Solar companies run a deal cycle that touches site surveys, shade analysis, utility paperwork, HOA approvals, financing options, installation scheduling, and permission-to-operate milestones. Strkr's CRM holds the full timeline with document capture at each stage, interconnection milestone tracking, and the field crew's mobile view ready for roof measurements and panel-count confirmation.
Solar installers evaluating CRM in 2026 share six specific pain points that generic CRMs do not address. The common thread: a solar deal is not a 30-day B2B pipeline; it is a 90-to-180-day consumer-and-utility coordination cycle with documents, inspections, and third-party approvals at every step.
A residential solar deal from site survey to permission-to-operate commonly runs 90 to 180 days. Generic CRMs tuned for 30-day B2B pipelines force solar installers to invent custom stages, stale-deal reports, and reminder automations that recreate what a solar-aware CRM ships out of the box. Strkr holds the solar-specific stages: Lead, Site Survey, Proposal, Signed, Permitting, Installation, Inspection, PTO.
Each solar stage generates documents: site survey report, shade analysis, utility interconnection application, HOA approval letter, financing agreement, permit filings, installation photos, inspection report, PTO letter. Generic CRMs force document storage into Google Drive or Dropbox with no deal context. Strkr attaches each document to the deal with the stage, upload date, and the utility or municipality named in the filename.
Residential solar interconnection runs through utility-specific portals (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, Xcel, Duke, Dominion, FPL, each with distinct forms and timelines). An installer serving three utilities needs the CRM to track which utility applies to each deal, which forms are required, and what the expected utility response timeline is. Strkr's utility registry holds the portal, form list, and typical turnaround per utility.
Solar deals offer four typical financing paths: cash purchase, solar loan (Mosaic, Sunlight Financial, GoodLeap), lease (Sunrun, SunPower), and PPA. Each path changes the proposal, the paperwork, the installation gate, and the commission mechanics. Generic CRMs track one deal amount; Strkr tracks the financing option with the lender, loan term, APR, and the commission structure for that path.
Once a solar deal passes permitting, the installation crew needs the site address, the roof measurements from the site survey, the panel count and layout from the design, the inverter model, and the installation window with the homeowner. Generic CRMs leave the crew working off printed job sheets. Strkr's mobile view surfaces the installation card with all the job details the crew needs to complete the install.
Residential solar growth is still heavily driven by neighbor referrals and post-installation reviews on Google, EnergySage, and SolarReviews. Generic CRMs do not track referral attribution or trigger review requests at PTO. Strkr's referral workflow attributes new leads to the referring customer, triggers the review request 7 days after PTO, and tracks the review-platform response for the quarterly growth retrospective.
Strkr ships nine capabilities tuned for the residential-and-commercial solar workflow. Each capability maps to a stage, document type, or coordination gate in the 90-to-180-day solar deal cycle.
The default solar deal pipeline ships with the eight stages that mirror the actual solar deal cycle. Stage transitions trigger the required document uploads: Survey stage requires the shade analysis and roof measurements; Permit stage requires the utility application and local permit filing. The stage-gate discipline keeps deals from skipping ahead with missing paperwork.
The utility registry holds the interconnection portal, required forms, typical turnaround, and current backlog for each utility the installer serves. A deal in Permitting stage with a PG&E interconnection pending shows the expected utility response date; a deal with a Duke Energy interconnection shows a different timeline. Field reps and ops leads work from the same utility-specific expectations.
The site survey mobile view walks the surveyor through roof measurements, shade analysis photos at four cardinal orientations, electrical panel photo for service capacity verification, and the obstacles (vents, skylights, HVAC units) that affect panel layout. The output attaches to the deal as a structured survey record ready for the proposal designer.
Each proposal lets the sales rep select financing path and the lender. Cash deals track full purchase price and down payment. Loan deals track the lender (Mosaic, Sunlight Financial, GoodLeap), the term (10, 15, 20, 25 years), the APR, and the dealer fee. Lease and PPA deals track the per-kWh rate and escalator. Commission computation runs per path with the finance-specific structure.
