How to sell solar leads

This guide is for lead generators and publishers with their own solar forms who want to turn homeowner requests into revenue. It follows a lead from the route you choose to the day it goes live. For an overview of the solar supply side, start at sell solar leads.

How to sell solar leads: the three routes

Solar requests can reach buyers in three main ways. They differ in how much selling, integration and account work falls on you, and plenty of generators run two of them side by side.

Straight to installers and sales organizations

You recruit solar installers, or the sales organizations that sell systems on their behalf, and send leads to each one under its own agreement. You see exactly who receives every lead and you keep the full price. The work is in the details: each buyer has its own territory, its own list of the payment options it offers, its own rules on property types and its own invoice cycle. When an installer’s crews are booked out for weeks, it may pause, and the leads for its territory need somewhere else to go.

Through a marketplace or aggregator

A marketplace or aggregator puts your leads in front of many buyers through one account and takes on part of the billing. Prices are often set by competition with other sellers on the same platform, and each platform writes its own returnReturnA buyer's request for credit on a lead that fails agreed standards, such as a disconnected number, a duplicate or a lead outside the filters. Glossary and payment rules. Read them before you send any volume, because those rules decide how disputes end.

Through a broker with buyers already connected

A broker integrates with your system once and routes each lead to the buyers whose filters accept it, across many territories at the same time. You share the margin and manage one relationship instead of dozens. Sell to a broker vs build a buyer network compares the two approaches in more detail.

From form to buyer: ping/post for solar requests

When a homeowner submits your form, your system builds a ping from the answers that do not identify the person: verticalVerticalThe industry or product category a lead belongs to, such as roofing or car accident. Glossary, state, ZIP code, ownership, property type and the other qualifying questions. Buyers whose filters fit those answers reply with a bid or a decline inside an agreed response window. The highest bid that qualifies wins the post, which adds the name, phone number, street address and consent record.

Two things follow from this design. A buyer that declines never learns who the homeowner is, so contact details only go to the company that won the lead. And the consent on your form has to cover that company, which means the consent wording and the list of possible buyers need to be planned together. TCPA for ping/post delivery explains what the rules cover for this method.

Timing works differently in solar than in emergency repair work, but it still counts. A solar purchase involves a roof review, a system design and a written bid before the homeowner signs, so the sale itself takes time. The FTC tells homeowners to compare detailed bids from several companies (Solar Power for Your Home, checked October 9, 2026). The installer that calls first is usually the first to book a visit, and buyers bid with that in mind. Ping post explained covers the general mechanics.

Some buyers ask for direct postDirect postA delivery method in which a supplier sends the full lead straight to a buyer, with no ping first. Glossary, where every matching lead goes to them without a bid, or for scheduled batch files. That can suit one long-standing relationship, but it removes the competition between buyers, and a batch file delivers requests that are already hours old.

What the solar form has to record

Buyers can only filterFilterA rule that decides which leads a buyer is offered, based on fields such as vertical, sub-type, state, ZIP code, homeownership or accident details. Glossary on what the form asks. A question left off the form becomes a reason to decline, so settle the form before talking to buyers. These are the points solar buyers look for:

• Ownership: a direct question about whether the person submitting owns the home.
• Property type: detached house, townhouse, condo or mobile home, as fixed choices. Homes in an association may need its approval before panels go up.
• Roof: where the homeowner can say, the roof’s age and condition and whether trees or buildings shade it. The FTC names sunlight, roof pitch, age, condition and direction as factors in what a system produces.
• Payment option: buy, lease, power purchase agreement or not sure. The FTC describes all three options, and buyers differ in which they sell.
• Timeframe: quotes wanted now, within a few months, or just reading.
• Address: a full street address and five-digit ZIP code, since installers work in defined territories.
• Contact data: phone and email, checked for format when the form is submitted.
• Consent record: the opt-in languageOpt-in languageThe consent disclosure shown next to the submit button on a lead form. Glossary shown, a timestamp, the IP address and the page URL.

Field names should match the buyer’s specification or be mapped to it during setup. The sample solar lead shows Summit’s standard home services fields, and high quality solar leads explains how buyers read each answer.

Check the ads behind your leads

Solar advertising draws close attention from regulators. In a consumer alert dated September 26, 2024, the FTC told homeowners that promises of panels at no cost, or of never paying another electricity bill because a government program covers the installation, are likely signs of a scam, and that companies claiming to be from the government are lying (Solar energy is rising in popularity. So are the scams, checked October 9, 2026). The same alert warns against sellers who rush homeowners into signing.

Buyers know this. Many ask to see the ads and landing pages that produce a seller’s leads before they agree terms, and a homeowner who was promised something the installer cannot offer usually ends the call and asks for no further contact. Leads from honest ads, which describe the next step as a quote or a roof review, are the ones buyers keep accepting. Solar ad claims to avoid and solar landing pages for affiliates go into the detail.

Setup steps before the first live lead

1. 1

   Review the consent wording

   Confirm the opt-in describes the kind of company that will contact the homeowner, and that your system stores the language, timestamp, IP address and page URL for every submission.

2. 2

   Match your fields to the specification

   Line up your field names and answer choices with what the buyer expects. Replace free-text answers with fixed choices wherever the buyer filters.

3. 3

   Put the terms in writing

   Agree filters, territories, caps, exclusivity, return terms and payment terms before anything is sent, and write down how a disputed lead will be handled.

4. 4

   Run test leads

   Test records show that each field arrives where it should and that the buyer’s endpoint answers pings and posts correctly.

5. 5

   Go live and read the declines

   Check accepted, declined and returned leads every day at first. A cluster of declines usually traces back to one field, one territory or the consent text.

Keep every agreed specification and each later change to it. When a buyer questions a batch of leads months later, the written terms are what settles it. The lead spec sheet lists the points to agree before going live.

Selling solar leads to Summit Leads

Summit Leads is a ping/post brokerage that buys and sells leads with real-time routing. Summit takes solar leads by real-time ping/post and routes each one to the buyers whose filters it matches.

The filters, routing, return terms and payment terms for each solar supplier are agreed during onboarding, before any live lead is sent.

Summit currently works with web leads, not calls or live transfers. Before sending traffic anywhere, read what solar leads are worth and common mistakes selling solar leads.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Sell solar leads: The solar seller overview.
• What solar leads are worth: The factors that move a buyer’s bid.
• High quality solar leads: What buyers check on arrival.
• Ping post explained: How real-time bidding works for sellers.
• TCPA for lead generators: Consent capture and records for sellers.

Buying solar leads instead? See solar leads