Mark Hunter's Blog, page 44

What’s In Your Prospecting Plan?

Have seen the commercials for a credit card with Jennifer Garner asking multiple times, “What’s in your wallet?” I don’t know about you, but each time I see one of those I can’t help but change the question to, “What’s in your prospecting plan?” Hopefully, you’re avoiding answering that question. The fact is most salespeople’s answer is, “not nearly enough.”

A few months back, I put a video together on this subject. I suggest you take 5 minutes and watch it now. Below is a summary of the key points.

 

I get asked this question a lot: what’s in your prospecting plan? Here are several steps you can do right now:

-Know who your perfect client is. Take some time to write out about your perfect client, so you can focus your efforts on reaching these types of prospects.

-Create a list of the outcomes you can create. I’m not talking about features or benefits. I’m referring to how you can help the customer with the product or service you sell.

-Build a list of 10 questions that enables you to engage the prospect encouraging them to tell you their critical need(s). You won’t ask all 10 questions. The point is to have enough questions to build your confidence. You may only ask one or two, but having plenty prepares you for whatever comes your way. Keep the questions relatable to your customer to create confidence.

-Create a list of value-added statements / insights you can share with prospects during the prospecting phase. This will prepare you to stay engaged with the customer. These statements give you something to message the prospect multiple times, each time delivering a different message.

-Block the necessary time on your calendar to prospect knowing it may take up to 10 – 15 contacts using a variety of means to get them to acknowledge you. Don’t think for a second that you don’t have time! This task is just as important as eating or using the restroom. Schedule it, and stick to it! With each block of prospecting time, always have a goal. At first, keep the goal easy, remembering that you want to succeed. Second, always evaluate what you learn and how it will help you improve. Your goal is to continually improve, and it’s your attitude that will make or break your success. This is far more important than anything else. It’s amazing how having the right attitude will change dramatically whether you prospect or simply blow it off. Never give up! Be persistent! When you believe you can make a difference in others, it is your responsibility to reach out and connect. They may not expect it and most likely, will not think they need it; but because you know you can help them, you will continue to be persistent in making contact. The biggest issue salespeople have is giving up too soon!

These steps I laid out are designed to help you do one thing – make it happen. Prospecting is where sales begins. When you prospect, it’s amazing what can and will happen.

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Why Discounting Your Price is Not a Prospecting Strategy

Discounting is not a viable prospecting strategy! If you think you can fill your pipeline and create great customers with a low price, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Go ahead and cut your price and go ahead and tell yourself you will do it just this one time. Liar! There is never just one time! Once you cut your price to close a deal, you’ll find yourself doing it time and time again. Even worse, the customers who you give the lower price to will expect the lower price the next time they buy.

Watch this to get the inside scoop:

 

Congratulations goes out to your customers who did pay full price; you just turned them into suckers. Nice job! Get yourself the t-shirt, the discounted one! With each discounted price you give, you are saying you don’t need the profit. The 10% reduction in price may very well end up being a 40% reduction in profit. Would you take a 40% pay reduction to close a deal? Case closed.

You might be thinking this doesn’t apply to you because you see yourself as not being a high-priced option. It doesn’t matter what your price point, when you cut your price to prospect, you will attract a lower level customer. Your price signifies the quality you create and your value proposition. Reducing your price to fill your pipeline tells people you’re not worth the quality you charge. As a result, you’ll have two problems. First, you will attract customers who only buy from you based on price. Second, if you change the price or someone offers a lower price, they’ll leave.

Too many companies and salespeople think that the key to sales is by offering a discount. Here’s the problem with that: price cutting becomes a drug that you become addicted to very quickly. As a result, you’re selling the discount and not the value of what you have to offer. Don’t think what you sell is different or your customers are special and the only way to reach them is with a discount. False!

Anyone can increase sales if they cut their price enough. Hey, why not give prospects a really big discount, and just say it’s free! Why hold back? It’s a simple economic principle that says there is a consistent correlation between demand and price. If you lower the price, you will increase the demand. It’s that simple; however, it leaves out one basic item: your profit.

