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Solar Lead Generation

Generating solar leads

High-Quality Solar Lead Generation: How to Generate Solar Leads for Your Business

Generating solar leads is a full-time job.

Closing solar deals is a full-time job. You need dedicated professionals to find and convert potential customers keen on switching to solar energy to complete a deal. 

Clean Energy Experts has over 150 U.S.-based solar professionals working full-time to generate qualified solar leads for your team to close.

But who is CEE, and what do we do?

Clean Energy Experts (CEE) is a premier solar lead generator committed to assisting enterprises and sales professionals in locating potential clientele interested in solar power solutions. Our extensive offerings encompass live client consultations, meticulously vetted leads, and insightful analytics, enabling clients to optimize their pricing and geographic targeting strategy.

We pride ourselves on our adaptability and tailor-made solutions, with no obligatory contracts, hidden charges, or enforced minimum purchases. You have the liberty to set your per-lead price point, and to ensure your success, we provide dedicated account management services.

Catering to diverse clients, we provide Spanish-speaking leads across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Join forces with CEE to bolster your business growth via high-quality solar leads.

Read below for a crash course on solar lead generation. Let the critical facts about solar energy help you close more solar leads.

How Residential Solar Leads and Commercial Solar Leads Are Generated

Let us explore how we can reach potential solar customers, understand their needs, and convert them into sales leads. Whether you’re a stakeholder in the solar industry or an interested consumer, uncover the intricate processes behind the generation of solar leads.

What Is a Solar Lead?

A solar lead is a potential customer interested in converting to solar energy for their home or business. This prospect has shown interest in learning more about solar panels, installation, and their benefits and could purchase them in the future.

What Does a Solar Lead Generation Company Do?

As a solar lead generation company, CEE helps solar panel sellers and installers find potential customers. Solar lead gen companies use digital marketing, cold calling, social media, and more to identify and gather information on individuals or businesses interested in installing solar panels. This information is then sold to solar companies as “leads” for them to pursue in hopes of making a sale.

How Do They Sell Leads if Those Are Only “Potential” Customers?

Solar lead generation companies sell the “potential” of these leads. They are selling the contact information and some qualifying information (such as the person’s stated interest level or location) of someone interested in solar power. It’s then up to the solar power companies to follow up on these leads, provide more information, and try to close the sale. This process allows solar companies to focus more on their products/services and less on finding prospective customers.

The effectiveness of solar lead generation depends on the strategies to attract and qualify leads and the understanding of the solar industry. However, the success also relies heavily on the quality of the leads and the relationship with solar installation companies. CEE has provided 100% phone-verified leads that convert into sales and has become a valuable source for solar business.

What Is An Aged Solar Lead?

An aged solar lead is a potential customer who has expressed interest in solar products or services at some point but wasn’t immediately ready to make a purchase or was not converted into a customer for some reason. Although these leads are older, they still have value, as these individuals have shown a previous interest in solar and may still be potential customers. Aged solar leads are typically less expensive than new leads, but they may require more effort to convert into sales.

Why Are Aged Solar Leads Cheaper?

Aged solar leads are typically cheaper because they are less likely to convert into sales than new leads. Since these leads have been on the market for a while, it is possible that they have already purchased a solar system, lost interest, or found another provider. Therefore, the perceived value of these leads is lower, making them less expensive to buy. However, they can still represent a potential sales opportunity with the right approach and follow-up.

How Much Do Solar Leads Cost?

The cost of solar leads can vary significantly depending on several factors, including the source of the lead, the quality or “freshness” of the lead, the market demand, the location of the lead, and whether it’s an exclusive or shared lead. On average, prices can range from $20 to $100 or even more per lead. It’s worth noting that while cheaper leads might seem attractive, they may require more effort to convert into sales, so it’s important to consider the overall return on investment.

What Is Geographic Targeting?

The clean energy sector often employs a geographic targeting strategy by concentrating on regions with high potential for renewable energy production, government policies supporting clean energy, and a high demand for clean energy solutions.

Such areas may be those with abundant sunlight for solar energy projects. Furthermore, companies tend to consider locations with incentives such as tax credits or grants for clean energy development.

The general approach to geographic targeting in the clean energy industry includes the following: 

Economic factors like the cost of land, labor, and materials in targeted regions are also analyzed during the geographic targeting process.

You can refer to these FAQs for CEE-specific details on solar lead generation.

