Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 214

Weekly Recap, March 25, 2018

Monday: Read  All About Them , by Bruce Turkel, which profiles companies that are successful not because they’re looking out for themselves, but because they are looking out for the needs of their customers.


Tuesday: Discover how to wrap up your presentation on a strong note.


Wednesday: Check out some writing guidelines that apply to virtually all types of proposals.


Thursday: Don’t sweat the tax stuff when you’re pitching.


Friday: When working with a trade ally, be sure it’s a two-way street.


Saturday: Introduce “The Next-Step Method” for every to-do list item.

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The Next-Step Method

Does your to-do list have hundreds of items on it? Do you often find yourself putting off tasks for later? If so, you may want to consider reexamining the way in which you manage your to-do list.

FastCompany recently published an article that suggests, “For every to-do list item, write down a next step. Every time.”  If you find yourself forgetting tasks, missing opportunities, failing to follow-up when you said you would, or missing important deadlines, I highly recommend reading this short article and introducing this simple action step to help you cross off your to-dos.

 

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Choosing Your Trade Allies

If you’re looking for allies to help you get your projects through the pipeline, you have to find the right people.  They need to be reputable and know what they’re doing, which is no mean feat.

Once you’ve determined they’re the right fit, the first thing you need to do is educate them about your offering.  Secondly, you have to get them motivated to push it.  That motivation depends on the particulars of the internal champion you’re hoping to groom.  The value proposition is key because this person will be the lubricant or the sandpaper between you and your customer.  The more they understand about your value proposition and your motivation, the more effective they’ll be.  Both of you need to be in the best position to make sure things happen.

Thirdly, if you’re pulling people out of their panel trucks and into a classroom or perhaps out to lunch, you still need to make it worth their time.  The same goes for a potential ally who is more corporate or sales-oriented.  If someone is lending you an open ear, you need to make it worth their while.

I’ve had experience in a variety of industries concerning trade allies and I’ve had varying success.  I’ve also had several ninjas come to me and say, “We’ve got this new product we’re rolling out, and we’re trying to establish a trade ally network.”  The first thing I say is, “Just answer me frankly – why should a trade ally spend time pitching your product when he has a finite amount of time sitting in front of a valuable prospect.  Why would he opt to talk about your product over some other product he’s representing?”

This forces you to hammer down the clarity of the message, how compelling it will have to be.  Your trade ally has to gain from participating and selling your offering.  Otherwise, you’re simply asking for promotion.  Working with a trade ally has to be a two-way street in order to be a worthwhile endeavor.

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Don’t Sweat the Tax Stuff

My philosophy is that when it comes to tax benefits and other reasons to do an energy projects, be careful not to let the tail wag the dog.  When you’re pitching, don’t delve into tax credits or deductions.  I feel the same way about rebates and incentives.  They can be problematic for the following reasons:

These kind of financial promises come and go because tax codes change.  Why risk making a promise that you can’t keep?
If you can’t convince a person that non-utility cost financial benefits are greater than the benefits of saving energy or taxes, then you’re either working in the wrong market segment or not thinking very creatively.

In fact, in most cases, savings shouldn’t be driving the bus.  What should drive the bus?  Productivity increases.  Waste decreases.  Shrinkage decreases.  Increased rents.  Decreased vacancy.  Increased sales price per foot.  These are the positive outcomes you should talk about, and if you take the time to analyze those non-utility cost financial benefits, and then quantify and monetize them, you won’t have to worry about whether the tax benefits are big, small, temporary or permanent, period.

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Proposal Writing Guidelines

In my many years of reading and writing proposals, I’ve come up with some universal guidelines that apply to virtually all types of proposals:

Use consistent formatting across the board (fonts, sizes, colors, margin widths, and so forth).
Use bold headings to make the proposal easy to skim.
Make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence… again to make it easy to skim.  Today’s readers are actually skimmers – a by-product of the ADHD-afflicted world we live in – so I advise my students to write their subheadings first, and then fill in the rest with sentences.  After all, 95% of their readers will only read the subheads, until one of those subheads is impressive enough to stop the scanner in their tracks and convince them that it would be worth slowing down and actually reading the rest of the words on the page.
Avoid font sizes smaller than 11pt.
Keep the length of each paragraph as consistent as possible and leave ample space in the margins – if there isn’t enough white space, the reader will feel overwhelmed.
Use a consistent writing style throughout the proposal.
ALWAYS print the proposal and proofread it in hard copy for grammatical errors, spelling errors, visual inconsistencies, etc. before sending it.
Finally, convert it to a PDF (to avoid having the proposal look strange if the device your prospect is using to view it lacks one or more fonts featured in your original document)… and then proofread it again to ensure that it looks the way it should.

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Any Questions?

No presentation is complete without asking, “Are there any questions?”

A lot of people are afraid to ask this for a couple reasons.  First of all, they may be thinking, “What if they give me a question I can’t answer?”  Believe me, your prospects don’t know the answers to the questions better than you do.  And if there’s a question you haven’t heard it’s absolutely fine!  My suggestion would be to say, “Actually, that’s a question we haven’t heard before.  Please give me your name and your email address and I promise you an answer before the end of the day.”

The second reason someone doesn’t want to ask for questions is because they’re afraid that no one will say anything and their presentation is going to end early.  The way around is pick up a glass of water and take a sip while you wait, buying you ten seconds.  If it’s quiet, you might chuckle and say, “If you did have a question, what would it be?”  That breaks the ice in most audiences.  It gives people permission to speak, and I guarantee that 90% of the time, someone in the room will ask a question immediately after the chuckling subsides.

