Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 288

Your Diction Matters

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When you are communicating with someone in writing, the words you choose to use have an impact on the way your reader perceives you. If you look at emails that C-level executives send and compare them with those sent by lower-level employees, you will notice that the executives’ emails are more concise and direct. They choose words that are straightforward and definitive. Why? As leaders, executives must project confidence and authority. They also can’t afford to give wishy-washy directions to their employees, so they choose words that are not likely to be misinterpreted.

Whether you’re a C-level executive or not, you can use words to project your confidence. And as we all know, confidence is a key trait of efficiency sales professionals. The next time you are writing an email, read it over before clicking “Send” and see if any of your words evoke a lack of confidence or show hesitation in what you are trying to communicate to the reader.

For a list of some of the most common words to avoid, check out this article from Inc:
http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/10-words-people-who-lack-confidence-always-use.html

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The Ideal Approach to Independent Projects

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Today, we’ll discuss the ideal approach for non-mutually exclusive projects (also known as independent projects).

Let’s say you have assembled a list of ten promising energy-efficiency measures; however, your prospect can’t afford to pursue all ten. Your job is to help your prospect choose the ones that are the most capital-efficient. There are four rules that you should apply in this scenario:

1. Only consider lowest life-cycle-cost alternatives. If replacing the boiler is a potential project, the boiler on your list should have already been determined to be the boiler with the lowest life-cycle cost. 

2. Eliminate any project that has a negative net present value (NPV). A project with a negative net present value is one in which the sum of cash inflows is actually less than the sum of cash outflows when all inflows and outflows are reduced to their respective present values.

3. Calculate each project’s modified internal rate of return (MIRR) or savings-to-investment ratio (SIR). These metrics will inform which projects will be most promising to pursue (see Step 4 below).

4. Fund the potential projects in the order of highest to lowest modified internal rate of return or savings-to-investment ratio. Doing so will allocate the prospect’s capital in a manner that delivers “the most bang for the buck.”

There are two mitigating circumstances to keep in mind when using the above-referenced four rules:

1. If you have a piece of equipment that is likely to fail soon, you’ll want to prioritize its replacement. It does you little good to allocate your dollars in an attempt to maximize your capital efficiency only to find out that right after your capital is fully deployed, something needs to be fixed and there’s no money left to fix it.

2. If you see a situation where two things should logically be paired and done at the same time, bundle those projects before doing your ranking exercise.

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Redirect Your Prospect's Focus

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When you’re selling an efficiency product or service, it’s pretty much a given that your prospect will raise some concern or objection during the negotiation. It’s your job as a sales professional to migrate the discussion away from that concern or objection and toward something that is more positive and productive. One of the tactics I teach in all of my efficiency-focused sales trainings is how to use certain words and phrases that move the prospect’s focus from whatever the roadblock might be to a new perspective that will help frame the value proposition under consideration in a more favorable light.

Suppose you have a prospect that is concerned about the payback of an expense-reducing capital project. A typical salesperson would reply (somewhat defensively), “Well, the payback period is 4.5 years, but…” A sales professional, on the other hand, would reply unapologetically, “The payback is 4.5 years… and I think what you'll find more interesting is that this project sports a savings-to-investment ratio of 6.2, which means that for every dollar you invest, the project is estimated to return six dollars and twenty cents over its lifetime in present value dollars." (Always follow this type of statement with silence to let the facts sink in).  If the prospect looks confused, repeat the explanation, emphasizing that earning $6.20 in present value for every dollar invested represents a fantastic return.

Now, notice I said "and" and not "but.” "But" is not a helpful word. It sounds defensive.  Moreover, the “but” negates everything in front of it. If you can’t make “and” work in place of “but,” try using “however.” Remember, the specific words you choose can have a significant impact on the emotion you elicit from your listener. “However” can be used in place of “but”; however, it has a less negative connotation. 

Notice also that I said, “I think what you’ll find more interesting is…” This is a great phrase to use for several reasons: it acknowledges the prospect’s current point of view without validating it; it migrates the conversation away from the negative and toward the positive; and, it underscores that what you’re about to say is something that a reasonable investor should consider to be “more interesting.”

The prospect should find savings-to-investment ratio to be more interesting than simple payback period. After all, which is more important: How fast they’re going to get their money back, or how many total dollars of present value they can look forward to earning over the entire analysis term juxtaposed to how much they had to invest in the first place?

I use this example frequently when discussing financial analysis because prospects are often focused on the wrong metrics, and the above-referenced tactic is a great way to migrate the discussion to proper metrics. Realize that this tactic can be used to overcome virtually any roadblock, financial or otherwise. It allows you to redirect a prospect’s focus and put the discussion back on the road to “yes.”

