"I hate selling!" I heard once from a contractor: "The Nature is creating my business!".  Then he explained that his phone is ringing off the hook when the weather is below 20°C or above 30°C. And then no price negotiations, no proposals or tough questions asked - no selling, just fixing. No wonder that his business is stagnating and he is never making a consistent profit.  
 For everybody who is in contracting for A PROFIT, making new sales and getting new customers is an everyday reality. Having a gas fitter license or solar installer certificate doesn't automatically mean that you will have success in the contracting business, but an ability to generate more business (making sales) does.
Now, are you born to sell? No, you learn to earn!
You have heard it many times: "That guy is a born salesman." Nonsense! That is the biggest myth in sales. Selling is a science. A skill as any other you've learned so far. The salesman who you thought was born to sell learned to do so by meticulously developing his character and abilities, and now is applying the science of selling.
How much of sales training do you have? How many sales training books have you read? Not that many? Join the crowd, Bubba!
Back to learning. Selling solar heating is much different from selling of any other heating technology or equipment. People can get by without Solar - nobody will freeze to death or have cold showers without it. That's why I think there is a real need to have a discussion about the sales challenges our industry is facing every day.
There are many elements of success in selling solar, but there is limited space to tell all today.
 
Next week for sure. Stay tuned...

 RESOL controllers will help you to keep your promise of delivering the highest energy use. Every RESOL controller comes with an energy management and control process optimization algorithm built in. Yes, it has all that!
In the previous newsletter we were talking about PRIO -priority, which will effectively prevent overheating of the solar thermal system and manage the energy flow. But what will happen if the second load is not available and you're simply integrating solar into existing hydronic heating by upgrading it to a dual coil tank? 95% of indirect storage tanks have mechanical aquastat control, which is initiating a call for heat as soon as the temperature in the tank drops below a minimum set point. The heating control system then turns ON the DHW zone and turnes OFF all space heating zones. The boiler will go on high fire to increase the BTUH output for fast DHW recovery, so that the consumer will never experience the shortage of hot water (even if he/she is sleeping or is not at home at all). 
On the other hand, by installing a solar domestic hot water system with the new 80 gal. storage tank,  the real solar storage is only half of it. So why not install half as many collectors? Should you? As result, the tank temperature is high as well as the solar return temperature, but the solar system efficiency is low.
A programmable room thermostat became a part of every heating system out there and for good reason, but what about a programmable aquastat? I know - there is nothing there available. Only 5% of all boilers/tanks installed have electronic temperature control with sensors, whereas only 7% of those have a programmable timer option. But this will not happen with the RESOL controller, my friends! Every DeltaSol BS Plus controller offers a programmable aquastat (thermostat) function (arrangement 3). (DeltaSol BS/3 has a non-programmable thermostat function in arrangement 2.) Now, how to use it:
As you know, almost every thermostat could be used for heating or cooling control. When contact is closed on temperature drop - that is heating, when contact is closed on temperature rise - that is cooling. Two settings - AH O and AH F - decide which function is used.
AH O - the temperature set point when output relay is ON.
AH F - the temperature set point when output relay is OFF.
In case the heating function is needed  - AH O has to be less than  AH F.  For example: AH O = 105°F and AH F = 115°F means that the controller will energize output when the tank temperature drops to 105°F and stop it when tank temperature is 115°F.
The cooling function works opposite - AH O is higher than AH F. Like for the typical heat dissipater function.
By adding the programmable timer to the temperature control of the DHW tank, you will not only increase energy savings in a conventional heating system, but also make your solar thermal system more efficient. Look, 87% of your customers will agree that water has to be heated in the morning, at lunch time and late afternoon. It's perfectly correlating with the solar schedule! We begin the day with a cold tank and if the day starts off cloudy at noon time, the water will be reheated by the boiler. But if it's sunny, the boiler wouldn't need to run at all. DeltaSol BS Plus has 3 timer blocks for a day - t1, t2, t3. Timer block starts with t1O - ON time and ends with t1F - OFF time. From my experience the most suitable schedule for my customers was: t1O= 5:45; t1F=8:15 - t2O=12:30; t2F= 13:00 - t3O=17:30; t3F=22:00. Here's a CLUE -  never program a timer without consulting and notifying your customers or you will get an unpaid service call!
In the next newsletter, we will talk about the special functions DeltaSol controllers can offer.