There's a piece of sales folklore that every solar rep hears in their first month: nobody signs on the first visit. Build rapport, leave a proposal, come back Thursday.
The data says otherwise.
According to Artemis's The Signal: Q3 2026, a quarterly report built on data from installers using the Artemis platform, 56% of signed solar deals were signed the same day the project was created. By day 7, 83% had signed. By day 30, 95%.
Read that curve one more time. More than half of the deals that close, close in the first sitting. Most of the rest close within a week. After that, there's very little left to win.
A note on the numbers: Artemis is clear that its data reflects installers on its platform and "may not represent the full market," and it reports percentages only, not deal counts. Treat these as a strong benchmark, not an industry census.
What a 56% same-day rate actually tells you
It doesn't tell you to pressure people. It tells you that a homeowner who is going to say yes usually knows it before you leave the kitchen table. The deals that drag past the first week mostly don't come back.
So the question for an org isn't "how do we get more second appointments?" It's: when a homeowner is ready on day one, is everything in place to let them sign?
In a lot of orgs, the honest answer is no. The rep has to wait on a designer for the system size. The financing quote lives in a different portal. The rep isn't sure which installer is taking the job or when. The proposal goes out "tonight." That's a deal built to sign on day three, in a market where the majority sign on day zero.
Not every deal type behaves the same
The same Artemis report splits same-day signing by deal type for Q3:
- Solar-only: 65% signed the same day
- Battery-only (a battery added to an existing system): 68%
- Solar+battery: 39%, down from 46% in Q2
That last number matters. A solar+battery deal is more product, more money and more decisions: how much storage, one battery or two, which financing. Fewer than four in ten of those deals closed in the first sitting.
The practical takeaway: plan a second touch for solar+battery deals from the start, and schedule it before you leave. For solar-only and battery-only deals, assume the first sitting is the sitting.
Five things that have to be ready before the first sitting
If most deals are won or lost on day one, the work moves earlier. Here's what a same-day-ready process looks like:
1. The design happens before the appointment, not after. Pull the address, roof and usage ahead of time. A rep who walks in with a real system size and a real payment can answer the question that actually decides the deal.
2. Financing is explained, not discovered. The financing mix has moved fast this year (Artemis shows Prepaid TPO going from 10.2% to 40.7% of signed deals on its platform in four quarters). Your reps need to explain loan, lease, PPA and prepaid in plain English, on the spot, without calling the office.
3. The installer is a name, not a question mark. "Who's actually putting this on my roof?" is a reasonable question. A rep who can answer it with a vetted, named installer and a realistic timeline removes one of the biggest reasons to "think about it."
4. The contract can be signed from the table. If the paperwork lives in a system the rep can't reach from their phone, the deal waits until it can, and waiting is where deals die.
5. Follow-up starts within 24 hours for anything unsigned. With 83% signed by day 7, a deal that's still open on day 2 is in its most valuable window. A follow-up on day 9 is mostly a courtesy.
The org-level problem behind slow closes
Most of the friction above isn't a rep problem. It's a systems problem. When the CRM, the design, the financing, the installer relationship and the paperwork live in five different places, every handoff adds a day. Reps learn to "come back Thursday" because their tools can't close on Monday.
That's the gap GRID was built to close. Dealers on GRID get the CRM, canvassing, a vetted installer network and the business tools in one place, at $0 for the platform. GRID is paid on the install side, only when your deals fund. The point is fewer places for a ready homeowner to stall between "yes" and a signature.
The bottom line
The majority of solar deals are decided in the first conversation. The best orgs don't fight that. They build for it: design before the door, financing reps can explain, an installer they can name, and paperwork that signs from the table. Then they work every open deal hard in the first week, because that's where nearly all the remaining yeses are.
If your process still assumes the second appointment is where deals happen, it's built around the minority.
See how a same-day-ready org runs
The intro call is 20 minutes. We'll walk through the platform and look at where your current process makes a ready homeowner wait.
Source: Artemis, The Signal: Q3 2026 (pp. 13, 16, 32, 36), based on Artemis platform data from Q4'25 to Q3'26 for installers using the Artemis platform; it may not represent the full market. GRID is a dealer operating platform and does not sell solar to homeowners. Nothing here is a representation about earnings or results, which depend on your organization.
Selling solar in this market? Run your numbers with us.
GRID is the $0 operating platform for solar dealers — tools, training, commissions, e-sign, and installer pricing negotiated on pooled network volume. One 20-minute intro call. No pressure, no runaround.
Book the intro call →