Mark Hunter's Blog, page 56

Monday Motivation Video: What Is the Objective of Sales?

It must be to help others see and achieve things they didn’t think were possible. This should be your goal not just in the workplace but in your life every single day. Help your family. Help your friends. Help the stranger that catches your eye while out to lunch. Be a leader this week by reaching out and helping somebody see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible. In doing so, you’ll be more 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

The Problem With Assumptions

Do not assume anything! This is easy to say, but sometimes tough to do in the moment. It can seem painless to make an assumption from reading someone’s email, but the real question is what is your assumption, and is it correct? That is where the problem lies.

Anyone working with wood has been told this valuable phrase: measure twice, cut once.

Sounds pretty basic, right? Yes! It’s a simple statement created for one purpose: to prevent a piece of wood from being cut incorrectly. We should have these four words posted above our laptop and on the top of our phone. Think about the number of times you have made an assumption only to be proven wrong later.

Bad assumptions lead to bad consequences, but often the consequences do not turn up right away. For example, a customer may send you an email with a question. Immediately, you draw a conclusion from that question. You begin to assume that you know why the customer asked that and then draw more conclusions from that initial assumption. Before you know it, you are traveling down “assumption highway”. The problem is that you’re going in the wrong direction.

Never assume; always verify! In the era that you (and I) live in, every moment counts and let’s be honest, there is not enough time. Verify first.

You should always verify what’s being said before making an assumption. This will help bring clarity. What would happen if you continually took a second to verify what you thought you heard? When you know all of the correct facts, you will gain potential to deepen the relationship.

In this day in age, it can be easy to blame others and not take responsibility for your actions and beliefs. This makes it that much more important to not assume but verify first. When someone says something, stop and ask yourself what you know about that person. Then, think about what you heard. The chances are, much of what you think you heard and know about them is not actually true but merely an assumption.

It can be scary to think about all of the assumptions we make of others. Turn that around now, and think about the assumptions others make of you. The easiest way to verify other’s assumptions of you is to have a real conversation. Don’t start making assumptions about their assumptions of you! Pick up the phone and have a conversation.

How Do You Reach the Non-Responsive Prospect?

We have all engaged the perfect prospect. The first call with them went great, and we feel good. We know we can help them, and then the darkness appears. As warm as the first call went, everything is now cold. What do you do next? Let me share ten things you need to do to get the cold prospect hot again:

Don’t panic! Keep your cool even when the prospect becomes cold. Your job is to reengage them. Keep in mind that they may be cold just because of other things that they are dealing with, that have nothing to do with you.
Always remember that it is your job to reach out to them. If they tell you that you don’t need to follow up with them, that they will reach out to you, don’t buy it! You know that you can help them, but they don’t know how much, so that’s why they don’t feel the need to talk to you. It’s solely your job to continue reaching out to them.
Make each message valuable to them. Don’t make it about you or what your company does. It’s about them. Each of your messages needs to resonate with them and seem relevant to their company.
Ask a follow-up question about something that they shared with you in your first conversation. This is one of best ways to encourage someone to engage with you in conversation. When you ask someone about something that they told you, it shows that you value their opinion.
Be unpredictable in your schedule. Make your calls and other messages at different times of the day and days of the week. You have to fit their schedule; they are not going to fit yours.
Use every medium available. Do not rely on just email but also use the telephone, including voicemail, text, and even social media. Just make sure that each message is different.
Send a book. This may sound strange, but it’s not strange at all. Send them a book that they will find valuable to their job. By doing so, you’re telling them that you really care about them as a businessperson. Also, you now have the perfect reason to follow up with them: call and ask them about the book.
Send a news link / article. Send an email with a link to a news article of importance to them. Be sure to add your commentary in the email, so they can see how you think. This is another great way to show that you care about them and their company.
Connect with an associate. Create a connection with an associate of the person who has gone cold. The perfect place to do this is on social media. Just remember that social media is a long game. It is not about making a connection today and selling to them tomorrow.
Repeat these steps until you achieve the desired results. It sounds like a recipe and in a way, it kind of is. You have to make the cold prospect hot by adding various ingredients. Your ingredients are your messages and each one is flavored differently.

