Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 250
March 23, 2017
The Best Time to Ask for Referrals
We all know how valuable referrals are for generating new business. One of the best times to ask for a referral is right after the sale (or once the installation is completed). They bought your product or service, they’re happy with their decision, and you haven’t done anything wrong yet.
They’re more likely to give you a referral if you frame it as a win-win situation: “Jack, I have a question for you. Do you think there’s anybody else in your circle of friends and colleagues who could benefit from <<<>>>?” As you complete the sentence, pay close attention to the wording. You might say, “… who could benefit from having the same sort of enhanced visibility into energy spend that you now have throughout your portfolio?” Focus on the value that caused your customer to buy. Not features. Not benefits. Value. You want to know if anyone else that your customer knows might appreciate the same value. This is no time for haphazard word choice. You don’t want to come across as saying some variant of, “Do you know anyone else who might want to buy some controls from me?”
Asking the question in the manner originally suggested plants the idea in the customer’s mind that they could be of genuine service to a friend by offering them something that they know is worth the investment. They get to prove to other people that they were smart enough to find you and implement your offering. You give them social currency by allowing them to be a hero in the eyes of the person they choose to refer. As much as receiving a referral may benefit you financially, don’t make it about you – make it about them.
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March 22, 2017
Put Yourself in Your Prospect’s Shoes
One of the challenges we have in this industry is a lot of inexperienced people jumping into the industry trying to sell a component that is being sold by the company they happen to work for. “I sell drives.” “I sell pumps.” “I sell glass.” You know what? A building owner doesn’t buy glass or pumps or motors or drives. A building owner buys comfort. He doesn’t buy any of these individual components.
So you must think systems, not pieces. You must put yourself in their shoes. Most people already have a lot on their plate and don’t have much time to spend figuring out the value of your product or service. If you don’t demonstrate the true value of your offering, you’re wasting both your prospect’s time and your own. Ask yourself, “What would make this person motivated to take time away from their busy schedule to consider buying my product or service?” If you don’t have a concrete answer that is specific to your prospect’s needs and values, take a step back and do some research and brainstorming.
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March 21, 2017
How to Convince a Prospect to Buy a Higher-Priced Service
As efficiency sales professionals, we’re often faced with situations in which prospects gets hung up on the cost of the project. In some cases, they even try to low-ball us by mentioning bids from lower-cost vendors.
I’d like to share a story that I remember reading in a trade magazine about a rock star roofing contractor and his particular approach for convincing a would-be low-baller to buy a higher-quality installation.
As I recall, the interviewer asked the contractor, “What do you say to a prospect when he tells you he’s received a lower bid from another roofer?” His response was something along the lines of, “I tell my customers that when you’re in the roofing business, Johns Manville and all the other manufacturers sell raw materials to everybody in the industry at basically the same price. So, if someone’s quoting you a higher price for an installation, it’s likely they’re planning to apply more supervisory hours, use more highly skilled labor, carry more than sufficient levels of liability insurance, etc. If you have a roofer that says he’s willing to do the job for $3,000 versus my bid of $3,800, you must ask yourself a question: What do you think the $800 is paying for that you’re not going to get with the $3,000 roofing job? And while we’re on the topic, if your ‘bargain roofer’ has trimmed his price at the expense of having workers’ comp insurance, and one of his uninsured workers slips and falls off your roof, that worker would likely sue you… You could lose your home.”
He concluded, “By the time I get done explaining even a few of the many ways ‘cheaper’ contractors cut corners to deliver their lower prices, the prospect is so nervous, they realize that even if they could save $800 on the job, they’d likely stay awake at night for the next 10 years wondering what shortcuts that cheaper roofer took.” And do you know what? His closing ratio was exceptionally higher than normal, despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact) that his prices were routinely higher than his competition’s.
So what’s the moral of the story? It’s all about how you frame your price and convey the genuine value of your service – even if it’s just superior peace of mind knowing that the job will be well done. You’ve heard me say it before – customers don’t make decisions, they make comparisons. It’s up to you to frame the comparison so that selecting you as the winning bidder is the only decision they could make and not regret it later.
There’s a secondary moral to this story, by the way. I encourage you to look for success stories and tips from sales rock stars in other industries, particularly those adjacent to the efficiency industry.
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March 20, 2017
A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office
Long-time readers of this blog know that I’m a firm believer in the power of goal setting. I’ve used goals throughout my entire career, and they’ve helped me achieve success every step of the way. Through experience, I can confidently say that you need to be setting goals that are above and beyond what your logical mind tells you are achievable. These “reach” goals – when pursued with an action plan in place – push you to greatness.
So how do you execute an outsized goal? According to Bill McDermott in his book, Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office, teamwork is key. A leader should inspire his or her team and instill a sense of purpose as they work toward what may seem like an unachievable goal. This inspiration and purpose come from kindness and coaching on the part of the leader, not from fear of failure.
I recommend this book to anyone who needs some guidance on how to make “reach” goals reality.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“A leadership and career manifesto told through the narrative of one of today’s most inspiring, admired, and successful global leaders.
“In Winners Dream, Bill McDermott—the co-CEO of the world’s largest business software company, SAP—chronicles how relentless optimism, hard work, and disciplined execution embolden people and equip organizations to achieve audacious goals.
“Growing up in working-class Long Island, a sixteen-year-old Bill traded three hourly wage jobs to buy a small deli, which he ran by instinctively applying ideas that would be the seeds for his future success. After paying for and graduating college, Bill talked his way into a job selling copiers door-to-door for Xerox, where he went on to rank number one in every sales position he held and eventually became the company’s youngest-ever corporate officer. Eventually, Bill left Xerox and in 2002 became the unlikely president of SAP’s flailing American business unit. There, he injected enthusiasm and accountability into the demoralized culture by scaling his deli, sales, and management strategies. In 2010, Bill was named co-CEO, and in May 2014 he will become SAP’s sole, and first non-European, CEO.
