Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 189

It’s the Little Things

January is gone and February is near half gone; however, the beginning of the year isn’t the only time you can step back and re-evaluate how you’re going about your day-to-day activities.  That can happen anytime.  Anytime is the right time to push yourself to be better. 

The 4 Rules for Non-Mutually Exclusive Projects

There are two kinds of projects out there: non-mutually exclusive projects and mutually exclusive projects. Mutually exclusive projects are the ones where a building system is removed and a single system replaces it.  Let’s say you’re evaluating three different replacements that have a best, better and good selection to choose from.  You have nine choices in all. Ultimately, you have to remove one piece of equipment (or system) and install a replacement.  In such a situation, you need to choose the equipment with the best life-cycle cost, which is not necessarily the choice with the lowest first cost. 

Is Your Closing Ratio Suffering?

If you have a lousy closing rate, what are you doing wrong?  It's usually a combination of talking to the wrong people and saying the wrong thing in your proposals.  Perhaps you’re not addressing objections or really asking for the sale.

Timely Follow-Up

Too many salespeople fail to appreciate the importance of timely follow-up.  They don’t realize it’s what truly gets the job done.  It’s often said that it takes seven touches to make the sale, and it’s tough to execute seven touches without an intense appreciation of follow-up. 

Overcoming the “We Don’t Have the Money” Objection

Most prospects are spending money on an overly large utility bill when they could be making principal and interest payments on new equipment that would save the difference and more.  Nevertheless, you’ll hear the same objection, “We don’t have the money.” 

Rebuilding the Grid

Every now and then a concern or “canary in a coal mine” issue surfaces in our culture.  Gretchen Bakke’s The Grid examines one that plays a major role in energy efficiency and its future: namely, the grid itself.

Weekly Recap, February 3, 2019

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

How to Make a Robust and Appealing LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn can be an irreplaceable tool at your disposal; however, many salespeople are not using it to its full potential.  Even the basics of our profiles fall short.  So here is some advice to make your LinkedIn profile more robust and appealing. 

What’s HVAC?

We have so much jargon and so many acronyms in the energy industry that it is easy to confuse non-energy professionals. As many of you know, I’m a big proponent of clarity and simplicity – the fifteen-second elevator pitch, the one-page proposal, the one-page financial summary, and so forth.

Warming Up Cold Calls

When you’re cold calling and don’t know the right person to get in touch with… good luck.  These calls are clumsy and inconvenient for the person picking up.