Throughout the entire process, never lose sight of how much you can help them. If you have the ability to help someone, you have the responsibility to connect with them. Finally, never forget that each time you connect with them, you are making a statement about you. Your goal is to be seen as a person they can trust doing business with.

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: Every Problem is an Opportunity Waiting for a Solution

View every problem as an opportunity. Instead of looking at what has gone wrong, focus your thinking on the solution. This will move you forward with your customers and make them see you in a different light. You have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership. Will you choose to lead in the next problem that you face?

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

Every Problem is an Opportunity Waiting for a Solution

View every problem as an opportunity. Instead of looking at what has gone wrong, focus your thinking on the solution. This will move you forward with your customers and make them see you in a different light. You have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership. Will you choose to lead in the next problem that you face?

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 Your Image/Reputation

If you were to ask somebody to describe you in one word, what would they say? How different would their word be from how you describe yourself? Your reputation is your equity. Often, it is the reason the customer responds to or ignores you.

The image that the customer has of us in his/her head is what they use to filter everything we say. It is our image that causes the customer to be confident or skeptical about the claims we make. Sometimes, it is even our reputation that determines if a sale will be made.

We may say, “oh that person has an inflated ego,” or “they have tons of blindspots.” In this, we quickly point out other’s faults without taking a moment to look at ourselves and notice that we have similar defects. Leadership begins internal, but it definitely has external impact so we must be mindful of our image.

Something that compounds this topic of image is how people look at us in different lights. Some may only see us in perfect “Pollyanna” type of environments. Others may only interact with us in difficult, stressful environments. This is why a customer may view us one way and a fellow employee views us in another. Our goal should be to have the same image/reputation in every situation, regardless of the circumstances. Yes, this is a tall task! I’ll admit that sometimes I fall short. Few people can claim consistency in every situation all of the time.

Right now, I want to challenge you to write down a list of words that you feel describe you. Put yourself in the shoes of those near you as you make your list. This exercise is your own 360-degree feedback tool. Be hard on yourself and at the same time aspirational. The purpose of doing this is not just to measure your past but help you in the future.

Your reputation is an asset and each day, your actions allow the asset to grow or shrink in value.

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 Do You Really Know About Your Customer?

You probably don’t know your customer as well as you think and should know them. As a result, your business is at risk. Below are 10 questions you need to answer to know your customers, so you can better reach each of them.

1. What are my customer’s business objectives for this year?

2. What is my customer’s personal objective for this year?

3. Who are the other people I need to get to know?

4. What are the competitive threats my customer is dealing with?

5. What are the big issues or risks my customer is dealing with?

6. What would happen if my customer lost their biggest customer?

7. Where is my customer’s growth going to come from?

8. How is my customer’s business perceived in their area and their industry?

9. How important is what I sell to their overall business?

10. How important am I to my customer?

Take a moment to answer each of these questions for every one of your major customers.  Similarly, these questions work well when analyzing a prospect to determine how you can best help them, too. As you work through them, I’m sure you’ll find gaps. That means you have work to do. The sooner you can answer each question, the sooner you will become even more valuable to your customer.

Being seen only as a vendor is a bad place to be; however, if you can’t answer any of these questions, you are nothing but a vendor.

It’s going to require a lot of digging to find the answers to all ten of these questions, and the customer must be included in the process. By asking these questions, you are showing the customer that you’re not a vendor but somebody that really wants to work with them. Certainly, your competitors are not asking these questions.

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: Never View Yourself as a Victim

You’re going to encounter obstacles and challenges every single day just like those around you. Don’t let them affect you, though. Power through and keep on going. That’s what top performing salespeople do.  Never view yourself as a 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

Is Sales an Investment or an Expense?

