Solar sales teams spend a remarkable share of their week on appointments that could never have closed. The homeowner rents. The roof is twenty-five years old and needs replacing first. The house sits under mature trees. The electricity bill is too small for the numbers to work. Every one of those was knowable before the appointment was booked.
Screening is not about turning homeowners away rudely. It is about asking, early and politely, the handful of questions that decide most solar deals - and routing the answers sensibly.
The four questions that decide most deals
- Do you own the home? Renters usually cannot proceed, however keen they are
- Roughly how old is the roof, and is it in good condition? Panels on a roof that needs replacing soon is a problem for everyone
- Is the roof shaded for much of the day? Heavy shading changes the economics
- Roughly what is your monthly electricity bill? Low usage can make the numbers unworkable
None of these is intrusive, and homeowners who are serious about solar expect them. Asked in the form or the first reply, they cut wasted appointments dramatically. They are the starting point of our lead generation for solar companies.
Ask without losing the good ones
Screening loses some leads, and it should. The trick is not to lose the wrong ones. Explain why you are asking - 'so we can tell you honestly whether solar makes sense for your home' - and keep the questions short and multiple-choice where possible. A homeowner who sees you care about fit trusts you more, not less.
Route the answers rather than rejecting them. A homeowner with an old roof may be a roofing referral and a solar customer in a year. A renter may be a landlord's tenant worth a note. Only the genuinely unworkable should hear a polite no.
Teach the ad platforms what a good lead is
Ad platforms optimise toward whatever you tell them is a conversion. If that is a form fill, they find people who fill in forms - and in solar, those are disproportionately the people who fill in every form. Sending later outcomes back - appointments that went ahead, contracts, installs - lets the platform learn who actually becomes a customer.
On Meta, that means Conversions API for CRM and the conversion leads goal; on Google, offline conversion imports. For solar it is often the biggest lead quality improvement available, and it is how we set up Facebook ads for solar companies.
Measure the right number
Cost per lead is the number that makes bad solar campaigns look good. Measure cost per appointment that went ahead, cost per contract and cost per install. Screening will raise cost per lead and lower everything that matters. More on how we measure solar is on our solar marketing page.
Frequently asked questions
- Will screening questions reduce our solar leads?
- Yes, and that is the point. You will get fewer leads and far fewer wasted appointments. Explain why you ask, keep it short, and route rather than reject - so the good homeowners stay.
- What is the most important screening question?
- Homeownership, usually, followed by roof condition. A renter or a roof that needs replacing soon stops most deals regardless of anything else.
- Should we ask about credit in the form?
- Asking directly about credit in a first form tends to put people off and raises privacy concerns. Ownership, roof, shading and usage screen out most unworkable leads; financing suitability is usually better handled in conversation.
- How do we stop ad platforms sending poor solar leads?
- Send them later-stage outcomes - appointments held, contracts, installs - so they optimise toward customers rather than form fills. On Meta that is Conversions API for CRM; on Google, offline conversion imports.
Where this applies
Notes from the team running paid media, funnels, and growth systems for Platino Sol clients every day.