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This week in home building news! Catch up with Az and a colourful array of guests, to hear about who's killing it, who's innovating, and who's getting into strife in the world of new home construction.
Az (00:24)
Well, good morning and welcome to the Good Builder Podcast. I am so pumped for this podcast today, actually. I'm sitting in Brisbane in this beautiful office and I'm sitting with a gentleman who didn't set out to build a solar company. He actually set out to help fix an industry.
And I met him a few weeks ago and I was blown away not only by the company that he runs and he founded and brought into the industry of solar, but industry of construction, but also the way he's gone about it. I think there's gonna be lessons in terms of a a great partnership with a good solar partner that's gonna look after you, but there's also gonna be a lot of business lessons.
Now, my guest today is Leigh Storr He's been in the industry for about 24 years in renewables, and he started Resinc back in 2016, which is pretty impressive, which is long enough to see an industry evolve and his own business to get the best reputation in Australia. If you look at their reviews, they are unbelievable, and they alone blew my mind when he first got in contact with me.
He cares about what happens when the customer gets solar put on their roofs and what happens afterwards. Leigh and the team operates across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, ACT, and last year it was named Australia's best solar provider.
And walking in this office today, and I put up a picture and I took a bit of B-roll. There were about 50 awards that were sitting on the wall that you're gonna see. When Leigh got up to accept his award there, someone in the crowd yelled out, What's your secret? And he said there wasn't one other than turning up for customers after installation. And I think that's what defines him.
Coming in to do the podcast today, I can attest to all of that because this is going to be the most well-produced podcast by the Good Builder purely because he actually cares and the staff here gave us a great reception when we came in and helped set us all this up. So I am absolutely pumped to introduce to you all our 30,000 community to Leigh Storr from Resinc, who is the founder and CEO. How are you? Very well, thanks, Aaron. And that's a hard intro to live up to. It's appreciate the positive words.
Well, I there was not a lie in there, Leigh. It was all your experience and and what you've achieved, mate. And as I said, when I first met you on that meeting, it was only a video meeting and I asked you, you know, how do you run your solar business and all that sort of thing? I think at the end of it I actually said to you, man, I need you on the podcast. I'll come to you because there's gonna be a lot of learnings for builders how to, you know, implement solars into into their build a lot easier, a lot more efficiently and and with a great partner that they can rely on.
But the other flip side of it, which I alluded to in the intro, was
Mate, you and the team are an amazing team and the way you operate it is just I wish every builder operated that way and we would have a a great reputation as an industry. So no offense to the builders out there, but that's genuinely how I feel. So where did it all start for you, Leigh? How did you twenty four years ago take us back? When w where did you Yeah, that's that's thrown back quite away. Is I started with renewable energy in the energy retail space. Yeah. So I started off with Origin Energy back in the day. And that was simply door knocking, electricity, the change coming.
Customers from one retailer to another, usually for a cheaper bill. but I wanted to take a different perspective on that. We had a green electricity option, so 100% green power. Yeah, wow. So rather than saving a customer money, that would be charging a customer more money, but for a better cause, less emissions, and enrolling the customer in a process that is different to anyone else, yeah, and taking them on that journey. And I found when you can align a customer with a cause, with a vision, with something different, is they're willing to pay a little bit more money to get quality, to get experience, and to get the results that.
that they're looking for. Right. So taking that different approach is I felt that was the right approach for me as well, to be involved in something that has higher meaning. Yeah. th rather than just changing people from a one provider to another.
Now I went into sales to learn the sort of skills of sales for the business world. Yeah, right. I had some mentors at the time that said number one skill for business is sales. Yeah, hundred percent. So it was a naive young 20-year-old. I went in and got a door-to-door sales job over summer and I thought I'll learn everything there is to know about sales over six weeks. Wow. And then get back to the real world of business. Yeah. but what I learned in that process is sales is business. Nothing happens in a business until a sale is made. Yeah. And then everything else in that business is an expense to serve that point of revenue.
And then if you want future repeat business, the better you serve that customer in that process. And after the process, the more likely you are to get other other future customers through a word of mouth referral and grow your business from there. And I think a lot of people look at business wrong as they look at what is value to a customer. So this is I think a difference between going into an industry to learn about the psychology of it and the skill of it, as opposed to just earn money.
So in that six weeks, I created what I sort of call my golden rule now for training s sales teams and t other team members is activity times skill equals results. So if you take massive action with high applied skill, you'll get disproportionate results to everyone else.
So because I had a short term goal, I just went all at it. but something happened in that time in in the space of six weeks, I was the top rep in Australia from over two hundred sales reps in this campaign. And when you're 20 years old and you become the top rep in an industry is all of a sudden you're earning sort of five five thousand dollars plus a week and it's pretty good money now. It was fantastic money back then. So I thought, hang on, there's a bit more to this sales game. So I thought I'll stick at it. And I realized
adding to that activity type skill because the results, you can then add leverage. So from a business owner's perspective, as we go about adding leverage. So you can add capital as a leverage, you can add marketing as a leverage, you can add humans as a leverage. So build a team. So I started building teams at that point and training other people on what I did and how I did it and building sort of top top teams in the country at the time. So that was a really sort of fun era.
I always wanted to focus on the business side. I started my first business when I was fourteen and running some live music events and bands and DJs back in the country area. But yeah, taking sales and how do I put that into a business structure is I then took on my own energy retail contracts with the likes of Origin and country country energy back in the day. So built a company focused on direct sales, serving the energy retailers with green energy products. So in that period my company's helped
About 150,000 homes in Australia convert to 100% green power, offsetting about eight to ten tons of pollution per household. So that was a higher purpose that I enrolled myself in, but also my teams in. So when you go about it, your team are motivated in a different way. They behave in a different way as well.
So that was that was really good. Ultimately I wanted to help the consumers save money as well as the environment. So solar was my end goal there. Wow. So in two thousand and ten when the cost of solar had fallen to a point and the electricity bills had risen to a high enough point where that crossed over where the return on investment became a positive cash flow. Yeah. that's where I went into the solar industry, helping homeowners install their own asset at the point of use to generate their own power.
I'm blown away by the
Not just the experience, the way that you go about business and you think about, you know, enhancing still, the activity in businesses. That's what I was saying, I we'll focus on solar, but there are so many business lessons. No wonder you're successful just by listening to you like it was just, you know, phenomenal the way you talk about how you build teams, the way you look at things, the higher purpose. And you've carried that through Resinc as well, the higher purpose. You haven't just created a a business that, you know, does a
Phenomenal job for builders and clients all around Australia and things like that. There's a higher purpose behind everything. And that's what I left with. You know, I left with when I first met you the business acumen, the actual passion for the industry, but also the there's a big, almost a bigger why behind doing it as well, Leigh. So is that why Resinc came about and what kind of makes you a bit different from other people out there? Well, I think taking an interest in something.
psychology, both of your team but also your customers in the market. Yeah. looking at the reason why people are doing things, not just trying to sell something to some someone else. So I said before that when you understand customer psychology and what real value is, yeah. Real value is getting what you expect.
And great values getting more than what you expect. So when we won the award that you mentioned earlier is the most popular solar company in Australia and highest rated as well. there was at the awards I was asked to do a speech. this was actually a different one there, but asked to do speech and I said it's actually a testimony to the industry that you can do things different because we have won the most popular and the highest rated award here.
But we are by no means the cheapest company in the market. We're one of the higher priced companies so far as product and service, but we deliver on those promises to our customers better than anyone else. And real value to a customer is getting what they expected. That's true. but there's a lot of companies in this industry that don't even deliver on their cheapest of promises. Yeah. So when a company is competing on price and they don't deliver
Even on their cheapest of promises, that's not value to a customer. Yeah. So looking at value a little bit differently and looking why customers choose to buy. In our industry, there are a lot of rebates over times. So I call it sort of rebate chasing. There's a lot of companies that are doing that. They're just chasing the next rebate. Yeah. So if you're selling rebates, as soon as that rebate changes, your whole business model has got to change. and if you're just trying to sell rebates to customers, they're not.
Rebate is a mechanism to help them buy. Yeah, yeah. But the real reason they're buying is they're increasing electricity bills, they're increasing cost of living, and their threshold of pain is to this power bill keeps coming in, it keeps getting more expensive. So when you're providing a solution that addresses that problem and you're focused on that, the rebate helps facilitate, but it's just a mechanism for accelerating the market or bringing forward some customers. So when you're selling solar for what it is, that's a longer term strategy. So when those rebates change.
