Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 247
April 22, 2017
Earth Day, ENERGY STAR® and the Power of Concise Messaging
Can you believe that Earth Day is only a few years shy of its 50th anniversary? My first true involvement with Earth Day began on its 20th anniversary in 1990. That’s when I attended the 1st International Eco-City Conference in Berkeley, an event that attracted nearly 3,000 people from all over the world who were interested in making our cities more sustainable.
My career at the time involved syndicating shopping centers in and around Los Angeles. I have to admit, at the conclusion of that four-day conference, I felt as if I were living a Joni Mitchell song, “paving paradise and putting up parking lots”! That epiphany led to me to retire from commercial real estate and move to Philadelphia to attend Wharton. Shortly thereafter, I started an energy-efficiency consulting firm with the intention of harnessing private-sector capitalism to address some very big public-sector challenges.
That company’s first significant consulting engagement was helping the US EPA create and deploy its ENERGY STAR® Buildings Program for Commercial Real Estate. Today, two and a half decades later, billions of square feet have joined both the owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied sides of ENERGY STAR for Buildings. Having personally recruited more than two billion of those square feet into ENERGY STAR, I can share the following insights:
Most decisions are made emotionally and then justified financially, and the prospect of having a nationally recognized award attached to their building has motivated thousands of property owners to pursue efficiency and renewable energy initiatives that they might not have done if lower utility bills had been the only reward.
Realizing that we live in a culture that gravitates toward “sound bites,” it’s not surprising that the ENERGY STAR logo has become so popular. That simple blue and white logo telegraphs messages of higher efficiency very efficiently (pun intended). Simply seeing that logo on a building allows a potential purchaser or lessee to “check a box” with confidence, which helps expedite due diligence and shorten the sales cycle.
The prospect of acquiring (or retaining) that prestigious logo also helps sustainability-minded folks within an organization capture the attention of the folks whose buy-in they need to bring efficiency initiatives to life. That logo has become a form of shorthand for both environmental stewardship and the bragging rights that follow.
One more thought on the topic of organizational shorthand… It has been my studied observation over the last three decades that concise messaging holds the key to getting efficiency projects approved. It doesn’t necessarily have to be as concise as a single logo; however, it has to be pithy, to the point, and focused on WHY.
That’s why Selling Energy teaches energy professionals – most of whom are “accidental salespeople” – how to use 15-second elevator pitches, three-sentence solicitations, one-page proposals and one-page financial analyses. Though not quite as concise as a striking blue and white logo, those concise messages allow decision-makers to quickly connect the dots between enhanced efficiency and segment-specific positive outcomes. Ideally, those positive outcomes can be quantified and monetized, making them easy to measure with yardsticks those decision-makers are already using to gauge their own success.
One doesn’t have to be an environmentalist to appreciate how simple yet powerful labels like Earth Day and ENERGY STAR can elicit emotion, which powers motivation, which drives forward motion.
Remember: keep the message brief, make an emotional connection, and keep it segment-specific.
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April 21, 2017
Challenge Your Prospect’s Expectations
Too many salespeople tell every prospect the same thing, either because they’re lazy or because they’re not taking the time to evaluate that prospect’s situation and needs. As a result, those salespeople fail to deliver messages that truly resonate with their prospects. The result? An unnecessarily low closing ratio.
I remember reading a fabulous story about this concept of telling people what they really need to hear. The story described a sales professional who was offering a complicated service in the context of a complex bid process where the final step was making a one-hour formal presentation to the folks who would ultimately select the winning bidder. His competing bidders had squandered their respective one-hour presentations, essentially reading a synopsis of their proposals.
This final bidder, however, took quite a different tack. In the opening minute of the meeting he said, “Everybody else probably came here and read you their proposal. We have more respect for you than that. We know that you can read. What I’d like to do is spend the next 59 minutes telling you what should have been in your request for proposal (RFP), and how much exposure you’ll have if you select a bidder based on the requirements and evaluation criteria as they now stand in your RFP.”
What do you think happened? Everyone in the room listened very intently. They soon realized how many blind spots they had failed to anticipate when drafting their RFP. Not surprisingly, the original RFP was cancelled, and the one that took its place was very much in line with the changes recommended by this final bidder. Once the new RFP was out on the street, it was an obvious choice to select the bidder who had opened the prospect’s eyes.
This is yet another example of the effectiveness of Challenger Selling. Look for ways to customize your offering to better fit the needs of your prospects, and don’t be afraid to challenge their expectations. They’ll thank you for it in the end.
