Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 273
May 28, 2016
Tips to Be a Better Time Manager
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If you manage a team of employees, you probably think about ways in which you can increase productivity and minimize inefficiencies. A disorganized workforce wastes time and money, misses deadlines and produces work that is sub-par. How can you teach an employee time management skills?
FastCompany recently published an article on ways managers can fix their team members’ time management problems. If you’re in a leadership position, take a little time this weekend to read this article and brainstorm ways you can improve your team’s time management problems.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3059598/your-most-productive-self/how-to-help-fix-your-employees-time-management-problem?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=colead-daily-newsletter&position=2&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=05092016
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May 27, 2016
9 Inspirational TED Talks
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As I’m sure many of you know, I’m a big fan of TED Talks. The lessons that we can learn from watching short presentations by some of the world’s greatest minds can have a major impact on our performance as efficiency sales professionals. While many of the TED Talks are not directly related to business or sales, the concepts and ideas presented in those talks can still be applied to our lives and our work. And when it comes to presentation techniques, there’s no better resource for watching motivational and persuasive speakers in action!
I found a great article on the HubSpot blog on “9 Inspirational TED Talks to Watch After You Just Lost a Sales Deal.” If you just lost a deal or are in a sales slump, I highly recommend watching one of these TED Talks to lift your spirits:
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May 26, 2016
Take the Safe Road
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Let’s say you’re preparing a cost/benefit analysis for a proposed efficiency upgrade. The worksheet incorporates your best estimates for energy savings, maintenance savings, rebate eligibility, and inflation as well as your prospect’s assumptions for discount rate, finance rate, and reinvestment rate. When selecting which rates to use, you’ll want to be conservative.
Take inflation, for example. If you present a CFO with a spreadsheet that assumes an inflation rate of six percent (a high estimate for a ten-year analysis, but not impossible), you risk losing credibility. Remember, you’ll likely have less than 30 minutes to convince this person that your project is worth funding. Do you really want to spend the first eight or nine of those minutes quibbling over inflation rates? If you can get the numbers to work using a lower figure (e.g., two percent), the CFO is not going to argue with you. If anything, he or she may say, "I notice you’ve used inflation assumptions that are lower than the ones we use when we do our own analyses.” You might respond, “We were intentionally conservative. Besides, if we raise the inflation rate, we may have to adjust the nominal discount rate as well, which would have the effect of neutralizing the increase in assumed inflation.” Of course, if you’re convinced (and can defend the position) that energy inflation will outpace the rate of general inflation, you could use a “real price escalator” for energy, in which case your discount rate could stay the same and the NPV of the project would rise.
So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t give your prospect the opportunity to question your estimates. Be realistic and conservative, and let the prospect come to the realization that the project may yield even higher returns than you are predicting.
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May 25, 2016
Checking Before Sending
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When you deliver a written piece to a prospect or client (whether it’s an email, letter, proposal, invoice, etc.), accuracy is essential in both content and form. Here are six things you should always check thoroughly:
Spelling: You don’t have to be great at spelling to avoid mistakes; however, you do have to pay attention to what you’re typing. Run your text through Microsoft Word’s spell checker as a first pass to catch obvious spelling errors…and keep an eye out for words that are correctly spelled yet incorrect in context. Someone wrote me recently saying that he had spoken with my “pervious” clients when he meant to say “previous.” I was less impressed than amused to hear that he had conversed with all of my past clients through whom water would pass. I could only hope that said conversations did not occur while the water was passing through! Since “pervious” is a word, the mistake would have evaded a spell checker.
Grammar: Microsoft Word will also catch grammatical errors, but it’s not foolproof. Be sure to read through your document carefully. If something doesn’t sound quite right, you may have a grammatical error. I’ve always found that reading a document aloud makes it easier to detect grammatical mistakes than simply reading it.
