Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 228
October 28, 2017
Ways to Be Thankful
You may notice that, in our training materials, we encourage you to thank your clients frequently for their time and attention. This may seem like a matter of protocol; a mere formality even. However, do not take the element of gratitude for granted. When you say, “Thank you,” say it from a place of sincere reflection.
When thanking a client, think: “What, exactly, am I thanking him for?” Well, there’s the commission, to be sure; however, that needn’t be the most important focus. On a deeper level, you are thanking them for the opportunity for you to fulfill your purpose as an Efficiency Sales Professional: They have invested their time to listen to your ideas and are now putting those ideas into action. This opportunity is no small thing. After all, what is more valuable than our time? What commodity is more precious than ideas?
We in the energy industry are fortunate. We make a living proposing ways to make things better for businesses and individuals. How many sales professionals in other fields can truly say that? When we come to a client with a proposal, our intention transcends simply making a profit. Ideally, we are establishing a long-term relationship where the client will receive a benefit that is many times larger than our own gain. Selling an effective energy efficiency upgrade isn’t just good for your sales totals; it feels good. There is tremendous satisfaction in knowing that your client is in a better position today than they were yesterday because of your involvement.
Success magazine recently published an article on “7 Ways to be Thankful Every Day”. Check out the article here and remember to be sincere, be gracious, and be thankful for the opportunities given to you.
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October 27, 2017
How to Handle Myths and Objections, Part 3
Part 3 of the “How to Handle Objections” series addresses a very common objection in a non-residential landlord/tenant setting:
Objection: “My tenants pay for energy so I have no benefit.”
How to respond: First of all, diagram the sentence. “My tenants pay for energy…” Stop right there! How exactly do they pay for energy? In many cases, you’ll find that the property manager is repeating a “myth,” not having read the lease himself and never having done a year-end “settle-up” report that allocates utilities (and other charges) to various parties. Moreover, what if the leases include a Capital Expense Cost Recovery clause that would allow the landlord to claw back some or all of the resulting savings until the upgrade’s first cost is fully repaid (in some cases, with interest)?
While we don’t have the space to provide all the details in this blog, here are some basics to start thinking about that will leave you better prepared to field this objection in the future:
There are gross leases, net leases, and fixed-base leases. You have to know the ins and outs of each of these. Over my 30 years of commercial real estate experience, my studied observation has been that the benefits of energy efficiency can almost always be allocated in a manner that rewards the party paying for the improvement. Sometimes it’s the tenant, sometimes it’s the landlord, and sometimes it’s both. So taking the summarily dismissive position, “Well, my tenants pay for energy so I have no benefit”… that’s just crazy talk. Here are just two of the many factors to ponder as you craft your response to this sort of objection:
First, if you’re creative, you can find a way to reallocate an upgrade’s utility cost savings so that it winds up in the pocket of the person who paid for the improvements (see Capital Expense Cost Recovery above).
Second, the benefits of increased tenant comfort and convenience and decreased tenant churn typically dwarf the utility cost savings anyway.
A comfortable tenant is a happy tenant. A happy tenant is less likely to move than an unhappy one. Have you ever considered just how expensive tenant turnover can be for the landlord? You have lag vacancy (looking for a new tenant)… build-out vacancy (building out the space for the new tenant)… free rent period (often necessary to induce the new tenant to sign a multi-year lease)… the cost of reconfiguring the space to meet the needs of the new tenant… the leasing commission… other accounting and legal costs… and let us not forget the disruption caused by the move-out/move-in.
Even if a tenant does pay for energy and would be entitled to capture the savings from any contemplated upgrade without recourse by the landlord, that’s not necessarily a bad outcome. Think about it. The tenant would enjoy lower energy bills (which would reduce their overall occupancy cost and position them to be more qualified to pay rent). In many cases, they would get improved comfort and convenience to boot!
And what happens when the tenant’s employees experience the improved comfort and convenience? They’ll stop pining for a different office! On top of it all, a happy, comfortable employee is more productive and profitable, which makes the tenant better able to pay its rent (and potentially less resistant to increases in base rent when the time comes for that tenant to renew).