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Don't Confuse the Customer

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We have so much jargon and so many acronyms in the energy industry that it is easy to confuse non-energy professionals. As many of you know, I’m a big proponent of clarity and simplicity – the fifteen-second elevator pitch, the one-page proposal, the one-page financial summary, and so forth.

When you’re talking to a prospect or customer, always keep in mind that they are not (usually) experts in your industry. One of the quickest ways to lose a sale is to make your prospect feel overwhelmed, and one of the sure-fire ways to make your prospect feel overwhelmed is to talk to them in a “different language.” 

A recent graduate of the Efficiency Sales Professional program told me a story about a meeting he had with a prospective buyer (before he was an Sales Ninja). After meeting with several lower level managers, he secured a meeting with the chief financial officer who had the power to make the final decision. Ten or fifteen minutes into the meeting with the CFO, the CFO stopped him and said, “Excuse me, I just have a question. What is HVAC?”

As you can clearly see from this story, even something as basic as “HVAC” can be foreign to a non-energy professional. You’re better off assuming that your prospect doesn’t know the first thing about what you’re selling. If you can present the facts in a way that a child would understand (without belittling your prospects, of course), you’ll have a much better chance of getting through to them and helping them connect the dots.

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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Success is Not an Accident

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Efficiency Sales Professionals understand that successful selling is a holistic practice. Their choices and habits, both in their personal and professional lives, are aligned with their goals. To achieve success, one must plan for it. It’s one thing to hope for success or to assume that your values and work ethic will lead you to become successful, and it’s another thing to write out a plan for precisely how you will achieve your goals and aspirations and to stick to that plan throughout your life.

Tom Newberry’s book, Success Is Not an Accident, teaches you how to plan for success. The seven key lessons that Newberry imparts are a great foundation for building a thoughtful and intentioned strategy for success. If you haven’t already discovered this book, I highly recommend picking up a copy.

Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“Tommy Newberry's best-selling Success Is Not an Accident (self-published in 1999) has helped over 100,000 readers achieve higher levels of success in both their personal and professional lives. Reminiscent of best-selling authors Stephen Covey and John Maxwell, Newberry teaches readers the power of goal setting, time management, visualization, and “self-talk” so they can achieve peak levels of performance in all areas of their lives.”

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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Weekly Recap, December 27, 2015

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Monday: Why you should think beyond Simple Payback Period when discussing the merits of a proposed expense-reducing capital project. 




Tuesday: Read up on the "Do's" and "Do Not's" for presenting to the C-Suite (high-level executives). 




Wednesday: Follow these strategies to uncover your buyer's motive.




Thursday: How partnering up with a non-competitive vendor or service provider can be one of the best methods to grow your efficiency business. 
 

Friday: Follow this exercise to reflect on your best successes from 2015 and how to gear up for the upcoming new year. 




Saturday: Read this article from the Inc. on 10 ways to prepare for a happy and successful 2016. 

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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Ways to Prepare for a Happy and Successful 2016

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Yesterday’s blog highlighted planning for your 2016 professional outlook. Today’s blog on productivity further continues this exercise of reflecting and planning for the upcoming year with a focus on more personal goals. Inc.published a list on “10 Ways to Prepare for a Happy and Successful 2016”. Of the list, our favorites include: listing three skills you want to improve, creating a Q1 to-do list, contacting people you want in your life next year, and enjoying the rest of 2015.

For more inspiration, read the full article here:

http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/10-ways-to-prepare-for-a-happy-and-successful-2016.html

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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Gearing Up For 2016

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The New Year is right around the corner. If you have not already spent some time reflecting on 2015 and planning for 2016, my advice to you is that you start now. Here are several questions you might ask yourself to help guide your plan for 2016: 

Who were my best customers this past year?
What made my best customers the best? Can I identify any patterns among this group?
Who were my least profitable or most difficult-to-deal-with customers? Can I identify any patterns among this group?
Did any industry or segment comprise a particularly noteworthy portion of my deal flow?
Which of these industries or segments did I spend the most/least time researching and/or pursuing?

The goal of this exercise is to take a bird’s eye view of your year, to identify what did and did not work, and to determine what skills you may have developed in the past year that you can leverage in 2016. Let’s say you spent a lot of time in 2015 working with a specific industry, segment, organization, or professional role, and you can now honestly say you know how your solution maps into benefits they care about.  Guess what?  Simply cloning those profiles should give you plenty of prime target(s) for 2016.

