Lead generation is a common problem faced by most commercial solar installation companies. You might ask, “how”?
It’s simple
Commercial solar installations are getting more popular by the day, the industry is expanding rapidly, and consumers that want solar are out there. Irrespective of this growth, some companies find it hard to get commercial solar leads.
Here comes the question: how can you find these commercial solar leads?
Generating commercial solar leads requires presenting your company’s value, and persuading businesses to work with you.
To learn how to do this, keep reading! This guide highlights the tips that make for effective commercial solar lead generation. It includes whom to talk to, what to say, and how to follow potential customers up until they clinch the deal and install solar.
Are you ready? Here we go!
When following a lead, it is essential to make contact with decision-makers. It is futile to expend resources trying to pitch your services to people who can’t make decisions.
Some might choose to go through the boss’s secretary or an assistant. It creates a chain of third-party pitching, which most times aren’t practical. This is because, for a compelling pitch, you need to make reactionary moves based on the response of the person you are pitching to.
There are tools available to help you reach the decision-makers of all of your leads. Ever heard of Hunter.io? Hunter.io is what you need to get email addresses of key decision-makers you want to pitch to.
To use Hunter.io, input the business’s domain name in the search bar, click FIND EMAIL ADDRESSES, and watch it generate contact details of people that matter for your business within seconds! Amazing, right?
With fantastic search filters, scoring, and millions of email addresses indexed, Hunter.io remains a powerful email-finding tool.
Often, the value proposition is what makes that big difference in getting commercial solar leads. For instance, there could be two ads selling the same product. If they both pitch to you, you’ll go with one of them over the other even though they sell the same thing. Why? Value proposition. Your value proposition is your selling point.
Here’s a tip, which is also your biggest tip – lead with value. That’s what a decision-maker is going to be looking for.
A value proposition is simply the value that your lead wants. A good value proposition from your lead’s angle sounds like you’ve been reading their minds, and there’s only one way to read their minds.
Do your research!
I can’t stress this enough, plus if you’ve been in this business for a while, you’ll know that research pays.
Know your potential leads. Know who they are and pay special attention to their financial budget.
How much are they willing to spend? What do they need from a solar panel? Do you have a range of services that fits perfectly within their budget and coincides with their needs?
These are the tough questions that, when answered, make you look like a mind reader. But knowing the answers to these is just one step.
Articulating the value proposition the right way is the next step.
The perfectly articulated value proposition does not only know what specific values the lead is looking for, but it delivers it to them in the perfect tone.
As soon as your lead finishes reading it, his reaction should be, “Wow, this is just the thing this business needs!”
A call to action might seem superfluous after putting a lot of work into writing your value proposition.
It could be, but here’s what you need to know. People need a nudge or two to get things done. Your call to action might be the push they need to respond.
Remember that your leads are considering a service they haven’t made up their minds to get. They might have questions, or if they don’t, a discussion will give them better clarity and you, another chance to convince them.
So, even with a great, absolutely compelling value proposition, you need to nail your cold email Call to Action.
What makes a successful cold email campaign?
Is it the number of potential clients who opened your email? Errrm… That’s great, but it’s a vanity metric. What do I mean?
It is not about opening your email or liking your thoughts; it’s about the number of prospects who takenecessary actions based on your CTA. You want a decision-maker to hit the reply button and schedule a meetingwith you, right? To do this, you should add some persuasion to make yourprospects take the next step as soon as they get to the end.
First, add a specific time and date.
For example, “How does tomorrow at 2 pm EDT sound?” or “How does tomorrow sound?”
Potential customers will likely respond to the first CTA since it does a great job of eliminating cognitive overload and making it easier for prospects to reply.
So, you’ve sent in a call to action, and you get an affirmation. Everything is going smoothly at this point, and you need to utilize every tool at your disposal to ensure it stays that way.
One of those tools is an automated booking calendar. Almost every professional business owner uses an automated booking calendar.
Here’s why you should use one…
Now, which automated booking calendar serves these purposes?
I use Calendly or Schedule Once. Both of them are great for automated bookings and come with various perks.
Calendly helps you make appointments effortlessly. You can also share your link with people to enable them to make appointments easily with you.
Schedule Once, on the other hand, shares your calendar with others so they can make appointments in your free time. Schedule Once also sends reminders to both parties ahead of the meeting.
This is where your persistence is needed. You can’t relax after a meeting; you need to follow up. There are four zones when it comes to following up.
In this zone, you barely follow up with another via email or phone call. If you send a follow-up correspondence at all, it’ll be one. It’ll also be within the first three days. This zone isn’t practical.
The casual follow up zone is a bit more proactive than the quit zone and more effective. In this zone, you send in follow up correspondences after long periods. It could typically be on Day 14, day 30, and day 45. This might not be effective for cold leads.
The annoy zone is when you begin to irritate the lead. In this zone, you move from being a professional to an annoying salesperson. In this zone, follow up correspondence is every day or every two days.
The “persist zone” is the most effective. It shows consistency and persistence without irritating your leads. Follow up correspondence is patterned over an incremental or fixed sequence.
For an incremental sequence, the correspondence follow-ups are sent in progressive intervals. The first follow up correspondence goes after the first six days. The next, after seven days and so on.
For the fixed sequence, follow up correspondence is sent every few days. For instance, you can decide to send a follow-up email every six days.
You want to be in the “persist zone” when it comes to this stage. You’re most likely to get positive feedback.
If you want to be effective in turning commercial solar leads into sales, take these 5 tips to heart. Knowing who to talk to, what to say, and how to follow up until you convert your leads to sales makes all the difference.
Are you interested in building a commercial solar lead pipeline that generates significant ROI? Outsourcing your commercial solar lead generation to Royal Energy will provide you with a ready-made team that can deliver the results you are looking for and deliver them quickly. Book a call with us today.
