Did you know that not all solar sales representatives are employed by the same type of firm?
Some work for a company fully engaged in the solar industry that does engineering, procurement, and construction, otherwise known as an EPC.
While other solar sales reps are paid by outfits called "solar sales organizations" (SSO), which focus exclusively on marketing and sales.
When you’re shopping for a solar system, it’s important to know which kind of company you’re dealing with. Especially since an SSO will frequently do their best to disguise themselves as an EPC.
Solar sales organizations
SSOs have no real interest in solar energy. To them, it's just the latest hot opportunity to make a quick buck. That's why they focus on only two aspects of the solar energy industry: sales and marketing.
Solar sales organizations will often do everything possible to make it seem like they’ll be the ones doing the actual work. But, if you deal with an SSO, the reality is that your installation will get subcontracted out at the cheapest possible price to people you know nothing about.
This leads to two frequent causes of regret for customers who sign with an SSO.
SSOs lack accountability.
The sales reps at an SSO have one and only one abiding interest: closing the deal.
Once you sign their contract, they’re unlikely to know anything about who will wind up doing the actual installation.
But they are going to know one thing: Should anything go wrong, whoever their bosses wind up subcontracting out your installation to are the ones you’ll have to complain to.
This lack of accountability removes any incentive not to over-promise.
It also means that, if the work winds up being subpar, you’ll have to demand satisfaction from a company that you've never dealt with at all until the day their employees suddenly showed up and started working on your home.
To make matters worse, any warranty on your solar system will be contracted with the SSO, not with the firm that did the actual work.
As a result, you can wind up in a situation where your warranty is useless because there’s no one you can easily call upon to do the service when something goes wrong.
SSOs make their profit by redlining
Another problem with the SSO business model is its reliance on a practice known as “redlining.”
An SSO will usually get a lowest-possible “redline” price from a subcontractor, knowing that anything they get you to pay above it will be profit.
That means there’s no ceiling on how high a price they may try to get you to accept, which all-too-commonly leads to price gouging.
The result is that people who deal with SSOs frequently wind up paying more than fair market value.
What is an EPC?
In contrast to an SSO, EPCs aren't narrowly focused on making a quick buck through sales and marketing and then palming the work off to someone else at the cheapest possible price.
As the name suggests, EPCs are full-service companies wholly engaged with all three aspects of the solar industry, engineering, procurement, and construction.
EPCs provide end-to-end service—from marketing and sales, through the design and equipment procurement phases, and on to project management and installation.
That means that a successful EPC has to integrate all facets of residential solar installation into a comprehensive business model.
From your first meeting with an EPC sales consultant all the way up to the time your solar system goes online, you’ll be dealing with the very same firm.
Not being palmed off to another firm that you know nothing about has several advantages, which we’ll discuss in Part 2.