Your focus needs to be on selling the value, not the discounted price. This is why I say that you can’t take a Walmart shopper and turn them into a Nordstrom customer. A key reason why people shop at Walmart is because of their low prices. For Nordstrom customers, it’s about the quality and the expectations they receive from what they buy.

Your price helps to create the value of your proposition. If you buy something for a very low price, you won’t expect much from it because you know the reason you bought it was because it was cheap. Conversely, if you pay more money for a product, you expect more for it. Your price sets the expectations the customer has and when you discount the first sale, you have now altered the value model for the customer.

Prospecting is not about price. Prospecting is about uncovering needs and creating a value proposition. When you sell the customer because of your low price, don’t be surprised when the customer leaves you because someone else has offered an even lower price. Low-price is not a sustainable competitive advantage. Someone will always come along and offer an even lower price.

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Monday Motivation Video: A “No” From a Customer is Never Permanent

If a customer tells you “no,” it doesn’t mean they will never buy from you. It just means that they won’t buy from you right now. Your objective is to create more value for the customer to make them see why it’s so important to buy from you right now!

If you give up every time you hear “no,” you will find yourself missing out on too many opportunities to help customers. “No” might be the case temporarily and it might even be the case for several months; however, don’t ever believe that it is permanent.

Sales is about having the persistence to follow-thru in helping your prospects and customers see value. The more you listen to and engage with the prospect, the more value you create. As you create more value, the less you will hear “no.”

The answer “no” is never permanent. It is only a moment in time.  One of the first things you need to discover is if “no” means the customer is buying from someone else or if they’re choosing to not buy at all. Either way, it means you still have an opportunity. If they’re buying from someone else, it shows that they are serious and have a need.  Your job then is to win the comparison challenge. If the customer is not buying at all, your job is to educate them. No matter what, the sales is yours to be made and the only mistake you can make is assuming the “no” is permanent.

 

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Without Sales There is No Business, Without Prospecting There are No Sales

Think about the title of this blog for a moment – what does it mean to you? Prospecting is the foundation from which sales is built upon, and sales is the foundation business is built upon. Our economy is driven by sales. When sales accelerate, so does the economy.

Watch my video: Sales is Not a Job, Sales is a Lifestyle:

 

 

Do you believe in prospecting? Does your company not just have a sales culture but a prospecting culture? Early on in my sales career, I struggled with prospecting because I viewed it as an evil activity. Over the years, the evil has faded and been replaced with passion – a passion to help others because of what I’m selling.

Prospecting cannot be an afterthought. Prospecting cannot be something done only when necessary. Prospecting must be done regularly. Only when you move from viewing sales as a job to viewing it as a lifestyle will you begin to fully embrace what prospecting is all about. Prospecting drives sales, drives business, and drives the economy.

I challenge you to see prospecting for all that it can be, not just in your own life but in the lives of the customers you sell to. Regardless of what you sell and whether it be business to business or business to consumer, it all comes down to impacting others.

In the weeks, months, quarters and year ahead, it’s your goal to make prospecting your mission. Prospecting is your tool to positively influence others, and it’s a powerful one. Count each prospecting opportunity as your mission. If you embrace sales, and particularly prospecting as more than a job, I guarantee everything will change… for the better.

Take a second to download two of my ebooks: 14 Things Great Salespeople Do and 50 Prospecting Truths. Read them, apply them, and make prospecting more than a job!

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Networking is Not Prospecting – 3 Things You Need to Do to Make the Most of a Networking Event

Here is excuse #32 for not prospecting: “I do all of my prospecting at networking events.” This ranks right up there with the village idiots who try to sell you the second you connect on LinkedIn. Thinking you can attend the after-hours mixer put on by your local chamber of commerce, be introduced to someone you’ve never met before, and immediately begin pitching them is stupid!

https://youtu.be/-wKtXt9xd10

There’s a reason why your best prospects don’t attend networking events. They don’t want to be harassed! Networking events are about creating relationships and helping others. It’s not about you and what you sell. Accept networking events for just what they are: networking. At these kinds of events, your objective should be to strengthen your relationships with those you already know and to meet new people.

