Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 220

Tips from the Storytelling Circle

When most people think of a PowerPoint presentation, the first word that comes to mind is “boring.” This is unfortunate, and it absolutely does not have to be true. Instead of a dry, sleep-inducing affair overstuffed with entirely too many bullets and figures, that presentation could be the touchstone that enables the speaker to connect with his or her audience on an emotional level.

I recently took my young children to a storytelling circle at our local bookstore. As I watched the event unfold, I was struck by its similarities to a PowerPoint presentation. The presenter moved through a series of pages, using images and words to convey ideas to the audience. Of course, this presenter’s challenge was much greater. When was the last time you tried to engage twenty rambunctious toddlers and keep them focused on your message?

With that comparison as a backdrop, here are some tips from the storytelling circle that can enhance the impact of your PowerPoint presentations:

Let your pictures do the talking: Pictures in children’s books are bright, expressive, and above all, they are very, very big. The illustration dominates the page, and the text, if there is any at all, is generally small and pushed to the edges. For your PowerPoint slides, use interesting, eye-catching images that have an element of emotional expression. Keep text to a minimum, or to make a truly bold statement, keep text off the slide entirely. Trust yourself as a speaker to deliver the verbal element, and let the eyes of the audience focus on the images.


Give it a beginning, middle and end: From childhood, we are trained to follow the classic story structure of beginning (initiating action), middle (complicating action), and end (resolution). Give your presentation a similar three-part structure. Begin with a call to adventure that captures the audience’s imagination. Use your middle section to make contrasts – what is versus what could be. Then bring the show home by ending with a call to action. Keep things as concise and focused as possible within this structure.  


Your job is to tell the story, not read it! A good children’s storybook reader won’t just passively read the words on the page. Instead, he or she will fulfill the roles of narrator, actor, sound effects artist, and perhaps even singer. The reader’s speech will be modulated throughout the story, with the intensity rising and falling where appropriate to build tension and emphasize emotion. Likewise, when making your presentation, be a storyteller. Vary your vocal tones; reenact dialogue when recounting personal stories; and, instead of simply talking at your audience, invite them to go on a journey with you! Of course, singing might not be the best idea. Then again, who knows? Maybe it’s time for the world’s first singing Sales Ninja!

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Demonstrate Your Expertise

On Saturday I shared an article on seven actions designed to help you get more referrals and introductions. Ideally, these referrals or introductions will emphasize your competence and expertise in your field. People are looking for experts. They’re looking for someone who will simplify the decision-making process. Life is too short to delve into the level of detail that you have to know to make every single little decision.

In many cases, referrals will bring prospects to your door. What do you do to secure the sale in this situation? Demonstrate your expertise. The prospect already thinks highly of you based on the referral that brought them to you. You want to reinforce that confidence by demonstrating your abilities.

Here’s an example from an experience a colleague related to me. Chris needed some work done on his car so he went on Yelp to find the best shop nearby. He found a mechanic with about 50 five-star reviews, and after reading them, he gave the chap a call and explained the work he wanted done. The mechanic told Chris to come in so he could give the car a test drive and visual inspection. Chris went for the test drive with him and watched him inspect the car. He walked Chris through his assessment and told him that the part he had originally thought needed replacement could actually be fixed relatively easily… and at a fraction of the cost. Chris shared with me that he doesn’t know enough about cars to have realized this and that the mechanic could have easily sold him a new part. The mechanic also found one minor leak that Chris was unaware of and recommended he have it fixed, but told him it would be OK for a couple more months. On top of all this, he offered to give Chris a complimentary tune-up.

Not only did this mechanic demonstrate his expertise, he also saved Chris money and added value to the sale. His rates were slightly higher than those of many other mechanics, but Chris justifiably felt confident in his abilities, appreciated his honesty, and was happy to pay a bit more to have a true expert address the situation.

The moral of the story is obvious. Use your expertise to set you apart from the competition. In most cases, once you demonstrate that what you’re offering is genuinely superior, price is much less of a concern.

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The Power of Passion and Perseverance

If you care about what you’re doing, it’s harder to let your goals fall by the wayside.  If you deeply love how it makes you feel, you’ll find yourself pursuing that feeling over and over again.  Nevertheless, it isn’t just passion and devotion that foster success.  It takes hard work, determination and a persistent tenacity.  In short: you’ve got to have grit.

This is explored in Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, who is well versed in facilitating success.  She is not only the founder of The Character Lab and a non-profit summer school, but also a professor of psychology, a renowned consultant and a recipient of a MacArthur genius grant.  In Grit she illustrates the relationship between talent and effort, positing that in order for someone to reach their goals they have to push themselves and push hard, never resting on their laurels or shying away from challenges and innovation.  A particularly interesting part of the book is self-evaluation on what Duckworth calls the “Grit Scale,” which was developed to predict a subject’s success in the military.  However, can the scale be applied to your business efforts?  What about life goals?  Your home life?  The answer to all of these queries: definitely.

