7 min read
Most solar companies chase volume. The best ones chase quality and there's a checklist that separates the two.
~3%
avg. unqualified lead close rate
18–25%
qualified lead close rate
7×
revenue lift from qualification
After years managing paid media for solar installers across multiple markets, Guilherme Carmo, Media Buyer at ImperioLeads, keeps seeing the same pattern repeat itself: the teams that scale profitably aren't the ones buying the most leads, they're the ones wasting the fewest. And that distinction starts at the moment a lead is created, not when a salesperson picks up the phone.
At ImperioLeads, we've obsessed over this problem across thousands of solar campaigns. The result is a qualification framework that our clients use daily to filter, score, and prioritise the leads that actually convert. Below is the full checklist and the reasoning behind every single item on it.
"A lead that closes at 3% isn't cheaper than one that closes at 20%. It's six times more expensive — you just don't see the cost until it's too late."
Why qualification changes everything
The solar sales cycle is expensive. A field appointment costs anywhere from £80 to £250 once you factor in surveyor time, fuel, and CRM overhead. Sending a sales rep to a homeowner who rents their property, lives in a north-facing flat, or has a household income that won't support financing, that's a direct loss, not a miss.
Qualification isn't gatekeeping. It's respect for your sales team's time, your marketing budget, and ultimately, the lead themselves. A well-qualified lead already wants what you're selling. The job of the salesperson is to confirm fit and close, not to explain what solar is from scratch.
Consider the economics plainly. If your sales team handles 100 leads per month at an unqualified close rate of 3%, you're generating 3 customers. At a qualified close rate of 20%, the same 100 leads produces 20 customers. You haven't changed your ad spend. You haven't hired more closers. You've simply stopped sending the wrong people to the wrong appointments.
The hidden cost of a bad lead
A single wasted field appointment doesn't just cost the visit. It costs:
2–3 hours of a closer's productive time (travel + meeting + debrief)
£80–250 in direct visit overhead
1–2 deals missed because that slot was taken by the wrong prospect
Morale erosion when closers repeatedly pitch to unqualified prospects
The true cost of a bad lead is rarely the lead price. It's the displacement of a good opportunity.
Section 1 — Property & ownership
The roof is the product. Before anything else, you need to know whether the physical installation is even feasible. These filters are binary, a failed ownership check is not a soft signal, it's a hard stop.
Property criteria
✓
Homeowner (not renter)Tenants can express interest, but they cannot sign. Qualify ownership upfront — it's the single highest-impact filter. A simple "do you own the property?" at the top of your intake form eliminates a significant portion of unqualified volume before it ever reaches your team.
✓
Detached or semi-detached propertyFlats and leasehold properties introduce structural and legal complexity — shared roofs often require freeholder consent, which can delay or block installation entirely. Prioritise freehold residential. If you do work on leasehold properties, ensure your intake flow captures freeholder status explicitly.
✓
Suitable roof aspect (south, east or west facing)South-facing roofs generate up to 30% more annual yield than east or west. North-facing roofs can generate as little as 60% of a south-facing equivalent. Always capture roof direction in your intake form — a dropdown with compass points takes seconds and saves hours of post-survey disappointment.
✓
No significant shading from trees or neighbouring buildingsAsk directly: "Are there large trees or tall buildings directly next to your roof?" Shading that covers even 20% of panel surface can reduce output by up to 40% due to how string inverters work. It's a soft disqualifier only if microinverters or power optimisers are part of your offering — otherwise it's a hard one.
✓
Property not listed or in a conservation areaListed buildings and conservation areas may require planning permission that adds weeks of delay or blocks installation entirely. Around 5.8% of UK residential properties are in conservation areas — worth screening for early, especially in London, Bath, Edinburgh, and other heritage-dense markets.
Section 2 — Financial readiness
A homeowner who wants solar but can't finance it is a lead for another day, not for today's pipeline. Qualifying financially early protects your closers from wasted site visits. It also protects the lead from a disappointing experience, being told at the end of a 90-minute survey that they don't qualify for finance is demoralising for everyone involved.
