Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 209
May 14, 2018
Never Lose a Customer Again
One of the topics I’m frequently asked about is how to follow-up with customers. It takes careful planning, energy and investment to find and court new prospects; however, businesses often miss the boat when it comes to maintaining a relationship with their customer after the sale is made. In the long run these hard-fought victories can become swift losses!
According to Joey Coleman, author of Never Lose a Customer Again, 20-70% of our repeat business is lost within 100 days after a sale. Customers experience doubt, buyer’s remorse or don’t feel as appreciated once the money has left their bank account. If there isn’t a relationship with the company providing them a product or service, what will ensure that they’ll buy from the company again? What can you offer them to keep the door open and assuage their doubts?
Coleman lays out an eight-phase sales cycle charting your customer’s actions and emotional needs. The book offers a narrative for each step, with supplemental exercises and advice on whichever communication tactic you are using (email, phone, text, in-person, snail mail and so on). With some careful study and practice, you’ll become an expert on guiding your customers through a sale as well as keeping them happy and informed.
Here is the summary on Amazon:
“Award-winning speaker and business consultant Joey Coleman teaches audiences and companies all over the world how to turn a one-time purchaser into a lifelong customer.
“Coleman’s theory of building customer loyalty isn’t about focusing on marketing or closing the sale: It’s about the First 100 Days® after the sale and the interactions the customer experiences.
“While new customers experience joy, euphoria, and excitement, these feelings quickly shift to fear, doubt, and uncertainty as buyer’s remorse sets in. Across all industries, somewhere between 20%-70% of newly acquired customers will stop doing business with a company within the first 100 days of being a new customer because they feel neglected in the early stages of customer onboarding.
“In Never Lose a Customer Again, Coleman offers a philosophy and methodology for dramatically increasing customer retention and as a result, the bottom line. He identifies eight distinct emotional phases customers go through in the 100 days following a purchase. From an impulse buy at Starbucks to the thoughtful purchase of a first house, all customers have the potential to experience the eight phases of the customer journey. If you can understand and anticipate the customers’ emotions, you can apply a myriad of tools and techniques — in-person, email, phone, mail, video, and presents — to cement a long and valuable relationship.”
The post Never Lose a Customer Again appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 13, 2018
Weekly Recap, May 13, 2018
Tuesday: Check out some tips for active listening.
Wednesday: Explore the cost of delay for prospects or clients who want to wait to move forward with energy efficiency.
Thursday: Check out some of the most common bad communication habits that you should make a point to work on changing.
Friday: Here are four simple questions you might ask a prospect when he or she tells you “I need to think about it.”
Saturday: Check out some tips for creating the perfect LinkedIn profile.
The post Weekly Recap, May 13, 2018 appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 12, 2018
Tips for Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Profile
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which can be a chaotic blend of personal and business content, LinkedIn is the perfect social media channel for business professionals.
Someone new creates a LinkedIn account every two seconds, so it is critical to have a top-notch, highly competitive profile showcasing your best work.
LinkedIn has some great built-in tools to help you customize your profile. Don’t overlook these helpful tips on how to make your profile perfect.
Profile Image: A LinkedIn account is eleven times more searchable with a profile image. Steer clear of using homegrown selfies and use only a professional business headshot for your profile picture.
Contact Information: It may seem obvious; however, frequently check your contact information to make sure it is up to date. The last thing you want is to have this great profile with a phone number that has a typo in it. Make it easy for your prospects to contact you quickly.
Headline: You may think this one is not that important either; however, it’s an excellent opportunity to summarize what you can provide to a potential client. Craft a compelling headline; be succinct and use a few keywords for what you do or sell.
First Person: Always write your LinkedIn content in the first person; however, remember that it should be about what you can offer to your audience and who your audience is, rather than being all about you.
Keywords: Throughout your profile use a short list of specific, searchable keywords that represent your business offering, regardless of whether you sell products or services. Use these keywords naturally within the text; don’t force it or use too many.
Connect: Connect your other social media accounts to your profile so an interested business colleague can check out other aspects of your online exposure and get a larger picture of the real you.
Experience: Don’t overlook the experience section. Use this area to talk about what you do and emphasize your extraordinary achievements. Talk about particularly successful projects and avoid buzzwords at all costs. Do not think of this as just an online resume. This is your professional business-to-business brochure.
