AI for solar companies, done for you.
Every homeowner lead texted in 60 seconds.
We build and run an AI system for your business that texts every new solar lead within a minute, asks the qualifying questions your setters ask, books the design consult on the right rep's calendar, confirms it so the rep does not drive out to an empty driveway, and keeps following up for 30 days. Not another CRM for you to configure. Your consultants sit down with homeowners who are ready. Live in 14 days.
Why do solar companies lose leads they already paid for?
Because a solar lead is expensive, shopped, and perishable, and most of them arrive when nobody is at a desk. A homeowner who fills out a form at 8:40 pm after seeing an ad has usually filled out two more by 8:50. Whoever texts back first while they are still thinking about their electric bill gets the first appointment, and the first appointment is the one that usually turns into a signed proposal.
The cost side got worse this year. Wood Mackenzie reports residential solar customer acquisition cost hit a five-year low of $0.60 per watt in 2025 and is projected to rise 40% to $0.84 per watt in 2026, as the federal residential tax credit expired and the market contracted. Fewer homeowners in market, more installers chasing each one, and every lead costing more. A lead that goes unanswered overnight is not a missed opportunity anymore; it is money handed to the installer who answered.
The response-time research is old and consistent. In the largest published audit of lead response, Harvard Business Review tested 2,241 US companies and found the average response to a web lead took 42 hours. Only 37% replied within an hour. 23% never replied. A separate study of 15,000 leads found the odds of qualifying a lead were 21 times higher when contact happened within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.
| What the data says | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residential solar customer acquisition cost, 2025 | $0.60 per watt | Wood Mackenzie, March 2026 |
| Projected acquisition cost, 2026 | $0.84 per watt, up 40% | Wood Mackenzie, March 2026 |
| Projected residential solar market contraction, 2026 | 19% | Wood Mackenzie, March 2026 |
| Average response time to an online lead | 42 hours | HBR audit of 2,241 companies |
| Companies replying within one hour | 37% | HBR audit of 2,241 companies |
| Companies that never replied | 23% | HBR audit of 2,241 companies |
| Lift in qualifying odds, 5 min vs 30 min | 21x | Lead Response Management study |
Full citations are listed in the Sources section at the bottom of this page. You will see other solar speed-to-lead numbers repeated around the web. We left out every one we could not trace to a primary source.
The four ways solar leads leak
- Slow first touch. The lead lands in an inbox or a lead vendor's portal at night and gets a call the next afternoon. By then the homeowner has a consult booked with someone else.
- Unqualified appointments. A consultant drives 40 minutes to learn the homeowner rents, has a $60 electric bill, or has a roof that needs replacing first. Nobody asked.
- No-shows on the site survey. The appointment was booked but never confirmed. The homeowner forgot, the rep drove out, the afternoon is gone. In solar, a no-show costs a rep's half day, not just a phone call.
- Follow-up that stops at attempt two. Solar decisions take weeks. Most homeowners do not answer the first two messages and most setters move on. The proposal that was 80% of the way to a yes dies in a spreadsheet.
The fix is not more setters. It is a system that does the first minute, the qualifying questions, the confirmation, and the 30 days of follow-up automatically, so the only thing left for your consultants is the conversation that needs a human at the kitchen table.
One system between the lead and the consultant
Six pieces, set up for you on a platform we provide, tuned to how you sell. Your reps do not learn new software. They get a calendar with qualified, confirmed consults on it. The booking layer is also available on its own as the AI appointment setter, and the phone side is covered by the AI receptionist.
Every lead source in one inbox
Meta and Instagram lead forms, Google Ads, SolarReviews, EnergySage, your website, canvassing app leads, referral texts to a rep's cell. Each one lands as a contact with its source tagged, so the first message fits how the homeowner found you.
A text within 60 seconds, any hour
The AI opens with a short, human message in your company's name. It asks whether they own the home, roughly what their monthly electric bill is, which utility, and when they are hoping to move forward. Evenings and weekends, when most homeowners are actually home, are covered.
Qualified before a rep drives out
By the time a consult is booked you know homeowner or renter, bill range, utility, timeline, and whether the roof has a known issue. Renters and tiny bills are handled politely and not booked. The AI never quotes savings, system size, price or incentives. That stays with the consultant.
Booked by territory, then confirmed
Leads book onto the calendar of the rep who covers that ZIP, or round-robin if you prefer. The homeowner gets a confirmation text immediately, a reminder the day before, and a reminder two hours before. If they cannot make it, the AI reschedules instead of letting the slot die.
