Apricot Solar - Why We All Left | Home Based Solar Sales

In June of 2022, a long-time friend of mine called me to look at an opportunity in solar. She had seen a presentation and wanted to get my opinion. OK, no problem. I knew nothing about solar, but I had owned my own business for 10 years at that time. She introduced me to a guy named Ed Ayala with Apricot Solar via Zoom. What I took away from that conversation is that homeowners could go solar, save money, and improve the value of their home with no money out of pocket. I had never sold anything without needing to ask the customer for money. So, I was hooked.

This new concept of selling solar was primarily made up of 3 new ways of doing things that were different than traditional solar sales.

Selling virtually from home
Selling in 40+ states (because you could sell from home)
Building a team and earning overrides

What I found out as time went on is that Apricot Solar was a traditional door-knocking company that had been in business for 3 or 4 years and had an exclusive relationship with Freedom Forever as the installation company. I was told that Ed Ayala brought this concept to Apricot Solar. I was also told that if I reached a position called Junior Partner, I could get overrides on every sale that my team made.

Because I knew little about the solar business, I reached out to 2 friends that I had done business with over the previous 10 years to get their opinion. They thought it was a great business idea and opportunity for the same reasons that I did. They started sharing it with people that they knew, and we were off and running.

Collectively we built a team of over 3,500 people in less than a year. One of the 2 friends that I introduced to Apricot Solar, and I reached that Junior Parter position in 11 months. That’s a position that very few people will get to, and we did it in less than a year.

Everything was great, right? Not so much. What I learned over that 11 months is Ed Ayala knew less about solar than I did yet he had training calls every day to motivate you and teach personal development. He shared information from his days at Primerica and the founder of that company Art Williams. There was some good information about team building but I resented the fact that we were brow beaten into attending these daily Zoom hype sessions and were receiving no solar sales training. In fact, he frowned upon people taking the online training that was offered by Apricot Solar.

There was some very specific information that was shared on these calls about Apricot Solar and how we were to be paid that turned out to be false. It turns out that Ed Ayala was not the guy that brought this concept to Apricot Solar. It was another person named KC Call. What was interesting is that Ed did not want us to interact with KC at all. However, I met KC Call and his lovely wife, Veronika at a conference in Orlando, FL. My wife and I sat down with them for a couple of hours that weekend and the pieces started to come together. After that weekend I and the people on my team decided to get away from these daily calls and attend the online Apricot Training so that we could learn how to sell solar.

We reached the coveted Junior Partner position in May of 2023. Now we were going to get overrides on the sale sour team made. That was huge! Solar commissions are substantial, and getting overrides on 10, 20 or more sales every month could allow someone to retire with a nice residual income. We attended the ApriCon national convention and got our Junior Partner jackets. We were asked to go on stage and speak. We were fired up! But that was short lived.

At that convention a new compensation plan was announced by Apricot Solar owner, Dave Bengel. There were just a couple of changes. One of those changes was that Junior Partners had to make 2 personal solar sales a month to get their overrides. If you’re in solar sales, you might say well that’s not a lot of sales each month. But what it means is that you can never stop selling solar. You can never retire. You would lose all the income from the business that you built.

KC Call left Apricot Solar that day. He went on with Veronika, and a long-time friend Mike Fedick, to found REACH Solar which is where I and my team eventually landed in January of 2024. REACH Solar is being built from a clean slate. As it turns out bringing a new way of selling solar to Apricot Solar was like fitting a square peg into a round whole. You could jam it in there, but it was far from a smooth fit.

I and my team are much happier here at REACH Solar. The culture is much more professional, relaxed, and fun. I never felt part of the young ‘solar bros’ mentality at Apricot. The training at REACH is much more in depth and available. The training at Apricot ended once you took their initial online training. At REACH we have people like founder of Titan Solar, David Williamson. There may be no one on the planet as well versed in all areas of the solar industry as David. I’ve learned an incredible amount from him. And he may be the funniest person that I’ve ever met.

At Apricot Solar, I never received even a text from owner, Dave Bengel congratulating me on reaching a position is his company that few will ever attain. At REACH Solar I have the phone number of all the owners and am encouraged to call them. I receive calls from the Founders to get my input. It's a very different atmosphere here at REACH. I feel part of something here.

Another big difference is that Apricot Solar is exclusive to Freedom Forever. When I was with Apricot, and new to the industry, I didn’t know that there was the option for a solar dealer to work with multiple installation companies. As it turns out, if you want to use Freedom Forever it must be an exclusive relationship with them. That could be ok. But the performance of Freedom Forever over the last year has been abysmal. They may do fairly well in certain markets. But they are struggling with installation times, internal communication, communication to sales reps, and customer service. Ironically, they have made strides in increasing their Better Business Rating from a C- to something more respectable. And their Google Reviews have gotten better too. It seems that they have hired a company to help them with that.

Overall, if you want to knock doors and only sell yourself, Apricot Solar could be a decent choice. But if you want to sell in multiple markets, do remote solar sales, build a team, earn residual income whether you sell or not, be part of a cohesive, positive environment made up of people from all walks of life, REACH Solar is a far better choice.

To learn more about REACH Solar visit Solar Sales From Home. There you’ll be able to watch a detailed business overview video and schedule a Zoom meeting with me to get to know each other and get your questions answered.