Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 262

Know Your Competition

 [image error]

It’s very important to know what your competitive advantage is. One of the best ways to determine your competitive advantage (if you don’t already have a crystal clear idea) is to analyze your competition. What are they doing? What are they not doing? What are they best known for – the good and the bad? 

Why is this information valuable to have? It not only allows you to figure out how you differ from the competition, but also equips you with great talking points that you can use when meeting with prospects. I should say right off the bat that it’s unwise to trash-talk your competitors; however, there’s a way to explain artfully why you are better suited than a competitor for a job while staying positive. Here’s an example: 

“[Competitor 1] is highly skilled at [insert service] and I’ve heard some good things from their customers; however, if you’re looking for [insert service that sets you apart from Competitor 1], our offerings are the better choice.”

Here’s a list of questions that can help you determine your competitive advantage:

About your competition:

-What are they doing?
-What are they not doing?
-What are they best known for (both the good and the bad)?
-What do their customers value most about their product or service?
-If you worked for their company, what changes would you make?

About your business:

-Why did my customers choose me over my competitors (for closed sales)?
-Why did my prospects choose to work with a different provider (for lost sales)?
-What do my customers value most about my product or service?
-What do I want to be known for (e.g., great customer service, highest-quality products)?

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Don’t Talk Past the Sale

 [image error]

I talk a lot about being concise and focusing attention on the real value proposition, particularly in the context of written proposals. While it’s vital that your proposals are short, persuasive, and understandable, it’s equally important that you trim down your talking points when meeting with a prospect face to face. 

Most salespeople like to talk, and this can be a real asset when building rapport with prospects; however, talking too much – particularly about things that are not going to move the conversation forward – can cloud your message and jeopardize your chances of demonstrating the true value of your product or service. 

So how do you ensure that you’re not “talking past the sale?” Outline your key talking points and rank them based on importance. If the items at the end of your list are not really necessary, make a mental note to leave them out of the conversation. Additionally, when you’re actually conversing with your prospect, think about where you want to move the conversation and avoid anything that will sidetrack that goal. Be sure to also monitor your prospect’s body language and facial expressions as they can tell you a lot about what is going through your prospect’s mind as you speak to them.

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

The Art of Communication

 [image error]

It doesn’t matter how many great ideas you have – unless you are able to communicate effectively your ideas in writing, you might as well not have them. People who write well do well. You have to be an effective and persuasive communicator in order to make something happen. 

In the efficiency sales setting, you have to sell your ideas in writing.  

- The purpose is to persuade a person or a group of people to approve a recommendation or proposal and take the steps necessary to implement it.

- Bad writing slows things down; good writing speeds things up.

- In this business, writing may not only be your first impression, it may be the only way people know you.

- Your prospect will judge the accuracy of your engineering by the quality of your writing. A poorly written report can ruin a sale that was otherwise in your pocket. 

If you’re not confident in your writing ability, or you just want to brush up your communication skills (verbal or nonverbal), I highly recommend reading this article by Jim Rohn, “8 Ways to Master the Art of Communication.”

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

 

[image error]

Have you ever received an email or text message that you had to read multiple times in order to understand it? In this era of constant written communication, speed often gets in the way of accuracy, especially when it comes to grammar and punctuation. Whether you know it or not, the way in which you write has an effect on the way people perceive you. As a writer and former editor, I place a high value on thoughtful and accurate writing. I am actually more inclined to do business with someone who shows care in written communication. 

If you’re interested in improving your writing, I highly recommend reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss. This book is quite entertaining, and uses examples and stories to show the importance of proper punctuation. 

Here’s a summary from Amazon Books: 

“In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. Using examples from literature, history, neighborhood signage, and her own imagination, Truss shows how meaning is shaped by commas and apostrophes, and the hilarious consequences of punctuation gone awry.”

