Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 297

It's the Experience That Counts

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One of the best ways to capture a prospect’s attention is to highlight your experience working in similar situations. While it’s not necessarily a good idea to “toot your own horn” (particularly when you’re first introducing yourself), emphasizing specific experience working on similar projects can instill a sense of trust and confidence in your ability to accomplish what you are proposing.

So how exactly does one build confidence? Well for starters, be sure to ask questions that reflect segment-specific knowledge. Provide a few insights during the initial meeting that imply that “there’s a lot more where that came from once you engage our services.” Drop names of other clients for whom you’ve delivered successful results. These and similar strategies underscore that “this is not your first rodeo,” and that your plan is not to compensate for your lack of prior experience by “figuring things out on your client’s nickel.” 

You’ll find it a lot easier to close the sale once your prospect realizes that you’re simply proposing to build upon the success you’ve delivered for other clients in similar situations. At that point, the prospect will relax and the need for additional due diligence will likely evaporate. 

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The Proper Metrics

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One of the major topics I teach at our financial analysis workshops and at every Efficiency Sales Professional Boot Camp is how to use proper financial metrics. The difference between the simple metrics that most efficiency salespeople use and the proper metrics that efficiency sales professionals use can often mean the difference between a “no” and a “yes.”  

Unfortunately, your prospects may be very attached to popular, substandard metrics like simple payback period, return on investment, and internal rate of return. In some cases, they may even be resistant to proper metrics like net present value, modified internal rate of return, or savings-to-investment ratio because they don’t understand the calculations and would rather use what they already know.

When a prospect is using substandard metrics to drive capital budgeting decision-making – especially with expense-reducing capital projects – it's your job to be the adult in the relationship and to share with that person in a very “tough love” way that those metrics are not going to serve them best.

Unless you know for a fact that your prospect is already using the right metrics to evaluate projects, it’s a good idea to include both “popular” and “proper” metrics on your financial summary spreadsheet. This will allow you to compare the metrics they are used to seeing with the ones you recommend they start using, and through that comparison, demonstrate why they should be using more advanced metrics to evaluate the project.

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Bundles

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When it comes to leveraging up-selling, one great strategy is to use product and service bundles. Think about the last time you were at the car wash. You probably went there to get a normal hand wash, but you may have ended up purchasing a more comprehensive package than planned. Car wash businesses are great at up-selling because they make it very easy to choose from a small range of service bundles at scaled prices. These bundles are clearly laid out and easy to pick from:

Basic: Hand wash and dry - $15
Silver: Basic PLUS interior vacuuming and tire dressing - $20
Gold: Silver PLUS wax, polish, and air freshener - $25
Platinum: Gold PLUS undercarriage wash - $30

There are several benefits to offering bundles:

There’s something for everybody.
If the most expensive option is out of the person’s price range, they’re more likely to choose one of the middle options than the cheapest one (because they get a glimpse of the added benefits of the less basic bundles).
If price is not a barrier, they’ll assume the highest priced bundle has the best features and buy that bundle without considering the cheaper options.

In addition to bundling, it’s also wise to create tracks for your products and services. Suppose you’re selling a control system to a prospect that doesn’t have the budget for your “platinum” control package. You could say to your prospect, “Let's put the framework in to do this control system. When you’re happy with it, we can add control points as you have more money in the budget to control more systems. This infrastructure can provide sort of a wireless mesh over your building so that you’ll be able to get any of these devices talking to the wireless mesh. Let's put the network in first. Then you can add on as you come up with spare dollars in the operating budget.”

What have we just done in the hypothetical situation? We’ve sold the prospect a basic package with a built-in track for up-selling. Once the framework is in place, the prospect can purchase middle or high-end packages without having to start from scratch.

If you don’t already bundle your products or services, consider adding this tried-and-true up-selling strategy to your business model.

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Guide to Internet Marketing

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According to the 2014 Digital Democracy Survey by Deloitte, over one third of U.S. consumers are “digital omnivores” – consumers who own a laptop, smartphone, AND tablet. With the increasing popularity of internet-enabled devices, internet marketing is more important than ever for success in promoting your products and services.

When it comes to marketing online, many professionals lack the tools and knowledge to create successful marketing campaigns. If you feel uncomfortable with internet marketing or are interested in improving your performance, I highly recommend reading The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Internet Marketing Success by Frank Rumbauskas. This book explores a range of proven techniques for capturing the online marketplace and turning the internet into a tool for growing your business.

Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:

“An all-in-one guide to online marketing from the New York Times bestselling author of Never Cold Call Again

"In Never Cold Call Again, Frank Rumbauskas shows salespeople how to achieve sales greatness without using those dreaded old tactics like cold calling. Now, in The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook, he gives small business owners, independent professionals, and entrepreneurs a complete, all-in-one guide to the best practices of effective online marketing.

The best marketers know all the secrets of using the Internet to fuel business growth. With The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook, you'll have access to all the best proven Internet marketing wisdom, tactics, strategies, and tools. You'll learn how to develop a complete online marketing system that boosts sales and brings in customers galore.

-A comprehensive toolkit for creating a complete, powerful, and effective online marketing program for your business

-Written by online marketing guru Frank Rumbauskas, bestselling author of Never Cold Call Again and Selling Sucks

-A revolutionary system for increasing sales without tired old selling tactics that no longer work anyway

-How to explode your business with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook

"For anyone who owns or operates a business and wants to increase their sales, profits, and visibility online, The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook is the ultimate practical resource.”

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Weekly Recap, September 27, 2015

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Monday: Read  How to Speak, How to Listen , by Mortimer J. Adler, and get actionable advice on how to improve public speaking and how to become an active and agile listener.




Tuesday: Discover the seven pitfalls of Simple Payback Period (SPP).




Wednesday: Find out how to connect the dots between your offering and your prospect's needs.




Thursday: Saving and gaining are two completely different motivators. Read this story and discover how these motivators apply to the efficiency setting.




Friday: Learn the 10 questions you should be asking your prospects early in the conversation.




Saturday: Read this article from the LifeHacker blog and discover the "10 tasks you should never put on the back burner."

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Now or Later?

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Does your To-Do list have hundreds of items on it? Do you often find yourself putting off tasks for later? If so, you may want to consider reexamining the way in which you manage tasks. While the To-Do list is a great tool, it also has the potential to become a procrastination enabler.

Tasks that are not high on the list of priorities but that you don’t want to forget about altogether are perfect candidates for the To-Do list. Other tasks that are high-priority or that are time-sensitive should either be dealt with immediately or added to a “high-priority” list with a due date. LifeHacker published a great list of “10 Tasks You Should Never Put on the Back Burner.” If you find yourself forgetting tasks, missing opportunities, failing to follow-up when you said you would, or missing important deadlines, I highly recommend reading this short article and considering how you might modify your habits to improve your success:

http://lifehacker.com/10-tasks-you-should-never-put-on-the-back-burner-1565638675

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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10 Questions You Should Be Asking

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Tony Robbins is fond of saying that the quality of your life is directly related to the quality of the questions you ask. So I ask you, are you asking the right questions?

When asking questions, ask “Do” and “Consider” questions rather than fact-finding questions. Early on, you will want to ask the prospect why they are interested in your offerings. The more you know about why they’re interested in your offerings, the better job you can do of connecting the dots in a way that allows them to feel good about making an affirmative decision.

Here is a list of some of my favorite questions to ask early in the conversation to make sure you are not wasting your time: 

Are there particular departments/individuals here that focus on energy efficiency?
How many projects have been proposed in the last “X” years?

How many have been approved (and why)?
What has prevented project approvals?
Can you think of any previous efficiency initiatives that were particularly gratifying?


What projects or initiatives are on your “wish list”?
What percentage of your overhead is energy?
How could energy-efficiency boost productivity?
What is the equivalent level of sales that would need to be produced to equal $1 in energy cost-reduction?
How could/are upgrade costs and benefits split between the landlord and the tenant?
How might the landlord’s share of savings affect the building’s profitability and value?
What does the capital budgeting request process look like?
What barriers have you faced in getting projects approved in the past?

