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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jeb Blount
Read between
August 30, 2022 - February 26, 2023
Superstars are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime—constantly turning over rocks looking for their next opportunity. They prospect day and night—unstoppable and always on. Fanatical!
The brutal fact is the number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipe, and, the root cause of an empty pipeline is the failure to prospect.
In sales, business, and life, there are only three things you can control: Your Actions Your Reactions Your Mindset
Jim Rohn once said that you shouldn't wish that things were easier; you should wish that you were better.
If you study what successful people do, you find patterns. When you duplicate those patterns, you'll be able to duplicate their success.
Optimistic and enthusiastic: Fanatical prospectors have a winning, optimistic mindset.
Systematic and efficient: Fanatical prospectors have the ability to execute with near-robotic and systematical efficiency.
Adaptive and flexible: Fanatical prospectors have acute situational awareness. Because of this, they are able to respond and adapt quickly to changing situations and circumstances. They leverage the three As in their approach to prospecting: adopt, adapt, adept.
It has never been about degree of the call; it is has always been about the willingness on the part of the salesperson to interrupt.
As a human it is natural to abhor rejection; we are social creatures at heart who desire to be accepted.
Interrupting your prospect's day is a fundamental building block of robust sales pipelines. No matter your prospecting approach, if you don't interrupt relentlessly, your pipeline will be anemic.
Poor people choose now. Rich people choose balance. —T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Look around you. Find out what the top salespeople in your organization are doing to generate qualified prospects. Then do what they do.
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. —Dale Carnegie
The Universal Law of Need governs desperation. It states that the more you need something, the less likely it is that you will get it.
The 30-Day Rule states that the prospecting you do in this 30-day period will pay off for the next 90 days. It is a simple, yet powerful universal rule that governs sales and you ignore it at your peril. When you internalize this rule, it will drive you to never put prospecting aside for another day.
The lesson the Law of Replacement teaches is that you must constantly be pushing new opportunities into your pipeline so that you're replacing the opportunities that will naturally fall out. And, you must do so at a rate that matches or exceeds your closing ratio.
Your future does not lie in your past.
Efficiency + Effectiveness = Performance (E + E = P)
The false comfort of delusion is warm and fuzzy and far more inviting than the cold edge of reality.
There are three mindsets that hold salespeople back from prospecting: procrastination, perfectionism, and paralysis from analysis.
Frankly, that is all failure really is. The cumulative impact of many poor decisions, slips in self-disciplines, and things put off until it is too late.
“The great irony of perfectionism is that while it's characterized by an intense drive to succeed, it can be the very thing that prevents success. Perfectionism is highly correlated with fear of failure (which is generally not the best motivator) and self-defeating behavior, such as excessive procrastination.”
The human mind abhors the unknown. In its natural state, it wants to be safe and secure. It doesn't like jumping off of a diving board into a cold lake or picking up a phone and calling a stranger.
Top performers organize their day into distinct time blocks dedicated to specific activities, concentrating their focus and eliminating distractions within those blocks.
The CEO mindset is the most critical component of time, territory, and resource management. Unless and until you are willing to accept complete responsibility for owning your time, nothing else matters.
“In God we trust; everyone else, we follow up on.”
Ryan Fuller cites a compelling VoloMetrix study that indicated a direct correlation between success in sales and the salesperson's investment in building a strong internal support system and network.1 Never forget that the people on your support staff are human—just like you.
If you invest just an hour a day to make 25 to 50 teleprospecting calls and another hour for e-mail and social prospecting, I can absolutely and unequivocally guarantee that in less than 60 days, your pipeline will be packed.
Prospecting efficiency decreases in direct proportion to the number of things you are attempting to do at one time.
He went on to explain that most people don't take the time to calculate their worth, and because they don't understand what they are worth, they spend their time on activities that are far below their pay grade, and this holds them back.
(Annual Income Goal)/(Number of Working Weeks × Golden Hours) = What You Are Worth an Hour
“If you don't know where you're going, you might end up someplace else.” The great and oft-quoted Yogi Berra said those words.
The most valuable activity in the sales process is a set appointment—no matter where you are in the pipe: initial meeting, discovery meetings, presentations, closing meetings, and so on.
Here is a blinding flash of the obvious: If you don't define the strike zone, you will waste a lot of time chasing ugly deals.
go sit down with your sales manager and some of the more successful reps. They'll likely have the information you'll need—decision-making roles, account size, buying windows, budgetary windows, contractual obligations—to build a profile of your ideal opportunity.
savvy sales professionals create strategic prospecting campaigns (SPCs) that cross-leverage prospecting channels to systematically build familiarity.
Top performers have no interest in hunting and pecking for opportunities, so they design their lists to make prospecting blocks efficient and effective. They segment their prospects by potential or size of the opportunity and the probability the prospect will convert into a sale. They organize their prospecting block to get themselves in position to win with highly qualified prospects who are in the buying window.
If you choose not to invest in your database, as the saying goes, you can't fix stupid.
Building a database is like filling in a jigsaw puzzle. It takes time, lots of work, and sometimes there is not much evidence that it is paying off. The key is recognizing the cumulative value of small wins.
The real secret to generating referrals is: Give a legendary customer experience. Ask.
Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said or did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” Take this to heart as you invest time in networking events.
Prospects meet with you for their reasons, not yours. You must articulate the value of spending time with you in the context of what is most important to them.
What I want to make clear is prospecting messages are not complex. Be careful not to overcomplicate things. Your prospecting message is designed for one purpose: to quickly persuade your prospect to give you their time.
If you want prospects to be enthusiastic about meeting you, be enthusiastic about meeting them. A relaxed, confident, enthusiastic demeanor and tone will open doors when nothing else will.
Cuddy's research demonstrates that “power posing,” physically standing in a posture of confidence, even when you don't feel confident, impacts testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and that influences confidence.
Your prospecting message must be quick, simple, direct, and relevant. The relevant part is the critical element. Prospects are going to agree to give up their valuable time for their reasons, not yours.
“Differentiation gets the attention of your prospect.”
“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor, we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”
saying, “I'd like 15 minutes of your time because I want to learn more about you and your company” works surprisingly well with many prospects.
