Mark Hunter's Blog, page 70
July 9, 2018
Sales Motivation Video: Your Frame of Mind Determines Your Outcome
How is your attitude? If you are not in the right frame of mind going into a sales call, your odds for success plummet.
I would not talk about attitude so often if I didn’t see what a difference it makes between succeeding and failing. But I DO see it whenever I am speaking to salespeople. Those who have a positive perspective far outpace those who do not.
Check out the video to see what I mean:
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
July 5, 2018
Leaders Ask Questions
If you have kids, you remember the time in their lives when all they did was ask you questions. When my son Chris was 4 or 5 years old, he couldn’t go 10 minutes without asking “why?”
We couldn’t be in the car more than a minute before he would start asking me about something he saw outside. Yes, this was before there were DVD players in cars and electronics in their hands!
What was amazing was he asked each question with sincerity of wanting to know something. That’s the amazing thing about kids. They’re not encumbered by expectations. They’re not driven by ego and they certainly don’t feel any level of intimidation.
Something funny (and kind of sad) happens as kids grow up — Ego, pride and everything else come onto the scene and limit the questions they ask. Generally speaking, this happens to all of us, right? But there is so much to be gained if we DON’T lose that ability to ask questions (or if we regain the ability after we’ve lost it!)
Check out this 90-second video where I talk about the value of asking questions:
As leaders, we need to be asking more questions. Leadership is not expressed by proclamation. Leadership is expressed by lifting others up to be leaders. This is regardless of who you’re talking to. The objective is the same if you’re speaking to a customer, a peer or an employee.
Our goal is to ask questions in all situations, whether it be sitting across from a customer or coaching an employee.
Make it your goal to ask questions with whomever you encounter. Two things occur when you ask questions. First, you engage the other person, and in so doing, you increase their self-worth. Second, you learn by hearing what they have to say. The leader who does not ask questions is not a leader.
They’re at best a manager, and in the worst case, they’re a control freak, driven by their ego rather than a desire to genuinely connect and help.
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
July 3, 2018
The Right Way to Use Social Media when Prospecting
Social media is one prospecting tool, but unfortunately too many salespeople think it should be the only one.
In my book, “High-Profit Prospecting,” I outline great guidelines on when and how to use social media to boost your prospecting success.
Too much emphasis on social media, and your prospecting results will be dismal.
The book is packed with a wide variety of prospecting tips to help you take your prospecting efforts to the next level.
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
What’s in Your Pipeline?
We’ve all seen countless times the commercials for Capital One where it ends with the question, “What’s in your wallet?”
That line got me thinking, “What’s in your pipeline?” Is your sales pipeline nothing more than a sewer pipe, because you’ve got lousy leads, bad prospects and stalled customers plugging it up?
Early in my sales career, I had a boss who would rip me apart if I didn’t have a full pipeline. It didn’t take me long to figure out the best way to keep him off my back was to stuff my sales pipeline with opportunities.
The “opportunities” I had in my pipeline had little-to-no chance of ever turning into a sale, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was my boss didn’t bug me. Worse was what it did to me! First, it lulled me into thinking life was good, and second, it made it harder for me to know what I did need to be working on.
Check out this 54-second video where I did deeper into this issue:
Our goal can’t be having a massive pipeline. Our goal needs to be having deals that close. Right now would be a perfect time for you to review your pipeline and pull out of it the sewage that’s plugging it up.
Ask yourself the hard questions you’ve been avoiding about each opportunity. The questions you need to be asking yourself include:
What specifically can I do now to move the deal forward?
Am I in control of this opportunity? If not, why is it in my pipeline?
Is there someone else I need to engage with to help move the deal forward?
What is the timeline for the opportunity and what makes me believe the timeline is accurate?
Is this opportunity a good use of my time?
It’s time to get serious about what you leave in your pipeline. That’s why I’m saying you need to be asking yourself tough questions. When I’m working with sales teams, a key item I focus on is the length of time it takes for a lead to become a customer. The objective is to be working to make the time from lead to customer as short as possible.
If it only took you half as much time to close a deal, doesn’t it seem reasonable you’d be able to close more deals? Obvious answer is “yes,” and it all starts by keeping the sewage out of your pipeline.
What’s in your pipeline?
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
July 2, 2018
Sales Motivation Video: You are Going to Have a Massive Opportunity Today
Are you missing massive opportunities? Are you not in a frame of mind to SEE the opportunities moving toward you each day?
I am convinced you are going to have a massive opportunity today, but you will miss it if you are not intentional with your optimistic attitude and your focus. Your sales motivation is dependent on those!
Check out the video to see what I mean:
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
June 29, 2018
You Can’t Motivate Anyone (Including Customers!)
