Is selling ETRM like selling double glazing?
I thought about it – really! Should I try telling the head of IT procurement at Deer Energy that I wasn’t going to leave the building till he’d signed a letter of intent? After all, several years previously I had witnessed a successful sale (admittedly on an American sales training video – so I’m not QUITE sure if it was genuine) to a householder of a vacuum cleaner by using a similar technique. In fact, I think I remember a double-glazing sales guy, or maybe it was carpet cleaning, or something, trying that with myself and my wife soon after we were married. Of course, I just went upstairs and brought down a sleeping bag and told him to try it for size as we were going to bed. I think he got the message!
When I first started in sales in 1985, it was all rather different. There was no email, no mobile phone, and even fax machines weren’t particularly common (that’s for the few of you that even remember fax machines). I remember my first sales call. I was selling digital storage oscilloscopes (what???). They were used for many fascinating purposes like analysing explosions, non-destructive testing, and checking the frequency response of loudspeakers – woofers and tweeters – I love those names! I did my first demo and had to call in to head office from a payphone to tell the sales administrator I’d finished and call in my report. I sent in a quote and followed this up a couple of week’s later and they said they would go ahead and order. Easy this selling lark. I didn’t even have to threaten him that I’d put up a tent in the car park till he signed!
Fast forward a few years (quite a few, actually) and I was offered a position as a ‘senior sales executive’ at a leading ETRM vendor. I think they were desperate. I had sold into the energy industry for some years though. Scheduling systems; market price forecasting solutions; generation optimisation software; SCADA systems…so I think they thought I knew what I was doing.
I remember my first interview. It was with the European sales manager/ vice president/ head honcho, or some other wonderful title. He had an interesting background – the ‘benefits’ (I had to get that word in at some stage!!) of which I was to experience later down the line. I passed that interview and the guy told me that he would like me to meet the VP of Sales for a second round interview but he thought I was perfect for the role (I did sit in his office, refusing to go for 4 hours unless he gave me the job …OK, only joking). That interview happened shortly afterwards and they offered me the job. Great salary, great commission, in theory anyway as long as I met my $500M per annum target the first year – well it was a bit less, but with hindsight it may as well have been that amount. And I started working for them. I’m not going to say where I spent my first few weeks training, as it may give the game away – but it was definitely west of my beloved hometown, Manchester.
The training was really excellent – at least they told me it was, so it must have been. Once that was over, I was let loose on the unsuspecting trading, risk, portfolio management and IT managers and directors, to ply my wares. The company’s CRM (customer relationship management) software was unusual. I’d been used to the classic SF.com / ACT / MS Dynamics applications. They all have their plusses and minuses. They were all pretty intuitive to use. Well not this one. It took almost as long to add an account as it did to close a deal! Maybe that was the idea. It meant that the forecasts were always conservative as it was so difficult to use, that you only added a lead if you were about to close the sale. Naturally this went down extremely well with the project team that was going to implement the software.
Once I’d finally entered the account, I had to classify it as a lead or opportunity. Actually, thinking about it, the software used a cubic spline, Lagrangian relaxation algorithm to work that out for you. I think it involved Monte Carlo as well (I thought Nicole Kidman was excellent in that 2011 classic). After a couple of weeks of entering the details into the CRM, it was finally time to call the prospect to organise a meeting.
Was I ready for this? The good news is that I didn’t have to do it from a payphone like in 1985. The bad news was that the prospect clearly thought I had intentions of camping out in his living room as he never returned any calls. Great. You know what? In any form of ‘professional’ sales, the sales exec. is really NOT trying to pester the prospect to death (of course there are notable exceptions to this, but they shall remain nameless…this time). We are really trying to help them to address issues they may have within their operation and we genuinely (and often correctly) think that our software is going to help.
Any form of selling is not for the faint hearted – but ETRM sales is not for the weak hearted – due to the longevity of the typical sales process, only a few survive the wait!
I did eventually get a prospect to answer a call and we set up a meeting to come in and discuss his requirements. I was so excited about this mini success that I emailed my manager. Big mistake! He clearly had time on his hands and said he would like to join me at the meeting. I, being a natural sycophant, said I was thrilled that he could spare the time and maybe we should meet up beforehand to prepare for the meeting. He didn’t think this was necessary as he was sure I knew what I was doing.
So we met in reception at Deer Energy (name changed to protect the innocent – it was really Dear Energy – or at least that’s what the retail switching sites seem to indicate). Which reminds me – I am STILL waiting for my Meercat toy!
I’m sorry, but this is important. It’s been a few weeks since I switched energy provider after my last one went bust. I still haven’t received my Meercat toy from ‘Compare the Market’. I think it’s disgusting. I’m going to call them now, so you’ll have to wait to hear what happened at my meeting. Sorry.
One last thing though. The question in the title…is selling ETRM like selling double glazing?
The answer (obviously) is …ONLY if the ETRM is Windows based!!
Keep in touch and sign up to our Newsletter