Your business model doesn't have to change with it. Customers still want solar, they've still got the same problem.
And what most people within the industry don't realize is customers don't know anywhere near as much about the rebates that affect our industry as what we do. Yeah. And I always say to our sales team is tell what the current EV rebates are if you buy a vehicle in Perth. Yeah. None of them will have a clue because they're not in the market for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So until a customer is in the market, they don't know what it is, but it's all just jargon to them as well. Yeah. So focus on what the desires of your customer are.
what they want and what they want to achieve. And then as a company, deliver on that, align your product and your service to deliver better than anyone else, and then over deliver on that again. So that's where you get the real value. That's where you get the fantastic reviews. That's where you win the awards. but as you said before, it's there's no secret source to it. It's doing what you promise and being there for your customers afterwards. Yeah. And in our industry and in the building industry and we see it in just about every industry for most people, we always say in our industry wants to
Panels are on the roof and the checks in the bank, you'll never hear from the installer again. So we try to be different. we look at that as the moment where our business relationship with the customer is just starting. Yeah. So they'll see us over and over again every single year, checking in. and if you read any of the reviews online, it'll probably be first five reviews, you'll see we've been a recent customer for many years. They've been checking in every year the service, and it's just been different.
Yeah. And we look at that as that is a cost center. we've got twenty five staff that are dedicated just to proactive customer care after installation. So this is what I loved about talking to you. Sorry, keep going. Yeah, so that's this is phenomenal. This yeah. Yeah. So that's about fifteen percent of our head count is purely just on aftermarket service. And that's not service like I think every good company should have reactive service. If there's an issue with there's a question, you answer the phone and you take care of that.
Our approach is proactive service. Yeah. We're reaching out to the customer, checking in, seeking to add more value, what energy retailer you're with. Here's your performance for the year of the solar system. Here's your charts. We can see when you're using electricity. Let's walk through that because we've got some tweaks. If you're able to do this during daylight hours, looks like you're a great case for batteries, things like that. So everyone else will see that as an expense sensor because it does cost a lot of money, especially to set up to get those teams out there to work through your processes.
I see it as an investment in future business strategy because that's where you get your referrals. That's where you get your reviews. That's where you get your awards. So that's what wins new customers. And all of that comes into the psychology of giving the customer complete peace of mind that they're making the right choice and working with you as a business. Mate, you would be one of the best leaders that I've ever had on this podcast. And I know it's fairly early to say that, but
The stuff you're talking about, that's what I'm saying at the beginning of the podcast. I was not only excited to speak to you about introducing you to our audience and our community, who I want all you guys to come and work with this guy and and his team at Recync because they're amazing, but you know, the lessons in business that you actually teach are pretty phenomenal. Like you talk about customer psychology and you talk about the aftermarket sort of stuff. You you talked about other things, but you talked about those two things.
I know of a handful of builders that have a maintenance manager. Yeah. Post maintenance manager. That should be the most important. It's like the livability of the home. Yeah. And then the why I'm so passionate about introducing you guys to everybody out there is because, you know, you're thinking about not just the sale solar, you're thinking about the actual problem or issue the clients trying to avoid or or the comfort of their home later on.
I think in our building industry we don't do that enoughly. Our builders out there, and I say it a lot on the pod, they're not gonna be surprised for me to say this, but I I keep saying, please think about the customer, not when you're just building the home, but after the home. Yeah. How how are they going to view that first electricity bill? They've already forked out now a million bucks for a home, they get a electricity bill. Like, why don't you make it a bit easier for them and install solar? And then afterwards they'll be like, Okay, I moved into my home, it's super comfortable, I loved it, it's built. My power
Bills are good. Like the whole livability of the home and that experience afterwards is so important, but there are it is very rare to actually find a business person. And I don't care how much people talk about it, you preach it and you practice it. Not many out there actually do. and and I can say that hand on heart. And I've been involved in a lot of businesses and retail ones through to construction ones, and and I I see that as a massive gap and where you get your most opportunities. Is that sort of how
Happened for you, Leigh. Like because you do such a great job and such a great job of looking after the customer post installation. I mean, you've got over five thousand reviews or something like a five star. Yeah. Well, appreciate the compliments. I think there's a lot of fantastic leaders out there in the business segment. Yeah. I think you're right in that a lot of leaders tend to be fantastic in one direction. Yeah. broadening that out as much as you can for for the team. So interesting. I think always having it an improver mentality.
which is a blessing and a curse is y you're critiquing sometimes more than you're complimenting, which you've got to be mindful of. Are you constantly thinking? Yeah, constantly thinking. Always always working, never switching off too much. I can tell. Yeah, so it's it's it's managing with that. Mm-hmm. but it's it's having your customer in mind that result, that service, taking pride in what you do. And that there's a lot of fantastic tradespeople out there. There's a lot of people that take great pride.
the challenge is being able to take pride, take time, do the quality of work that you want to be able to do, but then having a customer that's willing to pay for that as well. But if you're able to demonstrate that value in what you do, that extra quality, that extra touch, that extra experience, and then you've got the results, the referrals, the testimonials to back them up.
That's peace of mind to a customer because there's so many horror stories across the building industry, across the solar industry, across most trade industries. But there's also fantastic positive stories as well, people doing a great thing. Yeah. So I'm a big believer in build as much value into that customer journey to the point of completion and then beyond.
And then advertise the heck out of that at the front end when you're addressing new customers because that's what they want to hear. They want that peace of mind. They want that quality. They want that experience and they don't want the headaches. And when you're selling a solar system that might be tens of thousands of dollars or a house that's hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, is show up afterwards, is provide that extra service, that unexpected. Because the bar for raving fans is really high these days. Yeah. Is to be good.
is is easy to be exceptional in a standout is very difficult. Yeah. So you want to go over and above. Yeah. And do things that are unexpected and that do stand out. Like part of our journey is after installation is so another business approach is what gets inspected gets respected. And I'm sure from a building world that's going to be something that resonates with a lot of people, especially when we've got contractors, subcontractors, you've got apprentices
So you've got to be checking on the work, but when you've got that systemized, what gets inspected gets respected, the teams start to lift their standards as well. So we've set up all of our OHS and standards and desktop audits and photos that come through as well. but then we have an end-to-day check-in. So we've got one of the proactive customer care team that check in after installation.
And just make sure they're happy with everything, they understand everything, they've got their app set up, they understand how it works, and then they introduce them to the next step in the process. They book them for what we call a momentum session in 30 days. That's a Zoom session where we train them on their system as a new solar and battery owner. So that way we don't leave it to chance of a confused customer and not knowing how to use their system and get the most value. We've got four weeks worth of data so we can see when they're using power and how much through.
the household and we can coach them and set them s up for success because their impression of you as a company isn't just the day of installation, it's the results that they get. So as a in the building world, their impression of you as a builder isn't just what they see when they walk in, it's the livability of the home ongoing.
And if you're not surveying your customers, you're not showing up, you're not asking, you're not seeking to improve that experience constantly, is you might be putting a subpar product to market and not even realizing it. So
having these checkpoints and going above and beyond of being there for your customers. And then after that,
About four months later, timed for when they receive their first electricity bill is we drop out, have a cup of tea. We literally s send someone to the home, sit down, have a cup of tea, get out their new power bill, walk them through that. Most people don't know how to read their power bill. So that's a simple thing to take them through. and then look at their monitoring again.
Look at a performance report, how the system is doing, answer any other questions. At that point, we'd recommend an energy retailer that might be more suitable to get even more savings for them. Let them know maintenance plans and how to clean the panels and look after them and we're there if we need them. And then we go back out there year after year, checking in, take an annual performance report. And yes, that's an expensive process. We've got a whole team of people out in vehicles dropping in for cup of teas with customers.
but you know what it comes back so many times over in your reviews, your referrals and future business. And then that's what our sales team can go in, backing themselves on providing that experience for their customers. So they've got the confidence in being number one.
And standing behind that. I think you just touched on a really important point. It's not just confidence for the end consumer. Mm-hmm. It's confidence for your teams and the partners that you're working with, isn't it? And having that for your sales team. Sorry to cut you leave, but it's having that for your sales team and and people around. Excuse me, knowing that, you know, you're all aiming toward the same goal and how things are going to be done brings an immense amount of confidence. I I've got no qualms in saying this, and I briefly spoke to your team before about I once ran a building
Company and everything was not. I'm learning, like I'm like, if I took Lee's stuff on, I could probably restart this building business and it'd be way better than what it was. But it was precisely all the things you talked about. Everyone was kind of running their own race, not supported, didn't know where the bar was and how we did things, and we didn't have any sayings like what gets inspected gets respected, which looking back should have been.
