Selling Solar

Despite growing consumer demand for solar, it may seem like it’s only getting harder to reach potential customers. The solar industry remains highly competitive and outbound call center teams face specific challenges including fast-changing regulations and rising customer acquisition costs. We’ve put together some outbound dialing best practices that support compliance to convert more leads and help to boost your outbound call center efficiency. 

1- Make sure you purchase permissions-based opt-in data 

When purchasing high intent solar leads for your outbound contact center, make sure you are receiving compliant data. Working with a marketing partner that follows permission-based lead acquisition models reduces fine risks and increases contact and conversion rates.

When you work with leads that have given explicit consent to be contacted, they are much more likely to accept your call and your chances of conversion are much higher. This should help you connect with more people and reduce the number of leads you need to purchase.

2- Invest in resources to increase compliance 

Even when you purchase complaint data, it’s important to consider investing in third-party resources to help increase compliance of your leads and outbound campaigns. Companies like ActiveProspect, Jornaya, and Contact Center Compliance offer technologies that help increase lead transparency (including how, when, and where a lead was generated) and performance. 

Colossus Chief Revenue Office Heather Griffin has extensive experience in solar lead generation as well as managing medium and large-size solar call center operations. She explains why compliance is still essential – even with “complaint leads.”

3- Increase contact rates by actively managing caller ID reputation

Another important factor that can significantly affect your contact rates is phone numbers that get blocked or flagged as possible spam risk. Even legitimate calls can be blocked or flagged for a variety of reasons, but managing your caller ID reputation (DID) is one important way to minimize negative impacts. When your phone numbers get flagged or blocked, it is important to have best practices in place for monitoring the health of your Caller ID numbers and quickly swapping out incorrectly flagged or blocked DIDs before it eats away at your productivity and revenue. Making sure you are reaching out with clean numbers can boost your contact rate and help you hit your sales targets.  

4- Leverage contact center software that supports best practices for compliance 

In addition to smart dialing practices, it’s important to choose technology partners that are on top of compliance issues and support best practices. While compliance isn’t provided by your contact center software, having the right tools for responsible dialing can help you adapt continuously to latest compliance regulations while avoiding unnecessary costs. 

To learn more about staying on top of compliance laws and regulations, check out Outbound Dialing 5 Best Practices for Compliance and Profitability

5- Monitor Your Lead and List KPIs

Looking at performance on a cost-per-lead basis and at a vendor or list level is just as important as understanding your agent productivity, which is where many call centers focus their attention. Metrics to analyze for your leads include connection rate, lead conversion rate, cost per lead, and revenue per lead. When monitoring your list performance, you’ll want to look at contact rate, average talk time, total revenue, and list profit and loss. 

Optimizing the efficiency of your lists and leads can help improve performance and give you a better understanding of your true customer acquisition costs.

6- Equip Your Agents with Effective Scripts

As we know, there’s more to converting a solar lead than getting them on the phone. The right script at the right time to stay compliant with state laws and improve conversions. Dynamic call center scripting is one way to help make sure that your agents automatically get the right script in front of them. There are many key opportunities to adjust your scripting based on lead data – including adjusting your pitch to the local market and conforming to state-specific regulatory rules and requirements. Using lead data in conjunction with responsive scripting will help your agents know what to say, and when, to maximize your sales.  Read more about Crafting Solar Scripts that Convert.

7- Manage Your Lists to Boost Sales

Finally, how you utilize your solar leads – whether it’s high or low-intent data – will ultimately determine your success with them. When managing your lists, your approach by lead source can make all the difference. Read more about How to Use Solar Leads Effectively.

Bringing all these best practices together will help support compliance but also enhance the profitability of your outbound call center. 

Colossus is dedicated to helping businesses sell more solar. By matching residential solar providers with the right customers, Colossus helps solar companies grow their sales by delivering real time solar inquiries. 

Discover how Colossus can help you with your solar business needs. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you grow your solar business.