How Sunlight Solar Went From 20 to 120 Monthly Installations

Tyrell: Could you give us a quick introduction to Sunlight Solar and your rapid growth over the last few years?

Dan: So just just for you guys to understand what we were talking about growth. Like three years ago, we were like, more or less 30 guys in the office, putting out together office and installers. We were like three, four sales reps. We were selling more or less than projects a month and installing a couple projects from some partners as well. So to In this was during COVID. So it was a tough time, everybody faced that. But um, one two years later, we we were like more than double what we have right now just for you guys who have an idea, we have an office plus tech tax in the field like 100 Plus guys, more than 150 sales rep selling for us, we just moved to a new facility here with 22,000 Square feets in downtown Orlando. And we are installing as you said, we are installing something around 100 120 projects a month.

But this this is this is part of the passion because the founder of the company has more than 50 years experience in solar, he started like in South America, like designing and producing solar water heaters on the 70s. So 50 years ago, or so. And he moved to other countries that then then he came here to us 30 years ago, and then he found us online and more or less 20 years ago. So solar is not only like a moment for us, this is this is our this is our background, this is our life. So when I came, the company was like, thirsty for for full projects, they were very, very good. And we we know that sunlight is it’s it’s in the market as a very, very good installer. But we were installing projects for other companies. And the goal was like we need to sell our own projects, we need to do the full the full process. So the first thing that we had to do was like change a little bit the mindset change a little bit of future, because we can be a very good installer. But to be turnkey company from the sales to the PTO, it’s a little different. It’s it’s very, it’s very different. When you were talking about family owned and operated company that you are you want to put them on a spot as a as a corporation, you know, you have to change mainly mainly, the mindset.

So it’s funny story, because I came to sunlight as a as a customer, I received a proposal from from sunlight to put solar on my house. And I asked too many questions, I think. And they tell me, they told me, Okay, I think that we we can use you more than you can use, you can use me. So I came like a couple years ago as a customer. And then we start this process to create, like, a more professional environment. And my first point was, okay, do you want to sell solar? Do you want to go to the market to sell solar? So you need first, a professional proposal, an accurate proposal? And you have to answer, and you have to answer all the questions that the customers your customers have. So you need to train your sales team on the right way. And I changed the mindset of the company based on the rule that I have for my life that I learned with my dad, that is like do not promise anything that you cannot deliver. But do not let your customer without anything that you promised. So this is this is a main This is a main main key point for me. So it was it was tough.

Tyrell: What were some of the major challenges Sunlight Solar was facing as you started to scale and really grow your business?

Dan: And I believe that the main challenge that we had to to grow, I would say, I would say that we had three, three main problems to solve. The first one was like communication, our internal and external communication, we, we had to talk better with our customers keep our customers updated. So this was a very, very big challenge to to accomplish. The second challenge that we had was database. As everybody knows, when you start growing, every single person in the office has a different control a different platform, a different database, I spreadsheet or document or a piece of paper, and everything was spread out. And we were not able to put everything together. So data was was a big, big problem.

And another another point that I would like to mention is like workflow, workflow control. When I came here, and we started to develop these, this grow and put more more deals inside of the company, we realized that we didn’t have any kind of control to track the status of the process. So we we were losing, like a little bit of the control, we are losing the projects, putting projects on Limbo situation, and we were not able to, to find what was going on. So this was the moment that we start to look for some some tools so that it was necessary, because my my main, my main goal was create a sales strategy we did that we in six months to a year, we were already like to put more sales and more sales, we came from like 10 sales a month to 50, 60, 70 a month. And then we start to break the project workflow. So this was this was the main the key points of this journey.

Tyrell: Choosing new software is not a small decision so what made you decide that Scoop was the right solution for you?

Dan: Yeah, this was the moment that we start to sell more and more, and then we’ll tell us a bit about, yeah, we start to crash the operations, right. And then we decide, okay, we have to find a tool. And as you said, it’s impossible to find a perfect tool, we look for a couple of options. And my goal was, okay, if I have like 10 challenges, I have to, to fix like seven to nine, it will not be possible to do everything that I can in one tool. And then when I found scoop, you, mainly, you brought answers for my three main challenges communication, workflow, and database. This was this was the start point. So when I saw that I could have this, and at the same time, I could have customizations and this this God, like, I fell in love, I fell in love because as, as a software developer in the past couple years ago, not a lot of years, I’ve always say, it’s very hard to rely on the developers from your partner, you know, you don’t, you don’t have time to do that.

