Commercial Solar AI: 2 x 400kW Deals Won From Weekend RFQs
A Pune-based C&I solar developer was losing weekend RFQs from procurement teams. Deploying an AI receptionist with intelligent routing captured every enquiry, qualified MW target and financing structure, and pinged the right named account executive on Slack — winning two 400kW deals in month one.
What was broken
- Weekend and after-hours RFQs from procurement teams landed in unmonitored inboxes
- Named account executives found out about enquiries 2–4 days late — after the customer had signed with a competitor
- No structured qualification meant reps opened proposals without knowing MW, tariff or timeline
- Site data (roof area, structure type, single-line diagram) often missing from initial enquiry
What we built
AI receptionist across phone, email and WhatsApp capturing every commercial enquiry
Structured C&I qualification: MW target, site type, tariff category, financing (CAPEX/OPEX/RESCO)
Named-account routing: enquiry auto-matched to the right AE based on state, industry vertical and deal size
Slack + WhatsApp alerts to the AE within 60 seconds — even at 2am on Sunday
Document collection over WhatsApp: rooftop images, electricity bills, single-line diagrams uploaded pre-call
How it runs end-to-end
RFQ arrives
Phone / email / WhatsApp / website form fires webhook regardless of channel.
AI qualifies
MW target, tariff, financing, timeline captured in a 3–5 minute conversation.
Document collection
AI requests roof photos, latest 3 bills and SLD; customer uploads over WhatsApp.
AE routing
Zoho CRM auto-assigns based on state + vertical + deal size; Slack + WhatsApp alert fires.
Warm handover
AE calls Monday morning fully briefed; site visit booked in the first conversation.
The stack we used
AI Voice: Vapi.ai with Claude 3.5 Sonnet + ElevenLabs
WhatsApp: Interakt Business API (green tick)
CRM: Zoho CRM Enterprise + custom Deluge automation
Document handling: AWS S3 + Textract for bill parsing
Notifications: Slack + WhatsApp for AE alerts
Analytics: Zoho Analytics + custom dashboard
What it looks like in production
Structured qualification across MW, tariff, financing and site data.
Roof photos and bill uploads captured over WhatsApp before the AE calls.
Named-account routing with full deal context inside 60 seconds.
MW pipeline by state, vertical and stage — live.
The numbers that moved
"We used to lose commercial RFQs because nobody replied over the weekend. The bot captures the file, MW target and timeline, then wakes me up on Slack. Won two 400kW deals in month one."
Answers to the usual questions
How does the AI handle technical procurement questions?
For technical / commercial detail beyond the qualification frame, AI transparently offers a warm transfer or same-day expert callback — captured in the CRM.
Is data secure for enterprise procurement teams?
Yes. All PII stays in Zoho; documents in encrypted S3; no data used for LLM training. ISO 27001 aligned.
Does it work for utility-scale (10MW+) enquiries?
Yes. Routing thresholds are configurable — 10MW+ auto-routes to the co-founder's phone directly.
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