Selling to businesses that want to buy solar equipment for their own use

A business that buys solar equipment for its own use raises objections from two people. The owner or accountant asks about money. The foreman, plant head or farm manager asks whether it will run when needed and who comes if it stops. Answer both on one folded sheet. This post takes five objections in turn, using an invented oil expeller unit in Hazaribagh, and shows what to write in reply.

The unit in this example

Take a small unit pressing mustard seed with three expellers, run by an owner who keeps the accounts and a foreman who runs the floor. It pays a monthly electricity bill and runs a diesel set on the days the supply drops. The supplier is a solar equipment seller. The particulars are invented; the objections are common to any workshop, mill or farm that uses power in the day.

"How long before it pays back?"

This is the owner's first question, and the weak answer is a number that sounds good. The stronger answer starts from the owner's own bill. Ask to see three recent electricity bills and note what the unit pays in the daytime hours when the expellers run, and what the diesel set costs in a bad month.

Then write a line the owner can check: "On your bills, the part the solar system would replace is about this much each month. The system costs this much. Divide, and you get the number of months." Show the sum, and add what would change it, such as a rise in tariff, a change in shifts or a poor season. A payback figure you cannot show is a promise, and that is where the sale stalls. Our post on what a factory finance head asks before rooftop solar goes further on the money side.

"What about the days it is cloudy?"

The foreman asks this, though the owner is thinking it too. Do not wave it away. Say what the system does on a poor day, in plain terms: the unit draws from the grid or the diesel set as before, and the solar share falls. Say which machines can wait for the sun and which cannot. In the Hazaribagh case the expellers could run on a reduced load in the afternoon, while the filter press needed steady power. Write that on the sheet. In this invented case the supplier also admitted that the filter press would stay on the grid, which cut the claimed saving by about a fifth and made the owner trust the rest of the sheet.

Skip any claim about output in months or seasons you have not measured on a similar site. If you have no field data, say so and say what you would check.

"Who looks after it, and who comes if it stops?"

Name one person at your end and one at the local installer, with a phone number each. Next, write what the owner should do, such as cleaning the panels or checking the indicator, and what to leave to you. Warranty terms belong here as the manufacturer states them, with the document attached. If a repair visit takes time because you are far away, say that now. A buyer who finds out in the second month feels cheated. That is hard to undo.

"Do I need permission, and what about the subsidy?"

Be careful here. Rules for connecting to the grid and any government scheme differ by state, change often and carry conditions. Say what you know in general terms, name the office or adviser to ask, and never put a subsidy amount in your own quote or message. If the owner is counting on a scheme to make the sum work, ask for it to be confirmed with the office before signing.

"Why should I not wait a year?"

A fair question, and sometimes the honest answer is to wait. If the bills are low, the roof is old or the shifts are about to change, say so. A supplier who tells a buyer to wait is more likely to be called next time than one who pressed the sale.

The reasons to go ahead now are the owner's own, drawn from the bill and the season. If you cannot find one in the figures, do not invent it.

Putting the answers on one sheet

Fold the five answers into one page the owner can show a partner or the accountant.

Send it before the site visit if you can, so the owner has questions ready rather than first impressions. The call that follows should be brief; our post on how to follow up on a quotation covers it.

Direct or through an installer

In the expeller case the supplier sold the panels and inverter through a local installer, because the roof needed design and wiring it could not do from the supplier's end, and issued one quote so the owner saw one price. The decision about who sells is made before the first quote, and the person who can hold up the order, often the accountant, is the one the sheet should be written for.

Try the five questions on your next prospect

Pick one buyer and answer each of the five in a line, using that buyer's own bills. Where you cannot, you have found the visit you still need to make. For larger accounts, account-based selling is the service closest to this, and the trade is on our solar and renewable energy equipment page. If you want help building the sheet, tell us what you need.