How you answer this question determines how you view the customer. Tesla recently announced that they were going to close their stores, move sales online and in doing so be able to cut their prices by 6%. You would probably say that this is an expensive move on their part. Tesla soon took back their statement and shared that they would not close as many stores and as a result, only have to reduce their prices by 3%. Would you say that Tesla is now calling sales an unnecessary expense that could actually be totally avoided? Here’s the link to the full article.

Tesla sees sales as an activity required to handle transactions. Clearly, they don’t view sales as something that is able to generate incremental opportunities.

Sales is not about servicing the business, taking care of orders that roll in, etc. If you view sales this way, it is truly an expense. Every sale needs to be monitored and reduced wherever possible because each can be a drag on profitability, just like all expenses.

Let’s start to look at sales as merely an activity designed to create incremental sales, either from existing customers or new prospects. By changing your mindset, you’ll see sales as an investment. In order to maximize your return, optimize this valuable investment by making adjustments along the way, just like with personal investments. This will help build on your initial investment and produce more growth.

You can’t afford to view sales as anything but an investment. Making sales an investment proves that your sale has a future and that you’re confident in your ability to help others.

The important questions you need to ask yourself are:

How do I invest more in sales to create an even bigger investment?
What do I need to change to improve how I manage my time?
Do I need to make changes in my sales process?
Do I need to change how I prospect?

I can tell you that sales will never be an expense in any organization that I am involved with. There are too many opportunities and people to help for sales not to be an investment. One of the greatest benefits of sales is the investment it pays out for the buyer and the seller.

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 be a Rainmaker in Sales

How much of a rainmaker are you, or are you more like a rain barrel? Rainmakers own their destiny and set their own course. Rain barrels depend on others to feed them. Sales is about being a rainmaker. Let marketing be the rain barrel, because you don’t have time to waste on being one.

Join me for the discussion on Rainmakers Vs Rain Barrels happening tomorrow. Click here to sign up!

Rainmakers are the ones who go out and make it happen with customers that others didn’t see the potential in.  How do they do it? It is easier than you might think. You just have to commit to seeing your role as the rainmaker.

Rainmakers are about creating incremental opportunities. They never hesitate to pick up the phone and engage the prospect. When the prospect declines a meeting, the prospect doesn’t give up. They come back with another question, another value statement to engage the prospect. The reason they do this is because they know that they can help the prospect. They believe 110% in their ability to help others.

Rainmakers ask the tough questions. In the meeting, they aren’t timid about asking the questions that a typical salesperson is scared to ask. The rainmaker knows that the only way to uncover the really big opportunities is by going deep with customers. It’s about having discussions that challenge everyone’s perspective.

Rainmakers know that the key to opening doors is often through other people. On a daily basis, they strive to create relationships and nurture their network. The network is an asset full of opportunities. A big part of nurturing is helping others.

Rainmakers are ruthless with their time. They are always on a mission to help others succeed. If they slow down or don’t move fast enough, they will lose out to their competitor.

Rainmakers never stop learning, because they see it as their duty to inform the customer and others. They know that by being the one with insights and knowledge, customers will value them more.

Rainmakers view prospecting as an activity that they want to do and not something that they have to do. Rainmakers do not run from a difficult lead that they see as having merit. Rather, they run to it and see that challenge as an obstacle to overcome.

Rainmakers do not think for a moment that they are a rain barrel. They never allow themselves to waste selling time on rain barrel activities.

Join me and over 8,000 other salespeople for the 2019 Virtual Sales Kickoff. It’s happening Thursday, March 14 at 11AM EDT! In this Outreach sponsored online event, you’ll hear me, Anthony Iannarino, Mike Weinberg, and Jeb Blount talk about this exact topic: Rainmakers vs. Rain Barrels. There will be an “after the show show” where we’ll share more important info about OutBound. You don’t want to miss out on this straight talk, fast paced “unplugged” conversation with four sales experts. It’s free and happening tomorrow! Sign up now!

Can’t make it live? Still sign up and you’ll get the replay. Share the link with other rainmakers and even rain barrels that you know, because we all need more rain!

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