Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 48

Becoming a Master Innovator

Being an innovator won’t always gain you popularity points, and in times like these, many folks think it’s more prudent to play it safe. But is that the best approach? Upgrading aspects of your work life can reap extraordinary benefits. The tricks lie in planning ahead and convincing others that taking risks is worth it.

Weekly Recap, December 18, 2022

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

Changing Your Expectations

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."
—James Keller (Happy Hanukkah!)

It’s been a year since our home and work lives have merged together into one. The usual check-ins and business meetings now almost always overlap with our housekeeping duties and our personal lives. In some cases, our co-workers, employers, customers and prospects are seeing aspects of our daily lives that were off-limits before. With all of these changes, how should this affect the way we value our work performance?

Using Emotions to Sell

I've often said that most buying decisions are made emotionally and then justified financially.  I'm not suggesting “emotional” as in someone crying on the couch holding a box of tissues, but rather emotional motivation.  Ask yourself, what is your customer focused on achieving?  What are they most concerned with?  Where are their time and effort invested? 

How to Understand a Utility Bill

I was recently asked about the best way to read a prospect’s utility bills. Fortunately, I’ve been in the energy business nearly 30 years, so I've seen my share of bills throughout my career.

How to Deal with Difficult Customers: 6 Tips

It has happened to all of us: we’ve encountered a prospect who is demanding and difficult throughout the sales process. What are the best ways to deal with them? Here are some tips from my own experience, as well as some contributions from other sales professionals.

"Would You Like Fries with That?"

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How often do you find yourself working with a customer whose idea of a lighting retrofit is the lowest common denominator? They just want to switch to LEDs. More often than not, their decisions are based on the erroneous assumption that all LEDs are alike. They certainly haven’t considered the possibility of investing a bit more time and capital to enhance the retrofit’s savings potential and/or longevity. It may take a while to get the prospect to realize that all LEDs are not, in fact, the same. And once you help them make a better selection with the help of your expertise, you might add the equivalent of, “Would you like fries with that?”

How to Stay Ahead of Any Crisis

It has long been acknowledged that we are in the middle of a crisis, with most likely more to come considering a variety of factors. That’s where a book like Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals and Other Emergencies can serve as a “how-to” and a survival bible for the challenges currently happening and ahead.

Weekly Recap, December 11, 2022

Here are our sales-enhancing tips from this week's Selling Energy Blogs...

The Magic Words

When we think about negotiating, it’s easy to default to thinking that it involves a lot of forethought and communication. That is not necessarily true. In order to build a rapport, it needs to go both ways.