Permitting runs three parallel tracks: local jurisdiction (city or county building department), utility interconnection, and HOA (where applicable). Strkr tracks each track as a sub-stage with its own documents, status, and expected turnaround. A deal cannot advance to Installation until all three tracks show approved. The parallel-track view beats a single-stage check that masks which track is holding the deal.
The installation calendar overlays crew availability, truck roll logistics, and the installation window the homeowner confirmed. Multi-crew installers see which crews are booked, which trucks are available, and which homeowners can accommodate a installation window. The calendar reschedules automatically when weather or utility inspections push dates.
The permission-to-operate milestone is the gate that triggers final commission payout, the system commissioning record, and the 7-day-delayed review request to the homeowner. Strkr's PTO milestone pulls the utility notification email, logs the PTO date, and queues the downstream workflow. Prior to PTO, the deal is not fully closed in revenue terms; the milestone discipline matches finance's revenue recognition policy.
When a new lead cites a neighbor as the referral source, Strkr matches the referring customer and attributes the new deal. If the deal closes, the referring customer receives the configured referral reward (gift card, credit against their monitoring plan, or cash referral payment). The referral ledger shows cumulative referrals per customer, which drives the "top-referrer" outreach for installer events.
Seven days after the PTO milestone, Strkr triggers a review request to the homeowner for the installer's preferred review platforms. The request includes a link to the Google Business Profile, EnergySage installer page, or SolarReviews listing. Review responses track back in Strkr for the quarterly growth retrospective. For reviews mentioning specific crew members, the operations lead sees the attribution for crew-level feedback.
Beyond the deal-level workflow, solar operations leads need visibility into pipeline velocity by stage, utility interconnection backlogs, crew utilization, and the installation-to-PTO gap. The ops surfaces below address the solar-operations challenges.
Pipeline velocity by stage surfaces where deals are stalling: deals aging in Permitting with a utility that is running a long backlog, deals aging in Site Survey because the surveyor team is understaffed, deals aging in Installation because weather pushed a crew. The ops lead reads the velocity dashboard weekly and triages the stage-specific bottleneck.
The utility backlog monitor tracks actual interconnection timeline against the utility registry's expected timeline. When a utility starts running 4 weeks over typical, the ops lead sees the pattern early and sets homeowner expectations accordingly. The historical pattern per utility also informs the proposal commitment language ("expected PTO 90 to 120 days from signing" rather than hard dates).
Crew utilization tracks installation days per crew per week against the maximum capacity (typically 4 to 5 install days per week per crew). Underutilized crews surface as capacity to accelerate the Signed-to-Install stage. Overutilized crews surface as the hiring trigger. The gap-analysis view informs the quarterly crew-staffing decision.
The installation-to-PTO gap tracks days from physical installation to utility permission-to-operate. The gap is often the largest variability driver in the deal cycle. A deal with a long gap often has a utility inspection scheduling issue, a utility paperwork resubmission issue, or a installer compliance item. Surfacing the gap by utility and by installer crew drives the operational improvement.
Permit filing status groups deals by local jurisdiction (city or county) with the permit office, filing date, and expected response. Jurisdictions running long turnarounds surface as the ops lead's escalation target. The historical pattern per jurisdiction informs the ops lead whether to pre-submit permits during the proposal stage versus after signing.
The financing mix dashboard shows the proposal mix (what did the rep offer) versus the signed mix (what did the homeowner choose). The commission mix per path tracks against the compensation plan to validate the commission computation. Shifts in financing mix (loan rates rising driving more lease) show up as early signals for the sales enablement team.
Solar installers evaluate CRM against four typical paths: generic CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce) with heavy customization, solar-specific tools (Enerflo, Sighten, OpenSolar) focused on design or sales, project management overlays, and spreadsheets. The six criteria below drive the decision.
Strkr: 8-stage solar pipeline native with document gates per stage. Generic CRMs: custom stages with no document discipline. Solar-specific sales tools: focused on proposal and design, less on the end-to-end deal cycle. Project management tools: focused on installation phase, less on sales. For an installer running the full cycle in one system, solar-aware stages are the operational anchor.
Strkr: utility registry with per-utility portal, forms, and timeline. Generic CRMs: no utility concept. Solar-specific sales tools: often focused on proposal and design rather than utility ops. The utility registry drives expectation setting with the homeowner and operational triage with ops.
