What Does Billionaire Jeff Bezos Have In Common With Solar Development? Keith Cronin The richest man in the world has something uniquely common with you. Seems far-fetched, but think about it for a moment. When he started Amazon, it was just a bookstore online. Nothing fancy. Back then, people were somewhat reluctant to put their credit card number on a website. It was the wild west for selling books online. At the time, you would drive down to Barnes and Noble or Borders and get your books, sip your coffee, and flip pages. But he saw the power of the internet. He knew people wanted to have more things. Books were the gateway. As he recognized this, he went to work on building out his vision. He knew software and logistics were going to be the foundation of Amazon. E-commerce was officially born. The hard part for Jeff was making money. He was famous for saying people want to pay less over time, not more. He continually utilized optimization of his process-focused mind and translated this into what Amazon has become today. How did he do it? Supply chain management is not easy. We saw Henry Ford do it on the assembly line. It takes time. It takes talent. It takes commitment. At scale, you can now see why Amazon has become a household name. He saw the partnership with UPS as a channel partner for delivering the products people were seeking. UPS was happy that they had an additional channel of their business. And UPS learned this from the USPS and took their share of their most desired routes. Today, Jeff created his own supply chain delivery with trucks and planes. Do you see a pattern here? What can you learn from history and how do you apply it to your ambitions? For starters, the companies of the future are going to be the ones that can deliver. They have a refined process for serving their audience and their needs. The feedback loop for clients and to have the level of support needed to fulfill their desires and to manage their expectations. How this will impact you, if you understand this. The solar business, whether it is residential, commercial, and or utility-scale, requires the kind of precision we see with Amazon. We might not get to where we have robots, like Jeff does in his warehouses, but we need to look at automation. At the very least, we need to template out what we do every day. We need to have a clearly defined system for consistent execution. This is where the money is made (and lost). The companies that can do this consistently will make the most money, have the most engaged team members, and have more satisfied clients. This translates closely with the Amazon business ethos. How many things have you bought on Amazon as a result of a review you read or a video you watched? How about feedback on a product from someone you know who purchased something on Amazon? When you order something on Amazon, are you relatively confident when you place the order, that it will arrive at the address you provided? And if it is delayed, will you usually get an email letting you know? This is the buying experience on Amazon. This can be the buying experience at your company. Jeff would approve of this training. If you want to work on modeling the Amazon business workflow, come join us for Mapping the Dynamic Solar Development Process on our live training. Remove confusion and increase buy-in from your team members. Satisfy your clients and deliver on the promise. Keep them in the loop if your schedule slips. Maybe you don’t want to be a Billionaire, but you want to improve your daily execution and make more money. It is priced like an Amazon product. Affordable. Valuable. Useful. See you at the live event. Solar Solar Business Growth Solar miscellaneous Solar Sales & Marketing Originally posted on June 29, 2022 Written by Keith Cronin Keith Cronin is an in-demand business consultant. He has helped solar companies achieve their goals through his perspective, recruiting, coaching sessions and products. After his company was acquired by SunEdison, he decided to help people and serve others in Hawaii and across the globe. After his tenure with SunEdison, he founded SunHedge. SunHedge assists small to medium size businesses to increase profitability by developing systems which streamline the workflow from sales to operations. He's also involved in solar farm development, and works with hedge funds, venture groups, high net worth individuals and land owners to bring together both parties to structure financial instruments for their projects development and ongoing operations with bilateral agreements, FIT and negotiated PPA's. More posts by Keith