Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 312

Weekly Recap, November 30, 2014

Monday: Read The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg for an in-depth look at the science of habit and how to improve your personal and professional life through habit-change.




Tuesday: Learn what costs should be included in the financial summary of any efficiency project.




Wednesday: Discover the key savings categories to consider when preparing a financial summary. 




Thursday: Learn why business acumen is important for efficiency sales professionals.




Friday: Familiarize yourself with the language of operating budgets so that you can lead a productive discussion with your prospects and clients. 




Saturday: Read this article from Fast Company and learn how productivity mantras can help keep you focused and on task.

 

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Productivity Mantras

One of the best ways to stay productive is to remind yourself to stay productive on a daily basis. I don’t mean simply saying to yourself, “Remember to be productive!” I’m talking about specifics. Create a list of mantras that you can keep in mind everyday, each one pertaining to a specific aspect of productivity. These will serve as simple “best-practice” reminders that will help keep you on track.

Fast Company published an article this week with seven great examples of productivity mantras. Two of my favorites are: “Achieve small goals every day,” and “More is not indicative of better.” I recommend reading the full article for the rest of the list and the explanation of each mantra. And if you’re inspired, consider making your own personal mantra list!

http://www.fastcompany.com/3037625/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/7-daily-mantras-to-boost-your-productivity

 

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Thank you in advance for your support!

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Budgeting and Analysis, Part One

Yesterday, we discussed the importance of business acumen. One of the key components in developing business acumen is having a strong understanding of the language that may be used during discussions with your prospects and customers. In today’s blog, we’ll go over the language of operating budgets.

One of the key things you’re going to hear a lot about is Operating Expenses (sometimes called “Op Ex”). You should know everything there is to know about Operating Expenses so that you can lead a productive discussion. Operating expenses are required for the day-to-day functioning of a business and are comprised of things like wages, utilities, maintenance, repairs, and so forth. All of these categories are sometimes referred to as “Revenue Expenditures.”

In an income-producing property, the landlord faces typical Operating Expenses, such as utilities, housekeeping, repairs and maintenance, roads and grounds, security, and administrative. These are generally known as “Controllable Operating Expenses.” Two examples of “Uncontrollable Operating Expenses” are real estate taxes and insurance.

Two things to keep in mind about operating expenses: they appear on the income statement, and they are fully deducted in the accounting period in which they were incurred. 

On Tuesday, we’ll continue our exploration of the language of budgeting and analysis, so stay tuned!
 

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Thank you in advance for your support!

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The Importance of Business Acumen

Yesterday, we discussed the costs that should be included in your financial summary. Today, we’ll dive into the savings portion of the equation:

Utility tariff: Which utility tariff did you use to calculate the savings? I’m always surprised to see financial summaries that fail to take into consideration off-peak, on-peak, and critical-peak power pricing. In some territories (such as parts of the Pacific Northwest), this is not as relevant since utilities there may charge the same amount per kilowatt-hour regardless of the time of day or year.  However, in many other regions (such as parts of California), you could see a twenty-to-one difference between off-peak power pricing and critical-peak power pricing. You have to be really careful to take into consideration when exactly the savings you are projecting will occur and what the cost per kilowatt-hour is at that particular time.

The start of the savings: When are the savings going to start for your prospect? If the implementation process is long, the savings may not start for many months – and this has an effect on the financial landscape of the project.

Interaction between the measures: If you're putting in a more efficient lighting system, that's one thing. However, what if you were to layer on lighting controls that decrease the time that those lights would be illuminated by 50%? You have to make sure that measure interactions are taken into account.

Savings: In keeping with yesterday’s blog, you need to consider who will be benefitting from the savings. Is it the landlord? Is it the tenants? Is it both? The landlord and the tenants should both understand how the leases are written, what loads are connected to which meters, who pays for those meters, and ultimately, how the savings will be allocated after the retrofit.

 

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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Calculating Savings

Yesterday, we discussed the costs that should be included in your financial summary. Today, we’ll dive into the savings portion of the equation:

Utility tariff: Which utility tariff did you use to calculate the savings? I’m always surprised to see financial summaries that fail to take into consideration off-peak, on-peak, and critical-peak power pricing. In some territories (such as parts of the Pacific Northwest), this is not as relevant since utilities there may charge the same amount per kilowatt-hour regardless of the time of day or year.  However, in many other regions (such as parts of California), you could see a twenty-to-one difference between off-peak power pricing and critical-peak power pricing. You have to be really careful to take into consideration when exactly the savings you are projecting will occur and what the cost per kilowatt-hour is at that particular time.

The start of the savings: When are the savings going to start for your prospect? If the implementation process is long, the savings may not start for many months – and this has an effect on the financial landscape of the project.

Interaction between the measures: If you're putting in a more efficient lighting system, that's one thing. However, what if you were to layer on lighting controls that decrease the time that those lights would be illuminated by 50%? You have to make sure that measure interactions are taken into account.

Savings: In keeping with yesterday’s blog, you need to consider who will be benefitting from the savings. Is it the landlord? Is it the tenants? Is it both? The landlord and the tenants should both understand how the leases are written, what loads are connected to which meters, who pays for those meters, and ultimately, how the savings will be allocated after the retrofit.

 

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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Calculating Costs

As I’m sure most of you know from reading this blog, compelling (and accurate) financial analysis is a key component in selling efficiency effectively. So what exactly is financial analysis? Most people would probably agree that it’s the accurate cost/benefit analysis of a proposed investment. Before you can have accuracy in this analysis, you have to actually ask yourself, “Where do the costs and the benefits come from?” Today, we’ll discuss the costs that should be included in the financial summary of any efficiency project.

