Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 11

Weekly Recap, December 24, 2023

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

Stay the Course

The path toward progress is rarely smooth, a fact we often forget. Whether we’re undertaking small changes or a long-term goal, we’re bound to encounter obstacles or momentarily backslide into bad habits.

The Building is the Business

What’s one of the first questions you need to ask yourself before attempting to sell an expense-reducing capital project? “Is the prospect an owner-occupant, a landlord, or a tenant?” Why? Because each of those parties has different values and decision-making drivers.

The Power of Savings-to-Investment Ratio

When teaching I almost always reserve a section of the presentation for financial metrics. One of the most overlooked metrics is my favorite one to use: savings-to-investment ratio or SIR. It’s also one of the most effective to use if you frame it the right way.

Getting Inside Your Prospect's Head

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Suppose you get an unexpected call from a prospect who says he’s interested in replacing his building’s HVAC system with your energy-efficient technology. Many salespeople would say, “Great! Let’s set up an appointment and we can go over the details.” A sales professional, on the other hand, would say, “Would be happy to oblige. Just out of curiosity, what made you call us today about replacing your HVAC system?”

Beneath the Surface Benefits

For most businesses, you might think that the primary driver for energy efficiency projects is saving money on the utility bill. However, if you view all proposed projects through the energy-cost-savings lens alone, you’re probably overlooking some of the most compelling motivations to proceed.

Price and the Decision-Making Chain

One of the keys to successful selling is being able to customize the benefits of your product or service so that they resonate with each and every stakeholder. Different stakeholders are going to be resonating at different frequencies. It’s your job to make sure that you resonate at each and every one of those frequencies at the right time to soft-circle the approval of all of the initiators, influencers, gatekeepers, decision-makers, buyers, and end-users who will ultimately need to say “Yes!” in order to make your proposed project a reality.

Weekly Recap, December 17, 2023

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

Losing Can Still Be an Opportunity

The World Cup has winners and losers, but it isn't that often that competitions end with demonstrations of excellent sportsmanship.

2 Strategies That Will Impact the Outcome of Your Sales Conversations

When you’re talking to a prospect or client, the way in which you ask and deliver questions can have a significant (albeit subconscious) effect on the response you receive. Here are two strategies that, when used appropriately, will help elicit the response you desire: Downward intonation: Most people ask questions with an upward intonation at the end of the sentence. However, using a downward intonation gives power to the question and makes it (subconsciously) seem incredibly important. A prospect or client is more likely to give you a straight answer when you deliver the question this way. Here’s a scenario as an example: