Energy brokers are always on the go prospecting new customers, meeting with clients, and negotiating the supply of electricity and natural gas. In the modern era, where traditional processes are becoming digitized, there are a few tools that you should have to make your job easier.
Here are the top energy broker tools our successful sales partners use on a daily basis:
Document Storage App
While we provide our sales partners with a sophisticated CRM system to track their customers, a document storage app is always a good idea to remain organized. Energy brokers are constantly dealing with loads of paperwork. From utility bill copies to proposals to contracts, energy brokers need a good filing system.
Since most of these documents are digital these days, using a cloud storage application to organize your prospect and customer data is a must. Here are some free cloud document storage apps that some of our partners use:
- Google Drive
- DropBox
- Microsoft One Drive
All of these applications have mobile apps that can be downloaded to your iPhone or Android device. Having your document storage app on your phone makes it simple to access signed contracts or bill copies when you’re on the road or at home.
Pro Tip: Make a folder for each of your customers and organize them in alphabetical order. Be sure to save all information you collect from each customer in the appropriate folder.
Did you also know that many of these applications have desktop integration functionality? In other words, you can install Google Drive on your computer and save documents directly to the cloud. Here is a quick video on How to Download and Install Google Drive on Your Desktop:
Mobile Scanning App
Next, a mobile scanning app should be one of the most used applications on your phone. Yes, we know many customers nowadays are tech savvy and know how to download bill copies from their utility’s online portal and email them to you. However, there are many more customers who are less computer-literate and prefer using paper.
Enter the mobile scanning app. Downloading one of these free phone apps will make your life much easier. You can use a scanning app to take pictures of bills and contracts with your phone, turn them into PDFs, and email them easily to your broker or pricing desk. Here are some of the mobile scanning apps we recommend:
- Scannable
- Adobe Scan
- Genius Scan
Scanning apps can be used to scan bill copies to get pricing, copies of supply contracts for comparison, or any other pertinent documents for your day-to-day activities.
Pro Tip: When scanning bill copies for your pricing desk, be sure to include all copies in a single scan. That way, your pricing desk does not have to open multiple files to custom price an account for you.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
Last but not least, is a solid CRM system to track your customer information and deal data. Remember, it is your goal as an energy broker to build a book of customers who stay with you for a long period of time. That way, you can develop a solid residual income stream.
In order to do that, you must be great at following up with your customers when their contracts come due so you can renew them. If you do not have some sort of CRM system where you enter your deal information, it is very easy to get disorganized and miss opportunities.
CRM systems can also be great for prospecting. If your CRM system allows, you can enter prospect information, opportunities, tasks, and activities. This allows you to stay on top of potential prospects so they do not sign with another broker. A good CRM system will also allow you to conduct some email marketing to your customers and prospects so you can continually keep your name in front of them.
Diversegy’s ELIAS
Diversegy’s ELIAS energy broker CRM platform enables our energy brokers to win new accounts and manage their existing customers more effectively. Here are some of the many features offered through ELIAS:
Prospecting & Pricing
ELIAS allows our brokers to submit new pricing requests directly in the portal. Simply upload the pertinent documents and let our pricing desk get to work. You can view custom price quotes from suppliers, sort matrix pricing on the go, and even generate professional price quotes to present to customers.
Commission Tracking
ELIAS has a commission tracking system that will display all income earned for each energy contract and the respective utility account. If you’re tired of wondering when and how much you will be paid, ELIAS eliminates the need to manually track energy broker commissions. Simply log in to your portal to view your deals, expected commissions, and pay statements.
Renewal Reminders
Nothing is harder than getting a new customer, so it’s important that you do everything in your power to keep them once you do. Not having the right tools can lead to missed renewal deadlines, market pricing opportunities, and lost accounts. ELIAS notifies our brokers when customer contracts are nearing expiration, so they can effectively manage their book of contracts and keep the residual income flowing.
Key Features to Look For in an Energy Broker CRM
If you are in the market for a robust energy broker CRM platform, be sure that it has the following features that will help you run your business better:
- Pricing Tools: You want the ability to sort matrix pricing from multiple suppliers with ease. Nothing bogs down an operation more than having to open and compare multiple Excel files.
- Contract Management: Your CRM should include a central database to track customers, utility account numbers, energy usage, and contracts. This data becomes central to your energy broker strategy and managing customers effectively.
- Commission Management: The system should be able to forecast accounts receivable so you can project future revenue. If you have sub-agents or salespeople, be sure that the CRM can also calculate their commissions to eliminate any manual reporting.
- Market Insights: A good energy CRM should give you access to some sort of market data and trends. While wholesale natural gas and power market data can be expensive, some tools can evaluate supplier matrix pricing to give you the same price curves. This becomes essential when trying to help customers implement sophisticated hedging strategies.
- Security: Energy contracts contain sensitive customer data. It is important that your CRM tool is secure and built to withstand cyber attacks. If your customer data is leaked, a competitor might get access to your customers’ contract information and use it to solicit your clients. Even worse, you could be liable for such a data breach.
Brokerage Management Software
When evaluating brokerage management software its important to make the distinction between building management systems (BMS) and customer relationship management systems (CRM). BMS tools are also utilized in the energy sector to evaluate electricity usage in a customer’s facility. While these tools can be effective in developing energy efficiency strategies and helping clients to manage capacity tags through peak shaving, they do not provide the same level of insight as a CRM tool.
Diversegy’s energy brokerage management software, ELIAS, allows our brokers to price new accounts, develop professional customer quotes, manage contract renewals and data, and track energy commissions. A CRM tool becomes paramount to your success as a broker as it is the foundation of all data needed to manage your customers.
Data Analytics & Market Data Tools
Real-time energy analytics play an important role in implementing and managing a hedging strategy for your customers. If you place your customer on a hybrid energy product, such as a block + index product, it’s important to have insights into energy forward market data so you can tell your customers when to hedge. Much of this data is proprietary to market exchanges, such as NYMEX and ICE, but can be purchased with an annual license. There are some new tools in the market today that allow brokers visibility into futures contract prices so they can help their clients manage future price risk.
Digital Presence Tools
If you are looking for ways to grow your energy broker business, there are several online channels that can help you get in front of new prospects. Traditional social media outlets, such as LinkedIn, can be very beneficial for promoting your services to business clients. LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool allows you to search for contacts based on pre-defined criteria to develop a prospect list. Other tools, like HREFS and SEMrush, can help you develop your website to rank higher in search results for energy broker services.
