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Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 318
October 1, 2014
You Don’t Need the Rebate
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Have you ever encountered a prospect who would only approve a project if it qualified for a rebate or incentive? Perhaps they said something like, “Efficiency upgrades used to make sense when there were a lot more rebates. If you can’t get me a rebate on this project, I’m not interested.” Today, we’ll discuss why statements like these reflect at least two myths, and how you should preemptively neutralize objections.
As some of you may know, I was the founder and CEO of a rebate administration business before co-founding the Efficiency Sale Professional Institute. When I started that business model in 2003, there were about $1.5 billion worth of efficiency programs in the US and Canada. The last time I looked, there were about $9 billion. As you can clearly see, rebates are not a thing of the past – they’re still alive and well today.
So, the first myth is that there are less rebates now than before. The opposite is actually true.
The second myth is that you need a rebate or incentive to justify a project.
How do you convince someone that the project is worth pursuing, even without a rebate? I take the position that most projects, once properly penciled, should not need rebates or incentives to make them cost-effective. That said, rebates and incentives can help justify pursuing higher-first-cost, premium-efficiency equipment. However, a true sales professional is not deterred by a lack of "free money" to help pay for a project.
If you recall the blog I wrote last week about the three value “buckets” (utility-cost financial benefits; non-utility-cost financial benefits; and, non-financial benefits), you’ll know that there are many different ways to demonstrate value. The benefits from the second and third “buckets” – when calculated properly – can have a direct financial impact on the project. By “calculated properly,” I mean quantified and monetized properly so that they can be appropriately incorporated into a proposed project’s financial summary. Once you do that, you might just find that the denominator is greatly enhanced with benefits that far outweigh projected monthly utility savings, rebates, and/or incentives.
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September 30, 2014
The Buyer’s Mindset
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One of the keys to success in sales is knowing what the buyer is thinking. If you can predict what might be going through your prospect’s mind, you’ll be well-positioned to address any questions or concerns ahead of time.
Marketing expert Jeffrey Gitomer tells a story in one of his books about an experience he had with a prospect. While Jeffrey was giving his sales pitch, the prospect was writing furiously on a legal pad. The speed at which he was writing seemed to bear no resemblance to what Jeffrey was actually saying in terms of pace and magnitude.
So he did what every sentient sales professional should do in that situation: he stopped talking and asked the prospect something like, "What in the world are you writing on that pad? It seems to bear no resemblance to what I’m saying." The buyer responded, “Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I've just got this long list of questions that I need to ask and answer for myself before I feel good about doing business with a vendor.”
Jeffrey, not being timid, said, “Well, maybe you should give me that list of questions because I still have 20 minutes left in my presentation. Maybe I could help you address some of them.” At that point the buyer said something like, "Well, how about you just do the rest of your presentation and we’ll see if we buy from you. I’ll make you a deal: if we do buy from you, I'll give you my list of questions." Fortunately for Jeffrey, he made the sale. And fortunately for us, he got the list of questions which he shared in his e-book, “Buying Motives: Little E-Book of Why People Buy.”
Today, I’d like to share a list of questions that will help you determine what your buyer is actually thinking (adapted from Gitomer’s e-book). Keep this list in mind the next time you approach a new prospect, and consider how you might help your prospect come to the right conclusions:
What do you offer?
What do you offer that no one else has?
What do you offer of value?
Does it really fit my need?
It is real world?
Will it work?
Will it work in our environment?
How will it impact our people?
How could it impact our success?
Will senior or executive management buy in?
Will my people use it?
How will we produce as a result of the purchase?
How will we profit as a result of the purchase?
Do I trust the people I’m buying from?
Do I trust their ability to deliver what they promise?
How will it come together?
How do we buy it?
Do I have the comfort to sign off now?
You can buy a copy of Gitomer’s e-book HERE.
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September 29, 2014
The First 90 Days
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Whether you have experience in leadership or not, transitioning to a new leadership position can be difficult. If you are promoted to a management role in your current company, you are probably going to be overseeing employees that were once your equals. If you are joining a new company, you are going to be managing a team of people with whom you may have never before worked. Both of these scenarios present their own set of challenges, and you should be prepared to face those challenges right from the start.
