Rising to the top of the food chain in any industry requires focused effort and calculated steps towards achieving that goal. Daniel Christopher Lee’s journey began with a mentality of “if they can do it, then I can do it too.” He focused on mastering his craft and consistently showing up every day. These have helped him rise from just any regular salesperson into an exceptional entrepreneur running an 8-figure solar company.
Daniel Christopher Lee began his path towards success in 2016, when he sought opportunities in new, exciting industries. He randomly attended a job fair in Ontario, California, where he discovered a solar recruiting booth and decided to take it up to be a side hustle to generate extra income for him. However, after a couple days of studying the business, he discovered the income and opportunity potential and that changed his orientation immediately.
Despite not having any knowledge or experience in door-to-door sales, Daniel knew taking on the solar industry was the right step at this point in his life. Before he found success, he was met with massive challenges.
He described his internal battle one day, saying, “There I stood, underneath a tree trying to get some shade and cool down. It was about 105 degrees out, and after 3 hours of being shut down, I began to question if I could really do this. It had been nearly three weeks of full-time knocking and still hadn’t closed a sale. At that same moment, I got a notification on GroupMe, ‘Josh closed another deal.’ It was at that point, I told myself if they can do it then I can do it too.”
After another week, Daniel’s first sale built more tangible confidence. His second and third that same week had proven to him that he was in the right place and with that, he plunged fully into the business.
As his door-to-door sales efforts began to yield fruits, he began to record an increase in his sales volume, overall income, and opportunities. Six months later, he became the top sales representative in the region for the company he was working for. He was in line for a significant promotion, but many other companies wanted him because of the successful track record he had built. He ended up signing with another company where he received a sign-on bonus of $25,000, and got all the perks he never had with his previous company, alongside a higher commission scale and base salary.
Daniel had a mindset shift with this change; he strived to settle into his new executive position. He applied all the strategies he had learned in his previous sales, management, and business consulting experiences; but he didn’t make as much of an impact as he had hoped. Things did not change until he went back to the initial principles that made him successful in door-to-door sales: focusing on the people. The biggest thing that led to his success in sales was when he stopped focusing on money and started focusing on how he can help the people around him.
“We had to go back to the drawing board to apply these strategies and focus more on helping people rather than making money,” Daniel said.
Over the next three years, he recorded more successes, recruited dozens of successful sales reps, and earned more income than he could have ever imagined in this industry. During that time, he had worked for two separate companies, growing the sales force and opening multiple locations, but working for companies just wasn’t impactful enough.
Understanding the only way to fully help people the way he wanted, Daniel decided to launch his own company, Net Metering Systems, in April 2019. After a successful first year, generating over 7 figures in solar contracts and nearly a million dollars in commission revenue, NMS battled the rigors of COVID-19. Pivoting their approach to helping people virtually, the company was able to put up record numbers in 2020. Last year, they were able to double the volume and become an 8-figure company in 2021. The three main focal points for his company have been mastering your craft, putting in the time, and focusing on helping people first. By applying these principles in his sales and leadership, he has been met with a ton of success.
Over the next few years, his primary goal is to help more people, help people save money, and help his salespeople create more wealth. With his vision and commitment to success, he hopes to inspire other entrepreneurs and help them turn their ambitions into actions to pursue their business dreams.