How to evaluate and buy solar appointments

What you are actually buying

An appointment is a scheduled conversation between your closer and a homeowner who agreed to it. That sounds simple, but vendors define it very differently. Some sell a name and a time slot pulled from a web form. Others have a setter speak with the homeowner live, ask qualifying questions, confirm the address and the decision makers, and book a time that fits your closer's calendar.

Before you compare prices, write down your own definition of a good appointment. Most solar teams start with a few basics: the person owns the home, everyone who makes the decision will be there, the roof and the utility bill make sense for solar in your market, and the homeowner knows exactly what the meeting is about. Then hold every vendor to that same definition, in writing.

Questions to ask any appointment vendor

A good vendor answers these quickly and clearly. Vague answers at this stage usually turn into disputes later.

• Who sets the appointments? Their own setters, a subcontracted floor, or automated software?
• Where does the calling data come from, and how is it scrubbed before it is dialed?
• What does the setter ask before booking, and can you review the script?
• How and when is each appointment confirmed with the homeowner?
• What arrives with each appointment? Look for homeowner details plus the setter's notes from the call.
• Can you choose markets down to the city or zip code, and cap volume per day or per week?
• Are the appointments exclusive to your company?
• How are no shows, wrong addresses and renters handled?
• Can you hear the call recording when an appointment is disputed?

Red flags

Some warning signs show up before you spend anything. Others only show up in your numbers after the first batch.

• Guaranteed close rates or guaranteed income. Nobody controls what happens at the kitchen table except your closer.
• No clear answer on calling compliance. If a vendor cannot explain how it handles calling hours, consent and do not call requests, that risk can follow your brand.
• Appointments booked outside your markets, or more appointments than your team said it could run.
• Missing setter notes, or notes that read the same on every appointment.
• Homeowners who are surprised when your closer calls to confirm, or who say they never agreed to a visit.
• Pressure to prepay for a large volume before any test batch.
• A vendor that will not share recordings or details when you question an appointment.

In home or virtual

In home appointments let your closer see the roof, the electrical panel and the household, and many homeowners trust a face at the kitchen table. Virtual appointments remove drive time, so one closer can run more of them in a day and cover a wider area. The tradeoff is that video meetings can be easier for a homeowner to skip and harder to read.

Many teams buy both and decide per market based on drive distance, how well each closer presents on video, and how local homeowners like to buy. We cover that choice in more detail in a separate guide.

How to measure sit rate and close rate

Two numbers tell you most of what you need to know about a vendor. Sit rate is the share of booked appointments where your closer actually met the decision makers and presented. Close rate is the share of those sits that turned into signed deals. Industry sources define both in slightly different ways, so pick your definitions once and use them for every vendor and every batch.

• Sit rate: appointments that sat, divided by appointments delivered.
• Close rate: deals signed, divided by appointments that sat.
• Cost per sit: total spent on a batch, divided by appointments that sat.
• Cost per deal: total spent on a batch, divided by deals signed.

Reading the numbers

A low sit rate usually points to the setting and confirmation process, the data, or the market. A low close rate with a healthy sit rate usually points to qualification, pricing or the closer. Separating the two keeps you from firing a good vendor for a closing problem, or blaming your closers for a setting problem.

Track results by vendor, by market and by batch, never as one blended number. Make sure every appointment gets an outcome recorded in your CRM within a day. Unrecorded appointments are one of the most common reasons a team cannot tell whether a vendor is working. It also helps to track deals that cancel after signing, because a deal that falls apart later is not really a deal.

Start with a test batch

Agree on a small first batch in one or two markets your closers know well. Before it starts, agree on what counts as a sit, how disputes are handled, and how quickly your team will record outcomes. Size the batch to what your closers can actually run in a week. Overbooking a small team hurts sit rate and makes any vendor look worse than it is.

When the batch is done, compare the setter notes with what your closers saw, listen to a few recordings, and compare cost per sit and cost per deal with your other lead sources. Then scale the markets that worked and drop the ones that did not.

Where VertaCall fits

VertaCall runs a remote setting floor with English and Spanish speaking setters who call homeowners and book confirmed in home and virtual appointments for solar, roofing and HVAC teams. You tell us your markets and how many appointments your closers can run, batches are sized to that number, and each appointment comes with the setter's notes from the booking call. Our policy is to scrub every list against a litigator blocklist before it is dialed, and pricing is covered on the intro call.

If you want to test a batch with your own closers, share your markets and team size on our appointments page and we will set up a short intro call.

Questions