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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Saving vs. Gaining

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Whenever I do a national keynote speech or customized coaching session for a sales team, I always ask to speak with a half-dozen or more “rock stars” in their organization who are really knocking the ball out of the park... the highest performers always have offering-specific lessons that the rest of the sales team could learn for increasing their sales.

A couple years ago I was asked to do a keynote for a controls manufacturer. As I was preparing my remarks, I had the pleasure of speaking with one of their rock stars. I asked him, “To what do you attribute your success in the laboratory segment?” 

He replied that he specialized in controlling previously uncontrolled fume hood fan energy solutions and that by doing so, he could reduce a lab’s chargeable electricity by more than half. In fact, he gave me an example of a lab for which he had reduced the bill by more than $350K/year.

I said, “Wow, that’s impressive!” However, I was still wondering why a lab that was large enough to save that much electricity annually on its fume hoods, a lab that probably did several hundred million dollars of research a year, would take the time away from drug testing or curing cancer to focus on something as obscure as fume hood fan energy savings... particularly when they’d have to interrupt their operations for several days to implement whatever savings maneuver this rock star ultimately proposed.

The rock star set me straight. He said, “You don’t understand. When I propose a project that will save $350K a year, I reframe it as a project that is the equivalent of $350K in grants from the National Institutes of Health that my client now doesn’t have to apply for and win... that’s enough grant money to fund several more researchers. In fact, since my gear will continue producing savings for 20 years, it’s the equivalent of giving that client $2 million in “grants” that they don’t have to apply for and win.” Disregarding for the moment that the $2M calculation didn’t reflect the time value of money, this reasoning was a really compelling way to connect the dots for a busy lab director who had to be convinced to invest the time and money to focus on something that was not his main goal.

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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Connecting the Dots

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One of the most important attributes of a true sales professional is the ability to tell the prospect’s story rather than his/her own. Moreover, that true sales professional knows to connect the dots in new and creative ways so that the prospect realizes the link between what is being sold and what that prospect is actually seeking – to move beyond features, and even beyond benefits, into values that the prospect really cares about.

Think about it. Your prospects are consumed with their industries, not yours. They don’t need to understand your technology or even your industry to buy from you. They need to feel comfortable that you understand their situation and what drives value in their world, and that your recommendations will get them closer to where they already know they want to go.

I often say that your sales success is directly related to your ability to connect the dots between the benefits your offering can deliver and the yardsticks your prospects are already using to measure their success.

Your prospects are not waking up in the morning thinking, “Wow, I hope I can save some kilowatt-hours or therms today!” Or, “Boy, if I only had another couple thousand control points in my energy management system!” 

What are they thinking about when they put their pants (or dresses!) on in the morning? 

Keeping their staffs happy and productive.
Keeping tenant hot/cold calls to a minimum.
Coming up with an “edge” that will allow them to finally fill those last 50,000 square feet of vacancy.
If they’re a retailer, they’re probably thinking about how to boost sales this month.

You get the idea... They’re probably not thinking about static pressure, tip speed, delta T, chromaticity, color rendering index, or any of the other technical mumbo jumbo that salespeople often lapse into.

Finally, remember that you need to connect the dots at many levels: 

Segment-specific
Organizational
Professional
Personal

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7 Pitfalls of Simple Payback Period

There are many pitfalls of using Simple Payback Period (SPP) as a measure of a project’s merits. Ask yourself these seven questions: 

Am I using the right figures? 


How did I calculate my costs?
How did I calculate my savings? 


What about the time value of money? 


What about the period after the payback? 


Must the project’s SPP be less than or equal to the holding period for the property into which the measures are being installed? 


Can SPP reflect cash flow probabilities? 


Do SPP “rules of thumb” even make sense? 


In Landlord/Tenant settings, whose SPP am I calculating? 

Just in case you are thinking, “Wait, but I use Return on Investment!” Return on investment (ROI) is the reciprocal of SPP and suffers from very similar shortcomings. SPP is the first cost divided by year one savings. ROI is year one savings divided by first cost.

EXAMPLE: 

$100,000 investment saves $25,000 in YR1
SPP = $100,000 divided by $25,000 = 4 years
ROI = $25,000 divided by $100,000 = 25%

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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