Financial criteria
✓
Household income above your minimum finance thresholdFor financed sales, lenders typically require a minimum annual household income of £18,000–£25,000. Know your lender's exact floor and build that number into your intake form as a qualifying threshold — not a question, but a disqualifier. This alone can reduce wasted survey visits by 15–20%.
✓
Not currently in a debt management plan or IVAA simple "are you currently in any formal debt repayment agreements?" covers this without invasiveness. Leads in active IVAs or DMPs will be declined by all major solar finance providers. Catching this early saves your team a wasted conversation and preserves the lead's trust.
✓
Decision-maker is present (or can be scheduled)Both bill-payers should be involved if the installation requires a finance agreement. One of the most common causes of post-visit drop-off is a partner veto that happens after the survey. Book double-decision-maker appointments from the start — your close rate on those will be significantly higher than single-attendee visits.
✓
Current electricity bill above £100/monthLower bills mean lower ROI urgency — and a weaker financial case for the sale. Leads spending £150/month or more on electricity have a payback period under 7 years at current rates, which makes the conversation compelling and relatively straightforward. Below £80/month, the ROI argument requires more sophisticated handling and longer close cycles.
Section 3 — Intent & timing
This is where most lead vendors fall short. Intent is the hardest signal to capture at scale, but it's the most predictive of close rate. The difference between a lead who filled in a form out of curiosity and one who is actively comparing quotes is measured in months of sales cycle time. You cannot close the first one on the same timeline as the second, and trying to do so burns your closers out.
Intent criteria
✓
Expressed interest within the last 72 hoursLead velocity matters enormously. Research consistently shows that leads contacted within the first hour of enquiry convert at 3x the rate of those reached 24 hours later. At 72 hours, conversion probability has dropped by 80% from its peak. Speed-to-call isn't a nice-to-have — it's a core qualification variable and a major driver of your close rate.
✓
Self-initiated enquiry (not incentivised)Leads acquired via voucher, prize draw, or "free energy check" incentives have structurally lower intent. They responded to the incentive, not to genuine interest in solar. These leads can close — but they close at a fraction of the rate of organic or search-driven enquiries. Know the source of every lead in your pipeline and price that difference into your acquisition strategy.
✓
Ready to have a survey within 2–4 weeks"I'm thinking about it next year" is a nurture lead, not a sales lead. These contacts have genuine potential — but they shouldn't occupy your field team's calendar or your CRM's active pipeline. Create a separate nurture sequence with a 60–90 day re-engagement cadence and move them there. Treat them well and they'll re-activate; push them prematurely and they'll disengage permanently.
✓
Has not already received 3+ quotes from competitorsOver-shopped leads are exhausted, price-anchored, and significantly harder to close on value. They've already been through the presentation three times — they're looking for the lowest price, not the best installer. If you discover a lead is already at quote stage with multiple competitors, that's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it fundamentally changes the sales approach required.
Section 4 — Data quality
A lead that looks great on paper but has an incorrect phone number, a mismatched postcode, or a name that doesn't match the property data, that's not a lead. That's noise in your CRM. Clean data is a qualification criterion, and it's one most installers ignore until it's already costing them.
Data quality criteria
✓
Valid, formatted UK mobile number (verified with SMS or call)Run basic number validation at the point of capture. An uncontactable lead is worthless regardless of all other criteria. SMS verification at form submission catches typos, fake numbers, and misplaced digits before they enter your pipeline — reducing CRM clutter and giving your callers a cleaner, higher-quality call list.
✓
Postcode matched to a residential property on Royal Mail PAFValidate postcodes programmatically against the Royal Mail Postcode Address File. Invalid or non-residential postcodes are a red flag for incentivised or fraudulent form completions. They also prevent your mapping tools from routing surveyors correctly — a small data problem that compounds into a logistics headache.
