What is Solar Sales?

The process of selling solar panels, and other related equipment or services is called solar sales. Solar sales process involves multiple steps from generating leads to managing, nurturing, and educating them to finally turn them into customers. The main goal of solar sales is to convince prospective for to invest in solar energy. It is beneficial for both solar companies and the customers. Solar sales involves these steps:

1. Generating Solar Leads is Tough

Do you know, 91% of marketers say lead generation is the most important aspect of their business, but still, 37% of marketers consider generating high-quality leads as one of their biggest challenges?

With the growing competition in the solar market, generating leads is also one of the main solar sales challenges faced by marketers. Many solar companies in the market are vying for the attention of prospective customers. This makes it more difficult for you to grab their attention and convert them into clients. 

What’s The Solution?

In order to generate solar leads, you might already be utilizing methods like SEO, digital marketing, content writing and marketing, etc but these tactics are not enough to outshine competitors. In today’s automated world, you need to use technology to overcome the solar lead generation challenge:

• Use Solar Lead Generation Tools: You must use lead generation tools like SunLead. These tools can be easily integrated into your website to provide instant solar quotes to visitors based on their energy usage.

  What’s more interesting is that they even provide visuals of the solar panels installed on the visitor’s rooftop by using their address. It makes it easy for them to understand the benefits of solar and visualize installations beforehand. 

  
  
  👉List of best lead generation tools for solar companies here.
  
  

  2. It’s Difficult to Manage Consistent Follow-Ups 

  Effectively managing follow-ups is another solar sales challenge faced by companies. It needs a lot of effort and patience to continuously follow those leads, understand their requirements, and provide effective solutions. 

  One issue in this is lack of persistence; studies indicate that 44% of sales representatives give up just one follow-up call and then forget. This leads to missed sales opportunities from high-quality leads and makes them turn to competitors. 
  
  

  What’s The Solution?

  • CRM Integration: You must use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to properly manage solar leads. Many companies including Hubspot, Salesforce, and Sunbase, provide an all-in-one solar software suite, including a CRM system.
    
    They can integrate web forms to auto-capture solar leads and track their status. They help solar companies keep proper track of all the leads at one place, saving a lot of time. 

👉The only guide for SEO that solar companies need

3. CAC is too High

In every industry, including solar, the Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) are high. If you purchase solar leads from third-party providers, it costs approximately $80 to $150 per lead.

Even 80 to 90% of these leads are cold or unqualified, which results in a low conversion rate. On average, 1 out of 20 leads is likely to become a paying customer. This means an average CAC of around $2,000, which is way too high.

What’s The Solution?
Use Data For Marketing: If you want to reach high-quality solar leads at a lower cost, you must use data-driven marketing strategies. You can use different free and paid tools to form segments as per user behavior and preferences. These segments can be for email marketing, paid advertising, etc. It will help you improve your conversion rates without overspending.

• Invest in the Right Tools: There are many tools that helps solar companies generate leads and reduce CAC. SunLead, for example, offers a solar quotation tool that converts website visitors into solar leads by simply offering them instant quotes and rooftop visuals. At the cost of buying one solar lead, you can take a complete one-year subscription to SunLead and generate your own high-quality solar leads.

• Incorporate Referral Programs: Besides this, you can use referral programs to acquire new customers with the help of your existing customers. Although many companies think it’s an outdated strategy, however according to a study, 86% of B2B purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth referrals. You can offer many discounts, free services, and other advantages to your customers for referring your services to others. 

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4. Educating Customers is Difficult

Many prospective customers are unfamiliar with the cost, benefits, and long-term savings of solar power. They need to understand concepts and terms like solar loans, Net Metering, etc. 

Without having a clear understanding, they hesitate to make a purchase. In this process, the responsibility of Solar sales representatives becomes important.

What’s The Solution?

Simplify Financial Explanations: You must help them understand these terms using simplified language, charts, and images. You can even use solar calculators or quotation tools like SunLead during your conversation or solar sales pitch to boost their confidence and decision-making.

Besides this, you must also conduct webinars, and workshops in a local area or even offer one-on-one meetings to answer their questions and win their trust.

Pro Tip💡: Over 75% of U.S. consumers express a desire for more reliable information and educational resources about solar options. You can create informational blogs, videos, how-to guides, and more around it to help them understand solar solutions. For similar questions, you can share these guides and save time. 

👉How does Net Metering affect solar in California?

5. Solar Sales Follow a Seasonal Pattern

Solar sales follow a seasonal pattern. The demand rises during high energy consumption seasons like summer and drops down in the off-season. The fluctuation also depends on many factors like weather, government incentives, high consumption time, etc. 

Also, during winter, rainy days, customers don’t consider installing solar panels during the winter months. It slows down solar sales and affects the revenue of the company.

What’s The Solution?

Solar Sales Discounts

• Promotional Offers and Discounts: You can offer time-limited discounts, offers, incentives, and financing rebates for installing solar panels during the off-season. It will help to maintain the customer’s interest and encourage others to switch to solar.
  Besides this, you can also offer different games, videos, referral programs, and other marketing activities to keep prospective customers engaged and interested. You can even offer a free consultation or energy audit to prospective customers and cleaning services to the existing ones. 

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How can I increase my solar sales? Final Tips and Tricks

Navigating the challenges in solar sales can sometimes feel difficult. However, by implementing the above-mentioned solutions, like using lead generation tools, educating customers, etc., you can overcome the hurdles of solar sales. 

You can start by analyzing your problems, implement these solutions, track the performance, and then make changes accordingly. It will help you boost your solar sales and conversion rates. Here are a few more tips to improve the solar sales process:

• Optimize Your Website: A well-polished website with content is good, but also use tools like solar calculators in it to make it more engaging for visitors. It will help you qualify leads directly from the website.

• Personalization: Instead of sending generic emails, tailor follow-ups based on the customer’s specific needs or the stage they are at in the buying process. 

• Focus on Local SEO: Ensure your website is optimized for local searches, as many customers prefer local solar installers.

• Leverage Social Proof: Showcase real customer testimonials and case studies on your website or social media to build trust and credibility. Sharing real stories helps potential buyers feel more confident in their decision.

Struggling with lead generation and sales conversions? Check out SunLead’s solar quotation tool and start transforming your solar sales process today.