Update Your Status: Make posting regular targeted updates part of your weekly routine. Be sure to use keywords in your posts and share video or other valuable resources with your connected business contacts. Share links in your updates to make your profile stand out from the crowd.
Groups, Groups, and More Groups: List information about any awards, special skills, licenses, endorsements or groups you are a member of; however, be sure to remember to join member groups within LinkedIn. LinkedIn Groups is an often overlooked, valuable asset helping you become even more connected to your target audience.
Video: In this fast-paced, time-is-king world, video makes a bigger impression than any amount of words. Use video to make your LinkedIn profile distinctive, and share interesting information that your prospects will appreciate and remember.
By using all the features of the LinkedIn profile system, you can create a robust, well-rounded picture of you, your business and what you bring to the table. Each feature offers an opportunity to highlight different elements of your business history, experience, and the complete package that is you.
The post Tips for Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Profile appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 11, 2018
I Need to Think About It
An indecisive prospect will often tell you, “I need to think about it.” What do you do in this situation? All too many salespeople say, “Okay, why don’t you give it some thought, and we’ll talk again next week.”
When your prospect says, “I need to think about it,” what is he really saying? Is he going to think about something in particular? Does he even know what to think about? Perhaps the presentation was so overwhelming, he doesn’t even know where to start!
The next time you hear “I need to think about it,” think about this: if you take the path of least resistance and take the stated objection literally, you’ll either unnecessarily lengthen the sales cycle or you’ll lose the sale entirely. The minute you leave the room and you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. So what should you say when faced with such an open-ended objection?
Ideally you’ll find a way to get your prospect to do at least most of his “thinking” while you’re still physically present to help guide the process. Here are four simple questions you might ask your prospect that would allow you to continue the discussion… and maybe even land an affirmative decision before you leave the meeting:
“How do you mean that?” This is a polite way of asking your prospect what exactly he needs to think about in order to come to an affirmative decision. He may tell you what it is specifically that he has reservations about, and you can use this information to propose a solution to his concerns. If you find the prospect still floundering to provide an explanation of his reluctance, proceed to question #2.
“Are you more interested in thinking about the savings we’ve been discussing or the costs of attaining them?” Giving a couple possibilities will guide your prospect to agreeing with one or both of your suggestions… or open the door to a totally different concern that has your prospect stalled in the decision-making process.
“What are you feeling?” Ultimately, people are driven more often by emotion than by reason. Even in the context of expense-reducing capital projects, decisions are often made emotionally and then justified financially. Therefore, when a person says, “I need to think about it,” what they really may be saying internally is, “It just doesn’t feel right yet.” If you ask your prospect what he’s feeling, it might be just enough to push him over the edge – to get him to turn off the verbal filter. He may say in response, “Well, honestly, I’ve never had much luck getting capital projects approved around here,” or “I don’t want to go to capital budgeting and ask them for anything – last time they made me produce a mound of proposal-related paperwork and projections. I wasted six months of my life trying to put solar panels on this roof and they wouldn’t let me do it. And frankly, I don’t know if I have the stamina to stand in front of them and our board again to defend any proposal, even if it would save the company a boatload of money.” Now you know that he’s unwilling to endure what he experienced last time to get a new project approved. In this case, move on to question four.
“How can I help?” No one is going to throw a rock at you for offering to help. Your prospect may say, “Well, if you can help me construct a more compelling pitch than what I had to work with last time, I’d be willing to give it a shot.” Who knows, by helping your prospect refine an attention-grabbing elevator pitch, one-page proposal, and one-page financial summary, you might empower him to work more effectively with his colleagues in the future and get a lot more than your project approved!
The post I Need to Think About It appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 10, 2018
6 Bad Habits of Communication
Effective communication is essential in building rapport and closing sales. Here are some of the most common bad communication habits that I’ve come across. If you identify with any of these, make it a point to work on changing your behavior:
Multitasking while on the phone: The person on the other end of the line will be able to sense that you’re not fully engaged, and you won’t be able to converse intelligently. They won’t know whether you’re writing an email or doing a crossword puzzle, but they’ll be offended nonetheless. It’s especially obvious if you ask them to repeat a question. They’ll think you have little respect for them and as a result, they’ll have little respect for you.