Any time I attend a networking event, I go into it with 3 goals, and I strongly suggest you do the same. Here they are:

First, reach out to people you already know and introduce them to other people. Remember you’re at a networking event, so it’s all about meeting others. Make it your job to connect people.

Second, actively support the host. Networking events don’t happen by themselves. They require that somebody put them on, and you need to acknowledge that. Your role is to help the host; be intentional about asking how you can help. When you arrive and before you leave, take a moment to thank them for putting on the event.

Third, meet a few people you can follow up with at a later date. Following up is not your opportunity to begin selling to them. No! Following up is your opportunity to help them by introducing them via email or social media to someone else they should get to know. This simple technique extends the networking event and makes it keep on giving.

In order to follow-up after the event, connect with them on social media or just a quick phone call or email. The approach I like to use is ensuring my follow-up message is based around something personal I learned about them. When you make it personal, it becomes magical! Suddenly, the person sees you as a person and not somebody trying to sell them something. What you’re selling is you and the value of a relationship. If you have an opportunity to help them via what you’re selling, it will materialize after the relationship is firmly established.

You can see from my networking approach why I am a firm believer in networking events being different than prospecting. View networking sessions as having a long-tail. The connections you make create value, but aren’t a straight line. I can share with you many of stories where the networking event I attended turned into a 6-figure deal a year or two later. This has happened multiple times. Also, I could share even more more situations where two people I connected wound up creating 7-figure deals. Am I jealous? No! Trust me, seeing that unfold jazzes me! It means I helped others, and by playing the long-game, I know I will be just fine.

With everything I’ve shared, you’re probably wondering how many networking events you should attend. My answer is not as many as you have been up to now. Networking events are a low-value event. Personally, I only attend networking events when I don’t have anything on my calendar at that time, and I’m caught up with everything else. The only exception is when I know there will be a person there who I need to connect with and attending the event is the only way to do so.

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Monday Motivation Video: The 4 Ways You Get Sales

Did you know there are only 4 ways to get sales? Most people are focused on the wrong three and not the right one. The first way is through repeat sales. Secondly, you can gain sales from referrals. Who doesn’t love referrals? Everyone! The third way is inbound, those that just run into you without any work on your part. The final and most important way is through the sales created by you. If you broke down your sales strategies, which way are you working the most? How much time do you spend creating new sales opportunities? Spend most of your time on the last one, because sales is most effective when YOU work your business!

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Integrity in Sales is Not an Afterthought But an Essential

People ask me what my definition of integrity is. Then, without even catching their breath, they ask if I see them as having integrity. Why do we even have to ask this question? Why should it be a trait we have to look for?

If we have to ask ourselves if we have integrity, it leaves me wondering what our customers are saying about us. Integrity is not an afterthought. It’s like the used car dealer who goes by the name, “Honest Sam.” Why should the word “honest” even have to be in there? What does that make everyone else? Dishonest?

Where integrity most comes into play is with customers. Yes, integrity is critical when you’re looking to close a deal or negotiating with a customer. I also believe it impacts how you prospect.

Video: Do You Have Lousy Customers:

 

 

We become most like those we spend the most time with. This applies to people, but hang with me, because it also applies to pets. Have you ever noticed how a pet takes on the personality of their master? It’s not a fluke! The pet knows that the better they serve their master, the better their master will treat them. Go ahead and say I’ve lost it with that last comment but hey, it served its purpose by getting you thinking.

Prospects you attract and even more so, the prospects who turn into customers, will be a reflection of who you are. People are most comfortable being around those who are most like them. This means when you’re around somebody similar to you there’s a level of comfort and when people are comfortable, the conversation comes easy. You can’t sell to anyone who is uncomfortable with you. This is where integrity becomes huge. Integrity is like a magnet. A magnet creates a magnetic field. The stronger the magnet, the stronger the field. It works the same with integrity – when you demonstrate integrity, you’re creating a field around it that’s attracting others of integrity.

