A field guide to selling to utilities

Every founder who sells to a utility asks the same question. Who do I call? After eight years and a dozen sales, here is the answer, with a map.

Three people, one of them Dale

There are three roles in every utility deal. The person who signs, usually a director of engineering or operations. The person who can block, usually someone in cybersecurity or compliance. And the person who uses the thing on a Thursday afternoon, usually a technician with a truck.

Founders spend their first year chasing the first, fear the second, and forget the third. Then the pilot ends and the technician says it adds twenty minutes to a job, and the deal dies without a word.

In one case we know well, the three roles were filled by a single man named Dale. He was a director, he reviewed the security questionnaire himself, and he rode along on installs. This is rarer than it sounds, and Dale has been very patient about being a case study.

Sell to the person who will use it. The person who signs will ask them anyway.

A short glossary

Rate case. The process by which a utility is allowed to charge for what it buys. If your product cannot be put in a rate case, it has no budget.

Qualified vendor list. The list you are not on. Getting on takes about a year.

Pilot. A project the utility can end without telling anyone. Ask for a number and a date at the start.

Three habits of the long sale

Start with the technician. Ride along on one install before you quote. You will learn which cable is too short, which panel opens the wrong way, and which question the crew will ask before you do.

Keep the paperwork moving. The security questionnaire is not an obstacle. It is the product, as the buyer sees it. Answer it in full, answer it early, and keep a clean copy.

Be dull about price. Utilities buy on a schedule. A discount does not hasten the schedule. It tells the reviewer something is wrong.

What works

Sell what can be insured and installed. Ohmline wrote its controller update process around a lineworker’s day, with a reviewable log, and its first renewal was a short email. Clampwise took the clamp-on route so a crew would not need a shutdown.

Hire one person who has worked at a utility. Pay them well. Listen when they say a thing will take twelve months, and plan the year around it rather than the quarter. A founder who respects the calendar gets invited back.

Dale, if you are reading this, we are sorry about the glossary. You were the best part of the work. Please send the questionnaire back when you can, and keep the truck.

— Hana Voss