Before moving to California, I was looking for a job back in the solar industry. I believe solar is the future of electricity, and I was already familiar with the industry. I had a few interviews with different companies but ultimately took a position with Sunrun, the nation’s leading residential solar company. Sunrun in California essentially allows consumers to purchase panels or just electricity from us, replacing their expensive utility company. It’s almost a no-brainer for people to take advantage of our solar program, but the caveat to the job is that it is door-to-door.
I have done door-to-door in the past. Four years ago, I interned with Dish Network selling satellite tv in the North Texas region. It was a tough job back in the day. To make good money, you had to make several sales daily, six days a week. Similar to my current position, it revolved on saving consumers money. I learned a lot that summer but never got any momentum rolling as I had to leave Texas twice that summer for extended periods.
Since I have been back on the D2D grind, I’ve realized just how significant momentum is in the job. When you taste success, you can’t slow down or rest on your laurels; you must keep going and look for the next customer because they are out there.
The job is rewarding. I won’t go into specifics, but you can make good money doing what I do. Also, my direct leader told me in a conversation, “if you think about it, we are getting paid to do what people do on vacation, walk around San Diego and talk to people.” That does put things into perspective. Of course, not everyone is thrilled to have a conversation with the door-to-door guy. But my job is to find the people who want to have that conversation, and from there, it’s just about explaining how we do things and seeing if it’s a good fit for the prospect.
So the job is insanely fun and rewarding, but it can also be mentally taxing. As previously mentioned, not everyone is thrilled that I’m knocking on the door. In fact, most people aren’t too thrilled. I know better than to take things too personally from people, but when person after person is slamming the door in your face and rude, as rude as the day is long, it gets hard not to. That is easily the worst part about the job. It gets tough. You can wander the neighborhood you’re working in for hours without a good conversation or even a little bit of humanity shown to you.
On Saturday of this past week, I was in my territory working and got fed up and decided to take a break. I found a pickup soccer game not too far from me and went and played for two hours. It was a nice mental reset. I went home and showered, then returned to work and got a strong lead that could lead to multiple sales. Nothing is said and done, but at least by being persistent and resetting my batteries, I may have gotten a nice little paycheck.
This job has already taught me a lot. I expect to continue learning from it and grow as a person the longer I do it. Let’s build a world run by the sun.
Footy Foster 