Kevin is covering a big lesson from our ChooseEnergy days. Anyone who sells an energy product or service to residential or commercial energy customers must read. A few comments that follow:
1- "the wall in the fog"
2- 3 costs of customer acquisition matter in energy https://twitter.com/kevindstevens/status/1295054106864816129

3 customer acquisition levers:
#1- education: teaching customers about an energy service is expensive. The best sales are when you are selling a better future self, and energy is not aspirational. So, the best energy sales are tangible products: @nest @tesla @Sunrun

#2- utility differentiation: utility service is (short of PG&E) usually good enough. Defaulting to no action is easy for a customer. The logo & trust goes a long way. This relationship is why I am bullish that utilities will play a key role in the energy transition away from O&G

#3- competitor differentiation: actually rare in the energy markets vs a CPG product. But in some markets (retail energy in Texas, for example) the market is awash in the same savings and green-washing language. Gimmicks dominate

All 3 of these come together to define what I call "the wall in the fog" - where the education + switching costs are too high. At Choose we tried to predict customer education, utility stickiness, and local competition confusion when growing our marketplace. NOT easy. But fun :)