Businesses go bankrupt if sales are high and profits are low
The obvious
If you don't make profit in your business, the business won't last very long. But so many solar businesses still compete on price as the main point of difference. It can be tough out there — no doubt. But when an industry is purely defined by the price it can offer, it's a race to the bottom that nobody really wins. By crafting your own Unique Selling Point (something other than price) you can charge what your work is worth and still win enough sales. Chasing high value solar sales rather than the highest possible volume is often what separates a business that lasts from one that burns out.
EXAMPLE
30 sales a week x $8,000 per sale - $7,600 per sale costs = $12,000 profit per week.
10 sales a week x $8,800 per sale - $7,600 per sale costs = $12,000 profit per week.
It is possible to make your business a much more effient profit-machine! You might only get 10 sales - but that's also only 10 potential headaches!! For the same amount of profit.
The sweet-spot
The example above gives an idea of how balancing profit and sales quantity can transform any business. Now it's just a matter of finding the "sweet-spot" that works for you. You might find it works better to win 3 premium customers rather than 10 mid-range ones — or you might find your market sits somewhere in between.
The key is to listen to feedback from both your sales team and your customers, and make changes that head toward higher profit and, where it makes sense, lower sales volumes at the same time. Track your profit per sale, not just your total number of sales. A month with fewer deals but stronger margins is often a healthier month than a busy one that barely breaks even.
Winning high-value sales
Winning higher-value sales is not as easy as selling a cheap package — there's no pretending otherwise. But if you take the time and effort to deliver real value to the prospect, and genuinely get across the message of what you're selling, you can absolutely succeed. The customer needs to understand why your offer costs more, and what they get for it.
This is where presentation matters enormously. Solar Proof is one way to help build a customer's confidence in your product and service suite. Handing them a professional, accurate quote does wonders to communicate how serious you are about earning their business — and it justifies a premium price far better than a rushed spreadsheet ever could. A clear, branded proposal that shows honest production estimates and real savings figures signals quality before you've said a word.
Anyone in their right mind would pay 50% more for a product that gives them twice the value. Your job is simply to make that value impossible to miss.
Accurate, defensible numbers are part of that value — here's how Solar Proof calculates production estimates so the figures in your proposal hold up in real life.
