Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 25

Weekly Recap, August 6, 2023

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

The Power of Intuition

Our instincts can be a powerful tool, the ability to sense where the wind is blowing without a full explanation. World-famous entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs have attributed some of their success to intuition, but it isn’t exclusive. Anyone can use their intuition to further their lives, both personally and professionally.

Sharpen the Saw

Why do you need to do this now? Because it forces you to work Trulia, an online real estate service that had a pitiful closing ratio with brokers as they entered the Great Recession of 2008 to 2010. Realizing that they were now facing even more challenging headwinds to widespread adoption of service, they reexamined every part of their value chain and prospecting approach and made some major fixes. By the end of that recession, just two years later, they had elevated their prospect conversion ratio ten-fold to 20% rather than 2%. 

Selling to the C-Suite

A lot of people are uncomfortable selling to the C-Suite (Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Officer, etc.). Why? I think one of main reasons people are intimidated is that they haven’t had much experience interacting with that level of executive and therefore have little or no insight into what those folks get paid to do or care about. 

Building Value Through Energy Efficiency

If you’re selling energy solutions in the built environment, you may find yourself being asked by your prospects, “Will this energy efficiency upgrade increase the value of my building?” This can be a difficult question to answer because it varies from situation to situation. The first thing you should do is determine whether you’re dealing with an owner-occupied building or a non-owner-occupied building. 

A Broken Rule of Thumb

I talk a lot about “broken” financial metrics on this blog and in my online and in-person workshops. Many of the metrics by which prospects evaluate expense-reducing capital projects fail to take into consideration the complexity of the investment at hand. One of the “rules of thumb” that is commonly used by decision-makers is the “maximum 2-year simple payback” rule. For whatever reason, too many people believe that an investment that takes more than two years to pay for itself is a waste of time.

Putting Less Digital in Your Life

Over the past twenty years, technology has been taking an ever-expanding role in our lives.  Is it making things easier?  It appears so.  Is it making us happier?  That’s debatable. 

Weekly Recap, July 30, 2023

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

How Successful People Beat Stress

If you’re passionate about your work, you probably experience some work-related stress. While stress is a normal byproduct of hard work, it is not only bad for your health, but it also takes a toll on your ability to enjoy life outside of the office. 

What's in the Mind of Your Prospect?

If you’re meeting resistance while pitching an energy solution , try stepping into your prospect’s shoes for a moment. Remember, you’re not just selling to a company; you’re selling to one or more individuals within that company, each of which has a specific role and specific interests that you need to understand. What’s important to a company’s maintenance manager may be very different from what’s important to that company’s CFO. And if you’re not tailoring your pitch appropriately for your target audience, you’ll wind up wasting a lot of time.