Mark Hunter's Blog, page 14

How to Use ChatGPT and AI to Sell

Feel like AI is taking over everything? 

The rules keep changing on this, but what I want you to remember is: ChatGPT is nothing more than a very hyperactive search engine. 

Don’t run from it! ChatGPT is a tool to leverage. Embrace it!

ChatGPT can give you a tremendous amount of information, but don’t think for a moment it’s going to replace you as a salesperson.

Rather, keep one thing in mind: Not only are you using it to help you sell, but your customers are using it to help them make buying decisions. Let’s break this down.

Customers aren’t always receiving good information.

One thing happening right now is customers are using ChatGPT to find out information about what to buy. This gives them knowledge and information, but it can also give them bad information. 

For example, I can ask ChatGPT a very specific question. However, I can turn around and ask that same question an hour later and get a different answer. You see, AI is using real time, so guess what? Answers change. It’s one of the risks of our customers using AI, so you’re going to have to spend more time de-educating.

via Late Night with Seth Meyers on GIPHYHow should I use it?

Let’s put that aside for now. Let’s talk about you as a salesperson.

ChatGPT is a powerful tool to help give you lists, ideas, as well as talking points to help guide you in what you should be looking for. However, it is not the tool to help you write a perfect email, or to give you the perfect introduction to something. 

Read more about 10 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Sales

If anybody is thinking, “I’m going to get AI to crank out a perfect prospecting email and then I’m going to send it out to 10,000 people.” Guess what? You just sent out 10,000 stupid emails. Nice job. Thank you for messing it up for everyone else. 

via hero0fwar on GIPHY

The key to using ChatGPT is not to type in something general, like ‘how to sell.’ Rather try, ‘how to sell to CEOs who are looking for a…’ The more specific you can get, the better the answer you’re going to get. But remember, it’s still just what it’s pulling off the internet.

ChatGPT is a tool to start your thinking. 

It is not a tool to finish your thinking or to develop the exact commentary you’re going to share. For example, I can ask ChatGPT to provide me with the questions that customers might have regarding a specific product or service, or how to use them. And it’s going to give me back some questions, great! 

Now it’s time to use your best judgment. Some of those questions can be pretty lame and dumb. I’m definitely not going to ask those, but there could be other questions that could spur a great idea. 

This is the value of ChatGPT. It’s going to help you level up because your customer is using it.

Think like a customer. 

Want to see things from a prospect’s perspective? Ask ChatGPT what a customer is (probably) asking about your services, or about how what you do helps them, et cetera. Leverage ChatGPT to level yourself up with the customer.

Be irreplaceable. 

I’m very optimistic about the future of AI. It is going to help us sell. It’s not going to replace us unless we’re bringing no value to our customers.

via GIPHY

What ChatGPT is doing today is no different than what Google and other search engines did 15 years ago when they exploded and began to become utilized. And remember, we were scared back then that it was going to replace us, too. Well, it didn’t replace us.

Instead, it sped up our ability to get more knowledge, because prior to that, we were having to spend hours in libraries researching different topics. Now we suddenly had a search engine that could help get us insights faster. Likewise, we have AI, the next generation, allowing us to have that knowledge even faster. 

Your Attitude SellsEpisode 103 available now!

We know sales is emotional, but how do you get that good attitude?

via WWE on GIPHY

Find The Sales Hunter Podcast anywhere. 

 

How to Become a Salesperson of Influence

w/ Justin Levy

Influencers and content creators are not born overnight. But hard work creating relatable, valuable content can increase success.

Could you have a lot more to say to the world than you realize?

Listen on Thurs. 6/1!

 

 

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post How to Use ChatGPT and AI to Sell first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

How to Prospect in a New Industry

You’ve been given a new territory, now it’s time to find a way to get business there. 

Let’s go through 10 steps to be successful prospecting in a new industry.

1. Know your value. 

What’s the solution you bring to your customers? We don’t sell a product/service, we sell an outcome.

2. What’s the problem you’re solving?

The value you bring is different from the problem. If  the value is the solution, then the problem is, why do your customers need this? What’s the problem they’re trying to solve?

via Amazon Prime Video on GIPHY3. Am I converting or educating? 

