Mark Hunter's Blog, page 55

Are you Confident with Pricing?

Every salesperson has struggled with the issue of being confident when it comes to price. It is one of the main reasons I wrote the book, High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.

One of the best ways to increase confidence is to zero in on the key benefits customers are seeking. The more benefits or “outcomes” you have been able to identify, the more confident you will be. The reason is simple: you will have a better understanding as to why what you have to offer is so important.

You increase your confidence when you increase the customer’s confidence in how you can help them. The answer is in determining the needs of the customer. This is a key reason why it is not smart to put a price out in front of a customer until you have had time to fully unpack the customer’s needs.

The price you get is a direct reflection of the confidence you have and the confidence you have is a reflection of how well you know the customer. I believe there is a straight line between uncovering the needs of the customer and price. When a customer does reject a price, are they rejecting the price or the value equation? They are rejecting the value equation. Increase the value and you increase the price. In my book, High-Profit Selling, I talk a lot about this issue. If you have not read my book, I strongly suggest you get a copy today.

Right now you can grab a Kindle copy of the book High-Profit Selling for only $2.99. This is a special offer for the month of April only. Once April is over, so is the low price!

Give it a read and leave a review to let me know how it helps you and your company. I know it will!

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 to Use Email to Prospect

The first rule is don’t make it about you! A lot of people struggle with this. When I get a sample email from someone having problems, I can tell right away why they are struggling. If your prospecting emails are all about you, they are not valuable to the person you’re sending them to.

Download my templates and more on this subject here!

The most important real estate in a prospecting email is the subject line and the first ten words. Think of these two areas as the same thing, similar to the title of a book and its cover. If you’re browsing online or in a bookstore, you probably focus on the title to help you decide if you want to want to look any further and read the book. What catches your eye is the title and the cover. These two things determine if you just gloss over it or actually pick it up and take a deeper look. This same analogy applies to your emails. If the subject line and first ten words don’t grab the person’s attention, it’s unlikely that they will read beyond the subject line and those first ten words.

You could have the best email copy in the world, but they may never see it if they do not open it! Writing great copy is not a license to make it long. No! Typically, the best copy is short. Your goal with a prospecting email is to generate interest, not to give them enough information to make a decision.

You want your prospect to make the next step, but you have to create that next step for them. This means having a call to action. Your call to action is that one sweet spot. Don’t blow it by having multiple calls to action. Keep it simple! I am amazed at the number of prospecting emails that either do not have any call to action or they offer a buffet of options.

Hit the link below to get my ebook with plenty of sample / template emails that you can use to create your prospecting emails.

Email prospecting works when done right. I’ve just completed an ebook, checklist, templates, and a video with everything you need to know to succeed. It’s all yours for free!

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 Will I Learn Today?

Learn something today that you can apply tomorrow. Your life is like one big classroom of learning. Choose to take what you learn to help you with your next sale. Doing so will have a positive effect on your mind and 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

Sales Leadership Starts With a Coaching Mentality

Leaders create leaders. It’s amazing what happens when you become in sync with your customers. Often I get to witness this amazement when I ride along with another salesperson and make sales calls. It’s cool to have a front row seat when things suddenly click!

After each sales call, I always ask myself why things seemed to come together and fit perfectly. I’ve come to the realization that the reason is because of just one thing: the mental outlook and preparedness of the salesperson. You know the feeling when things are just happening. I know you know what I’m talking about, because you’ve been there before. You come out of the call, hang up the phone and just want to pinch yourself because of how well it went. Situations like this don’t happen independently. No, they happen because you are prepared and wired to make it happen.

Watch any great athlete and you will see a coach (or probably multiple) helping, encouraging and supporting him/her. In your job, you have a manager that is supposed to be your coach. Are they really coaching you, though? No. I would imagine that they are managing the numbers far more than they are coaching you or any other employee.

If an athlete has a coach, you should have one too. Looking back on my sales calls, the ones that went very well were because of the pre-call coaching. Everyone needs a coach that will guide and train them in achieving their specific goals. It all comes down to coaching if you want to be serious about your sales career.

