To choose a solar canvassing app, ask each supplier to demonstrate five tasks using a small fictional patch: change a territory assignment, record an uncertain solar enquiry, hand over a callback, recover from a lost connection and explain the activity totals. Record what you see, including any work your team would still have to do manually.
This checklist is for a UK solar business buying a field sales app for reps who knock doors. It gives the buyer a way to compare the daily canvassing workflow. A tool for designing a solar installation or producing a quote answers a different need.
Key takeaways
- Ask the supplier to demonstrate the workflow on the plan and device you intend to use.
- Keep solar interest separate from an installer's suitability assessment.
- Record manual work and unresolved questions before choosing a tool.
In this article
Start with the job you are buying it for
Write down the problem that prompted the search. Perhaps two reps are covering the same streets, or the office keeps asking who promised a homeowner a callback. Choose the tasks that would show whether the proposed setup addresses that problem. You may find products described as solar sales software, solar canvassing software or a field sales app. Those labels alone do not tell you where the doorstep record ends and the installer or office team takes over. Ask the supplier to show that boundary. Use fictional addresses and contact details in a demonstration account. Ask to see the version and plan you would actually buy, on the kind of phone your reps use. If a task needs another system, include that handover in the demonstration.
1. Change a patch while two reps are working
Ask the supplier to assign neighbouring areas to two demonstration reps. Then move one small part of the patch from the first rep to the second.
Check both reps' views. Can each person tell which addresses they are responsible for now? Can the second rep find previous visit records for the reassigned addresses? Ask what happens if the first rep has an older view open on their phone.
Record whether the change is visible immediately, after a refresh or through a separate instruction from the manager. A manager message may be a workable process, but include it in your comparison. You need to know who will send it during a busy shift.
2. Save a solar enquiry without inventing certainty
Give the supplier this fictional conversation: a homeowner wants to discuss solar, mentions a tree near the roof and asks whether the property would be suitable. The rep cannot answer that technical question.
Ask them to record the interest, the unanswered question and the next person responsible for it. Check whether the record lets unknown information stay unknown. A mandatory field should not force the rep to guess a roof detail just to save the conversation.
Energy Saving Trust explains that roof direction and shading affect solar generation. Treat the doorstep note as information to pass to the installer, with suitability still to be assessed. [1]
Then open the record as the person receiving the enquiry. Can they distinguish what the homeowner said from an assessment someone has actually completed? That distinction matters when solar lead follow-up moves beyond the canvassing team.
3. Transfer a callback to someone else
In the demonstration, the homeowner asks for a call tomorrow afternoon. The original rep will be away. Ask the supplier to transfer responsibility to another person and show the record from that person's view.
Check that the new owner can find the agreed contact window and the conversation behind it. Ask how they know the action is theirs. If the answer includes a reminder, notification or calendar connection, have the supplier demonstrate it and confirm what setup it requires.
Now ask how the office records that the callback happened. Can a manager distinguish an open request from one already handled? Agree where the authoritative record will live if your office uses a separate CRM. A manual transfer is still a transfer that someone must own.
Keep this callback separate from a confirmed survey appointment. The record should reflect what the homeowner agreed.
4. Interrupt the connection during a save
Ask the supplier to run a controlled test in the demonstration account: start recording a visit, interrupt the connection and attempt to save. Restore the connection and inspect the result from both the rep's phone and the manager's view.
What does the rep see while the connection is unavailable? Can they tell whether the record is saved, waiting or failed? Ask what happens if they press save again or close and reopen the app.
Look for a missing record or a duplicate after recovery. Write down the steps the supplier recommends if something goes wrong. The label "offline mode" does not describe every part of this test, so record the behaviour you actually observed. These are evaluation questions, not a claim that every app supports working without a connection.
5. Reconcile a small set of activity records
Use this fictional sample: six different addresses receive one visit each, then two of those addresses receive one further visit each. That is six unique addresses and eight visits. One household requests a callback; no survey appointment has been confirmed.
Ask the supplier to show how those records appear in the reporting view. Which total counts visits? Which counts distinct addresses? Can you inspect the records behind a total and see the effect of your date and rep filters?
If the app uses different definitions, write them down. You need a figure your manager can explain before using it to compare reps. The door-knocking KPI guide covers how to define those measures consistently.
The numbers here are a test case, not a target for a shift or evidence of typical solar sales performance.
Keep an evidence sheet for each supplier
Copy these fields into your demo notes and complete one entry for each task:
Task tested:
What we observed:
Version, plan and device demonstrated:
Result: demonstrated / manual workaround / not demonstrated
Work our team would still own:
Unanswered question and person responsible:
Do not turn a promise about a future release into a demonstrated result. Ask for written confirmation of any plan inclusion or dependency that affects your decision. Check the complete commercial terms separately before buying.
A simple decision rule is to identify your must-have tasks before the demo. If one remains unproven, resolve it in a further demonstration or agreed trial before relying on it. Extra features do not answer a missing callback or an unexplained activity count.
Once you have selected a tool, the first-canvasser workflow guide can help you rehearse the team's own recording conventions before a rep starts. That is a separate exercise from checking what a supplier can demonstrate.
Keep reading
- Field sales app vs CRM: what should your team use?Decide whether your canvassing team needs a field sales app, a CRM or both, with a record-ownership worksheet and a fictional solar enquiry example.
- Insulation enquiries and surveys: what should your team record?Record insulation enquiries, booked surveys and assessment findings separately, with a practical handover checklist for UK canvassing teams.
- Your first canvasser: rehearse the field workflow before day onePrepare your first canvasser with a clear patch, agreed result labels and callback ownership. Rehearse four fictional visits before the first shift.