SnapCount Insights

We recently sat down with Mark T. Jewell, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved!, to get his expert opinion on how contractors can increase their project close rates.

In Part 1 of our conversation, Mark highlighted the importance of understanding each prospect’s “why,” sharing success stories, and making sure to factor in all variables to show your lighting project’s true value. But Mark also raised questions about one of the most challenging aspects of closing a project:

“In a typical company with 100 employees, you’ll see an average of seven people who have to say ‘yes’ — or at least not say ‘no’ — to your lighting project. In most cases, the person you’re pitching to initially is not in a position to make a unilateral decision.”

One of the things that sets SnapCount apart is that we’re constantly making improvements based on conversations we have with our users. In all of that feedback, there’s one question we hear again and again: “How do I improve my close rate?”

Getting a prospect to say yes to a lighting project isn’t always as simple as demonstrating the energy savings they’ll enjoy with LEDs. In many cases, the person you’re pitching to isn’t even the final decision maker. How can you get the right information in front of the right people in order to close on more projects?

To help us answer these questions, we turned to Mark T. Jewell, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Selling Energy: Inspiring Ideas That Get More Projects Approved. Mark is a much sought-after speaker, but he took time from his travels to share his wisdom with us. Here’s part one of our two-part conversation with Mark.

The last thing any retrofitter wants is for the project to get within a hair’s width of approval … only for the whole thing to come to a screeching halt when the CFO pokes holes in the metrics.

However, many retrofit companies take that risk by using popular metrics that fall apart upon closer scrutiny.

You’ve outlined the retrofit project, discussed the benefits, showed them before-and-after shots of previous projects, and provided case studies. Then, the CFO speaks up, asking whether this project makes good investment sense.

Whether you’re the lighting retrofit company, or the internal champion lobbying to get a project approved, this is the make-or-break moment. If you can prove value to the people holding the purse strings, you’ve conquered the biggest hurdle in your path.

We all have blind spots when it comes to running our businesses. Those spots might be big or small. It might sting a little to hear about them.

And it’s easy enough to dismiss them.

“This is just how we do business,” you might tell yourself. “And we’re doing all right.”

But are you really? And honestly, did you get into the energy-efficient lighting retrofit business to just “do all right”?

Concise communication is vital to virtually any winning sales process. For this reason, you need to make a thoughtfully drafted one-page proposal a no-exceptions best practice. That one-pager needs to focus on the “why” more than the “what,” “how,” “how much,” or “when.” It’s the document that gets your prospect motivated to move forward.

Given the quantity of inefficient lighting still in use in this country, it’s easy to envision a multi-billion-dollar lighting retrofit industry thriving for many years to come.  That said, the retrofitters who will be most successful at tapping into this enormous opportunity will be those who adopt a smarter approach to selling – one that replaces conventional phrases like “save energy, save money” with messaging that really captures executive attention and supports proactive decision-making.