Convert means they’re currently buying from somebody else, and what I have to do is convert you to my company. 

Or, am I having to educate because they’re not familiar with what I do, or what we’re bringing to the market at all. 

Those are two different strategies, so that’s going to change how you communicate, for example the frequency and type of information.

4. Your profile. 

Notice I didn’t say your customer’s profile, I said your profile. What does the internet say about you? Remember, you’re not known. They’re not going to take a meeting with you without first Googling you. 

What would Google say about you? Chances are it’s going to be your LinkedIn profile.

Get more LinkedIn tips here.

via Anabel Magazine on GIPHY5. Create advocates. 

Try to go in and change the world by yourself— it’s hard to do. It’s like boiling the ocean. Instead, focus on creating advocates. 

Who are the dominant people in the industry that you can create relationships with, get to know, and can get to know you?  They will help advocate. 

Maybe there’s somebody in another industry that is willing to introduce you to some people in this industry that you’re moving into, or this territory to that territory, whatever it might be. You need other people to bridge the gap.

6. Build your ICP. 

Even within a new industry, you’re not going to be able to sell to everybody. Narrow your focus. Get very tight on your ideal customer profile. Likewise with a territory, you can’t embrace the entire territory at one time. Focus in.

Develop your ideal customer profile in-depth with my ICP Masterclass!

7. Focus your effort. 

It’s not about casting a wider net, but rather all about tightening your effort to where you know exactly who you’re going in after. Once you’ve been able to develop information on them, and you’re able to convey those insights to them, your value as a salesperson multiplies.

via GIPHY8. Vertical, not horizontal. 

Horizontal is where you’re just going out and prospecting anybody and everybody, and the first person who raises their hand and says, “I’ll have a conversation,” you think that’s a prospect. You think that’s a great customer? What a fantastic way to become very frustrated.

Vertical is about going deep. It’s staying in your ICP. 

Within that company there might be five or six people that you begin to develop relationships with. See, that’s vertical. You’re going deeply down and up, because you’re also trying to develop relationships further up in the organization. But what does this do? It allows you to become known faster because you’re focusing on fewer prospects.

9. Know your POE, point of entry. 

Your point of entry is what’s the product or the service that you’re most likely going to be leading off with? When I know my POE, I can begin moving myself in that direction. That’s the piece I want to land and expand with. 

In other words, when I land you as a new customer, my point of entry might be this particular product or service, that’s my land, and then I will expand out and be able to add in additional and repeat business.

via Sign with Robert on GIPHY10. Play the long game. 

Too many salespeople move into a new territory or industry, and they don’t stick with it long enough to be able to reap the benefits. 

You’re going in and you’re a little bit like a farmer. You’re planting the seed at the beginning of the season, and you’re not harvesting for a long time. In fact, when you plant the seed, you may not even see anything come up out of the soil for the first month or two.

Suddenly things begin to take hold. Sticking in for the long game pays off. You may have to be in this industry/territory for two or three years before you get results, but they’ll come if you follow the 10 steps I’ve laid out here.

Ep. 101 Available NOW!

 

How Emotions Change Your Prospecting

Change your attitude, change your outcome.

Click here to find The Sales Hunter Podcast!

The Impact of In-Person Sellingw/ Luigi Prestinenzi 

 

Learn how meeting with prospects helps fill in information gaps better than any email or phone call can. 

 

Find it Thurs. 5/25!

 

 

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

 

 

The post How to Prospect in a New Industry first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

Sales Is Simple, Don’t Overcomplicate It!

Do you have a tendency to make sales complex?

Some salespeople may want to overthink things, but sales is not rocket science. 

It’s time we back off and realize what sales is: a conversation between two people.

Sales is not convoluted.

Many of you as salespeople go out and buy every new sales tool imaginable. You think for some reason this is the solution, the holy grail that’s going to make everything work for you. 

Or perhaps you also go out on social media and you post, and you post and you post. You’re on every social platform, and for some reason you think that if you just post enough people will beat a path to your door. Let me tell you something, that’s not the case. 

via GIPHYSales is about listening to the customer. 