In leadership, first impressions are vital. A successful leader exudes confidence and manages with consistency, and this begins on day one. According to Michael Watkins, in his book The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, the first three months on the job determine a leader’s success. Whether you’re about to move into a management role or think you may someday want to, this book is a great guide for how to make the transition seamlessly and successfully.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“Fully a quarter of all managers in major corporations enter new leadership roles each year. Whether their assignments involve leading a work group or taking over a company as CEO, they face very similar challenges – and risks – in those critical first months on the job. How new leaders manage their transitions can make all the difference between success and failure.
“In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. Concise and practical, The First 90 Days walks managers through every aspect of the transition, from mental preparation to forging the right alliances to securing critical early wins. Through vivid examples of success and failure at all levels, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides tools and strategies for how to avoid them.”
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September 28, 2014
Weekly Recap, September 28, 2014
Monday: If you're interested in learning about how sales strategies can further your career, read The Accidental Salesperson: How to Take Control of Your Sales Career and Earn the Respect and Income You Deserve, by Chris Lytle.
Tuesday: Discover some more strategies for reframing the value of efficiency when selling to homeowners.
Wednesday: Learn why it's valuable to find compelling benefits for your products and services – particularly those that fall into the non-utility-cost and non-financial buckets.
Thursday: This blog covers some strategies for reframing the benefits of efficiency when selling to prospects in the healthcare industry.
Friday: Energy efficiency has the potential to greatly improve productivity. Read a report titled Greening the Building and the Bottom Line for a great case study that you can use when meeting with prospects.
Saturday: Read this article from Forbes and learn some strategies for staying productive during the writing process.
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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September 27, 2014
It’s Time to Write
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Writing can seem like a chore sometimes – particularly when you need to craft a concise and persuasive message. Take a one-page proposal, for example. While you may be able to easily jot down all of the benefits of your product or service, the technical specs, the construction or implementation process, and so forth, there simply isn’t room on the page for extraneous text. The laborious process of creating a persuasive message and focusing that message on the core elements often lends itself to procrastination. And as we all know, procrastination is detrimental to productive business.
So how do you keep yourself on track and avoid procrastination? An article published this week on the Forbes blog has some great strategies for staying productive during the writing process. I highly recommend reading this article and considering how these tips and tricks might benefit you:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/francesbooth/2014/09/25/top-productivity-tips-for-writers/
Also check out the second portion of this blog article, which contains additional strategies for productive writing: http://www.forbes.com/sites/francesbooth/2014/09/26/top-productivity-tips-for-writers-part-two/
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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September 26, 2014
Proving the Productivity Boost
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Earlier this week, I wrote about the three “value categories” that you can bring to the table when proposing a project: utility-cost financial benefits; non-utility-cost financial benefits; and, non-financial benefits. One of the most significant (and most frequently overlooked) non-utility-cost financial benefits is the increase in productivity that businesses often experience in the wake of an efficiency retrofit.
If you plan to use “improved productivity” as a selling point, you should be prepared to back it up with data. One of the best studies that I’ve come across covering the intersection of energy efficiency and productivity is a report titled Greening the Building and the Bottom Line. Published back in 1994, this report is a joint effort from the Department of Energy and the Rocky Mountain Institute. While this study was performed more than twenty years ago, it clearly demonstrates the significant correlation between energy efficiency and productivity – a fact that still holds true today.
Here’s a summary of the findings:
Lockheed: 15% rise in production; 15% drop in absenteeism
West Bend Mutual Insurance: 16% increase in claims processed
ING bank: 15% drop in absenteeism
Verifone: 5% increase in productivity; 40% drop in absenteeism
If you are going to emphasize the benefits of energy efficiency on productivity in your value proposition, I highly recommend coming to the table with this report – and any others you might find – when you meet with a prospect. You’ll be prepared to back up any skepticism you might encounter with real-world data from a reputable source.
Click here to read the report.
Interested in finding more contemporary data to support your argument? Check out the work done by Vivian Loftness and her colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University.
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September 25, 2014
Reframing Efficiency for Healthcare
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Today, we’re going to discuss how to reframe the benefits of efficiency when selling to prospects in the healthcare industry.
Non-profit healthcare: How much additional revenue do you think a non-profit healthcare organization would have to capture to equal $1 in energy savings? I think you'll be surprised to learn that it's $20 in new revenues for hospitals and $10 in new revenues for medical office buildings.
