Mark Hunter's Blog, page 34

Where Do I Find Great Customers?

People ask me a lot where I find great customers and great prospects. Today, I will walk you through 10 things you can do to find them right now.

As I share, I want you to take notes. Also, be sure to hit subscribe, because I put out a new video every week. Each one is full of practical tips that you can put into play right now to increase your sales.

Let’s walk through the ten things. Most of the content I am going to share comes from my books. Have you read my newest book, A Mind for Sales? I guarantee it will show you how to have a mind for finding better customers and better prospects.

 1. Existing Relationships

When we talk about how to find better prospects or just prospects in general, a lot of you say you don’t know how, but have you tried your current database? Have you tried existing relationships? Who’s in your CRM system right now? You’ll find a tremendous amount of leads and opportunities just by starting to reach out to them. Who are you connected to on social media? Who is in your circle? Who are you close to that have other people in their circle? Simply start by leveraging your existing relationships.

2. Existing Customers

First of all, never think for a moment that you can’t get more business out of existing customers. There always is more business to be had. There is constantly a chance of new business with a new division, new person, new department. Go out, reach out, grab it, and make it happen.

3. Industry Associations

I love doing a deep dive search into all of the associations in which I need to be working with. Then, I find out the members of each of those associations in my industry. Again, this is all done by way of the Internet, because it’s an amazing tool for something like this. I sit there and dig into each industry. Who are their members? Who are the board members? Who are they connected to? You’ll quickly find that you can build that out.

4. Supply Chain

People in your supply chain have a vested interest because they want to see you do well. That’s right.

Reach out to people in your company supply chain. Ask them questions. Talk to them. They will share ideas with you. They will share their insights because it’s in their best interest to help you succeed. This is the same with your customers. Your customers have a supply chain as well. Look into who is in that because again, those people have a vested interest because they want to see you achieve great things. Don’t look past the supply chain.

5. Social Media

This one is a double-edged sword because sometimes you can find yourself lost in it. In my book, A Mind for Sales, I talk about how you can’t take ‘clicks’ or ‘likes’ to the bank. However, social media becomes a great place to identify and do a background search, whether it be through Sales Navigator with LinkedIn or any number of other programs. There are a variety of programs that will help you dive deeper into social media.

However, I do suggest that you limit your time on social media, otherwise it can suck you in and you’ll never come out. It becomes kind of like Hotel California. Remember that song by the Eagles back in the 70s? Yeah. Ok, I’m old. You’re right. You can check in, but you can’t check out, so you have to frame it up. You have to contain it, but social media will give you a tremendous number of opportunities to connect with people. Again, it will vary by industry, though.

6. Internet Search

Start doing something I particularly love to do, but many salespeople don’t do let alone love it. Take a customer that your current currently working with, put their name into a Google search and see what other companies come up. It’s amazing what you’ll find. Other companies will come up that become perfect prospects for you to reach out to.

7. Be the expert

You have to be seen as the expert. Here’s the thing I always tell people: nobody wants to do business with someone who isn’t seen as an expert in their field. You’ve got to be the expert. Do this by carefully positioning yourself and all of your information – whether it be on LinkedIn, social media, your website, etc. – that portrays you as the expert.

8. Be Patient in Developing Good Leads.

Anyone can go out and grab a bunch of names. Hey, phone books are even still being printed. If you want names, you can get them; but you have to be patient. It’s not about the number of leads you have. It is about the quality of your leads. You must be patient in sticking to your plan.

I’ve done some other videos about the process for building out a prospecting plan. Go out and watch them on my YouTube channel. I literally walk you through step by step just like I’m doing here. Remember that you have to be patient.

9. Referrals, Referrals

I want you to actively give out and ask for referrals. Now, referrals are not a quid pro quo type of situation.

I’m not saying that if you give two referrals, you’ll get two in return. I am saying that you need to set yourself up to win. Again, I’ve got a video out there on how to get referrals. Watch the video.

10. Networking

I intentionally made this number ten for a reason. Too many people believe that all they have to do is network and they’ll have all the leads they could possibly want. This is false. Networking is a long-term play network whether going to networking events virtually or in person. They are not instantaneous builders. They’re just not. You may gather lots of names, but you’ve got to nurture. You have to qualify them.

I find that it’s important to allocate a certain amount of time to networking and keeping it a very small amount of time. It is a way to begin to source. The key is to make sure that you’re networking within the circle that you want to do business. Just because it’s a networking event does not mean you should jump on it. Each networking event you decide to attend must be totally relevant.

And you want to participate in the same networking events as your customers. For instance, this is why I like LinkedIn. What groups linked those that you know that you could potentially sell to? What groups do those people belong to? Who could become your customer? See the groups that you want to belong to once you find the network of your current customers.

Like I’ve shared multiple times already, I have tons of videos out there just for you. I want you to watch them and often. Watch one right now! I also have sales content on one of my other books, High-Profit Prospecting, too. I want you to read that one as well as A Mind for Sales. Both will help you – I promise! Now hit subscribe and start watching.

 

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

Let’s Talk About Communication

Is what you’re communicating, really communicating, or is it just noise? This is another Mornings with Mark. I enjoy bringing these posts and videos to you every Friday.

This morning, I got thinking about all the different levels of communication, yet how screwed up communication is as a whole. Let’s not go pointing fingers at other people. I point fingers at myself. I can’t help but think about the times I communicate with somebody and think they are understanding one thing, yet they’re hearing something else. I am not communicating clearly at all.

Often, I receive communication from somebody (email, text message, voicemail, etc.) and read it one way, but what they mean is totally different. Why is this? I think we’re afraid of confrontation. We are afraid to confront people. We are afraid to deal with communication in the way it should be – just person to person. I see this happen so many times, because it’s much easier to send a text message or a message on LinkedIn or even just a quick email.

Then, we think the situation is taken care of; however, all we’ve done is compounded and actually made it worse. Instead, we should just pick up the phone and have a conversation.

As I think about this this morning, I reflect on my childhood and something I saw while growing up. Every week, my mom would take one evening and dutifully write a handwritten letter to her mother. She lived out of town, several hours away actually. My mom would spend hours crafting this letter to her mom.

In turn, she would receive a letter from her mom every week. This was their primary form of communication. Then on Sunday nights, they would get on the phone with each other for maybe five or ten minutes. You know, this was back in the days when you paid for long distance. Interesting, huh? Their communication was clear and not drawn out, just a handwritten letter – several pages – and a phone call. Their messages to each other definitely bring clarity.

I think about this because of all the noise and the different ways we expect people to pick up this message or that. It is compounded by the fact that because we’re sending a message or changing somebody’s opinion, we think we are changing them but in reality, we’re actually not changing anybody’s opinion. Rarely do we actually change people’s minds, especially in the highly political era that we live in today. I see this on Facebook all the time, and all that’s really going on is ranting.

Yes, it might make us feel good, but you know what? It only adds fuel to the fire. I think our challenge is really to step back and communicate with clarity by picking up the phone, calling, and having a real one-on-one a conversation with the person. Not to entertain this idea more, but I had a friend tell me one time that we communicate more in a one-minute phone call than we do in five or six emails. It’s true. We do.

Why is it that we’re so afraid to pick up the phone and make the call? Why are we hesitant to have the conversation? If you just do it, it’s amazing what happens. The opportunities that arise are incredible, especially when you will set your mind on clarifying the message.

Be sure to share these blogs and videos with others. I’ll see you next Friday morning! 

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

How Do I Overcome a Sales Objection?

