Whether you're deciding which vertical to target next, how a utility resource-planning committee actually scores vendors, or what a homeowner really weighs between solar quotes, the answer is rarely sitting in a market report you can buy off the shelf. We run primary research – buyer interviews, procurement-process mapping, competitive and regulatory analysis – built around the specific decision you're actually trying to make.
The Problem
Off-the-shelf market reports are too generic to inform a real GTM or product decision
A syndicated cleantech market-sizing report tells you the total addressable market grew X percent, but it can't tell you which specific objection is killing your deals in utility procurement or what feature gap is costing you enterprise accounts. Teams that base strategy on generic industry reports make decisions with no connection to what's actually happening in their own sales pipeline.
Utility and enterprise procurement processes are opaque without direct research
How a utility resource-planning committee actually scores and weights vendor criteria, or how a corporate sustainability buyer's internal approval chain works, is rarely documented anywhere – it has to be pulled through direct interviews with buyers and former procurement staff. Companies that guess at this process based on RFP language alone routinely misjudge what actually matters to the decision.
Regulatory and incentive research gets outdated fast, and stale assumptions drive bad bets
ITC rules, state RPS requirements, and utility rate structures change on a cycle most product and marketing teams aren't tracking closely, so a GTM plan or pricing model built on last year's incentive assumptions can be materially wrong by the time it launches, without anyone noticing until deals stall for reasons that trace back to an outdated assumption.
Competitive intelligence stays surface-level, missing what actually wins deals
Most competitive research in cleantech tracks pricing pages and press releases, missing the real differentiators that come up in buyer conversations – technology performance track record, financing flexibility, or a specific certification a competitor has that you don't. Surface-level competitive research produces positioning that doesn't address what buyers are actually comparing.
How We Help
We start by scoping the specific decision the research needs to inform – a new vertical bet, a product roadmap priority, a pricing model, a positioning shift – so the research design answers a real question instead of producing a generic market overview nobody acts on.
Strategy development builds the research plan around primary sources: structured interviews with real buyers and, where possible, former procurement staff, direct analysis of RFP and evaluation criteria language, and current regulatory and incentive research specific to your target markets and segments.
Execution runs the interviews and analysis, and synthesizes findings into a decision-ready format – not a hundred-page report that sits unread, but a specific set of findings mapped directly against the decision you're trying to make, with the evidence behind each recommendation.
Measurement here means tracking whether the research-informed decision performed as expected once implemented – did the new vertical bet convert, did the positioning shift improve win rate – and feeding that back into how future research gets scoped.
What we deliver
- Research design scoped tightly around a specific GTM, product, or positioning decision
- Primary buyer and procurement-process interviews, not just secondary/syndicated data
- Current regulatory and incentive research specific to target markets and segments
- Deep competitive analysis based on real buyer comparison criteria, not surface-level tracking
- Decision-ready synthesis with evidence tied directly to the recommendation
A syndicated market report can tell you the category is growing. It can't tell you why the last three deals you lost went to a competitor – and that second answer is almost always worth more.
Our Methodology
Our market research and insights build for cleantech and energy companies runs as a 60-to-90-day sprint scoped tightly around a specific decision, not an open-ended market study. Phase one defines the exact question the research needs to answer and identifies the right primary sources – buyers, former procurement staff, industry experts – to get a real answer instead of relying on secondary data.
Phase two runs the actual research: structured buyer and procurement interviews, regulatory and incentive analysis current to the target markets, and competitive analysis built around real comparison criteria pulled from buyer conversations, not just public pricing pages.
Phase three synthesizes findings into a decision-ready output mapped directly against the original question, with the evidence trail behind each recommendation so your team can defend the decision internally, and we track how the research-informed decision performs once implemented to close the loop.
How We Work
The first 2 to 3 weeks scope the research question tightly and identify the right primary sources to interview. Weeks 3 through 6 or 8 run the actual interviews, regulatory analysis, and competitive research, with rolling findings shared as they come in rather than held until a final report. The final weeks synthesize everything into a decision-ready output mapped against the original question.
Our team includes a research lead who owns interview design and synthesis, and where the target market requires it, we bring in specific regulatory or technical expertise rather than generalizing across every segment. From your side, we need help identifying buyer and procurement contacts to interview where you have existing relationships, and clarity on the specific decision the research needs to inform.
We run weekly progress updates during the research phase so findings can start informing your thinking before the final synthesis, rather than everything landing at once at the end. Most clients have actionable early findings within 30 days, with the full decision-ready synthesis complete by day 60 to 90 depending on scope.
- Decisions grounded in real buyer and procurement data, not assumptions
- Current regulatory and incentive analysis specific to target markets
- Competitive positioning based on actual buyer comparison criteria
- A documented evidence trail supporting the resulting strategy
If your cleantech & energy company needs market research & insights leadership, we should talk.
Expand your marketing team output with our experts
Let us take a custom approach to your growth goals by assembling and leading the best-in-class marketing team to support your next stage.
Frequently asked questions
How much does market research and insights cost for a cleantech or energy company?
Most engagements run $20K to $50K depending on scope – how many buyer segments need interviews, how many target markets need regulatory analysis, and how deep the competitive research needs to go. That's typically far less than the cost of a mis-targeted product or GTM bet made on assumptions instead of real buyer data.
How long before we see results from a market research engagement?
Early findings from the first round of buyer interviews are usually available within 30 days, giving your team directional signal well before the engagement finishes. The full decision-ready synthesis is typically complete within 60 to 90 days depending on how many segments and markets are in scope.
How does the research team integrate with our sales and product staff?
We work with your sales and business development team to identify buyer and procurement contacts worth interviewing where relationships already exist, and with product or leadership to keep the research tightly scoped to the actual decision at hand rather than drifting into a general market overview.
What makes Winston Francois different from a traditional market research firm?
Most market research firms sell syndicated reports or generic surveys. We scope research tightly around one real decision you're making, run primary interviews with actual buyers and procurement staff, and hand back findings built to be acted on immediately, not a report that sits on a shelf.
How do you measure ROI from a market research engagement?
The direct measure is whether the research-informed decision – a new vertical, a positioning change, a pricing model – performs as expected once implemented, which we track by following up on the specific metric the research was meant to inform, whether that's win rate, conversion, or market entry success.
What type of cleantech company is the right fit for this service?
Companies facing a specific, high-stakes decision – entering a new vertical or market, repositioning against a shifting competitive set, setting pricing for a new product tier – typically Series A through growth-stage solar, storage, grid-tech, or EV infrastructure companies.