✓
GDPR consent captured at sourceThis isn't just a compliance requirement — it's a quality signal. Leads who explicitly consented to solar-related contact at the point of form submission are higher intent by definition. They read the form. They made a deliberate choice. Leads from data brokers or scraped lists where consent is ambiguous have structurally lower engagement rates and carry regulatory exposure.
✓
No duplicate records in CRM within 90 daysDeduplicate against recent activity before routing to a closer. Calling a lead that was surveyed three weeks ago and declined is not just a wasted call — it actively damages your brand with that contact and their social circle. A 90-day suppression window is the minimum; 180 days is better practice for most solar markets.
The 5 qualification mistakes that kill close rates
Running this checklist consistently is half the battle. The other half is avoiding the common errors that undermine even well-intentioned qualification processes.
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Qualifying by enthusiasm aloneAn excited lead is not the same as a qualified lead. Enthusiasm without financial capacity, correct roof aspect, or genuine decision-making authority produces enthusiastic nos. Route based on criteria, not energy.
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Treating all lead sources as equalA Google search lead, a Facebook form lead, and a comparison site lead behave very differently in the pipeline. Track close rates by source religiously. What looks like a cheap lead from a comparison site often has a cost-per-acquisition three times higher than a more expensive search-intent lead.
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Sending every lead to the same follow-up cadenceHigh-intent leads need to be called within the hour. Nurture leads need a drip sequence over weeks. Running both through the same cadence either burns the nurture leads with aggressive contact or lets the high-intent ones go cold. Segment, then act accordingly.
✗
Skipping the roof direction question to keep forms shortEvery question you remove from your intake form to reduce friction costs you somewhere downstream. Roof aspect is one of the highest-value data points for pre-qualifying a lead and setting realistic output expectations. A slightly longer form with better data is almost always worth more than a shorter form with higher completion rate.
✗
Discarding unqualified leads entirelyAn unqualified lead today is often a qualified lead in 6–12 months. Circumstances change — people move house, get a pay rise, or decide to act on something they were considering. A well-maintained nurture database is one of the highest-ROI assets an installer can build. Don't delete. Segment and drip.
What to do with leads that don't qualify
Disqualification is not the end of the relationship. It's a routing decision. Most unqualified leads fall into one of three categories, each with a different optimal response:
Not yet ready — correct profile, wrong timing
Add to a long-term nurture sequence. Send educational content every 3–4 weeks: how solar financing works, what a good install looks like, what questions to ask. When they're ready to act, you'll be the installer they already trust.
Property barrier — wrong roof, leasehold, conservation area
These leads are genuinely unsuitable for installation right now. Be honest and helpful — explain the constraint clearly. Homeowners who feel respected at disqualification become referral sources. "They told me my roof wasn't right but explained exactly why" is a review that builds trust.
Financial barrier — income or credit issue
Point them toward government grant schemes, ECO4 eligibility, or alternative financing options where relevant. This doesn't close a deal today, but it positions you as a genuinely helpful company — and homeowners whose financial situation improves often come back.
What this looks like in practice
One of our clients, a mid-sized solar installer running around 400 appointments per month, implemented this framework in Q1 of this year. Within 60 days, their close rate moved from 11% to 19%. They ran fewer appointments, not more. Their cost per acquisition dropped by 31%.
The shift wasn't in the leads themselves. It was in which leads they chose to prioritise. The volume was already there. The framework just made the signal visible.
The sales team noticed it first. Fewer frustrating visits, more time spent with genuinely interested homeowners, and a feedback loop that made their pitches sharper. Qualification isn't just a commercial decision, it's a morale decision.
"Qualification is not about rejecting leads. It's about routing them correctly — to the right person, at the right moment, with the right expectation."
This is the real ROI of qualification: you don't need more leads. You need to stop wasting the ones you already have. Run this checklist consistently, build it into your intake forms, and review your close rates by source every 30 days. The installers who do this aren't just more profitable, they're more predictable, more scalable, and a lot less stressed.
