By Mark Hunter The Sales Hunter
Mark Hunter Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long- term customer relationships. Since 1998, Mark has conducted thousands of customized training programs and keynotes on sales. He is best known for his ability to motivate and move an organization through his high- energy presentations. He spent more than 18 years in the sales and marketing divisions of three Fortune 100 companies. During his career, he led many projects, including the creation of a new 200 member sales force responsible for volume in excess of $700 million. Mark has held sales management roles in teams ranging in size from 20 to 900 members. This level of experience is at the core of every program he delivers in the areas of sales, communications, and leadership. Mark not only has expertise in sales, but also knows how to communicate it to others. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, the premier speaking organization recognized around the world for its top- notch communicators. He wrote High- Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price. In it he outlines many of the techniques to accelerate sales motivation and success instead of jeopardizing profits. To find out more about Mark s selling philosophy, visit his blog at www.thesaleshunter.com. 2
Sales Prospecting in Two Simple Steps Prospect or Suspect? How to Know the Difference Your Best Opportunity to Find New Prospects 3 Blitz Referral Strategy Why Networking is not Prospecting How to Create the Best Opening Negotiating is NOT Part of Prospecting The Relevance of Cold- Calling 14 Tips for Successful Cold- Calling Voicemail as a Prospecting Tool Using Email in Your Prospecting Strategy The Power of Strategic Questions Getting Your CEO Involved at the Right Time An Ideal Opportunity to Build Business: The Holidays! How a Full Pipeline Protects Your Pricing How to Evaluate Your Current Prospecting Plan What Impacts Prospecting More than Anything Else 3
Sales Prospecting in Two Easy Steps I m going to cover a lot of specifics in this ebook, but these two easy steps are the best place to start. Here they are: Schedule the time to prospect. Do it and follow up. Revolutionary, isn t it? Schedule the Time Follow Up I m not trying to be funny and I m not trying to insult your intelligence. What I am trying to do is shed light on what is possibly the biggest problem salespeople have with prospecting. They think about it. They plan for it. They envision it. But too often, they don t do it! Or, they make initial calls, but don t follow up. 4
I understand that the majority of salespeople have numerous activities for which they are responsible, and finding and developing new customers is just one of those activities. When it comes to prospecting, the majority of salespeople would rather be doing almost anything else. What this means is they will spend time doing other activities they feel are important to their job to the point that they don t have time to prospect for new customers. They maybe even rationalize their lack of time. Obviously, this problem of not having enough time to prospect then carries over to the second step of following up. Following up is, in many regards, even more important than making the first call. Here s why: Very few deals are closed on the first call. The majority of sales are closed after the 4th, 5th, and 6th call. Are you a salesperson who gives up after just 1 or 2 calls? The easiest way to close more sales is to simply follow up on the prospects you ve begun calling upon. Your homework is to now do two things: Alter your schedule to ensure you have 100% commitment to devote to sales prospecting on either a daily or weekly basis. This means actually contacting prospects, not merely researching. Set your plan to where you can do the repetitive follow- up you need to do to actually close more sales. 5
Prospect? Suspect? Know the Difference! A full pipeline is essential to sustainable success in sales. I meet salespeople, though, who have too much clogging their pipeline. Maybe it s time to start cleaning out the junk in your pipeline. Sales leads in your pipeline need to be providing you with a good reason to remain there. If they re not providing you with feedback, input or at least a good indication as to their buying timeline, then it s time to move them to the side. Here are 6 sales questions you can use to separate the prospects from the suspects: What is your timeline for making a decision? How have you made decisions like this in the past? How do you intend to pay for this? What is the problem you re looking to fix? When are you expecting delivery? Are there any reasons why you wouldn t make a decision today? Too many times salespeople beat around the bush and never ask the straight forward questions to find out if the person to whom they re talking is even a good prospect. The reason I like these sales questions to ask a prospect is because they are simple and they do what they are designed to do. 6
Another key way to differentiate between a prospect and a suspect is that a prospect will share with you some piece of proprietary information. Sales prospects who are interested will engage with you consistently, while suspects will only engage with you as long as it s safe. Cri\cal Need? The way you call them out is by asking them to share with you something about themselves or their business that is not publically known. If they genuinely are interested in you and your product, prospects will see the value in sharing such proprietary information. Timeline? Proprietary infroma\on? Suspects will not. Each sales call that does not result in a sale must contain at least one question that either gets the customer to share with you something about their timeline to make a decision or a critical need they have. I m amazed at the number of salespeople who spend their time with people they think are prospects, and the entire time they re meeting with them, they don t ask them a question that would point them to a close. If they don t or won t share with you proprietary information when you ask for it, then you have to begin to move them toward the suspect category. You may even need to categorize them as junk that s plugging up your sales pipeline. 7
