Sales and Marketing: Cost Effective Growth!

Gabe DavisSunrun

Sales Operations Manager

1.18.2016San Diego, CA

SALES, MARKETING AGENDA

• Introductions

• Cost Effective Sales and Marketing

• Low Cost Marketing Strategies

• Marketing Implementation

• Low Cost, High Impact Sales Strategies

• How to increase Customer Experience as an owner

• Turning a great Customer Experience into revenue

Introduction

Gabe Davis

• Joined the solar industry in 2002

• Sales background: 250+ residential sales, commercial

sales

• Sales training manager for large installer

• Sales training support for AEE Solar since 2010

• Sales Operations Manager Sunrun

• Reduction in overall Cost Stack is a crucial step to

growth and profitability

• Sales and Marketing makeup ~10% of overall cost stack

• Focused improvement on your Sales and Marketing Cost

Stack is one of the easiest things you can do in Q1 to

improve profitability over 2016.

• From the brand new start up, to the largest solar

integrator in the industry, this is something everyone

is focusing on.

Big Picture

1. Current cost of Marketing?

2. Management: Tracking and Measuring

3. Low Cost Strategies to drive more leads in the door

4. Implementation: use what you have

Marketing Agenda

CURRENT COST OF MARKETING

• Audit 2015, or at least Q4

• Where did your leads come from

• At what cost

• If you are going to identify one thing to do more of, and

one thing to do less of, what is it, and why?

• Low Cost, Happy Customers, Profitable Jobs, Customer

close to office, Other opportunities in the area

TRACKING & MEASURING

The main goal is to quickly determine how many sales resulted from this

spend/effort?

• Keep it simple

• Ask “How did you find out about us?”

• Enter this information into excel and sum responses by type

• Shift time and monetary allocations accordingly

• Review replies and adjust efforts accordingly

• IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT, YOU CAN’T MANAGE IT!!!

LOW COST STRATEGIES

• Referrals!!!

• Website

• Social Media

• Signage on Vehicles

• Yard Signs

• Flyers and Canvass (current installs, new markets)

• Leverage Media and Interest on Legislative Issues, etc.

REFERRALS

• Referral Program in Place!

• $250 for every lead that turns into a sales

• Tell your customers about your referral program before,

during and after the Sales Process

• Installed Customers are not the only people who can refer

• Leverage Relationships with local businesses and social

members of your community to grow your business

• Integrate referrals into your whole business process

WEBSITE

Key Components

• Contact Form

• Company Story

• Install Images & Customer Testimonials

• Press Coverage & Associations

Basic Search Engine Optimization

• Use words that customers may search for throughout your site

content

• Call out the names of your competitors on the back-end

“keywords” section. This can be done by your web designer or

on the settings tab of most sites

YELP

Set up your page

• Enter information on your business

• If your page exists take control by claiming it as your business. You

will see this link on your page.

• Invite friends, scan email contacts, link to on your personal page and

business website. Be sure to add the YELP icon for the link.

Manage Content

• Post images of installs

• Encourage past customers to post reviews Review Angie’s list

and Google reviews regularly. Thank them personally when

they do!

Further Reading: Getting Started with Yelp

FACEBOOK

Set up your page

• Choose category

• Enter information on your business

• Promote- Invite friends, scan email contacts, link to on your personal page

and business website

Manage Content

• Ask customers if they are on Facebook and if you may post images of

their finished system. This allows easy sharing of a major purchase among

their Facebook network.

• Post projects, local news and share pictures

• Engage with past customers, colleagues, industry contacts and AEE Solar

• Drive to create group conversations

• Use the “insights” feature to track engagement Further Reading Tips

FLIERS, SIGNAGE, CANVASSING

• Good signage on vehicles

• Neighbors pay attention to whose in their area

• Flyers to have in your trucks so your installation team can share them

• Canvass a neighborhood prior to an installation, let other homeowners know

they are great candidates for solar

• Canvass before, during, and after

• Offer a free quote if they are interested

IMPLEMENTATION

• Sales Team: They should be your best Marketers. Increase their Comp

for Self Generated Leads

• Leverage all employees: Sales, Installation Team, Everyone Counts

• Create internal referral programs, create contests,

• Customers

• Everyone is a Referral Champion waiting to be engaged

• Customers who don’t go solar can be your biggest advocates

• Ask, Ask, Ask

• Family members of your employees, their friends and their friends!

• Non Profit groups that advocate for solar, climate change, environmental,

Chamber of Commerce, etc. etc. etc.

IDEAS

• Be aware that you are always representing your brand when your logo

is present

• Provide exceptional customer service- treating people they way they want to

be treated. This is especially important in the transparent world of social

media.

• Make marketing a part of your sales process, send a post install email to

people with a link on Facebook to their system pictures.