Capturing Solar Leads

How do solar lead gen companies keep and sell these leads to solar companies?

Solar lead generation companies utilize various strategies to attract leads. They might use online ads, social media, content marketing, SEO strategies, or traditional marketing techniques like direct mail or cold calling.

That person becomes a lead once a potential customer shows interest by filling out a form on a website. The lead gen company collects this information, including their contact details and interest in solar power.

This lead information is phone verified and then packaged and sold to solar companies. Depending on their agreement, the solar sales professional may get paid per lead or receive a commission if it converts into a sale.

Several businesses gather direct leads from advertising and source from credible platforms that accumulate data from potential customers, including individual consumers and business owners. The expenses of procuring these leads can vary due to the diverse range of lead capture methods, such as television or radio advertisements, digital marketing, and surveys. 

Let’s focus on digital lead generation for now. The digital space utilizes various strategies to attract leads. These include online ads, social media, content marketing, and SEO strategies. 

There are a handful of major channels in digital solar lead generation:

1. Organic Lead Generation Channel

Organic Lead Generation is a method where potential customers, in this case homeowners, find your solar business naturally through search engines and visit your website voluntarily. When these visitors willingly provide information, they become “organic solar leads.”

These leads are considered organic because you’re not directly paying for advertisements to attract them. Instead, they discover your solar company by themselves while searching online, typically when your website ranks high in search engine results or hear about your company through word-of-mouth or social media, like Facebook or LinkedIn.

The primary advantage of organic leads is that they often convert at a higher rate, as they’re already interested in solar energy and actively seeking information. However, acquiring these leads usually requires solid branding, a strong industry reputation, and time, as you need to build up your online visibility and credibility.

2. Search Engine Optimization Channel

Websites compete for the highest ranking on search engine results pages by showing relevant content that engages users. Higher-ranked websites get the most user clicks and generate cheap solar leads. 

This requires intensive website testing and maintenance to keep up with search engines’ ever-evolving algorithms.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is like putting up signs to guide people to your store. It’s about ensuring your excellent solar content is easily found when people search for related topics on Google, Bing, or other search engines. You can rise in the search engine rankings by using key “solar” words in your website and getting other quality sites to link to yours.

3. Search Engine Marketing Channel

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) pays to have your website at the top of search engine results. It’s an auction where the solar company that bids the highest has its website displayed. 

SEM works like an auction, where companies compete to snag this prime spot, and the highest bidder typically wins. 

However, this approach requires careful planning. You need to aim your ads accurately at those online searchers genuinely interested in what you offer, i.e., solar energy solutions. If not done right, you might spend money without generating meaningful leads.

4. Display Advertising Channel

Companies pay websites to display their advertisements, often appearing as banners, text, images, video, and audio. It’s an auction where the solar company that bids the highest has its advertisement displayed.

The goal is to have an internet user click on the advertisement, which opens a landing page that gives more details and allows the user to submit their contact information, generating a lead for the company.

5. Affiliate Channel

The Affiliate Channel, or “3rd Party Lead Generation,” refers to buying solar leads from another company specializing in locating potential solar customers. These companies employ various techniques, including the methods outlined previously and more, to pinpoint homeowners seeking solar energy solutions.

Though these affiliates typically produce a high quantity of leads, often inexpensively, they may require additional screening to ensure they are qualified and interested in solar installations. This secondary validation helps sift out the best leads likely to convert into actual customers.

How We Generate Our Leads

CEE uses a variety of marketing channels. This includes SEO, SEM, social media, and call centers. Our lead generation technique includes informing consumers about solar energy and gathering valuable data from those keen to receive solar quotes. Each lead undergoes a verification procedure via a call-back system and must meet our quality control standards before reaching our clients. These leads are shared in real-time through different channels, such as direct phone transfers, email, CRM, or text messages.

What Sets Clean Energy Experts Apart

Lead generation is indeed a lot of work. Clean Energy Experts can take on the task and help you generate solar leads that become customers and grow your sales. Enjoy these benefits when buying solar leads from CEE:

Need more information about our solar lead generation services? Contact us today.

How We Help Our Clients Acquire Customers

Clean Energy Experts utilizes all marketing channels to generate leads, offering broad exposure to homeowners looking for solar quotes. 

These channels and sources have varying quality when they enter CEE. When the leads leave CEE, they have consistent quality due to our 100% call verbal verification process.