All those things drive team confidence and and and strengthens it, doesn't it? And that's how it probably grows. Yeah, yeah, and it builds culture as well. And people want to be involved in a company that they believe in. Yeah. Involved in a mission or an industry that they believe in. And then if they're having fun, earning money and have good balance in life, that's your recipe for culture within a business. Is you max out someone's satisfaction level in those five areas and you've got a business with huge culture momentum. So that's that's how you grow is you align
Like like it, you're playing a game, what's the game of business? Expand in those areas. but then that customer journey is it's easier to look at where we are now, ten years into the business. but we didn't start here, of course. Yeah. So I've had some of these that I've implemented over and learned this through psychology and implemented from day one. So from day one we were different, of course, but we've progressively added, added, added. Yeah.
So some people take the approach of I've got a bit of a cost saving or our supplier put prices down so I can put my price down to the customer. I first of all look at how can we add more value to the customer? So what can we do to add to that service, add to that support? Yeah.
so we're always looking at that. It's almost the opposite to some people. Some people are looking, how can we be more competitive by reducing our price? Yeah. The race to the bottom. It's the worst. Yeah. It's not good for anyone. I'd look first, how can we increase our price, add more value to the customer, and win more customers as a result. Yeah. So you want to be sustainable as a company, maintain margin, and actually be able to provide that service for your customer. You can't be the cheapest and do what we do. but we have a saying that we train into the sales team is and
Is sort of consumer psychology. What are they actually looking for? And what gives them the confidence to buy? Is we're not the cheapest in the market, we never will be. But there's two really good reasons why you as a consumer wouldn't want us to be the cheapest either. Number one, the solar system going on your roof generates electricity. Now it should be perfectly safe if there's high-quality equipment installed correctly by skilled labor and done properly. But if there's any corners cut in that process, that system's sitting on the same roof that your family sleeps under and it does generate electricity.
So we're not going to sacrifice our integrity and our process, our workmanship and our products and put your family's health and safety at risk. We are a social enterprise that deeply invests into the community. We're not in the business of burning down houses and doing that. But secondly, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you're investing in solar and batteries to save as much money as possible. Yep. For as long as possible. Yep. And you're smart enough to know that you get what you pay for it. And
You want a high quality system that's gonna last the distance with a company that stands behind that. Yeah. And we do that better than anyone else. I love it. So when you frame using psychology and you align to what the customer is looking for and that peace of mind, you're able to position and charge for what you're worth, maintain margin and deliver on your promises.
Yeah. Because there's nothing worse than having the integrity and having the promise to the customer, but not charging enough to be able to deliver on that. And I know from your building experience that that was one of your big frustrations there is that you fell into that challenge and It was. That that was the downfall of of the it's still around, but it was the downfall of the relationship within the business. We couldn't we we weren't making enough money to provide the service that we needed to provide, so we ended up trying to cut corn.
And build homes. And then we had problems. And it was really interesting you talking about a race to the bottom. And I and I I, you know, I should have known this when we when we did the building company, but the building industry is known a bit for that race to the bottom type thing. And the other thing that I've seen over my, you know, nearly 20 years in the industry is that the the more you race to the bottom, the lower the area the the b boundary to entry is, you get shoddy, more shoddy operators coming in.
Playing at that price game and the industry as a whole gets a worse reputation because you've got worse people coming in trying to just be the cheapest and not forming a legitimate business. I'm sorry, that's what I think it is. You've got a legitimate business that actually you're planning not for five years to make a quick buck.
You're planning for five hundred years and a legacy. That's what I see you guys building here. And and that's what I think you know, someone who has a mentality of not a race at the bottom does, and it's better for everybody. Yeah. Customers, the industry, builders, anyone who partners with. So I think there should be a lot more collaboration, there should be a lot more information sharing and support of each other in an industry. Yeah. I'd love it if everyone went out and copied exactly what we do and provided that level of value and service to customers because they'd have to charge for it as well. Yeah. So that would bring the
price up in the market to a standard, but everyone's delivering on their customers. We've got happy customers, we've got sustainable business. Yeah. we I have to always tell our sales reps because sales reps bring back these different quotes from customers and they they got this product or they've even got the same product and it's much cheaper. And I've got to remind them is there's a lot of companies like I'll look at quotes and I go, that's below cost. Yeah. Like we could not do that for cost. Yeah. Let alone add all of the services and support. Yeah.
So have to say that there is a lot of companies in this industry having a going out of business sale. Yeah. Some of them aren't even aware of it yet. Yeah. And that's the key. That's the key. So Yeah. And we and we also see other companies in this industry. well. Same thing happens in the building industry. The term phoenixing a business is a term for a reason because people do it.
And we had we had a company that's been in the national spotlight recently, that they've got four different brands and industry and they left one behind that had a six million dollar debt and liquidation. They continued trading. So not only were they not making money, but they were losing money on every deal that they were putting in. And you've got your salespeople trying to compete with this thinking that we've got to win on price. It's a it's a game that's just guaranteed for failure. So when you play a different game.
I remember one evening we were at a industry evening and we had several of I believe they're the leading companies in the region that we're at. Yeah. And they said to me, your resync, like you guys are everywhere. We can't quite a customer without you guys having knocked on their door or been around there, like you guys are massive. And and the next thing they said to me is they said, What are you doing about X, Y, and Z with their price reduction? Are you guys following as well?
And I said, well, here's what I'm doing about it. First of all, I don't know who they are. I don't know who you guys are. I don't know what their pricing is. And I don't know what your pricing is. I don't care. We focus on our position in the market, our value proposition, and maximizing the value that we offer to customers. We sell solar and batteries for what it should be sold for with the value that they get. That's what we focus on. Don't focus on you guys or them. I'll leave that to you guys to find out at the bottom if you want.
So it's it's not a sustainable game. Now, in saying that it you can't be completely disconnected from it. Yeah. but you've got to focus on the value proposition you're delivering to customers. Yeah. But look at any industry is like use comparisons outside of the industry to give perspective, especially with your sales team. So customers will pay for something that they see additional value, and value is not just product. It's not just kilowatt hours and things like that. it's service, support.
prestige, quality, these sorts of things. Yeah. Otherwise if everyone bought on price, then and all cars are the same, they all have four wheels. People have been driving around a Hyundai gets it gets them from A to B.
But no, people are buying Porsches and Maserati's and Lamborghinias and things like that. Yeah. And that has a different value to them. Yep. So if you align with what the customer values and provide a product and service of high value, you'll get the results that you're looking for. Interesting what you doesn't make it easy, but it's it would it wouldn't well, you have to be, I think, you know, you have to set your business upright and have a a good b you know, you're quite astute in business and I and it's something that we want to preach at the good building. We want more people to be like
And when you were talking about it, you actually reminded me of someone who I'm going to make an intro to for you guys, which is the greater guys, like which are just down the road here in Newstead here. And and I'll I was talking to the team here and I said, I was standing next to a bloke at a a pretty swanky exclusive event. Everyone was buying apartments, and he said to me, which one are you buying? And I said, None of the above at the moment, but one day I will, because I want I want a greyer apartment. I want one because I value their brand and how they deliver it. You know what I mean? But I'll pay four million for it.
it. Not right now, but when I make four million, I'll go pay four million for a base a apartment at the bottom. I don't care, but this guy's paying 24. You see that. You see the value in that. I do. And other people won't see the value in that. And there's the secret as well is we don't have to sell to everybody. And we've got to constantly remind our sales rips.
Not everyone is our customer. Yeah. And they say, yeah, but if we were a little bit cheaper, I'd get more sales. I said, I almost guarantee you that same customer that didn't buy in price, if we were ten percent, even twenty percent cheaper, they still wouldn't have bought a price. Yeah. Because they're looking for the bottom of the market. You can't help everyone. Yeah. Yeah. And they'll learn the hard way. Yeah, so so and it's also taking the approach when you build differently like that and you go after value, quality, anyone that's built a business based on those and delivers on that as well, it is a lot more work.
