Castle Eco Solutions case study: five commercial surveys with decision makers in three weeks

Word for word from the video, with filler words such as “um” left out.

Dean, would you like to introduce yourself and talk a little bit about Castle Eco? Yeah. So my name's Dean Walmsley. I'm the MD of Castle Eco.

Done a lot of insulation and heat pumps solar, battery storage under government grants. But Labour decided to squash all that, so we've had to diversify. We do- We've got a company in Saudi Arabia that do solar as well, so we've just attacked solar. But doing it in a different country with the team we've got there and doing it here has been a bit of a different challenge.

So obviously the domestic market's quite tough because we're ... it's a bit of a race to the bottom. But you know- Yeah ... doing a bit of a mix with commercial and commercial and domestic kind of works. But we were really struggling to get decent commercial leads, how we get through the door. We've tried another company that kinda does L- LinkedIn outreach and email campaigns, and I think I paid them five grand, and I've never heard o- of them since.

Whereas you guys- ... we loaded a couple of grand on a card, and the leads started coming through within 10 minutes. I like how we just get to- Yeah ... to have a look at the jobs on WhatsApp first with all the detailed information and get to choose what kind of jobs suit us the best.

Yeah. And then y- we kinda pick the ones, you book them in. Great system for confirming the appointment, so then it were obviously, are these serious people when we get there? So we've landed, we've done five appointments. Finance directors or MDs at every single job, so straight through to the decision makers.

And the what, really, the closing side of things is our experience if, out of them five jobs, if I close two, I'll be absolutely over the moon. Some other more experienced installers might close all five. So it's not completely down to you guys. You've done your job. It's over to me now.

But the biggest interest- Yeah, no, I'm sure of that. Yeah. The biggest interest I've had is a a huge job. It's nearly 900 kilowatt job, but they've, ... and, they're quite serious about it. So yeah progressing nicely. Probably gonna have to buy- Brilliant

a few smaller ones if I'm attacking this big one. Yeah, no Yeah, for sure. Been good so far. I've had to actually, like I say, 'cause it speaks my time, 'cause I've had to shrink so much and start again, that you could be chucking me another 20 leads today, but I'm like whoa, let me just process." I'd rather be on that side of the fence than the other side where nothing's coming through at all, yeah. That's where we like to be. How long have you been working with us so far? Oh, three weeks. Yeah not long. Three weeks. Been to five appointments. Nice. That's good to hear. And in terms of the actual service itself, what do you think's been the most valuable part of it for you guys in particular?

Everyone wants exclusive leads, don't they? But I think even if you're pinging the same leads out to 10 WhatsApp groups, and it's the fastest finger first, isn't it? Oh, that suits me, put my thumb up. You earmark it for us, and it doesn't go to anyone else. So we are exclusive in that respect.

But not just the, leads aren't coming into a system where your appointments are set, and you have to go to all of them. Like a rush thing without getting all the information and actually choosing, ... Being able to handpick the leads that suits you is a real bonus. God, don't know- Yeah

probably 20 a day coming through on WhatsApp, and I'm like, "Ooh, that one." If I've got a busy week and wanna travel two and a half hours, there's always a couple that are only an half hour of me, which is good. Yeah. So yeah. We're learning. We're learning, you're helping 'cause you're taking a lot of that headache off me.

I'm landing with my drone, taking some drone footage, getting the pictures I need potentially for the DNO application and talking to the guy, asking him what he wants and what he's trying to achieve. And then, we're process- processing it. The actual ... If I were having to find them myself, Jesus crap Christ, yeah.

Just leave it to you guys. Love it. And in terms of, you mentioned a little bit about another company you've worked with. What's your sort of experience with other lead generators that you've worked with in the past? In the ECO scheme they were completely different. They were all rogues, to be honest.

But they were like, ... a lot of door knocking. The eligibility was very different. We're tackling the able to pay market here, so it's ... with other lead gens, this online, this global online lead generation firm that are, a- apparently in three countries and UK number one leading company, have literally ghosted me since March.

So yeah. So there's that. Then domestic lead generation coming through Facebook, they are hot leads, so it is what it is if you get back to them quick enough. But it's ... For commercial especially, like you guys have ... the proof's in the pudding, isn't it? It's, Yeah, no, I appreciate that Good system and then obviously you mentioned that they ghosted you, and did they provide anything at all or?

I've been that busy going out on your surveys, I haven't had time to complain properly. So I've let, left them to it. But the responsiveness over email, terrible. It's- Yeah ... I'm getting through to different people. Like you guys, on WhatsApp and, you're a busy man, but you answer every WhatsApp- Yeah

every question we have. You've always got someone there to, to- Yeah ... to assist you if you need. That's, that, that's the top priority for me. I've got two, two lead assigners in the chat, so you can get a hold of any two of them at one time. I've also got a manager as well that you can call, and then also me.

I like to respond within five minutes, like any time of the day. Yeah ... and that's, I think that's the most important thing. There's nothing worse than slow communication. Do you know what I mean? It's just like- ... it's just a respect thing, in my opinion. Yeah ... but yeah, no, I appreciate that a lot.

And in terms of the sort of average deal size that we've been bringing you, what... Like, where does that sort of land? I'm picking them, aren't I? So y- I went to the, this big one, even though I think it's a little bit too big for me to be my first one. And just because it were round the corner from me.

It were round the corner. It were, I think, 25 minutes from my office. And then some of the smaller ones, I went to Wales, which were getting a renovated pub, which will... They want a load of solar panels on a flat roof. That would've been a quick turnaround job. But it's them who weren't ready for it, plus it's a listed building.

But it's a modern flat roof extension. And it's out of sight from the road, so they probably will get planning, but it's for the customer to go through that malarkey first. Yeah ... and yeah, and then there were a couple of, I think, there were a couple of 50 kilowatts, a couple of 100 kilowatts, and then a few big ones as well, yeah.

A few- Nice ... perfect. And then in terms of the volume of

leads how's that been? Yeah. That's... Yeah, I've had to, I've had to thumbs down to a lot of them that I probably- ... couldn't take just because I I've just because we're in a, in the early days. I've been to five appointments. I'm processing them through. I'm doing the designs. I'm talking to the customers.

I'm out getting things quoted for them, as well as getting me domestic stuff going. So obviously yeah, I could've took, I could've been on a, on 10, 20, 30 appointments in the last three weeks, ... getting those done. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. And would you say that a sort of performance-based approach like we have where, you only pay for an attended survey, that sort of thing, is actually gonna be viable?

Would you say that's a scalable model for you guys? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the better we get at the con- converting them and processing them. I think there were only one out of the five where the finance director's a little bit busy to get me the half-hourly data.

He's under pressure in his own work, so but it's one out of five. The re- the other four were very serious, and I'm sure he is serious. He just has to empty his own plate, doesn't he? So- Yeah. But yeah. It's, ... No it's brilliant. It's, if they cancel for any reason, you obviously replace that, don't you?

100%. Yeah, no, I appreciate that a lot. And one final question. I always ask it, but but many people are hesitant. Would you recommend us to other companies who are looking to get more work? Yeah. Absolutely. In France, you mean? In France? Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. I always ask you the question. They're like, "Oh, what?

In my area, though?" Yeah. There's a lot of solar installers around me- ... so keep it quiet. Yeah, no, I appreciate that a lot, mate. Cheers.