Formatting: Make sure your document uses consistent formatting. This is particularly important if you are cutting and pasting from multiple places. Check fonts, sizes, and colors. Make sure the margins are consistent and the line spacing is neither too cramped nor too generous. Since many people read emails on their smartphone, be sure it looks good and re-format as needed. On a related note, Format Painter is a very useful (and all too often untapped) utility in the Microsoft suite of software. Learn to use it, and use it often, to confirm that the formatting is consistent throughout the document.
Calculations: When working with formulas and equations on the computer, you need to double-check figures, parentheses, exponents and the like. Check the numbers carefully and make sure nothing looks amiss.
Skim-ability: Pretend you have only 30 seconds to read the document. Can you skim it and still get the main ideas? If not, you may need to add headings or topic sentences. Believe it or not, many of the folks who read your correspondence do so in the elevator on their way to meet with you to discuss it.
Length: Unless you’re writing a comprehensive case study or white paper, your audience probably doesn’t intend to spend a lot of time reading what you have to say. Save them some time by reading through your document and pruning anything that is superfluous.
And of course, always do a final proofread (or two) to catch anything that may have slipped through the cracks.
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May 24, 2016
What Does My Listener Need to Know?
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I talk a lot about communication strategies on this blog because effective communication is vital to success in sales (see last week’s “Take Responsibility for the Quality of Your Communication” blog). There are so many well-intentioned technologists, well-intentioned scientists, well-intentioned building experts, and even well-intentioned salespeople who take a haphazard approach to communication. Without the ability to communicate exactly what they’re trying to say, they’re unable to grab the attention of their audience effectively.
Here’s a question that you should ask yourself before you go to market, whether you’re writing a proposal, making a telephone call, or even composing a simple email: “What does my listener or reader need to know in order to understand and take action?” Everything else is irrelevant. What does the person need to know? What are the action items? It may sound obvious, but if you don’t reinforce this idea in your mind (and take action yourself to ensure that you’re thinking about this before you communicate with someone), you’ll have difficulty moving projects forward.
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May 23, 2016
Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
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I’ve written several blogs about Nancy Duarte’s Resonate. As a frequent speaker and presenter, I can confidently say that the presentation techniques in Resonate are very effective. While I’m a big fan of Duarte’s approach, I don’t think it’s the only method that works. Every speaker has his or her own style and preference, and for those of you looking to improve your presentation skills, it’s important to explore multiple perspectives.
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds, is another fantastic resource. Duarte and Reynolds overlap in some of their presentation philosophies; however, Reynolds brings a wealth of unique ideas to the table that can take your presentations to the next level – particularly if Duarte’s approach doesn’t resonate with you (pun intended).
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular website on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.”
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May 22, 2016
Weekly Recap, May 22, 2016
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Monday: Read Michael Watkins best-sellilng book The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels to become a successful leader who exudes confidence and manages with consistency.
Tuesday: Check out the HubSpot blog infographic called "The Neuroscience Behind Storytelling in Sales" and use a storytelling framwork to capture your prospect's attention.
Wednesday: Learn the difference between rapport-building and relationship-building.
Thursday: Learn the difference between relationship-selling and challenger-selling.
Friday: Become better equipped to approach a boardroom of C-level execs with confidence and to close sales.
Saturday: Take a look at this article published onFastCompany with "10 Habits of Well-Liked Bosses."
Love one of our blogs? Feel free to use an excerpt on your own site, newsletter, blog, etc. Just be sure to send us a copy or link, and include the following at the end of the excerpt: “By Mark Jewell, Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! This content is excerpted from the Sales Ninja blog, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”
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May 21, 2016
10 Habits of Well-Liked Bosses
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If you manage a team of employees, your trust and engagement have major impacts on the success of your company. A team that is not engaged or simply misguided by leadership can waste hundreds or even thousands of man-hours if it’s a large team. If employees do not feel appreciated, they may not be great advocates for the company.
