Understand Your Prospect’s Highest Priority

 

Let’s face it: energy efficiency is not always at the top of everyone’s list of priorities. You may find yourself in a situation where your prospect doesn’t think an efficiency upgrade is the best use of capital. What can you do in a case like this? Find out what does sit atop their list of priorities. You may not be able to help them fulfill their entire wish list.  However, what if you reframed your efficiency offering and demonstrated that the value they would experience by approving your project would provide a path to achieving their most cherished goals?

A few years ago, I was giving a keynote presentation on the East Coast for about 500 energy controls specialists.  Afterwards, someone in the audience approached me at the podium and shared a great story that exemplifies this kind of outside-the-box thinking.

He told me he had been trying to sell a school system on a major HVAC renovation project for many months. The district’s budget director candidly shared, “Listen, improving our HVAC system is not our highest priority right now. What we’re really focused on is our computerization initiative. We’ve already told our board that we’re going to have 1,600 iPads by this time next year, one for each child in grades five and above. We think the iPad project will really help us see better learning outcomes in our district. Bottom line, we need to focus our attention on getting those iPads before we even think about HVAC projects.”

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