CASE STUDY · COMMERCIAL SOLAR INSTALLER · 6 MIN READ

Castle Eco Solutions: Picking From About 20 Leads a Day, and Five Surveys in Three Weeks

working with our team

3 weeks

working with our team

appointments attended

5

appointments attended

with an MD or finance director

5 of 5

with an MD or finance director

the biggest job he is working on

~900kW

the biggest job he is working on

7:34

From grant schemes to commercial solar

Castle Eco did "a lot of insulation and heat pumps solar, battery storage under government grants". When those schemes were cut, the business had to diversify. It also has a company in Saudi Arabia that does solar.

Dean found the domestic market "a bit of a race to the bottom", and a mix of commercial and domestic work suits him. The hard part was getting in front of businesses: "we were really struggling to get decent commercial leads, how we get through the door." A company doing LinkedIn outreach and email campaigns did not help: "I think I paid them five grand, and I've never heard o- of them since."

How Dean chooses his leads

With our team, in his words, "we loaded a couple of grand on a card, and the leads started coming through within 10 minutes." The leads arrive on WhatsApp with the detail first, and he decides which ones to go after:

“I like how we just get to- Yeah ... to have a look at the jobs on WhatsApp first with all the detailed information and get to choose what kind of jobs suit us the best.”

Volume is not his problem. There are "probably 20 a day coming through on WhatsApp", and distance is one of his filters: "If I've got a busy week and wanna travel two and a half hours, there's always a couple that are only an half hour of me". Once he says yes to one, it is held for him and not passed round other groups. He compares that with the alternative, where a lead is "pinging the same leads out to 10 WhatsApp groups, and it's the fastest finger first".

He has turned many down, simply because the business is starting again: "I could've been on a, on 10, 20, 30 appointments in the last three weeks". Choosing fewer, and working each properly, is how he keeps on top of designs and quotes.

What he does on the day: the drone, the photos and the questions

Dean described his visits: "I'm landing with my drone, taking some drone footage, getting the pictures I need potentially for the DNO application and talking to the guy, asking him what he wants and what he's trying to achieve."

Collecting what the network operator will need while you are already on site saves a second trip. Our guides to the DNO application for solar and the G99 application list what goes in, and the commercial solar survey checklist covers the rest of the visit.

Our team confirms each appointment before he goes, so he knows the people he is driving to are serious. One thing he still had to wait for was data: on one of the five, "the finance director's a little bit busy to get me the half-hourly data." The other four "were very serious".

The sites: a pub in Wales and a job of nearly 900kW

The five visits covered a spread of sizes: "a couple of 50 kilowatts, a couple of 100 kilowatts, and then a few big ones as well". Two of them show the kind of judgement an installer makes on the day.

1. 1

   A renovated pub in Wales

   "They want a load of solar panels on a flat roof. That would've been a quick turnaround job. But it's them who weren't ready for it, plus it's a listed building."

   The panels would go on "a modern flat roof extension" that is "out of sight from the road, so they probably will get planning, but it's for the customer to go through that malarkey first." Our commercial solar planning permission guide explains what changes on a listed building.

2. 2

   A job of nearly 900kW, 25 minutes away

   "It's nearly 900 kilowatt job, but they've, ... and, they're quite serious about it. So yeah progressing nicely."

   Dean went even though he thinks it is "a little bit too big for me to be my first one", because it was close: "I think, 25 minutes from my office." He expects to take on some smaller jobs alongside it. A system that size is a G99 job, and the grid connections reform guide covers how the queue now works.

He is clear about where the work sits now: "out of them five jobs, if I close two, I'll be absolutely over the moon." In his words, "You've done your job. It's over to me now."

Paying for attended surveys

Asked whether paying only for an attended survey is a model that can grow with Castle Eco, Dean said: "Absolutely." He also asked about cancellations: "if they cancel for any reason, you obviously replace that, don't you?" They are replaced.

You only pay for appointments that are actually attended, and any that aren't viable we replace. The commercial solar lead cost guide explains how the price of a lead is worked out.

Q: How long have you been working with us so far?

Dean: Oh, three weeks. Yeah not long. Three weeks. Been to five appointments.

Q: Would you recommend us to other companies who are looking to get more work?

Dean: Yeah. Absolutely.

The full interview is in the video above. TNW Marketing's own write-up of Dean Walmsley's interview is on tnwmarketing.com. More installers talk about their leads in our case studies and on the reviews page.

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