Why Can't Smaller Solar Contractors Offer Funding to Their Clients?

"They haven't gained a clientele base big enough to support the idea"

As a solar PV contractor, you already know who your competition is. It's the big guys. Companies like "Sunrun" and "Vivint Solar" are the two most prominent solar panel installing companies in the U.S. as of 2019.

Not only do those two companies have their name out there and established, but they can also offer something that a lot of smaller solar panel installers and contractors can't: Funding.

A lot of small solar PV contractors can't afford to offer to lease to their prospects, simply because they haven't gained a clientele base big enough to support the idea. As a small contractor, this can be detrimental to the business that you're running. Most prospects are on board and ready for you to help them until the moment you tell them how much it's going to cost them for you to install their units.

Then you start to ask yourself three different things:

• Am I as good as those more prominent companies?
• Will anyone ever be able to afford my services?
• Why would anyone want to hire me? I'm no different from the competition.

"You seem like a great person to work with, but it's just too expensive right now"

As you assess the answers to those questions, you continue to go into a downward spiral, asking yourself more and more problems as days pass.

You find yourself prospect after prospect, and at the end of every call, you hear the same responses, "You seem like a great person to work with, but it's just too expensive right now." or "I'm sorry. I love the thought of it, but I'll have to ask my wife/husband first," or even "It all sounded good until you told me it was going to cost X amount of dollars."

It's cumbersome and downright depressing to hear the same responses over and over again.

But what if you could beat the catch-22? More clients mean more offers for your prospects. But it takes getting those clients to make those offers.

What would onboarding those new clients mean for you and your solar contracting business?

Would it mean an extra $5,000 or even an additional $10,000 in your pocket with every single job you completed? And what if your clients referred their friends because they had the same amount of money they did? If one client referred you to at least one other person who was interested and willing to make the payment for your fantastic services, you'd be looking at an easy $20,000 to $30,000 in a short amount of time.

"People are willing to pay for something that they know will greatly benefit them, especially if you have the ability to make it affordable..."

If you were making that extra $20,000 to $30,000 on every single job, would anything be stopping you from offering to lease to your prospects?

What if at the end of a call whenever someone said, "I just can't afford it," you were able to say, "We understand and know that installing solar panels can be expensive in the beginning, but we know how beneficial it would be for you and your family. That's why we offer a low-cost option to pay monthly."

It's a guarantee that your conversion rates would go from 30% to upwards of 70% or higher.

People are willing to pay for something that they know will greatly benefit them, especially if you can make it affordable for everyone interested. But you can't do that from the start and still expect to make a decent profit for your services.

Offering funding is a problem that a lot of smaller solar PV contractors continue to face daily and have no idea how to fix it.

So ask yourself this, "Do I want to be one of those contractors?"

"When you use social media to brand yourself..."

Of course not! So, let me tell you about a few different ways to fix the issues mentioned above!

To start, yes, you are as good - if not better - than those bigger guys! Your clients are a lot more than just a number to you! They're your friends, a returning customer, and a lifelong relationship. More prominent companies can't say that about their clients because all a client is to them is a number.

But how can you let people know that? How can you tell all of the prospects that you care about them?

It's easy; by leveraging Social Media.

When you use social media to brand yourself, you're not only showing the world that you are a human being but what you do and say on social media will also show them that you are passionate about what you do as a solar panel installer!

"You're already an expert in your field..."

"Will anyone ever be able to afford my services?"

Yes, they will! 

But before they can, you have to make sure a couple of things are in check:

• Your pricing
• Your funding ability

You're already an expert in your field, so I'm sure you've already gotten your pricing at a set point. You already know your value, and you're not budging!

People respect that. When someone feels your confidence, and they know that what you have to offer is something above and beyond their expectations, they will buy from you; If you can provide funding options.

Not everyone can afford $5,000 to $10,000 all at once unless you've targeted those people directly through an ad service such as Facebook or Instagram.

But right now, you can't afford to offer funding because you don't have the client base! That's what this article is all about; getting to a point where you can get more clients because you can make your services affordable enough to do so.

"People are more willing to work with someone they view as a friend"

"Why would anyone want to hire me? I'm no different from the competition.

Saying that you're no different from the competition is a false statement.

As we talked about before, you can offer your clients something that more prominent companies can't - friendship.

People are more willing to work with someone they view as a friend.

But how can make friends whenever the competition promises all of these fantastic things? It's easy.

Turn your social media pages into something that shows you are an expert in your field AND a trustworthy individual who loves to help others.

It sounds hard, but the only thing you need to remember is to be yourself and the clients will come!