Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 21

The Accidental Efficiency Sales Professional

If someone had approached you as a kid and asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, would you have said sales?

How to Discuss Recommissioning Effectively

I was recently asked for advice about how to sell recommissioning services more effectively. First, a definition of terms: “commissioning” is making sure all of the systems in a building are operating in accordance with design intent. And since everything in the universe tends toward disorganization, you should really recommission a building periodically to ensure that all energy-consuming systems are operating in accordance with the current space use and occupancy. If a building was never commissioned, then you would retrocommission it, which is short for “retroactive commissioning.”

A Simple Strategy for Getting to the Decision-Maker

One of the questions that you probably ask yourself when you're trying to understand what it will take to get an organization to say "YES" is, “How do I know I’m talking to the real decision-maker?” There are lots of ways to ask that question; however, I think many of them are fraught with peril. You don't ask a blatant question like, “So, who is the decision-maker around here?” because you would likely insult the person with whom you’re speaking by suggesting that other people have to be involved in the decision. Maybe this person actually is the lone wolf who makes the decisions and has all the power in the world.

Switching Selling Modalities

One nice thing about today’s selling environment is that there are so many options for contacting your prospects and customers. When I started selling more than 40 years ago, it was preferable to meet people face to face. If you couldn’t, you could use phone or direct mail. That was it.

Coaching Isn't What You Think

Most of our ideas regarding coaching have been lifted from movies, television, sport games, and the “life coaching” we may have experienced in person or seen on infomercials.  It’s much more complicated than that.  What actually makes a coach good at his/her job?  What does coaching have to do with being an effective manager, boss, or CEO? 

Weekly Recap, September 10, 2023

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

Listen with Feeling

I’ve written about the importance of listening and the positive effect it has on building rapport. Listening (or the perceived act of listening) requires more than an open ear. In order to reinforce in your prospect’s mind that you’re interested in what they have to say, you need to make visual contact. 

How to Prepare a Presentation

Before you create a presentation, you should ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish?” Most people are trying to transform their idea into reality – it could be that their prospect needs to embrace this new technology or that they need to adopt a best practice that they’ve seen work in a similar facility across town. Whatever your goal may be, don't start with PowerPoint. A lot of people say, “Oh, I've got a presentation tomorrow, let me just open up PowerPoint and start typing.” If you do that, the presentation may wind up looking like stream-of-consciousness journalism.

How Successful People Handle Emails Effectively

To-do lists are great, but if you know you can complete a task very quickly it’s usually best to do it right away and be done with it. The same principle can be applied to emails. Most of us get too many emails each day to respond to all of them immediately. It follows that we should respond right away to the ones that we know will only take a minute or two of our time and save the more time-intensive ones for later (unless they’re very urgent, of course).

Audit or Benchmark?

You may recall that I have shared reasons why the free audit does not work. Today, we’ll discuss how ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® benchmarking can be a superior alternative to the free audit, and how you can use benchmarking as a quick and easy way to get your foot in the door with a new prospect: