hi everyone my name is Eric Layton and I
am a managing member in a solar energy
company it have been working in the
solar field for several years this is a
presentation for other solar companies
or sales companies to help with sales
now getting homeowners to go solar is
very difficult to say the least
it's expensive and time-consuming and
it's hard to predict who will go solar
and why I've been working on reducing
this cost and clearing up this mystery I
haven't yet found a way for you to close
every potential customer but I have
identified the seven most common
mistakes that may be keeping customers
away number one not following up with
leads fast enough in marketing Geek
Speak a lead is quote someone who has an
articulated interest in a product
end quote in this case residential solar
in common speak it's someone who has
raised his hand to learn more about
solar not only is such an interest rare
and hard to find but it's also very
fleeting the interest is usually
triggered by an event like say sticker
shock from an electric bill seeing an ad
on television or in the newspaper a
referral from a friend buying an
electric vehicle etc things like that
but subsidies quickly thereafter also
interest them
they're further removed the event let's
say the less likely the lead will go
solar think of those New Year's
resolutions to eat healthier or exercise
more and how follow through on those
ambitions declines the further I get
from January first
thus quick follow-up is absolutely
critical analysis by a company called
philosophy research on over 3 million
leads indicates that lead to sale
conversions improved by nearly 400% by
contacting customers within a minute
after the lead is generated such as
showing articulated interest conversion
drops rapidly afterward only improving
by 17% if the lead is contacted within 5
to 24 hours
moreover businesses contact leads on
average a day after generation 24 hours
and many allow several days to pass
before first contact as a result most
leads are lost before getting any solar
quote at all number 2 assuming the
customers share your opinion about solar
sales people who are excited about their
product are very persuasive and are more
persuasive and there is a lot to be
excited about when selling solar it
saves money provides clean energy I can
help with national energy independent
and so on and so on
however the excitement does have its
downsides your excitement can prevent
you from understanding the customers
perspective what may be a no-brainer to
you can be a very scary proposition to
the customer in an extreme case
customers can perceive solar arrays as
ugly expensive
machines or structures that may or may
not work to save them money they can see
it as creating unforeseen hazards or
they can see problems with maintenance
how do I clean my panels for instance
and when they see it's bolted to their
home with a roof penetration you know
and a home is guess what most people's
most valuable possession along with
their cars for instance so customers
will invariably have different
perceptions about solar many of them
deviating far from reality is important
that you address the customers interest
in solar as well as their concerns about
going solar by focusing on what you'd
like to talk about for example the
pluses and minuses of string inverters
versus micro inverters and so forth and
not what the customer wants to know you
will quickly lose the customers interest
remember interest can disappear very
quickly and you want to keep that as a
salesperson
point number three confusing customers
with too many options having options is
generally a good thing so are you doing
customers a favor by giving their more
options not necessarily options can be
overwhelming especially when the
customer doesn't know about solar or is
only slightly interested in it
unfortunately this is the case with most
leads switching to solar can be
intimidating
remember mistake number two and more
options can just suggest more ways for
things to go wrong
at the very least they represent more
decisions for a customer who is wavering
on whether to go solar whether to
install it on their house for instance
an additional decision can be taxing
studies have shown that when people are
faced with too many decisions they
default to not taking any action or
staying with what they know for a solar
prospect that would mean getting
electricity from the utilities this does
not mean that you should not give
customers options for certain customers
it may be best to recommend an option
less knowledgeable customers about solar
tend to prefer more direction while more
sophisticated customers that know more
about solar and have research solar are
more inclined to appreciate a range of
choices in it as a salesperson you need
to really judge this point number four
bashing the competition before the
customer is sold on solar sure good
sales skills mean knowing how to sell
against the competition but doing so
when solar prospects are not fully
engaged with solar will hurt not just
your competitor but guess what you too
in making purchasing decisions customers
go through a series of stages before
they buy and I've noticed this
personally with all of my solar sales
they go from awareness to adoption to
advocacy customers go through an
awareness and a quote interest phase
before they seriously consider solar is
during the evaluation stage that
customers like their different options
including whether to go with you or a
competitor
no doubt it's tempting to try to get
customers first by spiking the other
guy's offer with some good old-fashioned
fear uncertainty and doubt example
outside my head I've seen before
hey their equipment is junk they're
using Chinese solar panels that are crap
and will go bad after a couple years
Oh their financing is a scam that 20 25
year loan that's an absolute scam or the
best one or the one that I see a lot is
own their work is shoddy by using scare
tactics it's more likely to scare
prospects from going solar altogether
most customers are unfamiliar with or
misinformed about solar to begin with
those who get beyond the awareness stage
typically have only some interest and
may have or may find solar intimidating
remember see mistake number two or the
choices bewildering see mistake number
three when somebody suggests that
choosing poorly could make you worse off
than not choosing anything at all what
would you do
point number five not asking for
referrals or asking incorrectly now
referrals remain the most cost effective
way to acquire customers some solar
companies pay about five hundred dollars
for each referral give or take a few
hundred dollars I've seen as high as
$1,000 for a referral fee but depends on
what service you use as a company now
what about the customers now some solar
companies I've seen offer generous
referral fee of $1,000 which which is
fairly decent but it's only a fraction
of the average customer acquisition cost
of $2,000 to $4,000 these numbers would
likely palette puzzle academic
researchers with no experience of
selling solar if referrals are so much
cheaper than customer acquisition why
spends so little unruhe firls and so
much on other marketing efforts of
course the solar industry's response
would be that the problem is not the
referral free
the problem is that there are not enough
opportunities for referrals after all
every sales rep asks asks their happy
customers for referrals right not
exactly
in fact many sales reps do not ask their
customers for referrals or they ask they
asked them so timidly that it's the same
as not asking them at all solar pros
often request referrals in a passing
statement such as let's pretend the
customers name is Ryan hey Ryan
if you ever know anybody who's
interested in solar can you let me know
- which Ryan replies ok the sales rep
leaves assuming his request will be at
the top of the mind for Ryan the next
time he sees a friend with a good roof
for solar or a high energy bill but Ryan
has many other things to think about and
Ryan doesn't actively engage with his PV
system the way he engages with his other
devices like his iPhone or his car for
instance so he is unlikely to think
about his PV system on a regular basis
Ryan is certainly not going to be as
capable as you in identifying a good
solar candidate and he's unlikely to
know whether his friends and neighbors
have high energy bills all of these
factors mean that Ryan by himself is
probably not going to be your best lead
source so follow-up is important it
could be a periodic checkup
a solar party or solar get-together I've
seen those before
or maybe just a physical reminder such
as a referral card or a gift an email is
also acceptable there
point number 6 losing contact with past
solar companies another good reason to
stay in touch with a customer such as my
example Ryan is that your past solar
customers are arguably your best
marketing resources one of the best
excuse me one of the biggest barriers to
adoption is a lack of trial ability and
that's actually a word selling solar is
difficult because customers cannot
product before buying there is no
test-driving of solar heck there's no
30-day money-back guarantee and there's
really no free sample of solar the
customer faces in all-or-nothing
proposition either you bolt a solar
array on to his house or he can't
experience it at all because they can't
try it out for themselves
Solar prospects place more light on the
experiences of past customers to inform
their decision the prospects will ask
for references among past customers look
at reviews on social media sites other
lead generation sites or read and view
their testimonials the longer the past
customers have had solar the more
credible their experiences these
customers can speak to potential
long-term concerns about reliability
savings or even maintenance
unfortunately many solar companies lose
contact with their customers especially
their earliest customers staying in
touch with all previous customers even
if only occasionally sending a holiday
email sending a follow-up hey how are
you doing Ryan can provide you with a
lot of testimonials and the trust they
confer on your business point number
seven giving up too soon on leaves or
getting referrals it appears that most
installers give up on a lead within
three months attempts to get referrals
from customers have only a slightly
longer time horizon perhaps up to six
months the University of Texas study in
2013 found that the average time to
adopt the time when the customer first
considered going solar for the first
time they made a purchase is nine months
similarly I've actually heard of solar
companies getting referrals from
customers who had gone solar several
years earlier
there are a lot of opportunities to win
a customer or referral after the initial
three to six months the earlier you give
up the more money you might be leaving
on the table of course this does not
necessarily mean that every lead or
every past customer should be contacted
continuously for years don't do that
what it does mean is that you should be
selective about who you contact and
think carefully about how you approach
each person now I hope these points will
help you in obtaining more sales from
your solar company these points can also
be used in any general business you have
so it's not just solar company these
points are very important and again I
hope that this presentation was helpful
for you thank you for your time