sales specialist

journeyperson electrician

solar installer

sales representative

branch manager

ADT Solar

Working at Sunpro was highly stressful.  You will work Monday through Saturday from as early as 8am to as late as 11pm by the time you get home.  If you have an 8am appointment, you will sometimes have to get up at 5am so you can leave the house early enough as some appointments can be up to 2 1/2 hours away.  The Solar Panel they use is LG which is one of the top brands.  There are also other competitors brand which are better and are just as good.  But, the price Sunpro charges is about 4000 to 5000 more than some of the local competitors.  They only pay 5% commission on the sale at full price, and if you are able to self-generate sales through sales you made, or from cold canvassing neighborhoods, they will pay you an additional 1000.  With the driving and sales demos, some sales people may only sell 2 jobs a month.  If the paperwork is correct you will get your full commission but,  if there are any mistakes, the salesman will lose some of his commission a minimum of 1% or it could be more.  They also require the salesman to take pictures of every job.  They want this done on the ipad the company provides.  The ipad takes terrible pictures.  In some instances you will have to take up to 100 pictures, just to make sure you don't have to make a special trip back to the job you sold and have to take more pictures.  Once the pictures are taken, you will be required to download all of them onto a file on the shared company folder.  This downloading takes time out of your day.  I have worked for another company where I took pictures on my phone and was able to directly send them directly to the office and everything was saved for me.  So be prepared for no work/life balance as your day will start early and end late at night.  They also use SalesForce.  They will require you to document and record every time you call a customer, what was discussed, the result and anything else.  So, if you are driving you would have to jot it down on a binder, pull over and enter it into the CRM system as long as there was cell service.  SalesForce can be a nightmare because it takes away from actual selling.  The appointments are set by the home office in Louisiana.  As a Salesman you may get 1 to 3 appointments a day or none and those appointments could be as far away as 2 1/2 hours.  Plus, you will not even be allowed to call the customer to confirm the appointment.  I always felt that if the appointment was so far away and it was taking time and money out of my pocket, I wanted the opportunity to make sure all the decision makers were going to be there, especially if it was 2 hours away.  So by the time you get there, it is either a one-legged appointment, nobody is home or it is a 75 year old guy who can't qualify for solar, doesn't need it, or it is a double wide mobile home out in the middle of nowhere.  So basically you will be driving all over the place putting mileage on your personal vehicle at the start.  They dangle a company car in the future to you but you will be waiting months for it.  I left before that because the hours they require you to work, (or drive) makes most people leave and is the reason for their high turnover.  You do get a small gas card, but it hardly pays for all the mileage you put on your car, plus the wear and tear on it.  I think the products they offer are of high quality, but there are also just as high quality products offered by other companies for a lot less.  One other thing about solar.  If someone buys solar, they will need to live in the house for 25 to 30 years to break even.  Solar panels lose their efficiency over the years and by the 25th year the photons lose as much as 25% or more of their ability to produce power.  So anyone who is older, or someone who does not plan on staying in their home for 30 years or more, will not see any financial benefit because of the break even point.  So, Sunpro is a decent company and has had a lot of growth in a short time.  If you can handle the long hours and not much of a work life balance, it may be OK for you.  

The company touts its growth; the solar industry in general is growing. As a solar consultant, we visit customers at their homes to discuss solar options. Lately, many leads turn out to be with those who aren't good candidates - low income, mobile homes that don't qualify for financing, and many won't qualify for the tax credit. I learned from other appointment setters this is in part because they have a quota to meet thus feel pressured just to set appointments; some which are over 130 miles each way. A quota requirement often results in many appointments to knowingly be unsuitable. While we cannot prequalify a lead before meeting them, there are some parameters that can be set regardless. There are some in the company who do very well - we were told by management that a good lead is provided to those with the best close ratio. That 'good' lead means that the company has a good idea that this is the ideal candidate. They should simply screen out bad ones: not just those who obviously don't qualify. If you are in the solar industry, you know to ask the type of questions to help you determine it. Even if this means seeing less people a week, at least we know that the person is an ideal candidate. 

The hours you are to be available are Monday to Saturday 8am to 9pm. Though you won't work these hours often, the fact that you are expected to be on call means that you must have sales on your mind all day everyday. At least once a week, I find myself visiting an 8pm appointment over 100 miles away. There is a chance that the person is not there and you'll return home at 10pm. If the customer is home, you may end up arriving back at 11pm only to get up early and drive another 50 miles to be at an 8am appointment the following day. If you do get a late appointment 100 miles away, you are discouraged from calling the customer - management state that the customer may cancel the appointment if you do. Sometimes you feel like you are behind the wheel longer than a truck driver. This HAS happened on several occasions. While you can ask to be blocked off the schedule for a certain time if needed, the fact that you have to ask for time is telling. 