Interrupting: Some prospects may be overzealous talkers. You might have the urge to cut them off and get to the point; however, doing so can jeopardize rapport.
Dominating discussions: People like to express their opinions, ask questions, and know that they’re being listened to. A one-way conversation is a dead-end street.
Using too much text: This goes for all forms of written communication. The average person can’t read more than a couple hundred words a minute, which means that if you have a proposal with very thin margins, single-spaced lines, and multiple pages, it could theoretically take a person several hours to go through. Nobody has several hours to read a proposal. Few have the patience to read a letter or email that takes more than a minute to read. Given the platforms that people use for reading these days (like smartphones and tablets), anything over 100 words is likely to be “set aside for later,” which in most cases translates to “ignored.”
Starting a conversation with your most important item: Let’s say that a customer you’re currently doing business with owes you money on an overdue invoice. Are you going to call him and immediately say, “I’m calling about that overdue invoice,” or are you first going to provide answers to everything that he’s requested from you lately, and then at the end of a conversation mention the invoice? The correct answer is the latter, of course. If you focus your attention on helping him before inquiring about the overdue payment, you’ll greatly increase the likelihood that he’ll chase down that payment for you… He may even offer to overnight it (once he convinces his Accounting Department to write the check). The same logic applies to other situations… say, asking for another contact in the client’s organization who might help you advance your account development plans.
Taking too much time to get to the point: Knowing what can be cut out from a discussion is as important (if not more important) than knowing what should be included. To use a radio analogy, it’s like having more noise than signal – you want the signal, but you don’t want the noise. Avoid clouding the conversation with anything that is not going to help you achieve your goal.
The post 6 Bad Habits of Communication appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 9, 2018
Cost of Delay
When you’re making an investment, you might be advised to wait. Likewise, you might hear from your prospects that waiting is a prudent move regarding energy efficiency. That isn’t always the case.
A few years ago, a fellow Wharton alum shared a story with me. He was selling utility-scale solar projects and his deal flow nearly halted because of a rumor spreading through his segment: the cost of silicon was going to fall by 50% within the next five years. Prospects were telling him, “Why would I want to do this project when I could wait until it was cheaper?”
He thought about it for a while then realized this argument didn’t make any mathematical sense. “Only 20% of the project was related to the cost of silicon,” he said. “If you halve 20% of the project, that means you’d only be saving 10% after the five years.” Not only that, he noted that the rest of the project cost would be subject to compounded inflation, as well as everything else. Moreover, waiting would also cost you five years worth of solar production and introduce the risk of receiving lower rebates or tax benefits.
The only way to combat this was to put these numbers down on paper and make it clear to his prospects. He told them, “It’s simple. The cost of delay will sideline your progress, and on top of that you’ll be losing money.” Once they realized this, it was a major sanity check. Why would you refrain from making these improvements over such a small amount of potential raw material cost savings?
This concept is nothing new. I use the same philosophy when I deal with clients who want to wait. Perhaps they that feel prices are on their way down, that technology is improving, or that it’s wasteful to replace equipment that’s still running (even if it is dreadfully inefficient). When a prospect uses those objections, they might be neglecting the big picture. If that’s the case, make sure to bring it back into focus.
The post Cost of Delay appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 8, 2018
7 Tips for Active Listening
Selling efficiency is a two-way street: You can’t just bombard your prospect with a sales pitch or a speech about all the benefits of your product or service without listening… and listening well. A smart sales professional prepares responses to all possible objections and listens carefully to his or her prospect. Here are seven things to keep in mind:
Always allow speakers to complete sentences. If you want someone’s respect, don’t interrupt them.
Listen to understand, not to know when it’s your turn to talk. Your prospect will know if you’re passively listening, and that doesn’t make for a trusting relationship.
Acknowledge what the speaker said and incorporate it into your response. This proves that you’re listening and comprehending. Also, use listening noises such as “I see” to affirm that you’re actively engaged in what they are saying.
Look at the person who is speaking and don’t get distracted. It’s disrespectful to take your focus off the prospect and it gives the impression that you have more important things to do.