Your Best Opportunity to Find Prospects What percentage of your new business comes to you because of referrals from your current customers? Your best opportunity to find prospects is from the people who are already actively doing business with you. Interestingly, some salespeople wait for their customers to give them referrals. It s like waiting for your friends to suggest a good restaurant instead of proactively asking your friends for restaurant recommendations. Start today to make it part of your follow- up process with current customers to ask them for the name of at least one contact or company that may appreciate you as a resource. Referrals happen when you provide a superior customer experience. To refine your referral process even more, find ways to develop relationships with people who are in a position of influence. Plain and simple, you have to be willing to REGULARLY ask customers for names of people who could also benefit from what you sell. 8
3 Blitz Referral Strategy A lead generation strategy I recommend you use with existing customers is what I call the 3 Blitz Referral/Lead Strategy. The way it works is you block out 3 time periods each year to blitz your existing customer base for referrals. Each of the three periods is targeted around a particular strategy: In the month of February or March, contact all of your accounts and simply state something like, Here at, we re having a referral blitz and I m contacting each of my accounts to ask them for the names of others who could benefit from what we offer. The approach is straightforward and works surprisingly well. When you tell customers upfront what you want, the customers often are more appreciative and helpful than if the salesperson beats around the bush while asking for something. The next round of blitzing occurs in the summer. When you contact each of your customers this time, you focus on thanking them for their business and asking them about how your company s level of customer service has been. Your objective here is to get them to realize the quality you provide them and, in so doing, to get them to talk about it. Immediately after you thank them for their comments, ask them for the names of others who would benefit from the same service. Your final round of lead blitzing occurs in the November/December timeframe. Again, you contact each customer. The focus this time is purely to wish them the best for the holidays (depending on when exactly you call them). Many times calls during this time of year will become personal, as people tend to be more relaxed. In that frame of mind, they will be more receptive to giving you names when you ask. 9
Networking is NOT Prospecting Prospecting is all about finding potential customers. Too many salespeople spend time doing things they think are going to bring them prospects, when in reality all they re doing is wasting time. What I m talking about is the amount of time salespeople spend networking with people who have zero potential of ever being a customer. Want to hear the really ironic part? They may even know there is zero potential, but they still network with them, thinking somehow these people are going to magically turn into a prospect or give them amazing referrals. Calling friends or associates with whom you enjoy talking is not prospecting. I m not saying you can t talk with friends or associates. I m simply suggesting that you talk to these people after you ve done your prospecting. A simple rule is this unless someone has given you a solid referral in the last 12 months, don t go thinking they re suddenly going to do it now if you spend more time with them. Prospecting is about reaching out to people who have the potential to do business with you or can refer to you people who can. Anything else is not prospecting. 10
Creating the Best Opening! Think of all the wonderful qualities of your company. Think of your company s many accolades, accomplishments and market share. Now, whatever came to your mind, DO NOT use those things in your opening with your prospect. What?! Sorry to be blunt, but your potential customers do not want you wasting their time by extolling the virtues of how wonderful you and your company are. Frankly, they don t care. What they do care about is their situation. And that s what you need to get them thinking about as quickly as possible. Take the time to craft an opening that is designed to focus on their wants and needs. 11
Negotiating is NOT Part of Prospecting The phone rang and on the other end was a salesperson who, after introducing himself to me, quickly rattled off what it was he was selling. I interrupted him to let him know I had zero interest in what he was selling. Without missing a beat, the salesperson then quickly pointed out that if I would buy today, I could get almost 50% off. Needless to say, I still wasn t interested and I ended the conversation. Where did this salesperson come up with the idea of offering a discount when we re not even 15 seconds into the phone call? If you ask me, whatever it was he was selling must have been way overpriced to begin with. Negotiating with the prospect or offering a discount to a prospect to entice a sale is absolutely pathetic. If you want to destroy all sense of value and make the transaction purely a financial race to the bottom, then fine go ahead and do it. It won t get you far, though. Every salesperson needs to learn and live by this simple rule: Sell First Nego\ate Second 12
