The Importance of CRM Integration with Encompass LOS

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Grow Your Solar Business with Lead
Generation Marketing

• With the recent rise of renewable energy, its
  not surprising that the solar business has
  quickly become one of the fastest growing
  industries in the US. More and more people are
  buying into the idea of clean, renewable energy,
  while also noticing the potential savings of
  going solar. 
• Exciting as this may be, solar companies of all
  sizes are at risk of being left behind in this
  supply and demand surge. Using Shape Software
  such as Shape Solar CRM to manage your clientele
  will always be necessary, but dont disregard the
  first step of the processgenerating leads. With
  a growing number of competitors in the solar
  industry, the ability to identify qualified leads
  and work them through your sales funnel has
  become more important than ever. In this post,
  well probe into the solar industry and the
  importance of using lead generation marketing to
  acquire qualified leads, as well as how to choose
  the best lead generation service for your target
  audience.

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The Growing Solar Industry Massive industry
growth can be a double-edged sword for both small
and large businesses alike. Since 2012, the
number of solar related jobs more than doubled,
crowding the market for both the purchase of
solar panels and the hiring of solar
installation. From the buyers perspective, this
rapid increase in supply is fantastic. As solar
businesses see more competition, consumers gain
more options to choose fromleading to better
products sold for less. This, in turn, also leads
to more customers in the market. From the
companys perspective, they see both an increase
in buyers and an increase in competitorshence
the double-edged sword. Any solar company that
remains static during this time is at risk of
losing customersboth old and newand falling
behind in this solar energy gold rush.
Intimidating as that sounds, companies that adapt
to this growth can capitalize on this influx of
new consumers, cementing themselves as a giant in
the industry.  So, besides having a good
product, how does one take advantage of this
situation? Put simply, you need to be actively
gaining customers while also maintaining past
ones. And the best way to do that?  Acquire
qualified leads by motivating potential customers
to approach you through lead generation
marketing.
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• The Importance of Lead Generation for Your Solar
  Businesses
• Although you should be actively pursuing
  customers as well, getting consumers to reach out
  to your business is the ideal situation for any
  sales team. This is why lead generation
  marketing, commonly referred to as lead gen
  marketing, has become increasingly popular in not
  just solar marketing, but the industry as a
  whole.  
• Before we address lead gen in the solar industry,
  lets first look at some general statistics
  regarding the benefits of lead generation
  marketing
• Only 18 of marketers believe outbound marketing
  methods produce quality leads 
• On average, cold calling only produces 1 of
  paying customers 
• Almost 80 of marketers noticed an increase in
  both leads and conversions when using automated
  marketing software
• Nurtured leads spend 47 more per
  purchase/contract compared to non-nurtured leads
• Lead gen marketing eliminates the need for
  outbound marketing through the use of automated
  marketing software, which aids in the nurturing
  of new leads through your marketing funnels. 
• There are various implementations of lead gen,
  however the general process revolves around
  potential consumers contacting you. Once a lead
  enters your marketing funnel, proper lead gen
  marketing should gently reinforce your product,
  guiding them to the end of your funnel and
  prompting them to contact your sales team. 

