Street team guide
How this works, and how we behave while doing it
The field guide covers a single walk-in. This is the rest: why the model is built this way, what we hold each other to, how to get started, and what happens after a stand is on a counter.
Why the door does not get knocked
The two standard ways to sell solar are knocking on doors and buying leads off a comparison platform. One intrudes on people at home; the other reaches them at the exact moment they have already been sold to four times.
The alternative is not clever, it is just patient: put a plain explanation where people already are, and wait for the ones who want it. Someone notices a card, gets curious, and asks on their own terms — a self-opened conversation rather than an interrupted one.
Every rule below follows from that. If you are pushing, the model has already failed, whatever the outcome.
The conduct code
Eight rules. None of them are negotiable, and breaking the first two ends the relationship.
- 1
Never persuade
Interest has to come from the other person. If you catch yourself overcoming an objection, you have left the job. A no is a complete and acceptable outcome — thank them and move on.
- 2
Never knock on a home
No residential door-to-door under the Solar Strive name, ever. This is the whole point of the model, not a policy detail. We approach businesses about a noticeboard; we do not approach households about their roof.
- 3
Say who you are, immediately
Give your name, say you are with Solar Strive, and say what you are asking for in one sentence. Anyone who has to work out what you actually want has already decided about you.
- 4
Never quote a number
No prices, no payback periods, no percentages, no production estimates, no "you qualify for". Not from memory, not from an old flyer, not because someone pushed. Incentives change and stale figures mislead people about money.
- 5
Never give a professional opinion about a property
Not about a roof, not about a service panel, not about whether a structure can take an array. We are not licensed for it and we do not pretend. "That is a question for the professional" is always available and always correct.
- 6
Get a real name, and record it accurately
A placement exists because a specific person agreed to it. "The manager" is not a record. If you did not catch the name, go back and ask.
- 7
Record the awkward things too
"Owner was hesitant, asked us to try again after the holidays" is more useful than a tidy record that is not true. A dead spot we know about is worth more than a live one we imagined.
- 8
Leave when asked, without discussion
A host who wants the stand gone gets it gone, with no notice period and no persuading. Same for a host who wants it moved.
Getting started
Six steps, in this order. It takes an afternoon of reading and one walk.
- 1
Apply
Open to anyone who signs up — no invitation, no membership anywhere else, no fee. You will read and agree to the field-work terms as part of it; those exact words are stored with your application.
- 2
Read the field guide
Short, and mostly about what not to say. Do this before your first walk-in rather than after it.
- 3
Work through Solar Basics
Four modules. Enough to answer a question at a counter honestly, and — more importantly — enough to recognise the questions you should not answer.
- 4
Collect a starter pack
Two bases and two stands, flyers and cards printed with codes that identify your placements, and hand wipes clipped to the cards. Handed over in person where possible.
- 5
Place your first two
Two is deliberate. It is enough to learn the conversation and see how a spot performs, and few enough that a mistake costs nothing.
- 6
Go back
The first restock visit is where the job actually becomes a job. See the maintenance section below.
About being paid
The intention is to reward this work in Bitcoin — thanks for making a connection, rather than commission on a sale. That is a genuine design goal and it is why the platform exists in the shape it does.
Where it actually stands: the payment side runs on test networks, no payout system is finished, and nobody has ever been paid anything. So there is no figure on this page — no per-placement amount, no per-lead amount, no monthly average. Older Solar Strive documents contain such numbers. They were projections, they were never paid, and they are not offers.
Do this because you want the placements to exist and are willing to be early. If you need the money, do not rely on this.
What there is to learn
Enough to be useful, and to know precisely where your usefulness stops. Everything listed as available is free and needs no account.
Start here
Then
Planned, and not written yet
- System sizing and the arithmetic behind a proposal
- Reading and comparing competing proposals
- Ground mounts, carports, and commercial flat roofs
- Battery integration and off-grid design
Listed rather than linked, because none of it exists yet. When it does, it will appear above with the rest.
Looking after a location
Placing a stand is the easy half. The half that decides whether any of this works is going back.
- Roughly every three weeks, to start
- That is a starting cadence, not a rule. Once we can see how fast materials actually move at a location, it gets adjusted — a stand that empties in a week needs more attention than one that does not.
- Count cards and flyers separately
- Two numbers and a date. Counting them apart is the only way to learn which format people actually pick up, and that answer has been wrong more often than anyone expected.
- Restock, tidy, and thank whoever is on shift
- Straighten the display, refill it, and say hello to the person behind the counter. The relationship is with the business, not with the object.
- Record what changed, honestly
- Moved to a worse spot. Buried under a menu. Gone entirely. Business closed. All of it is useful, and none of it is a failure on your part.
- Notice when a spot is finished
- Some placements simply do not work, and continuing to service them is not loyalty, it is waste. Say so and move the stand somewhere with more dwell time.
If something goes wrong
Tell us early and plainly. A host who is unhappy, a placement you recorded incorrectly, a conversation that went badly, someone else using our name in a way that does not match this page — all of it is easier to fix on the day than a month later, and none of it gets anyone in trouble for reporting it.
The one thing that does end a relationship here is a false record: a placement logged without a real yes from a named person. Everything else is recoverable.
Field work is open to anyone who signs up. Read the field guide first — it is the part you take with you.