The easiest way to have better customers is by increasing your commitment to living a life of integrity. Up your integrity and you will up your customers. There’s a reason why some salespeople seem to have lousy customers. Lousy customers do not place a high value in integrity. Most likely, it’s because they feel threatened by it. To them, a person with integrity will look through them and see them for what they really are. If you want lousy customers, just start behaving like a lousy salesperson and they’ll find you.

Sales is an amazing profession for a number of reasons, but one main reason is because you can build your success off of who you are: an integrity filled salesperson.

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

The BEST Sales Presentation is No Presentation

The last thing your customer wants from you is a presentation. I don’t care if it is the first time you’re meeting with a prospect or the 10th time you’re meeting with a customer. What customers want is to know how you are going to help them. The last thing anyone wants to sit in is a presentation hearing somebody drone on and on.

Video:

 

Honestly, I’d prefer to sit through a reading of 12th century literature than have to sit through a 60-slide PowerPoint presentation extolling the features of the newest upgrade that has been deemed the finest product ever made. Finest product ever made until next week’s new upgrade – ha!

Your customers want their problems solved, so that means having a conversation. Customers will always believe their situation is unique and cannot be resolved by an out-of-the-box solution. There’s a reason why customers cancel meetings. Because they don’t see a need to meet, and that’s because they don’t see anything of value.

The value you bring is in the questions you ask and the conversations you create. That’s the value your customer wants and the value that your prospect will quickly warm up to. This doesn’t mean you don’t need to know what you’re selling. I think you actually need to know even more about what you’re selling, because any number of topics could arise in your conversations.

I like to use the line, “the best presentation ever made is the presentation never given.” Think about that for a second and what it means. It means that you know your stuff so well that you can give it without any aids. It means that you can share the content in so many different ways and certainly without the need to have things flow in a sequential manner.

Prospects always believe they have options. They believe what you are offering is no different than what someone else is offering. And yes, this is true until you demonstrate your ability to engage them. No presentation can ever replace what you can personally bring to a sales call, regardless of where you’re at in the process.

Your objective going into every sales call is to share any piece of information you feel might need to be shared in bite-size pieces. Don’t get caught up in drawn out explanations. Let your customer guide you. You’ll do that best by asking questions and engaging them. When you can allow the conversation to free flow, and yet still get your critical points answered, it will leave the customer thinking one thing: you’re brilliant and you have credibility. That is what you want!

The formal presentation is a crutch used by lazy salespeople who don’t know their product or service well enough. Customers are quick to catch on. They can smell “presentation breathe” quickly. It takes time to be able to know what you sell backwards and forwards and not need a presentation. The payout once you do know your product or service is not needing a presentation ever again. That’s huge!

Don’t fall in the lazy sales trap, though. The lazy sales trap is one the experienced salesperson falls into because they’re so good today that they stop investing time to ensure they’re good tomorrow. They fail to stay up on product changes, upgrades, etc. Slowly over time, they lose their edge. Being so good and confident that you don’t need to rely on a sales presentation requires continuous improvement.

Your job this week and in the months to come is to become so knowledgeable about the product(s) and features you offer and how they benefit the customer that you can talk about it any time, any place, with anyone. When you’re always thinking at this level, you will become far more confident. Moreover, your ability to listen and ask better questions will skyrocket.

In today’s selling environment, I do not believe you have an option. If you choose to always deliver and rely on a canned presentation, you’ll have to choose a new profession. Instead, focus on the conversation. That is how and where you’ll be able to choose from more options as you move up in your sales career.

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

Monday Motivation Video: December Is a Great Month to Prospect and Sell!

It might be December, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to not prospect. You have prospects ready to buy; however, they can’t and won’t buy from you unless you reach out to them. Don’t forget to also reach out to those that you talked to earlier in the year but didn’t buy from you. Things may have changed and you can help them. The only way you can do so is by calling them. December is a great month, and it will be a great month for you when you make it happen by helping others. Start reaching out today!