Be patient and calm while listening. You’re not going to close a sale if you overwhelm or stress out your prospect.
Take notes while someone else is speaking (but be sure to look up at the speaker from time to time). This shows that you value what they are saying.
And finally, always listen with an open mind.
The post 7 Tips for Active Listening appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 7, 2018
Crushing It
If you’re an entrepreneur (or even just thinking about becoming one), the road you’re taking can seem overwhelming and uncertain. As a serial entrepreneur in several industries over the last 40 years, I have lived this reality.
I recently found a book that shares my core principles and can serve as an insider’s guide: Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest, Crushing It, which is informed by his nearly thirty years of experience.
If you’re looking to start your own business or build your own brand, there is plenty of straightforward advice on how to navigate situations that are anything but. There is no one way at succeeding as an entrepreneur; Vaynerchuk maintains that you won’t find yours by concerning yourself with trends. Once you develop your brand you need to find the proper medium that works for you and be as authentic as possible. It is only through commitment, transparency and offering quality in your services that you’ll find your way.
Above all, Vaynerchuk insists that your career and personal life nourish one another, so you must prevent your profession from trumping everything else. His foundation for success consists of three “golden rules”:
Love your family
Work super hard
Live your passion
Whether you start with this book or Vaynerchuk’s video series, you’ll discover both are a worthwhile supplement to our teachings at Selling Energy.
Here is the summary on Amazon:
“Four-time New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk offers new lessons and inspiration drawn from the experiences of dozens of influencers and entrepreneurs who rejected the predictable corporate path in favor of pursuing their dreams by building thriving businesses and extraordinary personal brands.
“In his 2009 international bestseller Crush It, Gary insisted that a vibrant personal brand was crucial to entrepreneurial success. In Crushing It!, Gary explains why that’s even more true today, offering his unique perspective on what has changed and what principles remain timeless. He also shares stories from other entrepreneurs who have grown wealthier—and not just financially—than they ever imagined possible by following Crush It principles. The secret to their success (and Gary’s) has everything to do with their understanding of the social media platforms, and their willingness to do whatever it took to make these tools work to their utmost potential. That’s what Crushing It! teaches readers to do.
“In this lively, practical, and inspiring book, Gary dissects every current major social media platform so that anyone, from a plumber to a professional ice skater, will know exactly how to amplify his or her personal brand on each. He offers both theoretical and tactical advice on how to become the biggest thing on old standbys like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat; podcast platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and iTunes; and other emerging platforms such as Musical.ly. For those with more experience, Crushing It! illuminates some little-known nuances and provides innovative tips and clever tweaks proven to enhance more common tried-and-true strategies.
“Crushing It! is a state-of-the-art guide to building your own path to professional and financial success, but it’s not about getting rich. It’s a blueprint to living life on your own terms.”
The post Crushing It appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 6, 2018
Weekly Recap, May 6, 2018
Tuesday: Treat a trade association the same way you’d treat a prospect—offer something of value and take on the role of a collaborator.
Wednesday: Explore a perfect example of how probing for the emotional “why” will provide the motivation that makes your prospect say yes.
Thursday: Check out these networking tips.
Friday: Capture your prospects’ attention in three sentences.
Saturday: Check out some tips for writing goals.
The post Weekly Recap, May 6, 2018 appeared first on Selling Energy.
May 5, 2018
Goals!
In the fast-paced world of business, it may seem difficult – and frankly unrealistic – to take time away from work to sit down and write a list of goals. The payoff, however, greatly outweighs the burden. If you block out a bit of time from your busy schedule to set goals, not only will you be more successful, you’ll also save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
If you are thinking about what you wanted or intended to accomplish in 2018, here are some tips for writing goals (there’s still time):
1.Be specific. A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal, you must answer the six “W” questions:
Who: Who is involved?
What: What do I want to accomplish?
Where: Identify a location.
When: Establish a time frame.
Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
Why: Cite specific reasons, purposes or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
2. Make your goal measurable. Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.
3. Make your goal attainable. You can attain almost any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps.
4. Make your goal realistic. To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.
5. Set a time frame. A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it, there’s no sense of urgency.
The post Goals! appeared first on Selling Energy.
Selling Energy
- Mark Jewell's profile
- 7 followers