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To better understand the idea of lead generation,
here is a very simplified walkthrough of what
goes on during the process The consumer
discovers your brand or product (becomes a new
lead) either through your marketing channel or
the marketing channel of a hired agency. This
includes exposure from social media accounts,
posts from relevant blogs, and any visits to your
websites, both organic and direct.  The lead is
then marketed at and directed through various
mean towards some sort of call-to-action button
(CTA), which is often an image, button, or link.
When clicked, the CTA should send the consumer
towards a landing page where they can learn more
about your product or your industry, which in
this case would be solar. On the landing page,
the visitor should be prompted to fill out a
contact form to schedule a call/email. This page
often has some sort of deal, further
encouraging the visitor to fill out the
form. Again, this is an extremely simplified
explanation, however this hopefully shows how the
lead generation process emphasizes the nurturing
of leads over time. Through constant exposure and
communication, lead gen excels at turning someone
from being interested in solar to committed to
solar.
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The Challenge of Generating New Leads in the
Solar Industry As mentioned, the beginning of
most lead gen processes start by generating a new
lead through some type of marketing channel. The
difficulty of this step will vary depending on
your industry and company size, but for solar
specific lead gen this step is often the hardest.
There are a couple different reasons for this,
but the most notable and impactful is the
oversaturation of solar suppliers in the
market.  Right now, the profit margin for solar
suppliers and installers is through the roof, and
people have taken note of this. The demand cannot
keep up with the current supply, and leads are
becoming scarce. Even industry giants such as
SolarReviews and EnergySagewho spend millions
each year on content and marketingonly generate
a couple hundred new leads a day throughout the
country.  Of course, you could try running ads
for your solar company yourself, however this is
not advised. In general, new and inexperienced
marketers with a small budget are essentially
forced to spend more money per ad compared to
companies like SolarReviews and EnergySage. The
main reason behind this, put simply, is that
social media platforms and search engines charge
less per ad the more successful it is. Because of
this, having more experience and a larger budget
allows you to create, target, and A/B test your
ads much more efficiently, reducing the cost of
your ad over time.
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• Outside of marketing campaigns, a significant
  number of leads are produced through organic
  traffic to websites via search engines like
  Google. In general, larger companies such as
  SolarReviews and EnergySage have a much higher
  Google Domain Authority than smaller competitors,
  allowing them to rank higher for solar related
  searches. This means that when a potential lead
  searches best solar companies on Google, they
  will likely see SolarReviews or EnergySage on the
  first page of the results. Overall, appearing on
  the first page of any search result greatly
  increases organic traffic to your website,
  however this can be near impossible for smaller
  companies with poor search engine optimization.
• Why You Should Hire Someone for Your Lead
  Generation Marketing
• It should be clear by now why generating leads on
  your own can be challenging, and yet that is only
  the beginning of the lead gen process. Even if
  you manage to secure leads on your own, you still
  need an experienced team of marketers to manage
  the constant interactions and moving parts
  commonly seen in most lead gen strategies.
• For example, popular lead gen agencies in the
  solar industry turn new leads into solar
  qualified leads by doing the following 24/7
• Contacting leads as soon as they generate,
  including text messages, phone calls, and emails
• Nurturing leads for up to 6 months, assuring that
  no potential leads are lost or neglected
• Qualifying leads by presenting them valuable
  information about solar energy, while also asking
  clarifying questions to determine if solar
  installation can work for their home/business
• Booking on-site appointments for you sales team,
  allowing them to focus only on potential buyers
  with the highest chance of converting

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• If your marketing team is capable of generating
  the initial leads, large enough to handle this
  workload, and experienced enough to manage these
  interactions, then you may be able to perform
  this lead gen process without hiring an agency.
  But for those that dont fulfill these
  requirements, outsourcing your lead generation to
  a marketing agency that specializes in solar
  leads is strongly recommended, as it will save
  you money, time, and effort.
• Outsourcing Saves You Money
• Ironically, outsourcing your lead gen marketing
  will often save your company money compared to
  developing an in-house team. To understand this,
  consider the costs of creating your own in-house
  lead gen team
• Paying salary/wage for each team member,
  including benefits if they apply
• Paying for the training of new members
• Paying for necessary equipment, which could
  include software, computers, company phones
• Paying overhead costs such as rent for office
  space
• These costs add up, as opposed to the singular
  cost of an outsourced agency.

