The Smart Guide to Selling More Solar

Reputation is key

Having a good reputation has been as a key success factor for solar companies in IBIS World’s 2017 Industry Report. It states,

“Word of mouth is an important form of promotion for solar panel installers, as most industry firms are small and have minor advertising budgets. Industry firms that maintain a good reputation are better able to generate new business.” (p.17)

This report emphasises that your consumer’s trust and confidence can directly affect your solar business and its bottom line. People will have preference towards businesses they trust, even if others offer similar products and prices.

For solar providers that are small or medium sized businesses, the most relevant customers come from your immediate community and local area. It is important to remember that building reputation is not a single task, but a continuous one with incremental steps.

As mentioned in the previous section, carbonTRACK is useful for helping you build a good reputation. The platforms fleet management capabilities allows you to see how your customer’s systems are performing. In addition, alerts can be activated to let you know immediately if there is an issue with a customer’s system. This means you can issue a service before the user even realises something is wrong.

This is one of the features our partner United Solar loves. Richard Vargus, CEO of United Solar, says:

“carbonTRACK is an intricate part of our business, and it has improved the amount of confidence and peace of mind that we give to our customers….

Rather than relying on our customers to ring and tell us “hey something’s happened” … if the system is performing below a certain level, we get notified before a customer even knows… I get a kick out of when we ring a customer… and we say to them, “your system’s not performing well at the moment, we’ve just dispatched a technician to come out to visit your property to see what’s going on.”

Beyond alerting your customers if there’s an issue, carbonTRACK also assists in keeping your customers engaged with your solar product over time. Every two weeks we send summaries of how their electricity use has looked, and encourage them to take action to make better use of their investment.

The alerts and energy updates that carbonTRACK sends customers bring about a personalised energy experience which, as mentioned in Part 1, helps advance customer relationships and delivers the experience they have come to expect from the businesses they buy from.

Even if you don’t have an awesome energy management system like carbonTRACK, there are other things you can do to build your reputation too. We suggest starting with your local community can be one of the best things you do for your solar business. With this in mind, here are some ways you can engage with and promote your business among the local community:

It is also a good idea to acknowledge or engage with existing customers. Simple actions of kindness like sending them a Smart Solar Guide (like this one) can go a long way. Interacting with existing customers helps fortify relationships and encourages them to bring straight to you their concerns that might otherwise have been kept quiet.

Strong relationships can also increase the lifetime value of your customers. Whenever someone needs a solar service/upgrade, or their neighbour asks for recommendation on solar providers, your business will be the first to come to mind.

Create an online presence

Along with physical engagements, your business should also have some degree of online presence. If your solar business engages with customers purely through face to face interactions and the storefront, there is a hugely missed opportunity.

Here are some ways to increase online interactions with your business: