[04]Case study · solarVis · 2024

Sales Engine

From an address to a solar proposal in one web app

Sales Engine is solarVis's web app for solar installers. A sales team goes from a customer's address to a branded proposal in one place: the 3D rooftop design, the materials, the financials and the customer. I was its founding designer, and I designed the solarVis brand around it.

The Sales Engine dashboard on a laptop beside the solarVis Sales Engine lockup
  • Year2024
  • ClientsolarVis
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeResearch, web app, brand, website and marketing
  • Built WithAdobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Webflow
  • Livesolarvis.co

In one line

I designed Sales Engine so a solar salesperson with no CAD experience can turn a customer's address into a branded proposal in one sitting.

01

The problem

Solar installers sold with tools built for engineers. A rooftop was designed in desktop software like PVSOL and PVsyst, the price was worked out somewhere else, and the customer, the materials and the team lived in other places again. One proposal could take hours to prepare, and every hour of delay was a chance to lose the deal.

Sales Engine brings that work into one web app. A sales team designs the roof in 3D, picks the materials, sees the financial forecast and sends a proposal under its own brand, within minutes.

The site modeling step on a laptop in front of a velvet curtain, the problem and the solution side by side, and the Sales Engine login on a second laptopThe site modeling step on a laptop in front of a velvet curtain, the problem and the solution side by side, and the Sales Engine login on a second laptop
02

How it was built

I was the designer and researcher on the project, working with the solarVis engineering team from October 2023 to August 2024. The work ran in four stages. Strategy set the goals and the functional scope. Research covered the market, the competitors and interviews with installers, and turned them into personas and flow maps. Design moved from wireframes to a design system and prototypes, and delivery finished the interface and its interactions and tested them with users.

The four stages of the project, strategy, research, design and deliver, each with its activities and number of sprints, around a laptop showing the Sales Engine dashboardThe four stages of the project, strategy, research, design and deliver, each with its activities and number of sprints, around a laptop showing the Sales Engine dashboard
03

The brand

The product carries the solarVis identity, which I designed alongside it. The mark is a circle with a detached S, and it stands for solar energy, sustainability and the company's drive to innovate in renewables. It has to hold at every size, from an app icon in a dock to the back of a hoodie.

The solarVis app icon in a phone dock and the solarVis favicon in a browser tab, on the brand yellowThe solarVis app icon in a phone dock and the solarVis favicon in a browser tab, on the brand yellow
The solarVis mark on its construction grid, the logotype on a yellow grid, the mark at five sizes, and the identity on business cards, a sweatshirt, notebooks and a hoodieThe solarVis mark on its construction grid, the logotype on a yellow grid, the mark at five sizes, and the identity on business cards, a sweatshirt, notebooks and a hoodie

The palette pairs a deep blue that brings trust with a yellow that brings the warmth of the sun, and two grays carry the interface. Neue Haas Grotesk sets everything from the product to print, in weights from Ultra Thin to Black.

Neue Haas Grotesk in eight weights with its glyphs, and the solarVis palette of blue, yellow, dark gray and light gray with their tintsNeue Haas Grotesk in eight weights with its glyphs, and the solarVis palette of blue, yellow, dark gray and light gray with their tints
04

Research

Research started with the tools installers already compared: Aurora, Solo, Eturnity and Ezzing on the web, PVSOL and PVsyst on the desktop. The gaps were customization and ease of use, so we set a bar of our own. A salesperson with no CAD experience should be able to design a roof alone.

The interviews gave us three people who want different things from the same project. The founder watches revenue, project status and the environmental impact the company can show its customers. The project engineer needs proposals that are accurate and professional, and fast. The sales specialist creates the offers and chases them, and needs to see where every customer and quote stands.

Three illustrated personas from a solar company: its founder, a project engineer and a sales specialist, each with their background, goals and expectationsThree illustrated personas from a solar company: its founder, a project engineer and a sales specialist, each with their background, goals and expectations
05

The architecture

Everything hangs off one dashboard with five areas: projects, leads, tasks, contacts and the organization with its teams and partners. Settings hold what makes the tool the installer's own, from the company, users and billing to material presets, solar packages, project steps and the proposal template.

A new project runs through seven steps: project information, consumption, site modeling, the PV system, sustainable solutions, the bill of materials and a summary that prints as the proposal.

The Sales Engine app architecture, from login to the dashboard and its five areas, settings and the seven steps of a new project, beside two laptops showing the dashboard and a partner pageThe Sales Engine app architecture, from login to the dashboard and its five areas, settings and the seven steps of a new project, beside two laptops showing the dashboard and a partner page
06

The web app

The dashboard opens on the numbers a sales team lives by: projects, leads, conversion, volume and installed capacity, with a new project one click away.

