Our Entire Process: 10 Easy Steps to Selling and Installing DemandEx
It’s difficult to sum up an entire soup-to-nuts process for selling and installing DemandEx’s demand charge reduction software with your commercial solar installation, but what the heck, we’ll take a shot. Since everyone has short attention spans these days, we’ll break it down in 10 steps. Here we go:
The Inquiry/Getting To Know Eachother
Step 1: “Wait. I can save on demand without expensive batteries!? Too good to be true?” Sam, a talented, smart, and savvy commercial solar installer (that’s you) hears about Extensible Energy’s software-based solution for demand charges in commercial solar buildings. Sam contacts us for more information and sets a time and talks to one of our helpful business development engineers (BDE).
Our BDE explains to Sam all about how DemandEx works and how it’s a win-win-win solar+software solution for everyone involved. Decrease demand charges by 30% without batteries? No-brainer. Sam wants to become an Extensible Plus partner.
Step 2: “Let’s share the goods.” Sam securely signs our digital mutual NDA. We’re partners now, and since we’re partners, we can now show Sam our partner portal and dashboard.
Data Analysis/Proposal
Step 3: “Let’s see how much we can save our customer.” Sam logs into Extensible’s partner portal, where he finds a place to upload new projects. The dashboard tells him exactly which types of buildings work well with DemandEx. Sam immediately thinks of a customer who’d be a good fit and easily uploads the building data to the partner portal. God, Sam loves technology.
Since we’re partners now, Extensible also gets permission to obtain the utility data for Sam’s solar prospect remotely. It’s a commercial office building in Colorado with high demand charges that are ruining the ROI and payback time in Sam’s solar quote. But not for long.
Step 4: “These numbers look great.” Extensible Energy sends back our demand charge analysis, quote, and savings estimate to Sam. He’s impressed and thinks the client will be too. To help see the before and after, Extensible has integrated our quote into Sam’s Energy Toolbase proposal. It shows his commercial solar quote with and without DemandEx. The increase in ROI looks great, and the reduction in total system payback time is even more impressive.
Sales
Step 5: “Questions? We’ve got answers--and training.” Sam gets some DemandEx sales training tips from Extensible Energy. The one-on-one training helps him answer common end-customer concerns and FAQs. Before presentation day, Sam signs our reseller agreement on the partner portal, and together we present to his customer.
Step 6: “Wow, that was easy.” Sam’s customer sees the difference in demand charges and is sold on solar plus DemandEx. The customer signs a letter of intent, but to get the final quote with the most accurate projected savings, Extensible sets up a one-on-one webinar and trains Sam on our building site survey.
Let’s Finalize the Numbers with a Simple Site Survey
Step 7: “Lets triple check our analysis.” Sam uses our convenient, online site survey app to complete the DemandEx site survey. He snaps photos of the thermostat, HVAC system, and a few other building highlights. We also coordinate getting info from the HVAC contractor and building manager. Depending on the size of the building, the site survey takes Sam or the building owner about 2-4 hours to complete, and it’s mostly done on a mobile phone. Easy-peasy.
Final Quote and Installation
Step 8: “The plan is good. Let’s do it.” Extensible creates the final quote with accurate savings numbers and costs for any recommended equipment. The final quote is signed, and the equipment is bought and shipped. Sam has ordered the recommended equipment from his favorite electrical supply company. No permits are needed to install DemandEx, so he can do it as soon as the equipment arrives in a week.
Step 9: “That was easier than I thought.” With the install date set, Extensible sends installation videos and documentation to Sam, but we don’t stop there. We also send one of our certified installation experts to the site to train Sam and his team. Extensible helps Sam install an eGauge meter, plug in Extensible’s communications gateway into the ethernet, and swap out all the old thermostats for smart thermostats. We told Sam it would take 8 hours, but he did it in 5 hours. Sam’s team member thinks he can do it in 4 next time.
Our Continued Support
Step 10: “Let’s rinse and repeat!” Sam’s impressed. He can see that everything is working from his partner portal dashboard. The thing is… he has another client who’d be perfect for DemandEx, but feels like his team needs Extensible’s installation help again. Our onsite trainers are ready to help at any time, and we always will be.
And that’s pretty much our entire sales-to-installation process in 10 steps. Naturally, there are more details for each step, but it’s pretty simple. If you have any doubts, well… become an Extensible Plus partner, and let’s try one together. We think you’ll be impressed—and perhaps more importantly, your clients will be impressed by their demand charge savings.