Common Challenges Every Energy Broker Faces

Need to overcome pricing challenges, close more energy deals, and attract new customers? 

While energy brokers in deregulated energy markets offer a valuable service to customers — a direct line to the best energy product at the best price — finding the best products at the best prices isn't often quick or easy. Without immediate and accurate quotes from energy suppliers, energy brokers lose customers to others who can move faster. 

Big customers with multiple expansive facilities have energy needs so significant that locking in the best energy prices quickly is a functional necessity. When these customers work with energy brokers, they expect instant information. Many smaller brokerages feel frustrated by this challenge and often lose business as a result.

What can small to medium-sized energy brokers do to beat these pricing challenges and close more deals so that customers don’t look to another firm for help? Here are some challenges — and solutions — to common energy broker pricing challenges and ways to overcome them.

Challenge: Getting Quotes From Energy Suppliers Quickly 

The most common energy broker challenge is getting fast and accurate quotes from energy suppliers. Because the process can take hours, it can become burdensome for energy brokers to offer customers a full slate of options with accurate pricing. Even worse is when quotes from the energy supplier don't come in until the next business day. When delays like this happen, it snowballs into a frustrating, time-consuming problem because the supplier prices collected the day before are now likely outdated, and the whole process has to start over again. 

Challenge: Working from a Limited Supplier Database

For energy brokers to provide the most competitive quote and meet customer energy needs, they need access to as many suppliers as possible. The more suppliers a broker can connect with, the more likely they will find the best energy deal for their customers. An energy broker without a deep well of energy suppliers will only offer their customers sub-optimal options. 

Challenge: Understanding Suppliers and Customers

Energy suppliers have business nuances that are unique to them. Contract types/terms, timeframes, time-depending rates, load factors, and more can look different from supplier to supplier. It's the energy broker's job to know customers' needs and energy demand profile and understand what each supplier is offering, how to communicate those options clearly, and provide the best customer experience. The bottom line is: energy brokers have to partner with suppliers for the best rates and then know how to translate those choices to customers effectively.

Solution: Implementing helpful energy brokerage tools

These challenges aren't unique. Most energy brokers have (or continue to) experience these pain points. What can energy brokers do to find new customers, provide best-fit energy deals, and reduce work-related friction? 

Implementing the right tools is the best place to start. For energy brokers, this means moving from frustrating, manual processes to reliable software designed for heavy-lifting. While there are many ways that energy broker software can help you solve these challenges and more, here are a few ways our award-winning broker platform can empower you.

Generate New Leads Effortlessly.

Get a branded website with automated energy price comparisons. Through a white-label website, you can create targeted campaigns and collect critical information from prospects. Just imaging details like contact details, consumption rates, and renewal dates getting sent directly into the CRM without any manual data entry. 

Automate Painstaking Manual Work.

Stop wasting your precious time doing busy work — let smart software do it for you, including managing supplier price books daily and quoting gas and electricity for both SME and I&C contracts instantaneously.

Gain Access to More Energy Suppliers.

With our marketplace, you'll have access to a whole host of new suppliers, allowing you to offer more competitive deals immediately.

 Close More Customers Methodically.

With Broker360, you can track the entirety of the customer journey. Set reminders and call-back dates, or assign tasks to others. This means you can keep track of each opportunity and not worry about missing deadlines, resulting in the loss of a potential customer.

From instant energy matrix pricing comparison tools to energy contract generation to sales analytics, you can easily win more deals and grow your business. To learn more, download our guide, 5 Ways to Win More Energy Deals with Broker360. 

Schedule a Broker360 Demo.