• Look at attending community and industry events

• Be considerate and go the extra mile. It’s simple, free and it matters.

1. Cost Effective Sales Strategy2. Pre Sale3. Sale 4. Post Sale5. Appendix

• 7 steps to Sales• Creating a Customer Experience that grows your

business

Overall we want to create a process that creates efficiency and momentum with our customers, and maximizes Self Generation of Sales Opportunities by our sales team.

Sales Agenda

STRATEGY

• What are the big companies doing?• Doubling Down on Self Generation• Retail Partnerships• Canvassing• Online Lead Generation• Multi Level Lead Generation Partnerships • PR, Social Media and leveraging industry updates, ITC, etc.

• What Tools are they using• Sophisticated Proposal Generation Software• Strong Web Presence • Compensation Plans that incentive Self Gen, 2xCommission

PRE-SALE

• Strategy• Maximize your output without ever leaving the office

• Proposal Preparation, review with lower quality leads done remotely

• When home sales calls are being run, maximize your time. Ask customer if their neighbors are also interested, canvass the area when you’re on site, make proposals for other homes in the area and cold call.

• Tools• Bright Path

• Seamless design, extremely efficient, great presentation• Allows for confident remote selling

• Implementation• Define criteria for what should be pitched remotely. If you’re not sure,

look at distance to site, time frame to make a decision, qualification

KEY STEPS FOR A LOW COST SALES PROCESS

1. Communication: Lead to Appointment Scheduled • Speed to lead, call new leads back immediately! • Many companies lose leads once they are in the door by not immediately

responding to them• Organize Call Blocks with your sales team. Call old leads, reasons to

call. It’s 2016, provide updates on legislation, ITC extension, etc.

2. Organization & Scheduling: Appointment Scheduled to Complete• Be on time and have reminder emails and phone calls that go out day

before. Text can work great too! Some companies see 30% of their appointments cancel through poor execution

• Schedule an extra 30min for your sales rep to canvass the area once they are done. If they can’t canvass, call past customers, check in with installed customers, canvass installs going on.

KEY STEPS FOR A LOW COST SALES PROCESS

3. Set Correct Expectations• Have written outline of sales and installation process that can be shared

with customers and train your sales team on what is realistic. Make your standards part of your Sales Process

• Companies will waste valuable profit on deals because incorrect expectations are set and we end up having to pay to fix our mistakes

4. Consultative Approach• Listen to the customer and present them with options, don’t force them

into a decision. If you only want to present one option, make sure you explain that based on what they’ve already told you, this is the best option, and don’t be afraid to revise your proposal if you can tell it isn’t what they want.

• Bottom Line. You provide solutions, coach and train your team to maximize their time with our customers.

POST-SALE

• Daily recap on every appointment run with Sales Reps:• If they haven’t signed, confirm a next step has been set!• If they aren’t going solar, did we get any referrals?• If they are going, did we get any referrals?• Set the expectation with your sales team that they must

provide an update on every company lead provided, and leverage you as the manager, owner, etc. to help close the deal!

• Pipeline Management• New Sale Calling Blocks. Weekly or bi-weekly scheduled time where

your sales team calls on unsold deals• Referral Calling Blocks

• Call at 30,60,90 days after install.

CONCLUSION

You can be the only Sales Person at your company, or you can have a team of 300+• Every lead counts• Build processes that require best practices to be followed• Set the structure in place now at the beginning of the year

THANK YOU!

WHY DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MATTER?

A customer with a good experience will tell 2-3 people. A customer with a bad experience will tell 10-15…

• Good experience = Good reviews

• Referrals: less competitive, higher close rate• Help new customers find you• Influence their decision-making process

• Bad experience = Bad reviews• Prevent customers from ever reaching out in the first place• Influence customers before they ever call

HOW DO WE MEASURE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

1. Ask, Ask, Ask

• Informal customer feedback• Formal customer surveys: Net Promoter Score

• Don’t be afraid to wait until the end of the process – ask at every step!

2. Social Media• Monitor Yelp pages• Angie’s List• Other local social review sites

TURN A GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE INTO REVENUE

1. Ask for referrals.

2. Ask your happy customers for ideas on how you can better market and then ask them to help you be spreading the word

3. Print out your good Yelp and/or Angie’s List reviews and use them during your sales calls.

4. Encourage your potential customers to read your positive reviews (and your competitors’) as part of their research when choosing a solar company.

5. Encourage your customers to write reviews about you on social media.• Put link to your Yelp page on your follow-up email: “Check us out on

Yelp”, Angie’s List, etc.

7 STEPS TO SALES

1. Build Rapport

2. Set Agenda

3. Probe for Need

4. Present Solution

5. Close the Deal

6. Ask for Referrals