It's a lot more work. Yeah. So we know that a lot of other business owners won't put in that work. They won't put in that effort. some people are looking for that quick buck. Some people are not in a position where they're having to, I guess, have that moral integrity conflict of working out a way to do it cheaper, which is the position that you found yourself in in order to make ends meet and keep staff paid. Yeah. Some people go into business trying to cut corners and
do the cheapest work that they can do to make the dollar. Yeah. But they're not getting a phone call back from that customer f with a referral. Yeah. They're getting a phone call back with a problem. Yeah. So they're constantly running from those things. No. And it's also from a position is like we're an industry where we've got thousands of active work sites every single year. Anyone that tells you nothing goes wrong, they're lying to you about other things as well. The difference between a good company and a great company is what they do when something does go wrong.
So you make good on that, you own it, and you go above and beyond until it is great. And some of our biggest raving fans and highest referral customers, things didn't go perfectly. Is you had an ins issue or in the incident, like their inverter stopped working, you had a warranty changeover. Is anytime you're dealing with technology, you've got an Apple laptop there, you've got an Apple iPhone. Yeah. Is you a failure rate on everything? Is that's expected as part of the business and but how you show up, what you do?
And we go through growth stages like the last 12 months we went through 150% growth as a company, which is significant and that's challenging and it pushes everything to breaking point. So we we were dropping balls. Is as good as we are at what we do, we found that we needed to add new team members into positions that didn't exist before. Yeah. So we had a sale to install period of about four weeks previously, and that'd been long running for the last 10 years. When we went through that hyperbolic growth.
is our install period pushed out to three, four, six months. So we then had a gap where we didn't have team members that were keeping customers up to date in between our stages that we'd already built. So customers were going uncommunicated with gaps in the process.
So we've had to solve for that, build new processes and innovate as you go. So but you get stronger as a company and you learn the fastest from some of the mistakes and some of the customers that as much as they sting, you get a one star review. Yeah. You jump on the phone to them, you resolve, you work it out, and there's a long term relationship and and you double down. Yeah. some people get spiteful and upset, and it stings, but that's your opportunity to learn. Where do we drop the ball? Pick it apart, seek to improve.
But and that's like
A lot of people talk about Metricon in this industry. Another builder that I want to introduce you to and we know very well, biggest builder in Australia. And they're doing it at scale like nobody else. And they make mistakes, but people bag them and I'm like, Well, whenever you're doing something at that scale, certain things are gonna go wrong. Yeah. Like it's construction. So, you know, to talk through so openly how you have, you know, gone through that immense growth. You know, Metricon don't go through 150 if a builder if a builder went through a hundred and fifty percent growth.
A year I think we'll all have heart attacks and quit the industry. So, you know, hats off to you for being so open and identifying where those gaps were and how you can sort of help them. The biggest challenge is scale and quality. It is when you do both. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of high expectations from your customers from your team as well. Yeah. If you set the bar really low, but even that, as I said, there's so many companies in our industry that are not even hitting the bar that they're setting right at the bottom, not delivering.
delivering on the cheapest of promises and they get the most complaints, they get the most one star reviews, the most issues. And they don't go in and resolve them afterwards. But yeah, unless you're staying to a very small segment reminds me of
What's the famous sushi guy in Japan that only has I think it's like six to eight people and presidents and people get I I watched him on YouTube actually serving dinner to about six people and it's all handmade. Highest quality you can get and that guy doesn't make mistakes. No. The reason being he has never scaled beyond the perfection point. So it's hard to scale and maintain perfectionism, but you can always be improving and see you can lift the bar and deliver better than anyone else. Yeah. I love it. Wow.
Well, you talk about not being the the cheapest in the industry and and how you work. What does that look like in a real sort of you you've taken it through through me and a bit through this podcast and in that previous meeting, but what does that look like in in real life, Leigh, when you're delivering for a customer? How does that what are the stages and things like that that you take the customer through? Yes, the common stages is you've got so your initial point of contact with the customer, whether that's initiative from our end, initiated from the customer's end. Yeah. so you're doing a bit of a discovery session.
So five to 15 minutes of discovery, what are their needs, what are they looking for, where are they at in their decision making cycle. You're then ideally setting them up for a consultation with one of our sales team. Yeah. Our sales team will custom design a solar solution for them. So we set up for a 60 to 90 minute session, usually on Zoom or in-home with a customer, depending on where it is. And we go through an education-based process and then a custom design of the solar solution.
So that way the customer's taken on that journey. We're not just giving them a one size fits all or what we think is best for them. We look at their current needs, their future needs. Do they have an EV at the moment? Are they looking to get an EV? We had a customer recently that's since installing solar and batteries, he's bought two EVs. Yeah, he's just put a pool in, he's got a sauna and an ice bath that he wants to put in. He's a single-phase customer who's pushing out about 120 to 150 kilowatts a day in energy consumption. And he's now tripping his main switch.
so he's looking at upgrading to a three-phase system. Now all of this is very recent plans. Had we known that at the start, design it a little bit differently. but working through your customers, what are your current needs? What are your future needs? Did we want to design a system for your future needs or just what you're looking at now? you planning the move in a number of years or is this your forever home? And then you're looking at okay, what's your
Site-based variables. What roof space do we have to work with and orientations and any shading or roof limitations to achieve that outcome? So my goal as a solar salesperson or designer would be to design a system that generates more kilowatts than what you need. so that not you don't have power just on a sunny day, but on an overcast day also. but not only that it's more kilowatts than what you need at a price cheaper than what you're currently paying.
So when it comes to the solar industry, we're in a unique sort of position where customers are already paying for their energy service. Yeah. The only difference is they're renting their power effectively. Yeah. And that's funding someone else's infrastructure and paying off or paying their shareholders. So when you're able to install an asset that the customer owns, they're now investing in their own asset and paying that off. And they're rediverting if they choose a green loan, re diverting money they're already spending on electricity bills.
towards their own infrastructure and generating free power. Once that system's paid off, there's then free power thereafter. So it's looking at that, aligning it, educating the customer, running through that value proposition and then aligning your product. So looking at maximizing that customer's need want to work with your customer and sorry work with your company and desire to work with your company. trusting you as a consultant in the way that you've gone about business.
people love to buy, but they don't like to be sold to. Yeah. So if you're able to take a consultative education-based approach, genuinely take an interest and care about what your customer's looking to get, and then tailor a solution to help meet their goals, then align your business and product with it, that's that's where the psychology happens. So and then provide them with several options. So from there, that's their custom design or sales consultation.
We then book a pre-sight inspection with one of our electricians, so Solar Accredited Installer Designer. They will go and and confirm the assumptions that have been made with the sales consultant. Any variations there based on cable runs or any unforeseen things that you can't pick up.
we've already got photos of the customer's meter box. We've got aerial photography that shows the roof layout and things like that. So the sales team are pretty good at getting ninety percent of the way there. Wow. and then just confirming up any variants or or changes with unforeseen on site. We then book for the installation, usually a one day, sometimes a two to three day depending on complexity.
We've then got our checking call end of day. Obviously, if the customers purchase on finance, there's that process through the process through the yeah through that approval. we've got the end of day, we've got our momentum session, and then we're dropping back and checking in on the customer. So we're then providing things like an active monitoring service.
We've got team members every day that check the monitoring of our customers to make sure that the system's online and generating power and there's no faults. if there is any systems that have gone offline, reach out to the customers, let them know that their system's disconnected from their Wi-Fi. 98% of the time that's what the issue is. But the 2% of the time that there is actually a fault with the inverter is they'll organize a warranty exchange and book that in and take care of that with the customer. Wow. So I mean the
I wanna get into the to the business of builders and solar actually because I think the front end of this podcast has been amazing and I think you've given out so much business advice. And we just touched on solar there and and how it the process sort of works. But
What about for a builder customer? How do you design for a builder for our builders out there? How would you manage that relationship? And when do you get involved in design and things like that of a home? Because the other thing I wanted to mention for everyone out there quickly, and I'm talking to the camera now, is that the NCC All Electric Home is now in Victoria. You need to be starting to talk to your solar operators and things like that, talk to Resinc.
EV provisions are needed for homes in Victoria. EV provisions will be needed for homes in twenty twenty nine for the rest of the country with the NCC.
