DOOR-TO-DOOR SOLAR

Knocked Out; How do you sell customers on solar energy? Hawk it door to door.

Daniel Gross, October 7, 2014 (Slate)

“…In 2011, Vivint, an alarm company based in Utah, decided to get into the solar business. It deployed a mobile [door to door] sales force [working on commission], attracted a big investment from the private equity giant Blackstone Group in 2012, and quickly built its subsidiary, Vivint Solar, into the second-largest panel installer in the country, behind Elon Musk’s SolarCity...[An initial public offering] raised $330 million and valued Vivint Solar at $1.3 billion…Vivint’s rapid success—it has convinced nearly 22,000 homeowners to go solar—highlights a recurring theme… >p> “…[W]hat’s really helping America catch up to the rest of the world in renewable energy and reducing emissions is innovation in business models, marketing, finance, and selling. The greatest advances happen when good, old-fashioned, earnest American hucksterism meets the massive consuming force of the American people…For years, the high upfront cost of solar systems acted as a barrier to adoption. In response, SolarCity pioneered the solar lease…Vivint Solar relies on a simpler model: a power purchase agreement…Each summer, Vivint dispatches a few thousand college students, mostly from universities in Utah, to sell alarm systems door to door, on commission, in every state; the Vivint Solar subsidiary taps into the same labor force. Many of the [college student salespeople on summer vacation] already have experience as Mormon missionaries…” click here for more

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