Publisher's Synopsis
"In the rapidly changing PV industry, The Solar Sales Leap is a must-read for anyone involved in the task of marketing solar power to residential homeowners. Curren summarizes here what many PV installers are failing to recognize when trying to capture the attention of a qualified residential solar power prospect."-- Joe Sadonis, Solar Consultant, Paradise Clean Energy
The Solar Sales Leap will help anyone who works in marketing, sales, or management at a residential or commercial solar contractor to sell more solar with the powerful new tools of online outreach.
These days, even while solar panels are getting cheaper and cheaper, the cost of acquiring a new solar customer remains high - around $3,000 on average for a residential installation, according to GTM Research. This raises the price of installations and cuts into the profit of solar installers.
If solar sales and marketing was effective it would be cheaper and easier to get a new solar customer. But traditional tactics, most of which have been used for decades, from door-knocking to cold calling to direct mail, don't work well anymore. In some cases, by destroying consumer trust, outdated outreach can backfire for solar sales.
Why? Blame it on the Internet.
No Patience for Cold Calls and Door-to-Door Sales
Suffering from an overload of information through phones and computers, not to mention cable TV and satellite radio, the average American consumer today gets thousands of marketing messages a day. That's why more and more people are blocking ads on their computers and on their phones. Busy consumers have even less patience for solar telemarketers or door knockers than they do for ads.
That's why today, people are not just blocking the ads. Potential solar buyers are also hanging up on the cold callers, slamming the door on the canvassers, and tossing out the direct mail unread. And that means lost sales for solar installers.
Pushy marketing tactics create distrust for the solar industry. And that distrust is fanned by monopoly electric utilities who use stories of solar scams spread around the news media and online to throw mud on the rooftop solar industry. As scare stories spread they'll create distrust and make homeowners and commercial property owners think twice about working directly with solar installers.
The Solar Sales Leap is a practical guide to help solar installers survive and thrive in today's market by using the power of the Internet to build trust with homeowners and commercial property owners.
The book is also a manifesto calling for the industry to remove the biggest roadblock to solar's growth by bringing the industry's marketing out of the 1970s into the 21st century.
Different than Other Books on Solar Marketing and Sales
While there have been books published previously on solar sales and marketing, The Solar Sales Leap is the first book to introduce Internet marketing to solar companies.
It's a detailed guide to help solar installers make the transition online with concrete advice to create content they can use to establish themselves as trusted advisors rather than sales bullies. The book covers such topics as:
- How all marketing today has become Internet marketing
- Why going online is much more than getting a Facebook page or putting up a website - it's a change of mindset
- The secrets to building a website that will generate solar leads online
- Why solar installers need to distinguish themselves from competitors in order to make sales
- Blogging as the secret weapon to build a successful solar brand
