"Consultant fee refund."
That is what I do. I believe it to be a very equitable arrangement. Primarily
it quickly and effectively eliminates the folks who are purely tire kickers.
Before now, I used a lot more words to describe it.
Thanks, Joel
Bill Loesch
Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar
----- Original Message -----
From: North Texas Renewable Energy Inc
To: RE-wrenches
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Professional Consulting
Well guess I wasn't complete in my definition of a site survey. I also
inspect the roof and rafter structure, the existing electrical service
condition, do the shade analysis, and create a design and issue a proposal.
That's the real goal to offer an installed cost. It's all included in the price.
I suppose you could say the customers education is secondary, really
unnecessary if I was just being a salesman.
Jim Duncan
----- Original Message -----
From: Joel Davidson
To: RE-wrenches
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Professional Consulting
Hello Jim,
If I understand correctly, you charge a consultant fee to teach a client
about site selection and other subjects. You also provide information about
your product/service to a prospect as part of the sales process.
Some of the reasons why opinions differ about charging a site survey fee
are: competitor do it for free, how detailed is the information, how much time
and expense the information costs or is worth, what the market will bear, etc.
Let's say you sell cars. You have to give product information and instructions
during the sales process even if you sell conventional cars. If you sell high
performance cars or electric vehicles, you have to give more information so the
prospect can make an informed buying decision. You may even have to take the
prospect to a track and teach him or her how to drive the car before they can
make a buying decision, thus blurring the line between teaching and selling.
The same distinction can occur with consulting and prescribing physicians, but
most people pay their general practitioner for both services.
I think it is important to clearly distinguish consulting from selling.
Offering a consultant fee refund to clients who buy PV from you can be an
attractive incentive. I tell my consultant clients that I will not sell them
PV, but they are welcome to buy it from me or from anyone else. Some buy from
me; some buy from other vendors; some do not buy at all.
BTW - I think selling is part the "nuts-and-bolts" of running a business as
compared to marketing which has a broader definition. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing But I'm ok with it if Michael or other
wrenches think selling practices and professional conduct should roll over to
RE-Marketing.
Joel Davidson
----- Original Message -----
From: North Texas Renewable Energy Inc
To: RE-wrenches
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 9:01 AM
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Professional Consulting
Joel wrote:
3 goals. ....or they can pay me a consultant fee to teach them
I assume that every Site Survey must include a basic education on the
fundamentals of PV. This includes mythbusting and re-education. It helps that
most clients are genuinely interested in learning more before they decide to
invest. I have based my 'consultation' on that goal and have a 3 ring
binder/flipchart with a multitude of photos, charts, graphs, important quotes
etc that I can refer to to emphasize a point.
The handful of incentive providers in Texas, just like the ITC, offer
almost no guidelines to potential customers for choosing a quality installer,
unlike the California program. I have seen numerous examples of poor PV
installations already in this still infant market and documented many. I have
pictures describing "bad installation practices" in the binder and emphasize
them.
So I consider my face time spent to be valuable to both the client and
me. So the question I have mulled over for some time is, do I continue to
charge a one-time fee for this service? It's refunded upon closing a deal.
Discussions on this site, in the past, seem to be divided. While
increased competition may lean away from the practice of charging a fee, the
"educational" value justifies one. I'll assume I'm one of several quotes and I
want to be remembered as the one that was the most informative and helpful.
Jim Duncan
North Texas Renewable Energy Inc
817.917.0527
[email protected]
www.ntrei.com
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