I know plenty of salespeople who have made it, though.

What is it?

The mistake of not being thorough in your on-line presence.

I realize some people are nervous about intentionally putting information on the internet about themselves.  The reality is, though, that many potential buyers will use the internet to do research.

Wouldn’t you prefer that the information they find about you is accurate and positive?

What is key step you can take in that direction?

As a businessperson, you definitely can fill out your complete profile on Linkedin.   As many of you know, Linkedin is the primary networking site for professionals.

Unfortunately, too many salespeople make the mistake of filling in the bare minimum as far as information goes — or they don’t even have a Linkedin profile to begin with.  Yikes!

My recommendation?  Take the time to complete your profile and make full use of all of the features on Linkedin.  Even the free version is comprehensive and can demonstrate your experience, your professional interests and involvement in various industry groups.

My other recommendation about Linkedin is that you follow some of the key groups that would be of interest to the bulk of your buyers or prospects.  In the B2B world, in particular, you can learn a lot about trends in the industries where your product or service is most used.

Another key profile worth completing is your Google+ profile.  If you do not understand Google+, I recommend Guy Kawasaki’s eBook “What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us.”

For some of you reading this, these steps of being more thorough in these profiles is a no-brainer.   You long ago did this and possibly even are active on the sites.

If, however, you are a salesperson who still thinks these are just fads or that it doesn’t do much for you professionally to boost your on-line presence, I’ve got news for you.

The internet isn’t going away.

Your potential buyers and prospects will continue to increase their use of it to research products, companies and yes, even salespeople.

Don’t make a critical mistake and ignore what you could be doing to present yourself positively on the web.

(And if we haven’t already, let’s connect on Linkedin, at my Linkedin High-Profit Selling group, and on Google+).

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

Most recently it has been the resignation of the Yahoo CEO, Scott Thompson.

What’s amazing is how and why it occurred.  Call it hubris, or just plain stupidity — either way, it was a failure of individual responsibility.

It’s easy to point fingers and talk about somebody who is at the top of the business food-chain taking a nosedive due to their own stupidity.  It’s much harder, however, to look at ourselves and ask the critical question about how we handle situations.

Sales is life, and life is sales. We’re all doing it each day, and each day people are making decisions about our own credibility.

I’ve always been a strong believer that if we can’t deal with the little things with integrity, then how will we ever be able to handle the big things?  How many times have customers asked you a question and you’ve shaded the answer to put you in the best light?

Sure, the responses you gave may very well have been of zero consequence to anything other than your own ego.   The problem I have with this is that it is indeed a big deal. If you struggle with this sort of thing, then there is an issue you must deal with.

The credibility you have with your customers and, for that matter, everyone with whom you come in contact is as the advertisement goes “priceless.”  For those of us in sales, a better word to describe it would be “profitable.”

People want credibility and they will pay for it.

Saying you’re more credible than your competitor is not good enough. That’s like saying some slime is better than other slime. Sorry, but it all is still slime.

Credibility exists in everything we do, seen and unseen.  Maybe we should keep a picture of Scott Thompson visible to us at all times to remind us what the lack of credibility looks like.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

Prospecting for sales is hard enough, but it’s made even harder when the strategy being used is either based on hope — or worse yet something like spraying and praying.

I talk a lot about the need to have a very clear sales prospecting process.

Just as important the need to be focused in following it.

Too many salespeople at the first sign of something not going right get scared and change direction.  No wonder so many salespeople cave to the demands of the customer when it comes to price. (We’ll save that issue for another day.)

The problem is you have to realize there will be obstacles. Things will arise that may give an indication of something not working correctly, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon the process.

• Can you imagine Bill Gates in the early days of Microsoft stopping work just because he encountered a small problem?
• I wonder if Steve Jobs would have stopped all work on the iPad just because somebody said something he didn’t like.

In both cases, we know that they did not stop.

Why then should you stop everything, go into panic mode or haphazardly come up with a new process just because a small issue arises?

Once you have your sales process established, then stick to it.  You have to give it time.   The amount of time needs to be at least 3x the length of the normal customer acquisition process.

If it normally takes you two months to prospect a customer and close the sale, then you want to use your process for at least six months before evaluating it.  You can make tweaks along the way. That’s fine, but don’t go abandoning the ship half way across the ocean.

You’ll only be in a position to evaluate the effectiveness of a sale process after you’ve been doing it for an extended period of time.  Don’t cop out on yourself.  I find the reason salespeople are quick to throw up their hands about their prospecting system not working is because they want to have an excuse to not have to prospect.