Every week, I put out a new blog and video like this one. I’d like you to hit subscribe and read my book, A Mind For Sales. I guarantee that your mindset will heavily impact how you sell and your results.

In this post, I’m going to share how to overcome a sales objection. I’ve got 10 strategies that you can run with right away. Believe me, it all starts with having a mind for sales. 

1. Relax!

This is the first thing you can do, and you must! Too many times, people hear an objection and automatically freak out. Right away, they don’t know where to go, and they shut down. When you’re not relaxed, it’s amazing how much you don’t hear. When you’re tense, you don’t listen well and you quickly rush to judgment.

2. Be Prepared.

This means that you know in advance what objections you might hear. Being prepared is just one of the ways you can do number one – be relaxed. Write down all of the objections that you may hear before you go into any sales call. I’m not saying this from a negative standpoint, but actually from a positive standpoint. You’re simply writing down all the objections that could happen. In addition, I want you to write down all your possible solutions and possible ideas for those objections. Now, you can’t expect to get this perfect because you really don’t know until you hear the objection in the exact context in which it’s shared. You just want to be thinking how you might handle various objections as they arise.

3. Restate As You Heard It.

Now, do not restate the objection word for word. That’s what a parakeet does. You simply want to repeat it as you heard it, as you interpreted it. This is your opportunity to take that objection and frame it into your own words. This is your chance to start owning it.

By doing this, you’re getting the customer to start thinking about their objection. I always come back and restate as I heard it. Yes, that means you can alter it slightly; however, don’t change it too much, but alter just a few words. For instance, the customer says your price is too high. You might come back and ask them to help you understand what or why they feel your price is too high.

4. Question the Objection You See as You Restate How You Heard it.

Just because somebody says an objection doesn’t mean they really know what they’re talking about. Therefore, immediately go back and ask them a question to get them to explain, clarify and talk about it more. Most likely, it’s not the initial objection that they’re objecting to, but rather, something else leading up to it. That takes us to our next strategy, number five.

5. Know the Background

You know the background by understanding the framework of where the customer is coming from. Where are they at right now? How did they get here? The more I know, the better. This is why from a prospecting standpoint, you must do your homework beforehand, because the more you know about their background, the better off you’re going to be in terms of understanding where they’re coming from with their objection.

6. Tie the Objection to the Need.

The more background work that you do, the more insight you have about the person and therefore, the more you know what their needs are. Then, when an objection is thrown at you, you can tie it to their need. When the customer says your price is too high, you can say, “You know, you were mentioning that this over here was costing you more money. Is that still the case?” That is how you can tie it all back to the need that you hear or see. This is how you help them understand a solution to their real objection.

7. Defer the Response

What do I mean by this? There are times when you hear an objection and can easily go ahead and question it. The background that you have on the customer you’re entitled to need in order to help them; however, sometimes it’s best to hold onto that information for a moment.

Here are a few things that might come into play. You could sit there and just give them the quick answer, but that doesn’t work. An example of this is when a customer calls up and asks you to give them a quick price quote, but you have no idea who his customers are. This is where you defer the response. You don’t give them a quick price quote, because you don’t know enough about them. Instead, your response should be, “Hey, let me ask you some questions, because I don’t want to set you up with something that’s not right for you.” In this instance, it’s okay to go ahead and defer the response.

8. Clarify, Clarify

After you have tied the customer’s objection back to their need and begin asking questions, you have to ensure that they really understand the solution you put out there. For example, you might sit there discussing price. They say the price is too high, so you sit there and say, “Well, you mentioned that you needed to get this in place so you can save money over here.” That is getting them to clarify. You see, I’m getting them to clarify. This takes us to number nine.

9. Gain Understanding

By responding to an objection, all you really know is that you heard it. Having an understanding is a different story. Did you really understand it? So come back and ask a question to help gain understanding. Ask the customer a question in terms of helping you answer their objection. How do you see where this is going to fit into the big picture?

Too many salespeople fail to understand objections, because they’re afraid. They’re afraid the customer won’t buy into it and they run past it. No, no. You want to make sure that you gain complete understanding.

10. Know the Value of the Objection.

Sometimes customers will throw out an objection that is really so trivial; it’s no big deal. They might say that can’t handle that size or quantity. The objection’s value then has two weights to it – the weight on the customer and the weight on you. Not only do I want to understand the weight to the customer, but also the weight to me.

In other words, the customer says there’s no way they could handle that much inventory at one time. You see, the weight to the customer might be what they value. Is it because they don’t want to spend the money? Is it because they don’t have space? Is it because of some other issue? You see, it’s crucial to understand the value of the objection. You have to try to understand. They might not want that much quantity for a variety of reasons. It might be because of production.

When you understand the value on both sides, you can begin to understand how you should handle the objection. Don’t freak out when you hear an objection. You have nothing to run from. Face it. Head on. Relax, and be prepared.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

Communication – Emotion – Impact

Good morning! It’s Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter”, here for another Mornings with Mark. As you can see, I have a little different setup sitting here with 100 books in front of me signing up for an event.

I love being able to share this book with so many people. It’s got me thinking if you’ve thought about the impact that the written word has on people? Have you thought about the written word of your text messages? Recently, something struck me and that is how much text messages can take on one theme, emails portray another, a book comes across even another way, and videos totally different. It’s absolutely crazy how much the messages can get mixed up.

One of the reasons why I wrote the book of A Mind for Sales was to be able to get my message out and with clarity. However, like any book, it takes some time to read. I get it.

Stop and think about this for a moment, though – how are you communicating with people? I think about this all the time, and it’s brought me to the conclusion that our emotions play a much bigger part in how we communicate than what we actually say. I was quite emotional in the book and yeah, it came across. I can’t help but think how that translates into emails or conversations. Right now, your emotions come through as much as your words do.

This is one of the reasons why a text message takes on one flavor, an email takes on another, and every form of communication, takes on different flavors. At the core is the emotional response that the person who reads it receives. That’s what strikes me. When I look at why is it that sometimes people can say something and people just blow it off, but then a person can sit there and say the exact same thing, is because the emotion resonates. It’s because of the emotional response and the baggage that comes with the person who said the words.

I’ve had the privilege of writing several books. As a result, I’ve been able to develop a following. A Mind for Sales is my third one, people actually perceive this book differently when they’ve read my first two.

For a second, think about this thing called emotional baggage or emotional communication. I don’t mean emotion in a negative way. I mean it positively, but it has a greater impact in the world today as everybody is kind of tense. We’re all living in a tensed-up world. It’s almost a little bit like a freak out mode.

People are a little more on edge and as a result, emotions are closer to going off the deep end. I can personally attest to this. I’ve caught myself as my wife has told me multiple times to calm down and quit reading the news so much. I don’t spend a lot of time reading the news – maybe 10 – 15 minutes per day; however, sometimes when I share something that I read or watched, I get too worked up and emotional. This happens because my emotions get to the edge.

I must be cautious in how I say things, and you do too. Have this question in your head whenever you’re about to speak to someone – how will the person on the other end emotionally receive what I’m about to share? Yeah, think about that.

Thanks for tuning into another Mornings with Mark and listening to some of my new thoughts. I hope you’re enjoying them, because I enjoy bringing them to you every Friday morning.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

How to Close Sales Faster In a Pandemic

My newest book, A Mind For Sales, relates to what we’re dealing with today in the middle of a pandemic. So much of it has to do with our mind. There’s a tremendous amount of business out there; we just have to be flexible and willing to adapt to go find it.

I’m going to share with you 10 steps on how to close sales faster in a pandemic. I encourage you to hit subscribe so you have access to the new content I put out there every week – on my blog and YouTube channel.

1. Keep It Simple for Your Customers

This is not the time to get into a complex sales process. It’s not the time to get into major, major deals that are going to take years to close and involve multiple people. With a lot of people working from home, it’s much harder to get people together. You have to keep everything in your sales process and in what you sell. All of it must be simple in order to help the person or maybe the two people you’re speaking with to make a fast decision.

2. Focus on Your ICP

Now more than ever, you have to stay tight with your ICP – ideal customer profile. Stay focused. It is too easy to chase the shiny object for the sake of trying to find business; however, when you get outside your lane and start dealing with people not within your ICP, it will take you much longer to understand them and for them to understand you. That will just slow down the process. Stay in your lane and stay focused on your ICP.

3. Fast Prospecting

What is fast prospecting all about? It means you need to double down and triple down the speed with which you’re interacting with customers. This is not the time to sit there and say that you’ll slowly continue to reach out to them like every month. No! It’s not the time for that. You have to take whatever your process was, cut the time in half, and double the contacts. Prospecting must be faster than ever. In other words, if you normally reach out to your prospects every two weeks, now it needs to be every week. If you usually reach out every week, reach out every three days. Speed is what it takes. Speed sells!

4. Narrow the Solution

When you talk to a customer and engage them, the solution is not to start throwing out all of these ideas as to what they can do or all these things that they’re going to be able to accomplish. No, it’s not the time to sell world peace. This is not the time to try to find a solution for hunger. Now is the time to narrow the solution and help the customer achieve that one specific outcome that they’re looking to achieve.

5. Shorten the RSI

Remember that customers don’t want to be sold to and really, I don’t even think they want to buy. What they desire is a return on their investment. That is what they truly want, so it’s your job to show your customers how they can quickly receive a return on their investment when they buy from you and invest with you. Therefore, let them know that when they buy “x” service or product from you, they will immediately get value back. I have to do everything possible to shorten the ROIC, because things are just too unstable as we look long-term.

6. Limit the Options

When you get to the point of putting things out on the table, don’t say, “well, hey, why don’t you pick from one of 18 different items?” This is not the time to play buffet. No, no. You must limit the options. Any time you present too many options, you automatically slow down the decision-making process because the customer needs more time to think about it. Don’t put more than three options out on the table.

7. Trust

One of the reasons I am able to only put two or three options on the table is because I’ve earned their trust. Without a doubt, trust is key. Everything in your sales process must be centered around helping the customer understand that they can trust you, because you trust them.

Confidence starts in the listing and the respect. Confidence creates integrity, and integrity is really the sister or brother of trust. The greater the level of trust you have, the faster the customer is willing to make a decision with you.

8. Two-Way Street

Have you ever driven down a two-way street and noticed there are cars on the other side? They’re coming at you from the opposite direction. So, what is a two-way street and how does it relate to sales and prospecting? When it comes to helping you close sales faster, you have to understand that there will be give and take on both sides, but stay in your lane. This does not mean that you give the customer everything he/she wants. No, not at all. You don’t do that. Just understand that there may be wiggles and shakes that you need to be prepared for, and that’s okay.

9. Land and Expand

I want you to put this simple phrase on your computer. Put it on your phone. It’s your objective to make it so simple for your customer to do business with you that you land them as a new customer. Then, once you do, you expand that customer and begin building into and getting them in additional ways. But you have to create that initial sale first.

10. Value your Time

Your time is your most prized resource. It’s not what you sell. It’s not your customer. It is your time. In order to use your time wisely, go back through this list of nine and ask yourself where you need to change things. When you begin to understand the value of your time and that you can’t put a price on it, you’ll be able to close sales faster than ever. Time is priceless.

For more tips on valuing your time, go check out my blog post and video on How to Gain An Extra Three Weeks Every Year.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

Taking a Risk Does Payoff

Welcome to another Mornings with Mark!

I want to share with you an idea that really hit me this morning as I’m here at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, getting ready to board a plane. Ironically, many, many years ago I flew here to Atlanta to take a big risk. It was a huge risk. At the time, I was working in Portland, Oregon with General Foods Corporation, and there was an opportunity for an account manager in Knoxville, Tennessee. The manager and the office were both actually in Atlanta, so they asked me to fly down here and interview. I thought maybe I’d get the job and be able to move. People told me, “Why would you want to move from the west coast? Why would you want to move from Oregon? Your family’s there. It’s where you grew up,” and all this other stuff.

But you know what? It was a risk that I was willing to take for a couple of reasons. First, I was confident in the job that I knew I could do. I also knew if I did well in that job, it would lead me to another promotion. Second, I knew if it didn’t work out, I was competent enough and confident enough to be able to find another job that would take me down another path. I didn’t feel that if the move worked out, great but if not, it was a failure. No, rather, I viewed it as an opportunity to move forward. Too many times we fail to take a risk, because we only focus on the downside. I’ve actually found that rarely does the downside ever happen.

So I moved to Tennessee, only lived there about a year and then moved to Connecticut. Then, we lived in Connecticut for a few years before moving to Minnesota and then to New Jersey. Interestingly enough, each one of those moves along the way has afforded me an opportunity to take more risk. Even further, each risk seemed less risky because I became more confident at taking risks. The first risk is always the scariest, but once you take that first step, it’s amazing the opportunities that arise.

I look back and am so thankful I made that move. I got on a plane, flew down here to Atlanta and interviewed. What’s really funny is that the job was in Knoxville, and I never saw Knoxville until I accepted the job. Crazy, yes. But it worked out. It worked out great.

What risks are you taking? Don’t focus on the downside. Focus on the upside, or what I like to say – the cross side. The upside will, of course, be magnificent for you. The cross side is okay, because maybe it doesn’t work out, but it will lead to something else. Life is always filled with opportunities. The sun continues to come up every morning. It always does.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

How Do You Make the Shift from Selling In-Person to Online?

Meridith Elliott Powell: Welcome to another edition of Sales Logic, where we dive into the strategies, discuss the tactics, give you everything that you need to know to be effective in today’s marketplace and well, make your sales strategy logical. I’m Meridith Elliott Powell. And I’m here with my cohost

Mark Hunter: Mark Hunter, the Sales Hunter. How are we doing Meridith?

Meridith Elliott Powell: We are good. We got a big show today, Mark. I mean, for those who listened to the show know we cover three very distinct areas. And today, we’ve got a bonus section for you! We discuss the topic, have a question of the day and the lightning round. So Mark, you want to talk about the question or the topic of the day?

Mark Hunter: Well, I’ll just go ahead and mention the topic. I’ll wet your appetite and then I’ll share the question. Let’s bat that thing around. So the topic is how do you get noticed in today’s overly COVID dominated marketplace? Cause man, it’s noisy out there. Hey, before we get into that, let’s get into the question.

Then, after the question, we got that little surprise bonus piece that we’re going to add in, but shh – we won’t mention that yet. Now here’s the question, and remember, if you’ve got a question, send it to us at saleslogicpodcast.com or put it out on social media with #saleslogic. Every week, we answer a question.

The question today is: how do I make the shift from selling in-person to selling online? My entire sales strategy has been in-person sales where I meet with staff, doctors and offices, and that is how I sell. I can’t do any of that now. That’s from Jane Shidnau in Austin, Texas. Thank you for your question, Jane.

Meridith, you want to run with it first? Go for it!

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah, it’s a great question. And it’s a big question today. I bet Mark, you’re getting a lot of this too – how do we really make the shift? I mean, as salespeople we’ve had the luxury of getting in our cars, going to businesses and really getting that first emotional connection with people.