Local labor and materials figures: Are you estimating the cost of labor and materials based on the national average or are you taking into consideration the actual costs based on the location of the project?

Prevailing wage considerations: If it’s a government job, did you remember to use prevailing wage considerations?

Demolition, recycling, and disposal costs: These are often overlooked in financial summaries. Don’t forget to include them, because they can have a significant impact on the cost of the project.

Soft costs: Did you remember to include any potential soft costs, such as architectural engineering and consulting fees?

Contingency: I've been in this business for 20 years and I don’t think I can remember a time when a vendor included contingency in the financial summary. Why? Perhaps because they're worried about doing a limbo dance under the simple payback period “maximum threshold” that the customer told them about, and they don’t want to risk any cost increase. That really doesn't do any justice to the customer in the end, so be sure to include contingency upfront.

Rebates and incentives: Rebates and incentives have a tendency to reduce cost (and any savvy sales professional would be sure to include these on the spreadsheet).

Tax benefits: Be sure to separate these from the rebates and incentives. Rebates and incentives can be before-tax or after-tax while tax benefits are generally after-tax. It bothers me when someone says, “You’re going to save a thousand dollars per year in energy bills, and in addition to that, you're going to get a five-hundred dollar tax credit.” Think about that. If you save a thousand dollars in energy bills, assuming that you're a business and you can write that energy off as a cost, you’re really not saving that money; on an after-tax basis you're saving that money times one minus your marginal tax rate. So be careful how you present rebates, incentives, and tax benefits in your analysis.

Payment: Who is actually going to be paying for the first cost of the project? We talked about this recently in the blogs that covered landlord/tenant settings. It’s important for you to know who is paying and to demonstrate how this affects the project from a financial standpoint. 

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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The Power of Habit

Humans are driven by habit. Whether we develop them consciously or subconsciously, our habits have a huge bearing on our day-to-day decisions and actions. As sales professionals, it’s vital that we align our habits with our professional goals – and in many cases, this requires us to make a conscious effort to reverse the ones that get in the way of our goals.

So how do you fix bad habits? The first step is to understand how habits work from a psychological perspective. This equips you with the tools to trick yourself out of unwanted habits and to develop and hone productive ones. In Charles Duhigg’s best-selling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Duhigg provides an in-depth look at the science of habit and how to improve your personal and professional life through habit-change.

Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:

“In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.”

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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Weekly Recap, November 23, 2014

Monday: Read Hug Your Customers, by Jack Mitchell, and discover a wealth of customer-building strategies to keep your business running strong.




Tuesday: Use Neuro-linguistic Programming to gain valuable insights into your prospect’s thought processes.




Wednesday: For an effective elevator pitch, find a balance between clarity, pacing, and energy.




Thursday: Learn how to use challenger selling to convey the true value of your product or service.




Friday: Use realistic statistics and avoid using hyperbole when talking to a prospect.




Saturday: Read this article from LifeHacker and discover a new way of thinking about productivity. 

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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Invest in the Future

When we talk about productivity strategies, we generally talk about actionable tips and tricks that allow us to complete tasks more quickly in the short-term. I read an article on the LifeHacker blog this week that shed light on a whole new way of thinking about productivity. The article proposed that we think about productivity in terms of “time debts” and “time assets.” In other words, is what I’m about to do going to require extra work down the line, or is it an investment that will actually save me time?

An example of a “time debt” would be sending an email that you know would require follow-up. Once you click “send,” you’re committed to reading a response, and, in many cases, responding to that response. If you don’t really need to send the email, don’t send it.

An example of a “time asset” would be setting up an FAQ on your website so that you don’t have to field so many questions from people who visit your site. This takes extra effort upfront; however, it becomes an “asset” that saves you time in perpetuity.

So how do you put this concept into practice? Think about how your actions affect the use of your time. Invest in things that will save you time in the future and avoid things that will cost you time unnecessarily. For more on this topic, I highly recommend reading the full article:

http://lifehacker.com/time-assets-and-debts-a-different-way-of-thinking-abou-1658835903

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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Beware of Hyperbole

When you’re giving an elevator pitch or talking to a prospect, it can be tempting to throw in a statistic about your most successful project. Perhaps in the wake of one of your projects, you managed to reduce a client’s energy spending by 50%. While it’s great to put your best foot forward and to demonstrate the significant impact your product or service can have, be careful that you don’t hyperbolize. 

If someone told you they could save you 50% on your energy bill, you’d probably be skeptical – and rightfully so. Regardless of whether or not this percentage is true, it just seems fishy. So rather than presenting the outlier (your most successful project), use a realistic yet compelling statistic if you’re going to talk numbers at all. Here’s an example:

“I see you're in the healthcare industry. We worked on six hospitals last year. I was just looking at the summary report we prepared internally, and I'm pretty sure the average amount of energy we saved each one of those hospitals was around 12%.” 

(In this hypothetical situation, one hospital ended up saving way more than the others. However, I chose to use a lower number that was believable and still compelling.)

So, don’t let your prospect come to the conclusion that you’re exaggerating or that you’re not a trustworthy person, even if you did in fact produce extraordinary results for one of your clients. Additionally, if your prospect is not deterred by your hyperbole and he or she chooses to do business with you, you’ve set expectations that may be difficult to uphold. Bottom line: be compelling without being unrealistically compelling.

We need your vote! Help us make Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved! the #1 sales and marketing book of 2014. Click the link below to cast your vote. You may vote once every 12 hours between now and December 12th - no sign up required.

http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesawards/vote/top-sales-marketing-book-2014/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”

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