Managing solar enquiries: from first contact to a signed quote

A solar enquiry passes through the same eight stages in every firm, in every country. Jobs are not lost at the stages. They are lost between them, where nobody owned the next step.

An enquiry is a chain of promises: we will ring you, we will come out, we will send the quote, we will follow it up, we will start the job. Each link has one principle and one way firms break it. This is the map of the whole chain, from first contact to the signed quote and on to the customer who sends you the next one. Run it with a list and a diary.

1. Capture: every channel into one list, with a source on each

Enquiries arrive by web form, phone, email, referral and directory listing. All of them go on one list, the same day, with three things against each: who took it, where it came from, and whether the household is already known to you. The source is written down at capture or never, because in six months nobody will remember which advert the caller mentioned. The couple who rang last winter and filled in the form this week are one enquiry, and two people ringing them separately looks disorganised before you have quoted.

The mistake: three lists. The web form goes to a dashboard, the phone to a pad, the email to whoever opened it. Nobody can say how many enquiries are open, or where the work comes from.

2. First response: a target in days, from a named person

Decide how many working days an enquiry waits for its first contact, write the number where everyone can see it, and give every enquiry one owner the moment it arrives. The first contact does not need to be an answer. It needs to be a person: a name, a question or two, and a date for what happens next. A firm that replies inside its target is on the shortlist. The owner is a name, not a department, and when that person is away or leaves, each of their enquiries gets a new name on the day.

The mistake: the shared inbox. Two people could see the enquiry, and each assumed the other had rung. Read why solar enquiries go cold for the call-back routine that stops it.

3. Qualification: enough to make sure no survey is wasted

A survey costs a morning and a van. Before booking one, the first call establishes four things: who decides (the owner, a landlord who has to consent, both partners), the property (type, roof, any existing system), what they want (panels, a battery, a charger, or advice), and when (now, in a few months, or researching). Write the answers on the enquiry's record, so the surveyor and the quoter do not ask again. Qualifying is a conversation, not a form the customer must complete before you will speak to them.

The mistake: surveying everyone. The tenant whose landlord has not agreed, the researcher two years from a decision, the roof that was never suitable. Each is a morning the enquiry behind it in the queue needed.

4. The survey booked, and the enquiry kept warm until it happens

Book the survey on the qualifying call where you can. Where you cannot, give a date and a reason, and pencil it in: "the earliest survey is the week after next, and I can put you in the diary now." A pencilled date is a customer. A promise to be in touch is not. Once the date is set, two things keep the enquiry warm: a confirmation with what to have ready (bills, loft access, the fuse board), and a check-in in the diary before the date.

The mistake: "fully booked" said as a no, or the enquiry put on the "when things calm down" pile. Things do not calm down. Read fully booked: how to say so without losing the enquiry for the waiting-list routine.

5. The quote out, and followed up on a schedule

Set a target in days from survey to quote and keep to it. Then treat the follow-up as part of sending the quote. The day it goes out, two dates go in the diary: a first nudge a few days after, and a second before the price expires. Each follow-up asks a question rather than repeating the offer: has anything changed, is anything unclear, is there another quote we should look at together. A customer silent for six weeks has decided, and not in your favour.

The mistake: silence after the quote treated as the customer's decision. The survey and the design are already paid for, so this is the dearest enquiry to lose. The follow-up schedule is in why solar enquiries go cold.

6. The decision: won starts the job, lost gets a reason, paused gets a date

Every enquiry ends in one of three places, each with its own rule. Won starts the job the same day, with the survey, the quote and the contacts carried across rather than retyped, and a named person on the handover. Lost gets a reason from a short, fixed list (went elsewhere, no answer, not suitable, could not wait, too dear), so that ten losses later you can count them. Paused gets a date and stays open: "ring in the spring when the extension is done" is a live enquiry with a next step.

The mistake: a fourth category. Neither won, lost nor dated, the enquiry sits for months because somebody will get round to it.

7. The pipeline as a whole: stage targets, a daily list and a weekly review

The stages only work as a system with three things over the top of them. The first is a target in days for each stage, so "stalled" looks different from "busy": an enquiry past its number needs a decision, one inside it does not. The second is a daily list, ten minutes before the vans go out: who is waiting for a call back, who has sat past their stage's target, which quotes have had no answer. The third is a weekly half hour: what open work is worth, what came in and from where, each stage oldest first, the reasons behind the last ten losses, and how many enquiries each person carries.

The mistake: running the pipeline from memory. Memory favours the customer who rang this morning over the one who went quiet in June. The weekly pipeline review sets out the half hour, and handing over an enquiry covers what the record must hold to survive a holiday or a leaver.

8. The installed base: the best source of the next enquiry

Every system you have fitted is a household that already trusts you and has not been asked for anything since. Put every completed job on one list with the install date and what was fitted. Give each one a call a year, with a reason: a check-in after the first month, a service, a review and referral ask once the system has proved itself, and a question about what has changed at the house. Record referrals as a source, so the routine's value shows up at the capture stage.

The mistake: the only contact is a red light on the inverter. Sales moved on the day the deposit cleared, and nobody owns the customer after the scaffold comes down. Read your customers from ten years ago for the yearly routine.

Installa does the pipeline for you

  • Stop keeping three lists. Every enquiry, from the web form, the phone or a CSV file imported with its columns matched to fields, lands on one list with a source on it, counted in the lead sources report. The enquiry form warns you as you type when a name, number, email or address matches a record you already hold.
  • Stop checking the dates. Each stage has a target in days, set when the account is created, and the home screen lists the enquiries that have sat past it, longest first, beside the enquiries waiting for a call back and the quotes awaiting a decision.
  • Stop chasing by hand. A call-back is a task with a date and a name, snoozed or set to repeat, and its owner is told when it falls due. Switch on quote reminders and the customer is emailed a set number of days after the quote goes out, and again before the price expires.
  • Stop qualifying twice. The enquiry record holds who is buying, the property type, what they want, the timeframe, any existing system, consumption and bill, and who makes the decision, where the surveyor and the quoter can read them.
  • Stop adding it up. The sales board shows one column per stage with its count and value, a chance of winning on each stage, and the likely total beside the raw one. Dropping an enquiry into the won column asks whether to start the job and creates it from the enquiry. Lost asks for a reason from your own list, and any lost enquiry can be reopened.
  • Stop working out when to ring past customers. Marking a job complete adds the aftercare tasks: a check-in after the first month, a review and referral ask, a battery or charger conversation later in the year, and an annual service, each dated from the install and assigned by role.

One list, a name and a next date on every enquiry, a target for every stage, ten minutes a day and half an hour a week. That is the whole pipeline, and it is what the enquiry screens are built to run. See how enquiry management in Installa works.

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