Well guess I wasn't complete in my definition of a site survey. I also inspect the roof and rafter structure, the existing electrical service condition, do the shade analysis, and create a design and issue a proposal. That's the real goal to offer an installed cost. It's all included in the price. I suppose you could say the customers education is secondary, really unnecessary if I was just being a salesman.
Jim Duncan ----- Original Message ----- From: Joel Davidson To: RE-wrenches Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 5:54 PM Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Professional Consulting Hello Jim, If I understand correctly, you charge a consultant fee to teach a client about site selection and other subjects. You also provide information about your product/service to a prospect as part of the sales process. Some of the reasons why opinions differ about charging a site survey fee are: competitor do it for free, how detailed is the information, how much time and expense the information costs or is worth, what the market will bear, etc. Let's say you sell cars. You have to give product information and instructions during the sales process even if you sell conventional cars. If you sell high performance cars or electric vehicles, you have to give more information so the prospect can make an informed buying decision. You may even have to take the prospect to a track and teach him or her how to drive the car before they can make a buying decision, thus blurring the line between teaching and selling. The same distinction can occur with consulting and prescribing physicians, but most people pay their general practitioner for both services. I think it is important to clearly distinguish consulting from selling. Offering a consultant fee refund to clients who buy PV from you can be an attractive incentive. I tell my consultant clients that I will not sell them PV, but they are welcome to buy it from me or from anyone else. Some buy from me; some buy from other vendors; some do not buy at all. BTW - I think selling is part the "nuts-and-bolts" of running a business as compared to marketing which has a broader definition. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing But I'm ok with it if Michael or other wrenches think selling practices and professional conduct should roll over to RE-Marketing. Joel Davidson ----- Original Message ----- From: North Texas Renewable Energy Inc To: RE-wrenches Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 9:01 AM Subject: [RE-wrenches] Professional Consulting Joel wrote: 3 goals. ....or they can pay me a consultant fee to teach them I assume that every Site Survey must include a basic education on the fundamentals of PV. This includes mythbusting and re-education. It helps that most clients are genuinely interested in learning more before they decide to invest. I have based my 'consultation' on that goal and have a 3 ring binder/flipchart with a multitude of photos, charts, graphs, important quotes etc that I can refer to to emphasize a point. The handful of incentive providers in Texas, just like the ITC, offer almost no guidelines to potential customers for choosing a quality installer, unlike the California program. I have seen numerous examples of poor PV installations already in this still infant market and documented many. I have pictures describing "bad installation practices" in the binder and emphasize them. So I consider my face time spent to be valuable to both the client and me. So the question I have mulled over for some time is, do I continue to charge a one-time fee for this service? It's refunded upon closing a deal. Discussions on this site, in the past, seem to be divided. While increased competition may lean away from the practice of charging a fee, the "educational" value justifies one. I'll assume I'm one of several quotes and I want to be remembered as the one that was the most informative and helpful. Jim Duncan North Texas Renewable Energy Inc 817.917.0527 nt...@earthlink.net www.ntrei.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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