<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; ">Hi folks</div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; ">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.</div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "><br></div><div><font size="3">Getting prepared is the next step. Develop the systems/processes if you believe you need to close on 1 visit. Its a big </font>commitment<font size="3"> 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.</font></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; ">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.</div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "><br></div><div><font size="3">Wrenches here are uniquely ready to show off their knowledge, experience, expertise and </font>craftsmanship<font size="3">. Your brands have been around for a long time and market your longevity accordingly.</font></div><div
style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "><br></div><div><font size="3">Don't give up on financing- know you can tap into the credit union entities- they're </font>clamoring<font size="3"> 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).</font></div><div><font size="3"><br></font></div><div><font size="3">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.</font></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; "> </div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; ">Aloha,
Keith<br></div> <div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "> <div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "> <div dir="ltr"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Mark Frye <markf@berkeleysolar.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> 'Keith Cronin' <electrichi01@yahoo.com>; 'RE-wrenches' <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, January 29, 2012 9:03 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> RE: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP Sales<br> </font> </div> <br>
<div id="yiv469250221">
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<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">Keith et. Al.</font></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial"></font></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">Not really sure that this is appropriate for Wrenches
but.....</font></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial"></font></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">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.</font></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial"></font></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">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. <br></font></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">This is a huge bar that the small shops can't even begin to
touch.</font></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span class="yiv469250221093165818-29012012"></span> <br><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial">Mark Frye</font></span> <br><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial">Berkeley Solar Electric Systems</font></span>
<br><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial">303 Redbud Way</font>
<br><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial">Nevada City, CA
95959</font></span></span> <br><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial">(530)
401-8024</font></span> <br><span lang="en-us"></span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.berkeleysolar.com/"><span lang="en-us"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2" face="Arial">www.berkeleysolar.com</font></u></span></a><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Arial"> </font></span> </div>
<div> </div><br>
<div dir="ltr" lang="en-us" class="yiv469250221OutlookMessageHeader" align="left">
<hr tabindex="-1">
<font size="2" face="Tahoma"><b>From:</b> re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Keith
Cronin<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, January 29, 2012 10:39 AM<br><b>To:</b>
RE-wrenches<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP
Sales<br></font><br></div>
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; ">
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; "><span>Jessie</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; "><span><br></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">Great question and it </font>spawned<font size="3"> a few additional questions.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3"><br></font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">1. How many on the list here do urban only or 97% on
grid vs off grid systems?</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">2. How many urban solar folks today, have segued to
mostly micro inverters vs string inverters?</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">3. How many wrenches here do mostly battery
systems?</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">4. How many folks here have sales engineers or sell
systems themselves?</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">5. If you have a sales team, what are they allowed to
do? Go on the roof and measure? Open an electrical
panel/meter?</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3"><br></font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">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. </font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">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.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3">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.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font size="3"><br></font></span></div>
<div>So, if you're a small company- all electricians, so to speak, this test and
the supporting framework would be very helpful.</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; "> </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; ">Aloha,
Keith<br></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; ">
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times, serif; ">
<div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Arial">
<hr size="1">
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;">From:</span></b> Jesse Dahl
<dahlsolar@gmail.com><br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;">To:</span></b>
Wrenches <RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> <br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, January 29, 2012 8:05
AM<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;">Subject:</span></b> [RE-wrenches]
NABCEP Sales<br></font></div><br><br>Hello,<br><br><br>I'm prepping for the
NABCEP sales exam and was wondering if others on here have taken it? What
are your thoughts?<br><br>Jesse<br>Sent from my
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