When you re prospecting, you re in the phase of the relationship where you re trying to determine what the customer is looking for. You re trying to determine the customer s needs, desired benefits, and critical concerns. Only after the customer has shared with you these can you begin to establish value with the customer. Additionally, it s only after the customer has shared with you these items that you can even begin to think the customer has any level of confidence in you. Confidence drives price. This is a simple concept that is lost on too many salespeople. The more confidence the customer has in you the salesperson, the more they will be willing to spend. Next time you even think about offering a prospect a discount of any type, stop and instead replace the urge to discount with the urge to ask another question to allow the customer to develop more confidence in you. Remember more confidence equals more price. Negotiating is not part of the sales prospecting process, so don t ever let the two mingle. 13
The Relevance of Cold- Calling If you feel cold- calling is random calling, then you have every reason to believe it s cold. In today s environment there is no reason to have to make a random call. There s simply too much information available you can share with prospects. The key is to have a benefit statement or pertinent news update you can share with the prospect you re calling. When you approach the call in this manner, it s not a cold- call but an information call (or a warm call). As much as people would like to believe there is a secret formula for being successful at cold- calling, the only valid one is being disciplined enough to do it. When people avoid cold- calling, they are generally telling themselves that either they don t know enough about what they re selling or they don t believe the outcome will be successful. It is necessary to be confident in yourself and what you sell. By practicing and persevering, both your skills and confidence will improve. Making yourself accountable will help you turn your excuses into successful sales. 14
14 Tips to Successful Cold- Calling 1. Have a dedicated time each day or week to prospect. 2. Know the reason for calling before you call: customer benefits, not product features. 3. Leave short voice mail messages. 4. Assume your voice mail messages will never be returned. 5. Always call one level higher in an organization than you believe is necessary. 6. Be confident and competent. 7. Phone calls placed before 8:30 a.m. are the most likely to be answered by the person you called. 8. Respect the gatekeeper by treating them in the same manner you would treat the prospect. 9. Prospecting calls on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons will have the worst results. 10. Prospecting on semi- holidays and inclement weather days will get a higher response. 11. Make it your goal to earn the right, privilege and honor to talk to the person again. 12. Believe in what you re selling and the benefits the prospect will receive from your products and services. 13. Believe in yourself and your professionalism. 14. Anytime is a good time to make a call; don t wait for the perfect time. 15
Voice Mail as a Prospecting Tool Because most phone calls go to voicemail, you have to be able to use voicemail effectively in your prospecting strategy. The biggest mistake people make when leaving a voicemail message is they leave a message that has zero value to the person receiving it. The vast majority of phone calls go to VOICEMAIL. Your message can become the silver bullet when it contains a value statement. You need to summarize in a single sentence one key piece of information they will find of value. Here is an example: If I m selling computer services to businesses, I could say something with regard to a new study showing how companies are spending less on computer hardware due to changes in how they use what they have. The idea with the value statement is to share one sentence that lets them know you have something of value that could help them. The total length of the message should be no more than about 15 seconds. You leave the value statement, your name and company, plus your phone number, and that s it. Will the customer return your call when you leave a message like this? Sorry, but the answer is not likely. But what they will do is hopefully begin to see you as somebody who is different from the vast majority of other salespeople. Use the message you leave as just one part of the process of helping to show the prospect you can be seen as a valuable asset to helping solve their problems. 16
