A lot of installers have sorted out the hard part. The Google ads are running, the Facebook campaign is working, the website form is filling up. Enquiries are coming in.
Then the team gets busy. Someone's on a roof, someone's chasing paperwork, someone's on another quote. The enquiry sits in an inbox until the end of the day, or the next morning. By the time anyone calls, the homeowner has already spoken to someone else.
That's money you've already spent on marketing, walking out the door.
Why speed matters so much
When a homeowner fills in a form, they're interested right now. They've just been reading about solar, batteries or an EV charger and they want answers. A few hours later they're back to work, picking up the kids or cooking dinner, and your call is an interruption.
There's also a good chance they've filled in more than one form. Whoever calls first gets the conversation, sets the tone and often gets the job.
Worth knowing: a well-known Harvard Business Review study of online enquiries found that businesses which called back within an hour were far more likely to have a real conversation with the customer than those who waited longer. A day later, most enquiries had gone cold.
Where it usually goes wrong
It's rarely laziness. It's that calling new enquiries isn't anybody's actual job. The usual gaps:
- Install days. The busiest weeks for installs are often the weeks marketing works best. Nobody's free to pick up the phone.
- Notifications nobody watches. Form enquiries go to an email inbox that gets checked once or twice a day.
- One call and done. The homeowner doesn't answer the first call, and nobody tries again.
- No follow-up on quotes. A quote goes out, the customer goes quiet, and the trail ends there.
A simple test for your business
Pick your last 20 enquiries and check three things:
- How long did it take until someone actually called?
- How many were never reached at all?
- How many got more than one attempt?
If the answers make you wince, you're not alone. And it means the fastest way to more sales might not be more marketing. It might be getting to the enquiries you already have.
How to fix it
The fix is making first contact somebody's job, not something squeezed in between installs. That person:
- Calls new enquiries within minutes, while the customer still remembers filling in the form.
- Tries again if there's no answer, at different times of day, instead of giving up after one call.
- Qualifies the customer against your checklist: homeowner, right area, right property.
- Books the appointment straight into your diary, with notes in your CRM.
- Follows up quotes that have gone quiet.
Your salespeople then spend their time where it counts: in front of customers who are expecting them.
What this looks like with a dedicated caller
This is a big part of what our callers do for Australian solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger businesses. Each caller works only on one client's account, from our office, on Australian business hours, and every call is recorded so you can hear exactly how your enquiries are being handled.
Over the last four years we've booked more than 2,000 appointments this way, and around 1 in 5 of them has turned into a sale.
The short version
If your marketing is working but sales aren't keeping up, look at the gap between an enquiry arriving and someone calling it. Close that gap and the same marketing budget goes a lot further.
See how our solar appointment setting works, or read our article on shared solar leads vs a dedicated caller.