From a pilot site to a framework award
You sell grid technology, energy storage, recycling processes or carbon removal to utilities, distribution grid operators, industrial sites and the companies that buy removal tonnes. Most of your pipeline sits in pilots and letters of intent that proved the technology on one site and then waited for an investment plan or a tender that nobody on your side saw being written.
Who this page is for
- Grid technology and storage vendors selling to utilities and grid operators
- Recycling process companies selling to industrial sites and manufacturers
- Carbon removal suppliers selling tonnes through offtake agreements
Usual starting point: Demand
How do you increase sales for a cleantech or energy company?
Plan for the step after the pilot. Utilities and grid operators usually buy through a tender or a framework award, so involve procurement, asset management and IT and OT security while the pilot runs. Map those roles at each named operator, and time outreach to dated events such as a grid investment plan, a tender notice or a new reporting duty.
What do the numbers say about Cleantech & Energy?
Each figure links to the page it comes from, so you can check it before you repeat it.
| What the evidence says | Source |
|---|---|
| Sales cycles with large utilities can take months to years, far longer than with smaller utilities. | Enduring Planet |
| Some USD 400 billion a year is now spent on grids worldwide, against about USD 1 trillion on generation. | International Energy Agency, World Energy Investment 2025 (June 2025) |
| Europe has more than 2,500 electricity distributors. | GEODE |
| Swiss energy suppliers must report cyberattacks to the National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours from 1 April 2025. | Federal Office for Cybersecurity (7 March 2025) |
Why does the usual approach stall in Cleantech & Energy?
A pilot proves that the equipment works on one feeder, one plant or one batch of material. A rollout is a capital decision, and at a utility or grid operator it passes through asset management, the investment plan and a procurement procedure. In the EU, entities operating energy networks award contracts under Directive 2014/25/EU, so a grid operator that liked your pilot may still have to put the rollout out to tender. The engineer who ran the pilot rarely writes that tender, and if the people who do have never heard of you, the specification is written around someone else.
Volume marketing reaches the wrong layer. Content about the energy transition attracts engineers, consultants and students, while the asset manager drafting next year's investment plan never sees material that answers their question. Europe has more than 2,500 electricity distributors, most of them small and regional, so your real list is a few hundred operators whose plans fit your product, and an ad platform cannot learn who they are from so few conversions.
If you sell rooftop solar, heat pumps or home storage to households and installers, this page describes the wrong problem, because that market is won on price, installer reach and volume, and standard demand capture will serve you better.
Where does pipeline break in Cleantech & Energy?
We look at five stages in the Diagnostic, because each fails for a different reason. The rows show the failure we look for first at each stage and what changes once Torke fixes it, in the order a deal meets them.
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Discovery
Where it breaks
Energy transition content reaches engineers, consultants and students, while the asset manager drafting the investment plan finds nothing written for them
What changes once it is fixed
Torke's Visibility practice builds the pages asset management reads before sales and sets the category language AI assistants use to describe you
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Timing
Where it breaks
The first contact is often the tender notice, after the investment plan was written and the specification set around another supplier
What changes once it is fixed
Account signals bring investment plans, regulator decisions and site announcements at the operators on your list each morning, ranked by event
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Evaluation
Where it breaks
Grid engineers check every capacity or efficiency figure against your test report, and one figure that differs costs you their trust
What changes once it is fixed
Campaigns on approved claims checks every line against the facts your engineers approved, and paid campaigns arrive paused for a person to release
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Qualification
Where it breaks
A sustainability manager's interest in removal tonnes does not move an offtake that finance and procurement must also accept
What changes once it is fixed
A lead counts only when a named person in the buying group, such as asset management or finance, states a need or a timing in their own words
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Handover
Where it breaks
The CRM holds engineers at dozens of operators and nobody from asset management, so pipeline counts pilots no budget owner has seen
What changes once it is fixed
Torke's Revenue operations practice sets lifecycle stages and routing so a pilot and a rollout in the investment plan are counted apart
Who is in the buying group?
One person rarely decides alone, so a lead from the wrong role moves nothing. These are the roles we map at every account on your list.
Who signs
The head of asset management or the grid director at a utility or grid operator, with the board approving the investment. At an industrial site it is the plant or operations director with finance, and for carbon removal the head of sustainability with finance and procurement.
Who evaluates
Grid planning and protection engineers, the operations team that will maintain the equipment, and for carbon removal the people who check the removal method and how it is verified.
Who can block
Procurement, which has to run the award under the applicable rules, IT and OT security when the equipment connects to control systems, a concern that has grown since Switzerland required energy suppliers to report cyberattacks within 24 hours from 1 April 2025, and finance when the payback rests on tariff or subsidy assumptions nobody has checked.
Which signals open an account in Cleantech & Energy?