I want you to do an exercise right now. Ask yourself: How much time do you spend each week actually conversing with customers? Whether it be a Teams call, Zoom, face-to-face, or phone call, whatever, or you’re actively engaged in email or something of that nature. 

How about comparing that with: how much time do you think you spend selling? 

What’s very interesting is I’ve had a chance to work with hundreds of companies and I ask salespeople this question. Routinely when I ask them upfront, and then we go through and examine, they overstate it. They overstate the amount of time they’re actively engaged with customers by 300%. Yes, 300%.

via Paramount+ on GIPHYYour two assets: your time and your mind.

We have become so caught up in the process that we have forgotten what sales really is. As a salesperson, your two greatest assets are your mind and your time. Don’t spend countless hours chasing all kinds of shiny objects to hopefully get the solution that you were looking for. You won’t find it there. 

Success comes down to two things: your time and your mind.

Read more about how to maximize these two assets here.

It’s time we simplify the sales process. I want you to look at these four very simple things:

1. Identify your solution. 

What’s the benefit you provide? What’s the outcome that customers gain from buying from you? 

2. Focus on your ICP.

Who are those best customers? Who fits that profile? That solution—or outcome—only works for your ideal customer profile. 

It’s not the Southern Hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere, nor all of Asia—it’s just your very specific type of customer. 

3. It’s about having conversations. 

It would be extremely difficult for you to find the right solution for your prospect without talking to them. Through conversations you create opportunities for you and for your customer. 

Ever struggle to keep the conversation going? Ask more questions. Ask better questions. Prepare questions ahead of time!

4. Focus on listening and following up. 

Follow-up is so essential, because the sale happens in the follow-up. 

In fact, I think following up is so important, I created an entire Following Up Masterclass to show you how. Find it here and enroll today!

That’s it. That’s all sales is.  This is one of the reasons why I created the Sales Logic System. 

It’s a three-step process. It’s even simpler than what I just laid out here. The Sales Logic System puts you back in control. I’m rolling this out on May 24th with my business partner, Meredith Elliot Powell, and I want you to join us. 

Whether you join us online or in person, it’s about helping you achieve the level of success you’re capable of—not through the shiny objects—but through your time and your mind.

You don’t want to miss this! Grab your spot now!

Ep. 99 Out Now!!

 

Prospecting Is About Going Vertical, Not Horizontal

 

How can you cut through all the noise in the marketplace? You don’t need to cast a wider net.

Find out more, listen now!

 

Our 100th Episode!!available Thursday, 5/18

 

How NOT to Use AI in Prospectingw/ David Brock

 

ChatGPT cannot be the end point, but it can be the starting point!

Find The Sales Hunter Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post Sales Is Simple, Don’t Overcomplicate It! first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

Go from Opening a Sale to Opening a Relationship

Are you in charge of your sales process, or is your process in charge of you?

This is a big issue, and becoming a bigger issue with the advent of AI. 

I’m finding more and more companies are overcomplicating their sales process. As the economy weakens, they think they need more leads. I’m going to challenge you on that. 

Close with Confidence

What you close has a direct relationship to what you open with—your prospecting phase. Or what we call in the Sales Logic System, the Contact phase. 

Having 10,000 leads isn’t going to do you any good unless you’re selling toothpaste or toilet paper. Your objective is to have highly qualified leads that you can then Connect with, which allows you to craft the right solution—and ultimately close. 

Of course, we don’t close on our time frame or on our schedule. That never happens. The customer always throws a curveball. This is why the Close process has to have a very succinct follow-up process. 

I’m in the midst of some pretty significant deals right now myself, and it’s all about follow-up, follow-up, follow-up to get the deal across the finish line. 

Land and Expand

When I do Connect right, then when I close the sale I’m actually opening the door to the next one. In fact, I hate the word close. I want to open a relationship. I want to land and expand, and now I’m able to use information I learned in the Connect phase and bring it right through to the next sale. 

How many deals have you closed in the last  year that have resulted in additional business? 

That’s a metric worth measuring. 

When we’re Contacting, Connecting, and Closing properly, we  have far more repeat and referral business. 

