Renewable energy needs sales. Sales, sales, sales, sales, and more sales. Sure, we could use some better technology. But lets have the researchers do their job, and have the rest of us focus on increasing the adoption of our current technologies. As far I see it, the more panels on roofs and turbines in the ground the better and it’s our job to get it done. I want to share with you a couple pitches I’ve found that have been very successful at getting property owners and contractors interested in investing in renewable energy.

A little background, so you don’t think I’m a crazy person that just tries to sell renewable energy. When I graduated college, I liked the idea of entrepreneurship but never thought I’d like sales. My last boss Brian Hayden taught me one very important thing. In a venture that’s not based on developing a new technology or intellectual property, SALES IS KING. Like entrepreneurship, sales is about trial and error, always testing different strategies to find the perfect mix, with the goal being to drive the growth and direction of the company. Right now, the renewable energy company that can sell the best, will be the best.

Importance of Pitching in Renewable Energy Sales

The number one thing I’ve learned about sales is how important ‘pitching’ is. We currently live in a bite sized world. Thus, we need to be able to communicate what we’re doing (whatever that is) in a sentence or less to get peoples’ attention. A pitch is just that, a pitch. In sales, marketing, and entrepreneurs a pitch is not meant to close the deal and convince the customer or investor to sign the paper work. It just needs to be enough to get them interested in learning more. The great thing about renewables is that there are so many benefits, you can sell them to anyone. I enjoy pitching renewables to everyone I meet, constantly trying to see what there objections are and how to overcome them.

Seven Awesome Renewable Energy Pitches

Here are a couple of one liners that I’ve found work tremendously in getting customers interested in getting more information, depending, of course on who they are.

More of a Liberal: Save the earth. Rebel against the ‘evil’ corporations. Don’t have any cash? A power purchase agreement is perfect for you.

More of a Business Person: Renewables are a better investment than the stock market, last time I checked we still use electricity during recessions. I’ve used this one at least 20 times, and it works everytime.

More of a Conservative: Aren’t you all about independence? That’ll usually get ‘em.

A Small Cash Strapped Small Business: Reducing your energy overheard by 10% is like increasing your sales by 25% (exact numbers may be different) and there’s a lot of government support available for the upfront payment.

A Large Corporation That is Constrained by Public Markets: If you have excess cash, its a zero risk investment that will yeild a return of %10+, you won’t be able to find that anywhere else.

A Contractor (Small or Large) Doing New Construction (Residential or Commercial): You can sell buildings with lower energy costs for more. The building value will increase more than the needed cost to install the renewable systems.

A Property Owner Renovating: You can go many ways with this one. 1) The utility savings per month is greater than the addition costs of capital for the renewable systems 2) The decrease in operating cost = increase profitability of building 3) Lower operating cost = greater real estate value 4) Utilities becomes more fixed and less variable, especially when looking at heating costs.

Have I missed anything? What other angles do you think will be useful in pitching investing in clean energy to property owners and contractors?

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About Chris Williams

Chris Williams is the editor of Green Light Distrikt and Chief Marketing Officer at HeatSpring . He has experience in business development, prototyping and new venture research with a focus on geothermal heat pumps, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic technologies. Chris is an IGSHPA accredited geothermal installer and NABCEP certified solar installer. Chris is focused on solving customer facing issues in the creation and adoption of clean energy technologies and products. Chris has installed over 300kW of solar and tens of geothermal systems. He's invented the PV Pal , developed many trainings at HeatSpring, publishes the NABCEP Study Guide , the Hitchhikers Guide to Cleantech and has done due diligence research for Urgent VC . Feel free to connect with him @topherwiliams , on Linkedin , or through email about new ventures, collaborating, writing, research or whatever is on your mind.

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Tags: brian hayden, Nexamp, sales