We spoke to Wayne Mitchell, head of corporate sales at npower and asked him how he got his start in the fast-paced world of energy sales.
1. What was the first thing you sold?
Directories and conferences to the coal industry – I’d just done a degree in mining and energy.
2. Did you intend to go into sales when you started your career?
No, I just knew that I wanted to work in the energy sector. To be truthful it took some convincing to get me into sales jobs, mainly because I couldn’t see a career path, but in fact sales gives you lots of general business experience.
Before I moved into a sales role I’d done a few commercial relations and business development roles in npower, which taught me about how to take ideas and make them profitable, which is invaluable for a sales role.
3. What’s the single most important quality you need to succeed as a salesperson?
I can’t single out one key quality, but there are a range of skills and abilities that make for a rounded salesperson. It’s that range and scope of abilities I’m looking for when I recruit someone. You can’t write a template for the perfect salesperson but you can see when someone might be good at it, they will be confident, highly knowledgeable, commercially astute, and good at listening.
4. What is the one thing you would love to sell?
Products or services that are revolutionary or pioneering, or that are industry changing and of genuine benefit or value. I think it would be really interesting to sell the passenger flights on Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s commercial spaceship.
5. What is the last thing you’d want to sell?
Products or services that I don’t believe in or aren’t worth the price I’m selling them for.
6. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It’s the three times rule. When you’re making a presentation or a pitch tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them. It’s something that I’ve carried over to sales – knowing the key points and benefits of your products and making sure the customer has understood them.
7. What advice would you give to someone following in your footsteps?
Know the details. Salespeople tend to be good at the big picture, knowing the benefits of their products, but forget to learn the fine details. But details are so important because they build the customer’s confidence in you and convinces them that you are the real expert, which creates long-term relationships.
8. What did you buy with your first bonus?
I went on holiday to South Africa with friends – golf, safari, rugby, drinking, the usual stuff that 21 year olds do!
9. Who do you most admire in your industry?
Michael O’Leary of Ryanair. Whenever I see him interviewed he is provocative, opinionated, passionate, and challenging; it makes me want to listen to him. He has been part of the air travel revolution and has challenged the industry, transformed it, and maintained a viable business model. I admire people who think big, who do something radical and change an industry.
10. How would you sell ice to an Eskimo?
I think it needs a bit of product development! Eskimos have ice in abundance so you need to make your ice more useful or efficient to sell it. How about reshaping it, or hollowing it, to make blocks lighter to carry and more thermally efficient?
11. How important is image for a salesperson?
It’s absolutely vital. I will pick up on any one of my team who isn’t dressing or acting appropriately. You have to look and act in a business-like way if you are going to inspire confidence in clients.
But it’s more than just dressing sharply - it’s the whole image, you need to be seen as someone who knows what they’re talking about, have pride in themselves and their work, and that you know your subject.
12. What is the single most important skill you need to close a sale?
It’s an instinct, knowing that this is the exact moment to either start talking figures or if it isn’t going to work, no matter how much time you put into it, to walk away.
Closing is very important, but closing in the right way. Real selling is about creating lasting relationships rather than one-off deals, so you’re not only looking to close, but close in a way that secures a customer for the long-term.
13. Has anything ever gone wrong, that in hindsight, has worked out well for you?
There are always transactions and pitches that you didn’t win which you can learn from, particularly from early in your career. If something goes wrong the best thing to do is accept it, learn from it, and get on with the next thing.
14. What’s been your biggest success?
This is a tough one because I don’t like to dine out on past successes but there’s nothing better than winning a contract through a hard fought negotiation. The best deal is the most recent one we have closed in my team. This industry is changing constantly and you really are only as good as your last deal.
15. If you were to pack up your desk and leave today, what would you like to be known for?
Leading and supporting a sales team that won deals which really added value by lasting for five or even ten years. But I’ve got no illusions: once you’ve left a business or a team you're quickly forgotten.
16. How has sales changed from when you started out?
When I started in the power sector there were lots of very simple fixed price deals: now it’s become far more complex. There’s an increasing pressure on sales people to really understand the products, but to make all that complexity simple and real for our customers.
17. What are the current challenges facing your industry?
Like most industries, we’ve had to contend with a challenging economy and how it impacts upon our end users. We’ve also had to deal with dramatic changes in the prices of energy and increasing legislation around the green economy.
Being a service provider means working as partner rather than as a supplier, helping and advising clients with issues like efficiency and sustainability. We’re no longer selling a power supply but credibility and comfort – our customers need to know that their businesses will get the power and services they need, when they need them.
18. How has the digital age changed sales?
Less in my specific market, which is supplying a low number of high value businesses, than it has among my colleagues in the mass consumer market. Consumers are now much better informed and are more able to shop around for the best deals.
In our market the digital age has allowed end users to make commodity purchasing decisions in real time based on quality supporting information. Digital remains just one of the channels to market though, we shouldn’t forget the traditional routes.
19. What will never change?
Unless we move to a completely commoditised market there will always be the need to communicate with real people. You’ll always need real people to push and drive the sales.
20. Who is the best salesman ever, real or fictional?
The sales people who interest me most aren't one or two individuals but a whole group - politicians, particularly during election campaigns. I’m fascinated to see how they explain and sell ideas and policies to millions of people. They are incredibly well prepared and briefed, using highly sophisticated PR and marketing campaigns. I think we could learn a lot from them.
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