Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 231
September 28, 2017
How to Motivate Your Prospect
In efficiency sales, prospects are motivated by more than just increased efficiency and decreased long-term cost. Determining what motivates your prospect can help determine your best approach to persuading them to adopt your offering:
-Give a trial offer: If you are confident in your offering, then you know a trial customer will turn into a full-paying customer.
-Use a time constraint: If your prospect has a time constraint, you can use it to your advantage in motivating their purchase.
-Convey the cost of delay: Especially in situations where you’ve been able to identify a business outcome more impressive than simply saving kW, kWh or therms (or the financial value thereof), be sure to emphasize that delaying project implementation also delays the attainment of that greater benefit you’ve identified.
-Play to their desires: People are often more motivated by desire than they are by need.
-Time-efficiency: People are always looking for ways to save time. If your offering helps them save time, play up that angle.
-Help them justify the purchase: Your prospects needs to feel validated in their decisions, so help them justify them.
The post How to Motivate Your Prospect appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 27, 2017
Stand Out from the Crowd
Yesterday, we talked about how to target the right people at a networking event. Today, we’re going to discuss a strategy that will help other people find you at a networking event.
Suppose you’re at a large networking event and you meet someone who works in an industry that you’re not targeting (we’ll call this person John). You decide that it’s not worth spending a lot of time talking with John, so you suggest that he talk to Amanda (whom you met earlier at the event). Amanda works in the same industry as John, and you think that it might be beneficial for the two of them to meet. So, what do you do? You probably start scanning the room, trying to find Amanda so that you can point John in her direction. The problem is, this particular event is so large that you can’t find Amanda.
What if Amanda were wearing something that made her stand out from the crowd (let’s say it’s a bright yellow dress)? Even if you couldn’t find her, you could tell John to walk around the room and look for the lady wearing the bright yellow dress.
Now, what’s the point of this hypothetical story? When you’re networking, wear something that distinguishes you from the crowd. Not only does this make it easy for someone you met to send another person your way; it also makes you more memorable (and the benefits of being memorable are numerous).
One word of caution: Don’t wear something so unique that you look out of place. If you’re trying to sell heavy equipment, people have a predetermined notion of what a person who sells heavy equipment should look like. If you walk in with board shorts, bare feet, poorly manicured nails and Birkenstocks and you’re trying to sell someone a reengineered chiller, you may be easy to remember and easy to spot; however, you’ve got a big credibility gap to overcome.
If you’ve attended any of our in-person trainings, you would have noticed that we often provide bright magenta lanyards, which happen to be made out of recycled soda bottles. They’re very distinctive, and I often recommend that folks take them home and wear them to their next networking event, rather than using the host’s garden-variety lanyard. The great thing about wearing a brightly colored lanyard that is different from everyone else’s lanyard is that someone can point you out to a colleague from across the room, even if you’re facing away from them, since the lanyard wraps around your neck and still serves as a beacon even from the back!
The post Stand Out from the Crowd appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 26, 2017
Knowing Your Target
One of the keys to successful networking is knowing exactly who you want to target ahead of time. You have to visualize your dream prospect. Are you looking for vendors to partner with? Are you looking for building owners? Property managers? If you’re going to a building owner’s networking event, think about what subset of building owners you want to meet. For example, are you looking for owners of large buildings or small buildings? Are you targeting owners who have properties nationally or just locally? These are the types of questions you should answer before you step into the room, because the answers will help focus your time at the networking event.
Once you know who you want to target, immerse yourself in the current events happening in their industry. This will give you something to talk about when you approach your targeted prospects. If there’s a big regulatory imperative affecting their industry, for example, that’s a nice thing to open a conversation with.
So how do you know what’s going on in your prospects’ industries? Research! Subscribe to their trade journals. Read their blogs and forums. Read the analysts’ reports from Wall Street. If you do a simple Google search, you’re bound to find a variety of reports from private and public sector sources. All of this information is very valuable to have, and it will help you maximize your networking time.
The post Knowing Your Target appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 25, 2017
Hacking Your Life
“When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. This is – everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” – Steve Jobs
When it comes to quotes, nothing could sum up this recommendation better. This week’s book is The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, which contains some incredibly revolutionary ideas.
