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Eco-entrepreneurs have little time to prepare sales proposals. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
Selling energy efficiency is time consuming, and time is something eco-entrepeneurs lack. In this podcast interview Mark Jewell, Selling Energy CEO, offers some effective, time-saving sales techniques.
Here’s one: Compile a list of stories about successes — and be sure to pepper them with quantitative data about the number of successes, naming the industry, the energy savings, and the numbers of businesses you’ve worked with in that industry.
“The idea is about creating a ‘story archive,’ a strategy that sales managers can adopt that memorializes the ‘oral tradition’ of the past successes that their sales veterans have had. These short stories should be in the heads of all veterans and newbies alike in the sales organization so that they’re better prepared to open conversations and address objections when conveying the value of their efficiency products and services to new prospects,” says Jewell, who is the author of “Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved!”
Jewell gives additional strategies, as well. He tells our readers about “The Three-Sentence Solicitation,” a soft sell, for example.
“You have about 15 seconds to capture your prospects’ attention, whether they are listening to your ‘elevator pitch’ or reading your short letter or email,” he says. His three-sentence formula is both time-efficient and effective in making the most of that first, precious quarter-minute, he says. Learn about how he begins with a “Big Dog” sentence and then gives specifics to convince his clients that he knows what he’s talking about. Learn about such strategies in an Energy Efficiency Markets article that you can find here.
Jewell is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author and expert speaker who focuses on using energy efficiency to create value. He supports other professionals and organizations in overcoming the barriers to implementing projects.
Jewell’s experience includes over 30 years in commercial real estate and 20 years in energy efficiency. Earlier, he helped the EPA deploy both the ENERGY STAR® Buildings Program for Commercial Real Estate and the Portfolio Manager® benchmarking tool.