So you think about that Leigh, we're tail end of twenty twenty six. Yeah. To build a home, you've probably got twelve months in the decision making process of someone building and then actually maybe not even getting in their home. Yeah. So why I wanted to introduce you today was because like builders have got to start partnering with partners to do this stuff. And I think you guys are the right partners. Definitely I know you guys are the right partners. So yeah, where does it all sort of start with the
relationship with a builder and how you work through a a new build. Yeah. Yeah, we work with a number of high spec builders and sort of boutique builders. wow. Yeah, and looking at that sort of high design and high quality. it's really challenging in the building sector because you you've got different ways that you can look at it. A lot of builders are looking at say, okay, I need to meet the green star or I need to add solar as a component. So they're looking at a small system to tick a box and as cheap as possible.
So if you're looking at it that way, that's that's one way is or no, or you can look at it as a major feature for a prospective homeowner. So you either want to kit the system out properly, put it in your advertising materials and differentiate yourself from other builders. So if you've got a home that's going to be pretty much energy independent for a consumer coming in and they know what they currently pay on electricity bills,
they're moving into a home that they're gonna have perceivably low or very or no or very low bills. Yeah, that's a huge advantage. we kitted out a prize home recently, beautiful spec home for Endeavor Foundation, their Endeavour lotteries home.
Yeah, I mean beautiful one up on Sunshine Coast, actually. we would be in that. I hope I win that. Yeah. I know who did the solar. It is. It's a beautiful big battery bank, massive solar system. And it was a feature on the images and the design. It looks amazing. Wow. So it helps sell a property if you do it right. EV charger there as well. And and that was definitely a system that provided more kilowatts than the homeowner's going to need with batteries to store the excess and an EV charge point there. So not only will it reduce the electricity.
Bill and they don't need gas in the household because they're all electric. And if they buy an electric vehicle, they've got no fuel bills either. All off the roof and all done properly. So you can bring it in as a feature. And if you've got a feature, they're working with builders is we like to build as much trust into our relationships and all the social community work that we do, working with councils, working with surf clubs, sporting clubs, charities, and communities. being a business in in the industry over 10 years,
Obviously a longer history and industry than that, but the highest rate of most awarded is a business that other people can put their name behind as well. So as a builder, especially if you're doing a multi-million dollar home, you don't want something like the solar system being the pain in your butt once there's a problem with the system afterwards. Cause they're gonna call the builder. You installed it, you took care of that.
So, but it's also understanding where that market's at. So we'll work with builders at a wholesale level where we can still provide a very high quality system and all the service and process that goes with it. We'll pick the customer up after they move in and treat them exactly the same as every one of our customers in our check-ins, our management, our service, our support on the life of that. So provide a package that the builder can lean into and advertise in that process. One of the mistakes I do see builders make.
is adding a small battery to a system to again to tick that box. We have a battery rebate available that's up to fifty kilowatt hours of battery and it's a one time bite of that rebate. So what you've potentially done is provided a really small battery for the customer and they're ineligible for any rebates to upsize that battery. And it's also potentially locking them into a product
So unless you're gonna provide a substantial battery that you're gonna sell into the build and advertise with or alternatively involve the customer in that process so that they've got the option to choose a package that includes a upspect solar and battery, is I'd recommend potentially just doing the solar component and leaving the battery open to their choice.
Yeah and you can help advise on all of that lead. You and your team. Yeah, absolutely. If you partner with a builder, you could provide them with the information on the batteries that they can put into there. What I really want, what I want one builder out there to do, please. And and I know I'm calling out Greyer and I'm not just calling out you guys because I just love you guys. But you know
Can someone just have solar and batteries as standard in their home and workers resync? Like it's that simple. Like the highest-selling cars in Australia, EVs. the NCC coming in, the star rating you talked about, you've got to tick all these boxes. Yeah. But not just tick them. As Leigh talked about at the beginning of this podcast, and this is why I was so pumped for this podcast, was you know.
you think about the actual customer satisfaction at the end, not just ticking the box. Yeah. So if you tick the box and then the customer is satisfied, you're off you're off and running. Yeah. Like it's for me it's a it's a no-brainer why they don't partner with someone like you and just
put it out there in the menu of things that they offer a client when they come in to build because you know what would it be, Leigh? I'll I'm gonna probably get this completely wrong, but ninety percent of them are gonna go retrofit it later on. And they're gonna go and waste a whole heap of money and time getting it done when they could have done it in the build of the home and gone, my builder took care of it. Yeah. Worked with a reputable company that I know I'm gonna have no problems with. The other thing that I wanna say, Leigh, I'm sorry mate, I'm I'm just a bit hyped at the moment, but the you talk about, you know, being
the most trusted basically brand of solar in Australia. Do you know I when I was a marketing manager for GJ Gardener, I nearly killed someone to become the most trusted builder in Australia. Like I was dead set on that is what we're going to achieve. And I maybe shouldn't say this, but I'm going to. But the way we did it was we were vetting reviews. We were bringing review we were surveying the customer experience and anyone that had a bad experience with us, I would I would
Tell to sh not shove off, but click into a link where we would take their feedback and they felt like they were heard. Yep. Did we do anything about it? Maybe not. And you sort of see the Facebook groups pop up because they talk about us on that. Might not have affected our reviews and things, but in the end we became the most trusted. Well, survey and get in that information and and we we've got a similar process. We're checking in with the customer. Yeah. Now we would be stupid if we
May that end of day call and the customer had a problem, to then ask them for a review immediately after. Yeah. Is no, you take note of what that issue is. If you haven't yet delivered to the 100% in their eyes, you go and you take care of that. Yeah. So by the time our Zoom momentum session comes, they're a super happy customer. Yeah. If anything comes up in that momentum session, by the time you go out and sit for a cup of tea with a customer, is it's taken care of. And that's the thing is and customers won't always voice their issues.
issues. There's a lot of customers that are very anti confrontational and they're not forthright with that. They'll walk around a home after you finish building it and they'll see things they're not happy with but they won't have the courage to speak up. They'll hold that afterwards. And they may not tell you, but they may tell their friends or their families and their grievances. So you don't want any of that out 'cause that's negative word of mouth.
If they're not happy about anything, you're better off knowing about it and either improving your processes, your service, your quality of materials, whatever it is that's holding that back, but also improving that customer relationship. Is I every now and then I get an escalation of a customer and I'll say to the customer, look, if you're not yet happy, we're not yet finished. And we will keep on going until you are a happy customer.
And that's the journey that you go on. And sometimes that's expensive is I take the approach of I'm willing to throw the entire revenue or margin of that business back at it to resolve an issue if there is an issue. Wow. And sometimes our teams make mistakes and you gotta cover it for them. And sometimes someone drops a drill or puts a foot through a roof or things like that. That's that happens in the building game. Yeah. if you just try to cover it up and tell no one about it and hope they don't see, well it's not operating with the
integrity that's going to get you that most trusted position. So I I think you do yourself short there in that to achieve that position in the market, you've got to be doing a lot of things right. And even just getting that survey and getting that information and getting that intelligence back to the team is team members that take pride in what they do can't help but act on some of that. And even if it's unable to help that customer, it's addressing and taking consideration on the next ones. Yeah. And if there's team members that don't want to, that don't want to step that up,
they're not the right team members for your company. You gotta identify that over time and move on those people on is always try get the best outcome for the customer. Yeah. So it's tough, it's hard. It's a lot of extra work, a lot of extra checks and balances, a lot of frustration, a lot of weekends given up, working with customers or working with your staff and but that's that's part of it. Yeah. And then you commit, you know, financially if there's an issue as well. Like that that is a
That's a testament to who you are and and and the team and and how you're so successful and that's why you're the most trusted solid company. It would be hypocritical if the work that we do in the community and for charities we didn't look after our customers to the same level. So you've got to treat your customers to that level that you would the community, to get that congruency as well. Well let's talk about that community if you don't mind, Leigh.
That was another thing that I was highly impressed with. After talking to you, there was a lot I was impressed with.
I probably haven't heard of community work like you've you're doing at the moment. There's some big things going on where you you're committing a lot of solar systems across a long period of time to a lot of customers. I'm not gonna go into it, I want you to talk about it, but and and you do a lot in the community day to day. Could you talk through a few of the things that Resinc are up to at the moment and what you've done in the past? 'cause it is phenomenal the amount you give back. Yeah, what we're doing now is pretty significant, but it's on the back of ten years of growth.
and it's an exponential curve and I call it sort of the exponential sort of force for good is how can we create a tsunami of goodwill and how can we align with that tsunami so that it creates more new customers as well. Yeah. So taking the approach of the more we give back to the community, the more opportunities we get as a business. Yep. And the more opportunity we get as a business, the more we can give back to the community. So that builds on itself at a at a sort of exponential level if done right.
