Did you work a lot harder in 2016 for a great deal less money? Did you grow your amount of projects but not your net revenue?
That's the real problem with the much-lauded falling expense of solar. There's a great deal less margin to go around. For example, a 30% markup on $0. 45/watt modules amounts to a lot less than it did on $1. 50/watt modules. And you may see the same effect across labor and BOS markup.
More so, that perimeter has a lot of hungry mouths to supply: office rent, truck maintenance, financing-related fees and customer acquisition, just to name a few.
Many small solar contracting business owners are plagued with similar problems no matter where they are in the usa. Of the business owners We talk to, many believe acquiring more customers will help them offset these deficits by increasing cash stream.
Making up these failures in additional volume of projects is not an option. Losses compound. This really is a scary race to the bottom and really time to reverse now. So, what are some concrete steps business owners can do to get out of the contest to the bottom?
you ) Are you actually customer-focused? Pay attention to the market.
Stop shoving a package down the throats of possible customers. Many solar businesses have oriented themselves around messaging and sales styles popularized by the surge of third-party ownership. Should you be not selling third-party possession, you have an possibility to really listen to can be driving the customer to consider solar and enable their concerns and needs control the conversation. Stop being so focused on creating efficient sales funnels and spend more time pondering from the perspective of a possible customer who knows nothing about sun and nothing about structure. They don't really know what to expect. They often no longer really know what they don't know. Be nice. The time you spend educating now is the perfect investment in referrals that will come tomorrow.
2. Examine Finance Dealer Fees and Related Operational Complexity
Is a tail wagging the dog? Should your choice of customer finance is dictating your customer demographic, you may have better customers to focus on in your area nevertheless they won't work together with you because you're not offering what they want.
Dealer fees, transaction costs and techniques dictated by financing associates can make a whole lot of confusion, extra steps (read: overhead) and stress and delays for you, your staff along with your customer. Simpler processes lead to a shorter sale-to-PTO, which boosts cash flow. Easier processes mean simpler and fewer expensive software to manage your business.
3. Orient Everything Around the Customer
An easy assertion, a more difficult proposal. And it's really much easier to speak about customer experience than actually do something about it. Although unlike other home services, homeowners are first-time buyers of solar. They avoid really know what to expect and usually can't say for sure someone who has done it. Basic but powerful activities like asking the customer how they need to be contacted and the best time of day to contact them is and sticking to that help. Think of the new trends jooxie is seeing now in call centers, where rather than seated in a hold line up for an unknown amount of time, you can select when to provide an available representative call you back. That's being customer-centric. How can you take that approach into your company?
4. Take those Long View
When you give attention to how the customer wants to interact (what types of communication and when), provide resources in the formats they want during the process and provide a genuine and traditional education process, you're on your way. But to secure potential referrals, you need to keep to truly engage the customer up to date of zestful the system and teaching them for years to come. Why? Because when customers continue to learn about their system and about potential rate changes in their area, plus they continue to engage with your company and the solar experience after the project is long done, they'll remember you when a friend or neighbors asks for a suggestion. It's a long game, but building a relationship-based book of business is the key to critically reducing customer acquisition costs and creating an eco friendly, long-term business.
So this is all about marketing right? Not entirely. This is certainly about creating a truly customer-focused procedure from your brand all the way through to long-term customer engagement, including many detailed strategies. It's not simply making a really sleek sales experience and then dumping the client into the black gap of project fulfillment with horribly set expectations. This takes process design, staff engagement, customer interviews, brand management, software choices, sales training, commission structure and much more. It's a truly end-to-end process for which there is absolutely no silver topic solution. This can be the real work. Successful small installers in our industry have proven it's a winning strategy by growing the most effective when the market frontrunners of the last few years have not expanded as quickly.
Ready to take on this obstacle? Until the end of 2016, I'm offering businesses of U. S. -based residential solar installers a free of charge 30-minute consultation to help identify potential solutions to achieve profitability in 2017. Book your appointment today (subject to availability, first come/first served, no purchase required).
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