In these unprecedented times, almost all businesses are shifting to doing business online. The solar industry is no different. Many installers have shifted their sales to 100% online.
Nowadays, Zoom seems to be the rising star of video communication for businesses and consumers alike. Despite some security issues, Zoom’s usage seems to have grown 20x in the last 6 months and there is no doubt solar installers will continue using Zoom for many years to come.
Who knows perhaps after this crisis, many solar sales people might never go back to closing deals at the kitchen table. After all, why burn all that gasoline and waste hours of driving time from home to home, when you can have more customer meetings online from the comfort of your home office.
Yet, we believe there is another aspect to doing business online that most solar companies should be thinking about. That is because “first impressions do matter”. This applies to online video, too.
While Zoom meetings are great to interact directly with customers, we believe producing one or a series of professional videos about your company might create the kind of first impression you are looking for.
For example, have a look at this video that our friends at CollectiveSun produced with the help of SolarAcademy and Bun & Beard, a San Diego based video production company.
This video not only explains CollectiveSun’s value proposition in about a minute, but also communicates their culture, values, and personality in an effective manner. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a minute of video might be worth a million words.
Another effective use of online video is for answering frequently asked questions. Think KhanAcademy. Why have your people repeatedly answer the same questions over and over again, in the same exact words to dozens of customers each week, when you can record the answer in a video and share that appropriately prior to the call, and then use the Zoom/phone time to answer the more unique questions in person and to close the deal.
You can see how CollectiveSun accomplishes this effectively with a series of FAQ videos displayed on the bottom half of their website home page.
If you would like help to develop a series of online videos to improve and accelerate your sales process, feel free to browse through SolarAcademy’s services tailored for Solar Installers and contact us.