Solar appointment setting: in-house setters, outsourced firms or automated follow-up

Solar appointment setting can be done by your own setters, by an outsourced firm paid per appointment, or by automated follow-up that replies the moment a lead arrives. Published prices for outsourced firms run from US$25-75 per set and US$50-150 per kept appointment at one seller to US$250-450 per appointment-set lead at another. Compare them by what each kept appointment and each signed job costs you, because a cheap appointment that doesn't show is the most expensive kind.

Most installers end up with a mix: automation replies in the first minute and books what it can, a person calls the rest, and an outside firm covers overflow or a market you're testing.

In-house. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the annual mean wage for telemarketers at US$36,340 in May 2024, about US$3,028 a month. That is base pay only. Add commission or bonuses per kept appointment, payroll taxes and benefits, a dialer or phone system, CRM seats and the manager's time. We found no published Australian figure for setter pay we could check, so use your own payroll. Our guide to outsourcing solar admin shows how to turn a salary into a monthly cost with on-costs added.

Outsourced firms. Few firms publish prices. These are the two US ranges we could read on a seller's own page on 10 November 2026:

The gap between a set and a sit is the whole point. Paying per set leaves the no-show risk with you. Paying per sit moves it to the firm, at a higher price. We found no Australian appointment-setting firm that publishes its prices, so ask for a written quote that says exactly what counts as an appointment.

Automated and AI follow-up. Software such as GoHighLevel lists plans at US$97 and US$297 a month, with calls, texts and its AI features charged on usage on top. The software is the smaller cost. Someone has to write the messages, connect your forms and ad leads, set the booking rules and check the conversations every week. Our AI and workflow automation does that for US$1,200 or A$1,200 a month, on your CRM or a custom one.

Reply within minutes, every time. The best-known evidence is old and wasn't about solar: in research with an MIT researcher, presented by a sales software company in 2007, contacting a lead within five minutes yielded 21 times more qualifications than waiting 30 minutes. Treat that as a direction, not a forecast. The reason it holds in solar is simple: on a shared lead or a comparison search, other installers have the same name and number.

Test your own speed. Fill in your form on a weekday afternoon and again on a Saturday night, and time the first reply and the first call. Then do the same with any firm you are about to hire.

Whoever makes the call, a person or software, the job is to book a real appointment, not to sell the system on the phone. A good booking call confirms a few things and stops there:

• They own the home, or can say who does.
• The roof and the bill: roughly what they pay for power, and anything obvious such as heavy shade or a roof due for replacement.
• Everyone who decides will be there. An appointment with one of two owners often ends in "we need to talk about it".
• Their timing: this month, after a rebate change, or just looking.
• A time that suits them, booked while they're on the line, with the confirmation sent straight away.

Leave price to the salesperson. A setter who quotes a number on the phone turns the appointment into a price check.

If you pay in-house setters a bonus, pay it on kept appointments rather than on bookings. A bonus per booking rewards appointments that never happen. The same logic applies to how you pay an outside firm.

Automated follow-up needs the same discipline. Make the first message plainly come from your business, hand the conversation to a person as soon as the homeowner asks a question the system can't answer, and stop every message the moment someone opts out.

These are general notes from the regulators' own pages, read on 10 November 2026, not legal advice. The rules apply to you even when a firm or a piece of software makes the call, so check them with a lawyer before you scale up calling or texting.

United States

The FCC's consumer guide, last updated 27 February 2026, sets out these rules:

• Prerecorded telemarketing calls to a home or mobile number need the person's prior written consent, which can be given on a website form or by a keypress.
• Autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to a mobile number need consent, oral or written. Commercial texts need written consent.
• AI-generated voice calls are illegal unless the person agreed to receive them or the caller is exempt. An AI setter that calls with a synthetic voice falls under this.
• Opting out: people can opt out of any robocall or robotext at any time, in any reasonable way, even after giving consent.
• Telemarketing calls to homes are banned before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m., and callers must give their name and their employer's name, phone number and address.
• The National Do Not Call Registry covers home and mobile numbers, and many states keep their own lists too.

In practice: put clear consent wording next to the button on your quote form, naming your business and saying you will call and text. Keep a record of what each person agreed to and when. If you buy leads, ask the seller to show you the exact wording the homeowner agreed to and whether it covers calls and texts from you.

Australia

The ACMA's rules for telemarketing calls apply to any call that sells or promotes something:

• Calling hours: 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Saturday, no calls on Sunday or national public holidays.
• On every call, say who you are and who you work for, say why you're calling, end the call if the person asks, and show a return number on caller ID.
• The Do Not Call Register: wash your call lists against it unless you have consent. You can't infer consent just because a number is published online.
• Texts and emails come under the Spam Act. You need consent before sending marketing messages, each message must identify your business and give contact details, and unsubscribe requests must be honored within 5 working days. You can't send a message to ask for consent, because that is itself marketing.
• Victoria: Solar Victoria doesn't allow its rebates and loans to be marketed by telemarketing or door-to-door sales under its Solar Homes and Victorian Energy Upgrades programs.

The ACMA notes that a call purely to remind someone of an appointment isn't telemarketing. A confirmation call that turns into a pitch for a battery upgrade is.

A show rate is the share of booked appointments where the homeowner actually sat down with your salesperson. We found no independent show-rate benchmark for solar, and sellers' own figures aren't one, so measure yours. Count four things, by lead source and by setter:

1. Leads: every form, call or chat that reached you.
2. Set: appointments booked with a date and time.
3. Sat: appointments that happened, in the home or on video, with the decision makers there.
4. Signed: contracts signed from those appointments.

Show rate is sat divided by set, for appointments due in the period. Count a reschedule once, when it finally sits, rather than as two appointments.

To lift the show rate, confirm by text the day the appointment is booked, again the day before, and call on the morning. Make sure both homeowners will be there, and send the salesperson's name and photo. These are reminders about a booked appointment, so keep them to that.

Appointment setting stops at a signed contract. Everything after it, from approvals and install dates to certificate paperwork and invoices, is admin, and it holds up payment if it lags. Our guide to outsourcing solar admin compares the options. For Australian installers, SolarOps covers that back office with solar-trained specialists, from A$1,490 a month for a part-time seat. For the lead side, read shared or exclusive solar leads.