Mark Hunter's Blog, page 65

How Do I Follow-Up with a Prospect After the Initial Connection?

Key word is: Link! (Or I should say “link it!”) After you’ve had a conversation or an email exchange with a prospect, the best way to follow up is by simply linking back to what they said or wrote in the first exchange.

Here’s a quick video where I explain the process:

It’s time for an obvious observation. Your prospect is busy. They’re not thinking about you the way you might be thinking about them. This means you need to help remind them in your follow-up conversation.

Linking does not, however, mean asking them if they’re ready to buy.  No, linking means taking a comment they shared with you and making it the central part of your conversation.

Customers are quick to believe how salespeople don’t listen and only care about making a sale, but this approach of linking back to their earlier comment blows that myth up.

When you repeat back to them in a follow-up conversation something they shared with you, it immediately gets them to realize you care about what they say and you actually listened to them.

It’s amazing the number of times I’ve had prospects respond back to me after I link to something they’ve shared. They say they’ve never had a salesperson do that before.  It would be easy for me to rant about how tragic that is, but let’s make it a habit from here on that we link everything, every time.

When you share with the prospect something they shared with you and then ask them a question about it, you’re now moving the conversation to a different level.  You’re now putting the customer in control, and with this simple move, it’s amazing how much they will share with you.

The concept of linking is not difficult at all, and the beauty of the concept is it always gives you a reason to reach back out to the prospect.  You’ve had more than a few occasions where your prospect has gone silent on you, despite your repeated attempts to get in touch with them.  Boom! Here’s a great way to break through the “radio silence” by asking them a question about something they shared previously with you.

Sales is about engaging others. It’s not about information dumps, Powerpoint presentations or slick videos. It’s about having a conversation.  Make the conversation about the other person and what they say, and you’ll be amazed at what you learn.

If you have not grabbed a copy of my book High-Profit Prospecting, I strongly suggest you do, as in the book are hundreds of ideas just like this.  Closing sales is about opening prospects.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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

Prospecting. Discipline. Motivation.

It’s a simple concept. Those who are motivated are those who are disciplined.  When it comes to prospecting, that means the one who will be most successful is the motivated, disciplined person.

“Motivated people exhibit discipline in what they do and how they do it. With regard to prospecting, that means they have established times to prospect in their day and they do it.” — Excerpt from my book, High-Profit Prospecting.

Discipline and motivation start with having a plan. I don’t care what the situation is,  you won’t exhibit either without a plan.  This is a key reason why I wrote the book, High-Profit Prospecting.  I’m saying it as strong as I can — you need to read the book and apply the strategies shared.

Too many salespeople struggle when it comes to prospecting. How do I know?  I hear everyday from salespeople struggling.  I find it hard to help people when they haven’t taken any steps at all to create a process. In a second I can tell if the person reaching out has read my book. I’m not saying reading the book will eliminate all prospecting issues. No, what I’m saying is reading the book and applying the strategies will help you better understand what areas you need to be focusing on.

Recently I did an interview for Best Seller TV.  You might have seen it recently on United Airlines or a wide range of other media outlets.  If you have not, you can find it at this link.

I am passionate about sales, and I think you will see it my passion in the interview.

Check out the interview and let me know what you think.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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 Motivation Video: Your Sales Process Has to Evolve

Great salespeople know they have to continually evolve their sales process. You cannot stay stagnant, but rather must continually refine and grow.

Check out the video to see what I mean:

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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

All Business is Personal Business When It Comes to Sales Leadership

Earlier this week I found myself in a discussion about the value of “business relationships.”  The point the person was making is there are business relationships and personal relationships.  My argument was if you have a business relationship, then it’s pretty shallow at best, but if you see yourself as a sales leader, then all relationships are personal.

My argument is businesses don’t do business with other businesses, rather it’s people in a business doing business with another business.   If there is such a thing as a business relationship, then it’s going to be very narrow in scope and most likely extremely price sensitive.

You are a sales leader, and if you allow yourself to subscribe to the theory of business relationships, then you’re purely performing a function.  With that being the case, don’t forget that any function can be done very well by a computer or a machine.   If that’s the case, you’re not needed and you can change your company ID to read “machine 302.”

Sales leaders lead with their personality, and in so doing, they invite those around them to bring out their personality.  When we lead with our personality, we are authentic. When we’re authentic, our conversations become more open.  Our goal as a sales leader is to have open conversations with customers and others and by doing so we will help others.

