Mark Hunter's Blog, page 52

Monday Motivation Video: Success Comes From Failing

Success comes from failing and the ability to learn from your failures. The only time you actually fail is when you fail to learn from your failures. Success can only come from applying what you learn. Each Monday, implement a lesson you learned through failing the week before. Make it your goal to learn each time you fail. Embrace failures so they can lead you to success.

Copyright 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 Results

Success and 3 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

1. What level of risk are you willing to take?

2. What are you doing to nurture your network?

3. What are your 25-year goals?

It’s amazing what you can achieve when you address those three questions. It is easy to rationalize why you’re not successful and make that why it’s ok to accept being average as good enough. Average is what other people do, but it’s not what you do.

If you answer these three questions, the trajectory of your career and life will dramatically change. These questions are inter-related, too. There are few people with real 25-year goals. What people have is 25-year dreams; however, a dream without a plan is just a dream. The level of risk that you’re willing to take typically aligns with the people you interact with. Let me tell you that how you answer one question will determine how you answer the other two. Another words, cautious people tend to associate with cautious people.

First, answer the last question: what are your 25-year goals? It will blow your mind if you start thinking 25 years into the future. Most people overestimate what they can get done in a week or a month but underestimate what they can accomplish in a year. Take that comment and expand it to 25 years. Few people develop practical 25-year goals. Now, I am not expecting you to lock in your 25-year action plan and vow to never change it. No! That’s where the other two questions come into play: the stronger your network and the greater your tolerance of risk, the more your 25-year goals will change and most likely become bigger.

For the second question, I recommend following this strategy. First, never allow a week to pass without helping another person in your network. Second, create a list of 25 people that you would like to have in your network, but you don’t know now. When building your list, think big and then even bigger. If you want Richard Branson in your network, write his name down. If you want Sheryl Sandberg, add her to the list. Those 25 people are not ones you’re going to meet in the next month and may may take years to meet them, but that’s the best part about it! If you want Richard Branson in your network, I doubt you could call him up and say, “Hey Richard! Let’s grab coffee.” That won’t happen. I’m sorry. What you can and will do is start a journey to meet others that do know Richard. When you put a high-profile name on your list, you’re telling yourself that you will continue to add other people of great influence. As you work toward connecting with your super list of 25, you’ll end up meeting others that will just make your world significantly bigger.

Finally, let’s look at the first question: what level of risk are you willing to take? Your tolerance of risk is directly proportionate to whom you associate. Think about your list of 25 people: each one is probably a big thinker who has taken risks to achieve their level of success. This means that these people have most likely surrounded themselves with risk takers, too. Do you see what I’m trying to get at? As you expand your network to reach your super 25, you’ll find yourself with risk takers and the natural outcome is you becoming more risk oriented.

Now, I bet you’re asking what is the definition of risk? The best answer is any result that goes beyond what you think is possible. The beauty of this definition is that as you do one thing that seems impossible, you become comfortable and suddenly you’ll find yourself taking even greater risks. The best way to feel confident in doing this is ensuring you have “risk-confident” focused people in your network. These people are defined as those that don’t shy away from challenges but rather, step into them knowing that they will find a way to make it work.

Success is completely up to you, and it begins by digging deep into these three questions. Ready to go deep? Check out my video on the issue here!

Copyright 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 Results

Why Do Salespeople Lie? #SalesTruth

This question drives me nuts! Frankly, it’s sad that people even think about asking it. Unfortunately, it is true and I see too many salespeople lying time and time again to other salespeople.

The concept of social media being the fastest way to grow your business is one of the many lies out there. I just had a phone call with a salesperson for a small business. Although he’s been in sales for 10 years, he is struggling.

The salesperson shared that he spent the first 9 years focusing on social media. The pain of the conversation came when a new competitor entered this salesperson’s space 2 years ago. Today, that competitor is getting all of the business. The salesperson admitted that the reason for their competitor’s success is focusing on selling rather than social media. I want you to think about this for a moment: one business relying on social media and the other relying on selling; the one focused on selling is winning all of the business. This situation plays out far too often.

