While many energy efficiency programs offer subsidized or even free home energy assessments as a first step toward enticing people to undertake home energy upgrade projects, assessments do not necessarily lead to completed projects. Success hinges on converting assessments into home energy upgrades. High conversion rates (i.e., the percent of projects that progress from energy assessments to energy upgrades) are achieved through skilled salesmanship by contractors, a positive and timely customer experience, and and effective use of incentives or financing to close the sale. Many programs struggle to reach their upgrade goals because they allow excited customers to lose interest. By incentivizing specific actions for homeowners to take by offering rebates or low-interest financing, for example, program administrators can motivate customers to undertake upgrades. Deadlines create a sense of urgency and have been used effectively to motivate homeowners to action. In addition, some programs use an energy advisor or coach to guide homeowners through the upgrade process and ensure a positive customer experience.
Learn more with the following resources:
Topical Resources
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Contractor Sales Training: Providing the Skills Necessary to Sell Comprehensive Home Energy Upgrades
This Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Clean Energy Policy Brief describes how adding sales skills to contractors' existing technical expertise helps convert more assessments into comprehensive home energy upgrades. It profiles Efficiency Maine's contractor sales training and includes a list of resources.
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on strategies for contractor training.
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focuses on how mentoring on sales skills and business management helped one contractor increase sales and become more profitable. The call also covered top tips for supporting contractors, such as helping contractors develop systems to be more efficient in completing projects and creating a service plan with customers for additional improvements in the future.
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on trends in contractor conversion rates.
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This peer exchange call summary focused on moving from assessments to upgrades in multifamily buildings.
Examples
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This case study discusses how Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) used performance-based incentives, limited-time bonus rebates, early financing approvals, and seasonal advantages to broaden its program reach and increase home upgrade completions.
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This case study discusses BetterBuildings for Michigan's targeted outreach campaigns which applied varying incentives and outreach strategies to neighborhoods with a goal to understand which rebates and strategies work best in the target communities.
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This video explains how Efficiency Maine helped contractors gain sales and business skills through training, which helped the program improve assessment-to-upgrade conversion rates and homeowner satisfaction.
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This case study explains how Efficiency Maine provided contractor sales training to boost upgrade conversions.
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This case study describes Austin Energy's short-term, comprehensive rebate/financing offer to jump-start participation and valuable lessons learned along the way.
Tips for Success
- Follow through with customers
- Make upgrade options clear and concise for customers
- Incentivize the action you want your customer to take
- Motivate action through financial incentives and time-limited offers
- Contractors are your sales team – educate and empower them with the skills to sell home energy upgrades
- Measure and evaluate performance at key points in the process
Tools & Templates
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This toolkit was designed to help residential energy efficiency program managers identify resources and opportunities to help contractors, staff, and volunteers enhance their understanding of building science; sales and marketing; program offerings; and business development.
Handbooks
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See the step: Develop messages to motivate action. This step provides information about how to use market research to craft messages that will motivate customers.
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See the step: Build on what works and adjust as needed. This step discusses the importance of taking stock during the early days of your marketing campaigns, as well as later in the program, to determine what is working (and what is not) and make adjustments as needed.
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See the steps: Identify barriers to overcome with customers; Determine how you will deliver services. These steps cover understanding what barriers are keeping customers from pursuing home energy upgrades and what your program can do to overcome those barriers as well as deciding which model you will use to deliver program services to your customers.
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See the steps: Track quantitative and qualitative information for assessing program process and impacts; Regularly review and assess program metrics and feedback to determine what is working well and what is not. These steps discuss improving your program’s efficiency and effectiveness through regular information collection and assessment.
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The steps in this handbook provide information on how to solidify your program strategy and how you will partner with contractors and others to deliver services to your customers.