Marketing Issue [RE-wrenches]

Fri May 23 17:25:38 PDT 2003

Bill,
I don't think the warehousers are going to beat internet discounters for
some time.  It's an overhead issue.  I bet the lowest price internet
discounters have the lowest overhead and are not stocking or warehousing
anything.

Astropower, who has already hooked up to the orange and white big box, has
soured to the palate of the market due to their hostile shareholder lawsuit
and they are struggling against debt somewhat.  I just don't see their
presence yet in the grid here in San Diego County, where four HD stores
(perhaps more by now) in the area offer systems with the astro-sour'd
modules, one Home Despot is less than a half mile from where I'm sitting
right now.   The presence at that store is so poor I can see why there's no
interest.  The competing offers some of my customers have actually received
in written form are actually comparable, complete with a local electrical
contractor involved, etc.  And they are still very beat-able quotes from
what I've seen so far.

Will Astropower become another solar gypsy but on public company scale?
Oops, they're no longer listed.  All due to shareholders' perceived
improprieties and the class-action that followed.  Not to badmouth
Astropower, they're decent modules and I think the company probably just got
a major piece of bad luck.  It could take as little as one bad HD install to
kill their program.  The internet solar discounters for DIY'rs and DIY
wanna-bee's will always be present however and that issue is well-discussed
already in this thread.  You have to beat them and the customer with your
knowledge and services.  Pricing is ridiculous with these online guys but at
least RE products have not gone into the music industry modus, like when
Walsnot and Boutique Tarjay started retailing CD's at the same price that
the Mom & Pop record stores were buying them from the distributors/record
co's for.  Even then, the stores that stayed in business did so by retaining
knowledgable employees, providing great service(s), more niche
selections/products, and actual interaction with the customer/end-users.

Then came the internet and people have decided they want to be left alone
when buying things, wanting more of it for less.  I think this is a core
issue for human nature, basically a child of greed, but in accordance with
the typical advantage theory mechanisms we're all pre-wired for.  In the
end, you're right, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch--so buyers
should always be wary of a free market.  Our job is to emphasize that there
ain't no free lunch.  If we're not buyers in the market, we're sellers.
Sellers telling the buyers to be wary of other lower price sellers doesn't
always work since buyers will generally interpret that as reason to
definitely investigate other options they've seen on the net at that point.
The price war begins and anybody with overhead often loses, definitely the
profit, and by choice, maybe the job.

However much I agree with all of Ray's recent points, IMO there are too many
fish in the sea to talk to personally anyway and the people that become your
customers were destined to be your customers--often they jump onto your hook
because they like you and got a good vibe from your site visit or something.
They understand that there are intricacies involved in doing a solar
installation that they simply don't want to understand or deal with.  These
people respect professional insight much more than marketing hype, including
even the lowest of low-ball pricing.  Simply, they know better already.
They've played that game somewhere else with some other type of contractor's
job or bought some cheap stereo equipment and hated it.  There are too many
more of these potential customers to worry about losing market share to
DIY'rs and warehouse club pricing (so far).

I think a great way to impress a customer beyond anything they could see on
the net, including incredible pricing, is to tell them about the seconds
market in the solar industry.  That will make them think (at least twice)
about those low, low prices.

As well, and Keith Cr. was asking about this angle a while back, for those
of us that do both PV and solar hot water, it seems to me that taking the
full solar approach and pointing to the sun as the energizer for both
systems has great appeal to those folks who originally call for a PV system
quote.  Many times, especially a customer that is doing his homework and
calls you first, knows about solar hot water and will ask if you do that
too.  If you do, I can guarantee you that it gives you an edge over the
competition for the PV job, particularly over Home Depot assigns, and deep
discounts are generally not required to get the job and a second one.

Last comment: maybe NABCEP's day is coming sooner than later...

Peter D.
1AU, Inc./ASAP POWER!

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Loesch, Saint Louis Solar [mailto:bill_loesch at compuserve.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 8:34 AM
To: INTERNET:RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE:Marketing Issue [RE-wrenches]

Wrenches,

Thanks for your comments, it is enlightening to see the focus of different
elements in the RE community.

Let me suggest one (IMHO) historical based scenario using the following
criteria:

1)  As goes California (failures excluded), so goes (eventually) the
nation.
2) WalMart, (Home Depot, etc.) rules.

Eventually, one or more manufacturers/distributors sell to the Big Box. If
there is any installer out there that thinks they can compete on price with
the Big Box, please don't waste any more of your time reading further. For
those of you still with me, How can we promote our strengths of technical
expertise, experience and familiarity with local conditions? More power to
David and Roy for their efforts, and hopefully continued success, to
explain why they were charging list price for their equipment. From a
practical matter, Daryl and Joel are the forward looking folks; pay more
for my equipment or pay more for my service - because there ain't no such
thing as a free lunch.

Smitty is right that the _same_" solar trolls/sluts/pimps" (I love the
creativity) won't be there tomorrow, but they will be replaced with at
least an equal number of similar folks.

Moreover, for this RE thing to go mainstream, HD is probably not the worst
venue.

Who gets credit for -  the only constant is change? You might not like
competing with HD but its coming (already in CA) then the solar discount
dot commers will look like ripoff artists when compared to HD.

Thanks for your indulgence,

Bill Loesch
Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar

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