My feeling why is salespeople lie is because they are running from the truth and they feel that if they buy into a false truth, then their world will become perfect. I really think this happens because too many salespeople are afraid of the customer. They are afraid to engage and hear the word, “no.” Too many salespeople are afraid of customers hurting their feelings and wounding their self-esteem, so much that they feel like they’ll need to run to a “safe zone” for healing. It’s time to get over it and realize that you’re in sales, because you know you can help people. You are in sales, because you can make a difference. You’re in sales, because you care! You believe in yourself and others. That’s why you care. Now, if none of that describes you, it’s time to exit stage right and get a different job.

As you can see, I’m very passionate about this issue and not just the over reliance on social media but the many other sales lies being spouted off by people that have no idea what they are talking about.

#SalesTruth is a book I want you to buy, read and most importantly, let its message sink in. This book has one objective: to dispel the many sales lies people are spreading. It is written by my very good friend, Mike Weinberg Yes, I did have a chance to contribute to his work, but I’m not asking you to read the book because my name is mentioned in it. I’m asking you to read it, because you need to! Regardless of where you’re at in your sales career, I guarantee you will gain keen insights from this book. Grab your copy here!

Copyright 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 Results

Monday Motivation Video: Failing Means You Tried

What does failing do for you? It develops character, perseverance and resilience. Failing shows that you actually tried. It means that you took a step and went for it. Failures will get you one step closer to being successful, because they always teach you something. Learn from your failures. Fail fast and learn even faster.

Copyright 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 Results

Sales Leadership – 12 Questions You Need to Ask

Congratulations on making your quota for this quarter! It’s the 4th consecutive quarter you’ve made your number and you are feeling good. Instead of only seeing yourself as a salesperson, you’re now seeing yourself as a sales leader. You’ve arrived, but hold on… have you arrived? It’s easy to consider yourself a sales leader when you’re making your numbers, but are you really a sales leader? Below are 12 questions you need to ask yourself to determine if you’re a sales leader or merely a salesperson:

1. Do your employees exhibit a level of confidence in you that makes them share confidential information?

2. Do customers ask you questions that go beyond what you sell, because they value your input and see you has having keen insights?

3. When problems arise, do you take ownership of the account or do you pass the blame?

4. Would customers and others you work with say that you demonstrate integrity in everything you do?

5. How often do you educate your customer and help them see things that they would not have seen otherwise?

6. Are you actively building relationships with multiple people at every account / customer you work with?

7. Within your company, is your view sought out and seen as valuable?

8. Do you take an active role in mentoring and helping other salespeople both inside and outside of your company?

9. Do you own your sales quotas and business plans? Do you see them as merely a starting point of what you’ll achieve?

10. How much time do you spend developing your own skillset to become an even better sales leader?

11. Do you own your day and have clear goals for what you intend to accomplish, or do you allow others to control it?

12. Do you have a clear set of multi-year goals to help you grow both professionally and personally?

How did you do answering those questions? Which ones do you feel like you need to work on to develop a better answer? Most likely, you need to develop a plan, or at least, that’s what sales leaders do. A sales leader is never content, because they are always on mission to improve themselves and those around them.

Copyright 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 Results

What is Your Attitude Towards Prospecting? 20 Things You Can Do

Is prospecting a four-letter word in your mind? If you had to choose between prospecting and having a root canal, which would you choose? Maybe you wouldn’t choose the root canal; however, you certainly would rather have a cavity filled than have to prospect. Relax! You’re not alone.

It’s always been said that the things people fear most are death, taxes, and public speaking. I bet prospecting would be on the list too if everyone had to do it. If you’re like most people who dread prospecting, you have to keep a few things in mind. First of all, nobody is ever harmed, no animals or children are hurt and no blood is shed due to prospecting.

People’s attitude towards prospecting is simply that: an attitude developed in the mind that can be either positive or negative. It’s just a matter of what you make of it. For many, that attitude is negative and something they dread doing, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

One reason why people dread prospecting is because they feel like they have an excuse. Their excuse is the need to take care of other things. They think business will somehow come to them. This excuse causes them to believe that if the pain becomes too great, they can just go get a different job. Each one of these excuses is just that, an excuse, and none of them need to exist.