Using Email in Your Prospecting Strategy Based on the number of emails I receive each day and I m sure you receive each day it would be easy to conclude that email must work. Either that or you would conclude a lot of people are wasting their time. I m not going to debate extensively the various ways companies use marketing emails. What I am going to emphasize is that if you are going to use email in prospecting, it must be part of an overly strategy. Merely sending out blanket emails touting how wonderful you are and how you ve helped numerous other people isn t going to get you very far. Does your email have a call to action? Does it carry a benefit the receiver can relate to? Does it have a personal connection with the receiver? Is it time driven? Unfortunately, too many salespeople think that if they simply throw emails out like snowflakes and cover enough people, they ll be successful. Well, as the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel will find an acorn occasionally. Sorry, this is not a strategy for success. If you re going to use email as a sales prospecting strategy, take the time to view the email as a sales prospecting letter. Use the questions I listed above to help you write your content. Most important of all, don t think merely sending out a bunch of emails will garner you success. No, the best sales prospecting letter is supported by an integrated campaign that includes phone calls and a web presence. Before you send out one more prospecting email, take the time to develop an overall strategic and tactical plan for how you will go forward. 17
The Power of Strategic Questions Strategic questions are vital if you want to move toward high- profit selling. Building long- term relationships with customers and prospects requires that you ask strategic questions. Strategic questions are those where the answers are not always clear cut. You want to get the other person thinking and talking. Strategic ques\on Strategic ques\on Strategic ques\on Move the prospect toward seeing benefits in what you offer Here are some examples: 1. What do you foresee are going to be the biggest changes in your industry over the next couple of years? (You could also modify this question. You could ask them what they envision the biggest challenges will be or the biggest opportunities, etc.). 2. What about today s business environment most surprises you? (You could modify this question too, by asking them what most frustrates them or what most excites them about today s business environment). 3. What technological advances do you think are going to have the most impact on how you do business? 18
Those are just three examples. I m sure we could think of other strategic questions, and certainly you can think of specific ones that pertain to your selling environment. Plain and simple, your goal is to get the other person reflecting on circumstances or experiences that may effect the direction of their business, industry or career. The substance of these conversations could be positive or negative meaning, you could discover not only the big dreams of the company, but also the big stumbling blocks. WHY is strategic questioning so valuable? It helps you really discern which people are strategic thinkers. And the reason that is so important is because strategic thinkers have the potential of being your best customers. They tend to intricately understand the big picture of business, and they are willing to invest in the products and services that will help them and/or their company achieve big goals. Through strategic questioning, you build a rapport with the person. They begin to see that you are not a typical salesperson. You aren t simply looking for a quick sale, but rather you have the ability to focus on what could be the broader needs of the customer in the distant future. 19
Getting Your CEO Involved at the Right Time There are some prospects who take the better part of the year to turn into customers. These are the big kids on the block the prospects who will create a significant amount of revenue when they start buying. That s why it is wise to bring in your CEO, COO or top- level sales managers early in the prospecting process with these potential clients. Top- level people have an ability to get meetings with customers that salespeople many times can t get. More importantly, in these meetings, a CEO or other senior level person can ask questions and get answers a salesperson might not be able to get. Using senior level people early in the year as a tool to open up new opportunities will result in big payouts later in the year. 20
An Ideal Opportunity to Build Business Should I really prospect during the holidays? Yes, you can prospect during the holidays! In fact, if you do it right, it can create significant new opportunities. I m not saying the holidays are not a time of year to enjoy, because certainly we all know they are. As a salesperson, though, you would be foolish to not recognize what is unique about November January. First thing to realize when prospecting during the holidays is that traditional business methods tend to be ignored. By this, I mean that it is not unusual during the holidays for people who don t normally read emails to suddenly start reading emails. The same is true of phone calls many people who normally let all calls rollover to voice mail will suddenly start answering the phone or actually return a vendor s phone call. The reason for this is because the holidays in nearly any company creates a shift in thinking and, more importantly, how time is used. 21
