Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 132

A Way to Improve Your Listening Skills

I’ve written in the past about the importance of listening carefully to everything your prospects say to you. One thing that you should be sure to take note of when listening is repetition. When people repeat words or ideas, it usually signifies importance. The things your prospects choose to repeat provide insight into their world (which is certainly valuable to have when you’re selling).

3 Tips for Effective and Impactful Storytelling

Those of you who know me (or who read this blog on a regular basis) know that I love to tell stories. Stories are a great way to captivate, motivate, and make an emotional connection with your audience whether it’s a presentation or an online conversation. 

8 Common Misconceptions About the Sales Profession

Working in sales can be rich and rewarding, if you understand what a career in sales is truly all about. To help remove some of the mystery and illustrate the real potential offered by a career in sales, here are 8 common misconceptions about the sales profession.

How to Redefine Your Value Proposition

If you are hoping to redefine and supercharge your value proposition, you’ll want to consider bringing up non-utility-cost financial benefits. As just one example, how many people trying to sell energy efficiency solutions actually take the time to quantify and monetize the value of improved productivity?  All too often I hear a “salesperson” (as opposed to “sales professional”) say, “I told them it would make their people happier and more productive, but they seemed unimpressed.”  Did they offer any compelling facts and figures?  No. Are there actually data they could have cited to make the prospect more motivated to capture benefits beyond the most obvious utility-cost financial savings? Yes!

To Sell Is Human

If you’re familiar with my teachings you’ve heard of The Accidental Salesperson, not only as a concept, but as a bestselling book.  This week I recommend a book in a similar vein - an inside look on how you don’t necessarily need to have the word “sales” in your title to find yourself selling for a living.

Weekly Recap, August 23, 2020

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

Working Together While Apart

Some of us are used to working remotely, while for the rest of us it has been a whole new world. What’s more, some of us are managing teams that are newly remote, which comes with another whole set of possibilities and challenges.

Put Yourself into Your Prospect’s Shoes

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It may sound simple, but one of the best strategies for determining the ideal sales approach for a given prospect is to get into their shoes. There is no universal sales strategy that works across the board, so you need to figure out exactly what each prospect cares most about and work that angle into your proposal. So, how do you do this? Talk to people. Call store owners, building managers, hoteliers, even manufacturers. Ask them, “What would make your life easier?”

Pivoting Your Sales Plan

I’m often asked that when it comes to major changes in the sales landscape, where the heck do you start? First off, I recommend you take a deep breath. It will center you and prevent you from getting overwhelmed.

7 Principles That Are Essential to the Sales Cycle

I was given an excellent suggestion from one of my students regarding a sales program of his own!  Since he and I have similar sensibilities it isn’t surprising that it goes hand in hand with our teachings at Selling Energy.