Attain Digital · For review with Les

Closer commission — the options

Five ways to pay the closer, priced against our real OpenSolar sell prices and modelled through to Eco2's net profit. Built from what Ryan told us the market actually pays. Nothing here is agreed — pick one, then we lock it into the quoting calculator and Schedule 1 of the closer contract.

What Ryan told us he's on

Straight from the WhatsApp, nothing added. We asked him to anonymise the installers he closes for and list the commission structures. These are his figures and his words only.

The commission structures

Installer	Commission	What he said about them
1 company	£400 on every sale plus £25 per panel over 12 panels	"A very cheap installer and it's easy to sell for them." They do a 10kw battery, 12 panels, bird proofing and 7.6kw inverter for £7,995. Over 800 Trustpilot reviews. "I get £400 comms for that and £25 per panel over 12 panels — I'm happy with that."
The rest of them	8% of total install cost	"Most installers do comm rate of 8% — I'd be happy with that." Confirmed as 8% of the total install cost: "say an £8000 system is £640". Covers solar and batteries.
Battery on its own	10kw — £200 15kw — £300 20kw — £400	"But they're doing a 10kw battery for £4,000."
One installer	—	"One installer I have facility to amend my commission."

What he earns, and what he converts

His words
"I'm getting anywhere between £400 – £1000 depending on order value."
"Realistically doing 1 in 8-10 at these rates, sometimes better. It depends on the product… and the company as well."
"They're a solid company, so I can sometimes do 1 in 5… but obviously if I work for another installer they need to be around that price mark."

In his own words — on rate, price and margin

"The commission rates should be up to Les really — unless he's allowing you to have control of his pricing."
"So again, 8% is pretty much the going rate for closers I've realised so it's probably best to keep it simple at 8% but all depends on margins etc."
"I want to be able to sell the equipment cheap because it's all about price."
"If I need to sell it at a high price it doesn't work for me on commission only because the conversions drop and it's my time."
"That's why pricing is important for me because when on commission only I don't want to be a busy fool."
"Do those margins work for ECO2?"

Source: WhatsApp with Ryan Collings, 5 Aug 2026. Everything above is his figures or his words — no calculations or assumptions of ours have been added to this section.

The five options

Each one priced on our actual entry package — 12 panels + 5kW battery = £7,995 — and on a £4,000 battery retrofit. "Cost of gross profit" assumes a 45% gross margin; slide it in section 4 to test other margins.

Option	How it works	£7,995 job	£4,000 retrofit	% of gross profit	Best / worst
A · Flat fee Simplest	£500 per completed install, whatever the deal size. Retrofit £250.	£500 6.3%	£250 6.3%	13.9%	Totally predictable and it's already the £500 assumption in the JV calculator. But it pays the same on a £12k Tesla job as a £8k entry job — zero incentive to upsell.
B · Straight 8% Ryan's ask	8% of contract price (ex-VAT) on everything.	£640 8.0%	£320 8.0%	17.8%	What he asked for, matches the market, one number to explain. Self-correcting — if we discount to compete, commission drops with it. But it's the most expensive option at every deal size and it rewards price rises, which is the opposite of our strategy.
C · Flat + per-panel His cheap installer	£400 base + £25 per panel over 12. Retrofit £200 / £300 / £400 by battery size.	£400 5.0%	£200 5.0%	11.1%	Cheapest for us, and it's a structure Ryan already accepts and sells hard on. Rewards bigger arrays, not higher prices — exactly right for a price-led strategy. But it only works if our price genuinely matches that installer's (see section 5).
D · % of gross margin	22% of gross margin (contract price − equipment/install cost).	£792 9.9%	£396 9.9%	22.0%	Mathematically the safest — our cost per deal can never outrun our profit per deal. But it means opening our margins to the closer, which cuts against clause 10.1 of his contract, and it's the hardest to explain on a call.
E · Tiered on volume Recommended	7% base → 8% at 4+ installs/mo → 9% at 8+/mo. Paid on the whole month once the tier is hit.	£560 → £640 / £720	£280 → £320 / £360	15.6% → 17.8 / 20.0%	Cheap while volume is low and margins are unproven; pays above market once he's producing — and by then the ad engine is carrying its own cost. Gives him a reason to push for volume rather than shop the pipeline elsewhere.

Read it this way: the spread between the cheapest (C, £400) and dearest (D, £792) option on an entry deal is £392. At 10 installs a month that's £3,920 — real money, but it is less than one extra install a month at any sensible margin. Which is why getting Ryan closing 1 in 5 instead of 1 in 10 matters far more than the rate we pick.

Priced against our actual OpenSolar price list

Every package below is a live price from the closer calculator's back end. This is what each option costs us, deal by deal.

Package (12 panels unless stated)	Sell price	A · £500 flat	B · 8%	C · £400+£25/panel	E · 7% base

Sell prices from opensolar-closer-calculator.html back end (matrix rows + retrofit list), Jul 2026.

Live model — what each option does to net profit

Drag the gross margin once Les confirms the real cost of a job, and every number below re-prices. The stack is the same one in the JV calculator: sell price → gross profit → minus ad spend → minus commission → net profit → minus our 20% JV cut → Eco2's take-home.

