Velocify, a provider of cloud-based sales software, recently turned its attention to the solar industry with a study detailing best practices for solar sales. As part of the study, it secretly tested the responsiveness of sales teams at residential solar installation companies.
The results showed that companies are letting opportunities slip through the cracks by failing to respond to all qualified leads by phone or e-mail—and enough times to gain traction. In addition, many solar companies waited days or weeks to respond to interested buyers, putting them at a severe disadvantage compared with companies that were able to respond within minutes.
About the study
Velocify conducted a solar secret shopper study by filling out multiple online lead forms for 30 residential solar installation companies. Researchers then tracked how quickly these companies responded by phone and e-mail, and how many response attempts they made in the following 22 days. By comparing performance in these four specific KPIs (key performance indicators), Velocify was able to evaluate each company’s effectiveness in responding to online leads, a proxy for sales performance.
Velocify paired the results from the study with its earlier research—where the progression of millions of leads were studied—and has provided tips for improving the solar sales process. To read the whole white paper, click here.
Lesson 1: Stake your claim, quickly
When it comes to the speed of responding to prospective solar customers, faster is better. Calling a new lead within one minute increases conversions by 391%, according to Velocity. Research conducted by Zogby revealed that most prospects expect to receive a callback within 24 hours. Furthermore, almost 70% of prospects believe the first company to call them has an advantage over the competition.
Still, given that every form submitted by the secret shoppers required a phone number and e-mail address, a full 19% of online requests for quotes never received a response of any kind. Considering the significant amount of marketing investment that can go into generating solar leads, researchers were surprised to wait weeks for a call, or never receive one, from 40% of solar companies.
While responding within hours is clearly better than responding within days, previous Velocify research has shown that the likelihood of conversion drops considerably when responding to inquiries later than an hour after submission. Therefore, companies that take longer than an hour to respond are leaving money on the table and could benefit from decreasing the time it takes to respond.
Lesson 2: Follow-up matters—to a point
When it comes to persistence, it might seem rational to make as many contact attempts as necessary until contact is made. One could also argue that after a couple of failed attempts, resources should be diverted to more optimal places. According to previous Velocify research, the answer is somewhere in between.
By looking at data on the progression of millions of prospective customers, Velocify uncovered that the optimal number of call attempts is six. The reason is that 93% of prospects that eventually convert have been contacted by the sixth call attempt. When solar companies continue to dedicate resources into contacting the remaining 7%, they experience the effects of diminishing returns and run the risk of being perceived as overly aggressive.
Yet 77% were not persistent enough with four calls or fewer, which research confirmed was too few to maximize the likelihood of a sale. And just as calling too frequently is a waste of resources, calling too infrequently can be a costly error. By failing to put enough effort into contacting prospects quickly and with optimal frequency, sales organizations could be missing out on an easy, cost efficient best practice to improve their overall sales conversion.
Velocify also found that the optimal e-mail strategy is to respond within 20 minutes and to send five e-mails over a 22-day period. When solar companies were put to the test, researches received the optimal number of e-mails from just 5% of the companies. Considering the low cost and ease of sending e-mails, it is surprising that solar companies are not being persistent enough when communicating to potential buyers via e-mail.
Lesson 3: Use all of your tools
Requesting a quote is a buyer’s way of telling a solar sales team he is interested in purchasing a residential installation, so it is important for businesses to respond promptly to these qualified leads in every way possible.
In looking at how well-versed sellers were in using multi-channel communications, only 46% of companies placed at least one phone call and one e-mail to the researchers. With the increased use of e-mail auto-responders, it is surprising that a higher percentage of inquiring buyers did not receive an e-mail within seconds or minutes of quote request. While an e-mail might not seem as powerful as a phone call when responding to a quote request, the importance of prompt e-mail response should not be overlooked.