It’s a complicated picture, for sure. However, when someone says, “My tenants pay for energy so I have no benefit,” be ready to ask questions that will help you ascertain the real story so that you can educate your prospect and help him/her make a better decision.
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October 26, 2017
How to Handle Myths and Objections, Part 2
Part 2 of the “How to Handle Objections” series covers the classic issue of the reluctant prospect who insists that his/her company doesn’t have the human resources to oversee the process of implementing a new efficiency project.
Objection: “We just don’t have the manpower.”
How to respond: First of all, who is “we” and what “manpower” is your prospect worried about spending? Do they not have the manpower to walk the auditor around their building? To overcome this objection, you really need to reframe the situation for your prospect.
Your prospect seems to be inferring that all of his/her employees are too busy to take on any new projects. Given this fact, you might assume that the prospect’s organization is understaffed and would benefit greatly from having another set of hands around the office. If you determine that this assumption is accurate, use it to your advantage – reframe your project’s estimated cost savings:
“The coordination of this project will likely take about 50 hours of your time over the course of the next year. The project (once the initial cost is repaid) will save you about $100,000 a year. Just out of curiosity, what does your average engineer make?” Then zip it. They’ll probably tell you their engineer’s salary… “He makes about $90,000 a year.” You respond, “Great. Would you sacrifice 50 hours of your time this year to get a free engineer in perpetuity?”
They would be crazy to say “no.” Now obviously, the numbers will not always work out this favorably. However, your goal is to first turn your prospect’s objection into an objective, and then reframe the benefit of your proposed project so that it decidedly meets that objective.
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October 25, 2017
How to Handle Myths and Objections, Part 1
There are a handful of common objections that we efficiency sales professionals tend to hear time and time again. Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be sharing a few of these objections and some strategies for dispelling them.
Objection: “We only approve projects that have a simple payback of less than two years.”
How to respond: First of all, simple payback period is not the ideal metric to use in most situations. If your prospect insists on using it, however, the least you could do is make sure you emphasize the other savings and benefits of the project that are non-energy-related, such as lowered maintenance, increased productivity, higher tenant retention, etc. When I say “emphasize,” what I really mean is thoughtfully quantify and monetize those non-utility-cost financial benefits, so that they are more than just glittering generalities as the prospect evaluates their potential effect on his/her return.
As you consider this challenge to move beyond the most obvious utility cost savings, incentives and rebates, remember that energy efficiency projects can deliver three distinct kinds of benefits, and that you have to address each one.
The first is obviously the utility-cost financial benefits mentioned above.
The second is the non-utility-cost financial benefits.
The third is non-financial benefits, such as ENERGY STAR® building labels, LEED® certification, and all the other things that make you feel good but do not necessarily equate directly to increased financial returns.
On this last point, please remember that in some cases, what you thought was a strictly non-financial benefit may actually support non-utility-cost financial benefits. As just one example, there are more than a half-dozen studies that show a statistically significant correlation between having an ENERGY STAR label on a commercial building and the following very real “non-utility-cost financial benefits”: higher base rent per square foot, lower vacancy, and higher sales price per square foot. Each of those benefits can help boost a building’s net operating income and appraised value.
Most mere mortals in this industry can focus on the utility-cost financial benefits effectively; however, they typically fail to incorporate the other two buckets of benefits. Why would you ever let a customer determine the simple payback period of a project by just taking the first cost and dividing it by the utility-cost financial benefits? What if one of the other two buckets is five or even ten times more impressive than the utility-cost financial benefits?
I tell people, “Listen, if you want to use a broken yardstick like simple payback period, at least be fair and put all the benefits that can be quantified and monetized in the denominator of that simple payback period calculation.”
Do that one simple thing (i.e., insist that the prospect incorporate benefits beyond utility-cost financial benefits), and you may very well turn a payback of several years into six months or even less.
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October 24, 2017
Building Blocks
I’ve written many blogs about how to deliver a great elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch is the icebreaker that allows you to have a productive conversation with virtually anyone you meet. After you’ve delivered your elevator pitch and started a conversation, do yourself a favor by taking a moment to visualize the outcome of where you want the conversation to end up.
Why is visualization important? Because if you simply go where the conversation leads you without any forethought about the end goal, you wind up in a meandering conversation that wastes both your time and that of the person with whom you’re speaking.