So when you are designing where you’re, when you are designing your processing side of the tool, you need to have freedom to work with all the tools that you have. And this is one of them. main points for me, I could find on scoop a very, very good way to, to grow to implement my processing side of the tool, with your support, of course, but without your like, your, I don’t need your full time with me. And and now it’s very good to me, because I came back to sales after one year and something like developing all this, this operations. And I can see my guys here using the tool on the same way, understanding how the tool works. And it’s normal, because there is no there is no perfect process as well, you will change your process very often, you will change your structure, you change users, you change who is doing what, and you need to have like different pathways to improve your process all the time. So this is this is very, very common.

Tyrell: How did you get buy-in from the team? What was the moment they realized Scoop was there to help them in their roles and improve operations?

Dan: There’s, there’s a lot of stories that we could share. But I would say that, first of all, they start to realize when we start to get some, some very, very good feedbacks from our customers. So in the beginning, we were struggle, receiving, like emails saying, Oh, I don’t know what’s going on with my project. I don’t have any feedback. I don’t have any follow up. I don’t know what is the steps or what is the stage, I am a little blind in last. And after that, and this is this is directly connected with the communication, the external external communication, when we start to receive feedback from our customers, like, Thank you, I appreciate that you sent me this, these engineering drawings, and it was not me it was the software is just like, update a trigger, and the fire was there. And when we achieve that, that milestone, that’s the system’s sending out an email to the customer. And I have these for like, almost 12 steps right now that the customer is giving forum ID and this is this is very good. So I would say that as soon as we start to receive these feedbacks attached leave good reviews, attach it with referrals. Then my, my as active as it starts to see, okay, there’s something here that I was not measuring. And this is this is this is very, very good.

Tyrell: What are some comments you’ve received from your team about how Scoop impacted their day-to-day?

Dan: Another like fun story was when I was sending you separating some some photos, you put on your, your slides, I got to the point that I found a video on our Christmas party last year, the company that was recording the Christmas party, they interviewed a couple of employees. And I stopped for a second to watch this video and listen, this guy’s and I got I got emotional because it was it was incredible how the employees they they came back to us with very, very good feedbacks. They now our culture portable, yeah, they they are more comfortable working because everything they streamline is clear.

So there is no like, black points. It’s just like do your job and like upload the photos, for example, technicians goes to the field prepared that they do the job, they do the installation, and they took photos based around based on like a script that you have to follow. And like instantaneously, we have a manager here, overlooking everything, everything and telling that Okay, perfect. Awesome job, guys. Thank you, you were good to go. So everything works very smooth right now. It was like before it was a constant. Like had a a constant pain, thinking about Okay. Am I missing something? Is there something that is like I’m losing, you know, used to fighting with your mind with your memory saying there’s something wrong I am missing something you go home thinking okay. I don’t know what’s going on. You know, every everybody works like more and more relieved.

Dan: It’s fun because everything that I’m saying here is based on my point of view, because I am the guy in charge of the sales department. So for me, happy customers, referrals are my main goal. But when we look the software and the growth and the journey on this different point of view, like my VP of operations, what they want to see, they want to see like quality, they want to see projects without hiccups.

And how we do that, like if you have information, if you have a very fast process, and this is something that we didn’t mention, but it was improved a lot. So you don’t need to wait a manual trigger, you know, for the next person to move. So with the software, with the workflow, that is, it was one of our pain, our pain. So we had, we had the problem with the workflow and this caused a lot of delays. So right now the process is smooth and it’s fast. So my operations guys, they will see that in a different point of view.

And if I talk to my financial guys, they will see in a different view either. They will say, okay, can I get funded faster? That’s right. That’s right. So this is, this is how it goes. So it’s, it’s important because there’s a tool that came to help everybody in different ways.