We can’t just close a sale and hand it off to Onboarding, Fulfillment, or Customer Success. If you do that, you are forgoing major additional sales. 

Rather, if you do these three steps of the Sales Logic System correctly, the customer will want to buy from you!

Become Someone Your Customers Want to Engage With

I want you to join Meridith Elliott Powell and myself on May 24th for Sales Logic LIVE. 

The Sales Logic System we’ll teach you will change how you sell. It puts the human element back into selling and simplifies things immensely. It puts trust and integrity up at the top, which allows the customer to say, “I want to be engaged with this person!”

We also want to teach you how to: 

Speed the processClose more deals at a higher priceCreate a downstream of referrals and repeat business. 

Click here to reserve your spot!

 

Available now!

Leads Are NOT Prospects

The quality of your prospects matters more than ever.

 

Listen now wherever you download podcasts. 

Ep. 98 available Thurs. 5/11!

 

How to Build Professional Credibility on LinkedInw/ Daniel Disney

 

“The biggest mistake people make is people treating their profile like a CV.”

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post Go from Opening a Sale to Opening a Relationship first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

How to Connect with Your Prospects

What does connecting with prospects look like for you? 

You’ve identified who to prospect and you’ve made contact. Now it’s time to Connect. Are you losing prospects during this phase?

This is part II of our 3-step process of how to simplify selling. Contact, Connect, Close. 

Check out last week’s blog on Contact.

What’s the plan?

If I’m focused in, and I’ve done my Contact right, I’m zeroed in on a very distinct group of people which allows me to strategize each call. I know exactly what my plan is. I know my call to action, what information I want to confirm, and what new information I want to learn. 

A good call is composed of those elements. I’m always confirming something they shared with me on a previous call or that I know about their industry. I’m learning something new, and I’m creating a call to action—what’s the next step?

via CBC on GIPHYReading the prospect

I have to read the prospect to understand if what we’re talking about is urgent to them. A lot of customers we talk to have important needs, but if it’s not urgent to solve it, they won’t. 

I was just talking to a person recently and the conversation centered around the need they have. On the surface, it seemed like I could help them, but it wasn’t urgent for them. I’ve got to be able to listen to learn those things, and know which questions to ask.  

Once I do, I can match the right problem to the right solution. 

via Bounce on GIPHY

Yesterday, on a call with a salesperson, they started throwing out features that were counter to what I was looking for. It took them off the table. If they hadn’t talked about those features, I would have been very interested. But the salesperson was so obsessed with those features! It turned me off the product, and they lost the sale.

Listen first, sell second. 

Listening to Connect allows us to have the right solution. It also allows me to understand the risk and the value, because now I understand how important this is to the customer. All along the way, I’m creating trust and integrity. What does that do? It takes price off the table. 

Join us at Sales Logic LIVE.

I want you to join Meridith Elliott Powell and myself on May 24th as we roll out the entire Sales Logic System for you. It’s imperative that you join us, because we’re putting the human element back into sales—especially with AI coming at us like a tsunami. 

This is more important than ever! Don’t miss this one-day event…Sales Logic LIVE in-person in Dallas, TX or virtually! Reserve your spot now.

Ep. 95 Available NOW!Sales Is Simply About a Conversation

 

Only a human can truly uncover insights and needs through a conversation!

Listen now on any platform.

Ep. 96 Available Thurs. May 4th!

Subscribe now!

How to Humanize the Sales Processw/ David Newman

Author of Do It! Marketing, Do It! Speaking,  & Do It! Selling

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post How to Connect with Your Prospects first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

How to Contact the Right Prospects

If we don’t prospect properly, there’s no way we can close. 

Step 1 in the Sales Logic System is Contact. Of course, a clear subset of Contact is prospecting.

Didn’t catch last week’s blog on the Sales Logic System? Click here to read the overview.

Our close ratio goes up dramatically the more effectively we prospect. 

The number of deals you have to close is a direct reflection of the amount of time you spend prospecting.

Thinking about prospecting isn’t prospecting, and neither is networking. Prospecting starts when you pick up the phone.

via Build-A-Bear Workshop on GIPHYBut first, who?

