm installing been stumping penises all
over this neighborhood helping out
people
with their opinions problems have you
heard of the preciousness
hi there how's it going sir hey it's
going all right how are you doing doing
good doing good my name is daniel this
is derek hey how's it going we're with
ion we're just filming for training
purposes so if you don't want us to film
you can just say no we won't
bother with that essentially why i'm out
here today is actually part of excel's
net metering program just kind of
informing folks about that if you ever
heard any
literature on that or about that i'm
aware gotcha
so a part of the program have you looked
into solar then before for your own home
i have looked into it yeah gotcha the
roi for me just doesn't seem to make
sense based on how long we'll
likely live here the payback just isn't
in a
the roi just doesn't pencil out now who
were you looking through i'm just
curious
um so i've looked through a couple of
different places especially uh
looking uh challenging with some of the
leases
and things of that nature yep the roi
the way i figured it ends up at about 10
to 12 years
yeah sometimes longer but 10 to 12 years
um
knowing that i'm not going to be here
for 10 to 12 years
uh i need to be somewhere in the
probably that four to six
year payback range so what if i tell you
if there's roi day one
i wouldn't believe you you're a shady
salesman
the nice part about our program it's not
a leasing program it's an ownership
program
okay so you'll see your neighbor chris
you can actually see i saw you guys
putting them in there we literally just
installed there so the way that program
works is there's no upfront costs
essentially what happens is day one
we're installing the panels free to them
so they're not putting any money down
they're not paying anything okay so
essentially what the program does it's a
bill swap so you go from paying excel
your monthly bill
to actually paying solar panel payment
so essentially what we do is we look at
your annual average usage
we average that out and that becomes
yours basically solar payment
so you're basically going from a
fluctuating bill to just a flooded stat
payment
throughout the year and it's ownership
too so it's essentially you're paying
yourself you're not paying ion
yeah right that's what's nice about this
program is it's analogous to
renting versus owning your home right
when your rent you're just simply
burning that money you're avoiding risk
but you're burning the money
same thing with power by owning the
source you're actually keeping the money
with the house
forbes values the panel's value to 90 to
100 goes back into the equity of the
house
okay so by each month making a payment
on those panels
you're actually putting that money back
in at home opposed to giving it to excel
which is the nice part about that
the reason why there's a day one roi
though is there's a 22 percent solar tax
credit
what that means is the government's
going to cut you if you're w-2 tax
return
return it'll come out of that or if
you're 1099 it would just be a write-off
but essentially you're getting a fourth
almost of the system's value day one
so that's where mostly you know even if
you were to close your eyes
you had solar today and you're selling
home tomorrow you would still see at
least at bare minimum
that 22 percent of that system's value
as an roi right so that's why it could
even be worth your
your trouble even if you were to sell
tomorrow um
but i'm not here to get a yes or no i
understand yeah i'm just trying to
to think about the the sales implication
of that
uh you know convincing the next owner to
take over
payments yes that's that's a great
question i'll say generally
with this type of program it's a lot
more enticing for most homeowners
just because as opposed to leasing
programs in the past where it's a
separate entity
that can cause issues because
essentially you're now looking at the
panels not as part of the house plus
once the lease is done in 20 years
you got to either renew it at their new
high price or you do something with the
panels right
yeah and the life expectancy of panels i
know it's improved but at the end of 20
years you're
probably needing new panels anyway
exactly yeah
so with this program it's a 10-year
workmanship uh labor warranty
and then also a 30-year system plus
warranty actually on the panels
themselves
so in terms of warranties you're covered
you're never actually coming out of the
pocket to actually have the bills fixed
or anything like that
but really and truly the nice part about
this program
is like i said you're not paying
anything to get them installed
and you actually have an end date of
power and so when the next homeowner
moves in let's say again you're selling
the house in this in this you know
hypothetical situation
right their options are either just take
over your current constant payment
because they wouldn't be paying anything
more than if they're
paying excel regardless okay so in that
regard they could just close their eyes
and essentially if you were just look at
your bank account you wouldn't be able
to tell the difference whether
you were oftentimes even if it's like
three years because excel is going to be
going up four to six percent per year
but you would be locked in so if
anything they would be paying less
utilities per month
than what you know annually the excel
spill goes up four to six percent
yeah so you know in the you know let's
say the homes up for sale even
you know two three years down the road
they're actually going to save money
already on their actual utility bill by
having the payment or the panels
up there but also you know the real
selling point is
you're keeping the money with the house
that's what's nice and he actually
just bought a home himself so he was in
close contact with a realtor at that
point
kind of got to run solar by her and kind
of ask her about her
you know issues and kind of basically
her deal with it
she said most most of the time you know
it's it's not a big deal people will
just take over the loan
because in in colorado you know most
people like the idea of having a green
home
but then in the off case where they
don't want to take over the loan
um essentially what you can do is you
can just pay off the panels
and then you get the equity back out
right as you sell the house
or they can do this tricky thing where
they just factor it into the equity
um yeah i didn't really want to worry
about yeah nine percent of the time what
people do is they just take over the
payment and that's not a big deal in
