Closing More Sales with Sungage's Five-Year Solar Loan

With continued high costs of acquisition and a slower flow of leads over the last year in the solar industry, we know that even small increases in close ratios can make a big difference to our partners. Most solar installers close two sales for every ten consultations. Closing just one more can move the needle quite a bit! One tip we’ve seen work again and again to improve close rates is mastering the sale of our five year loan.

Most customers are shown similar financing options by the companies that they interview. Knowing how and when to offer the five year loan can make your solution stand out from the crowd.

Connect Solar to a Customer’s Long-Term Financial Goals

The Sungage five year loan can align with a customer’s long-term financial goals. Paying a loan off so quickly provides flexibility and peace of mind by freeing up the monthly budget before important life events like sending kids to college or retirement. In addition to that, a five year loan will always provide the greatest lifetime savings.

Freedom from Long-Term Commitments

Sungage has always strived to provide financial products that are consumer friendly (we were started by a homeowner after all!). While many homeowners love the low monthly payments and immediate utility savings of the longer term loans, others can be hesitant to commit to long-term financing.

That is where the five year loan can be so effective —  it’s comfortable because the commitment length is similar to a car loan.

A five year loan can entice customers who do not want long-term obligations. Just look at how many monthly payments are involved with each loan term: A 20 year loan means that a customer will need to make 240 monthly payments to pay off the loan. In contrast, a customer will pay back a five year loan in just 60 installments. Since the end of the loan is easy for customers to visualize, it is exciting to think about total freedom from electricity costs! If you sell in an area where low utility rates make it hard to provide monthly savings with 10, 15, or even 20 year loans, then it may make sense to change strategy and offer a five year option.

An Easy Decision for Traditional Cash Customers

Lastly, the Sungage five year loan can be really helpful for helping cash customers go solar. Although plenty of folks identify themselves as cash customers at the start of a sale, it can be hard to get them to go solar as writing those checks or obtaining home equity isn’t as easy as it sounds. With our five year loan, customers maximize savings (since a shorter term means less interest cost) and customers can also float the tax credit amount for a tax season without any interest or payments on that portion. Best of all, Sungage loans have no prepayment penalty. Once they get their tax credit back, homeowners are always welcome to write a check and pay off the entire thing, saving even more. This helps you turn a $30,000 decision into a $300 per month decision!

Focus on the Big Picture

It stings when customers choose a competitor over you. It’s important to stay positive and remember an important reality —  that most customers don’t end up going solar after seeing many comparable quotes. Offers of lowest monthly payment do not move every homeowner to a purchase. Providing different solutions for those customers who say no to solar can make a dramatic difference on your closing ratio. Our five year loan option can be a great way to help more of these homeowners find an option to say yes to!

A Quick Way to Start Selling the Five Year Loan

Follow up with customers who did not bite on a long-term loan option. Think through which customers you have met with and who might be enticed by the five year loan. Please let us know if we can help you grow your sales. Our account management team has over 75 years of sales experience and is standing by to assist!