If that doesn’t work, you need to come prepared with a list of FAQs in your back pocket.  Prep those questions carefully because they will be your parachute.  Go through them one by one while respecting the time you have remaining.  You might say something like, “Actually there’s one question that I’m surprised no one asked…” and then follow that intro with one of your FAQs.  If that’s not enough to prime the pump, you might add, “In fact, another question that I get asked a lot is…” and give them your second prepared FAQ.

While your presentation most likely stands on its own, you’ll leave a better impression than just being passive and saying, “Okay, I guess we can finish early.”  You don’t want to abdicate, so make sure you go out on a strong note.

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Not for Yourself, But Others

In Australia, there is a company called SAMS, which stands for Shark Attack Mitigation Systems.  They create wetsuits that are designed to protect divers and surfers from a potential shark attack.  The designs are created with the assistance of scientists and shark experts, ensuring a user’s personal safety.

Based on these facts alone, would you be interested in purchasing their product?

In reality, shark attacks are rare, claiming roughly four to five deaths a year.  So what empowers SAMS in the marketplace?  It isn’t so much the chance of being attacked by a shark, but the fear of being attacked by one.

This is a prime example of a product making money based on an emotion.  I discuss this often in our workshops.  Given that most people make emotional decisions and then justify them financially, the efficiency sales professional’s goal is to discover what emotional triggers are powerful enough to motivate a given project’s approval.

So the question is, how can you make an energy efficiency project as emotionally compelling as purchasing a shark-deterring wetsuit?  You’ll find plenty of answers to this question and a lot more like them in All About Them, which profiles companies that are successful not because they’re looking out for themselves, but because they are looking out for the needs of their customers.  With examples as varied as Toyota, Apple, Bacardi and Domino’s, it’s a crash course on how to hang your success on serving others, not the other way around.

Here is the summary from Amazon:

“The best companies and most successful salespeople live by a three-word mantra – ‘all about them’ – because when they relentlessly focus their brand on their customers instead of themselves, their businesses flourish.  All About Them shows readers how to use this simple but extremely powerful influencing technique.  Bruce Turkel, who has advised some of the world’s greatest companies, including American Express and Bacardi, lays the groundwork by relating his personal journey of discovery to the “All About Them” principle.  He goes on to explore our technology-driven, hyper-connected culture; the power of storytelling (and story-selling); brand authenticity and transparency; and more.”

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Weekly Recap, March 18, 2018

Monday: Read  Killing It , by Sheryl O’Loughlin, which details the long road toward striking a balance between work and home.


Tuesday: Learn how to cross-sell and up-sell more efficiently, part 1.


Wednesday: Learn how to cross-sell and up-sell more efficiently, part 2.


Thursday: Learn how to cross-sell and up-sell more efficiently, part 3.


Friday: Explore some ways to frame up-selling to your prospect.


Saturday: Check out some tips to make the most of your next industry conference.

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Tips to Make the Most of Your Next Industry Conference

In the wake of attending the 28th AESP National Conference & Expo in New Orleans, we decided to focus today’s productivity blog on making the most of conference and expo events. Today, many products and services are sold in a single call over the phone.  Other sales are completed with a few finger swipes on a tablet to locate the item and a single click to enter it into a shopping cart and consummate the transaction. However, in more complex selling contexts, if you are looking to uncover ways to grow your company’s business, having face-to-face interactions can be vital, and your industry’s conference can provide the perfect in-person setting. With a little prep and the right attitude, these events can even be enjoyable.  They give you a chance to catch up with peers and clients, network with new prospects, and learn about innovative trends.  Moreover, if you’ve taken the time to apply for and win the right to be a presenter, you could even establish yourself as a subject matter expert, which helps build a foundation of respect upon which you can build new customer relationships.

Whether you are a small business or a part of a larger organization, attending an industry event can deplete your daily productivity reserve. Thus, being prepared with conference goals and action plans can ensure you have a successful experience. Business Insider’s article, “How to Make the Most of Your Next Industry Conference” is a great starting point for doing just that. Although it’s an older article, we find its advice to be both timeless and relevant.  For example, “Be more interested than interesting, more fascinated than fascinating.”

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Super Solarize It

In keeping with this week’s “How to Cross-Sell and Up-Sell More Efficiently” series, a few years ago I came across an excellent example of up-selling. A ninja shared her experience as a solar professional that was offering other energy efficiency incentives as a package deal. She said, “People were really excited about solar, but when we got into energy efficiency it wasn’t as tangible, and after a while it was like a wet blanket on a fire. They weren’t even excited about the solar offerings anymore.”

I told her, “Well, the next time you pitch this you need to keep it framed in what got them excited in the first place. In this case, it’s solar. Borrowing a page out of the McDonald’s playbook, where they ask, ‘Would you like to Super-Size it?’ you should ask, ‘Would you like to super solarize your building?’”

Now what does that mean for the tenant? In this case, you tell them that you’ll add weather stripping to their windows and doors or upgrade their air conditioning. Tell them you can make lighting improvements or offer energy efficient appliances. These are additional steps they can take to get closer to a zero in their energy usage.

Besides, when a sales professional tells you, “Would you like to solarize or would you like to super solarize,” what is the most likely reply? Faced with that prospect, it’s doubtful that many people would say, “Nah, I’d rather not super solarize. I’ll just have the regular one.”

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