Becoming a more technical sale?

[Ramjam]

Are you finding that as the market matures that customers are more informed and requiring a more technical sale?

I know some of you use PV*Sol to thrash out the different options and relative performance but having just paid for a fully functioning trial version I'm a bit underwhelmed.

I create a project for example with sharp 245 panels and another with REC 245. It is clear that the REC are a better option. This information I could have gathered from Sunny Design more easily and as I only use SMA inverters that appears to suffice????

Am I missing something, those of you who wouldn't be without PV*Sol what does it do better? The financials are all to pot, far too complex and missing such vitals elements as the mix between self consumption and export?

I've got a solar pathfinder with software which can calculate shading and has a different and equally useless set of USA rather than German sales fluff.

Both programs produce reports that look like a 10 year old laid them out.

Customers now seem to want to see why your system is better than a competitors offering, they have questions about panels that they didn't have 6 months ago. How do you lay out the information for a more technical sale?

 

[SRE]

We didn't use PVSOL until a couple of months ago and I resisted spending the extra cash for ages. For us it helps with shading, it's quicker at looking at different panel and inverter options - we used to use SMA a lot but use it a lot less now because Fronius and Power One are coming out better. I don't use the figures we do our own and where we are people buy from local people, they aren't keen on sales pitches. But we are a bit behind the times!!

Our customers are usually farmers, retired nuclear physicists or retired engineers. They aren't bothered about sophisticated graphs they want to know they are talking to someone who knows what they are talking about.

 

[Ramjam]

Great feedback thank you, anyone else?

 

[Worcester]

Interesting, because (I guess it's my background) we have never sold, we have just consulted and offered the best technical solutions to their needs as opposed to just bread and jam ...

 

[Worcester]

@Ramjam - you might also be falling into the trap that because you know more technical stuff you are using that in your sales pitches, I always try to dumb it down (we have retired super brains down this way too, and they know a lot more than I do), so I go back to basics of what is right for their needs.