30 days of follow-up that does not quit
No reply? The system keeps going: text, email, ringless voicemail, on a cadence written for homeowners weighing a big purchase. Missed consult? It rebooks. Proposal sent but no signature? It checks in at the intervals you choose until they sign, decline, or opt out.
Old proposals and lost deals, reactivated
Every installer has a list of homeowners who got a proposal and went quiet, or who said "not this year" in 2024. We sequence the whole list during the install with a check-in that fits each group. Replies come straight to a consultant. Nobody new is paid for.
What does the AI conversation actually look like?
Short, specific, and in your company's name. The goal of the first two minutes is not to sell solar. It is to find out whether this is a homeowner worth a consultant's afternoon, and to get that afternoon on the calendar. The AI asks the questions a good setter asks, in the same order:
- Do you own the home? Renters get a polite answer and no booking.
- Roughly what is your monthly electric bill? Decides whether solar is likely to make sense and how urgent the homeowner is.
- Which utility are you with? Your consultant needs it for the design, and it confirms the service area.
- When are you hoping to have this done? Decides the follow-up cadence.
- Anything we should know about the roof? Age, shade, planned replacement. "Not sure" is a fine answer.
Here is a real-shape example from a lead that came in from a Meta ad at 8:40 pm on a Tuesday.
Notice what the AI did not do. It did not quote a price, estimate savings, promise a system size, or mention a tax credit. It collected five facts, confirmed this is a homeowner worth a visit, and booked the consult with the rep who covers the territory. Marcus opens his phone Wednesday morning to a confirmed Saturday appointment with the homeowner's bill, utility and roof notes attached.
The names above are placeholders. The script, tone, questions and handoff rules are written with you during the install. Some teams want a credit self-assessment question. Some want the AI to ask about a battery. Some want it to ask only two questions and book. It is your intake.
How does this compare to hiring setters, a dialer team, or CRM drips?
There are three common ways solar companies try to fix slow follow-up. Each works for someone. Here is where each one lands on the things that decide whether a lead becomes a kept appointment.
| Reps working leads themselves | Hire setters or a dialer team | CRM drip automations | LeadSixty | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First response time | Minutes to next day | Minutes during the shift | Seconds, fixed message | Under 60 seconds, conversational |
| Nights and weekends | Only if a rep answers | Only if you staff it | Yes, one-way | Yes, two-way |
| Asks qualifying questions and reads the answers | Yes | Yes, script quality varies | No | Yes |
| Books to the right rep by territory | Manually | Yes | Link only | Yes, with confirmations and reminders |
| Reschedules no-shows automatically | Rarely | If someone follows up | No | Yes |
| Follows up for 30 days without being told | Rarely | If managed | Yes, fixed schedule | Yes, adjusts to replies |
| Who builds and maintains it | You | You hire, train and manage | You or a consultant | We do, ongoing |
| Time to live | Now | 4 to 8 weeks to hire and train | Weeks of setup | 14 days |
| Reactivates old proposals and lost deals | When someone has time | If assigned | Possible, manual setup | Included in every install |
Honest note: a well-run setter team that answers every lead within minutes, covers evenings, confirms every appointment and never drops follow-up is a real solution. If you have one, you should only consider us for overnight coverage and reactivation. The pipeline tools you already use are good at what they do. We are not a replacement for them; we are the layer in front of them that turns a lead into a kept appointment.
Three steps. Fourteen days. Nothing for your team to learn.
Free Where AI Fits call
We map where your leads come from, how fast they are answered today, how many booked consults actually happen, and where the leaks are. You leave with a written picture, whether or not you hire us.
We build and install in 14 days
Platform set up, texting number registered, AI trained on your qualifying questions and handoff rules, territory routing configured, confirmation and reminder sequence built, 30-day follow-up written, reactivation launched, team walked through it.
We run it, you close
Every conversation is monitored. We tune scripts, timing and routing every month based on what homeowners actually say. You get a weekly summary and a calendar of confirmed consults.