There are a lot of coaches out there. The key is that you find someone who understands you, your goals and will challenge you to grow to the next level. Having the right coach for you matters. The right coach will make a huge impact. I have seen this with others and even with myself. You can call it the willingness to be held accountable or whatever you want, but when you put yourself in a position to be coached, good things will happen. I promise!

Make the move and start the process. Get a coach! I would be happy to assist you with this. Now, I am not going to say that I am the solution since we may not know each other, but feel free to reach out. Let’s talk! We share a common goal of wanting to be successful.

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

Executing a Price Increase

In my book, High-Profit Selling, I talk a lot about how to maximize your price and not cave to the customer. Once you start to cave in, it’s amazing how low you will go and how frequently you will do it. I have never met a salesperson who only gave a discount one time.

Getting customers to focus on their needs and not on your price requires focus and process. In my book, I outline, 10 Steps To Execute a Price Increase. Here is a small part of what I share in the 10 steps:

Know your strategy as to what the price increase is going to accomplish and establish expectations and goals.
Determine and isolate the customer’s key benefits, as these will help you sell the increase.
Never “ask” for a price increase, you tell the customer what the price will be.
Reinforce the price increase by sharing the “FDPOV.”

So, how are you doing when it comes to being able to get the price you want? Are you standing your ground or caving in and allowing the customer to dictate your price?

If you have not read my book, High-Profit Selling, I strongly suggest you get a copy today.

My publisher, HarperCollins just agreed to offer the Kindle version for only $2.99, so there’s no reason why you should not get it. You and many others need to read this book NOW! This low price is only good for a couple of weeks, so do not wait!

Give it a read and let me know how it helps you and your company. I know it will!

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

Email Prospecting and the One-Swipe Rule

Do you know how your prospecting emails look on a smartphone? Most likely, you are drafting your prospecting emails on a laptop or desktop and you think they look good. I hate to break it to you, but they probably don’t if you aren’t following the “one-swipe” rule.

If you haven’t heard of this rule, don’t worry! You are not alone. Most salespeople have not heard of it either, and that’s why I want to share it with you. The one-swipe rule is where your email can be read on a smartphone with only one-swipe. If your prospecting email requires that the person scroll for 3 miles to read it, forget it, they won’t read it.

Grab my ebook along with more tips on this subject here!

Take a moment to think about how you look at your emails on your tablet or smartphone. If it’s long, you probably just click delete, because it takes too much time to scroll through it. It’s a pain! This is especially true with emails from people you don’t know or regarding topics that are not important or relevant to you.

Don’t expect for a moment that just because you wrote your email on a laptop they will read your email on a laptop. Recent studies show that more people view emails on a smartphone than on a laptop. Before you send your next prospecting email, first send to yourself and take a look at it on your smartphone or tablet. I think you’ll be surprised! The key is to keep it short and to the point. If you don’t grab the prospect’s attention in your first ten words, you’ve lost them.

Never send an email without checking it against the one-swipe rule! I have a brand new ebook that goes deeper into this subject of using email to prospect. Grab your copy today! Also, be sure to click on the link in the ebook to a 42-minute video of me sharing more insights.

Once you read the ebook and watch the video, share your thoughts with me. I would love to hear what you think and answer any questions you may have. Sales is not a solo activity; sales is a team sport and we’re on the same team.

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

Getting Customers to Not Focus on Price But Their Needs

In my book “High-Profit Selling,” I talk a lot about how to maximize your price and not cave in to the customer. Once you start to cave in, it’s amazing how low you will go and how frequently you will do it. I have never met a salesperson who only gave a discount one time.

Getting customers to focus on their needs and not on your price requires focus. Here is a little piece from my book, “High Profit Selling,” on this issue:

“I cannot stress enough the importance of showing customers the value in what they are looking to buy from you. If customers still believe that they are going to receive a lower price based on request, I recommend again that you strongly remind them that the price is firm. You must hold firm on price because – and here’s the important part – customers who are only concerned about the low price are not the type of customers you want to have. When customers argue too much about price before a sale is even close to being made, then they are probably going to argue over everything after the sale. Let me repeat what I’ve been saying all along: Salespeople who sell to customers only on low price are not salespeople; they are nothing more than order takers.