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April 20, 2017
Tips for Conquering Fear
Fear can prevent us from pursuing what we really want in life. It can prevent us from starting our own businesses, making those cold calls to potentially hot prospects, or asking for referrals even though we know in our hearts that we really deserve them.
The good news is that there are plenty of examples in our culture where overcoming the fear of failure has yielded great rewards. You hear stories all the time about how the most successful individuals have experienced the most failure. How Steve Jobs made huge mistakes and failed; how the greatest inventors of all time had the largest flops. When’s the last time you heard about a truly great dream materializing without someone taking a few well-calculated risks along the way?
Here are a few tips for conquering the fears that may be standing between you and high performance:
1. Have a plan – You’ll be more confident and more likely to succeed if you have a well-thought-out plan. If you’re thinking about making the leap to running your own business, make sure you have a solid business plan that’s been well vetted by people who aren’t afraid to give you “tough love” feedback on its merits. Before you pick up the phone to call the big fish, make sure that you’ve run through what you’ll say, and that you’ve planned your responses to questions or objections they may have. Before you ask for a referral, take the time to plan the best opportunity for doing so.
2. Visualize Success – Taking the time to visualize a successful outcome is imperative. In fact, if you can’t visualize success, you need to take a step back and ask yourself why not. The first person you need to convince is yourself. We teach our ninjas to visualize all five senses of the successful outcome: what will it look like, feel like, sound like, taste like and even smell like! A richly visualized outcome can fool your brain into thinking that the positive outcome has already happened! Did you ever close your eyes and intensely visualize biting into a lemon, only to find your mouth salivating as if you had already done so? As powerful as it is, the human brain often has difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imagined… and that’s a good thing when you’re visualizing success outcomes.
3. Remember that your action will not determine the rest of your life. Woody Allen used to have such performance anxiety that before he’d walk out on stage to do his stand-up act, he’d close his eyes and repeat to himself, “Nothing I do tonight will influence my career in any way.” A mentor of mine once told me that if you just do the right thing all the time, sooner or later you’ll do it at the right time and you’ll finally enjoy the success you deserve. Another mentor once highlighted the difference between eustress and distress, emphasizing that a little anxiety can be empowering to high performance, while too much can lead to a suboptimal outcome.
I keep a small metal plaque on my desk that says, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Can you imagine how much happier and more impactful you would be if you adopted this attitude in your own life? Just do it. You’ll wonder why you didn’t start living by this motto years ago.
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April 19, 2017
Ways to Position Yourself as an Expert
To sell energy efficiency effectively, you need to become an expert in your prospect’s industry. This means doing some research:
Read their industry publications
Attend their conferences
Understand the metrics that matter to them (hint: it’s not kWh or BTU…)
Take the time to understand how your product or service fits their business
Find out what matters most to your prospect (e.g., cutting costs, avoiding accidents)
As you gain more of an understanding of your prospect’s needs, you’ll be able to step back and look at the full picture. Instead of focusing solely on your piece of the puzzle, you’ll be able to show your prospect exactly how your puzzle piece will positively affect their business as a whole.
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April 18, 2017
How to Prove Buying from You is the Right Decision
One of the best ways to turn a skeptical prospect into a buyer is to give them evidence that your product or service has worked for a client in a similar situation. You might provide them with case studies, testimonials, or any other forms of “proof” that buying from you is the right decision. But what do you do when you’re rolling out a new product or service that doesn’t have any demonstrable history of success? In my experience, it’s all about how you spin it. Here’s an example of how you might approach the situation:
Prospect: “I don’t know if I’m comfortable being the ‘guinea pig’ for this new energy management system. I usually like to know for a fact that what I buy is going to work.”
You: “I understand where you’re coming from. The good news is that because you’ll be the first person to buy this system from us, we’re going to be especially flexible with our terms and lovingly support your installation to make sure that it goes swimmingly. In fact, we’re even thinking about writing a white paper for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s annual conference with the intention of positioning your company as the poster child for innovation in energy management. If you’re into that, we would be happy to produce that case study for you at no extra charge.”
At this point, your prospect is probably going to report back to the rest of the decision-making team and tell them, “If we get on board with this, we’re going to get twice as much love and attention from this vendor, and we’ll even get written up in an ACEEE white paper, which would look great for our company’s image.”
So what’s the moral of the story? It’s all about reframing the situation. If your prospect wants something from you that you cannot yet provide them (in this case, proof of success), find a creative way to reframe the picture by emphasizing the distinct benefits of being your first customer.
