Management of a solar company requires expertise and in depth knowledge of energy and employee management. Customer Relationship Manager tools can help.
Solar is one of the most lucrative business models in the energy market. But solar management presents unique challenges to which your business needs to adopt. Don’t miss opportunities to gain sales and organizational advantages over your competitors.
Solar began its ascent into mainstream energy markets in the early 2000s. Though customers were scarcer, the market was less complex. With fewer clients and competition, solar management was a more straightforward process.
Now, solar is pushing technological boundaries in energy. It has become a crowded segment of the market. Solar power usage has seen as much as 94% increases in recent years and continues to grow.
New markets offer more advantages to solar companies. But some are engaging clients and growing faster than the rest.
Today, you have to identify unique needs and fight for key clients. Is your technology up to the task?
Why CRM Technologies for Solar Management?
Companies in competitive industries need customer relationship management (CRM) technologies. They allow companies to centralize customer data in a single cloud environment. This gives marketing and sales teams a 360-degree view of customers and prospects.
CRM is fundamental to modern business. These technologies have become more accessible to small companies as well. They provide advanced capabilities for tracking customer data, marketing efforts, and operations.
You might consider solar a transitional commitment for customers. They must change their energy solutions to a completely different model. CRM helps you nurture new customers better, and at greater scale.
Scaling your sales and marketing initiatives puts you at the enterprise competitive level. You’re streamlining solar management internally and at customer touchpoints. Consolidate your customer-related data, contracts, leads, and more in an accessible cloud environment.
5 Ways CRM Improves Solar Business Performance
Confidence is key when investing in new technology. You need a clear picture of how CRM provides business value for you.
The following five benefits show how CRM can transform your business. You will also learn how managed services models can help your business to scale. Consider your CRM investment as a long-term enhancement for your growing business.
1. Complete Connectivity
Your project and customer data are always evolving. It’s difficult to keep all team members updated, especially as your business grows. More customers mean more complexity, and team members can lose track of new information.
Assume you will grow customers from 10 to 100 next year. How will your team manage that new data? Successful solar management starts with connecting your team in a strategic way.
Cloud-based CRM solutions enable team members to access customer data from anywhere. They can make updates and track changes to ensure they have the latest information. They can keep track of project information and unique customer details as well.
Your team members can work together to keep information updated. The complexity that would have divided them can work in their favor. This is especially useful as you personalize customer experiences in response to market conditions.
2. 360-Degree View of Customer Data
Is your marketing team communicating important customer information to sales? Is your field service team aware of customers’ unique requirements? Exchanging this data manually becomes complicated as companies grow.
CRM solutions enable all of your teams to get an in-depth understanding of customers. Marketers and sales teams do more than simply share data. They get to know customers and offer personalized experiences at scale.
Solar management should span your entire business. When your field service teams arrive on a job site, they should know exactly how to talk to that customer. Your CRM solutions drives personalization, which distinguishes your brand from your competitors.
This also frees your team from unwanted email overload. It reduces the risk of lost or misunderstood data as well. And it allows your team to focus on creativity and innovation.
3. Data Management and Analysis
If you’re only storing customers’ data, you’re missing out on key advantages. CRM solutions provide analysis tools that give you insights into the solar market.
Are you noticing trends in the kinds of technologies your customers want? How does company size relate to purchase orders? Can your marketing team leverage those trends for better targeting?
CRM data analysis tools help you improve your sales and marketing strategies. They help you visualize all aspects of your projects. You can improve the ways you manage the lifecycles of all your projects.
You can identify unwanted gaps in times between key project stages. You can manage customer data, proposals, and asset management in a single place.
The ways in which you use your CRM solution are up to you. But you can maximize your software investment for the best in solar management. Centralizing management and team connectivity will only help your business grow.
4. Finance Management and Projection Tools
Improving customer and operational management are key steps towards driving business value. That’s why leveraging CRM data in financial management is a logical next step.
Using CRM sales data and progress indicators, you can visualize your business status at any time. You can make financial projections using customer and leads data as well.
You needn’t be in the dark about your business’ future. Leverage CRM to identify business opportunities. This allows you to plan and grow with success.
5. Advantages of Managed Services
One area we haven’t discussed is IT capabilities. Don’t let this be a deal breaker for your CRM investment. Managed services are a cost-effective way to get complete business value without straining your technology staff.
You can hire a third-party professional to manage cloud CRM software for your company. This frees you of the software management burden. It provides more opportunities for scaling your company as well.
When you manage on-premise software, scaling can be costly and lead to downtime. Managed services solutions have the ability to scale at a moment’s notice. You needn’t worry about software maintenance, security, or enhancements either.
Build Relationships That Drive Your Business Forward
You started your company to transform the world of energy. Keep your focus on driving business value. CRM and solar management services keep your focus on innovation and creativity.
Contact Invention Solar for your free consultation. See what scaling your business and driving customer engagement can do for you.