Take a few minutes and make two lists — one containing the names of people you have personal relationships with and the second being a list of those you feel you have a business relationship.  Your task this next week is to take each name on the business relationship list and begin interacting with them in a manner to get them moved to your personal relationship list.

You might be asking yourself what is the relationship you have with me?  I would hope you see it as personal. If not, then reach out and let’s begin to make it personal.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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

10 Things to Avoid to Help You Prospect Effectively

The big reason salespeople are not successful is their inability to prospect. When you prospect effectively, it’s amazing how smoothly your entire sales process goes.

Prospect right and you’ll close right. It’s really quite simple.

Each week I field inquires from companies and salespeople on this issue, and almost universally the missing link is a process they can implement day in and day out.  The excuses I hear are all over the place, from the story that would fit well in a Steven King novel to the more routine excuse of simply not doing it.

Regardless of the excuse, it’s just that an excuse, and you can’t eat excuses or feed your children with them.  Excuses are what people create as a way to escape reality.

For the next several weeks, I’m gong to be digging into this issue of prospecting, and along the way, I will be providing you with some great tools.  If you’ve been following me for a long time, you may recognize some of them, but many of them are brand new and you’ll be the first to take advantage of them.

My assurance to you is if you stick with me on this journey and follow what I share, you will be successful.  This isn’t hype. It isn’t smoke. It’s fire and it will work.

First off to help us understand prospecting and what it takes to be successful, I do need to spend time here being negative and point out what I see are the 10 big mistakes people make when it comes to prospecting.

These 10 are from an ebook I put together and I encourage you to download it.  The ebook goes into a lot more depth with each one of the ten.  You can get it at this link.

Below are the 10 Reasons Most Prospecting Plans Fail:

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

2. Having too many prospects in your pipeline.

3. Not following up.

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

5. Relying on email as your primary prospecting tool.

6. Thinking social media is your answer.

7. Not allocating the proper commitment of your time. Prospecting happens when you engage!

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

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

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

Be sure to grab the ebook, as I go much deeper into each one of the 10 reasons.

Your ability to close deals is a direct reflection of your ability to prospect.  Join me back here next week and I will share with you more insights.  In the meantime, read the ebook and stop making prospecting excuses.

10 Reasons Most Prospecting Programs Fail

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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

4 Podcasts I Listen To (and One I Wish I Could)

It’s not a workout for me unless I’m also listening to a podcast.  Yes, I go through a lot. but there are 4 podcasts to which I subscribe and never miss an episode. There’s another one I wish I could listen to and I know he will get back to podcasting in time.

The podcasts are a mix of sales, marketing, life and leadership.

Below is my list and yes, I think you need to subscribe to them too:

Marketing Book Podcast by Douglas Burdett – Each week he interviews and author of a new marketing or sales book.  What makes this so good is Douglas actually reads the book before he interviews the author.

In the Arena with host Anthony Iannrino – Anthony has a wide range of thought-provoking guests, such as Tom Peters and Alan Alda, and he mixes it up with his own commentary.  He always leaves me with something to think about and question more.

Sales Gravy with host Jeb Blount – It’s pure sales, and what’s good is you never know what sales topic Jeb will dive into or who he might have as a guest.  The ideas come at you fast and quick. It’s one you don’t listen to at 1.5 or 2.0 speed.

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast – I’m bummed there is only one new episode a month and some are as short as 12 minutes.  Andy discusses leadership and, more importantly, who lives leadership, by interviewing successful business leaders.

Now the one I wish is I could listen to is Rory Vaden. He had a great podcast talking about sales and leadership.  I’m sure he’ll be back. I just hope it’s soon, as his insights were always outstanding.

That’s my list, but here’s my objective with each podcast I listen to.  Each day during my workout, my goal as I listen is to take away at least one nugget of information I can use either myself or share with another person.

Recently while listening to an Andy Stanley episode on culture, I immediately thought of two clients and emailed them the link to the podcast.

I view my workout as not just physical exercise, but also mental exercise.  Let me and others know what podcasts you listen to.   We benefit the most when we share with each other.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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 Motivation Video: Selling in the Fourth Quarter

It’s the start of the fourth quarter! Are you coming out of the chute strong? There are specific questions you need to be asking yourself if you want to make the most of the end of the year.

Check out this video to see what I mean:

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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: Who Will You Influence and Impact Today?

Each day you impact and influence other people.  This is something you do regardless of whether you think you’re doing it.