Yes, there are some companies where the holidays are the busiest time of the year and prospecting is not an option, but for most B2B companies, the holidays represent a slowdown in business. Step one when prospecting is to tap into your referral list. People are more willing to talk during the holidays, so start by contacting your current customers and asking them for referrals. Don t forget to be thanking your customers for their support this past year and taking time to determine what their current needs are. Second step is to reach out to those on your referral list. Phone calls with a more personal nature are naturally going to garner more attention this time of year. Third step is to continue the process by reaching out to other prospects. What I have found is the people you do reach will be more likely to talk this time of year than at other times of the year. This includes in particular the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving, the days leading up to Christmas and the very slow time of year between Christmas and New Year s. Conducting a phone blitz the week between Christmas and New Year s will always create new leads for one simple reason. Most companies that week are on a very slow schedule with the vast majority of people taking time off. With this being the case, the phone is ringing less and there are fewer emails to handle. All of this means you could be the person they do wind up talking to. Many times phone calls this time of the year are incredibly productive because the prospect is pleased to know somebody else is working also. Another critical piece is don t forget to do an email campaign during this time period. Again, there are many people who will ignore it, but there are also many who, because their business routine is not normal, will take the time to read your email. 22
A Full Pipeline Protects Your Pricing Anytime somebody believes the only sale they ll ever get is the one that is right in front of them, the more hesitant they will be on maximizing their price. prospect prospect Avoid the Only Sale Syndrome prospect The fear of losing the one sale you might get will send shivers down the spine of any salesperson. I refer to it as the only sale syndrome. When it strikes a salesperson, it will cause them to do anything to get the sale. The simplest way to overcome this problem is by having more prospects in the pipeline. If you have confidence of other sales coming your way, you will naturally be less prone to cut prices to close a sale. A full pipeline is essential to sustainable success in sales. 23
How Effective Is Your Current Plan? I ve given you many helpful suggestions in this ebook on ways you can refine your prospecting efforts. Before you start those refinements, though, take a few moments to assess your current plan. Below are a series of questions that will help you do that: 1. Where do your sales leads come from? List by type and percentage. (Examples: referral, website, cold- calling, marketing, etc.) 2. What percentage of each type of lead do you ultimately close? 3. How many sales calls does it take to close each sale? (Break this list down by type to include phone call, voicemail, live meeting, email, etc.) 4. How long does it take to close a sale from the time the lead first develops? (Break these down by source, such as referral, networking, cold- calling, etc.) 5. By customer type, list the key reasons the customer tells you as to why they do buy from you? 6. By customer type, list the key reasons a customer tells you they are not going to buy from you? 7. How much time do you spend each day/week in the actual activity of interacting with prospects? 8. How much time do you spend in activities preparing to prospect? Break these activities down into specific categories with the amount of time spent on each. 9. What percentage of your new customers become repeat customers? 10. How much is a new customer worth to you in gross sales and net profit in the first year? What type of customer is your most profitable? What type is the least profitable? 11. Is there a particular product or service new customers are drawn to? Does this vary by type of lead? Notice not one question refers to the type of CRM system you use. This is intentional, as I strongly believe too many salespeople are quick to blame any shortcoming in their prospecting process on the CRM system they re either using or not using. Sorry, that s not the case in 98% of all situations. 24
What Impacts Prospecting the Most It s time for me to once again talk about the importance of you attitude. Sales prospecting can be very difficult, but why make it any harder on yourself by having a bad attitude? Too many salespeople fail to realize how much they re destroying their sales prospecting results due to their attitude. It starts by not letting stuff you can t control to control you. There will always be people who will reject your phone calls or make quick off- the- cuff statements about how they feel toward you. The key is to not let these bother you. View each call you make, email you send or whatever communication you re using as an opportunity to impact positively the person for whom the message is intended. The ability you have to prospect is a privilege, because you are creating opportunity to provide the prospect the same level of service or products you ve provided to other customers. 25
Look for the positive, regardless of where it comes from. Use the positive as your springboard to pump your own attitude. The more you pump your own attitude with what you see or hear going on around you, the more positive experiences you ll find. It comes down to one thing momentum. I m talking about the momentum of others either impacting positively or negatively your own attitude. Choose today to embrace that your attitude drives your sales prospecting results. 26
Want More Great Information on Selling? You can easily sign up for a free weekly tip and find numerous sales articles and resources at www.thesaleshunter.com. mark@thesaleshunter.com 402-445- 2110 www.linkedin.com/in/markhunter www.twitter.com/thesaleshunter www.youtube.com/thesaleshunter www.facebook.com/thesaleshunter I am committed to helping you identify better prospects, close more sales and profitably build more long- term customer relationships. 27