Strkr: four financing paths with per-lender fields and per-path commission computation. Generic CRMs: one deal amount, commission plans customized heavily. Solar-specific tools: often support financing selection but less deep on commission plans. The combined financing-and-commission handling collapses the sales-compensation reconciliation.
Strkr: installation calendar with crew availability, truck roll, and homeowner window. Generic CRMs: calendars are generic. Project management tools: strong on crew scheduling but weak on sales handoff. The combined view keeps the sales-to-installation handoff from dropping deals.
Strkr: referral attribution with referral ledger and reward trigger. Generic CRMs: referral tracking requires custom fields and manual reconciliation. For a residential solar installer where neighbor referrals drive 30 to 50 percent of pipeline, native referral tracking is the growth lever.
Strkr: flat per-seat with solar features native. Generic CRM plus heavy customization: implementation and ongoing customization run 40,000 to 100,000 dollars over 3 years. Solar-specific sales tools: strong on their specific focus but may require a second tool for the full cycle. For a 20-rep installer, the three-year TCO comparison typically favors a solar-native CRM once the implementation cost of a generic CRM is counted.
Generic CRMs (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce) are the common path for solar installers past the spreadsheet. The comparison below is Strkr against a generic CRM configured for solar with custom fields and automations for a 15-to-50-rep residential solar installer.
| Feature | Strkr | Generic CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Solar deal stages | Lead, Survey, Proposal, Signed, Permit, Install, Inspection, PTO | Custom stages built per installer |
| Document gates per stage | Required docs enforced at stage transition | Manual document discipline |
| Utility registry | Per-utility forms, timelines, portals | No utility concept |
| Site survey mobile capture | Structured survey form on mobile | Generic mobile notes |
| Financing paths | Cash, loan, lease, PPA with lender fields | Custom field per installer |
| Installation calendar | Crew, truck, homeowner window overlay | Generic calendar |
| PTO milestone trigger | PTO logs commission and review ask | Manual milestone tracking |
| Referral attribution | Native referral ledger | Custom fields and manual match |
| Review workflow | Google, EnergySage, SolarReviews at PTO plus 7 | Generic email automation |
| Three-year TCO (20 reps) | Flat per-seat | Per-seat plus 40,000 to 100,000 customization |
The common thread across installers consolidating to Strkr: a generic CRM had been bent into a solar shape over years of customization, and the ops lead was spending more time maintaining the CRM than running operations. The playbooks below are motions on real-shaped customer accounts.
A 35-rep residential solar installer running HubSpot with heavy custom-field customization consolidated to Strkr during a 9-month migration. The driving pain was the ops lead's 15-hour-a-week HubSpot maintenance tax. Post-migration, the ops lead reclaimed 12 hours a week for utility backlog monitoring, crew utilization triage, and the review-workflow operations the generic CRM had never fully supported.
A commercial solar installer operating across three states consolidated the per-utility interconnection knowledge from four ops leads' spreadsheets into Strkr's utility registry. The expectation-setting language in proposals shifted to utility-specific timelines, which drove a measurable reduction in post-sale escalations about interconnection timing.
A residential installer running an informal neighbor-referral program consolidated referral attribution in Strkr. The data surfaced that 40 percent of 2026 pipeline originated from referrals, which was higher than the leadership team had estimated. The quarterly top-referrer outreach was formalized with a thank-you event, which drove measurable referral growth in the following quarter.
A multi-crew installer struggling with the sales-to-installation handoff consolidated the installation calendar in Strkr with crew availability, truck roll, and homeowner window overlay. The handoff gap (deals signed waiting for installation scheduling) dropped from 18 days average to 11 days average over 6 months, which collapsed the signed-to-PTO cycle and accelerated revenue recognition.
A residential installer with an active EnergySage profile activated Strkr's review workflow at PTO plus 7 days. Review volume on EnergySage increased, which drove ranking improvement in local search. The installer's cost per lead from EnergySage dropped as organic ranking improved. The review-platform mention tracking also surfaced which crews were generating the most positive mentions.
