What are solar leads?
Solar leads are US homeowners who have shown interest in installing solar panels and agreed to be contacted. They come from web forms, ads, quote sites and outbound calling. A lead becomes valuable once it is qualified: the person owns the home, pays a meaningful electricity bill, has a usable roof and meets the installer's credit requirements.
For offshore floors, solar is attractive because installers need a steady flow of qualified homeowners and pay well for each one. It is also unforgiving. Most homes do not qualify, and a solar company will not pay for an appointment with a renter or someone whose roof faces the wrong way.
How are solar leads generated?
Most solar leads start in one of four places, and each behaves differently on the phone.
- Web forms and quote sites: a homeowner enters a ZIP code and bill amount to see estimated savings. These are the freshest and most expensive leads.
- Social and search ads: similar forms, often with lower intent because the ad promised a number, not a conversation.
- Aged web data: the same records resold later. Cheaper, lower contact rates, still workable with a sharp opener.
- Outbound calling on consented data: your floor generates the interest itself, qualifies the homeowner and passes them on.
What does a solar lead cost, and what changes the price?
Solar lead prices move with the state, the season and the vendor, so treat any single number with care. What you can predict is the direction. Real-time exclusive leads cost the most, shared and aged leads the least, and live transfers and kept appointments sit above plain leads because someone has already done the qualifying.
Location is a large factor. States with high electricity rates and strong net metering tend to have more installers competing for homeowners, which pushes prices up. Filters push them up too: a buyer who wants only single-family homes, high bills and a specific credit band pays more per lead, but should get fewer rejections.
As with any vertical, the real number is cost per billable appointment or transfer. A cheap list where one homeowner in 20 contacts qualifies can cost more in seat time than a dearer list where one in five does. Track it per source and per state, not just per campaign.
Watch the season as well. Interest in solar tends to follow electricity bills, so it often rises when summer air conditioning or winter heating pushes bills up. Plan your data buying and staffing around the months when your buyer's states see the highest bills, and expect contact and qualification rates to dip in between.
Which qualifiers matter most for a solar lead?
Each installer sets its own criteria, so take them from your buyer and put them in the script exactly. Most solar buyers ask about the same things.
- Homeowner: the person must own the home. Renters are an immediate disqualifier, and many buyers exclude mobile homes and condos.
- Decision maker: the owner, or both owners, should be available for the appointment or call.
- Electricity bill: a minimum average monthly bill set by the buyer, since a small bill means small savings.
- Utility company: the installer must serve that utility area, and some utilities make solar much less attractive.
- Roof: enough unshaded space, a reasonable condition and orientation. Shade from tall trees is a common reason for rejection.
- Credit: financed systems need the homeowner to pass a credit check. Fronters should ask the buyer's approved question, never run a check themselves.
Appointment setting or live transfer: which should you sell?
Solar is one of the few verticals where both models are common. With appointment setting, your floor books a time for the installer's rep to call or visit, and the buyer pays per appointment that holds. With a live transfer, the qualified homeowner is handed straight to the installer's closer on the same call, and the buyer pays per billable transfer.
Appointments suit installers that do in-home or video consultations and have reps spread across territories. Transfers suit installers with a phone sales team ready to take calls. Appointments carry a no-show risk, so buyers often require confirmation calls and only pay for appointments that are kept. Transfers carry the risk that the closer is not available when the caller is ready. Ask your buyer which they prefer before you write a single line of script.
We cover the screening questions in more depth in solar screening for homeowners, and there is a ready-made solar call script you can adapt.
Why do so many solar leads fail?
Most solar leads fail on homeownership or the bill. Forms make it easy to click through without reading, and some ads attract renters who want lower bills and do not realize solar is for owners. Others fail on shade, roof condition or credit, which only come out when a real person asks.
That is why qualification on the phone matters so much. If your fronters skip the homeowner question because the form said yes, you will send renters to the buyer and lose the account. Ask every qualifier on every call, even if the form already has an answer, and log the answers so the buyer sees them before the conversation starts.
The order of questions matters too. Ask homeownership first, because it disqualifies the largest share of people in the shortest time. Then the bill, then the utility, then the roof, and credit last, once the homeowner is engaged and has a reason to answer. A fronter who opens with credit questions loses people who would have qualified.
Handle the common objections calmly. "I rent" ends the call politely, with a thank you. "I already looked into solar" deserves a question about what stopped them, since a high quote two years ago may look different now. "I don't want a salesperson at my house" can often be met with a phone or video consultation, if your buyer offers one. Never argue with a homeowner who says no twice.
What should a solar fronter never say?
Solar has attracted regulators' attention because of misleading savings claims, so keep your fronting script plain. Fronters should not promise free panels, guaranteed savings, a specific bill reduction, or that a government program will pay for the system. Tax credits and incentives change, and they belong in the installer's conversation, not the opener.
Do not pose as the homeowner's utility company or a government agency. Say who you are and who you work with. Leave pricing, financing terms and savings estimates to the licensed rep. These rules protect the homeowner and your buyer relationship at the same time.
How do you hand a solar homeowner over well?
Whether you transfer or book, the handoff is where many good solar calls are lost. For a live transfer, the fronter should stay on the line until the closer answers, introduce the homeowner by name and pass on the answers: owns the home, average bill, utility, roof notes, and anything the homeowner said about timing. The closer should be able to start with "Thanks, Maria, I understand your bill runs about two hundred a month with your utility" instead of asking again.
For an appointment, confirm the date, time and address, check that every owner will be there, and tell the homeowner who will contact them and how. Send the buyer every detail in writing straight after the call. A confirmation call the day before cuts no-shows and gives you a chance to rebook anyone whose plans changed.
Either way, keep the recording. When a buyer disputes a transfer or appointment, the recording is your evidence that the homeowner qualified and agreed to the next step. Our post on warm transfer rules covers the handoff lines that keep closers happy.
Consent, DNC and calling hours
Solar leads are often sold to several buyers, so check that the consent covers your company or the installer you transfer to. Under the TCPA, autodialed or prerecorded calls to mobile numbers need the right kind of prior consent, and buyers are increasingly asking for the consent record on every lead. If your vendor cannot supply it, do not call.
Scrub every list against the national DNC registry, the relevant state lists and your internal list. Several states have their own telemarketing rules with stricter hours or registration requirements, so check with your buyer which states they cover and what they require. Respect the homeowner's local time zone, which matters when a single campaign spans the whole US.
Keep your own do-not-call list in good order. When a homeowner asks not to be called again, record it immediately and make sure it reaches every list and every campaign, not just the one they were on. A floor that keeps calling people who opted out is the floor that ends up with complaints, and those complaints tend to land on the installer's desk first.
How bots can qualify solar leads
Solar is high volume and low hit rate, which makes it a good fit for an AI fronter. The B3 Voice solar bot asks the installer's questions in order (homeowner, bill, utility, roof, credit band) on your own script, and warm-transfers qualified homeowners to your closers or the installer's team. It runs on your existing dialer, writes dispositions you can see in the client dashboard, and costs $40 per bot per month with unlimited calls.
You can also have it book appointments as a custom bot, if your buyer prefers that model. See pricing for the full details.
A practical way to start is to run bots on the aged and shared part of your solar data, where most calls end at the homeowner question, and keep your strongest human fronters on fresh exclusive leads and callbacks. Compare cost per qualified homeowner on both slices for a couple of weeks, then decide how far to extend it.
