Quoting - how do you all do it?

[SRE]

I'm going for the record - 6 hrs + 2hours on site - tricky roof! Got the job though ..

 

[dansk]

nice one - at least you got the job! 6hours - thats good going.

 

[grandfortune]

can i ask why it takes so long, 4hrs?. going to look at my first one next week,lol i assume ill find out, mind you have no software yet i thought that the inverter software does everything for you?

thanks
grand

 

[SRE]

I suppose it depends on your approach to your customer. If you stick with one panel and one inverter option then it would be quite a lot quicker. We try to give 3 different options and a lot of our roofs are quite tricky. By the time you've spent half an hour costing accurately, 1/2 an hour on PVSOL for an easy job, then another half an hour working out the return over 25 years and putting it on the right paperwork, the doing 3 quotes takes a while. Then your letter to your customer explaining what happens and printing off al the documentation, panel info etc and posting it or pdf'ing it and emailing it, followed by making sure it's all filed in a place you can find it. In between all of that you'll be double checking the latest offers and prices to make sure you're doing the best deal you can and checking availability of roofers, scaffolders etc - then you can sit back an put your feet up. It usually takes me between 2 - 3 hours. 6 was a lot but I probably went through a dozen options to see which was going to be the best for the customer. They appreciated it though - and we're known locally for going the extra mile - we don't advertise and are booked up til October.

 

[grandfortune]

ah i see, i was thinking down the line of one panel and one inverter i assumed that what was generally good on one roof would be good on any other or am i wrong in thinking that way. if a roof is of a more angle than another or is SW instead of S does it make a difference in what inverter or panel u use?

 

[SRE]

That works for some people but when you're in a crowded market place you need to think carefully about what will make you stand out. Customers can go to Tesco, M&S or British Gas for a standard install and a lot of the time they will be cheaper but if you're prepared to listen to your customer and understand what they want it makes you stand out. Some of our customers want the most power available on the smallest roofs - Sanyo, some want environmental credentials, some want German engineering, some couldn't care less and just want the cheapest reputable company with the best yield.

Don't be disheartended if you don't get the first few jobs - it takes a while to get the hang of listening to the customer and getting the balance right between not selling at all and a nudge in the right direction.

 

[Ramjam]

This is my procedure....

Take enquiry from wherever, log in customer register spreadsheet - allocate unique number
Office staff - Book site survey - google calendar, synchronises with pretty much every smartphone!
Office staff - Prepare indicative quote, panel literature and notes for surveyor (customer is interested in or concerned about...)
Surveyor - Take site survey form and indicative quotes visit customer
In and out in less than 1.5 hours as per REAL rules leave them with indicative quote for 3 different sized systems having explained how this will differ from their formal quote)
Pass completed survey form back to Office staff who prepare formal quotation in 5minutes (no exaggeration and that includes putting it in the envelope and sticking on the stamp)

Then I forget about it - I don't chase ever and I get around 1 in 6 has been as high as 1 in 4 and as low as 1 in 10 but I'm not pushy and I'm fully booked.

Only problem is now I've got between 4 and 6 site surveys to do every day and with running the company and visiting the boys on site and delivering MCS certificates to paid up customers I don't get time to eat let alone rest. I'm training one of the boys to do site surveys now, I've just got to employ someone to take his place o the roof!

I made a spreadsheet to do this which I sell, you can download a copy and play FOC if you fancy it then I ask for £150 and I send you a copy with your company details embedded, you can change pretty much everything if you want to make it suit you.

www.silverstonesolar.co.uk/SS9999-ProjectDetailsV2-CustomerName.xls

Don't mean to be profiting from this thread but if you're struggling it may well be just the help you need, I've sold lots of copies and the people who've bought have been very pleased.

 

[SRE]

I suppose it's all swings and roundabouts - like many on the Forum we're a 2 man band - one in the office doing everything apart from installing - stock, surveys, design, handovers, finance, quotes, sourcing, etc etc but we convert 2 out of 3 jobs, at most it's 2 out of 4 but that's not very often, so although we spend more time on doing surveys we spend less time visiting properties.

Sounds like you've got a good system going but there's a lot without any staff support. Out of interest how do you manage to get Google earth to measure the ridge to gutter? I've never yet managed to get an accurate reading from it - I can get the length no problem but the ridge always catches me out and that makes it almost impossible to quote on the day.

 

[SolarCity]

It takes me around about an hour to speak to a customer and survey the site (if it's straightforward of course). It then takes me anything between 2-8 hours to do a quote, but normally around 4 hours. I model everything in 3D and factor all shading factors into it. I generally quote for 3 different systems and produce a quotation which is around 15 pages long before we add data sheets.

We have a very high conversion rate but really struggle for time.

 

[Ramjam]

Roof plane calculations...

Measure the width of gable end of a building, divide the answer by 2 and multiply it by the roof plane factor for the pitch of the roof, hey presto you now know the roof plane (distance eaves to ridges. Remember to measure the out to the sofits to get the full roof plane.

This spreadsheet is free of charge, the survey and quotation spreadsheet costs £150 plus VAT.

Roof plane factor

http://www.silverstonesolar.co.uk/Si...Calculator.xls

Survey and quotation

http://www.silverstonesolar.co.uk/SS9999-ProjectDetailsV2-CustomerName.xls

Cheers
William

 

[SRE]

Sorry William, I didn't mean I couldn't work out the angle or ridge measurements when I was on site - what I was asking was how you could do that on Google Earth and convert it into quotes to take with you. When I measure the ridge to the gutter and compare it to an actual measurement it's usually miles out because of the pitch. As far as I can see you can't measure the gable to get an idea of the ridge to eaves from Google Earth. On site isn't a problem but I'd really like to have something prepared to go on site with but can't ever manage it.

 

[northernsun]

I suppose the only way of getting a rough estimate from google earth is to use an estimate of the pitch and then use trigonometry to work out the length ridge to eaves. You could get the "flat" measurement from the ridge to eaves (which is the bottom of the right angled triangle) Then the width of the roof and get a guess at the area from that.

theres a quick trig calculator here: Right Triangle Trig Calculator

guess (or use an average) the angle x and fill in side b with the google earth measurement.

you might even get lucky with a streetview of the pitch!

rough as buggery but a rough preparation guess!

 

[PV Martin]

Template, template, template...... i know that you have to do the site visits and sell yourself initially to the customer but spend some time now (you will save it in heaps later) design your templates on word etc and then you only need to change the specifics for the job in question. i can rattle out a quotation in under 1 hr and that includes a 3D sketch on how the system would look on their house (they love that bit), and a full return on investment sheet including expected inflation and payback period.

i know it sounds flippant because i have already set up my templates but really it is the only way, i have attached some samples.

Good luck

 

[grandfortune]

nice PV martin, but most of us wouldnt know where to start doing that, it looks great, could i contact someone to do it for me?

thanks
grand

 

[ez2own]

Template, template, template...... i know that you have to do the site visits and sell yourself initially to the customer but spend some time now (you will save it in heaps later) design your templates on word etc and then you only need to change the specifics for the job in question. i can rattle out a quotation in under 1 hr and that includes a 3D sketch on how the system would look on their house (they love that bit), and a full return on investment sheet including expected inflation and payback period.

i know it sounds flippant because i have already set up my templates but really it is the only way, i have attached some samples.

Good luck

Looks awesome , great presentation , which pv software do you use pv sol expert ???