So we started giving from day one and we've just built on that, built on it, built on it. And we're in the privileged position now, ten years in with a successful business, where we can give back a lot more and make a bigger difference. I think.
something that I see the building industry does really well is there's a lot of big builders that do sponsor community programs and invest and build the community. And builders are literally building community. So it makes sense to invest and contribute on that level. Is we're providing solar and batteries, it makes sense for us to do that as well.
So we work with community organizations that will have a huge benefit also. So surf life saving's been a big one over the last ten years. We've installed for almost 30 surf clubs now and mostly a zero cost to the clubs. So we help them save money so they can save more lives on our beaches. And they happen to be the beaches around where we service as a business, of course.
So when we're investing in the local community and they become a focal point and a reference point for our sales team and our lead generation teams. Yeah. And it's a trusted point in the community, it helps win new businesses that help us install the next surf club. So that's how it works on itself. I know there's a big thing with the sort of charity and give back and anon anonymity. The thing is with business, if you tell no one,
If you don't bring it into your marketing in customers love aligning with a company that makes a difference. They do. They love aligning with a company that makes good. And you should be proud of it. Yeah. And so many customers in our surveys and feedback say, I bought through Resinc because of the work you do with the community. So and they're willing to pay a premium with a company with values that invest in the community and they feel good by helping support that. So I think it's I think it's a responsibility of everyone to invest in the communities.
It gives purpose to your team as well, gives involvement in those projects. So we've now helped I think it's about 1.7 million of solar and batteries for surf clubs. generally we help with where they get a community organization grant, we'll then match that dollar for dollar to help them get a bigger system with no cost to them. some systems we just outright donate to different clubs and and individuals. We've got a program this year called Community Heroes.
So there's a lot of volunteers within these community groups and sporting clubs that give decades of their life serving others. So we want to recognize some of those community heroes and got a whole nominations process for that. If you know a community hero who's been of service to their community, we'd love to thank them, reward them with a free solar and battery system. We'll put it out there. Yeah, because a lot of people make a lot of financial self-sacrifice in volunteering and helping others. They put themselves last. That's the way they're wired.
So we want to find some of those people, thank them and encourage them to do. And part of that tsunami of goodwill is well, we get a lot of nominations that of course we're we're donating a million dollars worth of solar and batteries, which is about a system every week. but we get more nominations than that. But we call and we thank those people that have been nominated as you've been recognized that the community have seen what you do and they appreciate what you do. You've been nominated. we've only got a small number of systems that we can give away, but we just want to thank you for the work that you do.
So that's creating that tsunami of goodwill and that positive word of mouth in the communities that we work. So that's community heroes. We're helping a lot of veterans as well. So people who've served our country. Yeah, tell me about that one. Yeah, keep going with that one. Actually, so we've teamed up with manufacturers. And again, when when we do good work and we involve the community and we have great content, we work with fantastic videographers and teams so good. Yeah, create amazing content is that puts eyeballs on things and it puts
product in a really good light. Yeah. So it puts the product that we're delivering, it puts our manufacturer's product in a good light. They'll come and help with that and they want to be seen with influencers, with community organizations, with giving back. So you can bring in other stakeholders to help make that happen and have a bigger give.
So that's a that's a big one, veterans. I've employed a number of veterans over the years and I've seen some of the challenges and experienced that first hand, of course. wow. I've got a number of veterans that currently work and partners of veterans. really. So being able to assist in that area and they look after each other significantly, but often again they're a
segment of the community that put others first. Yeah. whether we're providing free solar and battery systems to our target is three hundred and sixty five over t twelve months, so system a day. so it's a massive campaign. but that will have some national media attention, a lot of supporting organizations involved through all of our customer communities as well. Mm. And if done right, the more you give, the more opportunity you get and the more you can give the following year.
So that's the plan there. We'll we'll report on everyone you give away. I promise. I don't mind. Three hundred and sixty-five. We'll put it out on social. We'll write an article. We'll do something. Like I really want to. Like that was one of the things beyond I think this podcast might be a little bit for me, anyway, because after meeting you, I was such a fan of your business acumen. And I was like, everyone needs to hear this. But the other thing that I
you know, walked away from that meeting and and why, you know, like w we want to partner with you guys obviously and things like that and and bring you into our sort of little communities that that stuff that you're doing there. Like to give away a million dollars worth of solar, a solar system every day. to everyday heroes and veterans and thirty surf clubs that you could, you know
They have to fundraise. I I had them knocking on my office door not long ago and I think I bought some tickets from them. They're all self funded, you know, trying to do their own thing. And the beach is such an iconic part of Australian lifestyle that, you know, synonymous with summer and the sun Where would we be without you know, without them and they can't afford these things and you just help them run more efficiently? You know, all that sort of stuff. I think it's just phenomenal the way you think about business. I love it.
listening that if you want a fantastic tool for your sales team is what charity or organization can you involve your team in use your skills your expertise to help them out wow that becomes a case study for your business that customers resonate with and love so that is I think the best thing that you can do like we get hit up for sponsorships all the time is can you sponsor this sports team can you sponsor this one?
Oftentimes we say no, that's not how we do deliver. There are some that we do support, of course, like Surf Live Savings, one of them. We've got a rolling support every year for Surf Ly Savings Central Coast. but our highest and best use of capital in giving back to the community is familiar with that story, is you
Give a man of fish, you feed him for a day, you teach a man of fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Yeah, yeah. Is I love it. If we give a club ten thousand they spend it that year, if we give them a solar system that saves them ten thousand dollars a year, that takes care of that every year for the next twenty five, thirty years. So that's where we can use our service as product to the best use and bring our manufacturers in and help reduce our cost to serve so that we can do even more. Mm-hmm. So
I was gonna say it's the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah. Isn't it real? It just keeps how do you put your product service, how do you feature it in your consumers' eyes? How do you collaborate with great podcasts, with influencers, with community organizations, with charities and how can you support the community that you work in that will then resonate with your customers? 'Cause then that giving becomes free. In fact that giving becomes profitable potentially. Yeah. So Yeah.
and again, I think it goes back to
I could feel like if I worked for Resinc for example and I went past the surf club with the solar's on, yeah. As someone of a company that's done that for an organization like that. Like it's brings a whole sense of pride and meaning to what you do. So just anytime you can involve your team, your staff on that, especially your sales team in any of that charitable work. whether you're giving to local charities and it might even be something as simple as a soup kitchen night and bring the team down or
taking them to an installation like one that we did recently, we took a whole heap of team down to was Footy for Climate. So we donated a system to Port Arlington Football Club, a nice big solar system and a battery there. Wow. and Footy for Climate are on a mission to help five hundred football clubs over the next five years. to install solar and batteries, help with climate change, of course. We're going through changing times where we're seeing a lot more
Bushfires of course, the takeout infrastructure. We're heading into a super El Nino, possibly the worst on record. So we're gonna see more of that this season. Yeah. and then floods as well that come through. Yeah. So any builders, how do you get involved with that? How do you help rebuild a local facility that's been affected by fires or floods? how do you get your team involved in that? Because they'll get more out of that day of involvement or that week of construction than they will out of just seeing it third hand.
through your presentations or on a video. Yeah. And anytime we've taken team members to we've taken some overseas to some of the charitable causes, like helping people with eyesight restoration over in Indonesia or feeding barley dogs and things like that. But that goes so much further because they've got a real connected involvement with that and they know
Every system that they sell is helping contribute towards causes like this. And it's just something else that they can be proud about in what they're doing. And it's another scorecard. It's not just how much money did I make this week or how many systems did I sell? Did I sell more than John? It's how many people did we help?
this is fairly mind blowing. the way you think about the whole thing and obviously while we're introducing you to our builders, which sort of brings me to my we we'd we'd love to collaborate with anyone that wants to give to community, give to charity if they've got a fantastic project that they want involved is we're all in. we've got great partners like friend Roshan at Energy Matters with Open Homes Australia. They can feature beautiful high end homes with fantastic solar and battery systems. get great pieces.
We will be I'll be putting a lot of builders your way, Leigh. Like some recent sway. I think it's yeah. It's about having fun with it as well. Yeah, yeah. That's what I see with you guys. Like your business is very serious. The way you look at it, the way you've you've you know, structured it, the way you conduct it.
the the experience you provide and how you've thought about the whole journey. But beyond that, that was the other thing I I I said to you. Fantastic content creator over there. and Tanya, your amazing marketing manager who gave me a call this morning and I was like I she was asking me questions that I was just like, Wow, you're gonna do this when I come along like and you just do things really well. I sat down, you know, just before you came and I'm like, I'm getting resync. I'm getting the way you do things. You do things properly and you and you do it really well.
