Installer guide · 11 min read
Short answer: commercial solar is sold to a finance decision, not a roof. Prepare with the site's real electricity data, meet the person who signs, find out why they are looking now, design around daytime use, offer more than one way to pay, present the proposal in person and follow up on dates you agreed in the room. This guide takes you from booked site meeting to signed contract.
A homeowner buys solar to cut a household bill, usually after a few conversations at the kitchen table. A business buys it as a capital project. The person you meet may not be the person who signs, the numbers are checked by someone who reads cash-flow forecasts for a living, and the decision can go through a board, a landlord or a parent company.
That changes what wins. Domestic sales reward speed and a clear price. Commercial sales reward preparation, a design built on the site's actual electricity use, honest numbers and patient, organised follow-up. Deals can be lost without a competitor ever winning them: they drift because nobody owned the next step.
Ask for these when the meeting is booked, and again in the confirmation the day before. A meeting where you arrive with the bills already analysed is half a sales meeting and half a survey.
| What to get | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| 12 months of electricity bills or half-hourly data | Sizes the system to daytime use instead of roof area, and shows the real unit rate the savings are based on |
| Roof details and photos | Material, age, condition, any asbestos or planned re-roofing; a roof that needs replacing first changes the whole project |
| Ownership or lease | A leased building needs the landlord's written consent and enough lease left to see the payback through |
| Who will attend | The person who signs off capital spend, not only the person who took the call |
| A quick desk check | Satellite view of the roof, Companies House filings, and anything public about net zero or energy targets |
If the meeting came from a supplier, read the write-up properly: ownership, energy spend, roof and the decision-maker should already be covered. Our commercial solar lead qualification checklist lists what a good write-up contains, and commercial solar leads compared shows what different suppliers check before booking.
Spend the first part of the meeting asking, not presenting. These questions find the reason to buy and the route to a signature.
| Topic | Example question | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Energy and operations | "When is the site busiest? What runs all day: lighting, chillers, compressors, machinery, charging?" | Daytime load is what makes commercial solar pay; weekend or night-heavy sites need batteries or a smaller array |
| The reason now | "What made you look at solar this year?" | Bills, a customer's carbon requirement, a board target, a new building: the reason is what your proposal answers |
| Plans for the site | "Any plans to expand, move, re-roof or add EV charging in the next few years?" | Avoids designing for a building that will change, and opens the door to a bigger system |
| How decisions are made | "Who else signs off spend like this? Does it go to a board or a parent company?" | Tells you who the proposal is really written for and how long it will take |
| Funding appetite | "Would you look at paying outright, financing it, or a deal with no upfront cost?" | Changes the proposal: payback for cash buyers, monthly cash flow for finance, unit rate for a PPA |
Write down their words. When the proposal arrives, the opening paragraph should repeat their reason back to them: "You told us the site's bills have become your second-biggest overhead" lands better than a page about panel efficiency.
The proposal is read by someone checking whether the numbers hold up. Make it easy for them.
Keep the numbers you can defend. A proposal that overstates savings may win the signature and lose the referral, the review and, sometimes, the final payment.
Many commercial deals stall on capital, not on whether solar makes sense. Showing more than one route turns "not this year" into a choice between options.
| Route | How it works | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Outright purchase | The business owns the system and keeps all the savings | Businesses with cash and a tax bill; capital allowances can reduce the cost (check with their accountant) |
| Asset finance or loan | Repayments spread the cost; the business owns the system | Firms that want ownership without the upfront spend; compare repayments with monthly savings |
| Lease | A funder owns the panels and the business pays to use them | Firms that want predictable payments; check what happens at the end of the term |
| Power purchase agreement (PPA) | A third party installs and owns the system; the business buys the electricity at an agreed rate | Larger sites wanting no upfront cost; needs a long agreement and a strong tenant or owner |
On tax, HMRC's Annual Investment Allowance lets businesses deduct qualifying plant and machinery costs up to £1 million a year, and companies may be able to use first-year allowances. Point the customer to their accountant rather than promising a tax saving.
A PDF emailed to the person you met gets forwarded without you, and the questions it raises go unanswered. Book the presentation before you leave the survey: in person or on a video call, with everyone who signs. Walk through the summary, the cash flow and the funding options, ask what would stop them going ahead, and agree the next step and its date in the meeting.
| Objection | How to respond |
|---|---|
| "The payback is too long." | Show the cash-flow year by year, not just a payback figure, and test a finance or PPA option that is cash-positive from the start. If the site genuinely does not work, say so. |
| "We'll wait for prices to fall." | Ask what waiting costs: a year of the bills the system would have cut. Don't argue about future panel prices you can't predict. |
| "It has to go to the board." | Offer to present to the board or write the one-page summary the sponsor takes in. Ask when the board meets and diarise the follow-up before you leave. |
| "We lease the building." | Ask how long is left and offer to help with the landlord conversation. A short lease with no landlord support is a polite no; log it and move on. |
| "We've had other quotes." | Ask what they liked and what worried them. Compare on generation estimate, components, warranty and who does the work, not just the price per kW. |
Every open proposal needs an owner, a next step and a date in your CRM. Follow up when you said you would, add something useful each time (an answer to a question, a revised option, a finance quote), and ask directly whether the project is still live. A clear "no" is more useful than a proposal that sits for six months.
