Mini Posts

How long should a commercial proposal be and what should I show in it?

It doesn’t really matter how long your proposal is, though the shorter the better. Make sure you’ve got the following content, and make sure its not too wordy!

Make sure you demonstrate your claims

Anyone can claim to offer ‘excellent customer service’. Prove it – put up an image of your (glowing) web reviews.

Don’t make it too wordy. Otherwise it won’t be read

Use images instead of words – E.g. use logos of Master Electricians, Clean Energy Council
Break it up with headings
Keep it short and sharp

What makes you different

Are you local / national
Cheap

Can you size a PV system by just looking at a bill and analysing the peak/offpeak usage

At PVsell, we often get asked whether someone can size a PV system just by looking at the bill? A similar question is “do you have to have interval metering data”?

The short answer is “In order to size a PV system for a customer, you HAVE to have an understanding of the times (and days of the week) that the customer uses energy”. Its not sufficient to know that across a month they consume a total of 1000kWh of energy during Peak tariffs and 600kWh during off peak tariffs.

That’s because that customer could be consuming all of that energy …

What Electricity Price Rise Should I Enter?

How do I specify electricity price rises (and what electricity price rises do you recommend)? is an article that goes into more detail about entering prices into PVsell. As you can see from the image below, its really easy to enter electricity price rises in PVsell!

We commonly get asked what electricity price rises should be entered.

Our first piece of advice is, by default, assume a 3% p.a. electricity price rise – effectively CPI.

Don’t increase electricity prices by a large amount ongoingly, because if you do you’ll find power prices reach $2.50/kWh – at which point it may become cheaper to …

How do I select the best-sized system for my customer?

One of the most common questions we receive at PVsell is “what is the best sized system for my customer?”

The answer is “it depends on what your customer’s primary motivation is”. Most customers are buying solar to reduce their electricity bill, but they also want to achieve a sensible financial outcome (fast payback) in doing so.

Of course, the first consideration is “how big is the customer’s roof”? (Obviously you can’t put a bigger system on than the roof can hold.)

Did you know, with you can quickly and easily identify the maximum rooftop capacity with PVsell!

But typically its not the roof but …

Can a solar power system reduce peak demand, and how do include its value in ROI calculations?

Peak Demand charges are immense, and often form over 40% of a customer’s bill.

The problem is that while solar power systems are excellent at reducing the volume of energy (and associated charges), they don’t affect standing charges (such as monthly charges), but do they reduce Peak Demand charges?

For example, if the peak demand occurs during the middle of the day, then solar could reduce peak demand, but what if that day of peak demand was cloudy? Or if it occurred mid-afternoon on a winter’s day?

At PVsell, our parent company SunWiz has performed extensive calculations that demonstrate that a solar power system can …

Why is it essential to enter all information off a bill?

At PVsell, we believe its paramount that the information you put in front of your customers withstands the closest scrutiny.

The consequences of inaccurate calculations are huge:

At best, you could lose all trust, and consequently lose the sale, especially if an accountant looks over your figures
If you’ve overstated the dollar savings, your reputation could be ruined by an unhappy customer – so there goes your referral!
At worst, you could be sued by someone who didn’t get the financial benefits you promised

Unfortunately we see too many companies mis-calculating benefits, often because they simply don’t understand the importance of accurate bill …

Austin Vaughan

The tech support from PV Sell has been great. They assist with correct entry of interval data and powerbill info for my site. The reports generated from the software have assisted us to win our biggest project to date – 760kW roof mount in Western Melbourne. Couldn’t be happier with this software, really makes us look as professional as possible.