[RE-wrenches] NABCEP Sales

Sun Jan 29 11:43:27 PST 2012

Hi folks

Well, it could be applicable, as I see the trends shifting on how the business is done, as you've pointed out below. Understanding and creating a strategy on adapting to the changing market trends, as we know requires some time, effort, research and help.

Getting prepared is the next step. Develop the systems/processes if you believe you need to close on 1 visit. Its a big commitment and ponder whether even in a lease, $0 down, if folks sign 20 page documents and don't read the fine print and get, like a doctor, a second opinion, regardless of how sweet the deal is.

You and any small shop can offer great service and very personal attention to customer care. Its not when things are going well, do people remember- its what you did when it didn't that is seared into their cerebrums.

Wrenches here are uniquely ready to show off their knowledge, experience, expertise and craftsmanship. Your brands have been around for a long time and market your longevity accordingly.

Don't give up on financing- know you can tap into the credit union entities- they're clamoring to write loans. Went to our local building trade show yesterday- evidenced by a handful of credit unions eager to have you go green and the terms are very affordable for consumers and they have multiple ways of doing it, not just a refi or home equity, which can be time consuming to write and process. There are great personal loans now that are 60 months, 4.5%; minimum $5k loan; they'll also do up to 180 months @ 8%. Plenty of time to recoup the incentives and have a payment that is lower than what they're paying now (at lease out here its applicable).

In alot of ways, it seems that solar is now affordable to many folks and the technology- on the grid tie stuff is less complicated than the first days of being able to interconnect to the utility, so I'm optimistic for whats possible.

Aloha, Keith

________________________________
 From: Mark Frye <markf at berkeleysolar.com>
To: 'Keith Cronin' <electrichi01 at yahoo.com>; 'RE-wrenches' <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 9:03 AM
Subject: RE: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP Sales

Keith et. Al.

Not really sure that this is appropriate for Wrenches 
but.....

Here in California, the big installers like SolarCity and 
Sungevity etc. are moving to closing the sale on the first visit to the site, 
cleaning up the details after the fact.

But, the big thing now is that these groups have succesfully 
integrated the financial services into the product offering. 0$ down leases are 
now the main offering. 

This is a huge bar that the small shops can't even begin to 
touch.

Mark Frye 
Berkeley Solar Electric Systems 
303 Redbud Way 
Nevada City,  CA 
95959 
(530) 
401-8024 
www.berkeleysolar.com  

________________________________
 From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org 
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Keith 
Cronin
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 10:39 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP 
Sales

Jessie

Great question and it spawned a few additional questions.

1. How many on the list here do urban only or 97% on 
grid vs off grid systems?
2. How many urban solar folks today, have segued to 
mostly micro inverters vs string inverters?
3. How many wrenches here do mostly battery 
systems?
4. How many folks here have sales engineers or sell 
systems themselves?
5. If you have a sales team, what are they allowed to 
do? Go on the roof and measure? Open an electrical 
panel/meter?

Reason I ask, is the trends seem to be shifting in our 
area and perhaps because its more urban. Sales folks are trained to do 
preliminary work- google earth/pictometry etc. 
Then have a baseline for system sizing, prior to the 
site visit. They contact prospects and go over their needs and get the electric 
bill prior to the visit.
If the prospects express all of the buying signs or its 
a referral- hot to trot, many companies here will give a proposal within the 
second visit, pending the electrician/pre inspection to dial in the electrical 
and roof verification items to ensure whats being proposed can actually be 
installed for final proposal presentation. Many companies don't allow sales 
folks on roofs or near electrical panels for many reasons including liability 
and lack of background.

So, if you're a small company- all electricians, so to speak, this test and 
the supporting framework would be very helpful.
For alot of the larger companies- and I mean over 5-10+ sales force, I 
believe the structure of how they approach prospects has shifted over the last 
couple of years, especially in light of micro inverters and their relative 
design simplicity. I believe this trend will continue, as we see more and more 
micro or AC output modules entering into the marketplace.

For the folks that are doing off grid stuff, I've always found it to be a 
more unique niche, as its a very technical sale and requires a deeper skill set, 
as the competence of the sales/designer/installer/service team is usually a 
small group of people from a small company, but I reserve the right to be wrong 
about this. I see a future when and where we will all be off grid and there will 
be a huge market to service the energy storage devices that support our baseline 
energy from solar or another non firm energy resource to power our futures, as 
grid saturation and feeder capacities at the utility level will cause us to head 
in this direction, naturally.

Aloha, 
Keith

________________________________
 From: Jesse Dahl 
<dahlsolar at gmail.com>
To: Wrenches <RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 8:05 
AM
Subject: [RE-wrenches] 
NABCEP Sales

Hello,

I'm prepping for the 
NABCEP sales exam and was wondering if others on here have taken it?  What 
are your thoughts?

Jesse
Sent from my 
iPad!!!
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