What happens in the 14 days
| Days | What we do | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Where AI Fits call, access to your lead sources and lead vendor accounts, export of old proposals, lost deals and past leads | One 30-minute call, logins |
| 3 to 6 | Platform build, lead source connections, business texting number and A2P 10DLC registration, rep calendars and territories | Business details for carrier registration, rep territories and calendars |
| 7 to 10 | AI qualifying script, handoff rules, the no-savings-claims boundary, routing logic, confirmation and reminder sequence, 30-day follow-up. Test conversations with your team. | One 45-minute review call, feedback on test threads |
| 11 to 13 | Reactivation campaign across old proposals, lost deals and past leads, segmented by why they went cold | Approve the messages |
| 14 | Go live on all sources. Monitoring on. First weekly summary the following Monday. | Show up to the consults |
Carrier registration for business texting usually clears within a few business days but can occasionally take longer. We start it on day 3 and tell you on day 1 if your setup carries that risk.
How do you keep automated texting compliant for a solar company?
Three things, all handled during the install.
- Registered business texting. We register your number for A2P 10DLC under your legal business name. That is what makes carriers deliver the messages instead of filtering them, and it is the step most do-it-yourself setups skip, which is the quiet reason their texts "stop working". Once the number is registered it also receives inbound texts, so a new lead who texts you first gets the same 60-second reply and the same qualifying questions. We set that up during the install where your number allows it.
- Consent and opt-out. Your forms carry a one-line text-consent checkbox, and STOP is honored instantly across every sequence. Carrier registration asks how people opt in, so the two go together.
- No savings or incentive claims from the AI. The AI does not state prices, savings estimates, payback periods, system sizes, financing terms, or whether the homeowner qualifies for any tax credit or rebate. Anything in that direction gets a "Marcus will walk you through the real numbers at the consult" and a booking. Solar advertising is watched closely in most states, and that boundary is written into the AI's instructions and tested before launch.
This is not legal advice. It is what a clean setup looks like, and we build it that way by default.
Who is this for, and who should not buy it?
Good fit: residential installers and dealers buying leads from Meta, Google, SolarReviews or EnergySage; sales organizations running setters who cannot cover evenings; teams with two to fifty consultants who need territory routing and confirmed appointments; anyone sitting on a year or two of proposals that never signed.
Not a fit: a one-truck installer working fewer than about 15 new leads a month from referrals they already call back within minutes. The system would work, but the math would not, and we will say so on the Where AI Fits call. Also not a fit if all your volume is door-knocked and closed on the porch the same day; there is no gap for us to fill.
We also build beyond follow-up. Installers that start with speed-to-lead often come back for permitting and install-date updates to the homeowner, post-install review requests, or a referral agent that works the customer base. Those are scoped separately once the core system is running.
Questions solar companies ask before they start
What does an AI lead follow-up system for a solar company actually do?+
How fast should a solar company respond to a lead?+
Does the AI quote prices, savings or the tax credit?+
How does it cut no-shows on site surveys and design consults?+
Which CRM does this run on?+
Does it work with leads from SolarReviews, EnergySage, Meta and Google?+
Can it route leads to reps by territory?+
Is texting homeowners automatically compliant with TCPA?+
How is this different from the drip campaigns in my solar CRM?+
How long does it take to go live?+
What happens to my old proposals and the deals I lost?+
How many follow-up touches does it take to close a solar lead?+
What if a homeowner wants to talk to a person right away?+
How much does it cost?+
Who is this not a fit for?+
Other businesses we build this for
The same system, with different qualifying questions and routing, runs for home services companies, mortgage loan officers, insurance agencies, real estate agents and teams, and car dealers and brokers. If you also sell roofing or HVAC, the home services page covers how we handle estimate requests.
- Wood Mackenzie. "US residential solar customer acquisition costs set to spike 40% in 2026 before gradual decline." March 25, 2026. Customer acquisition cost of $0.60 per watt in 2025, projected $0.84 per watt in 2026; residential market projected to contract 19% after the Section 25D tax credit expired. woodmac.com
- Oldroyd, McElheran, Elkington. "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads." Harvard Business Review, March 2011. Audit of 2,241 US companies: 42-hour average response, 37% within one hour, 23% never responded. hbr.org
- Oldroyd, James. "Lead Response Management Study." InsideSales.com / MIT, 2007. Odds of qualifying a lead 21x higher at 5 minutes versus 30 minutes, across 15,000 leads. leadresponsemanagement.org
Page updated September 7, 2026. Every number on this page is either cited above or describes how our own installs work.
Find out how many homeowners you are losing to the clock
Book a free 30-minute Where AI Fits call. We look at your lead sources, your current response times, your no-show rate, and your old proposals, and show you where the leak is. No pitch if it is not a fit.
Book a Where AI Fits callor tell us in writing
Tell us what you want AI to handle and we come back with a straight answer, usually the same day. If it is not a fit, we say so.