Prospecting Leads for your Solar Business How to Generate Leads & Identify Customers 1
Prospecting Leads for your
Solar Business
How to Generate Leads &
Identify Customers
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Lead generation is the
starting point of the sales
funnel, every successful
lead adds to the top and
bottom line, so it is
important that you plan
ahead.
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Leads
1000
Prospects
100
Customers
10
ATTRACT
INTERACT
CONVERT
It Pays to have a Robust Lead
Generation Program
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Lets begin by analyzing the lead generation
process and breaking it down into relevant
components, we need to ask some basic
questions;
Who are my Potential
Customers
What are their key purchase
motivations
How do I reach out to
them in a cost effective
manner
What do I communicate
to them
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For a small & medium business with limited or non-existent market research
budgets, customer profiling is an iterative process.
Most small scale solar businesses are local; they usually start out posting
advertisements in the classified section of local newspapers or participating in
local events to generate leads.
Information on Leads should be captured in Contact Forms where depending
on how exhaustive our questionnaire is substantial information on the
potential customer can be captured:
Demographic Data Psychographic Data
Step I – Customer Profiling
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Step I - Customer Profiling, continued…….
• Demographic Data (What You’re Like) – Name
– Age
– Address
– Phone number
– Pin Code
– County
– Income
– Marital Status
– Homeowner
– Profession
– Qualifications
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Step I - Customer Profiling, continued…….
• Psychographic Data (What You Like) – Lifestyle indicators
– Interests
– Motivations
– Attitude
– Hobbies
– Social Status
– Liberal / Conservative
– Technologically savvy
– Urban / Rural
– Race
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Step II – Understanding Customer
Motivations for buying Solar
Solar Customer
Economics
Energy Independence
Sierra Club Member
Liberal Democrat
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Surprising Facts About People Who
Have Gone Solar
• They do it primarily for the ECONOMICS
• Solar attracts both Ultra Liberals & Ultra Conservatives alike, but the average solar owner is somewhere in between
• Most Solar owners perceive themselves to be ‘savvy’ spenders
• Most decision makers for solar energy at the household level are Men
• Most are not tree huggers but are technologically savvy
• They see Solar as a ‘smart’ investment
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Step III – Cost Effective Ways to Reach out to
your Customers
• Now that we have determined the profile of our
customer; we have to find cost effective media to reach
our customers:
Medium is the Message
Social Media Traditional
Media
Cost v/s ROI
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Step III – Cost Effective Ways to Reach
out to your Customers, contd………..
• Traditional Media Tools:
– Local classified advertisements
– Participation in Community Events and
Trade Shows
– Flyers & Door Hangers
– Signs
– Data Services
– Stickers
Referrals & endorsements
from your current customers is the most invaluable
lead source
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Step III – Cost Effective Ways to Reach out to
your Customers, contd………..
• Social Media Tools:
– Website
– Google Adwords
– Google+
– YouTube
– Inbound Marketing Services
Referrals & endorsements
from your current customers is the most invaluable
lead source
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Step IV – Communicating with your
Customers
TARGETED COMMUNICATION
MESSAGES
Motivation
Energy Independence
Motivation
Economics
Motivation Political
Affiliations
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Step IV – Communicating with your
Customers, contd………..
Communication Don’ts:
– Messages related to payback & ROI don’t
appeal to the ‘political affiliation’ segment
– Messages relating to Environmental Benefits
do not appeal to the ‘Economic’ minded group
– Messages relating to ‘being tech savvy’ does
not appeal to ‘Energy Independence’
segment.
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Step IV – Communicating with your
Customers, contd………..
Communication Do’s:
• Focus a different message to each segment;
– ‘Environment’ Benefits Segment; talk about the effects of global warming, hurricane Sandy….
– ‘Economic’ Benefits Segment; dwell on ROI, payback and other analytical measures
– ‘Energy Independence’ Benefits Segment; no dependence on ‘Big Business’, pride….
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And Finally Nurture every Lead..
• Show a ‘Quick’ response time; Industry data indicates that leads receiving a call-back in two minutes or less were four times as likely to convert to sold as an average lead.
• Your Sales-Cycle may spread over 4-8 weeks, it is important to communicate & engage with the customer at every level, to address his quest for information and assuage his concerns
• Telephonic interaction & site visits are crucial
• Using CRM tools to capture information and track all touch points with the customer
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