Let's TalkLet's TalkAppointments are easy to buy and mean almost nothing. The number that matters sits months past the signature.
Send us the last hundred leads with the outcome of each. We come back with what share failed on roof, ownership or credit, what share cancelled between signature and install, what each stage cost you, and the three changes worth making first. Recorded walkthrough, no call required.
Four failures we see repeatedly in this vertical, and what each one actually costs.
Solar pipelines are reported in appointments set, because that is the number the lead source can be held to. Between an appointment and a working system sit roof survey, credit approval, permitting, interconnection and scheduling - and attrition at every one. A pipeline optimised to appointments will reliably produce more of them and no more installs.
Ownership, roof age and condition, shading and consumption are answerable before anyone drives anywhere, and credit indication can often be established early too. When none of it is asked until a consultant is sitting in a living room, the expensive step is being used as the screening step, and the disqualification rate makes the whole channel look unviable.
Months between signature and switch-on is normal, and it is silent in most companies. The customer's certainty decays, a neighbour shares a bad experience, another installer knocks. Cancellations in that window are common and largely preventable, and they are almost never treated as a marketing or communications problem.
Years of pressure selling mean a homeowner arrives defended, which lengthens the process and lowers close rates for companies that did nothing wrong. Lead generation that matches the aggressive register confirms the suspicion; lead generation that deliberately breaks from it is the cheapest available differentiation in the trade.
Business outcomes rather than dashboard metrics. None of these is a guaranteed number - where we do guarantee something, it is written into the offer above.
The real deliverables, not a list written to make a proposal look thicker.
Not the general agency pitch. The reasons that only apply to this kind of business.
Following the pipeline through permitting and interconnection surfaces operational bottlenecks and cancellation patterns that no agency wants attached to its reporting. It is also the only way to know which lead sources genuinely produce installs, so we build it first and accept the awkward conversations it creates.
Pre-appointment screening cuts booked visits immediately, and in a category where a large share of appointments were never viable, that is the correct trade. It reduces the volume metrics an agency is usually judged on, so we put cost per install next to it and let that be the argument.
Countdowns, manufactured deadlines and savings figures rounded to something memorable are why homeowners arrive defended. Refusing them costs short-term response rate and is the only durable differentiation available to an installer who intends to be here in ten years.
Last hundred leads through to delivered systems, with the failure reason at each stage. The pattern is usually clear and unmeasured.
Ownership, roof, shading, consumption and credit indication, gathered before a consultant travels.
Setters qualify rather than book. A booked appointment that cannot proceed costs more than an unbooked one.
Scheduled, honest updates through the wait. Silence is where certainty and deals are lost.
Cash, loan and lease buyers have different objections and different qualification. One process underserves all three.
Budget and effort follow sources that produce working systems rather than cheap appointments.
The parts of this that come from having run it in this industry before rather than from running it well in general.
Roof orientation, obvious shading and approximate age can be assessed before anyone travels, and combined with two questions to the homeowner this removes a large share of non-viable appointments at almost no cost. It also creates a legitimate reason to recommend roof work first, which is a better conversation than a surveyor delivering it after the pitch.
Months of silence after a five-figure commitment is where doubt grows and competitors knock. Scheduled updates - even ones that say nothing has changed - measurably reduce cancellation, cost almost nothing, and are treated as operations' problem in most companies rather than as retention.
A working system is visible on a roof, and neighbours ask about it. Referral programmes built on commissioned installs rather than on signatures produce higher-quality leads at a fraction of paid cost, and in a category with a trust problem a neighbour's recommendation carries disproportionate weight.
Asking at signature captures enthusiasm about a promise; asking at commissioning captures a verdict on delivery. The second is what a defended buyer is looking for, and it is the review that survives scrutiny when someone is checking whether you are one of the companies they have heard about.
The closest engagement we can show is a multi-state clinic network rather than a solar installer, and we will not dress it up. It belongs here for one reason: it scaled to 54,000+ leads with cost per lead down 57% and the quality held. In solar, volume is trivially available and quality that survives roof, credit and a months-long permitting wait is the entire problem.
Read the full case studyBecause appointments are the easiest thing in this category to buy and the least predictive of revenue. Between the appointment and a working system sit roof survey, credit, permitting and interconnection, with attrition at each. Until the pipeline is measured to installs, budget will keep flowing to whichever source produces the cheapest appointments regardless of whether any of them proceed.
More than most companies do. Ownership and rough consumption come from two questions. Roof orientation, obvious shading and approximate condition can be assessed from satellite imagery before anyone travels. Credit indication can often be established early with the right framing. Together these remove a large share of dead appointments before they cost anything.
Communicate on a schedule, including when there is nothing to report. The months after signature are silent in most companies, and silence after a five-figure commitment is where doubt grows and where a competitor knocking finds a receptive homeowner. Scheduled updates are close to free and they measurably hold deals together.
Rarely, and almost never without hard screening attached. They are sold to several installers at once, they are usually unqualified on roof and credit, and the cost per install once disqualification and cancellation are counted is frequently far worse than it appears. If you test them, treat them as their own line measured to installs and be prepared to stop quickly.
On commissioned installs rather than on signatures, and with the neighbour in mind. A working system is visible, neighbours ask, and the homeowner is the most credible salesperson available in a category where a defended buyer distrusts companies by default. It is the highest-quality and lowest-cost lead source in this trade and it is chronically underused.
Leads, screened, appointments held, signed, permitted and installed, with cancellation rate by source. The gap that surprises most companies is between signed and installed, and it is invisible in every report that stops at the contract - which is most of them.
This is one part of a bigger service. Here is the whole of it, and the closest neighbours.
No pitch deck, no discovery call you have to sit through. Tell us the situation and we will tell you whether we can help.