Solar installer lead qualification should establish where the property is, what the customer needs, who should be involved and whether an assessment is the next useful step. Ask enough to arrange that conversation. Leave technical suitability, system design and any financial application to their appropriate processes.
A relevant enquiry may still need clarification before a visit. Agree what your team needs to know before offering an appointment, and assign someone to confirm the arrangements.
State service boundaries before the form
Name the areas you genuinely serve and the work you undertake. Distinguish residential installations, commercial projects, upgrades and maintenance where those services apply. If you do not repair existing systems, say so before someone submits a repair enquiry.
Explain the contact action. If your team needs to review the request first, a button labelled Send solar enquiry is clearer than Confirm assessment. An acknowledgement should confirm receipt only after submission succeeds.
The W3C’s form-notification guidance recommends clear success feedback and errors that explain how to correct a mistake.[2] For this journey, suitable acknowledgement wording might be:
Your enquiry has been submitted for review. Our team will check the project details before discussing an assessment. No visit has been booked.
Use that wording only if it describes your actual process. State monitored contact hours if useful, without inventing a response deadline.
Keep the customer’s goals separate from your promises. Wanting lower electricity costs does not establish an achievable saving. The companion guide to supportable solar website claims explains how to handle estimates and project evidence.
What should a solar enquiry form ask?
The W3C Forms Tutorial recommends asking only for information needed to complete the process.[1] For each proposed field, ask what decision the answer changes. A question that matters only for one project type can wait for follow-up.
These are suggested starting questions, not a technical assessment standard:
| Question | Suggested treatment | What it helps decide |
|---|---|---|
| Name and reply details | Require one usable contact method | Who to contact and how |
| Property suburb or town and province | Required | Whether the location fits your coverage |
| Property type | Required, with Other and Not sure | Which team should review it |
| Help needed | Required, with Need guidance | Whether the request fits your services |
| Relationship to the property | Ask in the form or first conversation | Who can coordinate the next step |
| Existing solar or backup system | Optional, with Not sure | Whether equipment context is needed later |
| Intended timing | Optional | Whether the customer is researching or planning work |
| Brief description | Optional | What the choices have not captured |
Keep a full street address for the point when you need it to coordinate a visit. Use visible field labels and explain which answers are required. Someone on a phone should be able to enquire without locating documents.
Establish property context safely
Offer familiar descriptions, such as a freestanding home, managed complex or business premises. Ask whether this is an existing property or a planned build if that changes your response.
During follow-up, clarify known restrictions or planned building works that could affect an assessment. These answers provide context; they do not establish roof condition, electrical suitability or an appropriate system specification.
Do not ask prospects to climb onto roofs, open equipment or make technical judgements to complete a marketing form. Record uncertainty as an unanswered question. An assessment may be needed precisely because the customer cannot answer it.
Find out who needs to participate
A property owner, tenant, business manager or representative can each initiate a useful conversation. A yes-or-no ownership question does not tell your team who can arrange access or approve work.
Ask about the enquirer’s role, then clarify who else needs to participate. The person coordinating a visit may be different from the person approving an installation. For leased premises or managed properties, record outstanding permission questions and agree how they will be addressed.
This is coordination guidance. A marketing form cannot determine whether the permissions for an installation are legally sufficient. Avoid automatically rejecting a tenant or manager who can involve the appropriate people.
Let customers describe the need
Offer project choices that match your services. These could include a new installation, an extension to an existing system, backup power or help understanding the options.
Ask what the customer wants to support or improve. Selected household essentials and a business installation need different follow-up, but neither enquiry needs a customer-selected inverter size or battery capacity.
If budget matters to the initial discussion, ask for an optional broad indication and offer Need guidance. Do not treat a guessed figure as proof of affordability or the sole reason to reject an enquiry.
Keep bank statements, payslips, identity documents, electricity bills and account records out of this initial marketing form. Never request passwords or access codes. Where later assessment work needs a document, explain its purpose and arrange an appropriate way to collect it. These recommendations do not establish privacy-law compliance.
Give each enquiry a next step
Agree the routes with the person handling enquiries before configuring a booking tool or CRM. The following are suggested operating rules:
| Route | What the reviewer knows | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment coordination | Location and project type fit, the broad objective is understood and the prospect wants to discuss a visit | Confirm the assessment’s purpose, participants, access arrangements and any applicable charge or terms |
| Clarification needed | The request looks relevant, but a specific question remains | Assign someone to resolve that question without making the prospect repeat the form |
| Researching or waiting | The project may fit, but timing or another decision remains open | Explain what can be discussed now and agree whether further contact is wanted |
| Outside scope | A known boundary prevents the business taking the work | Explain the particular location or service mismatch |
None of these routes confirms technical suitability. Keep enquiries you cannot reach separate from requests you have confirmed are outside scope.
Illustrative example: homeowner and shop manager
A homeowner in your service area wants to support selected household essentials. A partner shares the decision, and both are willing to discuss an assessment. Your team can clarify the purpose of the visit and who should attend before confirming arrangements.
A shop manager in the same area has a similar objective, but the premises are leased and the owner has not yet been involved. Record a clarification task to establish who should participate and what permission questions remain. The manager’s role alone does not make the enquiry unsuitable.
These hypothetical enquiries establish neither a system specification nor a price or expected saving.
Record the reason, owner and outcome
Replace a note such as Good lead with a usable description: Within coverage; new residential installation; partner to join assessment discussion. Record the route, unresolved question, next action and person responsible.
A shared register may be sufficient. If you use HighLevel, its opportunities documentation describes records that hold contact information and historical notes and move through pipeline stages.[3] Agree your decision rules before naming stages. The existing guide to checking the journey from form submission to qualified enquiry covers delivery and measurement checks in more detail.
Review recorded outcomes alongside marketing activity. Repeated out-of-area requests are a reason to inspect geographic messaging and targeting. Repeated uncertainty about who should attend suggests explaining that earlier on the page.
Google’s campaign URL guidance explains how UTM parameters identify campaigns referring traffic to Analytics.[4] This source information does not establish assessment readiness. Compare it with the outcomes your team actually records, and keep missing attribution visible.
Keep prospect contact details out of campaign URLs. Google’s Analytics guidance says URL paths and parameters must be free of personally identifiable information.[5]
Check the handover before confirming a visit
Ask the person responsible for enquiries to confirm:
- The location and project type fit the work you accept.
- The objective is clear enough to brief the assessor.
- Someone can coordinate access, and the relevant participants have been identified.
- Outstanding permission or scope questions have an owner and a plan.
- The customer understands the assessment’s purpose and limits.
- Any applicable assessment charge and terms have been explained before confirmation.
- A named person confirms arrangements and updates the record.
If you are considering automated triage, use the workflow readiness checklist to settle ownership and exceptions first. Keep judgement about uncertain projects with a person.
D4J’s lead-generation service connects the offer, traffic source, landing journey, qualification and response ownership.[7] Improving the questions and handover may be enough without replacing the existing form.
Bring your actual coverage, current questions and anonymised examples of ready, uncertain and unsuitable requests to discuss your solar enquiry journey. Use those examples to agree when an assessment should be arranged and who confirms it.