Far more prospecting systems fail due to user than due to the system.

This message applies not only to salespeople, but also to sales managers, the marketing department and anyone else involved in the sales process.  Things take time and the biggest reason is due to repetition.  A new customer is not going to suddenly pop out of thin air based on one phone call or one email.

Sorry, but if it was that easy, we wouldn’t need salespeople.

Now, get out there and execute your plan. Stay focused and when you begin to waver, remember two words: stay focused.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

It happened earlier again today.

Among the hundreds of emails I receive each day — both solicited and unsolicited — came what I’ll call the “stupid email of the day.”

If you’re going to prospect via email, don’t go putting out an email that says “just checking in.”  Come on, get real and quit being stupid, thinking something like this is going to catch anyone’s attention.

“Just checking in” is not the way you address any email to someone you don’t know, let alone someone with whom you want to do business.  The person sending it was trying to be both casual and not obtrusive, but failed miserably.  It was such an inauthentic approach.

I am a busy person.  I don’t have time for emails that say “just checking in,” and neither does anyone else. The only thing this person is going to get from me is a quick hit of the “delete” key.

Now before you think I’m completely against prospecting that includes email, you should know that I do think it can be a strategy that works well, depending on the industry, the person receiving the email, and so forth.

One thing that is imperative in all email prospecting campaigns is to have the prospect receiving information they will find of value.

Don’t send something that is of interest to you. It must be of interest to the person receiving it.

Second point to remember is this:  Due to the number of emails that people read using their smart phones, you have to make the title and the first 30 characters of the email incredibly engaging.

If someone uses their smartphone as their preferred way of handling email, they see only a small portion of the email when they pull it up.  They will decide quickly whether it is something they want to keep or delete — much quicker than when someone views an email on a laptop or desktop computer.

I’ve written a number of other blog posts regarding prospecting the last few months, and the reason is simple — it’s  a huge issue for the vast majority of salespeople.

As you prospect, remember email is just one of your prospecting tools.

Don’t make it your only tool. If you do, you’ll find yourself with a pretty skinny sales pipeline.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter” The Sales Hunter. Sales Motivation Blog.

Because of this reality, if you intend to use the telephone to develop sales prospects, then you have to be able to use voicemail effectively.

The biggest mistake people make when leaving a voicemail message as part of their prospecting strategy is they leave a message that has zero value to the person receiving it.   The prospect doesn’t want to know how wonderful you are and a bunch of other blather about what you and your company do.

Think about this for a moment.

Did the prospect wake up thinking about how great it would be if you were to call them?  No, the prospect has things to do, and that right there is the silver bullet you need to have.

Your message can become the silver bullet when it contains a value statement that benefits the prospect.  This means you need to be able to summarize in a single sentence one key piece of information they will find of value.

Here are a couple of examples:

If I sell insurance, I might leave a value statement that says something about how I have some new information from an employee survey showing how employee attitudes toward insurance have changed.

Another example might be 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 you leave with the prospect is to not detail what it is you do and how great your company is.  The objective 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.  

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

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.

The best example I can share with you is the late night hotel front-desk clerk.  This person is subject to receiving guests who may have encountered any number of difficulties in their travels getting to the hotel.   The clerk doesn’t know any of this and they certainly don’t have any control over them, yet the guest could still choose to treat the clerk with less than courteous behavior.

The guest isn’t necessarily doing it intentionally —  it’s merely the culmination of a difficult day.

Same thing goes for the response you may get to your phone call or email.  The prospect may simply be responding to you in a manner that reflects other things going on in their life at that moment.   Don’t let their actions impact your actions.   You’re better than that and certainly you have not had the same type of day they’ve had.

View each call you make, email you send or whatever communication you’re using as an opportunity to impact positively the person the message is intended for.  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.

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.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

No matter how long you have been in sales, you know that bad information can steer you horribly wrong and maybe even cost you sales and professional relationships.

If you receive information about one of your customers or about something happening in their company or industry, don’t automatically take the information at face value.

For one, the information could be flat out wrong.  Or, it could have been presented to you in such a way that someone was trying to skew your opinion on a particular issue or industry-related matter.

Of course, there is the possibility too that someone unknowingly or innocently conveyed a piece of information wrong.

You get the point.

Of all the things you hear and see, a few erroneous pieces of information are bound to sneak through.

How do you validate information?

If it is information you have heard about a particular customer or something happening in their company, try to confirm the information with someone else in the company.  Obviously, you need to be wise about maintaining integrity and confidences, but at the same time, clarifying something you have heard is just a wise way to do business.