As for pay, you are paid 5% of the job total; there is a bump if you are able to sell it above the minimum price they set which helps. They do however, have a deal with EnergySage which allows the company to 'wholesale' a deal to someone who gets pricing through that website. Unfortunately a consultant isn't allowed to sell a system at that price if needed. their price is about $3500 less than a system we can sell. If you make an error in calculating the price or if you forget to factor a cost (utility box) which causes the system to be sold for less than YOUR bottom line price, you will be charged back dollar for dollar under that bottom line figure. Even if the price fetched was still sold above an EnergySage quote, you are still on the hook for every dollar. 

I like the solar industry and sales - though if we have to sift through the bad leads to find a good one, 5% just doesn't seem to cut it. They can either pay more commission to help offset the bad leads or stick to their 5% but do a much better job screening.

The company states that other solar companies don't give their salespeople a car allowance - I can't verify if they do or don't. Though the $250 after taxes barely covers the tires, insurance (drivers who put a lot of miles pay higher premiums) and excess wear and tear. Don't buy a new car for this as you'll drive 40-50k miles a year. I logged 38000 in 10 months.

I joined this company in July of 2021 when it was still Sunpro, and from the beginning, I was thoroughly impressed. The organization, the paid training, the care, and concern from the management were amazing and they were truly professionals. We flourished for about six months under ADT Solar until they began to lay their corporate hands on an incredibly prosperous business model and then the crumbling began in the form of dire changes in the work culture that made Sunpro the success it was-through the happiness and success of its people. 
Near the end of 2021 when we were told that ADT had acquired us, we all had the highest hopes for the future as ADT promised to only improve the business model and said nothing was going to change unless it benefitted us as a company; "Us" as a company... However, I am sad to say that the downward spiral began about six-months in and has never stopped, while actually gaining destructive momentum. Aside from very bad leads (or lack thereof) for salespeople to chase and pretend that they were good (every lead is a good one!), the operational side was replaced with newbies (to cut costs) that were very inexperienced and completely overwhelmed. The same fate awaited the veteran installers; they trained the new hires and then were terminated only weeks after they unwittingly trained their replacements. That move ushered in a dark period of damage and unfinished work as the new installers were woefully inexperienced and overwhelmed. The same thing was done to account managers, permit runners, coordinators, EVERYONE... the corporate greed aka toxicity affected everyone from the top managers on-down to the customer service reps. Needless to say, most of my customers refused to give any more referrals to me and the same once-successful salespeople now spent HOURS every day doing damage control. Appointments were rarely sales oriented any longer and were increasingly spent deflecting the onslaught of bad reviews and the egregiously high prices that left us sadly uncompetitive. My friends and neighbors that trusted me and bought from me were now experiencing the aftermath of a once fantastic company in it's death throes and that left me the scapegoat for callous corporation. I am mortified at what has happened and is happening to my customers. I no longer work for ADT Solar, but I am still taking the calls and doing my best to console or facilitate on their behalf. The fallout will get worse before it gets better and I understand that, so I do what I can., but I am disgusted at what ADT Solar done to both  its employees and its customers in the name of profits.
The bottom line is this: I am sharing my personal story to warn you of the quagmire of lies and pretense you will be immersed in and perpetuate if you join this company. If you care about your personal reputation, I advise you to look elsewhere for employment. Even if you only care about monetary gain, look elsewhere, as the ship has sailed on this shell of a company. R.I.P. Sunpro.  

I was told when I got hired it would be optional overtime and weekends. I made this very very clear that I have invalid parents only for them to demand for me to work on the weekend. It is a good start if you are starting your solar career because the hours will teach you how to do the work but if you have previous experience in the solar industry, this company is not for you. In terms of overhead, their upper management is HIGHLY under qualified. This under qualification leads to stubborn and power hungry people. For example, as an installer it is most important to prevent leaks. Everybody is stubborn and won’t realize the damage they do to the roofs because half the installers and some upper management don’t even know how to properly move on a roof. Their “foremen” are people with high and efficient work ethic but their knowledge of the solar industry as a whole is extremely limited to specifically Uni-rac and Enphase. I was told that changes to the upper management will be happening so I will be patiently waiting because all my other experiences were positive with the company. The pay is good. The benefits are good. As a lead installer, I can say that their design team is lacking as well. Their sales teams after speaking briefly with a few of them are extremely underwhelming with what they know and honestly I’m amazed that they can sell jobs without the knowledge to reinforce their sales. Organization is not terrible. The warehouse is leagues better then other companies I have worked at. Warehouse crew is efficient and direct which serves for a good morning every morning because they are on the same team as you. Management seems to not be on your team. I have spoken to somebody and will be returning perhaps if they improve on their overhead. Surely it isn’t hard to find more qualified people. It truly amazes me how careless this company is about quality. Atlanta had 64 leaks in the last year. The exact reason as to why the leaks are so numerous correlate with what I mentioned before. Leads are under qualified. Foremen are under qualified. They stress how QUICKLY you must do a job and forget that rushing something will inevitably lead to a hole not being patched or shingles being damaged. The stress on speed delivers high income for everybody but I have worked under a few leads before they made me a lead, and I am 100% guaranteeing that they’re main priority is not the customer. It’s the speed at which the install is done. Yes, it is quick and I don’t doubt how hard the upper management worked to get to their positions but just being quick at installing is not enough to be foremen or lead. In depth knowledge is required on the job at times and this companies overhead seem to do things incorrectly. Anybody that has ACTUALLY done solar for a couple years can talk to the management and will IMMEDIATELY see how little they know about the work they do.