I find it certainly easier to sell that way. So how do you, again, make the shift? Number one is that you’ve got to get comfortable in front of the camera. I really suggest to people who have never sold virtually before to first back up and start setting up meetings with your existing customers, people that you already have that emotional connection with. It will be a lot easier to get comfortable being on camera with people who are going to sort of forgive you for being uncomfortable. But you need to get a lot of calls under your belt before you start going after new prospects or new relationships. So just set up some calls and get comfortable on camera.

Mark Hunter: You know, along with that, we all use Zoom. It seems to be the COVID video connection tool, but there’s also other great tools out there.

Another one is Vidyard, which I love because it’s a really quick, easy way to embed a video, into an email. And it’s getting very good open rates and so forth, but you’ve mentioned something very key about starting off with your existing customers. Okay, now we’re several months into COVID, so hopefully you’re past that.

But see, this is where I’m finding salespeople having problems because now they have to really have to be prospecting. Up until now, they could kind of fake it with stuff they had in their pipeline, existing customers. Now they’re like, “ah, Hmm, it’s empty.” And so, yeah, this is where hopefully you’ve done enough practicing, but I highly suggest getting a tool like Vidyard, and start popping little short, 15 second videos out there.

The other piece that you have to keep in mind, because we’re all prospecting virtually now is that your reputation goes ahead of you. Now more than ever, your reputation proceeds you, which means you better make sure that your LinkedIn profile, everything that Google can say about you is good and right and accurate. Believe me, people are checking you out more than ever, because why not? You’re trying to reach them on a device. So guess what? They’re going to use that same device to check you out. You better have your act together.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah, I would say also you need to let it go.

I mean, let go of the fact that you’re not going to be able to sell in-person for a while – that’s gone. So really take a deep breath and let go of the good old days and understand that your customers understand that too. They’re going to be ready to buy online, but you’ve gotta begin by selling urgently.

People are really busy today. They’ve got a lot going on. They’re just trying to keep their own businesses afloat. Therefore, the first thing that you need to approach them with, as you get to know them and you get to connect them with them, is something that’s going to be relevant. That’s going to be solving the pain point.

I mean, when you go back to your avatar, your customer ideal, you better be really clear on their top three pain points. What are they most worried about? What’s their biggest opportunity? What do they really fear? And then how are you positioning your product or service to solve that? Because while nobody has any time, we all certainly open emails and answer things that speak to our exact pain point.

Now I’ll tell you something right now. I was looking for just a backup virtual assistant. I’ve just had this on my mind for the last couple of weeks. Then, this morning I got an email this morning with the headline “virtual assistant services made easy and effective”. Now this was at 5am while I’m brainstorming with Mark.

I’ve got a whole morning routine I’ve got to get into, but that headline caught my eye because it spoke to the pain point that I had at the moment. You have to do the same thing, you know, they will talk to you virtually if you’re solving a problem.

Mark Hunter: It’s interesting. There were a couple of words in there that grabbed me- made easy, made easy.

Again, for anyone trying to find an online assistant, a virtual assistant, it could be hard. So when they use the words made easy, it kind of invited you to say, “yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do.” It invited you to open it up. Hey, you know, there’s a piece back early on we talked about called “WFH,” work from home. We began using that expression a few months ago and then it kind of shifted to “BFH,” buying from home, because that’s what our customers are doing. And that’s what we have to be able to have – a communication process that connects to them. Let your personality come through, regardless of what medium you’re using. Otherwise, you’re really no better than Amazon or any other really shopping cart site out there.

Anyway, with that, we should probably jump into the topic, but we have a tease. We have a new segment we’re starting and that’s that Meridith and I read a lot of books. We’re always exchanging ideas on books. Meridith’s got a new book coming out this fall, and I had one just come out a few months ago.

Today we are starting this off by talking about a book and every week we’re just going to talk about it very briefly. So, Jeff Shore is a good friend of ours out of Sacramento – Jeff Shore Consulting – go check it out. He recently wrote the book Follow Up and Close the Sale. I talked to Jeff last week about this book and let me tell you something, it hits some real sore spots. And the reason I like it is because it has what I call taillight follow-up. In other words, as soon as that prospect leaves your line of vision, however it is, you know, as if they were driving away from taillight, you need to follow up with them.

This book is chalked full of different ideas. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read it or what your thoughts are on the book. She’s reaching for the book now. There it is.

Meridith Elliott Powell: I got the book right here. Jeff and I share this passion for the follow-up system that’s my favorite part of the sales process.

And I love that he devoted an entire book to just follow-up. I love to say that the sale happens in the follow-up. It always happens in the follow-up yet, it’s still part of the sales process. That’s never trained. It’s never- there’s always just sort of left to chance, and I really believe the better you get it, the more deals you’re going to close. Furthermore, the easier and more effective your sales process will be. And I think that Jeff has written an easy to read book. What I love about it is that that it’s very tactical. He gives you a lot of steps, a lot of strategies. If you’ve ever wondered what a good follow-up system should look like, Jeff’s really laid it out here in this book. Now, where do we send people besides Amazon who want to find out more about Jeff’s book?

Mark Hunter: Well, we can jump out to his website, JeffShoreConsulting.com. That’s a great place. Or just go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, wherever it is. But you said something, it is easy to follow.

It’s easy to read because there’s stuff in there that you can start doing right now. Again, the book is by Jeff Shore and it’s called Follow Up and Close the Sale. Now, let’s jump into the topic. The topic is how do you get noticed in today’s noisy, overly COVID dominated marketplace.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. Number one is you’ve got to realize that you’ve got to get noticed. I was just on a sales call yesterday, getting ready to do a program for a sales team on how to sell effectively in a virtual market, and the first piece that we were talking about was the fact that I said, we need to bring marketing into the program.

And they said “marketing into the program?” I said, “yeah, you’re going to need marketing now if you want to get above the white noise and stand out from the competition.”  They said, “We don’t need marketing.” I said, “Yes, you do.” I told them that the marketplace is so crowded right now that people do business with who they’ve heard of and about.

Building that reputation in the marketplace is really important. Now, not all of us have the luxury of having a marketing team.  Build your reputation first. What do you want to be known for? And then what are you doing to get yourself known for that in the marketplace?

Mark Hunter: Back when we were talking about the question, I mentioned that your reputation proceeds you and wow! You have to be there online ahead of any conversation you’re going to have with them.

I am still amazed at the number of salespeople who wonder why. I had a sales call with a guy who called me on Friday. I couldn’t tell if he was looking to buy or if he was looking to sell, but he called me Friday afternoon and it was a conversation that went nowhere. Then, I go out and look up this guy online and believe me, it’s a train wreck.

Well, guess what? I shut that puppy down real quick because it was a train wreck. He had no chance. Now, if I had, while he was talking to me, gone out and seen some really positive stuff about him, I may have kept the conversation going, but no, it ended. You can’t break through the noise, unless you’re at least at equal footing with everyone in your community, wherever your people tend to be. If that’s an association website, if that’s whatever it is, you’ve got to get known out there.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. A couple of things that you can do to really start to build your reputation in the marketplace. We started talking about this at the beginning, but really get consistent with getting some videos out there.

You know, video is really the new medium. I love video because one, it really lets people get to know you and get comfortable with you. People who want to follow your message and probably want to talk to you about sales will connect to you on video. It also gives you a really good opportunity to let your personality through as well as put your opinion out there.

So you need to have an opinion about certain topics, about what you sell. Now, just to add to that, this is your opportunity to really differentiate yourself in the marketplace because you’re creating questions that you’re shooting video about, but they’re questions that you want your target market to think about.

