Hi there, Small solar retailers need to understand what large retailers already know: Hindsight is the poor cousin of foresight. Especially for the solar industry.
Hindsight vs Foresight You can learn from reviewing what happened yesterday or yesteryear. But most people want to know what’s going to happen next. The value of foresight is in preparing for what’s coming, make better decisions, and take maximum advantage of it. Even hindsight’s value is in the future. Learning from the past helps you make better decisions in the future. For instance: Solar companies evaluate the effectiveness of their tactics and strategy, by calculating changes to their market share using our monthly data. The smartest businesses also look learn from their competition, using our retailer and manufacturer leaderboards. They develop, order, and offer in-demand products by understanding recent shifts in product characteristics, such as system size & equipment wattage. However, foresight is even more valuable. Knowing what’s about to happen means you can position yourself right where you need to be, like the footy player who’s magically ‘open’ in the right place at the right time, over and over again. Solar companies typical measure of business success is how not how many installations they did last month, it’s how hot the phones are ringing this week. You feel reassured to hear you’re not the only one who’s phones are cold – because’s there’s not so much you can do to influence the whole market. But if you’re cold while the others are hot, that’s cause for concern. It’s time to adjust your tactics. AND if you’re late to that realisation, its alarm and panic. Foresight and Hindsight for Solar SMEs Large retailers, manufacturers, and distributors have long used SunWiz intel to their competitive advantage. Now Solar SMEs can gain that same competitive advantage, at a fraction of the price. Our Foresight section of LuminateSME helps retailers know if you’re alone with cold phones. For instance, this chart predicts the increase in forthcoming installations as they progress along the sales pipeline. It shows the recent increase in levels of consumer interest, leads, proposals, and sales. In this case all factors have improved from the previous month, meaning things are on the improve. There’s a fair bit of seasonality in the solar industry, so LuminateSME subscribers can also compare foresight indicators to the same time last year. You’ll be glad to know consumer interest and leads are also up >25% on last year. The full LuminateSME shows January’s leading indicators of revenue have already flown through to February’s installation volumes, which are also up on last month, and also up on the same time last year. This is great news, predicting a healthy start to the year. Of course, each state is different, hence these factors often vary considerably by state. LuminateSME localises its data to the retailer’s state of interest. LuminateSME provides meaningful, valuable, information tailored and priced for solar SMEs. It covers pricing, products, places, LuminateSME is now available here, where you can download a free sample. |