How Can Sales Improve Ops and Grow Commissions?
Takeaway: Delivering on promises made during sales meetings is the only way to protect your reputation, referrals, and long-term ability to sell. One way to do that is to collect good data as early as possible to ensure an efficient and accurate post-sale project operation. Sales reps should use new technologies to avoid the pitfalls of remote imagery, information loss and inevitable human error.
After one homeowner saw his promised offset drop from 100% to 80%, guess who had to bear the brunt of his anger?
The Rep used grainy satellite imagery for the contract design, which he knew would be trued up when the team actually got on-site. Yet, he didn’t expect a 20% production delta (or did he?).
It’s not entirely the Rep’s fault—this is an operational problem, too. By using remote imagery as the source of truth, the final result was all but guaranteed to have a change order.
What if a Rep could avoid this industry-wide issue altogether?
Bad Ops destroys reputations; good Ops drive growth
Remote imagery is fast and easy to use but also and misses roof obstructions.
Remote imagery is fast and easy to use but can be outdated, blurry, and inaccurate, leading to change orders and missed opportunities. This can affect everyone:
Contractors can develop a reputation as shady dealers who bait-and-switch customers on production and offset.
Customers may feel they’ve been legally cheated, as suggested by the 700%+ surge in fraud complaints that include the words “solar panels” since 2018.
Reps may get burned as customers tell their friends and neighbors to avoid them.
Sales and Ops people have tension arguing over what the final layouts are.
Contractors may face budget cuts if Reps can’t sell.
Poor Ops have painful repercussions, and no one wants to deal with them. Salespeople bear the brunt of this long-term.
But the opposite is also true: good operations can drive significant growth.
For example, Brightway Energy refined their operational processes, making them more transparent with drones and mobile apps. That led to a 75% reduction in surveying time while maintaining complete accuracy.
The result? Happy customer word of mouth drives 95% of new growth.
Lightwave Solar experienced something similar. Bringing drones into their sales process helped save 20-45 minutes per site, increasing capacity for the team and ensuring perfect accuracy. They also design everything in Scanifly’s platform, eliminating information loss, which used to cause delays or additional truck rolls.
3 reasons Sales Reps should embrace technology
Sales Reps can control their own processes and minimize change orders by collecting onsite data themselves. Previously, this was time-consuming and unsafe, requiring manual roof climbs, SunEyes, and a few pictures.
Not anymore.
Here’s how drones can change the equation:
1. No change orders: Remote imagery, even if perfectly accurate, could easily be 1-2 years outdated, skewed, and blurry information. Going on-site and using drones instead of a roof climb for data collection means you’re collecting true, accurate site context and measurements.
2. Comprehensive shade data automatically captured: Collecting data on-site allows us to see everything that might cause shade, such as a tree (as it is today, not two years ago), roof gables or hips, electrical poles, surrounding buildings, or other obstructions.
3. Reliable commissioning: Reviewing the electrical and interior roof structure helps spot issues that would cause delays, massive revisions, or call-offs that impact commissions.
Collecting drone data means no human error or information loss, giving Designers and Operators completely accurate measurements and shade readings.
A happy customer is your best referrer
If you deliver a bad customer experience, you will deal with bad word of mouth communication.
Thankfully, the inverse is also true; a happy customer who got what they were promised becomes your best referrer.
Rather than worrying about Design or other teams, Sales Reps can take matters into their own hands—fly a drone during the sales process to capture complete, accurate data.
The best part? You can learn how to fly a drone—and get licensed—in 15 hours or less. And the end result is a huge bump in sales; one rep increased close rates 20% almost overnight.
