The solar industry runs on leads.
Digital marketing generates enquiries by the hundreds, but quality varies wildly. For every serious buyer, there are browsers, price-shoppers, and people who clicked out of curiosity.
Sending a sales rep to every lead is expensive. A typical solar site visit costs $100-200 in time and fuel. Multiply that by leads that were never going to convert, and costs blow out fast.
AI for tradies solves this: every lead gets immediate contact, qualification happens over the phone, and only serious buyers get a site visit.
The Solar Lead Problem
AI voice agents qualify solar leads within 60 seconds of enquiry, filtering out renters and tyre kickers before you waste money on site visits, cutting sales costs by up to 50%.
Lead Generation Reality
Your leads come from:
- Google Ads
- Facebook/Meta campaigns
- Comparison websites
- Referral programs
- Website enquiries
Volume vs. Quality: High-volume lead gen produces low-quality leads. Comparison sites sell the same lead to multiple installers. Digital leads have lower intent than referrals. But volume is necessary for growth.
You're stuck between needing leads and getting flooded with junk.
The Cost of Unqualified Leads
Direct costs per site visit:
- Sales rep time: $50-80/hour
- Travel: $20-50 per visit
- Vehicle costs: $0.80/km
- Proposal preparation: 1-2 hours
Total cost per site visit: $150-300
When 60% of visits are unqualified:
- 100 leads → 100 visits → 40 sales → 60 wasted visits
- Wasted cost: 60 × $200 = $12,000
- That's cost BEFORE the qualified visits
Ouch.
Why Current Qualification Fails
Phone follow-up challenges: Sales reps prefer site visits to phone calls. Qualification calls take time. Execution is inconsistent. After-hours leads wait until morning.
By the time you call, competitors have already booked the site visit.
Form-based qualification: Leads lie about qualifications. Forms don't have conversations. Key questions get skipped. No opportunity to build rapport.
Forms tell you nothing about motivation or seriousness.
AI-Powered Lead Qualification
Similar to how we've automated quote followups for Australian tradies, AI transforms lead qualification from manual chaos to systematic execution.