Thanks Wyldon. Good stuff. Thinking of a proposal last night. Going in, I knew it was a tough sale as the offset was less than 60%. But the system would still save her (probably), over 10K in the life of her loan. Naturally, her big argument is why get solar if I still have such a large utility bill? And, true enough, she would still have a utility bill but taken together with her new lower utility bill and her system cost (plus the large dealer fee for financing), her total payment wouldn't be much more than she pays now and as years go by, eventually she'll pay less.
Hers was a tough one, but others are more frustrating. The homeowner immediately has a smaller payment of their tiny utility bill and the monthly cost of her loan. Still, mostly what we run into, because they "understand" that they should save "thousands," just a small monthly savings and a 20 year savings of over 10k, doesn't do it for them.
I think the new approach would be to show people that it costs very little to go solar, in the short term, and eventually you have significant savings. But the point is, for very little "out-of-pocket" in the short term results in real savings and really you're using money you already will have to pay for electricity otherwise.
Until a stronger mandate is issued, and with a "carrot" that it actually saves you money in the long term by diverting your utility payment to own your own power, and this message being echoed by sources, communities, associations, schools, etc--we will continue to struggle to make a living (IMHO).
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Winston RILEY
Owner
Bask Solar Company
Lee's Summit MO
basksolarco@gmail.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 11-12-2021 10:21 AM
From: Wyldon Fishman
Subject: Marketing and Sales of Residential Solar
Sales does require an ability to straighten out facts for a customer with all the care of a kindergarten teacher helping non readers. Here at the New York Solar Energy Society nothing is peachy. We have similar issues. Since you are in MO and each state has a separate set of policies and regulations (or barriers) we have broad topics in common. Yes, their are solar black eyes like the lovely shiner delivered post Carter when Reagan tore the solar modules off Caroline's pony shed. I think Obama put a big array on the White House roof.
It gets more complicated if you try to do community solar or a microgrid. Technically, dealing with the shade, the wrong way roofs, the cheap tariffs can be rewarding. "Does Your Town Have an Energy Plan" approach ties in the public utility, the town management and brings together community. The nay-sayers get a voice. They can point out the pollution from modules, the ugliness, the loss of utility jobs, etc. But, getting them energy security and using the utility for billing might be a better angle forward.
The ASES Policy Technical Division is one spot we need to develop more. I'm over at Energy Economics Technical Division another area to discuss barriers to uptake of solar.
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Wyldon Fishman
Bronx NY
wyldon1@gmail.com
Original Message:
Sent: 11-11-2021 08:51 AM
From: Winston RILEY
Subject: Marketing and Sales of Residential Solar
Good morning:
Are others interested in networking to discuss the challenges we face in our individual markets to get solar sold? In Missouri, even though the industry wide marketing "slant" is--GET SOLAR FOR NOTHING AND EVERYTHING IS FREE AND YOU SAVE THOUSANDS AND YOU SAVE THE PLANET. Which of course is a pretty big bag of poo-poo.
So, in Missouri, when you get in the trenches with a potential customer, not only do you have to explain stuff and show them how they eventually will realize some savings, you need to try to "undo" all the misinformation and snake oil salesman repercussions. You're also dealing with fairly low price per kWh electricity, often below 10 cents AND, really most of the time, the only other financial incentive benefit besides the ITC is net metering. But with roofs and shade, etc, most of the time, the true immediate budgeting consideration is that it will cost them, (usually) slightly more than they're paying now. Of course, then they WILL have solar and the future homeowner will have solar and the true benefit that accrues is huge.
There is a way to sell solar, responsibly with honesty and integrity and get some customers, but it is tough generally, especially competing with the big dogs who seem to have scads of people walking around neighborhoods, who generally don't know squat about our real dilemma of climate change and how huge it is to start moving to solar.
Also best practices of sales should be followed by members and standards need to be developed.
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Winston RILEY
Owner
Bask Solar Company
Lee's Summit MO
basksolarco@gmail.com
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