A Budget Director at a non-profit healthcare organization is probably not going to get up in the morning and say, "I wish I could save some terms today" or "I sure hope I can save some kilowatt-hours when I get to the office." Rather, he or she is far more likely to say, "How are we doing with revenue growth and profitability? Do we have positive figures to report to our backers? What do we need to do to remain viable financially?"
Bottom line, if you say to your prospect, “Every dollar that you save in energy is equivalent to getting $20 in new revenues,” you're telegraphing something that they care about and using a yardstick that they use regularly to measure their own success.
For-profit healthcare: In the for-profit healthcare industry, every 5% reduction energy cost can boost earnings per share by a penny. That would mean a hospital, medical office, or nursing home that is publicly traded would likely experience a one-cent increase for every 5% reduction in energy cost. When you’re selling in the for-profit healthcare sector, earnings per share is a very significant metric, and it’s one that would help your prospect immediately see the value in your project.
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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September 24, 2014
The Real Value
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In selling efficiency, there are three main “value categories” that you can bring to the table when proposing a project: utility-cost financial benefits; non-utility-cost financial benefits; and, non-financial benefits. The more benefits you can come up with in each of these categories, the more value your offering has (and hence, the more likely your prospect will approve the project).
If you can come up with new, significant benefits for your product or service through brainstorming, research, and discussions with past clients, you’ll increase the strength of your value proposition. I like to share real-world examples on this blog from time to time as a way of getting the wheels spinning in your mind about what sorts of possibilities are out there. The following example comes from Nualight, an LED lighting company based in Ireland:
To determine the full benefits of an LED retrofit in the frozen section of grocery store, Nualight collected before-and-after data on a grocery store that replaced fluorescent lights with LEDs. In addition to the expected benefits (lower utility bill, longer lasting bulbs, less required maintenance, etc.), they found that this particular grocery store had 19% higher sales in the wake of installing LED lights. In the grocery business, utility costs are significant; however, the utility cost savings in this case are far less compelling than the increase in sales.
According to the study (which you can find HERE), the retrofit resulted in a payback of only five months! The report notes that an increase in sales of even 3% would be enough to reduce the payback to less than one year.
So what’s the moral of the story? Go out and find compelling benefits for your products and services – particularly those that fall into the non-utility-cost and non-financial buckets. If you only focus on the most obvious benefits, you’re leaving potential business 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 Jewell Insights, Mark Jewell's daily blog on ideas and inspiration for advancing efficiency. Sign up at SellingEnergy.com.”
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September 23, 2014
Efficiency for the Homeowner, Part Two
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Today, we’ll continue with some more strategies for reframing the value of efficiency when selling to homeowners.
Safety / maintaining a healthy home
Fire/carbon monoxide warnings
Motion-activated lighting to protect against intruders
Removing toxic substances from the air
Using utility bill savings to afford more leisure
People don’t make decisions – they make comparisons
Compare the utility cost savings to the cost of leisure activities (concert tickets, vacations, etc.)
Hedging against utility price spikes
Spending less on utility bills reduces the impact of utility price spikes
If you’re selling solar, you should definitely emphasize this fact
Supporting an easier sale and/or higher price
Prospective buyers who value efficiency will be more likely to buy your home than other inefficient homes on the market (easier sale)
Homes with demonstrable exceptional energy efficiency sell for as much as 9 percent more than standard homes (check out this study for more information)
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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September 22, 2014
The Accidental Salesperson
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The word “sales” often has a stigma attached to it. For many people, it conjures up images of the stereotypical “pushy” used car salesperson. Customer-facing professionals who are not in traditional “sales” roles may be reluctant to identify as “sales professionals” as a result of this stigma. I firmly believe that all customer-facing professionals – regardless of their official job title – must understand the fundamentals of professional selling.
If you are in a customer-facing role and do not have a background in selling, I highly recommend reading The Accidental Salesperson: How to Take Control of Your Sales Career and Earn the Respect and Income You Deserve, by Chris Lytle. This book provides a high-level overview of the principles of effective selling, and is a practical guide for anyone interested in learning about how sales strategies can further their career.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“This text gives salespeople who did not plan on a sales career a blueprint for dramatically improving their sales skills and results. It guides the reader through every aspect of the selling process and offers plenty of techniques to outpace others in the business of selling.”
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, 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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