What is your current role, and what are your main responsibilities?
I’m Mike Cooper, the Business Development Manager for lighting in the South, at Prolectric. I specialise in solar lighting, including permanent street lights, bollards and mobile solar lighting towers.
My daily responsibilities revolve around engaging with both prospective and existing customers, supporting them, helping them understand the benefits of our products, and how they can help their business to meet their carbon saving goals, whilst cutting down fuel and labour costs.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every day is different, but it’s all about building relationships. I could be presenting to a customer, highlighting our company, product and service offerings, or providing quotes alongside a savings report using our newly developed savings calculator. Once all terms are agreed upon, I place orders on their behalf, oversee delivery arrangements, and schedule follow-up training and support.
I also collaborate closely with our Lighting Design and Operations Team to ensure all necessary plans and details are provided to the installation team if we’re installing their lighting.
What are some of the most exciting projects you have worked on recently?
I would say working with the University of Lincoln was great. After a site visit, our lighting design team developed a full lighting design and proposal, to meet British lighting standards. The initial project saw four AE6 solar street lights delivered and installed at the car park.
Following the first successful installation, we revisited the University to install new AE3 solar street lights and retrofitted existing lamp posts with twelve new solar lights, removing them from the mains power connection to eliminate future energy costs.
The University of Lincoln have now cut down on their energy usage, costs and reduced their carbon emissions.
What common misconceptions about your industry would you like to dispel?
In relation to solar, there seems to be a misconception about the reliability of solar and the battery capabilities. As the key player in the UK for solar power and lighting, our technology has an established history of reliability and effectiveness, as evidenced by our successful track record across diverse sectors like Construction, Infrastructure, the Public Sector, and Events.
However, when explaining how our technology works, I find that they often come to appreciate the efficacy of solar energy on their own and that’s why we let our technology speak for itself. This is precisely why we welcome trials of our products, allowing them to test and experience our solar products first hand.