Sell price £7,995

Ex-VAT contract price the customer pays.

Gross margin 45%

The number we need from Les. Profit after kit, labour, scaffold — before marketing. The JV calculator currently assumes 55%.

Panels on the job 12

Only option C moves with this (£25 per panel over 12).

Ad spend per install £750

Blended cost to win one install. Drops toward £500 as we fix conversion.

Installs per month 5

Also sets option E's tier: 7% under 4, 8% at 4–7, 9% at 8+.

Our JV share of net 20%

Taken after commission, so the commission choice hits both sides.

Gross profit / deal£3,598

After ad spend£2,848

Cheapest optionC · £400

Spread, cheapest→dearest£392per deal

Per deal, and per month

Option	Commission	% of price	% of gross profit	Net profit / deal	Eco2 keeps / deal	Eco2 keeps / month

Three things to settle before we quote a rate

a · The £1,000 lead deduction in the draft contract kills every option

Clause 8.2 of the closer agreement currently says: "Where a Sale arises from a Client-Supplied Lead, £1,000 is deducted per lead from the Commission on that Sale." Every lead Ryan works will be a client-supplied lead — they come off our ads.

The maths: £640 commission − £1,000 lead cost = −£360 a deal. He'd be paying us to close. That clause was drafted for a self-generating rep and has to come out — or be cut to a token figure — before this goes anywhere near Ryan.

b · Commission is currently added on top of the customer's price

In the closer calculator today, commission is a placeholder 10% added as a line to the quote — so a £7,995 job prints at £8,795. That directly undoes the one thing Ryan says drives his close rate.

Recommendation: commission comes out of margin, not on top of price. The £7,995 stays £7,995 and the commission is already inside it. Otherwise we're funding the closer by making ourselves less competitive — and paying him a percentage of his own commission.

c · Our entry package may not be as cheap as he thinks

Ryan's benchmark is his cheap installer's £7,995 for 12 panels + a 10kW battery + 7.6kW inverter + bird proofing, and £4,000 for a 10kW battery retrofit. Against our price list:

Like-for-like	His cheap installer	Eco2 (current list)	Gap
12 panels + ~10kWh battery	£7,995	£9,995 (Duracell 16kW) £7,995 buys 5kWh	+£2,000
~10kWh battery retrofit	£4,000	£6,500 (Sig 10kW)	+£2,500
Entry solar + battery	£7,995 (10kWh)	£7,995 (5kWh)	Same price, half the battery

This is the bigger lever. Brands and specs differ, so it isn't a clean comparison — but on headline numbers Ryan would be selling a smaller battery for the same money. He's told us plainly that's where his conversions go. A £2,000 price gap costs us far more than the £240 between 5% and 8%. Worth Les looking at battery buying before we finalise the rate.

What we'd recommend

Lead with Option E — tiered 7 / 8 / 9%Starts below market while margins are unproven and volume is low, and pays above market the moment he's producing. He hears "8%" — the number he asked for — as the realistic middle rung, not the ceiling. Retrofits on the same percentage.
If Les wants zero complexity, go straight 8% (Option B)It's what Ryan asked for, it's one sentence, and it closes him today. Costs about £80 a deal more than Option E at low volume — cheap if it gets him started faster.
Only choose Option C if we match that installer's kit and priceRyan accepts £400 flat because he closes 1 in 5 at that price. Offering £400 on a package that's £2,000 dearer is the worst of both worlds and he'll quietly deprioritise our pipeline.
Whatever we pick: strip the £1,000 lead deduction, absorb commission into margin, pay on completed-and-paid installs onlyClause 8.3 already gets the payment trigger right — install commissioned, cooling-off expired, customer paid in full, no open dispute. Keep that and the 12-month clawback exactly as drafted.

The one number that decides this: Les's true gross margin on a £7,995 install. At 45% every option on this page works. At 30% only C and E leave enough after ad spend to make the JV worth running. Get that figure and this becomes a five-minute decision.

Once a rate is agreed — what changes

Closer calculator back end — replace the placeholder 10% with the agreed rate, and switch commission from an added line to an inside-the-price deduction.opensolar-closer-calculator.html · commissionPct + the "Commission (x%)" line in the totals.
JV cost calculator — swap the fixed £500 closer slider for the agreed structure so net profit and our 20% are right at every deal size.eco2plan/calculator.html · the CLOSER constant.
Closer contract, Schedule 1 — tick the model, fill the rate, write the worked example, and fix clause 8.2.eco2plan/closer-contract.html · Schedule 1 is still blank by design.

Attain Digital · internal · built from Ryan's benchmark rates and Eco2's live OpenSolar price list · nothing here is agreed.

Commission Options Detail

What Ryan told us he's on

The commission structures

What he earns, and what he converts

In his own words — on rate, price and margin

The five options

Priced against our actual OpenSolar price list

Live model — what each option does to net profit

Per deal, and per month

Three things to settle before we quote a rate

a · The £1,000 lead deduction in the draft contract kills every option

b · Commission is currently added on top of the customer's price

c · Our entry package may not be as cheap as he thinks

What we'd recommend

Once a rate is agreed — what changes