Like, you know, why they should look for quality over price when buying your product or service? Or why service after the sale is important or why experience or longevity of a salesperson matters, whatever it is with those messages that you need your target market to make to know this is your opportunity to start to use that and get that information out there.

It’s reputation building, but it’s also educating the marketplace as to what they need to know to choose you over the competition.

Mark Hunter: One of the ways that I love to cut through the noise out there is by forwarding links of critical news articles, critical pieces of information to people who I’m trying to get in touch with or people I’m looking to remain in touch with.

I do this quite a bit. I might see an article on some news site online and I’ll take the link and I’ll pop it to them. Now, when I pop it over, I’ve found it helps break through to that person. Suddenly, they see Hey, this Mark Guy, is sending me something that’s pertinent to me. That’s important to me. And it’s amazing how that absolutely breaks through on a one-on-one level. Now I know you and I both use the same approach. I’m looking at the stack right over here, but you and I both send out personal notes.

You know, I’ve got personal stationary that I will send out and call it old school. No, I call it right school. I’ll send out a personal handwritten note. It takes me just about a minute to send out to people. And it’s little things like this that sometimes helps people feel to break through the noise they got to get macro big. No. Sometimes the way to break through the noise is to get micro, very tight and specific with the individual person.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. What I love about what you’re saying about personal notes is that you’re looking to be different. While everybody else in your industry is doing one thing, you’re looking to do another – what’s different. What’s going to get you will get you noticed.

Right now, the personal handwritten thank you note is definitely something that isn’t used and the phone call is something that isn’t used that often either. Staying in touch by, imagine how somebody feels when you’re giving them information to grow their business before you’re asking them for business.

So think about the things that your competition is doing. And what could you do? That’s just a little bit different that makes you stand

Mark Hunter: Out!

I always call that the ying in the yang with regards to sales. When all the competitions going one way, I’m going to go the opposite. We want to come back though and talk about marketing and talk about educating the marketplace. Don’t think that you can’t educate the marketplace just because you don’t have a marketing department.

You educate the marketplace by again, taking some article and posting it on LinkedIn or on some industry news site and then sharing some comments on it. In other words, you’re helping to educate your marketplace. And they’re allowing to see you in a more professional, more expertise manner.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. I also think you need to think about being a little bit edgy.

You really need to have an opinion. You need to put it out there. Like I know I’m getting noticed in the marketplace when some of the feedback that I’m getting is negative. It’s not that it’s hateful, but people don’t agree with me. I mean, I’m very opinionated about cold calling.

I don’t like it. I know Mark is one that doesn’t necessarily agree with me on that, but the fact is I put my opinions out there and I get pushed back on it. That tells me that I’ve taken a stance that is different. I’m able to back that stance up and that creates a little bit of discomfort in the marketplace. Discomfort in the marketplace gets you noticed.

Now I don’t want go too far. I don’t want to tell people that cold calling is wrong. My opinion is that it’s not right for me. I have an opinion about that, and I think in today’s marketplace you need to have an opinion.

Just like I told you, to me the most important part of the sales process is the follow-up system. That’s one of my opinions. It is something that I’ve become known for. You want that little bit of edge.

Mark Hunter: That edge is created with your opinion. And everybody can have their own opinion. Everybody can’t have their own facts. Okay, we’re not going to go into a political conversation here on that.

But I think people know what we’re talking about here. I will always share my opinion. That’s not an issue, and I can view it and share it in a respectful manner. To me, it’s the way that I believe I can stand out in the marketplace. Well, how about a final thought on that? Then we should jump into that lightning round. Cause the lightning round is going to build on this.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah, really. My final thought is that when I think of the sales process today, I mean, I loved this question and I loved this- that we discuss this topic today because I think that really these two go together and it’s that you need to think of the sales process in three distinct levels.

First, it’s about building your reputation, getting above the white noise and standing out so that people have heard of you and about you before you knock on their proverbial door. When you think of it in that sense, think about- what am I doing to differentiate myself in the marketplace? And it’s bigger than a value prop. It’s differentiating yourself so people have heard of you. When you nail that first step, then you’re ready for the other two.

Mark Hunter: I love it. Hey, let’s jump into the lightening round. Best strategies to differentiate yourself in today’s marketplace. Go!

Meridith Elliott Powell: All right. So just for our listeners, again, our lightning round is you grab your phone, you grab a pen and paper, cause we’re about to hit you with some ideas that you can get return on investment immediately. As soon as this show is over, you can put them into place. These are best strategies for nurturing your existing customers.

Well, number one, understand you better be nurturing your existing customers or they are going to move onto somebody else. With that, I will say that I put them on a quarterly follow-up so that they go into my office customer relationship management system.

They pop up every quarter and once a year I do a full blown checkup with them to see what else they need. And one of their services, three times a year, I’m just adding value to build their business.

Mark Hunter: I’m going to take that strategy and one up yours with actually a higher tier that you do every month. In other words, it’s key that you’re segmenting your prospects. You’re segmenting your leads and the frequency with which you reach out to them is determined based on their value and opportunity to you.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah, I would say your very best customers. If you’re talking about your top 10 or your top 20, you better have identified them.

You better know who they are. The second is you need to send them business at some point throughout the year, at least one piece of business. Don’t make it all about them giving business to you. Make sure you give that business back.

Mark Hunter: And I’m gonna add that you need to get personal with them. When you understand customers on a personal level, they’ll understand you on a peer. Then, it’s amazing how much deeper the relationship is and how much more value there is.

Don’t feel that’s uncomfortable. It’s only uncomfortable to maybe 1% of the people out there, but everyone else is going to be like, “Hey, I’m seeing you at a different level.”

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. And don’t assume that you know them and don’t assume you know their business. People change and businesses change, and they change quite a bit. So at least on an annual basis, preferably twice a year, you should have a formal meeting with them. That is really just about as if they were a prospect and you are asking them questions about what their biggest challenges are? Where do they see their business going? Because you need to do that deep check in, so that you’re always a step ahead.

Mark Hunter: Which takes me to another point and that is to always have a business review mentality in your mind as to strategically, what can you do for the customer? And more importantly, what can you do for your customers?

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah. You know, this one is silly, but don’t let it go unnoticed to make sure at least once a year you thank them for being your customers. Let them know that they are your ideal. You appreciate the business and you appreciate the relationship. Mary Kelly, who we were talking about earlier, turned me on to this, but she turned me on to this cookie lady in Colorado.

And they do customized cookies. And I always send my best customers a dozen of those cookies every single year that have their faces on them, their business on them and everything. It’s simply just a thank you that says that I really value their relationship, it’s important to me, and I appreciate you being my customer.

Mark Hunter: Well, I guess I must not mean anything to you because I’ve never received cookies from Meridith Elliott Powell.

So anyway, but anyway.  Let me share one final thing and then I’ll flip it back to you. And then we’ll kind of close it out here. Here’s the thing, your reputation does proceed you. We’ve talked about this two other times, but I can’t stress it enough. When was the last time you went out to your website and looked at it, not in your server, but in an incognito website. In other words, exactly how customers would look at it. It’s amazing what you may just see or may not see.

Meridith Elliott Powell: Yeah, the last thing I’m going to say is really, do you think about setting a day aside a year or something, and really do some type of customer appreciation for your business?

Probably a lot of people listening to this or smaller operations, like what Mark and I run, and we tend to leave customer appreciation day to the big corporation, but I always take the first week in May, which is Small Business Appreciation Week, National Small Business Appreciation Week. I use that week as an opportunity to honor my customers and thank them for having a business so that I can have a business.