Based on the information you know about the person you’re talking to, you should be able to determine the ideal outcome of the conversation. You can help navigate the conversation toward that end goal by preparing some conversation “building blocks” ahead of time. Here are some examples of building blocks that you can use to steer the conversation:
Something about your company
Something about a landmark client that you’ve worked with in their space
Something about one of your experts who just helped execute a project for a client
Use these building blocks – and any others that you come up with – strategically based upon both what you see the person becoming most interested in and the ideal outcome that you’ve visualized in your mind.
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October 23, 2017
Do You Want to Have a Nice Day?
Everyone is familiar with the concept of having a “good day” or a “bad day.” When it comes to a day in the life of a sales professional, making the most out of your time is essential. What’s more, when it comes to sales, it’s important to keep an open mind and a positive outlook. How can you maintain that through countless projects and a heavy workload (or while struggling with the opposite)?
Caroline Webb details how in her acclaimed debut, How to Have a Good Day. With a multi-faceted background as an executive coach, economist and management consultant, Webb delves into the science and skill sets needed to sustain positivity in your day-to-day life. The book boasts a seven-point guide structured by neuroscience, psychology and behavioral science while retaining a sense of wisdom and humor. You’ll most certainly need those last two things!
I’d recommend reading this book today because the sooner you do, you’ll start enjoying better tomorrows.
Here is the summary from Amazon:
“In How to Have a Good Day, economist and former McKinsey partner Caroline Webb shows readers how to use recent findings from behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience to transform our approach to everyday working life.
“Advances in behavioral sciences are giving us an ever better understanding of how our brains work, why we make the choices we do, and what it takes for us to be at our best. But it has not always been easy to see how to apply these insights in the real world – until now.
“In How to Have a Good Day, Webb explains exactly how to apply this science to our daily tasks and routines. She translates three big scientific ideas into step-by-step guidance that shows us how to set better priorities, make our time go further, ace every interaction, be our smartest selves, strengthen our personal impact, be resilient to setbacks, and boost our energy and enjoyment. Through it all, Webb teaches us how to navigate the typical challenges of modern workplaces – from conflict with colleagues to dull meetings and overflowing inboxes – with skill and ease.
“Filled with stories of people who have used Webb’s insights to boost their job satisfaction and performance at work, How to Have a Good Day is the book so many people wanted when they finished Nudge, Blink and Thinking Fast and Slow and were looking for practical ways to apply this fascinating science to their own lives and careers.
“A remarkable and much-needed book, How to Have a Good Day gives us the tools we need to have a lifetime of good days.”
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October 22, 2017
Weekly Recap, October 22, 2017
Tuesday: Check out some practical lead generation tips.
Wednesday: Discover reasons that will get prospects interested in you.
Thursday: Learn how to stack the deck in your favor, part one.
Friday: Learn how to stack the deck in your favor, part two.
Saturday: Check out this article in Business Insider on the secret to public speaking.
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October 21, 2017
The Secret to Public Speaking
Jerry Seinfeld once observed that according to several studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Death ranks second, leading to him comically conclude, “Does that sound right? This means to the average person that if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
It’s important to remember public speaking isn’t a life or death situation. Recently Business Insider published some helpful advice from Manoj Vasudevan, this year’s Toastmasters International world champion of public speaking. Whether you’re giving a sales presentation for a few people or having to address hundreds in an auditorium, his tips may enlighten and surprise you. Read the full article here.
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October 20, 2017
Stacking the Deck in Your Favor, Part Two
Today, we’ll continue with two more examples that address the following questions (again, through the lens of an HVAC sales professional selling “smart valves”), which would allow you to stack the deck in your favor and get the wheels spinning in your mind:
Why should a particular prospect or group of prospects be interested in what I have to say?
How might I reframe the value so it resonates specifically at their frequency?
Where might I reach my prospects once I determine that that’s the message I want to deliver?
Premier Owners (End-Users)
Why?
Premier owners are opinion leaders. Getting them on your side is a very good strategy, especially in commercial real estate where most people are sheep (and I say that affectionately because I used to work in commercial real estate).
Premier owners typically have engineering prowess and they are the people who most appreciate technology like smart valves.
