Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 77

Saving vs. Gaining

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

Effective Conversations with the C-Suite

When you’re discussing financial benefits with the C-suite, not every conversation should be the same.  A CEO is often the “why” person, while a CFO is more often concerned with the numbers.  To put it more simply, when it comes to CFOs, you need to prove the justifiable cost of your project’s benefits.  When it comes to CFOs, you need to prove the financial and non-financial value of those benefits.

Overcoming the "I'm Moving!" Objection

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When you’re selling efficiency solutions in landlord/tenant settings, there are times where you’ll hear the “I’m moving” objection. It comes in two flavors.

Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

If you’re in the energy industry, you might already know this.  But what about the decisions you’re making, whether at home or on the job?  Are you weighing them with as much consideration and seriousness, regardless of your job title or time?

Weekly Recap, February 27, 2022

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

Making the Most of Your Next Industry Conference

Today, many products and services are sold in a single call over the phone.  Other sales are completed with a few finger swipes on a tablet to locate the item and a single click to enter it into a shopping cart and consummate the transaction. However, in more complex selling contexts, if you are looking to uncover ways to grow your company’s business, having face-to-face interactions can be vital, and your industry’s conference can provide the perfect in-person setting. Now that industry conferences are beginning to return in the wake of so many COVID-related cancellations, it’s time you focus on how to make the most of these in-person meetings.

Getting Past the Gatekeeper

A lot of people misunderstand the role of the gatekeeper, such as an executive assistant or receptionist. They assume the gatekeeper’s purpose is to prevent you from making a sale that allows you to send your kids to a good school or to pay your mortgage. The truth is quite different.  If you’re dealing with a gatekeeper who is good at their job, they’re making sure their boss’s time is well spent.  If someone is calling to sell timeshares in Florida, they’re not going to get through.  If the call is about creating genuine value for their boss or their company, or at least making the company easier to manage, then the chances of being put through are higher.

The Older Building Excuse

Every now and then you’ll hear the objection that it’s too hard to make older buildings energy efficient.  I think that's one of the silliest objections I've heard for a couple of reasons, and after thirty years in the business and hearing just about everything, I’m happy to offer some of my favorite ways to address this objection. 

Effectively Motivate a Prospect with Net Present Value

One of the reasons I print out our financial worksheets and juxtapose them with each other is to demonstrate the outcomes of three scenarios for doing an energy efficiency improvement: 

How to Write a One-Page Proposal That Gets a "Yes!"

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In Nancy Duarte’s book Resonate, she says there are people who produce reports, which are ponderous, comprehensive and certainly difficult to read.  At the other end of the spectrum there’s cinema, which people will pay to see and be entertained.