If the customer cannot grasp the benefits of what they are looking to buy, then there is no sense in you continuing to deal with them.”

So, how are you doing when it comes to holding firm on price? Are you standing your ground or caving in?

If you have not read my book “High-Profit Selling,” I strongly suggest you get a copy today. My publisher, HarperCollins just agreed to offer the Kindle version for only $2.99, so there’s no reason why you should’t get it. You and many others need to read this book NOW! This low price is only good for a couple of weeks, so don’t wait!

Give it a read and let me know how it helps you and your company. I know it will!

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: Sales is a Privilege to Meet Other People

It is a privilege to meet the the people around you. I want you to look forward to meeting them. Next time you see a new face at the grocery store, restaurant, post office or wherever you may be, be excited that you get to have a conversation with them. Believe in yourself and your ability to influence them. Remember that every person you meet also has the ability to influence you. Go out today and make a positive impact.

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 and the Questions You Ask

How well do your questions push the customer’s thinking? Sales leadership is about the customer seeing you differently than every other salesperson. If all you do is ask the basic questions that they’ve already been asked a thousand times, how will you stand out?

Sales is about taking the customer to a different level. If you just satisfy their  basic needs, you are not selling your service to the customer. Sales is about challenging thinking and challenging norms. You are not going to do that by asking fundamental questions; you must ask the questions that push everyone’s thinking to the next level.

Your questions cannot be ones that the customer has a routine answer for. You have to ask the questions that lead to more questions. You won’t uncover additional opportunities with your presentation but with your questions. Don’t be hesitant to ask your questions. Be confident as a sales leader, because you know you can help the customer. If you don’t push the questions, you’re doing yourself and the customer a disservice.

If you ask more questions, you’ll eliminate the curse that too many salespeople fall victim to: the curse of “bad assumptions.” This curse destroys too many opportunities simply because the salesperson made a bad assumption based on limited information. The best cure for this ailment is to ask more difficult questions.

Banishing bad assumptions is easier said than done. It can be hard, because the customer suffers from this ailment too. Customers are quick to make assumptions, and the worst one is lumping all salespeople into the same category. Customers naturally assume that all salespeople are the same. You know that that’s not true, though. You are capable of pushing them to think differently. Ask hard questions, get the wheels turning, and they’ll see that their assumptions were wrong.

During every sales call, make it your goal to ask at least one question that you and the customer cannot answer. If you do this, you’ll be amazed at the increased depth of your relationships.

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

Using Email to Prospect – 10 Step Checklist

You can’t afford to send a bad email! In order to effectively reach your prospect, your emails need to be on point. I’ve created a 10-step checklist to help you do just that. Whenever you email a prospect, follow these 10 steps:

Will the prospect be able to read the entire email on a smartphone with only “one swipe?”
Have I kept the email short enough so the prospect doesn’t have enough information to make their final decision without talking to me first.
Do the first 8-10 words of the email grab the prospect’s attention?
Have I included a compelling reason / call to action for the prospect to contact me?
Have I asked the prospect to call me and have I given them my phone number?
Am I providing the prospect with new information / insights / questions they will find valuable?
Is the subject truly compelling for the person receiving it?
What is my follow-up plan? Am I following the two key words found on every bottle of shampoo: rinse and repeat?
Have I made sure I’m not wasting words by adding unnecessary information about me and my company?
What does the email look like when I sent it to myself and view it on a smartphone or tablet?

Do yourself a favor and download my ebook that specifically talks about this important subject. Also, check out the 40-minute “Instant View” webinar I did on emailing and prospecting. Grab both here as well as an infographic of these 10 items.

Next time you send an email, use this 10-step checklist and don’t forget to take advantage of the other resources I’ve made available to you. This is the only way your emails will be more productive and bring you greater 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