You’ve likely heard the line, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” I’m not sure who first penned the phrase, but it’s applicable not only to horses, but also to people.
Watch this short video clip from a keynote at Dreamforce I did on this subject:
The best any of us can do is to be able to create an environment where people can motivate themselves. Now think about this also from the standpoint of a salesperson and customer. A salesperson can’t make a customer buy. All they can do is create an environment where the customer feels it makes sense to buy.
It all comes down to the environment we operate in.
If those we want to be motivated, customers included, don’t see the value in what we have and can’t see an outcome from which they would benefit, then why should they do anything?
Sales and leadership have many parallels, and I see a major one around this whole issue of motivation. This is why communication, not just to be heard but to be understood, is so important.
When we fail to measure what we say by asking questions, we will find ourselves trying to force feed our message. This is the same with people we manage and customers to whom we sell.
The more we realize we can’t motivate anyone, customers included, by forcing them to accept what we have to say, the sooner we will be on a path of creating a culture they will thrive in.
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
June 27, 2018
High-Profit Prospecting Secrets: Know the Customer’s Customer
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
One of the easiest and most overlooked ways is by referencing early in the prospecting phase a key point about the prospect’s customer.
Time and time again I’ve shared this strategy with sales teams, and the success stories I hear back in the weeks and months following are always incredibly positive.
Check out this short video from a keynote where I talk about this sales secret:
The beauty of this strategy is how well it works in all types of prospecting situations. If what you sell is seen as a commodity customers buy on price, your ability to bring just one new piece of information about the prospect’s customer can be enough to get you a conversation that is not price focused.
Every customer is going to want to know more about what you know about their customers.
You may be prospecting OEM suppliers or someone buried deep in the supply-chain, and again they’re going to want to know what’s happening at the other end. These people are often so buried in the fine print of the contracts on which they are working, they have little to no insight as to why they’re doing what they do.
If you sell at the C-level or to other higher up people, getting a meeting with them is always a challenge. The last thing they want to do is to spend time with a salesperson; however, that all changes if you’re bringing them valuable insights.
Regardless of who you sell to, they have a customer they need to take care of. The sooner you bring them information on these customers, the sooner they will see value in you.
All it takes is for you to have one piece of information, and with that you can use it to lead off a phone call, a voicemail or even an email. The key is for the prospect to see quickly how you are not merely a salesperson but you’re a key source of information. Your objective is to use the insight to gain a meaningful conversation with the prospect.
This strategy is a key reason I stress prospecting by industry, as what you learn about one customer’s customer will often apply to other prospects you want to reach.
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
June 26, 2018
Salespeople, a “No” Isn’t Permanent.
In sales prospecting, you know that you are going to hear the word “no” (or some version of it) more than a few times.
In my book, “High-Profit Prospecting,” I encourage you to take a different perspective on this word “no.”
It’s never a good idea to view a “no” as permanent. I am committed to helping you build the prospecting skills that will help you succeed. For more insights on the best prospecting skills, check out High-Profit Prospecting.
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
June 25, 2018
Sales Motivation Video: The Word You Should Take Out of Your Vocabulary
As a salesperson, take the word “losing” out of your vocabulary. There’s no need for that word. A better word to focus upon is “success.”
You need a framework of success in your mind if you want to make success your reality.
Check out the video to see what I mean:
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
June 22, 2018
EGO Driven Leadership
How big is your ego when it comes to leadership?
Years ago I worked for an individual who was absolutely brilliant. The man single handedly had created two billion dollar plus businesses. Problem was as smart as he was, his ego always preceded him into every conversation.
He was so ego filled that if you were in a conversation with him and it wasn’t centered around how great he was, he would leave. I still remember having him walk out of a customer meeting simply because the conversation wasn’t about him. Yes, that is a big ego!
The ego I want to talk to you about is a different type of ego. It’s a type of ego I think every leader needs to have and that is ego spelled E.G.O. The letters stand for Empowering Greater Outcomes. That’s what being a leader is all about!
Watch this short video where I introduce the EGO to the audience at OutBound 2017:
Our role as a leader is not to make ourselves look good like the boss I described earlier. Our job as a leader is to help others rise up and become even better than we are. Empowering greater outcomes is all about helping others. It might be a customer, a fellow employee, or the barista serving you coffee.
When we go about our day with a deliberate focus to help empower greater outcomes in those with whom we come in contact, we will have a dramatically different approach to each activity. By focusing on others, we become more focused on how we communicate, and it changes significantly our attitude and sense of commitment.
My goal each day is to demonstrate EGO leadership in everything I do. Doing so allows me to ultimately accomplish far more, because I’m surrounding myself with people who see and do things at a higher level. EGO leadership should not be the exception. It should be the rule as to how we lead.
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
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