Each signal is a dated, public event a sceptical buyer could check in thirty seconds. Market-wide news can change an account's conditions, and we never write it up as something that company did.
| Signal | What it changes inside the account |
|---|---|
| A grid operator publishes its investment plan or network development plan | The projects for the coming years are being chosen now, and a technology that is missing from the plan waits for the next one |
| A tender notice in your category is published by an operator on your list | The operator is buying this year, and even if this tender is lost, the next one will be drafted by the same team |
| A new plant, grid connection or industrial site is announced | Layouts and equipment choices are being made, so storage, recycling or monitoring can enter the design before it is fixed |
| A company on your list publishes a net-zero target or a carbon removal purchase | Someone now owns a budget and a dated target, and needs supply that can be verified |
| A rule or programme changes grid investment, such as the EU Action Plan for Grids of November 2023 | Investment that was optional becomes planned, and the operators affected look for suppliers who already understand the rule |
What does a qualified lead look like here?
The head of asset management at a regional grid operator on your agreed list replies that their next investment plan includes storage at two substations and that they want operating data from a comparable site before the plan goes to the board. The basis for contacting them in their country is recorded, and the account is not an open opportunity in your CRM. That reply, with the investment plan it answered, is a qualified lead.
A lead counts only when all five facts are recorded, and you have five business days to reject it with a reason. The Torke Service page explains each fact.
- Fact one
- A named person in the buying group
- Fact two
- At an account you agreed to in writing
- Fact three
- A need or timing in their own words
- Fact four
- A lawful basis for contact
- Fact five
- Not already open in your CRM
Where should you start?
Demand is the practice the Diagnostic most often points to for cleantech companies, because grid and utility deals are usually lost while the investment plan is written, before any tender is published.
Every engagement opens with the Diagnostic, two to three weeks that end on one of four decisions: stop, fix one barrier, run one practice, or expand later.
Usual first step for Cleantech & Energy
The practice the Diagnostic most often points to here, run month by month once it does.
Get in touchHow do Torke Service and Torke Engine help?
The same engines run in both, so you can begin with one and move to the other without starting over.
Torke Service, we run it
For example, a storage company with several finished pilots and no rollout learns in the Diagnostic that its CRM holds engineers at dozens of operators and nobody from asset management. Torke runs Demand against those operators, watches their published plans and regulator decisions, and builds the material asset management needs, while your team keeps the technical evaluation and the relationship with each account.
How Torke Service worksTorke Engine, your team runs it
Account signals and campaigns on approved claims matter most here. Signals watch investment plans, regulator feeds and site announcements at the operators you already know, and approved claims keep every efficiency or capacity figure in an ad identical to the one your engineers signed off.
For example, a marketer asks the assistant to list the grid operators on the account list that published an investment plan or received a regulator decision this month, and to draft LinkedIn ads for two segments. The assistant returns the ranked accounts with each dated event and its source, the opening line each event justifies, and ad files in LinkedIn's import format with the campaigns paused for a person to release.
How Torke Engine worksWhat can you expect?
You can stop after any stage and keep what it produced.
A decision after the Diagnostic
Two to three weeks after the start, you receive one of four decisions: stop, fix one barrier, run one practice, or expand later, and stop is a real outcome.
Leads with their evidence attached
Each lead arrives with its five recorded facts, and you have five business days to reject it with a reason from a fixed list.
A monthly read stated plainly
Every month you receive a written read of accounts moved into conversations, coverage of your list, spend against plan and a keep, cut or change recommendation, and results too small to judge are reported as too small to judge.
What do teams in Cleantech & Energy ask about Torke?
Each answer stands on its own, so you can forward one to a colleague, and an assistant asked the same question can quote it as it is.
Where should a cleantech company start with Torke?
A cleantech company starts with Torke's Diagnostic, which takes two to three weeks and usually begins from the pilots and letters of intent that stopped moving. It most often points to the Demand practice, because grid and utility deals are usually lost while the operator's investment plan is being written, before a tender exists.
Why do cleantech pilots at grid operators stall before a rollout?
A pilot proves the equipment on one site, while a rollout is a capital decision that passes through asset management, the investment plan and, in the EU, often a procurement procedure under Directive 2014/25/EU. Torke's Demand practice watches the operators on an agreed list for dated changes such as a published investment plan, so a cleantech company speaks to asset management while the plan is still open.
Can Torke help a storage company reach grid operators before a tender?
Torke Engine's Account signals module brings dated public events at a storage company's target grid operators each morning, from newsrooms, watched pages and regulator feeds, ranked with the opening line the strongest event justifies. The conversation can then start before a tender notice is published, while the storage company's own team keeps the technical evaluation and the relationship with each operator.
How long is the sales cycle for cleantech companies selling to utilities?
Enduring Planet notes that sales cycles with large utilities can take months to years, far longer than with smaller utilities, where some deals move in weeks. Large operators run a multi-step process with several approvers, and spending tied to a regulated budget adds regulatory review.
Who is involved when a utility buys new technology?
Salesforce Ventures lists five groups: the C-suite, business users, IT, procurement and regulatory affairs. At European grid operators asset management or the grid director signs, grid planning engineers evaluate, and procurement, OT security and finance can block.
Bring us the problem, and we bring the solution to it
Tell us what your team sells, who buys it and where deals stop moving. You'll get a written reply saying which way of working fits you, or whether a Diagnostic makes sense, and if neither does, the reason.