If you’re like most solar businesses, you feel stuck in a relentless race to the bottom, competing to see who can drop their prices (and their pants) the furthest. You feel like you’re running flat out on a hamster wheel, just to keep cash flowing. There’s over 5000 solar businesses in Australia, which is the most competitive solar industry in the world.
You’re selling a commodity (electricity) produced by another commodity (solar panels). And, unless you do something different to add value and stand out, then you’ll find yourself competing in a commodity market: on price and price alone.
From a customer perspective, solar power is a complex technology with a lot of brands, jargon and stuff they simply don’t understand. Even experts in the solar industry have a hard time keeping up with all the latest technology developments.
You don’t need to waste your time explaining the technology or the brands in extraordinary detail. Chances are your competitors will say something completely different, which will just leave your customer even more confused.
In the midst of all that confusion, the customer reverts to the only thing they understand: price.
Your job isn’t to sell the concept of solar power – they’re already keen on that, due to social evidence. The financials are important, but only to tick the box to confirm “yes I’m making the right decision”.
You see, for most customers, solar panels are those ugly rectangular blue things that you chuck on the roof, and an inverter is a box you hang on the wall and put pot plants / sporting equipment / garden tools on top of… (now with wifi!).
So, rather than bamboozle customers with claims about the technology…. Do the following three steps.
So, we’ve established that customers will revert to comparing price against price if they don’t understand the difference between company’s offers.
So if you’re going to charge more than the competition, you’ve got to stand above the competition… without naming or slagging off your competition which is a big no-no in sales. Or without scaring the customer off. And all while building the customer’s confidence and trust.
Tough gig, right!
We recommend that you educate the customer on what to look for in a solar company, even if they decide you’re not the right company for them. That last bit is likely to lower their defences too.
Most customers don’t know what to look for in a solar offer. Hell, most customers don’t know what to look for in a clothes washing machine. But they should only need to buy a PV system once in their lifetime, maybe twice. So wouldn’t it be great to give them a handy “What to look for in a solar retailer” guidebook?
So create that guidebook! And as you’ll be creating the goal posts you’ll have first shot at scoring, and you’ll be more likely to win the job.
However, thanks to the magic of email you can automatically drip-feed this education to your prospects… which is great because it often takes multiple touch points to win a client. It used to be 4 touchpoints in years gone by, but in this modern information age it can easily be 16 touchpoints to convert a customer to a sale! They’ll soon cotton on that it’s an automation, but you’ll be delivering real value to them… and it will still stand you heads and shoulders above your competitors.
And even if your prospective customer gets a second or third quote, your customer will find it challenging to find the information they need to compare the others to you, because your competition is probably pretty bad at clearly communicating their strengths. Leaving you as the gold standard, and able to justify charging more than the competition.
Somehow you have to convince the customer that they should trust what you’re saying, both in establishing the “hat to look for in a solar retailer” evaluation criteria, and in how you meet those criteria. Wouldn’t it be great for a trusted independent expert to educate the customer for you?!!!
Referrals boost your businesses profitability because they deliver:
Which means greater profit margins and greater conversion rates.
We talk later about the “how to” with referrals.
Sunfluence’s email automation system uses a trusted independent expert to automatically educates customers what to look for in a solar company. You can offer that ‘guidebook’ on your website in exchange for your customers’ contact information, and automatically follow up. Sunfluence’s offering also builds referrals.
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Sunfluence improves your sales and helps you charge a higher price than your competition.
Sunfluence was founded by solar industry veterans Warwick Johnston, Russell French and Donovan Craig. Together we bring 38 years of combined experience in the solar market. Our primary purpose is to deliver global environmental benefit by enabling outstanding solar businesses to thrive.
We’re independent and solar industry experts.
Together we formed Sunfluence to help small to medium solar companies compete with businesses 10 times their size by nurturing, winning and retaining more customers.