2020 Year in Review

Contractor Sales

A major shift this year was establishing a CaaS (Certification as a Service) pricing model for Pearl. This allows us to set the stage for a more reliable revenue stream. We also implemented a sales cadence and pipeline-management standard, allowing us to more accurately predict revenue. And last but far from least, our team has been focused on raising the level of conversation we have with our prospects, so we are better able to address their needs. This helps us convey what Pearl is really all about — providing value (versus pushing products) to our customers.

Amy Beley, Vice President of the P3 Division at Pearl Certification.

Amy Beley Vice President, Customer Experience See full profile

Amy has over 15 years working in residential energy. Amy’s passion is helping good quality companies make money doing the right thing. Her expertise spans multiple aspects of the residential energy efficiency industry, with a strong emphasis on how to enhance the contractor experience. She’s provided training to 100’s of contractors, including many in the Pearl Network. Ms. Beley has presented at multiple conferences and events across the country and consulted with programs designing contractor account services. She has a BA in Environmental Studies and Economics from University of California at Santa Cruz and an MS in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University. She serves on the board of the Building Performance Association.

"Working with great companies like those in the Pearl Network is personally and professionally rewarding. I get to see great companies rise above the noise, help homeowners find these companies to get the work done right, and make that work visible. We impact climate change, and fix more homes!”

Contractor Success

The Contractor Success team captured lessons from three years of onboarding and engagement to re-envision our approach. We revised our onboarding of new customers to better suit their needs and timelines, and worked with our existing customers to share new messaging and tactics to enhance the success of Pearl in their businesses. The early results indicate this revised process, coupled with a revised sales approach, is providing our contractor partners with better tools at the right time to see more impact with Pearl — and they’re excited about it. We also launched our Pearl Advisory Council, a select group of contractor partners who will provide guidance and insight to Pearl’s staff, so we can continue to enhance our value and support the growth of the elite Pearl Network

Casey Murphy, Senior Vice President of Business Incubation at Pearl Certification.

Casey Murphy Senior Vice President, Quality and Standards See full profile

Casey is Pearl’s Senior Vice President of Quality and Standards. He supports Pearl’s Public-Private Partnerships Division, as well as growth into new market segments, such as new construction and insurance.

Prior to joining Pearl, Casey worked at ICF as a Senior Technical Manager, primarily supporting U.S. EPA’s voluntary programs, such as Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES), ENERGY STAR Certified Homes (ESCH), ENERGY STAR Verified HVAC Installation (ESVI), and Indoor airPLUS (IAP).

Casey began his career in construction as a small business owner and building scientist (BPI Building Analyst, BPI Envelope Professional, and HERS Rater). He served for four years on BPI’s Standards and Technical Committees and was also a Board Member of Efficiency First.

Casey has an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland University College and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

When he’s not on the sidelines watching his sons’ soccer games or walking his dogs, you can find Casey working on indoor and outdoor home improvement projects.

“Improving homes impacts all of us – on a global scale all the way down to the family level. Twenty percent of all energy in the U.S. is used in our homes, and much of that is wasted energy. More often than we might think, homes make people sick, adding significantly to our nation’s health care costs. Every home is different, and every resident is different. But we don’t have to 'settle' on poor and average performing homes. We can do better.”

Customer Service, Solutions and Quality Systems

Pearl established a customer service team to handle incoming inquiries from homeowners and other stakeholders. A case management infrastructure was built to promptly answer and resolve customer issues, as well as tracking and dashboarding resources so the team has increased visibility into case volume and performance. During the significant uptick in refinances in 2020, the team provided direct, one-on-one support to homeowners and developed new procedures to provide excellent customer service to the growing numbers of homeowners engaging with our new Green Door app.

The Customer Solutions Department continued to support Pearl’s existing core customers (contractors) and leveraged existing solutions in order to enter new customer segments. We established a streamlined certification process that provides more value to builders and issues certifications at record speed. The team also updated the certification framework to better address indoor air quality and smart home features, positioning Pearl to expand its value to existing customers and new markets in 2021 and beyond.

The Quality Systems Department implemented new quality assurance and control systems to handle a doubling of certification volume without requiring additional staff. The department also established a new dashboard to document and reference our Pearl partners’ information during the certification process, allowing us to better understand and meet the needs of our contractor partners while also maintaining and improving the quality and efficiency of our certification process.

Marketing & Communications

This was a year focused on building the Pearl Marketing & Communications foundation. There is now a full(er) department with three full-time staff to support the growing marketing and communications needs at Pearl.

In 2020, our team developed new messaging and further defined Pearl’s brand. Early in the year we began the process of shifting to a new robust marketing automation software that integrates with our sales software (Pardot/Salesforce). This has allowed us to launch several new email marketing campaigns and engagement programs, giving us better insight into and connection with our customers, prospects, and other key audiences.

Another huge win this year was the launch of our new and improved website, which features clear, enhanced audience paths, allowing visitors more quickly and easily find the specific and unique content they’re looking for on our site. Finally, we provided support for several strategic partnerships and created up-to-date customer toolkits for each vertical (contractor sales, success, and real estate). Pearl’s Marketing-Communications team is well poised and firmed-up to begin 2021 with strategic focus and continued excellence!

Operations

The focus for 2020 Operations was to get the primary building blocks for scaling in place. This included designing and documenting core processes for our Sales, Success, and Customer Service teams and ensuring they are properly integrated and supported by our business systems and tools. We worked across departments to learn the business, determined where we have operational gaps and risks, and implemented measures to close those gaps. During the year, we implemented KPI Dashboards to give us improved, real-time visibility into the performance of our company. We also designed and implemented a new fixed, monthly pricing model to normalize our revenue and cash flow. This program was successfully rolled out to new customers and is being adopted by our existing customer base — all with positive results and in the midst of the pandemic.

Partner Engagement

Pearl proudly launched several partnerships in 2020 — including with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), California Solar and Storage Association (CALSA), Elevate Energy, National Association of REALTORS® Green Designees, North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners® (NABCEP), and SunPower. We developed communication plans for ongoing engagement in order to serve homeowners and the contractor and real estate professionals who serve them. We likewise deepened our relationship with legacy partners and are actively engaging with new manufacturing partners, with several exciting new programs ready for launch in the new year.

Rachel Davis, Vice President of the Homeowner Division at Pearl Certification.

Rachel Davis Vice President, Product Design & Management See full profile

Product Tech

Our team accomplished a lot in 2020! We released Green Door, our first homeowner facing web app, giving Pearl the opportunity to engage with homeowners more directly and impactfully. Designed to inform and simplify the homeowner journey, Green Door provides homeowners easy access to Pearl Professionals, a tracking system for improvement records and detailed information about their Pearl Certification. We also continued to improve the certification app for Pearl Contractors, helping to reduce the burden of providing data to Pearl. We also implemented a ServiceTitan integration and multiple API integrations with our contractors.

Real Estate

2020 was a successful year for Pearl in Real Estate. We set up processes for Real Estate agents to virtually certify their listings with Pearl during these trying times, and even developed a new (virtual) solar certification program as well. Pearl also partnered with the National Association of REALTORS^® Green REsource Council to enhance their “Green Designation” for its 3500 members through a program that includes education and special pricing.

2020 Year in Review

Amy Beley

Casey Murphy

Rachel Davis

🥂 Happy New Year from all of us at Pearl! 🎊

Sign up for Email Updates from Pearl

Pearl proudly works in partnership with