Short answer: LinkedIn lets a commercial solar installer find the owners, finance directors, facilities managers and landlords who decide on solar and start real conversations with them. It works when someone credible spends a few hours every week targeting tightly, writing short messages by hand and moving warm chats to a call, then a site survey. It is not a mass-messaging channel: LinkedIn bans the automation tools that try.
LinkedIn prospecting tends to suit installers who:
It is a weaker fit if:
Commercial solar usually has more than one decision-maker. Map the roles before you search:
| Role | Why they matter | What they care about |
|---|---|---|
| Owner, MD or finance director | Signs off the spend and sees the bill | Payback, cash flow, finance |
| Operations or production director | Runs the daytime load solar offsets | Uptime and disruption |
| Facilities or estates manager | Knows the roof, meters and lease | Roof condition, warranties, access |
| Landlord or property manager | Controls the roof on let buildings | Rental value, tenants, lease terms |
| Farm, warehouse or logistics owner | Big roofs or land, steady daytime use | Cold stores, chargers, ground mounts |
Start from sites: a big roof and daytime use. The UK commercial solar market in numbers shows where the volume is; public buyers often use commercial solar tenders and frameworks instead.
Prospects check your profile before they accept, so write it for people who run commercial buildings.
You can start free. Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool; figures below are from LinkedIn's own pages.
| Free LinkedIn | Sales Navigator | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (LinkedIn UK, 7 Oct 2026) | £0 | Core £94.99/month or £959.88/year; Advanced £130.00/month or £1,499.88/year; Advanced Plus on request. May exclude VAT. |
| Search | Standard people and company search | 50+ advanced search filters |
| Messaging | Message your connections | Plus 50 InMail credits a month on every plan, to reach people you are not connected to |
Prove you can keep up the routine on the free account, then try Sales Navigator once your lists outgrow basic search. Paying does not lift LinkedIn's rules on invitations or automation.
LinkedIn advises explaining why you want to connect, and its Professional Community Policies say not to use invitations to send promotional messages to people you don't know. So the request is a reason to connect, never a pitch. Free accounts can add a note to three requests a month (up to 200 characters each); Premium members can personalise every one. The examples are illustrations, not tested scripts.
The pattern: the first line is about their site, one question, no figures or promises, a small ask. Two follow-ups with no reply is enough, and anyone who says stop gets nothing further. For the email side, see our guide to cold email for commercial solar.
The people you message look at your recent posts. What tends to work for installers:
The ASA's remit covers selling messages in online space you control, such as your own social media, and CAP Code rule 3.7 requires documentary evidence for objective claims. A savings percentage with nothing behind it is a risk.
Paid ads are a separate route. LinkedIn's Lead Gen Forms come pre-filled with profile data, so enquiries are easy to send; qualify them by phone before anyone visits a site.
The thread's only job is to get a call. When someone is interested, suggest 15 minutes on the phone, qualify, ask for a recent bill and book the survey with the decision-maker present. Ask:
| Question | Red flag |
|---|---|
| Do you own the building, or lease it? | "We are tenants, the lease is up next year" |
| Roughly what is your electricity spend, and is it mostly daytime? | Mostly night-time use, or a very small bill |
| How old is the roof? Any spare land? | End-of-life roof with no budget to fix it |
| Who else would sign this off? | "Head office decides" with no name |
| What made you look at this now? | "Just gathering prices for next year" |
Our checklist on how to qualify commercial solar leads goes further. Track every stage, from invitation to signed, and the free lead calculator turns your rates into the activity your install target needs.
From the ICO's guidance on business-to-business marketing (this is a summary, not legal advice; the ICO says the guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act):
In practice: target businesses, stay relevant to their site, start conversations rather than pitches, keep records, and take advice before anything at scale.
| What to expect | |
|---|---|
| Hours per week | Several hours a week, every week: searching, inviting, replying, posting and following up. |
| Who does it | Usually the founder or a senior salesperson: prospects want someone credible. |
| Skills | Short, specific writing; enough solar knowledge to answer questions; phone skills; disciplined follow-up. |
| Tools | LinkedIn (free to start); Sales Navigator Core at £94.99/month or £959.88/year (LinkedIn UK pricing, 7 Oct 2026, may exclude VAT); a CRM or spreadsheet. |
| Data costs | LinkedIn is the data; look-up tools cost extra. |
| Time before the first booked survey | Weeks to months: people must accept, conversations warm up, decisions take time. |
| Ongoing management | Weekly: answer replies fast, post, review which roles reply, update the CRM. |
Value the founder's hours before deciding. Our breakdown of what commercial solar leads really cost shows how to compare your own time with buying meetings.
| In-house LinkedIn | Booked meetings from TNW Marketing | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Conversations you started, at whatever stage | Pre-qualified, exclusive commercial site meetings with the decision-maker |
| Who does the work | You: lists, messages, posts, calls, qualifying | TNW Marketing, using outbound calling, email, LinkedIn and paid ads |
| Qualification | Whatever you check before booking | Ownership or landlord consent, energy spend, roof or land suitability and buying intent |
| What it costs | Your time plus tools such as Sales Navigator | Paid per qualified, attended appointment; no retainer, no minimum spend |
| If it does not happen | The hours are spent either way | Cancellations, no-shows and bookings outside the brief are replaced or refunded |
| Attendance | Depends on your own follow-up | Show rate of 60%+ |
| Exclusivity | Yours | Each appointment is exclusive to one installer |
Doing LinkedIn yourself is the right call if you have a credible person with protected hours every week, a patch you know well and patience. It is the wrong call if those hours would otherwise go on surveys and selling, or you need site meetings soon. Then pay-per-appointment commercial solar leads make more sense: TNW Marketing uses LinkedIn alongside outbound calling, email and paid ads, and you pay only for qualified meetings that happen, with no retainer and no minimum spend. See how appointment setting for solar installers works, compare pay per lead vs retainer or the commercial solar lead generation companies. For proof, see client results, case studies and installer video reviews, or the wider commercial solar lead generation guide.
See available projectsIt can. Owners, finance directors, facilities managers and landlords can be found by job title, sector and location. It works as a steady, personal channel alongside phone and email, not a numbers game.
Not to start. Sales Navigator includes 50+ advanced search filters, alerts on job changes and 50 InMail credits a month. LinkedIn’s UK price on 7 October 2026 was £94.99 a month (£959.88 a year) for Core, and it notes prices may exclude VAT.
LinkedIn’s help page gives no fixed number. It says every member, free or Premium, is subject to invitation limits, and hitting one can restrict you from sending invitations, typically for a week.
No. LinkedIn’s User Agreement prohibits bots and unauthorised automated methods for adding contacts or sending messages, and accounts using prohibited software risk being restricted or shut down.
Business outreach is allowed, but the rules apply. The ICO says UK GDPR covers business contacts’ personal data, social media direct messages fall within PECR’s definition of electronic mail, and sole traders and some partnerships are treated like individuals. This is not legal advice.
If a credible person has protected hours every week, do it yourself. If your team would rather survey and sell, TNW Marketing books qualified, exclusive site meetings, paid per attended appointment.
More questions about working with us? Read the TNW Marketing FAQ or contact the team.
How paying per attended site appointment works, how it compares with pay per lead and retainers, and what counts as an attended meeting.
How to choose a UK solar lead supplier, with eight 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.
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.
Where UK solar PV tenders are published, which public sector frameworks have solar lots, what buyers ask for and how bids are scored.
Official UK solar statistics: capacity and installations by size band and region, growth trends, 2030 targets and business energy prices, all with sources.
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. Pay per appointment, no retainer, no minimum spend.
See available projects