Natural gas brokers are faced with some unique challenges when it comes to sales.
First, the deregulated natural gas market is relatively new and consumers don’t have a lot of confidence in it yet. This also means people don’t really understand the industry, much less the more nuanced details of their current natural gas bills.
Secondly, there’s still a stigma that haunts energy brokers in many locations—the idea that they’re ripping off consumers for their own gain.
So closing natural gas sales doesn’t always boil down price. Oftentimes, it also boils down to educating your prospects and building their trust and confidence in you.
Let’s look at 3 ways energy brokers can do just that and close more natural gas deals.
1. Help Consumers Make Sense of Everything
Most consumers don’t know how to read the nuances of their utility bill or their meters.
But that doesn’t help most energy brokers close a sale. In fact, it can hurt them.
If you provide some beneficial natural gas options without explaining the nuances of their bill and your offer, you’re essentially asking the client to take your word for it.
Instead, show them unequivocally that your choice is the best.
Go over their bill and help them understand it so they see clear as day that your deal is their most beneficial option.
2. Build Confidence with Natural Gas Options
For customers, the greatest benefit of energy deregulation is choice. Embrace the element of choice by giving your customers as many options as you can.
Consumers tend to gain confidence from more options. Give them choices by giving them price and savings calculations from numerous suppliers.
But—and this is a big one—you can’t just throw a bunch of information at them and tell them to decide. Guide them to the best choice for them. Because as much as people want more choices, they tend to get overwhelmed by them without some guidance.
Long story short: you should have a weighted, easy-to-understand way to compare natural gas pricing from multiple suppliers and guide your customer to the best option for their needs. It’s a delicate line between giving them more choices and overwhelming the consumer, but when done correctly you can show them that you actually have their best interests in mind.
3. Have the Best Suppliers on Hand
You can show all the comparisons you want, but without a strong showing of popular natural gas suppliers, you can’t ensure your customer that you’ve got the best pricing available.
Not only that, you can oftentimes gain some credibility by offering more popular suppliers in your area.
Not every commercial client knows about energy suppliers, but they’ve probably seen or heard some ads for the big ones in your area. And you can use that brand familiarity to your advantage to show authority in the market.
You don’t need to actually sell them the biggest suppliers – they don’t always offer the best pricing – but having them around will often help prospects gain confidence in you.
Getting the Tools You Need to Close More Natural Gas Sales
Deregulated natural gas is still new to many areas, so energy brokers have unique challenges when it comes to closing natural gas sales. You need to build trust not only in yourself, but your suppliers and the industry itself.
When it comes to commercial clients, the key is offering more options, more familiarity and more transparency for your clients so they can trust you enough to sign the deal.
About Broker Online Exchange
At Broker Online Exchange, we partner with natural gas brokers across North America to give them tools to grow their business. Among our many services, we offer brokers instant access to all the top suppliers in all North American markets, so they can give their clients the options they need to build trust.
Brokers can also access instant pricing comparisons to help them guide customers to the most beneficial solution for their business.