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April 17, 2017
All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations
Every sales professional is required to speak in front of an audience from time to time, whether it’s a small sales presentation or a keynote speech. Public speaking can be intimidating, especially for those who don’t have a lot of experience with it.
We’ve covered some of the basics of presentation techniques in this blog, including best practices for effective visual presentations; however, for those of you who don’t yet feel comfortable speaking in a public setting, I recommend reading Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations, by Max Atkinson. This book has some great tips on how to persuade and inspire an audience, and it’s a great guide for developing, practicing, and delivering winning presentations.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“The room darkens and grows hushed, all eyes to the front as the screen comes to life. Eagerly the audience starts to thumb the pages of their handouts, following along breathlessly as the slides go by one after the other… We’re not sure what the expected outcome was when Power Point first emerged as the industry standard model of presentation, but reality has shown few positive results. Research reveals that there is much about this format that audiences positively dislike, and that the old school rules of classical rhetoric are still as effective as they ever were for maximizing impact. Renowned communications researcher, consultant, and speech coach Max Atkinson presents these findings and more in a groundbreaking and refreshing approach that highlights the secrets of successful communication, and shows how anyone can put these into practice and become an effective speaker or presenter. Topics include:
How to win and hold the attention of audiences;
Using visual aids and PowerPoint more effectively;
Getting your message across and winning applause;
Inspiring audiences;
How to prepare quickly;
Fact and fiction about body language and non-verbal communication.”
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April 16, 2017
Weekly Recap, April 16, 2017
Tuesday: Check out 7 attention-grabbing tips for when you’re giving a presentation or pitching a sale.
Wednesday: Discover how to overcome cold call resistance.
Thursday: Check out 4 questions you should ask yourself about your prospect before you approach them.
Friday: Learn how to be persistent without being a pest.
Saturday: Read this article published in Inc. Magazine and take your persuasive abilities to the next level.
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April 15, 2017
How to be More Persuasive at Work
As you might imagine, to be a truly great sales professional, you must be a great persuader. For many efficiency sales professionals, the art of persuasion comes naturally – for some, this innate ability may even be the reason they’re in sales in the first place. Regardless, to be a great sales professional you must be able to present a persuasive argument for your prospect to feel a compelling desire to purchase your product or service.
Inc. Magazine published an article on “How to Become the Most Persuasive Person in the Room.” If you are looking to take your persuasive abilities to the next level, I highly recommend reading the full article.
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April 14, 2017
How to Be Persistent Without Being a Pest
There’s a fine line between being persistent and being a pain in the tuchas. Persistence is a trait to be admired, and it’s one that all sales professionals should embody.
What is persistence? In the sales setting, it’s following-up with your prospect or client, knowing what the next step is, and respectfully keeping them informed and on-track so that you can complete the project.
So how do you exercise persistence without becoming a pest? Limit the number of times you contact your prospect or client. Don’t call or email them every time you have a question or need something from them. Instead, make an ongoing list of questions or follow-up items and wait until your next phone call or meeting to address them.
If there are deadlines involved, make sure to let your prospect or client know about them well in advance. This allows you the breathing room to follow-up several times before the deadline without bombarding them right before it’s due.
The fact of the matter is that someone’s got to play the adult in the relationship. Often, your prospects and clients will be too busy to advance the transaction to the next step. You must be the one to ensure that things are moving forward. Just make sure you do so without crossing the line between “persistent” and “pesty.”
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April 13, 2017
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Approaching a Prospect
What questions should you ask yourself about your prospects before you approach them?
1. What drives decision-making?
2. Who are the decision-makers?
3. What do they each value the most?
4. How do your offerings map into those values?
You need to understand who really makes the decisions, and how they decide how to allocate their finite capital, and perhaps even more finite management attention span. While some of your business is reactive – in other words, you’re addressing a request for a quote from someone else – if you want to turbocharge your business, you’ll want to expand your activities into the PROACTIVE mode. You will need to identify owners that need to make their operations more competitive, profitable and valuable.
If you create a felt need, one that is anchored in their values, you’ll succeed. What kinds of felt needs are out there? Well, there’s fear of downtime; the need to earn an ENERGY STAR® label or LEED® certification; the need to improve tenant comfort and convenience because in this real estate economy, the last thing you need is for your tenants to decide not to renew; for owner-occupants, there’s also the need to improve productivity.
On that note, think about it… If you pay $40K for an employee that occupies about 200 SF of your offices, your payroll represents $200/SF. What’s your utility bill? $2/SF? A 1% improvement in productivity pays for the entire utility bill! Isn’t that something that deserves to be mentioned when you’re discussing the comfort aspects of what you’re trying to sell?
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