Guide
How to win direct solar and battery work alongside subcontracting
Explore direct solar and battery work alongside subcontracting, with a practical plan for crew capacity, enquiry handling, costs and customer responsibilities.
By Solar BPO · Published · 9 min read
For many electrical and solar businesses with two or three crews, subcontracting is a sound business. Retailers supply the customers, the paperwork and much of the risk, and you get predictable installs. The question is rarely whether to stop subcontracting. It is whether to add some direct work alongside it, and how to do that without leaving a crew idle or a retailer short.
This guide sets out a practical way to think about it: what changes when you sell direct, how to size the first step, and which jobs in the sales process you need to cover before the first enquiry arrives.
What actually changes when you sell direct
On a subcontract job, most of the work before the install has been done by someone else. On a direct job, your business takes on everything from the first enquiry to the final invoice. That usually means:
- Generating or receiving the enquiry, and responding to it quickly.
- Qualifying the homeowner: ownership, roof, switchboard, bills, goals and timing.
- Preparing a design and proposal, and following up while they compare quotes.
- Running the site inspection and confirming the final design and price.
- Contracting with the customer, ordering equipment and managing payments.
- Installing, handling network and certificate paperwork, and providing after-sales service.
Your crews already do the installation, compliance and much of the site inspection work well. The gap for most installers is the front end: enquiries, follow-up and proposals. That is where time disappears and where most direct opportunities are lost.
Start from capacity, not from a lead target
Begin with how many direct installs you could genuinely fit in a month without letting down your subcontract clients. If your crews are booked four days a week on subcontract work, the fifth day is your real capacity. Two direct installs a week may be more than enough for the first quarter.
Then work backwards. If a typical direct enquiry needs a call, a proposal, two or three follow-ups and a site inspection, how many hours does one sale take, and who in your business will spend them? Writing this down before spending money on leads stops the common pattern of buying enquiries and then not having anyone free to ring them.
A worked example: a three-crew business
Consider an illustrative electrical business with three install crews, mostly installing for two retailers. The owner wants around six direct jobs a month by the end of the year. This is a planning example, not a client result.
| Step | Question to answer | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Which crew days are free? | One crew, roughly one day a week, plus occasional gaps |
| Job mix | What do direct customers ask for? | Many enquiries are battery-only upgrades on homes with existing solar |
| Enquiries | Where will they come from? | Referrals, website, and a managed or branded lead source |
| Front-end time | Who calls, quotes and follows up? | Currently the owner, after hours |
| Handover | Who does the site inspection? | Lead installer, on the way to or from subcontract jobs |
The constraint in this example is not installation. It is the owner's evenings. Before adding enquiries, the business needs a dependable way to contact, qualify and follow up, either by hiring, by outsourcing or by narrowing the work to a volume the owner can handle.
Choose your enquiry source deliberately
There are three broad ways to create direct enquiries, and each puts different work on your plate.
- Your own channels: referrals, past customers, your website and local reputation. Costs and enquiry flow depend on the work needed to maintain each channel.
- A managed consumer brand: enquiries come in under someone else's brand and are introduced to you. Faster to start, but you are building their brand at first, not yours.
- Advertising under your own brand: Meta or search campaigns in your name. Builds your brand, but needs an advertising budget, campaign management and someone to work every enquiry quickly.
None of these is right for everyone. The best first step is usually the one your current team can follow up properly.
Protect your subcontract relationships
Retailers you install for are entitled to expect that you will not approach their customers. Keep direct and subcontract work clearly separated in your systems, decline enquiries that came from a retailer's customer, and be open with your retailers that you are adding some direct work. Good subcontract relationships remain valuable while the direct side grows.
Plan for cash flow before the first direct job
Direct jobs change when money moves. You may pay for equipment before the customer pays in full, and some incentive value may arrive after installation through certificates. Speak with your accountant and your supplier about payment terms, deposits and how certificate value is handled before you take on volume. We do not give financial or incentive advice, and the rules change, so check current guidance from the Clean Energy Regulator for small-scale certificates.
Decide what you will keep and what you will hand off
The parts of a direct job that depend on your licence, your crews and your reputation should stay with you: site inspection, final design and pricing, the contract, installation, compliance and after-sales service. The parts that depend on time and persistence can be shared: speed-to-contact, qualification, follow-up, basic proposals and CRM updates.
If you do outsource the front end, ask exactly where the handover point sits. A residential sale should still be subject to your site inspection; nobody outside your business should promise a customer that a job is ready to install.
A simple 90-day plan
- Weeks 1 to 2: confirm free crew capacity, preferred products and pricing guidance for direct jobs. Set up a CRM pipeline separate from subcontract work.
- Weeks 3 to 4: start with existing enquiries, past quotes and referrals. Follow every one up properly and record what happens.
- Month 2: add one new enquiry source that your team can follow up within the same business day.
- Month 3: review enquiries, proposals, site inspections and installs. Decide whether to add volume, change source or add sales help.
Questions about this guide
Do I need to stop subcontracting to sell direct?
No. Most two- and three-crew businesses add direct work gradually, using spare crew capacity, while keeping their subcontract relationships.
How many direct jobs should I aim for at first?
Base it on genuinely free crew days and the time someone has to follow up enquiries. A small, well-handled number is better than a large number left unanswered.
Should enquiries be in my brand or someone else's?
Your own brand builds long-term value but needs an advertising budget and quick follow-up. A managed consumer brand can be faster to start. Many installers test one before the other.
Want help with this in your business?
We work enquiries, follow-up and proposals for installers, with your team keeping the site inspection and install.
Sources
General information only, not financial, legal or incentive advice.