“Will Solar Damage My Roof?” – How to Handle Objections in the Residential Solar Sales Process

Buying a $15-30k solar system is a big purchase decision for homeowners. It’s inevitable that solar sales people will hear what are commonly called objections during the sales process. HeatSpring instructor and seasoned solar sales professional Taylor Jackson prefers to think of objections instead as anxieties or mistaken beliefs. No matter what you want to call them, how effectively they are addressed often determines whether a prospective solar customer chooses to work with you – or your competitor – or no one at all.

In this blog post, we hear an excerpt from The Psychology of Solar Sales course about objections in the residential solar sales process and walk through an example of a very common concern for homeowners – will the solar system damage my roof? 

Tune into the video or read the transcript below.

Welcome back. In this lesson, I’m going to do a script walkthrough for the top five most common objections from clients and responses that you might use with those objections. 

A few notes. 

Remember that what is most important here is that you do not go into a mode of debating your client. That is only going to make the objection stronger. 

Even the term objection – which is very common in the sales industry generally, in the solar sales industry specifically – I don’t love. I would think of these more as anxieties or mistaken beliefs and treat them as such. 

That said – because it is so commonly used within sales and it is a pretty easy shorthand to talk about both anxieties and mistaken beliefs – I decided that it would be okay to put together a lesson with objections as part of the title. 

All of that said, let’s get started and I’ll show you how I’m integrating lots of different principles in the same response to a single objection.

I’m worried that the solar system would damage my roof. 

That’s a really valid concern. There are some solar companies who do not take enough care with the way that they install the panels and that could cause leaks. Is that something that you’ve heard about? 

No, it just seems like they might. 

It makes sense, because if they’re installed incorrectly or a company is using cheap attachments, that really can be a major issue.

The way our attachments are installed. We try to make sure that there is almost no chance of them causing an issue. Additionally, once they’re installed, the panels will actually provide some protection for the roof underneath the array. Instead of being exposed to the sun and hail and rain, the roof underneath the array is going to be protected by the panels.

Finally, I want you to know that if something did happen because of the way that we installed the system, our workmanship warranty would cover it and we would take full responsibility. It would be the highest priority for our service team until the issue was fixed. You haven’t had any issues with leaks for your roof , have you? 

No. 

Good. Well, we would definitely want to make sure that any issues were fixed before moving forward. But if the roof is in good condition, it should be safe to install the system.

To learn more about common anxieties or mistaken beliefs from prospective clients in the residential solar space and how to address them, enroll in HeatSpring’s Psychology of Solar Sales course taught by Taylor Jackson.