A lead comes in at 7:40 on a Tuesday evening. You're at a kitchen table with another homeowner, so you see it at 9:15 and decide to call in the morning. In the morning it rings out. You leave a voicemail, send a text, and never hear back.
That lead wasn't bad. It was live for a few minutes, and nobody was there.
I sold over 250 residential deals as a rep before I ran marketing, and now we run ads and follow-up for solar companies and consultants. Calling fast is the least glamorous part of that work, and it's the first thing I'd fix, before touching an ad.
One note before the details. I'm not going to quote studies or industry statistics here. Everything below is either our own numbers or plain reasoning about how a homeowner's evening goes.
What is speed to lead in solar?
Speed to lead is the gap between a homeowner sending a form and your first call or text. Shorter is better, and "within minutes" is the standard to aim for.
It's a simple measure. A form comes in at 7:40. If the phone rings at 7:42, your speed to lead is two minutes. If it rings the next morning, it's fourteen hours, and you're calling a different person than the one who filled in the form.
Why do the first minutes matter so much?
Because the homeowner is thinking about solar right now, and that doesn't last. In the first minutes you're continuing a thought they started. After that you're interrupting something else.
Picture their side. They're on the couch with their phone. An ad about power bills caught them, they tapped it, they answered a few questions. For that moment solar is the thing on their mind and the phone is in their hand.
Ten minutes later they're making dinner. An hour later they're putting kids to bed. By tomorrow they may not remember which form they filled in, or whether it was solar or windows. When an unknown number calls at 10 the next morning, they're at work and they let it ring.
You didn't lose that homeowner to a competitor. You lost them to their own evening.
There's a second effect. A call that arrives right after the form feels like service, because the homeowner asked a question and somebody answered. The same call a day later feels like telemarketing, even though they asked for it.
How fast should you call a solar lead?
Within minutes, every time you can manage it. Hours is too slow, and the next day is close to a cold call.
The hard part is that homeowners tend to fill in forms when they're home, which is when a rep is busy selling. If you're in an appointment, you can't step out to dial. That's a staffing problem, and no amount of willpower fixes it.
So the first call can't depend on the closer being free. Somebody or something else has to make it. On our campaigns every new lead gets a call and a text within minutes, and the setter either books the homeowner on your calendar or transfers them to you live if you're available. More on those two outcomes in live transfers vs pre-set appointments.
What should the first call and text say?
Say who you are, why you're calling, and ask one easy question. The homeowner should know within a few seconds that this is about the form they just sent.
Send the text alongside the call. Plenty of people won't pick up an unknown number but will read a text that says your name, your company, and "you just asked about solar for your home." Now the number has a name on it, and your next call isn't from a stranger.
Keep the first conversation short. Check the basics, like whether they own the home and roughly what the power bill is, answer what they ask, and offer a time. You're trying to get an appointment on the calendar. The selling happens there.
What is the best way to follow up with a lead who doesn't answer?
Keep trying over the following days, at different times of day, with calls and texts together. One attempt is not follow-up.
A homeowner who didn't answer at 7:42 in the evening hasn't said no. They were busy for that minute. Try again later that evening, again the next day at a different hour, and then spread the attempts out. Morning, lunch and early evening reach different people.
Two rules keep this from turning into pestering. Each message should be short and say something useful, like two times you could meet. And when a homeowner tells you no or asks you to stop, stop.
What happens after they book?
Booking isn't the finish line. An appointment needs a confirmation text and a call, a reminder before it, and a rebook if the homeowner misses it.
On our campaigns about 65% of virtual appointments and about 80% of in-person appointments show. Those rates come with the confirmation and reminder in place. Skip them and you're back to hoping. The whole routine is in solar appointment no-shows.
Does calling fast fix a bad lead source?
No. Speed gets the most out of a lead. It can't put interest there that never existed.
Here's what we've seen on our own campaigns. Instant form leads are the cheapest to get, and on the cheapest ones hardly anyone picks up. Think 5% contact rates. Calculator funnel leads cost $18 to $25 on a new campaign, and about 15% to 20% of them book an appointment.
Both kinds get called within minutes. The instant form lead still mostly doesn't answer, because the form took two taps and the homeowner barely meant to send it. The calculator lead typed in their own numbers and wanted the result. Speed matters for both, and it only pays off on the second. I compare the two in Facebook ads for solar companies.
Those figures are past results, not promises. Your market, your offer and your budget move them.
How does Solarfunnels handle speed to lead?
We run the ads and the funnel, call and text every new lead within minutes, book them on your calendar or transfer them live, then confirm, remind and rebook. You show up and sell.
It's a flat monthly fee with ad spend separate. The details are on the pricing page.
A few limits. We only work real-time leads from your own campaign, so we can't speed up a list of old leads you already have. We only do residential solar. And I won't guarantee a booking rate. Results depend on your market, your price and your budget.
If your leads are sitting until morning, book a 15-minute call and we'll look at where the minutes are going.