“Colorful and fast-paced, Bill’s anecdotes contain effective takeaways: gutsy career moves; empathetic sales strategies; incentives that yield exceptional team performance; and proof of the competitive advantages of optimism and hard work. At the heart of Bill’s story is a blueprint for success and the knowledge that the real dream is the journey, not a preconceived destination.”
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March 19, 2017
Weekly Recap, March 19, 2017
Monday: Read Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, by David Rock, for a high-level overview of how the brain works and why we get overwhelmed and stressed.
Tuesday: Explore how not to talk beyond the sale.
Wednesday: Read up on the importance of looking at your prospect when he or she is talking.
Thursday: Remember that it’s not somebody else’s responsibility to make you successful… it’s your own responsibility.
Friday: Learn to align your goals with your values.
Saturday: Read this article by FastCompany on “The Stupidly Simple Productivity Hack Hiding In Microsoft Word.”
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March 18, 2017
Focus Mode
There are a wide variety of things that can derail your productivity, but one of the biggest and most common culprits is distractions. Staying focused on the task at hand is not always easy, particularly if it’s mundane work that you’d rather not be doing in the first place.
FastCompany published an article last week about a long-standing Microsoft Word feature that some people may not know about: Focus mode. This feature blacks out everything else on your screen except your Word document. Microsoft recently updated Focus mode so you can change the background from black to wood-looking colors. Read the full article here and consider giving this very simple Focus mode a try next week at work.
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March 17, 2017
Align Your Goals with Your Values
Before you set goals for your company or your personal work performance (i.e., mission statement, sales goal, etc.), you need to carefully examine your own values. What do you value most? What do you stand for as a human being? Once you have a clear picture of your personal values, you’re more likely to put into place goals that are congruent with who you are as a person. And it’s these goals that are most likely to ultimately be achievable.
Suppose you want to boost your sales by 100% next year. If you just write down “Boost sales by 100%,” the likelihood of achieving 100% growth in your sales revenue is slim to none. Rather, tether this goal to your own values and create action steps that will help you achieve it.
Here’s an exercise that will help you work through this process:
Make a list of 25 personal values (see below for ideas).
Make a list of your goals.
Circle five personal values that are most important to you.
Examine how those five values inform your bigger goals.
Write out the action steps you need to take to achieve those goals in your daily life.
Tony Robbins suggests breaking down your list of values into “moving-toward” and “moving-away-from” values – in other words, what do you strive for and what do you want to avoid? Moving-toward values are things like “happiness,” “success,” “intelligence,” and “love.” Moving-away-from values are things like “worry,” “sadness,” “boredom,” and “anger.” Knowing what you value AND what you actively want to avoid can help you create an even clearer picture of how your goals might align with your values.
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March 16, 2017
Success Is in Your Own Hands
The definition of “success” is different for each of us, depending on our personal and professional goals and aspirations. What is universal about success, however, is that it is our own responsibility. Too often people blame their lack of success on external factors:
“My company didn’t give me enough training.”
“My lead list is really weak.”
“My prospects just aren’t buying.”
Remember, it is not somebody else’s responsibility to make you successful, and it is nobody else’s fault if you fail. Come to terms with these facts and you’ll be well on your way to achieving the success you desire. Write down your goals (both immediate and long-term), create a list of action items that will help you reach these goals, and keep yourself in check.
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March 15, 2017
Look and Listen
Yesterday, we talked about why you should talk less and listen more in the sales setting. Today, I’d like to share a story that emphasizes the importance of also looking at your prospect when he or she is speaking:
A sales professional was hard of hearing – so much so that he had to use lip reading to understand what people were saying. As a result, he would give his unwavering attention to his prospects when they were speaking.
After a while, he became quite successful despite his hearing disability. How did he do it? His prospects appreciated that he gave them his undivided attention. The fact that he had to stare at them really gave them the impression that they were the number one most important thing, and as a result, he closed a lot of sales.
After a few years of successful selling he got enough money from commissions to buy himself some high-end hearing aids. Now he had the ability to hear everything. One day, he was in a meeting with an old customer, and the customer said, “Excuse me, can you take those things out?” He said, “What?” The customer replied, “Your hearing aids.” He said, “I spent a lot of money for these things and they help me hear! Why would I take them out?” The customer replied, “I just like it better when you listen to me.”
This story just goes to show that listening (or the perceived act of listening) requires more than an open ear. To reinforce in your prospect’s mind that you’re interested in what they have to say, you need to make and maintain visual contact.
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March 14, 2017
Talk Less, Listen More
Most buyers are put off by the “pushy salesman” – and rightfully so. The “pushy salesman” tries to close the sale in any (and every) way possible… all the while talking too much and listening too little. Sales professionals, on the other hand, are constantly listening to their prospect. They are careful not to talk too much.
In my experience, most salespeople talk beyond the sale. I have a rule in the sales setting: never talk for more than seven seconds. There’s really no reason to go beyond seven seconds when communicating most concepts or questions, because at that point you should be looking for feedback from the customer – perhaps a signal that you’re on the right path.
If you deliver a Shakespearean soliloquy for 45 seconds, or a minute-and-a-half, or five minutes, you might very well find yourself down a rabbit hole… and you may never make it back to the proper path toward a “yes.” Your prospect might just glaze over and completely lose attention.
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