I was initially very enthusiastic about starting at SunPro (which was then bought by ADT). I was ready to have more responsibility to rectify issues, while doing what was best for the customer and ensuring a sound product. There was a slight learning curve (as there is with any job), and afterwards if you did your job well, higher-ups would be pretty hands off. Which at first I appreciated. I came to realize it was only because they were focused on "escalated" issues. 

Due to a complete lack of accountability by predecessors and management, I was personally handed a very big responsibility with a backlog of projects that should've never existed to begin with. Projects continued for YEARS. While the reasons for construction projects and their shortcomings is of course highly variable, the constant in all of these "escalated" projects was that the company as a whole lacked responsibility in their roles, and separate departments refused to collaborate together. 

When I was able to make headway on my backlog of projects, there would inevitably be someone in corporate who looked at the data and probably said "Hey, they can hand a dumpload more." It was a never-ending cycle of hardwork with little to no results. If the company's priority was data and driving sales, how did they expect any headway? 

I attempted to create discussions with my lead, who in turn brought issues up to their manager. If I continued to get dismissed about my concerns, I would reach out to regional managers and other corporate head honchos. It usually resulted in me being reprimanded for speaking my mind and inevitably hurting someone's feelings with an email. After trying to fix issues with the companies internal workings, of course I was going to be frustrated! What I finally learned was no matter who you are or how much knowledge you have on a certain issue, no one in the company was willing to have a conversation about how to move forward in a productive way. Everyone took criticism personally, and then acted immature about how to do what was best; Provide a quality experience for the customer, while giving a quality product. 

Unfortunately, the company's pride in customer service is completely unfounded, and I used to be the only point of contact for many projects, when that wasn't in my job description whatsoever. If you're enthusiastic about the solar industry, I'd suggest working in the field instead of this office setting. 

ADT taking over has turned this into a corporate machine with no trust, no established sense of where you stand, and sell them at all costs regardless of tactic mindset. Company leads and high sales numbers are promised by the less than adequate recruiters, but that all changes the second you walk in the door. You are expected to generate your own leads 90%+ of the time, and expected to knock doors or you're likely gone. 

The training is so poorly inaccurate that it is laughable. You come out knowing as little as you did going in. Until you burn through several appointments to cut your teeth, you really won't have a sense for how to do this job in even half of its entirety. In addition to that, be expected for some chastising and punishment for those learning experiences.

Markups are outrageous, trust is not important, and getting paid on a deal is so profoundly complex. You won't see a dime for anything for weeks, and by then the customer is likely to cancel anyways. 

IT is an absolute disaster. Never respond. Never move anything forward. Weeks on end to get simple designs done. 2 billion in capital was put into this company with nothing to show for it. They couldn't even roll out a basic software update in 6 weeks time, and I doubt it will ever be fully rolled out. This also leaves the existing software full of bugs with no response on how to sort those out. Good luck!

They chose a Monday morning with less than an hour's notice to fire over 500 sales people and did so via a 10 minute zoom. Spineless, classless and comically mismanaged company at every level. Profits for the top at the expense of the bottom. Sales performance is based on grossly misunderstood statistics, but what do you expect from a huge company like this. Management is immediately bothered whenever you need support, thus creating a culture of awful trust. Much more is done in the shadows than these managers realize, and that is a monster of their own creation.

