Writing: Wide Awake & Wondering

We were paying $475 for a lead that needed to cost under $55. Nobody had asked what that customer was worth.

Ask your direct reports for the 2027 plan. If you get four different answers, you don&#x27;t have a plan yet. You have four.

My first day at PosiGen, I found 1,100 unanswered Google reviews. Every one was a customer still waiting for us to say something.

At PepsiCo we cut the innovation pipeline 25% before launch. The bets that stayed got funded like they mattered.

Ask a homeowner why they went solar. You&#x27;ll hear about the light bill long before you hear about the planet.

Most energy companies know what a lead costs. Almost none can tell me what that customer is worth by the time the panels come off the roof.

Your 2027 plan has four authors and no editor.

We moved ratings from 1.5 to above 4.0 across 10 platforms and held them for two years. The work happened in driveways and on service calls.

When the agency owns the campaign and nobody owns the outcome, the results show up after everyone has left the room.

Your customers buy savings. Your website sells technology. Somebody should introduce them.

We got CAC down 30% before PosiGen expanded into three new states. Expansion is a terrible time to find out what a lead really costs.

It&#x27;s planning season. If sales, ops, marketing and finance each wrote their own 2027 plan, next year already started without you.

When someone asks an AI which solar company to trust, your reviews answer before your sales team gets the chance.

Every brass band in New Orleans knows it. Lose the one, and all anybody hears is noise. Growth plans work the same way.

In New Orleans in August, the climate conversation happens on the light bill.

The day marketing can show the CFO what a customer is worth, the CFO stops treating marketing like a vendor.

Ask sales, marketing and ops to name your most valuable customer. If the answers don&#x27;t match, start there.

A referral program of 25,000 advocates. Every one of them started as a customer somebody decided to listen to.

Marketing earns its seat at the table in rooms that have nothing to do with marketing.

If your best salesperson leads with savings and your brand leads with climate, your customers are hearing from two different companies.

An energy customer can pay you for decades. Most energy marketing plans are written for the next quarter.

Want to find your growth problem fast? Ask each leader what we&#x27;re betting on next year. Then write down the pauses.

Your next customer already read your one star reviews. Did they read your reply?

Two brands couldn&#x27;t share customer data, so everyone called it a legal problem. We treated it as a growth problem. It turned into $1M in incremental revenue.

Climate is why you started the company. Savings is why they signed.

Cheap leads are the most expensive habit in clean energy.

Growth hides misalignment. The first slow quarter shows you who was working from a different plan.

Next to the ROI question, ask a second one. Will this become a story a customer tells for free?

Customers go quiet before the numbers do. The market tells you first. The board deck tells you last.

We built a targeting model across 30 million households at PepsiCo and volume went up 13.5%. Most energy brands still market to the whole zip code.

Before you ask for a bigger acquisition budget, ask a smaller question. What is one customer worth after the install crew drives away?

A plan nobody opens after January is a document. A rolling plan is a habit.

Every unanswered review is a sales call you chose to skip.

Every time you explain how a heat pump works, a customer who just wanted a lower bill stops listening.

Every CEO thinks the team is aligned until the budget meeting.