Just as you’re impacting others, so too others are impacting you. Again, this is regardless of whether the other person wants to.

Being seen as a sales leader requires a different set of expectations.  If we don’t see ourselves as a sales leader, then how do we expect others to see us as a sales leader?

Challenge is being a sales leader is not like playing Fortnite or any other video game where you can always push the replay button.  Sorry, life does not have a reset button, especially with regard to how others see us.

Watch this 67-second video where I talk about the power of influence and impact as a leader:

Sales leadership is a lifestyle you choose to live. When you choose to live it, you do so 24/7.

This means with everyone you meet, regardless of their title, their profession or how they look, you see them as people you have the privilege to help. You help by making their day better because of the interaction you had with them.

This is the essence of impact and influence, and when you do, you know you will have earned the right, the privilege, the honor, and the respect to meet with that person again.

Sales is a process that never ends. It is anything but a one-off transaction, regardless of how some may want to view sales.  This means each relationship you make and each person you meet holds the potential to open or close the next door.

Success is not something achieved in an instant. That’s called winning the lottery, and I doubt anyone is going to build a business plan around winning the lottery.  Success is the reward of leadership, and it’s seen in the people you lead, regardless of their title, role or position in life.

Your job each day is to approach it with focus to make a positive impact and have influence on each person you meet.   In the video I refer to it as having a big E.G.O. —  Empowering Greater Outcomes in those you come in contact with.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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

Prospecting and Avoiding the Trap of Bad Leads

Just because a lead looks like a customer and smells like a customer doesn’t mean it is necessarily going to become a customer.

Recently a person showed me all of the “leads” they received from a trade show. I should correctly state, leads the salesperson received from the Marketing team that was at the trade show.  When I asked what made them leads, his response was, “Last year we got a lot of new customers from this same show, so they must be good.”

Well, that settles the issue, right?

If the trade show was great one year, it must be great every year thereafter.  I’ll remember that next time I walk into a Sears store. I’ll just keep repeating to myself, “Years ago this store used to have to what I was looking for.”

Leads change and, more importantly, customer expectations change.  You can fall into a deep hole pretty quickly thinking all leads from a specific source are all good.

This issue runs rampant with Marketing Departments that are quick to mimic over and over again lead generation tactics that are simply not effective.  This is a big reason why I say Sales must own the prospecting process.

If there’s a change in the quality of leads, the group that is going to find out first is Sales, because they’re the ones charged with turning leads into customers.

Who owns the lead generation process?  Check out my 2-minute “rant” on this issue:

Bad leads come from using the assumption you can build a profile as to what a lead looks like.  Big mistake!  Don’t build it based on the profile of who they are, etc. Build it based on the outcome they receive.

When you base your leads on outcomes you provide, you will get yourself much closer to the perfect customer.  Question you’re asking is, “How do I go about doing that?”

It’s quite simple. You ask as part of the lead generation process.  The last thing you want are leads you can’t do anything with, so the earlier you cut to the chase, the more time you will save.

Let me share an example from my own lead generation process.

A key part of my job is speaking at sales kick-off meetings.  It would be easy for me to say anyone who is having a sales kick-off meeting would be a perfect lead for me.  Bad assumption!

A company having a meeting may fit the traditional profile of having a meeting, but it doesn’t address the outcome.   The outcome I want to see in a potential lead is one where they’re challenged in finding new customers or minimizing the need to discount. These two outcomes are what I deliver. It’s not the meeting. That’s merely a physical activity. When I find this is the outcome they’re in need of, then I know it’s a great lead I can most likely turn into a customer.

Your objective is to use the same process I use to narrow your leads.

Focus on the outcome, not the traditional profile. When you do this, you’ll find yourself with better leads for one simple reason — you’ll have fewer of them.  Yes, you read it correctly — fewer but better leads. And this is why Sales must own the lead generation process. As long as Marketing owns it, they will play the numbers game.

To you it’s not numbers. It’s quality.

Back to my example about sales meetings and having an outcome of getting better leads or avoiding the need to discount.  If this is you, let’s talk about how we can work together to get your sales team identifying the right prospects they can close at full price.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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 Motivation Video: Great Salespeople are Optimists

Are you an optimist naturally? Or do you have to work at it?  Either way, I believe great salespeople are optimists!

And I’m not talking about optimism only ON the job, but also OFF the job.  Great salespeople embrace optimism in all areas of their life.

Check out the video to see what I mean:

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, 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