You can also validate information simply through follow-up questions with your customer.  It is not unusual through your follow-up questions to have the customer share vital information that reveals the bigger picture of what may be happening.

Another way to validate information, especially in the B2B world, is to stay on top of trends and current news in the industries of your particular customers.  A key way you can do this is to follow the trade associations and publications your customers may be involved with.

Not only do these extra steps allow you to validate information, they also make you aware of opportunities you otherwise would miss.

I like to say that as a salesperson, you are your customer’s research and development department.  The more information you have that is comprehensive and accurate, the easier it is for you to enter into meaningful dialogue with your customer at their point of need.

Now, if you would rather just blindly accept every little piece of information you receive, that’s an option too.  But I guarantee that you will pay a price for this —  maybe immediately, but definitely later on.

You won’t be able to best match your products and services with the genuine needs and wants of the customer, because you will lack an understanding of crucial circumstances.

Trust me on this: Validate information or pay the price later on.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

Is it turning out the types of leads you need or is it merely junked up with stuff you don’t realize is junk?

Too many salespeople keep leads in their sales pipeline that have zero potential of every resulting in sales, but they do this just to give them a sense of security.

If you’re looking for security, go get yourself a blanket. It works well for the Peanuts character Linus.

If you’re interested in closing sales, then maybe it’s time to start cleaning out the junk.

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.

It’s far more important to spend high-quality time developing a few good prospects than to spend your time with prospects that are nothing more than suspects.

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. 

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.

If they don’t or won’t share with you this type of information when you ask them 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.

Having a full pipeline is important. I’ll never discount the importance.

However, if the pipeline is full of people who won’t share with you information about their buying timeline and/or their critical needs, then you have to be willing to move them aside.

Sales are earned by being focused, and it’s hard to be focused when you’re dealing with those who have zero desire to buy.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

CLICK on the IMAGE for a free prospecting webinar:

Yes, sales prospecting can be made simple in 2 easy steps.

You’re probably thinking,”On what grounds can he dare make a statement this bold?”

Well, I’ve been around enough salespeople and I know from my own experience that it really does come down to 2 easy steps.

Are you ready for them?

First step is to schedule time on a regular basis to prospect.

Second step is to follow-up on those people you initially prospect.

It’s that simple, but this is without a doubt the number one problem most salespeople have when it comes to prospecting.

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 but prospecting.

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 easy step of following up.  Following up is even more important than merely making the first call.

Here’s why:  Very few deals are closed on the first call.  I don’t need to show you the multitude of studies that show the majority of sales are closed after the 4, 5, and 6^th call.   And yes, you know where I’m going the vast majority of salespeople give up after just 1 or 2 sales calls. 

If you look at the numbers I shared in the preceding paragraph, you can see the easiest way for a salesperson to close more sales is by simply following up on the prospects they’ve begun calling upon.

There you have it: my perspective on the easiest two steps to increase the results you get from sales prospecting. 

Your homework is to now do two things.

First, 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 doing research on who to contact.  Second, set your plan to where you can do the repetitive follow-up you need to do to actually close the sale.

Click on the below image for a FREE webinar on prospecting:

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.

The problem is far too many people either do not have a process or the one they’re using is clearly broken.  

I’ve been blogging for the past several months extensively on the subject of sales prospecting. 

The best sales prospecting systems are those that are simple. Don’t try to over complicate things.  When a process becomes too complicated, it tends to not get used.

This is why far too many sales prospecting systems are broken. It’s not that they’re not any good — they are simply too complicated to be executed on a regular basis.

One of the best sales prospecting tools I’ve ever found is what I refer to as “6 MPM.”  It stands for 6 messages per month.  Wow! Some of you are saying that’s way too many!

I agree — if what you’re doing is trying to sell the customer.  If, on the other hand, what you’re doing is providing the customer with information they can use, then no — it’s not too much.

Another key prospecting tool is voicemail.

Again, too many salespeople blow it with voicemail because what they’re doing is leaving the prospect with ammunition as to why they would never want to do business with them.

The best voice mail messages are those that are 11-14 seconds in length and deliver one key piece of information the prospect will find of value.  The message is not about you!

Recently, I did a webinar on the subject of sales prospecting.  The response was overwhelming! Unfortunately, there were a lot of people who didn’t get a chance to watch it.

Click on the below image and download the 45 minute video:

In the webinar, I talk a lot about the two items above and a number of other sales prospecting tools you can use right now.

There’s no cost to you for this webinar.  My goal is simply to help as many salespeople as possible improve their sales prospecting efforts.

Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.