Simple Solar Sale

Four months after buying the farm I started seeing emails and postal letters from solar companies. "Hope you like your new home. It'd be even better with solar!" "Add value to the home you just purchased by adding solar!" Creepy how these companies seem to stalk the land title notices. Regardless, I rang several and asked for their pitch.

Good Lord.

Some wouldn't give specifics on pricing and rebates. Others had plans which doubled my current monthly electric bill. One guy laid out a pitch seemingly created by Russell Crowe's character in "A Beautiful Mind."

At the end of the afternoon, I spoke with a young man who simply said, "Let me stop by tomorrow with a restaurant gift certificate for your time. I'll only need ten minutes." That'll do. When he knocked I answered. After the handshake, I stated, "You've got ten minutes to explain the ROI. Any more than that and I'm out."

"You pay us X. You get rebates of Y. You get eighteen months interest free before you have to pay off the difference. Your current electric bill is A. After the panels are installed it will be Y. That monthly savings means you cover your costs in 46 months."

I barely heard what he was saying about the 25 year warranty. I booked the install for the following week. It literally was ten minutes between when he knocked and when I signed the contract. I was a willing buyer from the time I started contacting companies (the RFP). This company won the business because they directly connected the cost and the benefit (ROI).

Of course there are differentiators between your product and others in the market. Of course you're going to highlight those in your pitch deck. Of course the customer is going to have questions and concerns. Of course there will be due diligence and other compliance requirements. Of course the customer is going to have their own timeline and budget considerations. Those will all be addressed in closely coordinated conversations.

Have you succinctly connected what you're charging with what the customer gets in return? Have you removed all impediments to the payment process? Those two made the difference on a $5200 ($17K cost - $11,800 rebates) solar sale. If you've got products at a lower price point, be sure all barriers to go-live are minimized/removed.