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Outsourcing Saves You Time If youve never
managed a marketing team before, there is a good
chance you may fail to realize how much time and
effort must be committed to ensure success. For
the marketers, a significant amount of time needs
to be spent researching and strategizing their
lead gen campaign. The amount of time needed for
this can range from a few weeks to a couple
months, depending on the experience of your team.
This may seem unnecessary, but in marketing you
often spend more time figuring out the correct
approaches than anything else.  Over time, this
lead gen process should become much more
efficient. Your team should accumulate experience
dealing with solar lead gen, which ideally will
translate to less time spent planning and
analyzing their strategies. But this could take a
while, and if your team has a high turnover rate
this may never come to fruition.  By
outsourcing, you get access to an experienced
team of marketers from the beginning, who already
have knowledge about the solar industry.   
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Spend Less Effort Managing  The lead generation
process is by no means simple, so you will
definitely spend a significant amount of effort
managing your in-house team.  To start, you must
undergo the hiring process, as well as supply
training to those you hire. Then, because you are
adding a new team to your business, you will most
likely need to create or expand the HR department
to accommodate the new hires. Lead generation
generally uses some form of computer software, so
you will need to provide and maintain the
necessary equipment for your team. And last but
not least, you will need to constantly monitor
the results of their campaigns, which can be
relatively complex compared to evaluating a
single agency. All of these hassles would be
avoided by simply outsourcing your lead
generation. What to Look for When Choosing an
Agency For the solar industry, there are two
main things you need to look for when choosing a
marketing agency the type of leads they provide
and the space they target.
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Understand Who They Target First and foremost,
make sure the agency specializes in solar lead
gen. This should be obvious, but every lead gen
company works in different fields. Once you found
someone who focuses on solar leads, you then need
to understand who they prefer to target.  For
solar companies, sales happen in one of two
areas residential or commercial. Residential
sales happen more frequently than commercial, but
commercial sales are generally much larger.
Because of this distinct difference, some solar
companies focus their marketing efforts on just
one of those two groupsand the same can be said
for marketing agencies.  In marketing, there are
two areas as well B2B and B2C. B2B refers to
marketing a product or service to another
business, while B2C dictates marketing towards
regular consumers. From the perspective of a
solar business, B2B can be seen as commercial
and B2C can be seen as residential.  With this
in mind, if your solar company specifically sells
or installs solar panels for commercial use, an
agency that specializes in B2B marketing should
be who you hire, and vice versa. 
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Getting the Correct Leads In marketing, there
are several different types of leads. New leads,
working leads, nurturing leads, unqualified
leads, and qualified leads are a few common types
that marketing agencies often work with. Without
going into too much detail about each individual
lead type, just know that an ideal lead provider
should be supplying your sales team with
qualified leads. When a lead becomes qualified,
this essentially tells your sales team that there
is a much higher chance of converting that lead
into a sale (compared to others). These leads
have either shown an interest in your niche
(which in this case would be solar) or have
interacted with your brand (social media, ads,
website visits).  As nice as a qualified lead
sounds, each one requires a fair amount of effort
to generate. Marketing agencies that rush through
the lead generation process or buy bulk lists of
solar leads from lead distributors should be
avoided. They might supply your sales team with
leads, however most of these will be a waste of
time and money. No marketing team is perfect,
and not every lead you receive will be qualified.
Just try to make sure whatever agency you choose
operates with your best interest in mind. If You
Use CRM Software, Make Sure it Integrates with
the Lead Gen Software
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• This should be obvious, but make sure your CRM
  software can integrate with the marketing
  software used by your lead gen agency. CRM
  software, such as Shape Solar CRM, work best when
  they have access to the most data/sales points.
  If the software your hired agency uses does not
  integrate with your CRM, you will be losing out
  on some of the benefits a CRM can provide. 
• In general, most CRMs should be designed to
  integrate with all types of marketing software,
  but it never hurts to make sure before you commit
  to an agency.
• Best Solar Lead Gen Agencies 
• Now that you have a general idea of what you
  should be looking for, here is a list of a few
  popular solar lead generation agencies available
• SolarExclusive.com
• SolarExclusive provides lead generation marketing
  for solar businesses of all sizes. Because their
  entire focus is solar, they have accumulated a
  plethora of industry experience that contributes
  to their success in lead generation.
  SolarExclusive will both provide leads to your
  sales team and filter out unqualified leads,
  however they prioritize the supply of leads
  rather than the nurturing process.

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One of the strong points of SolarExclusive is
their emphasis on organization. They use a
proprietary booking system synched with your
calendar to schedule appointments between you and
your qualified leads. These pre-set appointments
give your sales team an ample amount of time to
prepare for each lead, while also allowing
SolarExclusive to ensure your potential buyer is
fully educated about the solar industry. In
general, this process helps your sales team stay
organized and prepared for future
leads. Strengths Entire focus is solar
industry Leads are exclusive to you Scales well
with a growing business Possess authentic and
up-to-date homeowner information Filter out
unqualified leads 2. CleanEneregyExperts.com Clean
EnergyExperts (CEE) is a lead generator focusing
solely on the solar industry. In contrast with
verse.io, CEE foregoes some of the nurturing
process to concentrate almost entirely on
generating the initial lead. To be clear, CEE
does provide standard quality control with their
leads, as they assure their clients only receive
leads showing interest in either their business
or the solar industry. Their strength, however,
is in the number of leads they produce for your
company, which they achieve by combining their
brand recognition with their years of industry
experience. Through the use of affiliate
marketing and social media ad campaigns, CEE can
cover a wide range of potential buyers while
filtering location. From this, they determine
which leads should go to your business depending
on location, intent, and brand awareness.
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• trengths
• Precise geo-filtering
• Real-time lead delivery
• Exclusive leads
• 24/7 availability
• Highly experienced in the solar industry
• 3. Verse.io
• Verse.io is a marketing agency that can
  specialize in lead generation for the solar
  industry, although they also work in the mortgage
  and real estate field. Unlike the others on this
  list, verse.io does not offer any services that
  will generator leads for you. Instead, they focus
  solely on the nurturing aspect of lead
  generation, ensuring that any lead that comes to
  your sales team will be 100 qualified with a
  high chance of conversion. 
• More so than anything else, verse.io emphasizes
  their ability to support 24/7 lead coverage with
  both AI and human communication. Most agencies
  that provide lead generation claim to cover leads
  24/7, but they do this strictly through automated
  messaging systems and AI. Verse.io provides
  in-person lead coverage 24/7, which greatly
  increases the likelihood of a lead converting. In
  addition to this, verse.io also nurtures both
  responsive and unresponsive leads, while also
  supporting omnichannel communication depending on
  the preference of the lead.

