Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 182

Turn Uphappy Customers Happy

No sales professional wants his or her customers to be unhappy. It’s bad for business. However, I believe you should expect and pay very close attention to customer complaints and feedback in order to earn their trust and build rapport.   

Put Your Subconscious to Work

“What underserved markets should I be focusing on?” “How can I double the number of prospects I reach with the limited time I have available for outbound marketing?” “What would it take for news of our latest offering to go viral?” Successful sales professionals ask themselves questions like these all the time.

8 Misconceptions About Working in Sales

You can never understand someone else’s position unless you have walked a mile in their shoes, or so the old adage goes. This seems to be especially true for people considering a career in sales. Of all the professions out there, there seem to be more misconceptions about working in sales than many other jobs.

What Are the Best Ways to Handle Project Delays?

Every now and then you’re going to encounter a prospect who delays a project.  My experience has shown me that you should tie the advantages of the project to a hot button issue.

Schedule Follow-Up Visit In-Person

At the conclusion of your first meeting with a prospect, do you schedule a follow-up visit before you leave… or do you wait and do it over the phone later? In my experience, it’s best to schedule the next session before you leave. Why? The fact that they set up an appointment with you in the first place demonstrates that they clearly have an interest in your product or service and a desire to improve their efficiency or cut energy costs. If you wait, you give your prospect time to second-guess the urgency of your offering, you risk playing phone tag, and you may wind up losing the sale. Of course, if the first meeting resulted in a resounding “No,” you’re probably better off cutting your losses and focusing on a fresh prospect.

The New Marketing

What is the difference between marketing and advertising?  Seth Godin, the author of This Is Marketing, points out that while these words used to be synonymous, times have changed.  Advertising is reaching out to an audience and making your presence known.  Marketing, on the other hand, can be a selfless act, not a selfish one.  If done correctly, it is carefully planned and thoughtful outreach.

Weekly Recap, April 14, 2019

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

Breaking Sales Down to a (Neuro)science

What is happening in your brain and body during a high-stakes negotiation?  If you knew, how could that tip things in your favor?

Client Nurturing

Your existing customer base is a significant (and often overlooked) asset. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in new customer acquisition that you forget to leave time for client nurturing. Energy projects are often large-scale and time-consuming – which means you don’t necessarily acquire vast numbers of customers.

How to Develop a Corporate Training Program for Your Company

Whether your organization needs to provide sales training or some other type of corporate training, the basic components are going to be the same. You want to build a program that is going to improve staff performance.  Of course, before you can develop the right training program for your organization, you need to have a clear understanding of your objectives, a means to measure your own training performance, and success metrics for your trainees. With the right preparation and a well-thought-out training framework, you can create a training initiative that will empower your employees, raise your whole team's morale, and improve staff performance.