You have to understand your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This allows you to have the right process for how to reach out to them. 

Discover and develop your own ICP with the Ideal Customer Profile Masterclass. 

Your Ideal Customer Profile tells you how to follow up with them, connect with them and how to engage with them, because people in your ICP have common behaviors.

It also allows you to understand the real prospect’s potential needs because you’ve helped people like them before. What were their outcomes? Your previous experience and ability to provide those outcomes gives you credibility in the prospect’s eyes.

Your reputation arrives before you do. 

Knowing your ICP gives you talking points. Now you can be seen as a peer! It allows you to stand out when the customer checks you out online before they engage with you. 

It’s so important that your reputation builds on you and helps you create that level of authority. 

via The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on GIPHYQuality, not quantity.

Prospecting properly allows you to create a reputable qualified prospect list. It may not be 10,000—it may just be 100. But you’re cultivating existing customers that come back and buy more, too. There could also be referral partners, and centers of influence that help to generate more business for you. 

The goal is to spend more time with fewer prospects. 

Read more about ways to build your sales with your network here.  

The Sales Logic System is about three simple steps:ContactConnectClose

That’s it! It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. My business partner Meridith Elliott Powell and I will give you the entire blueprint of this sales process at our one-day event, Sales Logic LIVE!

We want you there. We know we can help you meet your sales goals not just next quarter, but every quarter. 

Join us May 24th online, or in-person in Dallas, TX. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet with us, and other like-minded salespeople for an amazing day of insights and real-life strategies for this changing economy!

via The Sales Hunter on GIPHY Ep. 93 available now!

The Magic Number for Any Sales Process

Let’s put the salesperson back in charge of the sales process. 

Listen now on any platform!

Available Thurs. 4/27!How to Convert Social Media into Pipelinew/ Collin Mitchell 

When social media is done right, it becomes an inbound (& outbound!) channel.

Subscribe now! Then leave us a rating or review.

The post How to Contact the Right Prospects first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

Simplify Your Sales Process

Uncomplicate your sales process.

Do you think our customers are eager to participate in an 8-step process? A 12-step process?

Something I’ve noticed in the advent of ChatGPT and all these AI tools is it’s becoming even more complicated. It’s supposed to simplify the process, but actually it’s overcomplicating it. 

Read my tips about 10 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Sales.

Now I can send out more emails to more people. I can touch way more people. But to what end?

It’s time we put the human element back into sales. 

I want to flip AI around, and instead of using AI to reach 10,000 people, let me use it to reach 100 people well.

My business partner Meridith Elliott Powell and I are on a mission to create a new sales process, we’re calling it the Sales Logic System. 

Three simple steps: Contact, Connect, Close.

It’s time we simplify, and put the human element back in. Studies consistently show that customers don’t want to engage with a salesperson until the sales process is about 65% complete.

Why? Customers don’t trust salespeople. Salespeople have “commission breath.” They don’t want that!

Studies also show that in the absence of trust between the customer and the seller, price becomes everything. When trust exists between the two parties, it’s amazing how much more they’re willing to pay— and it shortens the sales process. 

By attending Sales Logic LIVE, you’ll leave with a blueprint of the Sales Logic System full of proven techniques to become a top performer. May 24th–Be there! Join us online, or in-person in Dallas, TX. 

What is the Sales Logic System?

Contact: It’s not about spraying and praying. It’s about getting very specific with your ICP, and tailoring the message. 

Connect: It’s about follow-up, and taking the customer through their journey by listening and looking downstream. When we do that, it’s amazing how we don’t just land a sale, but we land and expand. 

Close: If the first two steps focus on individualization and personalization, and there’s a high degree of trust, the sale closes faster and the close is the easiest part. Things don’t get bogged down because both sides know where they’re coming from!

The Sales Logic System  is going to help change how you sell. This has been a brief overview, but we’ll go in-depth at Sales Logic LIVE on May 24th. Don’t miss it, this is imperative to your growth as a salesperson, and reaching success. 

Ep. 91 Available Now!

 

How to Balance Quantity Versus Quality in Sales

 

Listen on your favorite streaming service.

