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With growing consumer demand and a steady drop in hardware costs, the solar industry has seen significant growth. But there are many challenges ahead for solar businesses including increasing soft costs that can really affect their bottom lines. With steep competition and tight margins, being able to effectively lower soft costs will be critical to long-term success.

When we talk about solar energy soft costs, we are referring to the non-hardware costs associated with solar sales and installation. This includes financing, siting, permitting, installation, and other overhead costs that solar companies incur when acquiring new customers.

While solar hardware costs have declined as much as 60% since the beginning of 2010, soft costs for solar companies have steadily increased. According to the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), soft costs now comprise up to 64% of the total price of residential solar systems.

The good news is that there’s opportunities to lower soft costs by improving processes and introducing efficiencies to your sales process. This can give solar businesses a big competitive advantage in this rapidly growing market.

Unique Challenges for Solar Sales Teams

For those who have been in the industry and have seen it grow, we know that there are unique obstacles for solar sales teams. Smart strategies can help you overcome solar sales challenges and convert more leads. For starters, eligibility criteria for solar customers (good credit, standards that must be met on the homeowner’s roof, etc.) leaves you with a very narrow pool of consumers who can seriously consider purchasing solar. This leads to fierce competition for a very narrow audience, often resulting in eligible prospects feeling burned out on cold calls and traditional high-volume marketing tactics. Colossus’s Chief Revenue Officer Heather Griffin has shared her expertise and experience in navigating these challenges and complexities to convert more solar sales in a competitive environment. You can read more about smart strategies and tools for optimizing efficiency and productivity here: How to Overcome Solar Sales Challenges to Convert More Leads.

Invest in Optimizing Your Sales Process

Solar companies looking to scale their business might also consider using a powerful predictive dialer to help scale their solar business efficiently. This can help on multiple fronts including increasing contact rates, improving sit rates, supporting compliance, and maximizing profitability.

Another way to optimize your solar sales process is by leveraging various tools and technologies to improve your close rate. Whether you generate solar leads or buy qualified leads from a reputed lead generation company, boosting your outbound sales can involve various strategies that will allow you to approach high-intent leads vs. low intent data differently.

Colossus marketplace offers high-intent solar leads for your sales team to help lower customer acquisition costs. We maintain consistency in lead volume and quality for solar providers across the nation. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you grow your solar business.