those situations
but again i know solar is far from a
doorstep decision
yeah we couldn't sell to you right now
if we were trying but yeah
the real point of our job is just
actually provide people more information
we're basically like a walking business
card in that sense yeah and with ion
okay correct essentially what we do
though is we like to build people
customize report that way you could see
where the panels would be on your home
what the actual offset would be
basically see if it financially even
makes sense for you to put the panels on
the house because if there's not enough
offset
or you know your usage is too minimal
then it might not make sense to even do
the program or you might not even
qualify in the first place so we want to
make sure that
a the program is a good fit for you that
it makes sense that it's a financial
no-brainer because for everyone it's not
but for the people that are doing it so
yeah
because that was the other trick that i
ran into with
just the amount of square foot that i
have
as far as roof south facing yeah versus
power consumption uh because of the way
the roof is laid out
you i don't have a lot of offices south
enough square foot south facing that it
really would give me enough
uh kw to offset it
do you mind me asking when the last time
you had someone a solar company do a
report it was a few years ago
so i'm a mechanical engineer by degree
so
i i do pretty well do my own uh
okay okay yeah sure because i was gonna
say just because efficiency has gotten a
little better
we're running 340 kilowatt panels now so
we actually need less panels
to offset now so we have mono
crystalline panels
they're american made but in terms of
efficiency so you'll see a lot of the
people in the neighborhood they have
kind of the blue
opaque kind of panels like like the one
sunrun or i shouldn't actually say that
but
another company that just happened to be
installing one a little further down the
street
and those panels i feel like they look a
little more tacky whereas art panels
it's black on black
they're sleek profile
[Laughter]
but you know the efficiency on our
panels is usually typically a lot higher
than those chinese made panels
so in a lot of those cases we need a lot
less panels okay
that's good to know i can see on those
numbers yeah but we're actually dropping
some reports off we have one that we're
dropping off tomorrow
basically throughout the week we're
having people swing by and drop those
reports off
was that something i'd be able to yet
for and just be able no i like to run
the numbers myself as an engineer i'm
kind of a nerd like that
sure that's awesome yeah yeah i
understand that
um the thing with our reports is i just
want to make sure that you know it's
with our panels
that we're designing with our own system
just because we don't have a cookie
cutter
system we tailor our you know each of
our systems to your own home
yeah if you ever wanted to get a report
from us in the future too you know we're
not looking for yes or no we drop
off the report it's really just
educational um how it works is
you know we just take 10 minutes to kind
of have a conversation like we're having
right now but we have all the numbers on
the ipad
and then we leave that with you so you
can mull it over we know that roughly 30
of those are gonna convert into sales
anyway without us having to do much just
because it makes so much sense right
that's sort of our business they're the
paybacks there exactly their financial
no-brainer it's not right
yeah yeah and so i guess what we're
saying is there's no downside in getting
a report so
even if you wanted to just take the
information and not do anything with it
you know we don't even care that you can
see our side and then you can compare
and contrast your own
and that way you can have you know both
sides we're just trying to arm you with
as much information as possible it's
kind of our job
so our job to say get you to say yes or
no to solar system
it's our job just to get you the
information knowledge is power
yeah we kind of just want to put people
in the driver's seat because a lot of
people have misconceptions about the
program
you know some people just don't either
know about it right don't understand
and we want to make sure people you know
kind of get the information it'll be
interesting
as well with policy changes in the next
four
weeks across the next four years yeah
regarding renewables
and where that goes so 100 percent also
interesting that's another
politics oh absolutely that's kind of
the circus that we all get to watch
yeah and there's pros and cons to both
sides so you know you got to play the
pros when they're available to you yeah
for sure yeah yeah so i mean like he was
saying it would cost us pennies on
dollar to get you the report i'd be
happy to have somebody bring one by if
you'd like just tomorrow around four or
five
um let me see uh yeah four to five
tomorrow should be all right can i grab
a little bit of information from you sir
sure okay and then i'm gonna make a
quick call to excel it takes about 30
seconds we're just going to get the
average usage
they give us the magic code so we just
get right through to somebody
[Applause]
alright have a good night awesome so
essentially what they'll do
is you said four o'clock tomorrow works
fine for you yeah probably closer to
five
five will be best because we're gonna be
swinging by joseph right down the street
that we're dropping off four so i'll
just put in his five essentially all
they do they need ten minutes of your
time doesn't bring an ipad by
that way they can show them exactly what
the panels look like offset all that
whole nine yards
you have more questions you can ask them
at that time they're the technicians
okay they know more
you'll probably be able to pick them
apart yeah you'll probably have a little
more fun with that one
we'll put it in the note we'll say he's
an engineer be prepared
know the difference between jewels
kilowatts know yourself
awesome jeremy do you have any further
questions for us while we're here no i
don't think so awesome
we appreciate your time
all right
thank you very much appreciate your help
so that is four rfps on the day
this is shay and uh we signing out
i pretty much called it for the day
started off a little bit rough with
those uh two rejections but then i ended
up getting two rfps
and uh shea got two usages too even
though at some point
he was kind of uh he was kind of feeling
down
i don't know i'm always a baby
heart is a goddamn rock well another
successful day in the field
and um gang gang