SolarQuotes leads are some of the best in the market. The homeowner has already decided they want solar, they have compared their options, and they have asked to be matched with installers who can quote the job. That is a warm buyer, not a cold list. So why do so many good installers struggle to turn those leads into signed jobs?
The honest answer is rarely price, and rarely product. It is follow-up. When you buy a shared lead you are almost never the only installer quoting that customer, and the enquiry that gets answered first, followed up hardest and kept warm the longest is usually the one that closes. This playbook lays out exactly how to do that, built for the way Australian installers actually work.
Why SolarQuotes leads are won or lost on follow-up
A SolarQuotes lead is different from a lead off your own website. The customer knows they are being matched with more than one business, so they expect a few calls. That cuts both ways. It means they are receptive when you reach out quickly, and it means they move on fast when you do not. If your first contact lands hours after the enquiry, you are already behind the installer who replied in minutes.
Most enquiries go cold within hours, not days. By the time a lead has spoken to two other companies, booked one in and started reading their proposal, a late reply from you is background noise. The job is not lost on the quote. It is lost in the gap between the enquiry landing and your first useful reply.
Step one: get every lead into one pipeline
You cannot follow up on a lead you have not seen yet. The most common leak is not a bad sales process, it is a lead that sat in an inbox, a text notification or a spreadsheet while the salesperson was on a roof. Before you fix follow-up, fix visibility.
SolarQuotes' own recommended delivery is a direct feed into the installer's CRM, and that is exactly the setup you want. Every lead should flow straight into one pipeline the moment it is created, with the customer's details, the system size they are after and the source all attached. No copy-paste, no re-keying, no lead sitting unseen. When SolarQuotes, your website enquiries and your other lead sources all land in the same place, nothing falls through the cracks and every enquiry starts a clock you can actually manage.
If you run Pylon solar design software, there is a neat bonus here: Pylon imports leads from SolarQuotes directly, so the enquiry can flow into your proposal workflow and your CRM together. The point either way is the same. One entry, everywhere updated.
Step two: answer in the first five minutes
Speed to lead is the single biggest lever on a shared lead. If you take one thing from this playbook, make it this: the first installer to have a real conversation with the customer has a structural advantage that better pricing rarely overcomes.
The problem is that "answer in five minutes" is impossible to do by hand, every time, all day. Your team is on installs, in meetings, driving between sites or asleep. A lead that comes in at 8pm on a Tuesday should not wait until 9am Wednesday for a reply. That is why the best follow-up starts automatically:
- An instant text or call goes out the moment the lead lands, so the customer hears from you while they are still on the SolarQuotes page.
- The first message qualifies gently: confirms the address, the rough system size and whether they own the home.
- If the customer replies, the conversation keeps going and moves towards a booked appointment, day or night.
This is exactly what Sarah, the outbound voice appointment setter, and Piper, the appointment setter, are built for. Sarah calls new leads within moments of the enquiry, qualifies and books. Piper handles voice and text around the clock, so the 8pm lead gets a real reply at 8pm. For a deeper look at why the clock matters so much, read our companion post on speed to lead in solar.
Step three: work a real follow-up sequence
Most installers give up too early. A single call and a single text is not a follow-up sequence, it is a coin toss. The customer who does not answer your first call is not a dead lead. They are busy, at work, or fielding calls from the other installers. Persistence, done politely, is what separates a low close rate from a much higher one.
Here is a sequence that respects the customer and still stays in front of them:
- Minute one: instant text back and an attempt to call. Introduce yourself, reference their solar enquiry, offer a time to talk.
- Hour one: if no answer, a second short message with a clear next step, such as a link to book a time that suits them.
- Day one: a follow-up call at a different time of day, plus a text if the call is missed. People pick up at different hours.
- Days two and three: switch channels. If calls are not landing, lead with SMS. If they replied by text, try a call.
- Week one: a value-led message, not just "checking in". Answer a common question about rebates, battery sizing or timelines.
- Beyond week one: a longer, lighter nurture. A message every week or two keeps you top of mind for the customer who is still deciding.
The reason so few businesses run this by hand is obvious: it is a lot of admin, and it competes with actually installing systems. This is where automation earns its keep. The sequence runs itself, every lead gets the full treatment, and your team only steps in when there is a live human ready to talk.
Step four: chase the proposal, not just the lead
Converting a SolarQuotes lead does not end at the booked appointment. Plenty of jobs die after the quote is sent, in the dead zone between "proposal delivered" and "signed". The customer opened it, liked it, meant to reply, and then life happened. Meanwhile a competitor followed up and closed.
Your proposal software already knows what is going on. When a proposal is sent, viewed or signed in OpenSolar or Pylon, that is a signal, and a viewed-but-not-signed proposal is one of the hottest follow-up moments you will ever get. Andy, the proposal follow-up agent, watches that activity and follows up the moment something happens, using the context from the actual conversation so the message never sounds like a cold reminder. A quote that gets chased the day it is opened closes far more often than one left to go quiet.
Common mistakes that cost installers SolarQuotes jobs
- Replying too slowly. A reply the next morning is a reply to a customer who has already booked someone else.
- One-and-done follow-up. Giving up after a single unanswered call throws away leads you paid for.
- Sticking to one channel. Some people answer the phone, others only reply to text. Use both.
- Letting quotes go quiet. A sent proposal with no follow-up is a wish, not a sales process.
- No single source of truth. Leads scattered across inboxes and phones are leads you cannot work.
None of these are hard to fix once the system is doing the heavy lifting. The businesses that convert shared leads well are not working harder on each one. They have built a process that treats every lead the same way, every time, whether it lands at 9am or 9pm.
What this looks like when it runs itself
Put it together and the picture is simple. A SolarQuotes lead lands and flows straight into your pipeline. Within moments the customer gets a call and a text. If they are ready, they are qualified and booked without anyone lifting a finger. If they are not, a polite multi-day sequence keeps you in front of them. When the quote goes out, it gets chased the moment it is viewed. Your salespeople spend their time in front of buyers, not chasing dead ends.
That is the whole idea behind Solar AI-Q: an integration-first operating system with an AI team that answers faster and follows up harder than any manual process can, purpose-built for Australian solar and battery installers. One client, G-Solar, cut admin workload and grew sales over roughly six months through structured automation and integrated systems rather than hype-driven tools. Results vary by business, but the pattern is consistent: answer faster, follow up harder, and the same lead flow produces more installs.
You already pay for your leads. The difference between a good month and a bad one is usually what happens in the minutes and days after each one lands.
If you want to see how this would work with your lead sources and your proposal software, the fastest path is a straight conversation. Have a look at how Solar AI-Q handles solar lead follow-up, or read more about the setup for solar and battery installers.