How to build a solar equipment dealer network in smaller towns

A small-town solar dealer decides whether to stay by doing a sum you never see. They add what one sale earns, subtract what it costs in time and stock, and compare the result with the electrical goods they already sell. If your offer does not win that sum, no fair or catalogue will keep them. So fill in the dealer's sheet first, with your numbers, before you recruit anyone. The sheet below has the lines they will work out themselves.

The dealer's sheet, line by line

Copy this into a spreadsheet and fill it for one product, such as a 3 kW rooftop kit. Use your own real figures. As an invented example, a dealer who earns ₹6,000 on a kit but spends ₹2,500 on freight and a day of their own time has not made ₹6,000.

The last two lines decide most cases. A dealer who spends many hours on each sale for a modest margin may quietly go back to selling pumps and wires. If the sheet shows that, change the offer before blaming the dealer.

Subsidy and scheme rules for customers differ by state and change often, so give the dealer a place to check them and do not quote them as settled.

Who should fill the sheet in your network?

The best candidates already sell something near solar and are trusted in town: an electrical shop, an inverter and battery dealer, a pump and motor store or an agri-input shop. Each has a counter and customers on credit. Before the margin talk, check three things. Do customers act on the electrical advice the shop gives? Can the shop find a reliable installer? Does it pay its own suppliers on time? Ask other shopkeepers in the market; they know.

A shop with only enthusiasm may leave after the first slow month.

A made-up case: dealers around Rewa

Take an invented rooftop kit maker who signed nine dealers in small towns around Rewa at a trade fair and handed each a catalogue. By the next season only two had ordered. The maker then made the sheet above for the first time, and filled it as a dealer would.

It showed two problems that the fair had hidden. The margin on a 3 kW kit looked fair on paper. The dealers also paid for transport from the factory, and that turned most of the gain into a loss on a single kit. And the hours line was large, because customers asked about roof size and bill sizing, and each query meant a call to a different person at the factory.

The maker's changes were small and dull. The maker agreed to carry freight for the first order in each town, wrote a one-page sizing note for typical homes and shops, and named one person at the factory as the only contact. A half-day session followed at the best dealer's shop, with the nearby dealers invited. Two of the quiet seven began ordering after a visit. The network was smaller than nine, but the sums worked for the ones who stayed.

What training does a dealer need?

Not much, but it must be right. Teach the dealer to answer five questions: what the customer's bill suggests, what the roof needs, what you sell, what the customer pays and when, and who installs. Everything else can pass to you. Give the dealer the sizing note, a list of questions to ask on a first visit and a way to send you roof photos. Decide whether the dealer installs or only sells. If the dealer installs, they need tools and training; if not, you need an installer partner within reach.

If you do site visits for a dealer in the first months, say how many and who pays.

How do you keep a dealer?

Dealers leave when they feel forgotten. In a small town one badly handled installation can damage a name for a long time. Keep one named contact, a standing call at an agreed time and quick answers on technical queries. Pass on the enquiries you generate, and say how they are split between dealers in advance. Track a few things per dealer: enquiries received, enquiries converted, orders and how promptly they pay. How to measure dealer and distributor performance shows what to count.

Give each dealer a named area and a written price list, so that nobody is undercut by a neighbour one town away; an enquiry from outside the area goes to the dealer who owns it. Start with one or two dealers per district and add a third only when the first two are ordering and the phone is answered. Two active dealers do more for you than five idle ones.

Let go of dealers who never order. Leaving them on the list costs support time and confuses customers.

When to skip a dealer network

If you cannot support dealers yet, if every sale needs engineering input, or if your buyers are mostly factories that buy direct, dealers are the wrong tool. Installers may fit better, and the post on what an installer asks a supplier covers that. For finding the first names, see how manufacturers can find dealers and distributors.

Fill the sheet before the next dealer meeting

Do the sums for one product with your own figures, and put the first line, what the dealer pays you delivered, in writing today. If a small-town dealer would not choose the product over what they already sell, change the offer first. The trade is covered on our solar and renewable energy equipment page, and dealer development is the related service. If you want help setting it up, tell us what you need.