There are many challenges for solar installation companies in the current climate, as they must become increasingly creative if they’re to generate the requisite amount of solar leads and convert these into customers.
In this guide, we’ve highlighted some tactics to help you be more efficient and close your solar leads.
- Make Contact with your Prospects
Once you’ve made initial contact with a prospect, it can be difficult to maintain open lines of communication.
After all, firms can find it hard to strike the balance between building a relationship with their clients and promoting their products too aggressively, and often end up erring on the side of caution by failing to contact them within a reasonable amount of time.
This is a tremendous oversight, however, as this can be a huge deterrent to customers that encourages them to seek out an alternative service provider. In fact, it can be exceptionally damaging when selling complex and high value products like solar power, as while customers don’t like being pressurised they may need guidance in order to make informed decisions.
So while you may not be one of those brands that thrives despite aggravating its customers (and trust us, there’s a few), you should strive to make regular contact with your prospects and try to build a relationship.
The key is to avoid overly promotional or aggressive overtures when initially following up a lead, and instead focus on gaining trust and providing home-owners with the information that they need.
- Take Time to Understand the Home-owners Needs
As part of your various prospect interactions, it’s also important that you take the time to understand the needs of individual home-owners.
This is crucial when cultivating trust and looking to convert customers, as otherwise it’s impossible to build rapport with them or determine the right type of product to suit their needs.
Make no mistake; you need to have a clear understanding of your customers’ potential concerns and problems prior to completing a sale, while there are couple of key considerations to keep in mind.
Firstly, it’s important to determine the customers’ budget, both in terms of the installation cost and their monthly energy consumption. This way, you can avoid selling a product that is beyond their means while enabling them to secure the very best value for their hard-earned money.
Secondly, you’ll need determine whether the customers’ roof has a favourable enough solar window to support one or more panels. Properties that spend a great deal of time in the shade may not be entirely suitable for solar power, for example, while this may also inform the precise technology used to deliver energy (in the form of either photovoltaic or thermal panels).
By taking the time to consider these issues and talk them through with customers, you can reassure them that their needs are at the forefront of your mind when attempting to close a deal.
- Offer a Limited Time Discount or Promotion
In the world of marketing, the call-to-action (CTA) remains exceptionally powerful. In the case of email, for example, correspondence with a single CTA is thought to increase clicks by 371% and sales by up to 1617%.
The same principle can applied when engaging customers in person, as a relevant and well-timed call to action can incentivise consumers and encourage them to make decision that favours your brand.
One of the best examples is to use a limited time promotional offer, which reduces the cost of your solar panels and creates a compelling case in the mind of the consumer. Make no mistake; this can make a significant difference when selling a big-ticket item, particularly in relation to affordability and value for money.
This also creates a sense of urgency in the minds of customers, making it far easier for you to close deals and drive a higher rate of sales conversions.
- Select a CRM Software Program Designed for Solar Leads
If you’ve never used CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, you’re missing out on something that has become an integral part of both on and offline sales in recent times.
Solar CRM software, which collates and analyses consumer data on a huge scale, is also a key driver of sale conversions across a host of potential markets. In fact, it’s now estimated that 79% of leads fail to convert on average without the use of CRM, so it stands to reason that this should have a part to play in your solar business.
The modern trend is to select industry-specific CRM software, which in this instance means picking a program that has been designed to manage solar leads.
This will not only improve your businesses conversion rate, but it can also reduce the soft costs associated with selling products to customers. It can also manage all the operational elements of a solar project and improve efficiency, increasing the profitability of each customer in the process.
- Focus on Value Rather than Price when Selling your Panels
When you’re selling anything, there’s a tendency to consider customers as being primarily cost-conscious. This is not always the case, however, with the current generation of consumers arguably better described as being inherently value conscious.
This observation is even more relevant when dealing with more expensive items, as while people generally dislike spending money they’re usually happy to part with their cash if they receive genuine value for their investment.
So rather than presenting or emphasising cheap deals, you may be better served by highlighting the value of your products and any cost benefits that they deliver.
Solar panels are renowned for their ability to reduce energy consumption and costs in the long-term, for example, with many repaying their original investment in five years or so.
This should be used as a key selling point, as it makes a compelling argument for your product and is more likely to secure a viable deal.
The Last Word
So there you have it; five effective tactics that can help you to convert your solar leads and capitalise on the recent surge in demand.
Just remember, the key thing is to focus on building rapport with your customers, while highlighting the value of your products and offering relevant, limited time incentives.
