Inside Sales Advisor (Technically Enabled Solar/Energy Products )

At Smollan, we’re on an evolutionary journey where we’re shifting our story. We’re looking for truly unique people who believe in fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. Where our people are cared for, happy and inspired in building an extraordinary place to work. Please note that this is a Fixed Term Contract (ideal for unemployed and/or immediately available candidates). We are looking for high-performing inside-sales professionals who can sell subscription-based, financial-value, and technically enabled energy solutions over the phone. This is not a basic tele-sales role. You will need to understand customer needs, explain complex product value clearly, build trust with skeptical customers, manage your CRM pipeline with discipline, and close customers into signed contracts. Experience in insurance, telecoms, SaaS, financial services, Solar, Energy, Fibre, or other contract-based product categories will be highly advantageous. Residential and Light Commercial Energy Solutions Role Purpose The Inside Sales Advisor is responsible for converting qualified leads into signed customer contracts through a professional, consultative, phone-based sales process. This is not a generic tele-sales role. The role requires a commercially sharp sales professional who can sell subscription-based, financial-value, and technically enabled energy products to customers who may be skeptical, price-sensitive, comparison-shopping, or unfamiliar with solar and prepaid-led energy solutions. The successful candidate must be able to understand customer needs, explain complex product value propositions clearly, build trust quickly, manage a CRM pipeline with discipline, and close high-quality customers into signed agreements. This JD builds on the original tele-sales profile, but raises the caliber requirement from basic tele-sales to technical inside sales, while retaining the core requirements around consultative selling, closing, CRM pipeline management, and customer experience. Preferred Candidate Profile The ideal candidate is not simply a call-centre agent. The ideal candidate is a commercially mature inside-sales professional who can: Sell a product where the customer needs education before they buy. Explain financial value, affordability, savings, return on investment, and long-term benefit. Build credibility with customers who may be skeptical about solar, savings claims, subscriptions, or contracts. Manage a multi-step customer journey from lead to signed agreement. Maintain clean CRM discipline and take accountability for personal sales metrics. Balance strong closing ability with responsible, ethical selling. Key Responsibilities Sales Conversion and Pipeline Management Convert qualified inbound, outbound, referral, and campaign leads into signed customer contracts. Sell across residential and light commercial energy products, including solar, backup, prepaid-led, subscription, and adjacent energy solutions. Run a structured consultative sales process to understand customer needs, electricity usage, property profile, affordability, decision drivers, and objections. Recommend the right product based on customer requirements and product fit. Explain pricing, savings, subscription value, contract process, credit requirements, installation journey, and customer obligations clearly. Close customers effectively into signed contracts. Maintain an accurate and up-to-date pipeline in the CRM system. Create follow-up tasks, capture call notes, update sales stages, and record lost reasons accurately. Proactively manage customer follow-ups to prevent leakage between interest, qualification, contract sent, and contract signed. Customer Education and Trust Building Build trust with customers who may be skeptical, cautious, price-sensitive, or comparing alternatives. Explain complex product value propositions in simple, commercially compelling language. Handle objections related to price, affordability, savings, contract terms, installation, product reliability, and service expectations. Provide a professional and confidence-building customer experience from first contact through to signed agreement. Avoid overpromising or misrepresenting product capability, savings, timelines, or contractual terms. Ensure customers understand what they are signing and what happens next in the journey. Financial and ROI-Based Selling Hold confident conversations about monthly cost, savings, value, affordability, and return on investment. Help customers understand the financial benefit of the recommended product versus their current energy cost or alternative solutions. Position subscription-based products in a way that is clear, credible, and customer-relevant. Use financial-value framing to support conversion without creating unrealistic expectations. Identify when a customer is not financially or operationally suitable and upscale or qualify out appropriately. CRM, Data, and Performance Discipline Use CRM consistently as the single source of truth for lead status, customer notes, next steps, and pipeline movement. Maintain accurate records of contact attempts, customer interactions, qualification outcomes, objections, lost reasons, and contract status. Track and understand personal sales metrics, including contact rate, conversion rate, close rate, pipeline age, follow-up completion, and reasons for lost sales. Use performance data to improve personal sales effectiveness. Participate in coaching, pipeline reviews, call reviews, and performance discussions. Take ownership of personal sales activity, productivity, and conversion outcomes. Brand Representation and Customer Experience Represent the company professionally in every call, WhatsApp, email, and customer interaction. Deliver a consistent, high-quality sales experience aligned to the brand promise. Communicate clearly, respectfully, and confidently. Collaborate with sales supervisors, operations, credit, scheduling, installation, and customer success teams where required. Support a smooth handover from sales to downstream operational teams. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Strong professional selling capability in a phone-based or remote-sales environment. Ability to rapidly learn and confidently articulate complex product value propositions. Strong consultative selling and closing ability. Financial and ROI-based conversation skills. Ability to build trust with skeptical customers. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Strong CRM and pipeline management discipline. Good commercial judgement. Ability to explain subscription, contract, affordability, and service-related concepts clearly. High resilience in a target-driven and commission-led environment. Self-awareness of personal sales metrics and performance. Strong follow-up discipline. Customer-focused mindset. Ethical and responsible selling approach. Ability to work independently while following structured sales processes. Consultative selling and needs diagnosis. High-conversion closing. Rapid learning and articulation of complex product value propositions. Financial and ROI-based conversation skills. Trust-building with skeptical customers. CRM and pipeline discipline. Customer focus and service excellence. Self-awareness of personal sales metrics and performance. Results-driven and commission-oriented mindset. Ethical and responsible selling. Resilience and accountability. Structured follow-up and pipeline ownership. Performance Measures Lead-to-contact conversion. Contact-to-qualified conversion. Qualified-to-contract-sent conversion. Contract-sent-to-signed conversion. Overall signed contract volume. Quality of signed contracts. CRM hygiene and pipeline accuracy. Follow-up task completion. Speed to first contact. Lost reason accuracy. Compliance with sales process and responsible selling standards. Personal improvement against sales metrics over time. Minimum Qualifications Matric required. Tertiary qualification in sales, marketing, business, finance, technical studies, or a related field is advantageous. Minimum 2–3 years’ proven sales experience in a phone-based, remote-sales, tele-sales, or inside-sales environment. Proven experience selling subscription-based, financial, technical, telecoms, SaaS, insurance, energy, solar, fibre, security, or other contract-based products is highly advantageous. Demonstrated ability to manage a sales pipeline using a CRM system. Proven experience in consultative selling, objection handling, follow-up management, and closing. Experience working in a target-driven or commission-led environment. Proven experience in consultative selling, objection handling, follow-up management, and closing. Experience working in a target-driven or commission-led environment. Remuneration Orientation This role is suited to candidates who are comfortable working in a performance-led environment with a strong commission component. The candidate must be motivated by sales outcomes, but disciplined enough to prioritize high-quality, suitable, and correctly informed customer conversions over low-quality volume. Candidate Candidates may not be suitable if they: Have only basic call-centre experience with no evidence of closing. Rely on hard-sell tactics. Cannot explain financial or technical value clearly. Are weak on CRM admin and pipeline discipline. Struggle with structured follow-up. Are uncomfortable with variable or commission-led pay. Cannot demonstrate awareness of their own sales metrics. Overpromise to close deals. Lack resilience in a target-driven environment. Cannot build trust with cautious or skeptical customers. #J-18808-Ljbffr