Ep. 92 Coming Thursday!Conversational Strategies to Connect with Prospectsw/ Lou Diamond

 

Become a better connector. Download the episode, then leave us a review!

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post Simplify Your Sales Process first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

How to Change Your Cold Call Mindset

The problem is in the prospecting.

When someone says they don’t have enough deals to close, or they can’t close the deals they have, the common belief is the person needs help closing.  

I’d argue that’s not the case in 95% of the situations. The problem is in the prospecting.  That’s right, the problem at the end of the sale is a result of a failure at the beginning of the process. For some, that begins with utter dread before picking up the phone. 

via Sub Pop Records on GIPHY It’s not a cold call if you don’t believe it’s a cold call.

Cold calls are certainly one of the most difficult activities for salespeople. A cold call is when someone randomly calls someone else. Seriously, do you think that approach is going to work?  

If you know you can help someone, does that make your phone call a “cold call?”  I don’t think so. Yes, the two people may not personally know each other, but there’s a reason for the call.   

Here’s a way to look at it: if your car parked outside your home was broken into, and a “stranger” was able to get a description of the culprits and they called to share it with you—would you consider that a cold call?  NO!  You’d be thankful they called you and cared enough to reach out.   

But wait, you didn’t know the person and they didn’t know you, so isn’t that a cold call?  

Check out the video above where I talk about cold calling and the role it plays in sales. 

The sales you close all start with who you prospect.  

The sooner you master prospecting, the sooner you’ll be closing more sales.  Emotionally this is a tough concept to swallow, I get it.  Early on in my sales career I struggled with this same issue big time.  This is why you have to keep coming back to the mindset you have to embrace to succeed. 

Your calls are focused on one thing: helping the other person deal with an issue. 

Read more about these Phone Prospecting Mistakes to Avoid

Focus on the outcomes.

If you have any hesitancy at all in making calls before you start, take a moment to write down all of the outcomes you’ve helped your customers achieve. It’s critical to focus on the outcome, not on the process or what you sell.  Focusing on the outcome will help your mind view the calls you’re going to make in a different light.  

via Nick Drake on GIPHY

When you’re focused on the outcome you can help customers achieve, it’s amazing how much better you’ll listen. You’ll find yourself having a conversation rather than reading from a script.

Sales is about a conversation and it starts with how you prospect.   

I’ve written extensively about this and also have a number of courses in The Sales Hunter University I strongly suggest you take a look at. Click here then scroll down to see all my prospecting courses.

Cold calling isn’t an unforgivable sin. 

Prospecting does not have to be the nightmare people make it out to be, and cold calling doesn’t have to feel like you’re committing an unpardonable sin.  With the right mindset and by focusing on the types of people or companies you know you can help, you’ll even weather the icy response from the person who blows up at you for calling them.  

via Saturday Night Live on GIPHY

Watch the video, and you’ll hear how I frame up the person who blows up at you and how to not allow it to impact the next call you know you need to make.

Prospecting is not going away. Don’t think for a moment with social media, sales apps and AI you’ll be able to soon forget about prospecting. Sales is still going to be built around a relationship, and it all starts with a conversation.

Episode 89:Prospecting is about interrupting someone!Every interruption you have gives you an opportunity to help someone.

Gain some confidence in your calling by listening to this episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast…available now!

Episode 90: Available Thursday 4/13!How to Cultivate a Champion Mindset

 

w/ U.S. Olympian Johnny Quinn

How can we prepare ourselves to win big? Listen in to borrow some wisdom from Mark and Johnny. Subscribe on your favorite app!

Want to maximize your day to give you more time to sell?Do you desire customers who not just give you referrals, but willingly introduce you to others?Need strategies to overcome objections and turn them to your advantage?You need to attend Sales Logic LIVE on May 24th, 2023.

Meet Mark Hunter and Meridith Elliott Powell in-person in Dallas, or connect to the one day event online. 

Register and learn more here. 

Are you ready to explore the latest AI trends in sales?

This is your chance to get fresh ideas, proven tools, and ready-to-use blueprints to power up your sales processes with AI. 

