Solar sales is an industry defined by ever-growing competition and ever-shrinking margins, making well-trained salespeople and a refined, efficient sales process critical to your company’s success. The following are seven expert solar sales tips you and your entire team can use to help speed up the sales process, close more deals, and secure market share before the competition does. 

1) Emphasize Benefits Not Features

One of the biggest mistakes salespeople in all fields make is getting hung up on features. Buyers don’t actually care about features; they care about benefits — what features can do for them. In an industry like solar, where the client’s initial outlay is large, it’s extremely important to avoid the trap of rambling on about parts and specifications. Instead, focus the bulk of your sales pitch on how the prospect stands to benefit personally.

2) Know the Numbers

Focusing on selling benefits is a great first step, but to close the deal on a solar installation, you need to be able to go beyond just selling the big picture. Telling a client they’ll be able to sell energy back to the grid is powerful, but being able to tell them the actual amount they’ll be able to generate, and how it’ll impact (or better yet, eliminate) their monthly power bill is extremely powerful. Don’t ever go into a sales presentation without having at least approximate numbers on hand to provide to the prospect. 

3) Simplify

The ideas behind solar power and clean energy as a whole are simple, but the actual logistics and technology are anything but. Most clients neither need nor want to know the in-depth science and engineering behind their solar systems. Once again, what they want to know is how those systems will impact their lives for the better. It’s important to ensure that solar sales presentations are simplified as much as possible to ensure the important messaging gets through to clients without bogging them down in unnecessary technical details that might intimidate them or cause them to tune out. 

4) Master the Trial Close

Residential solar installations are a big expense. Commercial installations, even more so. As a result, the sales process in the solar industry can be long and involved. It’s important to ensure that length isn’t drawn out any longer than necessary which makes trial closes a must. Trial closes are early close attempts that have the potential to end the sales process quicker at best and draw out a customer’s objections faster at worst, helping the sale move faster in both cases. 

5) Target the Neighbors of “The Joneses”

Everyone has heard the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses,” and the phenomenon it describes is very real. Solar installations have the added benefit of being somewhat novel and neighbors that see them go up can’t help but be curious at the very least. Residential areas where multiple houses already have solar roofs or other types of installations represent fertile ground, as other homeowners nearby are likely already interested at a minimum and might be itching to avoid being the last on the block to get onboard. 

6) Keep in Constant Touch

As mentioned, the sales process in solar tech can be long and a customer’s journey from initial awareness, to interest, to desire often is as well. A lead that seems lukewarm at first may very well be a motivated buyer a year or two down the line, which makes keeping in constant contact an important part of your sales funnel. Touches with leads shouldn’t be intrusive — a quick email or phone call once or twice a year may be enough — but consistency is the key. When a prospect does hit the point of being ready to buy, you want your company to be the first that comes to mind. 

7) Embrace Customer Resource Management Technology

Solar sales is extremely competitive and requires a high level of involvement from sales teams. Time and resources are both at a premium and any edge you can find to save on both can put you at a distinct advantage over the competition. A good solar CRM will provide that edge by centralizing all of your solar company’s activities, from lead generation and management, to sales calling, to outbound marketing, to billing and payments, meeting and installation scheduling, and beyond. A CRM also automates as many of those tasks as possible, eliminating much of the most time-consuming work to free up your team to focus more on sales pitches and other revenue-generating activities. 

 

CRMDialer is the solar industry’s top customer resource management platform, offering everything your company needs to find and manage leads more efficiently, maintain constant contact, provide more custom-tailored solutions and presentations, and much more, all while slashing waste and reclaiming lost time. 

To see the platform in action and explore everything it can do to help boost your solar sales, start your free 14-day trial of CRMDialer today!