You get the benefit of scalability. Once you get a premier owner with a large portfolio to prove the effectiveness of your product at his own site, you’ve now got a lot of other buildings that they could extend that success into.
How?
Look for the intersection of engineering expertise and green press releases. Assume that you have a premier owner who has been in the press a lot for sustainability. They’re happy to be featured for laudatory efforts in sustainability, and this would be a great case to bring to their table.
Look for premier owners who are frequently featured on green conference panels. The most vocal premier owners are the ones that you want to associate with, because if the technology doesn’t work, they’ll tell you; and if it does work, they’ll be your canary. They’ll get the satisfaction of sharing a success story with their peers, and you’ll get the benefit of increased exposure.
Where?
Hines has a wonderful reputation for being a premier owner when it comes to mechanical engineering. In fact, Jerry Hines, their founder was a mechanical engineer before he started this global multibillion-dollar real estate operation.
Liberty Property Trust has had noteworthy accomplishments building LEED® certified, award-winning buildings, and they have a pronounced penchant for all things green, sustainable, and energy-efficient.
U.S. Green Building Council is a good watering hole for people interested in using cutting-edge technology to make the built environment better.
Capacity-Constrained Systems
Why?
Smart valves might obviate the need for new equipment.
Budget-minded prospects might appreciate the benefits of smart valves as an affordable alternative to higher-priced, harder-to-maintain efficiency solutions.
How?
You could focus on the fact that smart valves might help compensate for the reduced capacity of aging coils.
You might also focus on the reduction in cooling capacity in the wake of required refrigerant change-outs.
If your prospect is predicting an increase in cooling/heating loads, you could emphasize the fact that they would likely have more cooling capacity in the wake of installing smart valves.
Where?
Network with mechanical service contractors and data center designers – especially ones that are brought in to expand existing data centers.
Write and present a paper about how to solve the problem of satisfying a need for increased capacity without having to add a new chiller and other costly physical plant items. That gets the word out there that this is not your first rodeo and that you have a better solution to a problem that the industry often faces.
The post Stacking the Deck in Your Favor, Part Two appeared first on Selling Energy.
October 19, 2017
Stacking the Deck in Your Favor, Part One
When you’re going to market with a new product or service, what niches and value propositions would allow you to stack the deck in your favor? In determining an answer to this question, there are three key questions you should first ask yourself:
Why should a particular prospect or group of prospects be interested in what I have to say?
How might I reframe the value so it resonates specifically at their frequency?
Where might I reach my prospects once I determine that that’s the message I want to deliver?
Continuing with the example of the HVAC sales professional selling “smart valves,” we’ll discuss several scenarios over the course of the next two days to stacking the deck in your favor and to get the wheels spinning in your mind as to some possible answers to these questions:
Utility Programs
Why?
Utilities need the savings; some utilities find it genuinely challenging to find projects that will actually generate therms savings.
They need to prove those savings to the regulators, and your smart valve solution will give them concrete data as evidence.
Some utilities are just fond of seeking new technologies so they can fulfill a market transformation goal.
How?
Propose a pilot program to prove the concept.
Instead of just having a prescriptive rebate (where they give $100 per smart valve), suggest to the utility that they do a custom pay-for-performance incentive (where you get paid only for the energy savings).
Once the pay-for-performance incentive proves itself, you can suggest migrating to a prescriptive rebate, which may turn out to be much more generous than the previously mentioned $100 per smart valve.
Where?
You might work with third parties to find utility partners (such as rebate administrators).
You might look for state incentives on the DSIREUSA.org database.
You also might start with the utilities serving your test sites if you want to do a pilot program.
Retrocommissioning Specialists
Why?
RCx specialists are sophisticated enough to understand the benefits of your technology.
They have insight into the highest-value applications.
How?
Work with a retrocommissioning specialist, have them use the product, and then feature a product case study on a reference library website (such as LBNL).
Present a paper at the National Conference on Building Commissioning about how this smart valve technology could help a retrocommissioning specialist gain more control over a facility that they get hired to optimize.
Where?
You can meet retrocommissioning specialists by hanging out at their watering holes, such as the California Commissioning Collaborative or the National Conference on Building Commissioning.
Stay tuned for more examples on this topic tomorrow…
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