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• So if youre looking for an all-in-one lead
  provider for your solar business, verse.io
  probably isnt for you, but for those who already
  have a proper marketing funnel, verse.io is
  highly recommended. 
• Strengths
• 24/7 lead coverage
• Use both human and AI
• Nurture both responsive and unresponsive leads
• Communicate however the lead wants to
• Great customer service
• 4. SolarReviews.com
• As one of the heavyweights in the solar lead
  business, SolarReviews is a great option for
  directly purchasing solar leads. Although their
  service can be pricier than other lead gen
  agencies, their leads are high quality and often
  have the highest chance of converting into a
  sale. The key to SolarReviews lead gen is their
  use of organic traffic along with PPC advertising
  to generate leads. Not only are they experienced
  with solar lead advertising, but their website
  has a high Google Domain Authority in the solar
  industry, allowing their website to receive a
  large amount of organic search traffic every day.
  Then to make their lead gen even better, they
  also require phone number verification for every
  lead they receive and manually vet all leads that
  are eligible for being sold. All-in-all,
  SolarReviews ensures that their leads are
  qualified for the solar industry.

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• Strengths
• Does not require any marketing from your company
• Leads are high quality
• Very informative website
• Highly experienced in the solar industry
• Will manually vet leads
• 5. RGRMarketing.com
• With close to 20 years of experience with lead
  gen, RGRMarketing is a trusted lead generator in
  the solar industry. Similar to Verse.io,
  RGRMarketing focuses on the process of qualifying
  new leads produced by your marketing channel, as
  opposed to providing leads on their own. Although
  this may be a problem for those with
  underperforming marketing channels, RGRMarketing
  will help your business reform your marketing
  channels and get them producing new leads on
  their own. 
• The lead qualifying process RGRMarketing uses
  starts with a lead capture forms integrated into
  your marketing channels. Once a lead fills out a
  form, it will automatically be reviewed by
  RGRMarketing software to determine whether it
  passes as a qualified lead. If the lead gets
  approved, it then is sent to your sales team for
  immediate follow-up. So far, this process is
  fairly industry standard. Where RGRMarketing
  breaks away from the rest is their review of
  leads that dont pass the automatic review. Leads
  that arent spam yet still didnt meet the
  requirements are manually reviewed by members of
  RGRMarketing, ensuring that no quality leads slip
  through their process. 

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• Strengths
• Provide qualified leads
• Leads are unique to your business
• Improve your marketing channel
• Tailor leads to your business objectives
• 6. EnergySage.com
• Technically speaking, EnergySage does not qualify
  as a lead generator in the same way the other
  companies on this list are. They are not a
  marketing agency for hire, but instead a website
  that allows potential solar buyers (leads) to
  receive quotes from a list of pre-screened solar
  installers. Essentially, EnergySage is a place
  for both solar installers and potential solar
  buyers to aggregate, which can produce leads for
  your business. 
• Note To be listed on EnergySage, you must meet
  their solar installer qualifications.  
• Strengths
• Leads come to you
• Leads are relatively cheap
• High volume
• Leads should be educated about solar

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• 7. Modernize.com
• Modernize is a well-respected lead generator
  specializing in home improvement leads, such as
  home remodels, roofing, HVAC, and solar
  installation. They produce your leads through
  their own digital marketing channels, using their
  wide-spread coverage of the home improvement
  niche to reach a far greater audience than other
  lead providers. The downside to this is that they
  dont specialize exclusively in solar leads,
  however every lead they generate is fully
  qualified, so this should not be a major issue.
• In terms of service, Modernize has everything a
  lead gen provider should offer. They emphasize
  seamless communication between them and their
  clients, as they provide each client a partner
  manager for easy 1-on-1 discussions. Their lead
  gen software is designed to integrate with CRM
  software, which helps the transfer of information
  from one side to another. For the leads, once
  qualified they are instantly delivered to your
  sales team, allowing for immediate follow-up for
  better conversion. Overall, Modernize is a solid
  choice for anyone looking for solar lead gen
  services.
• Strengths
• Flexible pricing plans
• 1-on-1 partner manager
• CRM integration
• Provides qualified leads
• Homeowner feedback
• Article Source- https//setshape.com/blog/the-imp
  ortance-of-crm-integration-with-encompass-los-6ff7
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