Well thank you. and and I love that about you guys, but like the the other thing that's really struck me is that that community giving but the fun. Yeah. I saw I I mentioned to Tanya, I saw Alex Volkonowski. I'm big fan of Alex Volkonowski, I've seen him on your socials, I've seen all these other influences and amazing things and and you can see why they all want to collaborate with you because of the great
And obviously that bit of fun. And that reputation comes into its own on that. So collaborating with influencers is they are their brand. They are their reputation. So if we didn't have the reputation that we had, we wouldn't be able to open those doors and collaborate with them.
we wouldn't be able to get the trust of councils to do fantastic work and surf clubs and so I think the more you build into the foundation of your business and invest in the quality of the work that you do, the more that then gets respected and it becomes a reinforcing cycle of its own. But yeah, having fun and like Josh Neal was a fantastic one recently, he's the Womback guy. Yeah, yeah, I saw that. Yeah, yeah, the snakes and things and
So he he's great and we've got one coming up that's we're hoping to get him before wet season is an off-grid cabin up in North Queensland. So they do rock art tours, so and teaming up with an influencer to help with them is a a charity contribution from his end. So when we work with an influencer, we like to have them nominate a charity for us to donate a system and they get to ride along and we do that together. So this one's a rock art tour place. It's a cabin up far north, but over a beautiful gorge.
So we're gonna have the chopper bringing in the solar panels up through the gorge and get the the four wheel drives out through the tracks and just have a bit of fun with it. This is why I want everyone to partner with you. I just think it's i you know, trusted, the most trusted in Australia. You have a bit of fun which the construction industry loves, and you give back, which I think everybody loves. I think yeah.
Yeah, more than kick all the boxes. I think something important is is our product selection criteria. then looking at how you select partners and contractors that you work with. like we when we select contractors, we a lot of our install contractors, we sort of have a blend of fifty percent internal installations from our PRYG teams, fifty percent contractors.
But majority of our contractors we've worked with for six, seven, eight years. wow. So great long term relationships. We look after them. They look after us. They know our standard of work and our expectations and it works really well. we pay on time every time, they're never arguing over invoices and just do as you promise in all areas of business and you get great relationships and you get loyalty. But when it comes to selecting product, and this is what you've got think about is is we look at performance, reliability, bankability, and then marketability.
So a lot of people miss the bankability side is they l go chasing the latest, newest product. this perform is great and it's got a great spec sheet. we look a bit deeper in our product selection because we
promise such a high level of service and aftermarket support to a customer, if that company is not bankable, we end up holding the can. And if their systems or products start to fail, we will be making good on that because of our reputation and our commitment to customers. So it's the same with choosing to work with another company. So as a builder choosing to work with Resinc or anyone working someone else, your reputation is being affected by the work that they do and the service they provide to the customer.
So that's where you wanna work with bankable partners. you wanna make sure the quality of equipment is there so that you don't get a
cheap solar and battery system installed and then you got headaches afterwards that's reflecting on your high quality build and reputation. Yeah. So the hardest thing, one of the hardest things is to build that reputation, but probably an even harder thing is to keep that reputation. Yeah. So in Australia we love the tall poppy, we love taking down others. Your competitors will try to take you down. Yeah your customers that you don't work with will try to take you down for you. Yeah. it's
Yeah, it's it's a interesting game. Yeah, no and that's why I mentioned Metricon before, who I wanna introduce you to. Biggest builder in Australia.
Unfortunately the tall property syndrome which we have here and I was I I'm a I I'm not gonna be a hypocrite to say when I ran GJ Gardener homes, I used to bag them too. Yep. But then you look at them and you go, well Metricon's amazing. I live in a Metricon property. they are amazing. They're a fantastic builder. They're an amazing builder. And when you're building the most homes in Australia, there's always going to be someone that might niggle at you and half the time it's the industry that they haven't built with you. You know, it's that tall poppy syndrome. So I think it's really pertinent that you bring that up.
Now, one there's a few things we haven't touched on because I was I think I was really in your business head, you know, and educating how they do b you do business and how builders should do business. But on the side of where you operate around Australia, we haven't even touched on that, mate. Where do you operate around Australia for all the builders out there? 'Cause we've got a pretty good spread around Australia builders that listen to us. So we're nationally licensed and by the end of
This financial year we should be national in all states. Yeah. Is in Queensland we're Cairns and then from Sunshine Coast down to the border. Yeah. out to Ipswich to Wombra as well. Yeah. northern New South Wales. Yeah. And then from sort of Nelson's Bay, Newcastle area down to Woolengong below. Yeah. Victoria, Greater Melbourne, and of course all of ACT, that's not that big. Yeah. Yeah.
So phenomenal and that's fifty-fifty. Fifty-fifty KYG installers and then it depends on where. so we've got eight warehouses now, so we've got a warehouse of our own in every space that we've got teams work out of and product distribution. So we've got eight different warehouses. so we've got our head office here and then eight warehouses. So crossing that region, having sort of distribution to put product on customers' homes. we'll be expanding to Perth by the end of the year.
but we've got some areas say Cannes, for example, that's a hundred percent PIYG. And then Central Coast and Newcastle where we do a lot of business, there's probably a blend of fifty fifty. Yeah. So then ACT, there's a hundred percent PIYG. Yeah. So we we like to have our internal teams involved as much as we can. sometimes it might even just be the pre site. So we'll do the site design and then provide that to the installation team to follow that. Yeah. And then audit and desktop check against it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
The other thing that you mentioned was around the up north doing the the the off grid home. Yeah. We've got a lot of modular builders that listen to us and I know a lot of in the modular space. And I find it a very exciting space. And there's one actually up on the Sunshine Coast, Rebecca Askin from Adapt, who again the owner of it is Campbell Construction, so one of the biggest insurance builders in Australia. Yeah. But they're going all in on mod modular homes and they're shipping them out. I think there was one
That went out about two hours from Birdsville the other day and I was at their their office when it was going out. that would be really interesting for you guys to it is an interesting one. Like we'll have a big disclaimer on that video that's kind of like the results not typical. There's we do not install off grid, please don't give it is it it's not the business that's
That that'll be a fun video and it's a great cause, but we equally don't want a lot of regional customers with off grid bespoke as highly bespoke, very high needs, and you need someone local that can drop everything and be at your property within twenty four hours if you lose power.
So you can design that system as a hybrid system where you've got solar batteries as and also a generator with auto start or manual start. wow. so you can do that, but we're not specialists in off grid. There are others that are. We have done some. We've done a fantastic one down northern New South Wales as part of a three installation system across a large site. wow. so we can do it, but we don't focus on that. Yeah, we're not specialists in that.
I just know a few people in that space and on look at the Good Builder we're so impressed with how you operate. And how RuSync operate, but I'll introduce you to anyone. So it's good that you've got the you know, you you sort of refocused me on the is customer. If someone's got a large estate or or a project or something unique that they want. We know a few of that. yeah, we'd always look at it.
There's always a use case that pulls us into that area. Yeah. So same as commercial. We started out just residential and we've been pretty much pulled into commercial. A we started giving systems with surf clubs. So that's sorry, into the commercial space, started giving systems to surf clubs, so that's commercial. then having councils reach out as well and invite us into tenders and wanted to work with us. other businesses, of course, when you got thousands of installed residential customers, some of them are business owners that would like you to do a great job on their residential. Can you do our business?
