Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 171

How to Sell Effectively to Cities, Counties and School Districts

Cities, counties and school districts can be difficult when it comes to implementing energy efficiency projects.  The only clear way to success is winning them over with concise, persuasive measures that appeal to their needs.  So, how can you gain their attention? 

What Value Can You Bring to the Table?

Most people plan their pricing from the perspective of cost when they should be pricing their offerings based on the value they create. Perhaps you’ve heard the story about a guy who takes his car into the shop, watches the mechanic as he fixes his engine in a jiffy, and says, “Wow, that was easy. How much do I owe you?”  The mechanic says, “That will be $100, thank you.” Shocked, the customer says, “But you just tapped the engine once!”  The mechanic confidently replies, “I charge a dollar for the tap and $99 for knowing where to tap.  So, would you prefer to pay in cash or with your credit card today?”

Sensing Success

One of the best ways to achieve success is to imagine yourself achieving it. It’s one thing to say to yourself, “I’m going to close this sale.”  It’s another thing altogether to immerse all of your senses that are stimulated in the wake of a successful sale. Before you meet with a new prospect, take some time to think about what you will see, taste, hear, smell, and feel once you seal the deal. 

Practical Solutions to Conquer Management Mess-ups

Being a sales manager may seem like herding cats at times, and unless you’re one of the fortunate few who have had an excellent sales management mentor or have accumulated a library of books on sales management, it may feel as if you’re making it up as you go along.  Although my book recommendations often focus on aspects of sales, I would like to suggest a resource specifically pertaining to the sales management role. 

Weekly Recap, August 4, 2019

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

The To-Do List Strategy That Works

On this Saturday’s productivity post, we share a different method of creating your to-do lists. Whether you write your tasks with the help of pen and paper, or you use productivity apps such as Asana, you may still run into the problem of not accomplishing all your tasks. If you’ve been feeling a little more anxious as your daily to-do list grows longer and longer, we recommend trying the Eisenhower Matrix.

Benefits of a Positive Mindset

While closing a sale is a great way to put yourself in the right mindset for selling, you don’t need to wait for success to experience the benefits of a positive mindset. Before you approach a prospect or client, rid your mind of any negative thoughts. Is the weather terrible? Was the commute excruciating? Did your flight get delayed? Whatever the case may be, think only about the good things in your life and visualize yourself closing the sale. If you ever walk into a meeting and think to yourself, "There’s no way I’m going to make this sale," you might as well turn around and go home. Even if it seems as if everything is going wrong, you could always be grateful that you have the opportunity to meet with a potential customer. 

The Value of Appraisal

When you’re selling an energy efficiency solution in the built environment, you might consider emphasizing the potential for increased appraised value as an important benefit. Unfortunately, most energy solutions providers don’t take the time to reframe their proposed improvement in this context. Today, we’ll discuss some strategies for framing this potential benefit properly.

Is Knowledge Really Power?

You’ve no doubt heard the old saying, “Knowledge is power.” “Knowledge” may be “power”; however, in many cases, efficiency salespeople (as opposed to efficiency sales professionals) lose the power of persuasion by trying too hard to demonstrate their knowledge. They talk way past the sale.  They overwhelm the prospect with too much information about what they do for a living, what their technology does, how their technology is installed and operated, and so forth. Believe me – most of that “knowledge” will not increase your probability of closing the sale. In fact, it will likely do the opposite.

How to Craft an Email That Captures a Reader’s Attention

Email is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have at our disposal. It’s also one of the most difficult to use effectively. Consumers have become increasingly adept at determining when they’re being “sold” to, and according to a study done by ExactTarget, people take an average of only 2.7 seconds to decide whether they’re going to read, forward, or delete an email.