If your focus is to take advantage of people and somehow deprive them of money or live up to people’s bad perceptions of sales, then you will struggle. On the other hand, if you see yourself able to help people achieve a better outcome, that’s a different story.

How can you start having not just a better attitude but a great attitude towards prospecting? Watch this video, and start doing the following:

1. Record all of the ways you’ve helped customers who have purchased from you before.

2. Record all of the potential ways you can help people through building a relationship with them.

3. Create an avatar of your perfect customer.

4. Block your time to ensure you have big chunks dedicated to only prospecting. For each window of time, make a specific goal to make “x” number of calls.

5. Know exactly how you will handle every type of conversation you are in.

6. Realize that the vast majority of people you speak to will not do anything. It’s no different than watching cars drive past a restaurant and knowing that only a few will stop.

7. Remember that the people you call are not expecting your call. Yes, your call will be an interruption in their day, but you’re doing it because you know that you can help them.

8. The value you bring begins with you and your personality.

9. Your goal with each call is to merely gain the next step to move the process forward.

10. Whenever a person speaks harshly on a call, their attitude towards you might very well just be a reaction to something else that occurred before you called.

11. Celebrate the victories regardless of how small they might be.

12. Just as a farmer plants in the spring and harvests months later, you as the salesperson will also need time to grow a lead and harvest a customer.

13. Be proud of yourself and know that you’re making a difference in each person you are able to speak with.

14. Begin each day with thankfulness for the previous day’s successes. Then, look optimistically at the opportunities ahead of you that day.

15. Begin each day writing down 3 things that you are thankful for in your life. Tell 3 others that you value them and appreciate what they do.

16. If the person you’re talking to has a negative attitude, never let their pessimism infect your mind.

17. Accept the idea that everyone is unique and special so that makes every conversation special.

18. Never allow others to define your level of success- success is what you choose it to be.

19. Take time to celebrate and take time to review. Always try to build on the past to create a better tomorrow.

20. Only associate with those that have a positive attitude.

Copyright 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 Results

Monday Motivation Video: What Do Successful People Believe?

Successful people go out and make it happen without ever making excuses. They just do it! On the other hand, those who are victims blame this or that and never see themselves as being successful. If you want to be successful, believe that you are not the victim.

Copyright 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 Results

Leadership – 10 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

Leadership is not defined by words. It is defined by results. I have a list of 10 questions that I share with leaders that I work with as a way to determine if they are truly leading their companies and organizations.

Don’t just ask yourself these questions and then be done. Rather, ask these questions and then really think through the implications for each question and your answer.  I suggest that each leader reviews this list of questions twice a year minimum. After you review them, it’s important to build an action plan to strengthen your leadership; however, not from all 10 questions, just two of them. By diligently focusing on the two questions you feel you need to work on, you will significantly increase your leadership skills over time. I truly believe that leadership is defined by results, and not the results achieved by you but rather by those you lead.

Here are the 10 questions:

1. Are those you lead better by being lead by you?

2. What do you do for those you lead that grows them professionally and personally?

3. Do those people you had the opportunity to lead 5+ years ago look back on their time spent with you and consider it rewarding?

4. How do the people you lead impact your life?

5. Does your team operate as effectively when you’re gone as when you’re present?

6. Do those people you lead always move onto bigger and greater opportunities when they leave you and the company?

7. Do you have a coaching and development plan for each person you’re leading, and how committed are you to that plan?

8. Is your team viewed as the one people want to be apart of?

9. Do your team’s results far exceed the sum of each person?

10. Do you and every member of your team have a servant’s heart when it comes to helping others?

So, which two questions will you focus on? Dig deep, create a plan and execute well. Leadership is a skill that must be nurtured each day just like you must nurture each person you have the privilege of leading.

Copyright 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 Results

How Do I Get Past the Gatekeeper?

If there is one type of person every salesperson has more than a few pain-filled stories about, it is the gatekeeper. Relax! I’ve experienced my share of this too. You can’t make too many sales calls of any type without encountering one.