You may be familiar with Scott Channell’s “60/30/10” rule, which states that 60% of your success comes from who you call, 30% comes from what you say, and 10% comes from everything else. You can make the most of the “60%” by profiling your 2015 customers (both the good ones and the bad ones) and vowing to pursue only the ones that fit the “good” profile. Bottom line, don’t waste your time spinning your wheels on bad prospects. Life’s too short.

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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Partner Up With Non-Competitors

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One of the best ways to grow an efficiency business is to partner with non-competitive vendors or service providers. There’s a trick to doing so, though. Most “salespeople” look for a non-competitive vendor who could send them leads.  Sales professionals, on the other hand, find non-competitive vendors for whom they can create new business. Why? Because it’s not enough to assure a potential vendor partner that you’re not going to reduce their current business volume if they were to send you leads. Why should they take the time to play ball with you? However, if you prove that you could be a fertile source of new leads for their business, you’ll capture their attention, and they’ll likely use whatever mechanisms you put in place to facilitate sharing of leads.

There are a multitude of benefits to forming partnerships. You can use them to provide your existing customers with new offerings (and in some situations, prevent them from searching for new vendors with more complete offerings). Provided the lead swapping becomes genuinely bilateral, you’ll also wind up with new prospects to approach with your own offerings…and you’ll be approaching those new opportunities from a position of strength because you’ve been referred by someone the prospect already trusts.

One word of caution when forming partnerships: protect your reputation. If people in either your company or your partner’s company fail to deliver what they promise, both of your reputations are at risk. Moreover, realize that if the partners who recommend you have a bad reputation to begin with, you will be tarred with the same brush. Be sure you can deliver what you promise and that they can deliver what they promise. Otherwise your prospects will think of you as being partnered with the village idiot (or worse), and your outbound marketing campaign will be compromised rather than enhanced.

Think about products and services that might benefit your customers that you don’t currently offer and research some reputable companies in your area that have a great reputation for specifying and delivering those offerings. And when you finally decide to propose a partnership, be sure to present a carefully considered and compelling case as to why joining forces would be a win-win for both of your organizations.

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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Uncover Your Buyer's Motive

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Knowing the buying motives of your prospects is both vital to successful selling and harder than it may seem. So how do you really uncover their motives? You may have a list of dozens of questions that you ask your prospects in an attempt to learn more about what they really want. Questions are great, and they have the potential to resolve at least some of the mystery. That said the best targets for your questions are your previous customers.

There's an interesting story I heard many, many years ago about a Japanese electronics manufacturer who was planning to bring boom boxes to this country. They were evaluating whether they should manufacture yellow ones or black ones; they didn't want to risk the capital to manufacture both colors without knowing which one would be a bigger hit with their target audience. As you might expect, a focus group was convened with a bunch of kids who represented the target demographic to buy these machines. After showing both models, talking about the options, and then circulating a survey to complete, it appeared that the kids unanimously preferred yellow…well, at least according to the surveys.

Fortunately, this was not this particular focus group moderator’s first rodeo.  At the end of the focus group session – after the surveys had been collected – he offered the following closing: "Okay, great! Thanks for joining us today and sharing your feedback with us. We've written it all down. Anyway, we're flying back to Tokyo tonight, and we're obviously not going to take these extra boom boxes back with us. In fact, we’re not taking any of the food back either, so fill up your pockets with the extra sandwiches and drinks and give them to your friends…and while you’re at it, feel free to take whatever boom boxes you want. Whatever you don’t take, we're going to donate because it’s not worth the cost to ship this gear back to Japan.” He then sat back and watched as every single person in the focus group picked up a black boom box and walked out of the room. Every single yellow one remained on the table.

What does this story prove? An old salt in sales once told me, “Buyers are liars, and sellers are storytellers.” And the funny thing is, many buyers don’t even know they're lying when they tell you what their motives are. Sometimes potential buyers think that they feel a certain way – or perhaps they think that they should have a certain preference – yet when it comes down to actually writing a check for what they said they'd buy from you, it’s a totally different story.

So what to do? As mentioned above, ask previous customers – people who have actually written you a check – “Why did you do business with my company? What did you most admire about our product or service? Did we deliver all of the things that we promised during the sales process?" And then ask the golden question, "Are there any other benefits that you experienced in the wake of doing business with us that we did not mention when you were making the decision to do business with us?"

Questions like these get to the heart of why your past customers actually decided to buy from you. Moreover, they’ll inform the way in which you approach future sales opportunities with both your present customers and new prospects.

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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