No common values amongst the company other than trick customers and sell them on the highest prices in the industry. If you're lucky enough that they stick around beyond their cancellation timeline, you still won't see the benefits of that sale for weeks. Solar is a great field. ADT is far from a great company. Name recognition gets you in the door, but the poor structuring of everything from software to pricing ensures you will have a less than smooth experience as a sales person or customer. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Worst company I’ve ever worked for in my life.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY, they are absolutely horrible they do not value the homeowners which whom they try to sell their panels to nor do they value majority of their employees. The company promises you to make more money from the initial point of orientation but instead they cut your Commission after you’ve rightfully EARNED IT, they short you money on your check I’ve never worked for a company that you literally have to keep track of both your hourly pay and commissions pay DAILY because they will SHORT you. I’ve never dealt with such a poor leadership team that you feel more comfortable asking coworkers for help than you do the designated people that’s put into a position to help you!! If you or someone in your IMMEDIATE family have an emergency they will dock you points for that and the company states to have ways to work your points off but unless you are one of the leadership’s picks then you won’t be giving that option, it’s very much favoritism on this company so if you’re not one of your team leads or supervisors favorites then just go ahead and look for another job because you won’t be there long! One thing that bothers me is that you will have multiple workers having the same issues with a team lead or supervisor and instead of the management that’s over them investigating the question to why this team lead and supervisor’s workers do not feel comfortable working for them they brush it off, the company has a very hostile work environment and they supervisor will try to hold you accountable for things that they don’t initiate they self , practice what you preach!!

No solar company is going to have all Pros. Been in the industry for 5 years and haven't come across a company that's doesn't have at least one drawback. With that being said ADT Solar is a pretty great company. They give you pre-set appointments. But not only that, you have luke-warm leads at your finger tips because there are a ton of houses that have ADT yard signs and that's fair game for you to knock that door and book yourself a solar appointment. That's the beauty of ADT, everyone knows who you are.

As for the pay, starting out you get 60% commission up front. 40% at install. You hit certain metrics, you'll start getting 100% commission paid upfront. Most solar companies won't pay anything till install completion and if they do, it's 1K or 50%, whichever is lower. 

As for pay per deal. 2-4 deals a months depending on system size and you're making a great living. You can 100% make more at an EPC/redline model. That company isn't paying for the lead, the cost of acquisition is zero, so that's why they can pay you more. BUT how hard are you working to get into that door to make that sale? ADT doesn't adder you to death, and nickel and dime your commission away. The EPCs have panel adders, inverter adders, small system adders, multiple roof plane adders, the list goes on. These adders take away from your commission. 

Quality benefits: health dental 401K match, vehicle allowance gas mileage reimbursement. And because ADT is such a big company the benefits cost you like $60/ mo. 

Overall ADT Solar provides a great platform to sell solar. They give you opportunities. It's up to you to make what you want with those opportunities that they give. You get out what you put in. 

We were expected to learn all systems, and the script in one week of training.  Our initial trainer was so nice, but then here came the other two trainers that were higher up. People on my team were asking questions, obviously because it's TRAINING. They told all of us we are not allowed to ask any questions, and that we were being rude. I thought the whole point of being in a training class was to learn how to do your job?  I was mistaken.  

They also told us to only ask questions in Teams Chat, and the questions would be answered-which they never were. I had a power outage during training, which I contacted two trainers about an outage being a possibility; even emailed the nesting email address and informed them that way, too.  I immediately got a phone call and was told to provide proof or I would be terminated. I ended up emailing them proof of my power outage (25 minutes total) and got written up for it. 

I watched several phone calls being made, and none of the people that answered the phones recalled ever signing up for receiving information regarding solar panels.  Most were angry, as they constantly get bombarded by these phone calls.  You'll learn really fast this is cold-calling job. The person I watched on the phone called 2 people who had DO NOT CALL listed in their notes.  It's beyond me how someone on a DNC list could slip through the cracks like that.  

Pay is good. If you don't mind lousy training and can basically figure everything out on your own-and don't mind upset customers. You'll do just fine!

The sales team is full of good people.  The ADT name is well recognized.  The industry is constantly evolving and advancing due to technology and the push to make solar more competitive,  this makes it tougher for them to keep up with leaner companies that can quickly change directions.  Prices are higher for the same products that others sell for literally thousands less.  A lot of changes are being made with the sales processes which take a long time to implement.  The large corporate atmosphere means you are a very small piece of the puzzle here.  Very few sales people make good money.  I would speculate that 85-90% of the sales are made by 10% of the team.  It's possible to do well, but not likely that you will.  The online training is limited and not very helpful in relating to the real world scenarios.  The local sales meetings are much more helpful.   They do have a small training salary for the first month.  They do reimburse your mileage, supply a small iPad for presentations with prospects with a logo backpack, supply 3 nice work shirts, supply initial qty of business cards.  Company supplies leads on a sporadic basis and of various quality similar to most in-home sales organizations.  The best way to get leads is by self generating them and referrals.   You are a W-2 employee and can get the health insurance at good rates, but you need to be making sales every week to qualify.  As stated previously, closing sales is done mostly by the small minority.  There is a lot of turnover for the other 90%.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales specialist 2 salaries reported	$160,000 per year
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Solar installer 5 salaries reported	$20.40 per hour
Sales representative 4 salaries reported	$142,000 per year
Branch manager 2 salaries reported	$86,250 per year

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