
Businesses of all sizes and ages can agree that growth is key to success. Some CEOs and small businesses may spend a lot of time spinning their wheels trying to decide how to create growth and add revenue. There’s an overlooked solution that’s great for business, and the environment, selling solar.

![A worker installing solar panels](/images/sales-member-blog/solar-installer.jpg)

### Why Solar?

If you’ve never been interested in solar - for your home or your business - now is the time to get interested. Solar power is a clean and reliable renewable energy source. Homeowners can start receiving the benefits of solar almost immediately. Power bills decrease, and homeowners may be eligible for tax credits and rebates. The downsides to solar are few, and the benefits to your business are many. To start, here are the top 3 reasons to sell solar at your business.

### 1\. You Need a New Line of Business that Generates Profits

If you find yourself worried about sales and revenue for your business, you aren’t alone. Despite changes to the economy, the solar industry continues to grow and change. According to SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association), the solar industry generated \$18.7 billion of investment in the American economy in 2019 alone. The growth continued in 2020, with residential installations increasing by 14% from Q2 to Q3. More states and cities also continue to embrace solar, which creates boundless opportunities for businesses that want to make a change. With these numbers, it’s more than worthwhile for any business to consider expanding into the solar industry.

### 2\. You Probably Already Have the Leads

No matter how long your business has been in operation, you’ve probably made some connections along the way. These connections are valuable when you sell solar. Is your business in frequent contact with homeowners? You have leads. Your work probably helped individuals buy their homes, sell their homes, fix their roofs, or even correct plumbing problems. Reaching out to previous customers to let them know that you have more offerings can only benefit you. Want to spread the news far and wide? You can still generate leads with regular marketing methods while you get your existing leads up to speed.

### 3\. There Are Tools to Help You Along the Way

Even if you don’t start off as an expert in the solar industry, there are plenty of tools to help you become one. Palmetto offers a wide range of support for you to make selling solar a successful venture. It all starts before you make the sale. You can process your leads with a platform built for solar. You can create proposals and use Palmetto’s engineering and design services to bring the project to completion. Also, you’ll receive dedicated support to answer questions you may have.

There are plenty of reasons to start selling solar and bring success to your business. You need little to get started, but you can receive significant benefits from every sale. Besides the benefits your business may see from solar, more solar actually benefits the environment. So why not help your business grow while positively affecting global climate change?

Ready to Start Selling Solar? [We Can Help](/sales-member#form).


There’s more than a few reasons to consider adding solar to your line of business. Learn how you can increase revenue and use current leads to grow.

Solar Sales


Selling solar door-to-door has been the go to method for quite some time. With that being the case, it makes sense that many solar reps found themselves at a lost when COVID-19 restrictions became necessary. However, it’s possible to have success selling solar through the use of virtual and careful in-person methods. Use the tips in this guide to help adjust your business for the future.

![man in suit pointing](/images/sales-member-blog/sales-point.jpg)

### Get to Know All of Your Communication Options

Even if you’re used to going door-to-door to have conversations with homeowners, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon selling solar until restrictions are lifted. In fact, it’s the perfect time to expand your network and reach more potential clients virtually. When you consider how much more people will navigate the web and using social media, you’ll know you have plenty of opportunities to generate leads. There are a couple of communication methods that can help you reach leads and stay in contact with them.

#### Social Media — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and More

If you want to be where your audience is, then social media is where you need to be. Choose the platform you prefer and make sure you have a presence. This can be with a LinkedIn profile that highlights your work or a Facebook page that promotes your business. Use your page as a starting point and then start your conversations. Let people know about the opportunity to have solar for their homes. You can even join various groups to get tips about buyer trends and source new leads.

#### Virtual Conference Calls

After using social to reach a lead, you can use video conference tools like Zoom and Skype to keep conversations going. You can take your normal phone calls one step further and you have the opportunity to bridge the gap of not being able to meet in person.

### Don’t Forget to Follow-Up & Automate If You Can

After your first or even second conversation with your lead, you can’t call it quits. Relying on a potential customer to make the next call is a mistake, especially if most of your conversation has been virtual. You don’t have to force yourself to remember every single call that needs to be made either, you can let technology do the work for you.

#### CRMs

Customer relationship management probably isn’t something foreign to you, but if you’re on a smaller team, you may not have used one. A properly managed CRM like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics gives you the ability to set up alerts for each contact as soon as they’re entered. You can then set up messages to go to contacts automatically.

#### Email & Text Messaging

Email is a tried-and-true method for consistently engaging with leads and getting them to the point of sale. Setting up newsletters and automated emails helps potential customers stay informed and helps you stay at the forefront of their minds. Want to step it up a notch? Use tools like SimpleTexting to send out text messages and set up the next call or meeting.

### Give Your Clients a Choice

Even before your potential client makes their final decision about solar, you should know how comfortable they are with virtual and in-person meetings. Clients may be comfortable with socially distanced discussions and demonstrations. Gauge their comfortability with each discussion and let them decide how they want to proceed.

### Make the Sale

Despite the adjustments you may have to make, you’re still capable of reaching your goals. Find the method that works for you and you may be able to surpass them.

Need help selling solar? [Palmetto is here for you](/sales-member#form).


Having trouble making solar sales with restrictions in place? Use these quick tips for making solar sales virtually.


Building a relationship is key when you’re making any type of sale. Depending on what you’re selling, you may need to find out about your customer’s family, habits, likes, and dislikes along with their wants and needs before you can even make a sale. When selling solar things are no different and require even more communication throughout what can be a lengthy process. At the end of it all you want your customer to leave the interaction feeling as though they received the best service possible, and they will not only give you a great review, but may lead you to more customers with referrals.

![A customer on the phone](/images/sales-member-blog/customer-phone.jpg)

To get an excellent review and the referral, it’s important to know how to build rapport with customers, keep them informed, handle problems, and let them tell you how you did.

### Building Rapport

Good relationships make great sales. It’s a good thing to keep in mind throughout your conversation with a customer. Part of this may be a natural part of your process to determine if your product fits the customer’s needs. This is especially true with solar and trying to determine how many of its benefits a customer will be able to take advantage of. As you make each discovery about your customer, write it down and use that information to determine if there are more opportunities for you to help.

### Keep Your Customer Informed

No one likes to be left in the dark and before their solar energy is installed your customer could be left feeling that they have been. Contracts and agreements aside, it's important for them to “sign off” on every step of the process. Let them know what’s coming and don’t be afraid to repeat the information if necessary. It helps to come to certain conversations with information documented so customers can easily refer to it in the future. Let them know that you’re always available to talk them through the process.

### Handle Problems

Despite your best efforts, there will still be occasions where information slips through the cracks. A large portion of getting a job completed requires that other people will need to be involved. Mistakes and miscommunication are bound to happen, but don’t panic. When a customer comes to you with a concern, they’re also looking to be understood. Listening and showing empathy go a long way to making sure your customer stays on your side. Even if you can’t offer an immediate solution, you can let them know that you’re taking responsibility for finding one.

### Let Customers Tell You How You Did

After you’ve done all the hard work of getting solar to your customer, you can’t forget to ask for a review. Customers will tell you how they feel, especially if you make the process quick and easy. You can do this with a quick rating system or a one or two question survey. Take that even further and make it easy for your customers to refer you to their friends and family. It's important that you have built enough of a relationship to get your review or referral. If possible, wait to ask until the process is complete and you’ve successfully helped your customer get everything they need. In any case, you can make it easy to get both your review and referral.


Building relationships for better reviews and referrals