The solar industry is growing rapidly as more homes and offices are embracing solar panel installation on their property. However, most companies produce generic systems instead of custom designs forgetting that the energy needs and rooftop space of each property are different. An undersized system will not help customers to save money; hence defeating the aim of choosing solar.
Therefore, today’s solar business requires a sales team that is technically proficient to generate good leads. Otherwise, the team needs expert advice on how to pitch solar sales to potential customers if it wants to stay in business. Despite being a pro at talking about solar, some deals are difficult to close. In this article, we will examine some effective selling techniques for your solar business.
How to Increase Solar Sales
In sales, there is an invisible funnel that your potential customers go through before they become buying customers. It is called the sales funnel and has 4 stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Consideration
- Action
In the awareness stage, the prospect just heard about your offer probably from a social media campaign, TV, a flier, or even word-of-mouth. When the prospect takes a step further by visiting your website to learn more about the offer or ask about pricing, they step into the interest stage. In the consideration stage, you send a sales proposal to the prospect. If they like the offer, the sales will take place.
In the first three stages of the funnel, the prospect probes your offer in search of different info that will convince them to buy. The number of leads generated from the sales funnel is directly proportional to your total solar sales. Therefore, you should learn how to generate quality leads as well as manage them efficiently to increase your conversion rate. You can click here to read more about the sales funnel.
How to Generate Quality Leads
Here’s how you can add quality leads to your sales funnel:
Email Marketing
This is a very old technique but still effective in today’s market. It is cost-effective for B2B prospects. However, the solar industry has not fully utilized the technique.
Cold emailing can assist you in reaching a large number of people. Ensure the email template you write is engaging and highly personalized.
Business Listings
With sites like Google My Business, your company’s name can appear on Google search for relevant products and services. Just ensure that your business profile is complete and up to date. Include contact details, pictures, and testimonials from previous customers. This makes it easy for potential customers to find you.
Sponsored Ads
Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google for geographic targeting. This technique targets people from specific cities who search for solar panels or related keywords. Ensure your target audience uses the platform before paying for ads.
Another thing to do with social media is post regularly. It helps you to build followership organically. You should also consider using LinkedIn to target high-paying clients.
In addition to the online techniques we discussed above, you can also try some offline ideas. This includes pitching to businesses and homeowners, partnering with contractors, and attending trade fairs.
How to Increase Your Conversion Rate
The following tips will help to increase your conversion rate for solar sales:
Carefully Select Leads
The solar sales process involves much effort from your end. This includes surveying the proposed installation site, preliminary engineering, and commercial discussions. To avoid using your valuable resources on clients that will eventually turn down your offer, be very selective in your approach. If a prospect just wants to know about the benefits of using your product, doing a site survey might be a waste of time and resources.
Have Your Proposals Handy
The solar business is quite competitive. It’s possible that other installers have approached your prospect. So, to avoid losing business to your competitors, create a proposal template for responding to leads quickly.
There should be no gap between the first visit to a prospect and submitting a proposal. Ensure your sales team has a to-do list so they can take timely actions. You can use an automation tool to input customers’ details and generate a standard proposal template. You can also create an email template so proposals can be sent within seconds.
Boost Your Engineering Team
Because we are trying to cover up any loophole that will allow your competitors to convince your prospect before you do, you should boost your engineering team. Site survey takes time and there’s usually a gap before you can get the report. This can delay your proposal submission.
Instead of waiting to do it the manual way, invest in an app that does the job in record time. You can get the dimensions from your engineers on the field for your proposal template.
Don’t Sell Products, Sell Benefits
Your prospects already know that you’re selling solar products. So, what more do you have to offer? To push leads deeper into your sales funnel, use an educational approach. Give them information about the benefits of using your product.
If they already know about the benefits of going solar and considering your product, let them know how yours is different from other panels in the market. Keep things simple when explaining to prospects. You can visit https://smallbusiness.chron.com/ to get more sales tips.
Conclusion
Although the prices of solar panels have been reduced, the technology is yet to reach many areas. A lot of people are looking for ways to reduce their energy bills, so going solar is definitely an option. To make more sales, you must learn how to generate and manage quality leads. This article covered various techniques that can help you achieve both strategies.