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result

How Come Most Prospecting Plans Fail?

This question ranks right up there with: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Prospecting has many components. It’s no different than a great recipe with a certain mix of seasonings that makes it taste exceptional. If you add the seasoning at the wrong time, it changes the taste, or if you leave something out, it changes the taste. The same things apply to prospecting.

Check out my video on this issue:

When prospecting is done right and each activity is completed in the right order, it works and works well. The key is knowing each activity and then doing each one correctly. Below you’ll see the 10 things you need to look out for. I’ve also written an eBook that builds on each one of the 10 – here’s the link:

10 Reasons Most Prospecting Plans Fail eBook

1. Using the same prospecting process for all your prospects.

This is a huge mistake, and it happens when we get lazy. Unfortunately, being lazy only results in one thing: poor results.

2. Having too many prospects in your pipeline

I’m surprised at how frequently this is an issue, because all it does is prevent your from focusing on your best prospects. The result is failure to achieve the critical level of engagement with any single prospect, because you’re too busy trying to keep up with all of your prospects.

3. Not following up

This builds on my last point in #2. Following up is the number one way you turn a prospect into a customer. I bet your expectation is that it will take one or two contacts to turn the prospect into a customer, and that’s delusional thinking! It will take many, many more.

4. Not segmenting your prospects based on who they are and what their needs are

Every customer buys for a different reason. The faster you know the customer’s reason for buying, the faster you can tailor your process. Don’t wait until the prospect is ready to buy to find out what their needs are. Always make discovering their needs part of the prospecting process.

5. Relying on email as your primary prospecting tool

Just because email is easy to use and you can send out a lot of emails very fast does not mean it should be your “go to” prospecting tool. Email is one tool in your tool box, but not THE tool!

6. Thinking social media is your answer

I’m not sure where you bank, but my bank only takes money and it will never accept “clicks” or “likes.” This is what makes social media such an issue. Quickly, it becomes a game of where the object is to get your content shared. Think about this for a second- the first word is “social.” What does that mean? It’s all about conversations. Believe me, there is nothing wrong with social media. Just don’t ever assume that the time you spend on social media is prospecting time.

7. Not allocating the proper commitment of your time.

If you think you can relegate prospecting as an activity that you do after you take care of everything else, you’ll never be successful. Prospecting is not something you do when you’re all caught up or sitting around with nothing else to do. To make prospecting work effectively, it must be a priority and you must schedule time to do it.

8. Failing to realize your prospects don’t care about you and your company

Why would a prospect want to read your message when all it talks about is you? Your prospect only cares about one thing: their problems. The era of the “capabilities presentation” is long gone; that died along with network television and the daily newspaper. If the prospect is so bored that they want to know about you, they’ll look you and your company up on the internet.

9. Not making your messages about the prospect’s needs

From the first second in your phone call to the first word in your message, it must be about the prospect’s needs. So, you say you don’t know what their needs are? That’s why you’re asking questions and not sitting there dumping information. There’s no way you will ever know what to share until you first know their needs. This is why I am a firm believer in only asking questions in the prospecting phase.

10. Failing to realize the telephone is still a great prospecting tool

The people who say the telephone does not work for prospecting are the ones afraid to talk on the phone. I agree that most phone calls don’t get answered, but hey, is that any different than email or any other form of communication? No! Give me one two-minute phone call with somebody and more will be learned than during an email exchange over the course of two weeks.

AND THE BIGGEST THING TO LOOK OUT FOR IN PROSPECTING…

THINKING PROSPECTING IS A WASTE OF TIME

When figuring out why most prospecting plans fail, this one ranks high on the list. Many salespeople have this general attitude. They think prospecting is a waste of time! Extraordinary salespeople, however, know that keeping their pipeline full of viable prospects means viewing prospecting as a vital part of selling.

Be sure to download the ebook where I go into each of these 10 things much deeper: https://thesaleshunter.com/10-reasons...

Cop yright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result