Anyone living in any society is absorbed and affected by it. We are brought up with a certain sense of order, rules and a fairly well-mapped timeline of what our lives will be like. Mind’s author, Vishen Lakhiani, argues that, like a computer, the human mind can be hacked, enabling us to see things in a completely different way. Conventional norms and expectations aren’t necessarily the truth, let alone essential. There is nothing wrong with reformulating your life so it better suits you.
At Selling Energy, we champion this kind of thinking, pertaining to not only business, but also our lives beyond the workday. It is important to acknowledge what is necessary and what isn’t, what’s working and not whether it affects our workplace or our personal lives. With the help of a 5-level system and several modes of practice, this book will bring value to your life. I highly recommend you purchase this book and explore it.
Here is the summary from Amazon:
“What if everything we think we know about how the world works–our ideas of love, education, spirituality, work, happiness, and love–are based on Brules (bullsh*t rules) that get passed from generation to generation and are long past their expiration date?
“This book teaches you to think like some of the greatest non-conformist minds of our era, to question, challenge, hack, and create new rules for YOUR life so you can define success on your own terms.
“The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, a New York Times bestseller, is a blueprint of laws to break us free from the shackles of an ordinary life. It makes a case that everything we know about the world is shaped by conditioning and habit. And thus, most people live their lives based on limiting rules and outdated beliefs about pretty much everything–love, work, money, parenting, sex, health, and more–which they inherit and pass on from generation to generation.
“But what if you could remove these outdated ideas and start anew? What would your life look like if you could forget the rules of the past, and redefine what happiness, purpose, and success mean for you?”
The post Hacking Your Life appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 24, 2017
Weekly Recap, September 24, 2017
Tuesday: Collect valuable information about your prospect’s goals, objectives, needs, biases, and scar tissue and then explain how your project could solve each one of the issues that you prospect mentioned.
Wednesday: Take note of repetition – repeat words or ideas – when speaking with a prospect. It usually signifies importance.
Thursday: Make sure your prospect does not find a reason not to buy from you.
Friday: Learn how to stay on time when giving a presentation.
Saturday: Check out this article in Entrepreneur magazine online for “4 Habits of Highly Successful Business People.”
The post Weekly Recap, September 24, 2017 appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 23, 2017
Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
Efficiency sales professionals understand that successful selling is a holistic practice. Their choices and habits, both in their personal and professional lives, are aligned with their goals. To achieve success, one must plan for it. It’s one thing to hope for success or to assume that your values and work ethic will lead you to become successful, and it’s another thing to write out a plan for precisely how you will achieve your goals and aspirations and to stick to that plan throughout your life.
Entrepreneur published an article on “4 Habits of Highly Successful Business People”. The four habits these successful entrepreneurs have in common are a great foundation for building a thoughtful and intentional strategy for success. Of their tips, my favorites include being a good listener and networking as much as possible. Read the full list here.
The post Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 22, 2017
Presentation Timing: How to Stay on Time
Most sales professionals are asked to give presentations from time to time. If someone says you’ve got 60 minutes to present, do not create 60 slides. What’s going to happen if you have 60 slides? You’ll be rushing through them; or worse yet, you’ll be strolling through them very leisurely, perhaps getting derailed by a couple of offbeat questions and maybe even a personal story… and then you look up at the clock… and you’re horrified to find that you only 20 minutes remaining! You still have 40 slides to get through, and it’s a disaster. Everybody in the audience gets increasingly uncomfortable, because not only are you not covering the remaining material with sufficient depth; you are also making them anxious that you’re not going to finish your presentation in time. Believe me, an anxious audience is lot less receptive to your ideas.
Now how do you make sure that you don’t go over your allotted time (or have to rush through your slides)? Number one: you practice. Number two: if you’re given an hour, you make about 25 minutes worth of slides. Face it. You know you’re going to start five or ten minutes late; you know you’re going to be interrupted by a couple of questions; you know you’re going to want to have a Q&A at the end; and you know you want to have an open-ended discussion to take your audience’s temperature after you finish your remarks. You should also factor in the possibility that one of your most high-value attendees may have to leave the meeting early. You really have to design your presentation with all of these contingencies in mind.