So what can you do to ensure that you’re helping your employees and guiding your team in the best way possible? According to an article published on FastCompany, here are 10 traits to become one of those bosses that people love. If you’re in a leadership position and want to go from a “good” to a “great” boss, I highly recommend reading this article:
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May 20, 2016
Influence the C-Suite
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If you don’t have much experience selling to the C-Suite (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.), it can seem like a daunting task. In reality, it’s only daunting if you’re not prepared – both in terms of what you plan to say and what you expect your audience to care about.
We carefully address C-Suite selling at every Efficiency Sales Professional Boot Camp because far too many salespeople still get nervous in the boardroom environment. Today, I’d like to share a paper that was published in 2011 by the International Energy Agency and the Institute for Industrial Productivity called, “The Boardroom Perspective: How Does Energy Efficiency Policy Influence Decision Making in Industry.”
While this paper focuses primarily on the influence of energy efficiency policy on C-Suite decision-making, it provides some great insight into the types of questions C-level execs are inclined to ask, and the core values that each one is responsible for upholding. With this knowledge, you as a sales professional are better equipped to approach the boardroom with confidence…and to close the sale! Flip through this paper and see what new insights you might add to your toolkit:
https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Boardroom_perspective.pdf
A few additional thoughts before closing…
This paper is set in an international context, so you’ll need to adjust its findings a bit to reflect C-level decision-making in the US market.
The financial measures mentioned throughout the paper suggest that “Challenger Selling” is in order – if for no other reason than migrating the discussion from SPP/ROI/IRR to more proper metrics when evaluating projects for funding approval.
Finally, as you walk into any C-level office, ask yourself what that particular officer does for a living and what yardstick is used to measure his or her own success at the company. For example, the board hires a CEO to manage an enterprise and to grow its valuation. It should be no surprise that you need to answer the following two questions during your concise presentation: How will what you are proposing make his/her enterprise easier to manage? How will what you are proposing make his or her enterprise more valuable? If you are unwilling to think through the answers to those two questions – connecting the dots between what your offering provides and what this prospect actually seeks – then you risk wasting both your time and your prospect’s.
Love one of our blogs? Feel free to use an excerpt on your own site, newsletter, blog, etc. Just be sure to send us a copy or link, and include the following at the end of the excerpt: “By Mark Jewell, Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! This content is excerpted from the Sales Ninja blog, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”
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May 19, 2016
Challenger Selling
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As most of you know from reading this blog, I’m a big proponent of challenger selling. I’ve written about the benefits of challenger selling and the downsides of relying on relationship-building to close sales. Today, I’d like to offer a scenario that highlights the differences between these two approaches.
Suppose a prospect says that they will approve an efficiency project only if it has a two-year payback or less. A salesperson that uses relationship-selling strategy would probably tell his or her prospect, “Okay. Well let’s try to find you something that has a two-year payback or less.” Assuming there is a solution that fits this restrictive condition, the salesperson will be able to make a sale. Unfortunately, this sale will probably be smaller than one without such strict payback constraints, and the salesperson will be throwing away the potential for a much larger one.
In the same situation, a challenger seller would say something like, “Well we could probably find something with a two-year payback or less; however, if we did so you’d probably be harvesting only the very lowest-hanging fruit and leaving 90% of the energy savings potential in the tree. Do you know any farmer who only harvests the lowest-hanging fruit?” A sales professional would then zip it and give the prospect some time to ponder this question. Chances are the prospect will realize that they’re wasting potential savings by limiting themselves to a payback period of two years.
So what’s the moral of the story? Being the agreeable, nice salesperson doesn’t work. If you’re afraid to give your prospects a gentle push, you’re leaving both energy savings and money on the table.
Love one of our blogs? Feel free to use an excerpt on your own site, newsletter, blog, etc. Just be sure to send us a copy or link, and include the following at the end of the excerpt: “By Mark Jewell, Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! This content is excerpted from the Sales Ninja blog, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”
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