So I think finding some type of way every year where you get them some type of gift and do that is a great way to nurture those existing relationships.

Mark Hunter: I’ll be looking for my cookies the first week of May next year from you, Meridith Elliott Powell.

Hey, it’s time to wrap up. Thank you for listening to Sales Logic this week. If you like what you’re hearing/reading, subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast app. If something we’ve said has earned you a single dollar, consider telling a friend about our show. It’s how we grow, to help you grow. I’m Mark Hunter.

Meridith Elliott Powell: And I’m Meridith Elliot Powell.

Mark Hunter: Remember when you sell with confidence and integrity,

Meridith Elliott Powell: Uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive advantage

Mark Hunter: And the sale becomes logical.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

How to Use the Telephone to Prospect, 10 Things You Need to Know

In my latest book, A Mind for Sales, I talk about how to use the telephone for sales and specifically how to use the telephone for prospecting. I’ll share the 10 things you need to know as well as an 11th bonus item, but first I want you to click subscribe, so you can gain access to all of my videos and share them with your co-workers and friends.

1. Ditch the Pitch

This is not the time to sit there and read from your two to three paragraphs. If you really want to read the pitch, that’s fine, but you know what? You’ll come across as a call center person. You’ll be heard as another robo call, like an auto dealer. Guess what? The person will hang up on you very, very fast. Ditch the pitch, because what it comes down to be yourself and be relaxed.

2. Relax / Be You

Wow. You mean I can relax when I’m prospecting? Yes, you can! I want you to be you. Unless you’re the crazy aunt or weird uncle, I want you to be you. Now, what does that mean? It means allow a little bit of your personality to come through in your tone and so forth. Just relax. Hey, nothing you do in that phone call is going to change the course of mankind. You’re not going to solve world peace. You’re not going to prevent world hunger. The sun’s still going to come up in the morning. It’s just a phone call. That’s all, so relax and be you.

3. Know Your Goal

What’s the goal of the phone call? What do you want to get out of this phone call? It shouldn’t be just to make a phone call. More than likely, you want to just get to the next step because that person didn’t expect you to call. So, guess what? You’re probably interrupting them, and that’s ok! Why? Because you can help them. All you’re probably going to be able to do is secure the next step / the next call where you’ll be able to dig in a little bit deeper.

4. They Don’t Care

The person on the other end of the link doesn’t care about you, so it’s not about telling them how wonderful you are. No. Again, they didn’t wake up waiting for you to call them. Now they have their own problems, so you have to make one hundred percent of the call and prospect about your ability to help them with their issues. This means you need to do a little bit of research before you make the call, so you know something about them. I’ll get into more about that later on.

5. Voicemail

Let’s not kid ourselves – the majority of calls roll over to voicemail, so how do you respond to that? First of all, leave a voicemail, but don’t go leaving a 30 second message. So many voicemail systems translate the voice message into text and the person receives it as a text message, or some sort of a message. A 30 second message will look like a bunch of garbage and be deleted. Keep it short. Keep it tight. I talk about leaving a 12 – 15 second voicemail message. It’s tight. And make sure to be you on that voicemail again. Don’t read from a script B; put yourself into it. The voicemail’s objective is purely to create recognition. Are they going to call you back? No, they’re not going to call you back. But it’s OK. All you’re doing is preparing them for the next time you reach out to them.

 6. Omnichannel

This means that you have to use every platform. Don’t think for a moment that the telephone is the only tool. Very few people use the telephone exclusively, but they fail to embrace it in conjunction with email and potentially text, depending on the market, social media, and the industry.

Use the telephone with other things. It truly works best when you can leverage it alongside another channel of communication. I say omnichannel, because you have to keep the message uniform. You can’t be spraying and praying. The message has to be tight and focused. Now, this does not mean that every message is the same. No. Every message is different, but they all wrap around a common theme.

7. Think Next Step

You always have to be thinking about your next step. Now, think about this for a moment. Is your next step the same as your goal? No, it’s not. Think next as your questions to ask if you engage the person in a conversation – do you know what your next question will be? That is knowing where the next step is. Know where you want to take the call, because otherwise you’ll get into a conversation and not know where to go. Be prepared, because it’s that one conversation that will have the deal eventually pay out or lose out. Don’t miss the opportunity.

8. Everyone Has an Insight

No matter what insight you heard, this is not the time to rule people out. People may say they’re not interested. Well, that’s just an insight.

They also may tell you that you’re bugging them and not to call them again. That’s just an insight. Everyone has an insight and accept it as just that – an insight. However, you don’t necessarily have to accept it as fact because, again, if you can help that person, you owe it to them to get back in touch with them. If they say, hey, don’t call me again, that’s fine. But still try to reach out to them by way of email.

Reach out to them, because if you know that you can help them, it’s your job to do so.

9. Connect the Dots

Now, you do this in several different manners. Maybe you’ve had a conversation with somebody else in that company, so you can connect that call with the previous call. Or maybe you’ve had a conversation with that person or an exchange on social media or something. Connect the dots back to those conversations. The more you can connect the dots, the greater your probability of success. Connecting the dots might even look like when they call you, say “Hey, by the way, I was talking to so-and so, and they suggested I call you.” Or “Hey, I know so-and-so and I know you know so-and-so.” In other words, do whatever you can do to point out the connections. That will increase the probability of continuing the conversation. By connecting the dots, you’re demonstrating that you’ve done your homework.

10. Only 4 Ways a Phone Call Can Go

There’s only four ways that a phone call can turn out, and you better be prepared for each and every one of them. So what are the four?

First, the decision maker could answer the telephone. That’s great!

Second, the gatekeeper could answer the phone. I call them door openers because it allows me to maybe have a conversation and learn some other information which will eventually help me when I do reach the decision maker.

Third, it just rolls over to voicemail which I talked about earlier, so leave a voicemail. It may go to an automated system, so what should you do when that happens? Stay on and listen to it, because remember how every automated system says their functions have changed? Be patient and listen to the entire directory. You might be able to find a way to gain the extension for other people that you can talk to in that company. That will help you reach out to people and make connections.

Finally, the fourth way is when you can’t reach anybody. If that happens to me, I go to sales and talk to somebody there. Be up front with them and say, “Hey, I’m looking for so-and-so. I’d like to talk to them. And I know you’re in sales, so I figured you’d answer the phone.” You’ll probably end up having a conversation with him/her.

Here’s the thing, though. You have to make sure that you offer them help. Don’t sit there and just abuse somebody you call. No, you always want to be the one to say, “Hey, how can I help you?” or “I’m sure you’re looking for customers. Who’s your perfect prospect? How can I help you?” I have found that reaching out to sales is many times a great way to reach a prospect. Another way is to simply just dial zero for the operator and see who picks up the telephone. Those are the four and only four ways that a telephone call can go.

11. BONUS!

Now, what’s number 11 – the bonus? Make the call. Somebody asked me the other day when the best time is to make the call. I told them right now! If in doubt, make the call too many times.

Often, I see salespeople saying they need to do a little more preparation and this and that. Well hey, if you’re selling billion-dollar deals, fine. You do a lot of research, but if you’re the average salesperson selling the average item, you don’t need to do more than about thirty seconds or maybe two minutes at most of research. Again, if in doubt, make the call. You have nothing to lose. Remember, if you can help them, you owe it to them to reach out to them.

I hope you found this list beneficial. Now click subscribe so you can get all of my videos. Also, jump over to my website – thesaleshunter.com and subscribe to The Sales Hunter University. I’ve got loads of great content out there, and it’s all just for you – the members of The Sales Hunter University.