Here is a summary from Amazon:

“In this instant New York Times bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed—be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls ‘grit.’

Among Grit’s most valuable insights:

*Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal

*How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. or circumstances

*How lifelong interest is triggered

*How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy

*Which is better for your child—a warm embrace or high standards

*The magic of the Hard Thing Rule

Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.”

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Weekly Recap, January 21, 2018

Monday: Read  Smarter Faster Better , by Charles Duhigg, for compelling stories on teamwork, innovation, motivation and creating goals and how they can be applied to your personal or professional life.


Tuesday: Check out a new way to handle the “I’m too busy” objection.


Wednesday: Explore visual body language clues to help you decide what to talk about or what to avoid talking about.


Thursday: Check out some more body language tips.


Friday: Discover how “beneath the surface” benefits are some of the most compelling motivations to proceed.


Saturday: Check out this article if you are not currently using referrals to your highest potential.

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How to Get More Referrals and Introductions

In the efficiency business, a successful referral can mean the difference between a lousy month and a great one. You can’t always rely on marketing and promotions to drive new business, so it’s vital that you set up a process for leveraging referrals to grow your business.

An article published in the HubSpot blog called “The 7-Step Referral Checklist Top Salespeople Use to Close More Business” even suggests assigning a peer as your “referral buddy” so that you can keep each other accountable.

For those of you who are not currently using referrals to their highest potential, I highly recommend reading this article.

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Beneath the Surface Benefits

For most businesses, you might think that the primary driver for energy efficiency projects is saving money on the utility bill. However, if you view all proposed projects through the energy-cost-savings lens alone, you’re probably overlooking some of the most compelling motivations to proceed.

Financial benefits could come in many forms aside from the utility savings. Say you’re in the business of selling LED lighting retrofits. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the myriad benefits that LED lighting offers to different types of businesses. In grocery stores, studies show that meat illuminated by LED lighting has longer shelf life than meat illuminated by conventional fluorescent lamps. For any business that uses large freezers, LEDs perform far better at cold temperatures than fluorescent lamps.

These facts have little to do with the utility bill; they will nonetheless have a quantifiable impact on your client’s bottom line. Uncovering these benefits requires an understanding of your prospect’s industry, deductive reasoning, and a little research; however, it is well worth the effort.

By the way, this holistic approach to selling is not limited to capital expenditures that save energy. I recently worked with utility representatives who had been tasked with convincing business owners and apartment managers to designate some of their parking spaces as electric vehicle charging stations and invest the capital to power them as such. Promising targets included companies interested in offering the charging stations as a perk to their employees, and apartment building owners interested in using on-site electric vehicle charging as a differentiating amenity to help attract and retain tenants.

Why would an employer go out of their way to offer electric vehicle charging stations to employees? How does the employer benefit from this? Here are just a few ideas:

An employee who drives an electric car in many commuting areas will have access to the HOV lane on the freeway. This will dramatically reduce the employee’s commute time. Less time sitting in traffic translates to more time spent working in the office, or at a minimum, a much less stressed employee walking through the front door every morning.

Additionally, electric cars are less prone to mechanical problems than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Improved automotive reliability means fewer unexpected trips to the mechanic, which means fewer days calling off work because of car trouble. So, employees who drive electric cars will be at work more often (and potentially for longer hours), will be less stressed, and will have higher productivity. It’s now easy to see why it is in the employer’s best interest to facilitate the use of electric vehicles by providing on-site charging.   By the way, the cost of providing free charging is approximately equivalent to the cost of providing a coffee program… yet most would agree that the former is an infinitely more memorable employee “perk” (pun intended).

The apartment building angle was also an excellent one. One story that quickly became a powerful door-opener was the tale of an apartment complex manager who wound up turning away five tenants in a single month because every one of them was looking for a building that would accommodate charging. Residential landlords know the value of attracting and retaining tenants. Attracting five incremental tenants in a given month would mean a lot, and since having on-site electric vehicle charging stations would certainly be regarded as a differentiating amenity, it’s likely that those tenants would continue to rent there as long as possible given the dearth of similarly featured properties in the area.

When brainstorming these “beneath the surface” benefits, remember that every individual client will have unique challenges – sometimes, the client won’t even realize they have a challenge until you point it out! The more solutions you can offer, the more reasons your prospects will have to say “Yes!”

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Body Language Tips, Part 2

Today, we’ll continue with some more body language tips:

If your prospect feels confident in what they are saying or thinking, they may:

-Clasp their hands behind their back.

