Power Trader, Sr. jobs in Norwich, CT

Position: Solar Salesperson Residential

Salary:$38 per hour, depending on prior experience

Hours: Full time, 30 hours per week, self-driven and directed

Approximate Start Date: April 16, 2024

Location: Working from home and performing customer site visits (in-person) around Rhode Island

Apply: Email your resume to Eric Beecher at eric@solpowersolar.com . Tell us via short response in the email about any prior relevant experience, why you want to join the Sol Power team, and why you want to sell solar

Sol Power is an employee owned solar electric installation company with 13 employees. We install solar panels, battery backups, and perform electrical work throughout Rhode Island and eastern CT.

Job Description

You will primarily be a residential solar salesperson. Our salespeople are responsible for the direct customer contact and experience from the initial in-person site visit through the wrap up meeting after installation. We build a personal relationship with our customers by providing them with a single, reliable point of contact for the entire process. The majority of our work is solar installation and battery backups. You will also sell generators and electrical work.

If additional hours are desired beyond the residential workload you will need to seek out and drive commercial sales to supplement the residential work. As a small company, we encourage our employees to take on more responsibilities as your knowledge and skillset grows. Potential areas for growth include lead generation, customer service, marketing and operations work.

The majority of the time you will work from home and set your own hours. We need someone who is comfortable working at home and managing yourself with little to no supervision. You must be self-motivated to accomplish all tasks given, as well as proficient with and responsive to email, phone, text, and person to person communication. You will be expected to travel up to an hour to sales visits at customer sites, for which you need an active driver’s license. You will need to walk on rooftops when conditions are safe and you will need to set up and use a ladder. We have reduced the amount of roof work required for our salespeople by using drone measurements and satellite imagery, but working on a roof is still part of this position.

Primary Responsibilities

• Call and email customer leads
• Prepare estimates for customers using satellite imagery
• Measure rooftops for dimensions and solar access
• Deliver our sales pitch and educate customers on the full value proposition of Sol Power
• Explain financial terms and loan options to potential customers
• Design the best possible solar system to meet the customer’s needs
• Create quotes and contracts using our spreadsheet based quote generating tool
• Spend at least 2 hours a day calling potential customers to set up site visits and close sales
• Provide customers a high end experience that’s personalized and attentive, with best-in-class service

Cooperative Membership

Sol Power is an employee owned cooperative. After working for 2000 hours you will have an opportunity to become a cooperative member owner of Sol Power. Member owners vote in company decisions and receive profit sharing proportional to the number of hours worked. Our long term goals and company policies are decided democratically by the members. We are looking for employees who want an active, long-term role in company decision making and are excited to take on the responsibilities of business ownership.

Desired Skills and Background

Credentials and previous experience are helpful, but not a requirement. We will consider all qualified applicants, provide extensive training, and recognize that the skills most important to this position will be learned on the job. Our ideal candidate has experience selling residential solar. Knowledge of commercial solar, backup power, lead generation, marketing, and/or other sales experience is a plus. We want to diversify our team with a bilingual Spanish/English salesperson to help us serve Spanish speaking customers.

Most importantly we need someone who is self-motivated, hardworking, persistent, and makes a good first impression. You must be very comfortable talking on the phone, writing emails, using spreadsheets, and educating and persuading potential customers. Sales is not a passive position. You need to proactively follow up with customers. We are looking for someone who can handle working independently after being trained. You need to set and manage your own hours. Guidance is available from our sales team, but you will need the initiative to ask questions that come up as you are working. In the long term we would like you to manage yourself by determining which tasks need to be done, overcoming any obstacles, and then completing them.

Our salespeople need to represent Sol Power, to educate customers on the full value proposition of our company, and to deliver the highest level of service to our customers. In addition, you need to be able to sell solar, backup power, measure a rooftop for dimensions and solar access, gather all the information needed about a customer and their home, and design the best solar system to meet the customer’s needs.

The bulk of your work will be completed on a computer. We are looking for someone with computer proficiency. Most of our work uses Google spreadsheets and PDF files. We use specialized software for solar system design which we will train you to use. You will have to work on rooftops and need to use a ladder and tape measure. Arithmetic skills help with creating proposals. You need to be able to communicate via email, phone, text, and person-to-person. Experience with marketing and/or web development is an added bonus, but those skills would be applied outside the primary responsibilities of this position.

Availability

You need to be available when our customers want site visits. That includes the typical 9am-5pm workday, evenings, and weekends. You set your own schedule, so it is up to you to determine which evenings and weekends you want to work and which ones you want to take off. Having flexibility makes it easier to schedule with customers, but you can also set aside the time that you want (for example, you could take off every Sunday and work some Saturdays). We do not expect you to work more than 40 hours in a week unless you want to, and you will be paid hourly for every hour worked. The best time to call customers is typically 4:00pm-6:00pm Monday thru Friday, so you should be available during that time window several days a week.

Starting Compensation and Hours

You will be paid $38 per hour. The rate is negotiable depending on previous experience. We do not sell on a commission. After becoming a member owner of Sol Power you will receive profit sharing. We cannot guarantee future profits, but profit sharing is typically a significant financial benefit for our members.

You will be able to work an average of 30 hours per week. The workload and tasks will vary with seasons and incentives. We will provide you with leads and you will need to follow up with the contacts to make sales. We will train you as needed for all tasks within your job responsibilities. After training we don’t provide much direct supervision while working and expect you to eventually become self-sufficient at your day to day job responsibilities. Employees are encouraged to learn and take on new tasks as time and motivation permits. If you are able to learn and accomplish tasks outside your primary area of responsibility that will make your workload steadier because you can work in other areas (e.g. marketing, operations) when sales are slow.

Location and Working Conditions

You will primarily work from home and travel to customer sites across Rhode Island. Occasional meetings, work sessions, and training may require traveling to our warehouse in Charlestown or one of our home offices. There is currently a 5 person sales and operations team that you will be working most closely with. We have a weekly remote sales and operations meeting, schedule other meetings as needed, and work on our own for the remaining time. We provide an independent working environment. You will need to actively build relationships and seek out interactions with the rest of the team. This is 4 season outdoor work. We work on rooftops, and only when conditions are safe. As a small employee owned business, everyone plays a significant part in creating workplace culture.

Benefits

We choose to distribute funds to our member owners in the form of profit sharing in lieu of benefits. We have a 401k plan for retirement and you will be covered under our worker’s comp insurance plan. There is paid sick time prior to becoming a member owner of the company. We do not have health insurance or paid vacation. Health insurance may be obtained from RI’s healthcare exchange, Healthsource RI. You may take as much unpaid time off as you would like, as long as you provide proper notice and accomplish all your responsibilities at Sol Power. You will be reimbursed for all business expenses, including mileage, and your time traveling to customer sites is paid work time.

Equal Opportunity

Sol Power is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law. We are seeking diverse candidates and actively striving to make Sol Power a welcoming and supportive environment for people of all identities.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $38.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20 – 40 per week

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Flexible schedule
• Mileage reimbursement
• Opportunities for advancement

Compensation package:

• Bonus opportunities

Experience level:

• No experience needed

Schedule:

• Choose your own hours

Ability to Relocate:

• Charlestown, RI 02813: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Charlestown, RI 02813