Sent on Tuesday, silent ever since
Your surveyor spent an hour at the house. They went in the loft, photographed the consumer unit, measured the roof and talked the homeowners through panels and a battery. The designer produced a layout and generation estimate, and a proposal went out on Tuesday. The couple said it looked great. Since then, nothing.
The sales manager has thirty quotes like it in the CRM. Some are waiting on a partner to agree, some are comparing three installers, some are worried about the scaffolding or the price of a battery, and some have simply forgotten. Nobody knows which is which, and the follow-up is a single 'just checking in' email when someone remembers.
Why solar quotes stall
- The decision is large and new to most homeowners, and they have questions they do not ask the surveyor on the day.
- They get quotes from several installers with different panel counts, batteries and inverter types, and cannot compare them easily.
- Questions about payback, export tariffs and battery sizing feel like they need research, so they put it off.
- Worries about disruption, scaffolding and roof work are not addressed in the proposal.
- Follow-up is generic, late and depends on one busy salesperson.
The quote itself may be fine. The gap is what happens in the fortnight after it lands.
What cold quotes cost
Survey time and design time on every lost quote, which for a solar business is expensive time from qualified people. Sales capacity spent chasing quotes that were never going to close, while warm ones go unattended. Homeowners who choose a competitor simply because that installer answered their question first. And a pipeline forecast that is guesswork, which makes it hard to plan install teams and stock.
Follow-up that answers what homeowners stall on
- Each quote's stage and date is tracked in your CRM, whether that is HubSpot, Pipedrive or a solar-specific system, with the options quoted, such as panels only or panels with a battery.
- A short sequence of messages goes out over the following days, each answering one common question in your own words: how the estimate was worked out, how the battery size was chosen, what installation day looks like, what paperwork you handle.
- The proposal is sent as a web page rather than only a PDF, so you can see when it is reopened, and the surveyor gets an alert to call while the customer is looking.
- Customers can reply with a question at any point, and it goes to the person who surveyed them.
- After the sequence, a simple message asks for a decision: go ahead, not for us, or not yet. 'Not yet' sets a reminder for a date they choose.
- Lost quotes record the reason given, which feeds back into pricing, proposals and survey conversations.
The content of each message, including anything about savings or export, is yours and should match what your proposal and your accreditation rules allow you to say. We build the routine, not the claims.
Questions and the message that answers them
| Homeowner is wondering | Follow-up covers |
|---|---|
| Is the generation estimate realistic? | How the estimate was produced and what affects it |
| Do I need the battery? | Why that size was suggested, and the option without |
| What happens on install day? | Scaffolding, roof work, loft access, power off time |
| Who deals with the paperwork? | What you submit and what they will receive |
| Why is this quote different from another? | What is included, in plain terms |
Knowing which quotes are alive
Salespeople see which customers reopened a quote this week and call them first. Homeowners get answers before they go looking elsewhere. 'Not yet' customers come back on a date they chose rather than being chased into a no. And lost reasons tell you whether the problem is price, product or process.
Is your quote pipeline full of silence?
- Most quotes get one follow-up email, if that.
- You cannot tell which customers are still considering.
- Homeowners say they chose another installer who 'explained it better'.
- You do not record why quotes are lost.