Telling a story

Human beings respond to stories and narratives that make complex concepts easier to understand. Research has even shown that humans remember facts at a much higher rate when those facts are part of a story as opposed to just listed out. How can you make your solar sales pitch more of a narrative and drive engagement with your prospects? Start with analogies!

Making the multifaceted solar value proposition easier to grasp by leveraging relevant analogies can mean the difference between a prospect that intuitively grasps the solar value prop and a prospect that finds the solar value prop confusing. When consumers feel informed and comfortable with a product and its value proposition, they will purchase that product. When consumers feel confused and don’t intuitively grasp why or how a product provides value, they will not purchase that product.

The Sighten team has sold many MWs of residential solar and has worked with some of the fastest-growing solar sales teams in the industry. We’ve seen lots of different analogies used in the solar sales process but here is a list of some of the best:

1. Lock in a price at the pump

Solar allows consumers to lock in electricity costs over several decades. Not only do homeowners often achieve a CHEAPER price for electricity relative to what they are paying today, they are also protected against unpredictable and often significant utility rate increases in the future. It’s similar to having the opportunity to lock in the price of gas in the early 2000s. Locking in the cost of gasoline would have resulted in dramatic savings given the subsequent large increase in gas prices. While setting a price over several decades isn’t possible with gasoline, solar offers the ability to achieve certainty in the very uncertain world of electricity costs. Almost every consumer has bought gas recently, so this analogy should make the value of solar much more tangible!

2. Free pizza delivery

Most people are unaware that transmission/distribution charges (as opposed to power generation costs) comprise almost 50% of their all-in electricity costs. That’s right, half of the average homeowner’s utility bill is the cost to deliver power from the generation source to the home. This is like ordering a $30 pizza and paying an additional $30 to have the pizza delivered to your home. Although eating fewer pizzas might result in a better diet, most prospects will intuitively grasp that paying that much for delivery of any product is too expensive. By going solar, the homeowner can turn their roof into a power plant and eliminate expensive delivery charges!

3. The best mortgage

With a solar financing agreement, the homeowner is agreeing to purchase power at a fixed rate over time. Some solar financing contracts will include a solar power rate escalator, but this escalator is typically set much lower than the historical increase in utility rates (2.9% versus 5% or more). This type of agreement is similar to a variable rate mortgage versus a fixed mortgage rate. All consumers will understand that the certainty of a fixed rate mortgage is advantageous but they’ll wonder if they could get a lower rate if they opted for the uncertainty of a variable rate mortgage. Solar gives homeowners the best of both worlds, allowing for rate certainty, but at a price that is typically well below market (current utility rates). Solar is a fixed rate mortgage at a lower interest rate than a variable rate mortgage!