Register to secure your spot!

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

The post How to Change Your Cold Call Mindset first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

Why Prospecting Is a War

Don’t get hit by friendly fire.

For many salespeople, prospecting is hard! Some struggle every day to make prospecting happen and unfortunately get hit by far too much friendly fire. 

It’s time to be blunt, I’m on a mission to stop the damaging friendly fire too many salespeople fall victim to.

For those of you who do not understand the term “friendly fire” let me explain. This is where you’re in battle and for one reason or another you’re dealing with an incoming attack that is not from the enemy, but is misguided from your own side. Friendly fire in most cases is preventable, but it takes planning and communication to keep it from occurring. 

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.

Similarly in sales, too much prospecting activity serves only to do more harm to the salesperson doing it than good to the prospect it’s directed towards.

When we fail to plan, we shouldn’t complain when our plans fail.  This applies especially to prospecting.  

In the video above from my prospecting program, I detail some of the worst things salespeople do and more importantly how to prevent each one.

Successful prospecting requires a series of steps to occur in proper sequence and for each step to support the next one. One bad step won’t sabotage your potential success, but it certainly isn’t going to help.  Multiple bad steps and you can call it a day—you’ve inflicted friendly fire upon yourself.

via CBC on GIPHYMistake #1: Word Vomit

It starts with the email, and the desire to include everything ever known to mankind in the email. Stop! Your prospecting email must follow the “one-swipe” rule.  This means the entire email you’re sending a prospect should be readable on a smartphone with only one additional swipe. 

It’s short; this is not the time to include the wonderful accolades and awards you and your company have received.  The focus is on the prospect and what’s of importance to them today!   Including anything else is setting yourself up for friendly fire.

Take Mark’s Email Prospecting Masterclass or Phone Prospecting Masterclass for many more tips and strategies. 

via GIPHY Mistake #2: TL; DR

This is not the time to leave lengthy messages. If you can’t say what you want, including a call to action in less than sixteen seconds, then don’t leave a message!  I’m not advocating for not leaving a message, but rather for having your act together so you can leave a short message.  

There are two big reasons why your message needs to be short.  First, keeping it short is showing respect for the other person’s time. Do you think anyone wants to converse with someone who is long-winded?  No! Your voicemail is not only communicating a message, but it’s also communicating you and your style. 

Keeping it short also works to your advantage if the prospect’s voicemail system is set up to convert the audio to a text message. 

Go ahead and visualize how long of a text message you’d be leaving if your voicemail was 30-seconds long?  Are you smelling friendly fire?  I sure am!

Mistake #3: A Broken Record

Repeating the same message multiple times, or worse yet, reaching out and not having anything of value to communicate, are fatal. In fact, I would say both of these are so bad that if you’re doing this—save your time and don’t do anything at all.  

Each message MUST be different. 

Now this doesn’t preclude you from rewording something you’ve already sent. Go for it, reword it, but don’t think you can take one message and reword it five times. Do it once or twice at the most, but then you must change your topic. 

If you can’t come up with at least five to ten different topics to lead with, then you haven’t taken enough time to understand the outcomes you create and how prospects would benefit from them.

via The Animal Crackers Movie on GIPHY

 

Mistake #4: I’m Not a Hotel

The “just checking in” line, whether it be in an email, phone call, voicemail or text—it’s just stupid!  The only time the line “just checking in” works is if you’re at the front desk of a hotel or an airline counter. Use it and you’ll face friendly fire. 

via The Sales Hunter on GIPHY

This all comes back to the need to have different messages you can communicate.  You create value by delivering value.

There’s zero reason for you to face friendly-fire.  I want to help you and that’s why I want you to grab my e-book on prospecting. Download it for free at this link! 

Another step you can take is to get any of the prospecting courses I offer in The Sales Hunter University.

Leads not responding to your messages?Phone and voicemail just not working?Prospects going dark on you at the worst time?You need to be at Sales Logic Live, May 24th in Dallas or online!Learn from experts Mark and Meridith’s Sales Logic System and leave with tools to achieve greater success in sales. 

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Personality v.s. Sales Process

 

How does personality matter in prospecting?