-Clasp their hands in front of their body.

-Touch their fingertips together.

-Sit in a dominant position. Taking up a lot of space while sitting with hands clasped behind the head or ankle crossed on opposite knee signals confidence.

Action: Avoid debate – the prospect likely knows a lot about the topic, and you don’t want to ruffle their feathers.

If your prospect feels defensive, they may:

-Fold their arms.

-Cross their legs.

-Note: Be intelligent as you evaluate these positions to make sure that you’re actually seeing a shift in body language that correlates with the topic of discussion. In some cases, people may fold their arms or cross their legs simply to get more comfortable.

Action: Try to be more flexible.

If your prospect is doubtful, they may:

-Hide or cover up their mouth.

Action: Reassure the prospect.

If your prospect is anxious, they may:

-Bite their fingernails.

-Fidget.

-Tap their fingers or heels.

-Jiggle the contents of their pockets.

-Whistle.

Note: Any one of these actions alone may not be a definitive sign of anxiety. Look for three or more of these symptoms before jumping to conclusions.

Action: Probe for the source of the anxiety and alleviate accordingly.

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Body Language Tips, Part 1

True sales professionals pay close attention to body language. Why is it valuable to understand body language? First, you get a relatively accurate gauge of your prospect’s thoughts and feelings based on these visual clues. This can help you decide what to talk about (and what to avoid talking about). Second, you become cognizant of what messages you’re sending with your own body language. You can use this knowledge to help build rapport with your prospect.

Over the course of the next two days, we’ll do a high-level fly-over of what body language can mean to you.

If your prospect has a positive reaction to what you’re saying, they may:

-Rub their eyebrows.

-Scratch their eyebrows.

-Scratch part of the forehead above their eyebrows.

-Push their eyeglasses back in place.

Action: Keep doing what you’re doing!

If your prospect has a negative reaction to what you’re saying, they may:

-Touch their nose.

-Scratch their nose.

-Note: They may have a cold or allergies. If so, don’t read too much into it; however, touching or scratching the nose is generally a good indication that they’re not really loving what you’re saying.

Action: Shift to another talking point to move away from the negative evaluation.

If your prospect is interested in what you’re saying, they may:

-Tilt their head.

-Speak with greater vocal modulation (singsongy speech patterns).

Action: Look for additional signs of interest.

If your prospect wants to leave the conversation, they may:

-Stand with their shoulders not parallel to yours.

-Look at down at their watch.

Action: Redirect the conversation by changing the subject or asking a question.

Stay tuned for more on this topic tomorrow…

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New Way to Handle the “I’m Too Busy” Objection

It can be hard to predict your prospect’s current situation, even if you’ve done thorough research on the company, decision-makers, and so forth. In some cases, you’ll approach a prospective organization that seems to be a great fit for your product or service, and they’ll simply tell you that they’re “too busy with other improvements right now.” Rather than accepting this as the final answer, consider responding with something like:

“It’s funny you should say that, because that’s exactly the best time to be thinking about energy. Are you doing any capital improvements that either consume or generate energy?”

If you ask this question and happen to catch the project early enough, you may be able to improve the efficiency of the design (perhaps tremendously) at little or no marginal cost, particularly if you make certain aspects of the project rebate-eligible by tweaking the specs.

By the way, if you’re offering beneficial electrification solutions (electric fryers, induction cooktops, electric forklifts, microwave heating, etc.), you might find that they could change a planned process from some other fuel source to electricity and make their operation more efficient from a business perspective.

Additionally, you might even be able to leverage the existing project to reduce the level of inconvenience that your project would otherwise cause. For example, the existing project may require building modifications, and if contractors are already opening up walls and moving things around, you might be able to jump in there and make your own modifications without causing additional hassle for the building’s occupants.

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Smarter Faster Better

Very often professionals find themselves in high-pressure situations that need tailored solutions.  The challenge is thinking outside the box (and quickly!) without compromising relationships or the health of your business.  When you’re facing an unforeseen obstacle or something entirely new, what is the best way to handle it?  What’s more, how can you be the most effective in a quickly paced and competitive environment?

In Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Cuhigg’s Smarter Faster Better there are anecdotal stories about people faced with these issues in a variety of different situations, from a world-class poker player and an intelligence agent to the creators of Google and writers for Pixar’s Frozen.  Duhigg groups these compelling stories into packaged examples of teamwork, innovation, motivation and creating goals with appendices on how they can be applied to your personal or professional life.  If you’re looking for an entertaining read about high-stakes problem-solving with a dose of self-help, then this is the book for you.

Here is a summary from Amazon:

“At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key productivity concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done.  Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently.  They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.”

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