Job Memo

Job Memo

Haakon Nordal Moller

This summer I worked for Zero Energy California as a Lead Generator, which is like being a door to door salesman, except I did not sell anything. My job was to see if homeowners might qualify for Energy Upgrade California, and if they did sign them up for a free assessment on their home that would decide what energy efficient upgrades the program would cover. My job actually had two parts: the first was going out in the field to sign homeowners up for the program, and the second was training more junior members of the company to do the same job. A typical workday would start at the office at 8 am where we would have workshops on management techniques and practice our pitch. At around 12 we would head out to our designated area and talk to homeowners, before coming back to the office at 6PM where we summarized what we had learned from the day. There were 3 things that were essential to my job as a Lead Generator:

·      System

·      Attitude

·      Leadership Development

System

My boss used to say that the main reason behind Zero Energy’s success was that every Lead Generator did the same thing every day, that is, we all followed the system. At the beginning of each day we would each be given a designated area to go door to door, and we would all work it in exactly the same way. Our system was this:

·      Knock on every door twice (only once if they answer the first time)

·      Knock on 90 doors

·      Talk to 60 people

·      Get 15 homeowners interested

·      Get 7 homeowners to see if they qualify for the program

·      Sign up 5 homeowners for the program

The system works as a funnel. That means that if you knock on 90 doors you will talk to 60 people. If you talk to 60 people you will get 15 people interested, and so on. But the system only works if you keep a good attitude.

Attitude

The key to getting the system to work is to keep a good attitude throughout the day. When you picture a door to door salesman I am sure you imagine someone who has an upbeat attitude and will push for a sale at all costs. At Zero Energy having a good attitude means something completely different. Since we were working as a part of the state mandated Energy Upgrade California program we were told to be as informative and neutral as possible, while still of course being polite and pleasant. Keeping a good attitude for us also meant to be positive at all times. We had a strict “no negative talk” policy at the office, and when someone asked how your day was you were expected to answer “It was amazing!” Since we were going door to door we got our fair share of doors slammed in our faces and generally unpleasant encounters, but when you and everyone around you thinks positively at all times it is much easier to keep morale high.

Leadership Development

Everyone in the Lead Generator program at Zero Energy had plans to eventually start their own business, and part of our day at work was spent developing leadership qualities. In the mornings, we would have workshops on management techniques and effective leadership, and in the evenings we would analyze our own and our coworkers performance to see where we could improve the next day. Once you had learned the system yourself you were expected to teach it back to the new hires. This not only helped us develop our leadership qualities but also ensured that everyone would work the system in the same way, as we were all constantly practicing it and teaching it back to each other.

All in all it was a very tough job as I worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week, but it was also a valuable lesson in hard work and discipline.