 

Learn all about it in this week’s solo episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast. 

My customer said NO…now what?You won’t want to miss Thursday’s episode with Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, authors of Go for the No.

 

Hear strategies for opening the sale, handling objections and more. 

 

Click here to subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

 

 

Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

 

 

 

 

The post Why Prospecting Is a War first appeared on The Sales Hunter.

The Top Sales Performer Playbook

Ever wish you had the insider secrets used by top sales performers?

Wish granted: here are 10 secrets from the Top Sales Performer playbook. 

How many of these habits do you already practice? More importantly…which ones can you improve?

1. Clear short and long-term goals

Clear goals have a plan behind them. 

Top sales performers think both short and long-term, and they’re very clear with how they’re going to go there.

What am I going to do this quarter? T his year? I n the next five years?

2. Weekly, daily outcome schedule 

This is different from just to-dos. These are outcomes they intend to achieve, developed on a weekly basis and refined each day. 

For example: I want to have three three conversations today. I want to set up two sales calls this week. 

They’re very specific and they build their action steps. In other words, to achieve this outcome, what do I have to do? What are the questions I’m going to have to ask? The information I’m going to need? What is it I’m going to share? 

Still, they’re focused on the outcome, not necessarily on the steps.

3. Repetitive tasks

This is how top performers get more done in a day, because they literally do the same thing over and over and over again. They have repetitive tasks that they know when they go into any customer interaction. For example, the steps in order to get ready for that sales call, or when they come out of a sales call. 

They don’t leave anything to chance, plus it helps them be far more efficient.

4. Start and end of day routine

This is very key because if I start the day strong, it’s amazing how much more focused I am—and how much more I’m going to accomplish! 

Similarly, I end the day by putting a bow on it. Top performers analyze the day and they set themselves up for the next day. 

I know top performers that when they end the day, they know exactly who they’re going to be reaching out to the next day; the calls they’re going to make, the questions they’re going to ask, the CTA, (call to action) they’re going to be looking for. They have everything put in place, because they have a very set routine.

5. A winning mindset

They know things aren’t always going to go right. Things can fall apart! That’s okay. 

The winning mindset does one thing: power through. They always look to find success, and they know that much of their success is because of failures they’ve had. However, they don’t allow failures to remain as failures. Instead, they see failures as opportunities to build on, learn from, and that’s what drives them to have that winning mindset.

Read these 7 Truths for Mastering Your Mindset.

6. Peer support group

Some kind of a peer support group or a mastermind group is a game changer. 

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’d know I have a mastermind group and I love it because we support each other, we challenge each other, we push each other, but it helps keep us on track. 

7. Ownership

They don’t pass the blame. They take ownership of everything. 

When something doesn’t go right, they don’t say, “Oh, well, that’s because of what that person did.” No, they take ownership and their customers love them for that.

How do top sales performers win the day? Read more here. 

8. Strong support team

Sure, any top performer may not have any people reporting to them, but they have customer success, customer service, all these other teams, and they nurture them. They create a strong support team out of these colleagues who in turn will help support them. 

They love on them, help them, get those people on their side because a rising tide lifts all boats. 

9. Regular assessments

At the end of the week, they assess their week, and likewise for the end of the month and end of quarter. 

Why? To look for: how do I do things more efficiently and effectively? Who should come out of my pipeline? Who should go in my pipeline? Are there some questions I should be asking? Is there other information I need to learn?

10. Massive curiosity

They’re always looking to learn something new. In fact, top performers challenge themselves every day to learn something new. By doing so, they become even more valuable at their job. 

What are you listening to in order to improve your game each week?

The Sales Hunter Podcast has new episodes every Monday and Thursday covering important sales, prospecting and business topics.

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3 Questions to Qualify Prospects Earlyon The Sales Hunter Podcast

 

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via The Sales Hunter on GIPHY AVAILABLE THURS. 3/30How Words Can Make or Break a Dealw/ Phil M. Jones

 

 

 

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Copyright 2023, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of  A Mind for Sales  and  High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results .

 

 

 

The post The Top Sales Performer Playbook first appeared on The Sales Hunter.