You don’t have to think that the gatekeeper is the person waking up in the morning with the sole intent to keep you out. No, they’re just doing their job. Let’s first look at who is the gatekeeper.  Although it may appear that they have the same job, their duties can vary significantly.

The first thing we need to do is to get rid of the name gatekeeper and view them more as a “door-opener.” You probably think this is lame, but if you start viewing them differently, you will treat them differently.

Secondly, see them as coming from two different positions. One type of gatekeeper or “door-opener” is the traditional receptionist or person merely tasked with answering and routing calls. No, their job is not to block calls. That’s just what happens when we don’t give them a good reason to move the call forward. The other type of gatekeeper is the administrative assistant. Many times, this is a very powerful person helping others use their time more efficiently. Again, these people are simply doing their job by blocking you if you don’t create enough value to warrant the other person’s time. The problem is that you don’t know which role they play until you talk with them.

Both types of “door-openers” should be addressed with respect. Understand that they are doing the job that they’ve been tasked with. When I call and a “door-opener” of any type answers, I assume that they want to connect me. First, I state the person’s first name that I want to speak with. (If you don’t know who you want to speak with, we’ll get to that later.) When asked what it is in reference to, I will say one of the following:

“I’m following up on some emails we’ve been exchanging back and forth.” I will only use this when we have clearly been exchanging emails. If the person has not responded, but I have sent them an email, my response to the door-opener is: “I’m following up on an email I sent over for him/her to look at.”

If the person I’m looking to talk to is someone I have had even the slightest contact with at a conference or event I will say: “I’m looping back from when we talked at _______ last month.”

If the person is someone I have not had any contact with I may say: “I’m wanting to connect with her to discuss ___________.” The key here is the subject must be something of relevance to the person I’m calling. Another approach is: “I’m looking to get feedback regarding _________.”

If the person blocks me, I will then say: “Could you help me out? I’m looking for an answer regarding _________.” What I am doing now is asking the gatekeeper the same question(s) I would ask the decision maker that I’m trying to reach. I like this approach because it does two things: helps the door-opener feel important and allows them to see me as someone with great questions. They now begin to see me as someone with value. When using this approach, I am amazed at the number of times the door-open makes the connection with the decision maker for me. This method helps you understand the role that the door-opener plays in the company. The admin assistant will many times answer the question and give you great information.

When you’re making calls and you don’t know who to ask for, be straight up when calling the number the first time. Do this by asking to speak to whoever can help you the most with what you have to offer. It’s ok if you’re rebuked the first time. Simply try calling back at a later time or day and just phrase your question a little broader. For instance say, “Hi, can you connect with me with the _______ department?” Then, if the door-opener says they don’t have that department, say something like, “What department handles _______? That is who I should speak with.” What you shouldn’t do is back off just because the gatekeeper is doing their job. It’s about asking them another question or making a second attempt at a later time.

You’ve been trying to turn the gatekeeper into the door-opener, and so far you’ve been unsuccessful. Don’t get discouraged; there are different paths you can take. First off, call the same number and ask for sales. Trust me, they will answer the phone! Be upfront with why you reached out to them. If you agree to help them, it’s amazing how quickly they will connect you to who you want.

Another approach is to call an alternate number that you find on their website, or simply call a number a few digits off from the number you’ve been calling. Both of these are easy approaches that will many times yield great results.

Finally, never forget that the easiest method is to call before 8 AM, after 4:30 PM or during the lunch hour. Remember the door-opener does not work 24/7 and frequently, the person filling in for them handles calls in a far more relaxed manner and may connect you right away.

Read my book, High-Profit Prospecting, to gather even more helpful strategies to get past the gatekeeper and allow you to see them as what they are, the door-opener. Here’s a link to get a copy now!

Copyright 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 Results

Monday Motivation Video: Sell More By Upselling Every Sale You Make

You probably take the time to get orders and gain customers, but do you ever spend time try to upsell? I am referring to adding on another product or service. It’s quick and easy and will only increase your profits. If you got just 25% of your customers to buy one more item, how much more profit would you bring in this year? Today, start thinking about what you can add on to help your customers.

Copyright 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 Results