As an energy broker, your business relies on your ability to sell yourself, as well as your service. The deregulated energy industry is new to many parts of the country, and there isn’t a general recognition of the need for energy brokers in every state or territory. You’ll have to be convincing, rather than assuming your customer understands why they need you in the first place.
Selling isn’t always as easy as some make it sound, and not everyone is the natural born salesman you’re always hearing about. Luckily, anyone can learn to sell well, whether you’re introverted or outgoing – it just takes practice, sincerity, and a little help from the pros. We’ve gathered some of their best advice on selling, so that you can learn a thing or two for your next pitch.
Butch Bella, a sales, marketing, and business coach, says that part of the secret lies in keeping a high level of productivity. “Most salespeople could immediately improve their productivity if they’d simply focus on spending their selling hours on selling. Eliminate all other time-wasters and put all their efforts in those hours toward tasks that move them closer to a sale. From needlessly checking email every hour to paperwork to just plain busywork, once they begin to identify these habits they’re much easier to break.”
Josh James, CEO of Domo and former CEO and founder of Omniture, believes in maintaining a focus on sales within your business. “Sales-driven cultures can really differentiate you from the majority of your competition. That doesn’t mean being salesperson oriented, just sales oriented: winning deals, smelling the blood and going in for the kill.”
Aaron Ross, author of Predictable Revenue, says that pursuing the customer that will give you the most revenue is the best solution for businesses. “If you’re doing prospecting, it’s not profitable to focus on smaller customers. Your ideal outbound customer should represent the largest revenue size or opportunity you can find that you can likely win.”
Mike Bosworth, author of Solution Sellinghas this to say— “The best salespeople know that their expertise can become their enemy in selling. At the moment they are tempted to tell the buyer what “he needs to do,” they instead offer a story about a peer of the buyer.”
And finally, we have a quote from Bob Perkins, the founder of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. “Today’s inside sales teams must continue to take the lead on embracing and adopting the technology that will help advance the sales process and profession.”
Adopting technology that will help you run your business and generate sales is never a bad idea. That’s why we’ve created our EnergyEngine platform. EnergyEngine provides you with the world’s most sophisticated point-of-sale, contract sourcing, management and compliance tool. This means you can concentrate on selling, without worrying about the administrative details that take up so much of your time and energy. If you think your energy brokerage could benefit from EnergyEngine, contact Broker Online Exchange today.