Knowing how a lead source will convert is essential to engineering profitability. Once your team runs a small number of CEE leads, you’ll have a reasonable idea of how our qualified solar leads will continue to perform.

On average, meaning half of the companies do better, conversions are as follows:

Is your team better than average? Top performers close upwards of 50% of leads!

How to Engineer Profitability

Want to use the same financial formula the largest solar companies use to beat the competition and maximize profit?

Clean Energy Experts make it easy to do. Here’s how:

Once you determine how CEE solar leads perform for your team, you can calculate the maximum price-per-lead. From there, you set the price-per-lead (called the “Bid Price”) on each campaign below the estimated max price.

So what’s the first step?

First, calculate the average proceeds from selling a solar job. The national average is around $30,000, so let’s use that.

Next, calculate the average cost of the solar job, excluding the lead generation cost.

For example: (cost of equipment) + (wages for the sales and install team) + (allocated admin costs).

Companies often target $25,000 in cost, excluding lead generation, so we’ll use that in the example.

By subtracting the $25,000 cost from the $30,000 in proceeds, you have $5,000 left over.

How much of that $5,000 do you want to keep for profit?

If you perform on average with CEE lead-to-close rates:

Top-performing teams will beat the average conversion rate, meaning they can bid above their competition to win more leads and grow their sales funnel!

How Does CEE’s Flexible Pricing Work?

Clean Energy Experts allows you to set the price-per-lead. Your campaign serves as a silent bid, and as leads are verbally verified, CEE silently auctions the leads.

Nothing active is needed from you; your campaign automatically bids on leads matching your filters. When your campaign wins a lead, the CEE call agent will state your company name, and the homeowner will agree to have your team contact them. Leads will be delivered in realtime based on your delivery setup. 

The only cost is for the leads you receive, never any management or setup fees!

Delivery Methods

Every lead speaks with our U.S.-based call agents to confirm their information, hears your company name, and consents to having you call.

As soon as the homeowner consents, the lead is sent out, and your team can receive the lead in four ways:

  1. Email—unlimited # of addresses
  2. SMS—delivered straight to your cell phone
  3. CRM—posting available to any CRM, including free setup
  4. Live transferred—homeowner stays on the phone while we connect the call to you

Clean Energy Experts is the only solar lead generation company offering large-scale live transferred qualified leads across all 50 states. Live transfer leads take all the upfront work away and allow you to focus all your energy on closing deals.

Would you like to have homeowners connected directly to your phone? Contact us for more info. 

Dedicated Account Manager for Free!

Every CEE client account manager is a veteran in the solar industry, with many having 10+ years of solar experience.

CEE provides every client with an account manager to guide them. You’ll start with a complete walk-through of CEE’s lead manager portal, your 24/7/365 control panel.

When purchasing solar leads from CEE, your account manager will provide guidance and be available to answer any questions. Best of all, you’ll have access to CEE’s analysis team for detailed optimization to maximize your profits!  

We Let Our Leads Do the Talking

Other solar lead-generation companies make lofty claims that rarely come true. They set the price per lead by levying “management fees” or additional unadvertised costs and front-load the cost.

At CEE, you should decide the worth of our leads and only pay for those you get.

Let’s Hear It from Our Clients!

Testimonials from Solar Companies:

“My experience with CEE, and with Trevor specifically, has been absolutely stellar. He goes above and beyond to ensure that we consistently meet sales goals. I consider Trevor and strategic business partner and couldn’t have grown my organization without him and the high quality leads that CEE provides. My ROI is exceptional, with my average cost of leads around $13,000/month and my gross commissions are around $600,000. The solar business is a blessing and CEE has been utterly important to our success.” – Ross E.

“Getting high-quality leads at competitive prices has always been challenging. But our sales have increased significantly since we started using Clean Energy Experts. We’ve now got a steady stream of serious prospects.”

“Clean Energy Experts is hands down one of the best lead generation companies we’ve worked with. Their leads are top quality, and they’ve played a key role in growing our business.”

“In our quest to expand, we’ve tried many lead generation services, but none match Clean Energy Experts. High-quality leads, sensible prices, and exemplary customer service. They’ve played a huge role in our success!”

“Thanks to Clean Energy Experts, we’ve connected with customers we might not have reached otherwise. Their high-quality leads have led to a considerable boost in our sales.”

“Working with Clean Energy Experts has been a game-changer for us. Their quality solar leads turned into real sales, driving remarkable growth for our business. It’s been well worth the investment!”