Track five numbers every week:
| Stage | What it counts | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Attended surveys | Meetings that happened with the decision-maker | Is the lead source sending real projects? |
| Proposals sent | Written proposals issued | Are surveys turning into designs, or stalling on roofs, leases or grid? |
| Proposals presented | Walked through live with the person who signs | The stage most often skipped |
| Signed contracts | Deposits or signed orders | Your real close rate |
| Days to close | From survey to signature | How much pipeline you need to cover the months ahead |
Once you know how many attended surveys become signed contracts, the lead calculator works backwards from your install target, and what commercial solar leads cost shows how to judge a lead source on cost per signed project.
Selling commercial solar well takes time, and the time usually comes out of prospecting. If your surveyors and salespeople are also expected to find the next meetings by cold calling, cold email or LinkedIn, one of the two jobs suffers.
TNW Marketing books pre-qualified, exclusive commercial solar site meetings with the decision-maker, checked for ownership or landlord consent, energy spend, roof suitability and buying intent. You pay per qualified, attended appointment, with no retainer and no minimum spend. See how pay per appointment works, read about appointment setting for solar installers, compare pay per lead vs retainer, or hear from installers on the video reviews page and in our installer case studies.
See available projectsLonger than domestic. Small businesses where the owner signs can decide within weeks of a good proposal; larger firms, multi-site groups and anything going to a board or needing a PPA can take months. Track your own days from survey to signature so you can plan the pipeline you need.
Whoever pays the energy bill and signs off capital spend: the owner or MD in smaller firms, the finance director or a board in larger ones, often with an operations or facilities manager involved. Ask early who else signs, and make sure they see the proposal presented, not just emailed.
A system design and yield estimate based on the site's actual electricity use, how much will be used on site versus exported, savings at the business's own unit rate, cash flow over the system's life, funding options, the components and warranties, the grid connection position and a clear timeline to installation.
Yes. Under the Smart Export Guarantee, SEG licensees pay generators for low-carbon electricity exported to the grid, for installations up to 5MW. Tariffs vary by supplier, and on most commercial sites using the power on site is worth more than exporting it.
Often. HMRC's Annual Investment Allowance lets a business deduct the cost of qualifying plant and machinery up to £1 million a year, and companies may be able to use first-year allowances. The right treatment depends on the business, so tell the customer to check with their accountant rather than promising a tax saving.
More questions? Read the TNW Marketing FAQ or contact the team.
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What commercial solar leads are, what they cost, and nine UK lead generation companies compared on pricing model, exclusivity, qualification and contract terms.
Cost, risk, contract terms and lead quality side by side, and when a retainer can still make sense.
Full-service agencies, lead suppliers and pay-per-booking lead generation compared, the channels that win commercial work, and what to ask before you sign.
What appointment setting is, how agencies charge, in-house vs outsourced setters, UK rules on B2B calls and email, and what to ask before you sign.
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Official UK solar statistics: capacity and installations by size band and region, growth trends, 2030 targets and business energy prices, all with sources.
Win commercial solar site surveys from LinkedIn: who to target, Sales Navigator vs free, example messages, LinkedIn's limits and the UK data rules.
Cold email for commercial solar: who to email, UK rules (PECR, UK GDPR), deliverability set-up, example emails and follow-ups, and what it really takes.
Book commercial solar site surveys by phone: call lists, TPS/CTPS screening, switchboard, opening, qualifying and objection scripts, and the UK rules.
Video interviews with installers using TNW: site meetings booked, system sizes, deals closed and what changed for their business.
Work out how many site surveys and leads you need to hit your monthly installation target, from your own booking and close rates.
The channels UK commercial installers use to book site surveys, what "qualified" really means and the numbers to track.
What to check before you buy commercial solar leads: exclusivity, qualification, format, pricing and replacements.
Cost per lead vs cost per booked meeting, what drives the price, and how to work out what you can afford to pay.
A five-point checklist and the first-call questions that stop surveyors driving to sites that will never sign.
Browse every installer guide on the guides hub.
Pre-qualified, exclusive, attended commercial solar appointments with the decision-maker. Pay per appointment, no retainer, no minimum spend.
See available projects