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Weekly Recap, September 11, 2016

 



  
[image error]


 


Monday: Read one of my favorite self-help books  Heavy Hitter Selling: How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade Customers to Buy , by Steve W. Martin, and find real-world case studies, examples, and exercises on how you can achieve and maintain a high level of sales success.


Tuesday: Looking to build your existing energy-efficiency business?


Wednesday: Learn how to be prepared for the objection "We don't have the budget for it."  


Thursday: Use "challenger selling" to listen to what the prospect says they think they want and reframe the offering to see a path toward something that is actually in their best interest. 


Friday: Explore an education angle when reframing a residential efficiency project to your prospect.


Saturday: Read this article published in FastCompany on "The Truth About Standing Desks and Productivity." 

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Time Cost of Multitasking

 

[image error]

Many people think that they can get more things done in a day by multitasking. It makes perfect sense – if you’re always doing more than one task at a time, you’ll be able to accomplish more in less time. Well it turns out that this theory, however logical it may seem, is wrong. Studies show that multitasking actually is a productivity killer. The amount of time spent cleaning up mistakes from work that was produced with divided attention is actually greater than the amount of time the same work would take when executed with a person’s focused, undivided attention. 

Another reason to avoid multitasking – particularly in a setting where you’re working with other people, such as a meeting or phone call – is that it shows a lack of respect. In the sales world, this is a real rapport-killer, and we all know how important it is to build good rapport with your prospects and clients. 

Don’t let multitasking kill your productivity or sour your relationships. Stay focused on the task at hand. To find out more information on “The True Time Cost of Multitasking”, check out this article by Fast Company.

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Deal-Breaking Questions

[image error]

Many salespeople are afraid to ask potentially deal-breaking questions upfront. They think that these questions should be avoided until they know the prospect is ready to buy (and that it won’t matter because they have already made up their mind). What happens when you ask an important question at the end of the proposal process? If the answer to the question is in fact a deal-breaker, you’ve absolutely wasted both your prospect’s time and your own. 

So what do I mean when I refer to a “deal-breaking” question? I’m talking about questions like, “How are the utilities metered and billed? Do the tenants pay directly for their energy usage?” or “Would you be able to be shut down this facility for an entire day during the installation process?” Perhaps your prospect would be fine shutting down the building during the installation process; however, if their building MUST remain operable 24/7, it’s best to know that immediately. If you ask these tough questions upfront, believe me, they’re not rapport-busters. They are time-savers, and your prospect will appreciate the fact that you asked them before getting too far into the sales process.

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Reviewing Your Proposal

[image error]

Developing an outstanding proposal takes time. It can be a laborious and frustrating process; however, if the end result is concise, easy to digest, and persuasive, the hours of hard work will pay off in a big way. A proposal has the power to make or break a sale, and it is therefore vital that you invest some time and energy into making a template that really hits the ball out of the park. 

There’s a difference between a short proposal and one that is persuasive and easy to digest. You may be able to trim the fat and get your proposal to a length that an average reader could digest cover-to-cover in less than ten minutes; however, the question you really need to ask yourself is: “Would a person without a background in efficiency be able to read this concise proposal and understand exactly what is being proposed?” 

As efficiency sales professionals, we’re not necessarily able to answer this question on our own (since we do have a background in efficiency). I always like to say that the best way to find out if your proposal is understandable is to give it to your grandmother. If she can read the proposal, understand what is being proposed, and clearly see the value in the efficiency solution, then you know you’re on the right track. Your “grandmother” could be a friend from a different industry, your spouse, your neighbor, or any other unbiased party. 

Here are some questions you might ask the person who is reviewing your proposal:

“Can you tell what this proposal is about just by reading it?”
“If I only gave you five minutes to read it, could you tell me what exactly we’re selling?”
“If I only gave you five minutes to read it, could you tell me what the value is of this efficiency solution?”

These are the kinds of questions you want to ask because a lot of the decision-makers are going to spend five minutes looking at your proposal and make a decision about whether or not they should buy your product or service. If they can’t discern what you’re selling in this short amount of time, you have a problem. 

Even if your current proposal template that has won you some jobs, I recommend revisiting it from time to time. Give it to an unbiased party and ask them these questions. Then revise and repeat until you’ve really perfected it.

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Overcoming Landlord Objections, Part 2

[image error]

Today, we’ll continue with a couple more ways to inoculate your presentation against objections like “My tenant’s leases are all ‘net’ – why should I care about efficiency improvements?” 

Lower Op Ex also means lower base years (or lower expense stops) for new leases. It’s a truism that in a fixed-base lease (e.g., a base year lease or an expense stop lease), the landlord limits the portion of operating expenses he’s obligated to pay before the tenants start contributing. The point at which the landlord stops paying for operating expenses will be informed by either last year’s operating expenses (if the new lease is signed early in the current year) or this year’s operating expenses (if the new lease is signed later in the year). This means that if the landlord reduces operating expenses in the year that is used to define the base year or expense stop, the point at which the tenant begins paying for operating expenses would be lower for every year of that new tenant’s lease. Translation: taking action to lower operating expenses now, before a new lease is signed, can yield benefits for the landlord in each and every year of that new lease term. 

Better tenant retention and attraction. If you have lower Op Ex and/or greater comfort, tenants will be more likely to come to you, and they’ll be more likely to stay once they do. You may recall the story I told about one of our ninjas who sold a brand new lighting controls system to a real estate developer in Silicon Valley, and how the tenant appreciated the lighting control system so much that he decided to sign the lease. It didn’t much matter whether the landlord captured the savings. What was important is that he signed the lease with the tenant, which provided additional base rent and higher NOI, which in turn supported a higher building appraisal. 

You really have to connect all the dots and understand the business dynamics of commercial real estate in order to have the most impactful and compelling conversation with a prospect in that industry.

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog! 

Overcoming Landlord Objections, Part 1

[image error]

When you approach a landlord with an efficiency project, one of the most common objections you may hear is, “My tenant’s leases are all ‘net’ – why should I care about efficiency improvements?” The next time you’re presenting an expense-reducing capital improvement to a landlord whose tenants might be the beneficiary of the resulting savings, be sure to mention one or more of the following points. They will help inoculate your presentation against the objection “My tenants stand to get all the savings.” 

Energy efficiency supports higher base rents. Why? Because when a tenant looks at a space, he or she generally considers total occupancy cost, which is base rent plus the tenant’s share of Operating Expenses. To the extent that you can compress the tenant’s share of Operating Expenses by sensibly applying energy efficiency measures, you’re giving yourself headroom to increase the base rent. The occupancy cost that the tenant sees doesn’t change – the landlord simply captures more base rent, which supports higher Net Operating Income, which is the mother’s milk of real estate investors. 

You can use other people’s money (famously known in the industry as “OPM”) to pay for the improvement. Real estate developers live by the OPM model. They will take a construction loan from a bank or take-out financing from an insurance company or a pension plan. It’s all about leveraging other people’s money to make a healthier return on the equity they invest. How does the OPM concept apply to expense-reducing capital projects? Let’s assume the landlord’s model lease includes language that allows him to repurpose dollars his tenants are now spending on unnecessarily high utility bills. By exercising the lease’s Cap Ex Cost Recovery clause, the landlord could invest in energy-saving improvements that would lower the tenant’s share of the operating expenses, and then recover some or all of that savings in the form of additional rent until the capital improvement is fully paid for (plus interest in some cases). And what happens if the landlord doesn’t play the Cap Ex Cost Recovery card? He’ll likely spend his own Cap Ex Reserve dollars to replace the equipment when it finally fails. Moreover, at that point, he’s lost not only the opportunity to frame the equipment replacement as an expense-reducing capital improvement eligible for Cap Ex Cost Recovery, but also any possibility of collecting a rebate or incentive since the existing equipment is no longer operational. 

Stay tuned for more on this topic tomorrow…

Want our daily content delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Selling Energy Blog!