Here’s a tip: Before you start delivering the presentation, check in to make sure you still have the agreed-upon time for the presentation… and also ask the audience directly if anyone will need to leave early. Probably 50% of the time, someone is going to pipe up and say, “Well, now that you mention it, I’ve got a plane to catch. I’ll have to leave here about fifteen minutes early to catch my ride to the airport.”
You should always “put the last slide first” because if that person is the ultimate decision-maker and you don’t reach that point in your presentation before he or she has to leave early to catch that plane, believe me, you’ll be kicking yourself the whole way home.
The post Presentation Timing: How to Stay on Time appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 21, 2017
Selling to a Reluctant Buyer
Many buyers have a tendency to talk themselves out of the sale. Your job as a sales professional is to make sure they don’t find a reason not to buy. Say you have a prospect that is interested in purchasing window films. Chances are they’ve never touched a window film in their life except maybe unconsciously putting their nose against the glass of a store window to look at the merchandise. They have no idea what a window film looks like, tastes like, smells like, or feels like. They have no idea what it costs. They have no idea that there is tremendous variety of window film available.
So, your prospect comes to you and says, “I need window films.” The average salesperson could come in and say, “Ok. I have these seventeen grades of window films. Which one do you want?” What does that do? It paralyzes the decision maker. Your prospect is thinking “Seventeen? That means there are sixteen chances I could make the wrong decision. Holy cow, how am I going to pick the right one? I had better call in a window film consultant, but I don’t have the money for that, so I guess I’ll have to wait until I have a little extra money to afford a window film consultant.” In the meantime, you’re not getting the sale because they aren’t ready to make a decision where their odds of choosing the right product are one in seventeen.
What if the salesperson had instead said, “What’s your main goal? Are you trying to have privacy so you want something tinted or mirrored? Are you worried about your merchandise in your store fading? Are you worried about heat gain because the air conditioning bill is too high?” Once you have this information, you can offer one type of window film that fits their needs. Now you’ve made the decision for them and you will have not created a reason not to buy.
The post Selling to a Reluctant Buyer appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 20, 2017
Listen for Repetition
I’ve written in the past about the importance of listening carefully to everything your prospects say to you. One thing that you should be sure to take note of when listening is repetition. When people repeat words or ideas, it usually signifies importance. The things your prospects choose to repeat provide insight into their world (which is valuable to have when you’re selling).
Suppose your prospect mentioned multiple times a frustration she has with her current boiler. Knowing that this is likely the reason that she is looking for a replacement, you would be wise to focus the conversation on how your efficient boiler replacement could alleviate that frustration.
Listening for repetition can also help you build rapport with your prospects. You may be able to pick out a certain word or phrase that they use frequently. If you work that same word or phrase into your half of the dialogue, you’ll make them (subconsciously) feel more comfortable speaking with you.
The post Listen for Repetition appeared first on Selling Energy.
September 19, 2017
Be the Problem Solver
As an efficiency sales professional, you have an immense amount of knowledge about your offerings. You know what the benefits are, and you know how they can bring value to your customers. You know the costs, the savings, the project timeline, and so forth. It can be very tempting to jump right in and tell your prospects about the benefits of your project, how much money you could save them, and how long it will take them to recoup the cost of the project through energy savings. Don’t succumb to that temptation. Before you present any information to them – regardless of how compelling it is – find out about their goals, objectives, needs, biases, and scar tissue.
Suppose you are selling an LED lighting retrofit. You might be tempted to approach your prospect and say, “We can save you a lot of money on your utility bill. This LED retrofit will pay for itself in just 2.1 years, and after that, you’ll save up to 40% on every utility bill.” Sounds compelling, right? Well it turns out that this particular prospect doesn’t care about utility bill savings at all.
Had you first asked a question like, “What do you most dislike about your current lighting system?” you would have learned that your prospect was interested in LED lighting because he was tired of having to change his current lamps all the time. You would have learned that he was concerned about overworking the air conditioning system because the current lighting system was making the room hot. You would have learned that his current lighting system did not align well with his goal of running an environmentally conscious business.
After collecting this valuable information, your pitch would not be focused on utility cost savings. In fact, you wouldn’t even discuss cost at all. Instead, you would explain how your project could solve each one of the issues that your prospect mentioned.
The post Be the Problem Solver appeared first on Selling Energy.
Selling Energy
- Mark Jewell's profile
- 7 followers
