James Vincent Enterprises case study: commercial solar leads in Bristol, Wales and Bath, and a project with the DNO

Word for word from the interview, with filler words such as “um” left out. A few short passages are left out (marked “...”), so the video above says a little more than the text below.

Interviewer: James I know you've been working with us on getting you guys some commercial leads if you would like to introduce you and your business that would be great for the context of the video.

James: Sure. My name is James Vincent. My business is James Vincent Enterprises, and for the past year I have been working in commercial solar under various guises. And I've been working with Roman and TNW since about June time. Really looking at the sorts of leads that have been collected by his company and how I can then take those on and visit the clients and work out what's right for them

Interviewer: Brilliant. Yeah, you answered my next question, which was how long have you worked with us? I'll get straight into it then. So what has been the most valuable part of the service so far to you?

James: So I think I spoke with Bryn, who was the one of the managers. He was really knowledgeable about how the process and reassuring, I should say, about how the process should work for me as, as your client buying the leads. Really helped me work out all the, the detail that came up on the WhatsApp group. I should say the leads and the WhatsApp group process worked really well. It really demonstrated how quickly you guys can get leads in front of me as someone that wants to buy them. And then I could respond straight away and get what I what I wanted from those leads and then work out how I could diarize and go and see these leads.

Interviewer: Yeah, we try and make it really simple on the WhatsApp group. We understand that everyone's busy, doing their thing, nothing easier than just taking out your WhatsApp and looking on there. What's the sort of average deal size have we been bringing you so far?

James: So the average deal size, if I work back from from the lead that, the leads that I've been paying you, so I think I was paying you about £400 a lead. And the, actually the project that I think has got most success, 'cause these things take a while in commercial that project should be worth about 50, 60K. So I'm really hopeful that that goes ahead. We've done a couple of meetings. It's all in DNO if that means anything to whoever might watch this. It's all in DNO at the moment. It's not necessarily super simple, but I think it's going through in the right way. And actually for that one, what, what was great was I found a local subbie who could help me walk around the site with the client. And I think that, that gave the client some some real reassurance. ... the project's on the move. And it can be six weeks or, three months if things get complicated, so you never really know.

Interviewer: In terms of the lead volume as well how has that been?

James: That was really good. I ended up buying only a handful of leads from yourself. But that was, that, that was fine. I got a whole load of volume on the WhatsApp group, what I've mentioned. And that's what I needed at the time, 'cause I needed to really understand the sorts of leads, whether they were right for me, whether they were big enough for me to service in whatever way. And I would absolutely have confidence if I was going to do residential solar, for example, in the future. I would have absolute confidence that I'd be able to use use TNW leads again.

Interviewer: And in terms of the communication and customer service, how has that been with the team?

James: That's been great. You guys have been really keen. You guys have been ringing me, "Oh, look, I've got this really good lead. I think it's right for you." I think sometimes when I say I really need the leads to be of in the Bristol, Wales, Bath area, that doesn't mean on the South Wiltshire Coast, in the nicest possible way. 'Cause there is a limit about how long I'm prepared to drive. But I think we, we found a groove, and we found the way to find the right balance.

Interviewer: ... And in terms of the performance-based approach where, you would only pay for an attended appointment is that something that would be scalable for someone like yourself?

James: In answer to your question, yes, I do think that's scalable. And it focuses my mind as an introducer and a solar provider on exactly what sort of leads I want to pay for ultimately. I think me paying up front with you guys focuses that even more. What I would say is you never know how good the lead is until you actually turn up and see the property and talk to the person and see the bill. You guys did a great job of getting a lot of the material and information. Some of that and I know it's really difficult to tease out, basic stuff like usage and how complicated is your roof and your cabling and and lease and tenants and that sort of stuff. So I think it was a learning for me on what actually information or what even more information do I need armed with before I go and see a potential client. ... it's definitely scalable.

Interviewer: What would they be? Just out of curiosity.

James: number one, Has the client, potential client engaged with another solar provider already and how far have they got through that process? So for example if I turned up to a place and and I, we didn't know that they'd already gone with another company and the DNO had already been been submitted, that means it's a wasted trip for me, but it's still a learning. So that, that's number one. Number two it's probably learning about size of system. So really... and this is a bit of my learning playing around on OpenSolar, really gauging what the opportunity is and if it's a quick win or if it's likely to take a little time. That's not necessarily you guys. The third one would be, and this depends on whether it's a farm or industrial, that sort of thing, the whole single phase, three phase. And it just gets really complicated. And again, it will be really difficult to try and get all of that information on the phone. ... I've been to a, a beautiful farm. It's all Airbnbs and yurts, and he says, "Oh, I've got a swimming pool here, and I've got a field I can do a ground mount." Great, but when you then start thinking about transmission and groundworks, it gets really complex

Interviewer: ... we've got, if they've had previous quotes from other solar providers now single phases and three phases on there now as well. And also we've just added in how many meters they're on as well. Literally from the end of last week. ... we've recently invested in a software where we can pull half hourly data from the suppliers within LOA ... very recently, like last week, implemented.

James: Yeah, the, the LOA is is definitely a mechanism to get round that. And the more we can we can prep a customer for what I'm likely to ask or want then yeah, the, the better really.

Interviewer: And one final question. Would you recommend us to other companies who are looking to get a consistent flow of commercial solar work?

James: Yes, absolutely. We've talked about a relatively short relationship, but I've bought leads, I've seen the process end to end. And I've made some valuable contacts and the clients have been hopefully, fingers crossed will come out. So I will sing your praises even more when I when that lead comes in.