Start a 14-day trial with the solar configuration enabled: 8-stage solar pipeline, utility registry with per-utility timelines, site survey mobile capture, financing path tracking, permitting checklist, installation calendar, PTO milestone trigger, referral attribution, and post-install review workflow. Migrate from HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or a solar-specific sales tool.
Strkr's open API lets installers connect to Aurora Solar, OpenSolar, Sighten, and similar design tools for proposal data flow. The integration depends on which design tool the installer uses and which direction the data flows. For installers running Aurora for design and Strkr for the full deal cycle, the common pattern is designs completing in Aurora with the finalized proposal flowing to Strkr as the deal moves from Proposal to Signed stage. For installers running OpenSolar end-to-end for sales and Strkr for post-sale operations, the integration splits at the Signed stage. The pattern is a configuration decision rather than a product gap.
Yes. The 8-stage solar pipeline covers residential and commercial deal cycles with the understanding that commercial deals typically have longer timelines, additional stakeholders (CFO, facilities lead, roofer, structural engineer), and more complex financing (PPAs with escrow, commercial loans with specific lenders, direct ownership with ITC and depreciation modeling). Commercial installers typically add custom fields for the commercial-deal attributes (PPA term, offtaker credit rating, structural assessment) and use the deal object with the extended attribute set.
Strkr's compensation plans accept per-path commission structures. Cash deals typically compute commission as a percentage of system price. Loan deals typically compute commission with the dealer fee treated as a reduction to the installer's net revenue, with commission on the net. Lease and PPA deals typically compute commission as a dollar amount per watt installed or a fixed-fee per deal. Each path's structure configures in the compensation plan with the percentages or dollar amounts the installer's plan uses. The computation runs automatically at the signed or PTO milestone depending on the installer's commission timing policy.
Strkr is HIPAA-compliant with a Business Associate Agreement available for customers who need it. For a solar installer where the CRM holds customer-facing data (homeowner names, addresses, system details), HIPAA typically does not apply to the CRM contents themselves. If the installer uses Strkr for employee benefits enrollment or healthcare-related employee communications, the BAA covers the specific HIPAA-protected content. Most solar installers do not need the BAA for the solar operations itself; the BAA is available for the case where benefits or employee healthcare data flows through the platform.
The site-survey mobile capture runs on the installer's surveyor mobile device with specific guided-flow walking the surveyor through specific measurement capture (specific roof measurements with specific per-roof-plane breakdown, specific electrical panel photo for service-capacity verification, specific obstacle photos covering specific vents, specific skylights, specific HVAC units, specific other roof-mounted equipment), specific shade analysis photos at specific cardinal orientations with specific time-of-day timestamping, specific homeowner-interview capture (specific energy-usage patterns, specific preferences on panel visibility, specific concerns on specific aesthetics), and specific pre-design notes for the designer. The captured survey record attaches to the deal as a structured record ready for the proposal designer's workflow.
Strkr is SOC 2 Type II in progress with the audit tracking to complete by 2026-Q4. The security posture includes encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control with field-level permissions, SSO support, audit logging across sensitive actions, and tenant isolation at the database layer. For commercial solar installers whose procurement review includes SOC 2 verification, the audit report will be available on request once complete. The GDPR and CCPA posture are already compliant with the typical data-rights workflows (customer data export, deletion requests, consent tracking) supported.
The referral workflow handles multi-generation referrals (homeowner A referred homeowner B, who referred homeowner C) with specific attribution across the referral chain. The referring customer at each generation retains the attribution with the per-generation reward structure configured per installer. For installers running specific tiered reward structures (first-generation referral earns 500 dollars, second-generation referral earns 250 dollars), the tier applies at the generation. The referral ledger retains the per-generation chain for the quarterly reconciliation.
Yes. The typical migration from HubSpot or Salesforce runs 6 to 12 weeks for a 20-to-50-rep solar installer. The scope includes contact and deal migration, custom field mapping, historical note and attachment migration, user and permission setup, pipeline configuration with solar-specific stages, and parallel-run validation before cutover. For installers running substantial automation in HubSpot or Salesforce, the automation review maps generic CRM automations to Strkr's workflow equivalents. Post-cutover, the typical 2-week stabilization period includes field adjustment and training reinforcement. The migration cost is included in the standard onboarding for mid-market installers.
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