Copyright 2020, 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.

 

Your Time Counts!

Are you enjoying these? Every Monday I put this out – a little bit of inspiration, training, and application designed to do one thing: get you and your sales team to the next level!

I want to remind you that we’re going behind a paywall real soon. Don’t forget to sign up to receive this every week to get your inspiration, training and application to start your Monday. Let’s begin!

Ask yourself, have you ever sat around with too much time on your hands? Have you ever sat around and said, “Wow, man, I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this time on my hands.”

You know what’s interesting? We live in the most challenging period of time we’ve ever seen. Right now, in the midst of this pandemic and everything else going on, it seems as if we have more pressure on our time than anything else. Really, time is a finite resource. Think about that for a moment. What do I mean? Honestly, you can get anything more of anything you want, but you can’t get more time. There’s only 24 hours in a day.

So I live in Omaha, Nebraska and if you drive down this street over here about seven miles, you’ll get to Warren Buffett’s house. He is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He’s seriously worth billions, and yet he and I have the same amount of time every day – 24 hours. Time is a finite resource, so you have to figure out how to leverage it. How do you make the most of your time?

I really don’t ever really sit around and say, “Man, I have all this time on my hands. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” You see, time controls us unless we control it. Ask yourself when was the last time you had a chance to breathe. And I mean just plain breathe. Again, we get challenged so frequently by so many different things that pound on us and take our time.

You know Mark Cuban from Shark Tank? He’s also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He has this wonderful line: “Never attend a meeting unless you’re getting a check.” Whoa, that’s a great sales idea, isn’t it? That’s not just a sales idea. It’s an idea for anything and everything. You see, what’s the benefit? I want to challenge your thinking. The most successful people in the world control time. Everyone else allows time to control them. Where are you? Is time controlling you, or are you controlling time?

With that, let’s shift over to the training. Yes, it’s all about time. How much of your calendar do you control?

Today, I want to share with you a very simple concept called time blocking. What is time blocking? If you look at our calendar, you’ll probably see that you have meetings and different things listed. Do you have activities on there? I want to challenge you to start blocking your time into segments. For example, block 30 minutes for this activity, an hour for this activity, 15 minutes for this activity.

Blocking time does two things. First of all, it keeps you on task. It keeps you focused. If you have a meeting, it’s amazing how you show up for that meeting, right? So you tell yourself that you’re going to follow your calendar. You may set aside 30 minutes to take care of this report, 45 minutes on Friday afternoon to kind of clean up this, and you might spend time here preparing for this customer visit. These are all various tasks that you block time for.

Second, blocking time makes you focus on getting the task done in the allocated time. If not, what happens is what I like to call Project Creep, Time Sink. Project Creep is where the project just kind of keeps growing and growing. You say, “Well, I got to get this done this afternoon,” but before you know it, you’ve taken up the whole afternoon to get it done. You see, Project Creep, Time Sink and you’ve lost all your time. Instead, I want you to set aside one hour. Have you ever noticed how the last five minutes of any meeting are the most productive? Or the last couple minutes of a sales call? Remember back in the days before laptops and cell phones and everything, they always said the most productive day of the work year was the day before vacation. Why? Because you needed to get a whole bunch of stuff done before you left on vacation. This whole concept is about how you set up “x” in “x” amount of time.

Here’s what makes time blocking work when do you it in advance. I talk about this very simple principle in my book, A Mind for Sales. All you do is set up your calendar exactly how you’re going to spend your time before the end of the day. And I mean all of the time. You can even block time in there to do nothing, because hey, it’s going to be just Email or maybe just catching up on things. Whatever it might be, but you allocate time. The reason you assign all of your time is because it gets your head thinking. As you allocate time, think about not just the time you’re allocating, but about the outcome you want to create. This is absolutely important. It is a twofold process. You’re scheduling time for the activity, but you’re also determining the outcome you want to achieve. At the end of that 30 minutes or one hour, you want to ask yourself, “Did I achieve that outcome?” You score yourself. Evaluate yourself.

This is what top performers do, like Mark Cubans and Richard Branson’s. In other words, they look at the outcome they want. That way it isn’t so much of scheduling an activity, it’s committing to an outcome. Think about that. You’re not just scheduling an activity. More importantly, you’re committing to an outcome.

Now you’re going to go through your day evaluating and asking yourself, “Did I achieve that outcome? Did I achieve it?” Then, at the end of the day, you can look back and ask, “What were the outcomes I created?” If you can’t substantiate, in your own mind, the outcomes you created at the end of the day, you should question if your day was productive. I contend that all of us have the capability to increase our productivity, our output, our outcomes, by at least 50, to 75, to a 100% easy, by just better allocation of our time.

In a perfect world, I really encourage you to start doing this a week before, on Sundays or sometime over the weekend. I also go into this in more detail in A Mind of Sales. Begin looking at your calendar and assigning blocks of time. Each day then, you tighten up the following days. In other words, you review the week the weekend before, and you review each day the day before. This allows you to stay in sync. It keeps you on track.

Now, let’s move over to the application. You can imagine that the application is a lot of what I’ve already talked about, but here’s what I want you to do before you jump into this. I bring this up, because I get a lot of pushback. People say, “Mark, I don’t have time. I’m already productive.” Here’s what I am asking you to do.

Go into your browser history and see all of the websites that you looked at over the last week that really have no value to your work. Yeah, crazy! Now, I’m not saying every moment of every day has to be absolutely productive. Believe me, I look at espn.com and various news sites. Yes I do, but they don’t consume me. I might look at them for a minute, but then I get back on task.

That said, here’s your activity, and you may need to do this for two weeks or maybe just a week. Start keeping a record of the amount of time. Do this on your clock, watch, iPhone, whatever. But I want you to keep a log. I understand that this is going to be a little bit time consuming. Yes, it will take some time. But I want you to record how you use your time, every day for a good week or two. You know what you’re going to find? Large blocks of time!

I first did this exercise about 25 years ago after I kept telling my boss, “I am very productive.” When he tasked me with doing this, I suddenly realized and learned that I was really only working four hours a day, max! When I went through this exercise and really dug down, it was only about four hours. I would hope that I’m better now. I hope that I’m up to maybe seven or eight hours, and I admit that I work probably 12-hour days.

Challenge yourself with going through this exercise and finding the gaps. What are the things that are filling your time that don’t need to be? Even without taking things off your place, you will find more time that you can allocate. That’s right. People say, “Well, stop doing that. Stop,” or “How do I tell my boss I don’t have to do this report? I can’t. No.” I’m saying that you’ll still have time to get all that done. Plus, you’ll have more time to prospect, sell, and everything, by simply allocating your time better. Do that for a week or two, and you’ll suddenly begin to realize that you’ve got an extra half an hour, 45 minutes to an hour per day, easy. A half hour a day may not seem like much, but that’s two and half hours a week. Over a month, that’s 10 – 12 hours. Basically, over the course of a year, you’ll wind up with almost three additional weeks of time.

Now, think about how many times over the history of your sales career you fell short cause you just needed one more week. In three of the four quarters, you’d be able to add a 14th week. Would that make you more successful? It sure would!

The big application here is to go through and examine your time. Come back to the training point that I talked about in terms of allocating / blocking time on your calendar. That, in turn, reminds you of the inspiration piece that you control your time instead of time controlling you.

Make sure you get you and your team signed up for the Weekly Sales Kickoff! Go out to the link today, because we’re going behind a paywall. Soon, you’re not going to be able to get it. Every single week, you’ll want this to kick off your sales whether your week or sales meeting.

Copyright 2020, 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.

