April is National Solar Quote Month: How You Can Help Bring Solar to the Solar Tipping Point in 2010

It’s clear that Americans support solar energy, yet there is still a wide perception that solar is not affordable. In many states, that’s simply not the case in 2010, and yet, people only believe what they read and hear from friends and the media who aren't speaking from personal experience.

What Americans should be doing is taking a couple of hours, once a year, to get a free solar estimate and to really see if solar PV and/or solar hot water is in fact affordable for their budgets.

To break this general misconception, the solar industry needs a solar holiday. And so, my solar friends, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating and promoting the month of April as National Solar Quote Month.

While this designation is not recognized by the U.S. Government or any industry organization—yet—who cares? If we all act as if it is official and you follow my marketing suggestions below, then April will annually become National Solar Quote Month.

Below are three ways to help solar PV and solar thermal installers to use National Solar Quote Month to help consumers individually discover whether solar is in fact affordable in 2010.  

First, resolve to act like April really is an annual national solar industry public education campaign. As I said, it will be if you act as if it is, and I’m going to even provide you with a theme and marketing text that you’re free to adapt and use for print ads, flyers, radio spots, or Internet advertising.  

The Theme: Think solar still isn’t affordable in 2010? Prove it to yourself.”

Every great industry ad campaign (think “Got Milk” or “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner”) has a theme.

For this first year, I’m suggesting the above. I’ve written about this theme before, but now I've found away for it to spread and for every installer to act with this same theme in mind in April 2010.

How everyone in the solar industry can implement the above theme this April:

Let me suggest three marketing actions that your company can do to bring attention to National Solar Quote Month and to make this an annual ritual.

1) Offer an extreme discount for those who get a solar quote in April.

In the same way that Apple and other stores offer a once a year deal on the day after Thanksgiving ("Black Friday"), I’m calling on installers to offer their best deals during the month of April, and only April. If you’re an inverter or BOS company or distributor or anywhere in the B to B chain, then offer a once a year discount to installers for April orders only.

If you only offer this extreme sale once a year for a month or even a single week in April, you will get the attention of anyone thinking about buying this year, but has been procrastinating. Allow anyone who gets a solar quote to lock in that price until the end of April, only. This type of program works swell for Apple. Why not for your quality solar business?

2) Advertise aggressively during April with something along the lines of the below text in either print, radio, Internet, or newspaper inserts:

Think Solar isn’t Affordable? Prove it to yourself.

April is National Solar Quote Month, and we at [Your Solar Company] are going out of our way to prove to you that solar power is finally affordable in 2010. During the month of April only, we’re offering a once a year [ x %] discount on any solar installation. For an average 5kW system, that can save you [ $x ]. Contact us today for a no-obligation, free solar quote and prove it to yourself that solar is affordable in 2010. We won’t be offering another sale like this until April 2011.

In addition to the discount, if you can offer something free just for getting a quote (A gift certificate to the movies or a fast food eatery for the first 100 quotes, that’s even more powerful.)

My hope is that, like Apple’s once a year Black Friday sale, customers will lock in their April quote and keep you busy through the summer and beyond. Yes, it may be at a discount, but I expect that extra volume will make up for it. If solar manufacturers also offer a sale for April through this idea (Show your suppliers your ad and ask them for the National Solar Quote Month discount! Couldn't hurt!) then the steep discount might still be almost as profitable as other months.

If you're a solar leasing or solar PPA comany, perhaps knock .5% off the yearly escalator for quotes done in April. 3.50% for 15 years is better than 4% for every month.

And what if the customer says it’s still too expensive? Urge them to get a quote once a year, starting in April, because rebates and incentives are always changing. Record their 2010 quote and ask if you can have their email address. Then, next April, send them a reminder to try for another quote. Other than this reminder, don’t spam them with any other offers, no matter how good. They’ve only given you permission for a once a year reminder. Honor that.

Now there’s one more component for this campaign that I believe will really cement April as National Solar Quote Month for years to come. Please have the courage and discipline to do the following:

3) On Monday morning, April 5th, call the press in your area and offer to give a free solar quote to a reporter so that the reporter can write a personal story for National Solar Quote Month.

The idea is for a flood of solar installers to call local and national press on the same day and offer to give a home-owning reporter or editor a solar hot water and/or PV quote. In effect, the reporter shows the readers what’s involved in getting a solar quote. The reporter can then report an honest story about the flood of calls, number one.  Number two, reporters can write about the quote experience. Number three, reporters can do a "personal" story and follow the 2010 theme by peronally proving for themselves (and their readers) that solar is or isn't affordable.

Contacting reporters can be tough, I know. So, on Friday, April 2nd, I'll publish some guidelines, do’s and don’ts, on how to best contact reporters on April 5th. In the meantime, prepare for April 5th by just getting the phone and/or email addresses of the local publications/t.v. stations/radio stations (NPR is solar friendly, by the way.).

Please don’t jump the gun and contact reporters earlier than Monday, April 5th. The more installers who do this en masse, the more the media will wake up and realize this is a story worth reporting. Not all of you will get to do these quotes, but I hope the editor or reporter who gets the quote is a smart consumer and will get at least three quotes to compare.

Please join me in promoting April as National Solar Quote Month in 2010. If you do, my hope is that solar will finally push past the solar early adopters and into the main stream by 2011.

As always, feel free to make suggestions or comments below. I’d also love to hear if you’ll be participating. Thanks, and as always, Unthink Solar.

Tor Valenza aka “Solar Fred” advises solar companies on marketing, communications, and public relations. Contact him through REWorld or follow him on Twitter @SolarFred.

Photo:Flickr/Agahran