The Sales Engine dashboard on a laptop, the login page in front of a velvet curtain, a profile page, and the Create New Project tileThe Sales Engine dashboard on a laptop, the login page in front of a velvet curtain, a profile page, and the Create New Project tile

Every lead and project belongs to one contact, so a salesperson can log a call, plan a follow-up or attach a permit without leaving the customer. A project keeps its design alternatives side by side, each with its own investment, payback and bill of materials.

Sales Engine's customer screens on four laptops: a new contact, the projects grid with its filters, a project's overview with its energy analysis, and a new lead placed on a satellite mapSales Engine's customer screens on four laptops: a new contact, the projects grid with its filters, a project's overview with its energy analysis, and a new lead placed on a satellite map

Installers work from a database of more than 90,000 industry items. They switch on what they stock, set their prices and save packages for the systems they sell most, and a missing item can be requested from inside the flow. Each line of a package can be shown or hidden in the quote, and counted in the feasibility or left out of it.

Sales Engine's inventory: the PV panel database, a solar package with its items and prices, the form for requesting a missing material, presets, and the fourteen material categoriesSales Engine's inventory: the PV panel database, a solar package with its items and prices, the form for requesting a missing material, presets, and the fourteen material categories

The four things an installer sells through it, solar panels, EV chargers, heat pumps and batteries, each have their own image and icon.

Four category cards on the brand yellow: PV over a tiled roof, EV charger beside a car, heat pump by a wall and battery with a modern house

Solar companies sell through teams and dealer networks. The organization area models that structure, from the company to its teams and dealerships, with a task board for the work in between and user settings for who sees what.

An example organization, a solar company with its project, sales and field teams and five dealerships, above Sales Engine's task board, user list, teams and a partner pageAn example organization, a solar company with its project, sales and field teams and five dealerships, above Sales Engine's task board, user list, teams and a partner page

The project flow is where the hours used to go. A salesperson confirms the address on a map, enters the consumption, builds a 3D model of the roof from HD satellite imagery and LIDAR data and places the panels. Batteries, heat pumps and EV chargers are suggested only from the items the company has switched on. The bill of materials and the financial summary follow, and the proposal goes out as a PDF under the installer's own brand.

The steps of a Sales Engine project on laptops and tablets: a new project on a satellite map, energy consumption, the 3D roof design, battery and heat pump suggestions, the bill of materials, the financial overview and the proposal coverThe steps of a Sales Engine project on laptops and tablets: a new project on a satellite map, energy consumption, the 3D roof design, battery and heat pump suggestions, the bill of materials, the financial overview and the proposal cover
07

One brand, every surface

The same identity runs through everything solarVis puts in front of people. A lead generator on installers' websites lets a homeowner check their own roof. They mark the building on the map, describe it, add a battery, an EV charger or a heat pump and see the solutions and savings, and the installer gets a lead with the project already described.

Four steps of the solarVis lead generator: sharing the location on a satellite map, the roof's features, a battery solution and the feasibility resultsFour steps of the solarVis lead generator: sharing the location on a satellite map, the roof's features, a battery solution and the feasibility results

The website is built around the product, with pages for each solution, industry and resource.

Sixteen pages of the solarVis website, from the home page and solutions to case studies, pricing, careers and the error page

Event stories, the posters for the Intersolar stand and the ad campaigns use the same mark, type and colors, with the product itself as the picture.

Three solarVis stories on phones: an invitation to The smarter E Europe, Sales Engine for solar installers and the lead generator
Three solarVis posters for the Intersolar stand, sell solar, design, sell, manage solar and manage solar, each over a rooftop rendered in 3DThree solarVis posters for the Intersolar stand, sell solar, design, sell, manage solar and manage solar, each over a rooftop rendered in 3D
Three solarVis ads: the all-in-one solar CRM over a solar field, a call to find a solarVis partner, and the path from a lead to a working solar systemThree solarVis ads: the all-in-one solar CRM over a solar field, a call to find a solarVis partner, and the path from a lead to a working solar system
0801

Outcome

Sales Engine took proposal preparation from hours to minutes. solarVis now puts it at under 15 minutes, against four to six hours across Excel, PVsyst, PVSOL and AutoCAD.

Compared to the time when we used PVSOL and PVsyst, Sales Engine has greatly accelerated and simplified the project preparation process for us.
Co-founder of a solar installation company

The platform has kept growing since, and solarVis today counts more than 1,800 installers in over 45 countries and more than 67,500 proposals. I was its founding designer, and the structure and flows in this case are where it started.