Weekly Sales Kickoff – Your Time Counts!

Are you enjoying these? Every Monday I put this out – a little bit of inspiration, training, and application designed to do one thing: get you and your sales team to the next level!

I want to remind you that we’re going behind a paywall real soon. Don’t forget to sign up to receive this every week to get your inspiration, training and application to start your Monday. Let’s begin!

Ask yourself, have you ever sat around with too much time on your hands? Have you ever sat around and said, “Wow, man, I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this time on my hands.”

You know what’s interesting? We live in the most challenging period of time we’ve ever seen. Right now, in the midst of this pandemic and everything else going on, it seems as if we have more pressure on our time than anything else. Really, time is a finite resource. Think about that for a moment. What do I mean? Honestly, you can get anything more of anything you want, but you can’t get more time. There’s only 24 hours in a day.

So I live in Omaha, Nebraska and if you drive down this street over here about seven miles, you’ll get to Warren Buffett’s house. He is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He’s seriously worth billions, and yet he and I have the same amount of time every day – 24 hours. Time is a finite resource, so you have to figure out how to leverage it. How do you make the most of your time?

I really don’t ever really sit around and say, “Man, I have all this time on my hands. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” You see, time controls us unless we control it. Ask yourself when was the last time you had a chance to breathe. And I mean just plain breathe. Again, we get challenged so frequently by so many different things that pound on us and take our time.

You know Mark Cuban from Shark Tank? He’s also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He has this wonderful line: “Never attend a meeting unless you’re getting a check.” Whoa, that’s a great sales idea, isn’t it? That’s not just a sales idea. It’s an idea for anything and everything. You see, what’s the benefit? I want to challenge your thinking. The most successful people in the world control time. Everyone else allows time to control them. Where are you? Is time controlling you, or are you controlling time?

With that, let’s shift over to the training. Yes, it’s all about time. How much of your calendar do you control?

Today, I want to share with you a very simple concept called time blocking. What is time blocking? If you look at our calendar, you’ll probably see that you have meetings and different things listed. Do you have activities on there? I want to challenge you to start blocking your time into segments. For example, block 30 minutes for this activity, an hour for this activity, 15 minutes for this activity.

Blocking time does two things. First of all, it keeps you on task. It keeps you focused. If you have a meeting, it’s amazing how you show up for that meeting, right? So you tell yourself that you’re going to follow your calendar. You may set aside 30 minutes to take care of this report, 45 minutes on Friday afternoon to kind of clean up this, and you might spend time here preparing for this customer visit. These are all various tasks that you block time for.

Second, blocking time makes you focus on getting the task done in the allocated time. If not, what happens is what I like to call Project Creep, Time Sink. Project Creep is where the project just kind of keeps growing and growing. You say, “Well, I got to get this done this afternoon,” but before you know it, you’ve taken up the whole afternoon to get it done. You see, Project Creep, Time Sink and you’ve lost all your time. Instead, I want you to set aside one hour. Have you ever noticed how the last five minutes of any meeting are the most productive? Or the last couple minutes of a sales call? Remember back in the days before laptops and cell phones and everything, they always said the most productive day of the work year was the day before vacation. Why? Because you needed to get a whole bunch of stuff done before you left on vacation. This whole concept is about how you set up “x” in “x” amount of time.

Here’s what makes time blocking work when do you it in advance. I talk about this very simple principle in my book, A Mind for Sales. All you do is set up your calendar exactly how you’re going to spend your time before the end of the day. And I mean all of the time. You can even block time in there to do nothing, because hey, it’s going to be just Email or maybe just catching up on things. Whatever it might be, but you allocate time. The reason you assign all of your time is because it gets your head thinking. As you allocate time, think about not just the time you’re allocating, but about the outcome you want to create. This is absolutely important. It is a twofold process. You’re scheduling time for the activity, but you’re also determining the outcome you want to achieve. At the end of that 30 minutes or one hour, you want to ask yourself, “Did I achieve that outcome?” You score yourself. Evaluate yourself.

This is what top performers do, like Mark Cubans and Richard Branson’s. In other words, they look at the outcome they want. That way it isn’t so much of scheduling an activity, it’s committing to an outcome. Think about that. You’re not just scheduling an activity. More importantly, you’re committing to an outcome.

Now you’re going to go through your day evaluating and asking yourself, “Did I achieve that outcome? Did I achieve it?” Then, at the end of the day, you can look back and ask, “What were the outcomes I created?” If you can’t substantiate, in your own mind, the outcomes you created at the end of the day, you should question if your day was productive. I contend that all of us have the capability to increase our productivity, our output, our outcomes, by at least 50, to 75, to a 100% easy, by just better allocation of our time.

In a perfect world, I really encourage you to start doing this a week before, on Sundays or sometime over the weekend. I also go into this in more detail in A Mind of Sales. Begin looking at your calendar and assigning blocks of time. Each day then, you tighten up the following days. In other words, you review the week the weekend before, and you review each day the day before. This allows you to stay in sync. It keeps you on track.

Now, let’s move over to the application. You can imagine that the application is a lot of what I’ve already talked about, but here’s what I want you to do before you jump into this. I bring this up, because I get a lot of pushback. People say, “Mark, I don’t have time. I’m already productive.” Here’s what I am asking you to do.

Go into your browser history and see all of the websites that you looked at over the last week that really have no value to your work. Yeah, crazy! Now, I’m not saying every moment of every day has to be absolutely productive. Believe me, I look at espn.com and various news sites. Yes I do, but they don’t consume me. I might look at them for a minute, but then I get back on task.

That said, here’s your activity, and you may need to do this for two weeks or maybe just a week. Start keeping a record of the amount of time. Do this on your clock, watch, iPhone, whatever. But I want you to keep a log. I understand that this is going to be a little bit time consuming. Yes, it will take some time. But I want you to record how you use your time, every day for a good week or two. You know what you’re going to find? Large blocks of time!

I first did this exercise about 25 years ago after I kept telling my boss, “I am very productive.” When he tasked me with doing this, I suddenly realized and learned that I was really only working four hours a day, max! When I went through this exercise and really dug down, it was only about four hours. I would hope that I’m better now. I hope that I’m up to maybe seven or eight hours, and I admit that I work probably 12-hour days.

Challenge yourself with going through this exercise and finding the gaps. What are the things that are filling your time that don’t need to be? Even without taking things off your place, you will find more time that you can allocate. That’s right. People say, “Well, stop doing that. Stop,” or “How do I tell my boss I don’t have to do this report? I can’t. No.” I’m saying that you’ll still have time to get all that done. Plus, you’ll have more time to prospect, sell, and everything, by simply allocating your time better. Do that for a week or two, and you’ll suddenly begin to realize that you’ve got an extra half an hour, 45 minutes to an hour per day, easy. A half hour a day may not seem like much, but that’s two and half hours a week. Over a month, that’s 10 – 12 hours. Basically, over the course of a year, you’ll wind up with almost three additional weeks of time.

Now, think about how many times over the history of your sales career you fell short cause you just needed one more week. In three of the four quarters, you’d be able to add a 14th week. Would that make you more successful? It sure would!

The big application here is to go through and examine your time. Come back to the training point that I talked about in terms of allocating / blocking time on your calendar. That, in turn, reminds you of the inspiration piece that you control your time instead of time controlling you.

Make sure you get you and your team signed up for the Weekly Sales Kickoff! Go out to the link today, because we’re going behind a paywall. Soon, you’re not going to be able to get it. Every single week, you’ll want this to kick off your sales whether your week or sales meeting.

Copyright 2020, 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.