So yeah, we got pulled into commercial rather than going out seeking commercial. So if someone wants to pull us into off grid because they've got a large use case and bespoke project, you'll do it. Have it entertain and look at it on its merit. But not the one off out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, that's I mean I think the one that actually went out was a cabin for one student. Yeah. Who needed it out there. But and generally like part of that is because of the the way we do business is that
Any of those bespoke jobs that are one offs, high end, very unique, they end up a disproportionate amount of my time focused on that as well. So where I'm growing the business is I'll end up forty hours deep in a single project that's a one off and not repeatable, scalable, rather than working with the teams and on the business. So until we have we're able to resource an entire department towards that approach, it becomes a huge tax on executive time and
Not just mine, but the other senior leaders in the business too. Yep. And I think that's a really important lesson for all the builders out there too. Love I love that you had, you know, not bucked back, but you sort of said, Hey, mate, we don't do that because Well sometimes you need to explain your workings as well. You do too, Leigh, but like the other thing is with the construction industry and we see builders too, like
this is not just a builder information podcast and education podcast to try and be a leader like Leigh. Like we want you to do the solar stuff too. But you know, builders out there, I always talk to them about don't take every job. Yeah. N like you said, not every customer's your customer. Try and stay stay in your lane and and you know, you as I said, you practice and you preach it and then I asked an interesting question and you kinda went, Wait a minute, mate, you know, just how we do it. So I love it. I love the and I agree with that and so w we do try to identify the customers
the work to work with. Yeah. An ideal fit. And w with where we are and the price point and the service and support that we give is is a lot of customers will self-select out if they're not the right customers anyway. Yeah. but yeah being being able to say no is a skill in business too. Mm-hmm and being prepared to walk away from a deal that's not gonna work.
but equally is this is where I get some challenges with my fulfillment team, is I'm a big believer that if you have committed to a job, then you see that through and you make good on that. So if a customer has come in to purchase a system and has made it through filters or falls outside of that, we've given a commitment to the customer. I prefer to see it through. Even if it costs us a lot of more money, if we've got to put more resources on it, we've got to go out of our way, we've got to send a team to location that
it slipped through our postcode filters and they're two hours out of region. you'll still you'll commit to it. Yeah. I I know someone who will listen to this and be frustrated with me that 'cause we go back and forth on this tension all the time. but you you you've you've got to I think you've got to make good there if you've taken the order. sometimes you can
let a customer down and say, look, this is not achievable because of these reasons and be transparent and honest with them and refund any monies or make it easy or or look after them as look, sorry for the inconvenience is dinner for you and the families on me Friday night is your deposits back in your bank account and here's a voucher to go take your family out to dinner. Sorry that we couldn't help. Wow.
So things like that, like even working with customers that didn't get the experience that you hoped for from one of your sales team members or customer service before buying. you've got to take care of those and be prepared to spend money on that sometimes. Is yeah, you wanna build a positive reputation, a positive word of mouth, and stop any negative word of mouth as well. Well, mate, this has been one of the coolest pods I've ever done. I I've learnt a lot.
about business. Like I think we're gonna take a bit of this stuff into the good builder. Like I learn a lot about that sort of stuff. I think we've learned a lot that or or I think hopefully our communities definitely learn a lot that are great. Always learning from each other. Yeah is constant constant and never ending improvement, constant and never ending learning. Is there's so much that I could learn from if some of your fantastic builders and likewise is if you stop listening to great podcasts like this and you stop
Going outside of your immediate industry to learn from others is you become stagnant. Yeah. And you get ideas from people outside of your industry as well. Yeah. that's where you get some of the best ideas. So otherwise you're just trying to mimic everybody else rather than some bringing something new to market. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think yeah, as you said, you know, what we'll sorry to keep paying you compliments, but when we when we first met, that was one of the things that I was like
The building industry needs to hear how this team, Resinc, and this gentleman are doing it in the solar industry and there's all the learnings there. So well phenomenal. But I've got one more question for you, Leigh, and it's our signature question. you know we're called the good builder. Yes. What do you think makes a good builder, Leigh? okay, I I think so continuing on with the theme is is the value.
Are you providing the highest quality and value for what you're expecting from the customer and aligning yourself there? Is a good builder will go above and beyond to deliver on the promises that they've made to the customer and the representations. So irrespective of price, whether you're at a price point of $300,000 a build, $3 million a build, or $30 million for the build. Right. Are you delivering on what you're promising? And that would be a good builder in my eyes. Yeah, I love it.
You know, when I was saying that I wanted to become the most trusted builder in Australia for G J Gardner, I remember we had a conference in Hawaii and I had to present Hawaii. I wish you presented it for me actually, Leigh.
Because I fumbled around saying they were talking about price and I was like, Well, you know, trust actually is a derivative of value, but I probably didn't say it the way I'm I'm saying it now. I'm probably fumbling through it right now, Leigh, but I was trying to say that, you know, the value that you can charge if you're trusted can be more than what you think the actual price is, if you know what I mean. And and that's but value isn't just the money, it's the after sales service. It's the peace of mind.
You're going to get the job done. It's all those things that you know your solar system, for example, is going to be thriving 25 years down the truck or however long I pass. I'm I'm not talking technically here because I'm not in solar, but you you know what I mean, Leigh. It was also things. I love your answer, mate. I think trusting and respecting yourself and charging what you're worth as well for the service that you deliver. we see plenty of great solar companies that were delivering a high standard and great service that were undercharging, trying to compete with market.
And in the end they did no one a service because that customer's left a solar orphan when they've gone out of business. So the second their system has an issue, goes offline, they have an inverter issue or panel issue, they're back to square one. Yeah. Is so you've got to you've got to respect yourself and respect the value that you're delivering for a customer.
And then also charge for it as well. So be prepared to do that. but you've got to build that value proposition and you've got to deliver the results. And you've done it. And you know what? One last thing leave. We're always always improving, always trying to be better and do better with it. Yeah. Well, I I had a there's a guest in the industry called Peter Wood who I've had on who owns on owns he runs Avid property, and they just absorbed A V Jennings. So they again, someone I'm gonna introduce you guys to they own all Harmony, all the
developments, massive developments with twenty thousand homes in them. He's responsible. And now what he's doing is he's brought a building business so they can build it. So other building businesses won't kind of come in there, which is his business model. But whatever. And and that's great. But
What he talked about, he's probably one of the most respected people in in in Australia. And again, someone I'm gonna introduce you to, but he said to me, I I said the same thing, what makes a good builder? And he said, Yeah, the value, one that's profitable and making money. Yeah. And I looked at him and I I felt like I got smacked in the face because I was waiting for you know, and and you kind of started podcasts with this, it's not rocket science, but I I was looking for the secret, the the s the secret source. I was looking for there's gonna be something in what this bloke says and
When I'm sitting here with you and I greatly respect you as well, but I was like, there's gonna be something here that is gonna be revolutionary. Well, I absolutely love your your passion and your hunger to learn and to extract and pull that out. And yeah, you're really great to be around and infectious. Yeah, thanks, mate. But yeah, it was just really cool that you know you you kind of hit on those same thoughts. Yeah. When you value yourself and and you're making money, then you can kind of look after others. And I think you've demonstrated that through this whole podcast.
You look after your clients, you look after your builders who you partner with, and you look after the community who you build for. Yeah. That makes a good builder, solo installer, solo business, just business inside mate. And there's like everyone looks for the secret source, looks for the shortcuts, look for the little one percenters, and and although you get tips and tricks and all this sort of stuff and you pick up knowledge, there's no real new concepts in service and support and things like this.
You're picking it up by listening to great content, listening to leaders, listening to the people who have done it at a high level, and then you're modeling. Is it's all a game of copying what works, improving, coming up with some some new little ideas, but we're all borrowing from each other and that's where supporting each other is good and sharing the tips and tricks and secrets and what works for me might work for you and what works for you I might be able to adopt as well. Yeah. So nah. Well, mate, it was an absolute pleasure to talk to you.
I am so pleased that we're able to introduce Leigh and the Resinc team to all you guys and girls out there. We're gonna put his details below, but also a few of you good builders, Avid Property Group, Grey are a couple of the guys here that I know really well up here in Queensland and build all around Australia. We're gonna make a few introductions to this gentleman and his team. And we're also running a campaign which will come out very shortly, which Leigh is and Resinc, sorry, are the major sponsors of
So we can't thank Resinc and Leigh enough for their time and their support and we want you to support them because they are an amazing business. And same sort of thing, like Leigh was saying, we look at businesses we partner with. Are they bankable and all that stuff? I'm not as, you know, intelligent or strategic as Leigh, so I probably don't look at that stuff, but we look at people that we can trust, put in front of you and make sure that you've got a great partner if you're looking to put solar on your home. And again.
The first builder that puts it a standard with Resinc on their homes, I will give free podcast through for life because you will be a better business for it. And I want to capture all the learnings and all the happy customers that get their solar on their home when they walk in and their first power bill and they say the livability of their home is amazing. That's what I want. That's what I want from this podcast. you know, and I think it's just
what we should be doing as an industry really. We we've got some things ahead of us that we've got to prepare for. So mate. Excellent. Appreciate that. That's fantastic. Phenomenal, Leigh. Really good. Mate, that was cool. I'm out. I don't know what else to say.