Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 98

Assemble a Story Archive

It is my studied observation, having been in the business for over 25 years, that the most effective sales professionals in the industry are the ones who can tell their prospects stories about helping people in similar circumstances. 

10 Elevator Pitch Tips

An elevator pitch is how will you capture someone's attention in 15 seconds or less. It needs to be sensitive to what that person's segment is, what their organizational orientation is, and their role within that system. This also applies to where they are in their career. Ask yourself: are they a young buck trying to gain access to the boardroom? Are they nearing retirement? Are they comfortable where they are? Are they seeking a promotion or a raise?

Make Yourself TED-Worthy

When it comes to designing presentations, my go-to books are Nancy Duarte’s Resonate and Slide:Ology. However, if you’re looking for supplemental material on how to master the art of storytelling and persuasion, then look no further than Akash Karia’s writings on TED Talks. He has written four books on how to incorporate the best of those award-winning speeches into your own.

Weekly Recap, August 1, 2021

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

26 Habits of Incredibly Successful Sales Professionals

It doesn’t matter how many great ideas you have – unless you are able to communicate your ideas effectively, you might as well not have them. People who communicate well, do well. You have to be an effective and persuasive communicator in order to make something happen. 

Keeping Grandma Warm

Regardless of what we’re selling, we have to make a case for saying yes.  With energy efficiency it’s even trickier, since we’re often in situations where we have to guess our way to a solution.  How do we do that?   The usual.  We do our research before our pitch.  We talk to our prospects at length.  We ask questions, probing for the emotional “why” that will make our prospect say yes.  

Strides in Agricultural Lighting

Every now and then you hear about amazing strides being made in the field.  Technology continues to change and adapt, but its unforeseen effects on end users are where the surprises happen. 

Don’t Sweat the Tax Stuff

My philosophy is that when it comes to tax benefits and other reasons to do an energy projects, be careful not to let the tail wag the dog.  When you’re pitching, don’t delve into tax credits or deductions.  They can be problematic for the following reasons:

Reframing Savings-to-Investment Ratio for Homeowners

If you’ve attended my sales training or are a frequent reader of this blog, you know I'm a big fan of using savings-to-investment ratio (SIR) to showcase the benefits of expense-reducing capital investments (see last week’s “The Power of Savings-to-Investment”).  It’s a simple way to showcase how many dollars of present value you would receive for each dollar invested today.  

Big Debt Crisis

It’s a famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It has only been twelve years since the Great Recession and we are currently in the midst of another. How are these economic patterns created? What can be done to better prepare and sustain ourselves when we find ourselves in a crisis?